Madejski Blasts Departing Pardew

Last updated : 18 September 2003 By Rob Cooper
The Royals chairman today spoke in depth for the first time of his anger at Alan Pardew's decision to turn his back on Reading to join the Hammers.

Royals boss Pardew was today confirmed as the new West Ham manager after more than a week of legal wrangling. He will begin his new job on October 18th, once his gardening leave at Reading has formally ended.

Madejski was hurt by Pardew's deflection to the opposition after four years of success with the Royals. Mr Mad admitted that he had believed that Pards was commited to Reading Football Club, such was the strength of their working relationship.

Speaking to the press the Royals chairman said: "I'm not very well disposed to Alan right now because I think it wasn't fair to do that. We were going nicely and we felt his ambition and future was here.

"It was his first club as a manager and he's learned an awful lot, I think we deserved better than what was given to us by Alan."

Many fans have branded Pards 'Judas 2' in recent days, suggesting that the 42-year-old is no better than Mark McGhee who left the club in similar circumstances nine years ago.

McGhee, a large Scotsman, is now in charge at Millwall and is still roundly booed each time he visits the Madejski Stadium even though his departure came such a long time ago.

Alan Pardew can expect the same kind of reception from the Reading faithful over the course of the next decade, and it seems that Mr Madejski will be giving the new West Ham manager some agro when he comes to visit.

In many ways, Madejski believes that Pardew's deflection to the opposition isn't as forgivable as McGhee's.

Mr Mad added: "There are different circumstances to last time (when McGhee left). Signing a contract that we'd worked on for a long time and then going back on it is quite different to what happened in 1994."

The Royals finally decided to finally pen a compensation package with the Hammers after two weeks of wrangling, knowing that they were losing their fight.

Madejski admitted that after fighting long and hard it was in the best interests of Reading FC to accept a £380,000 compensation deal.

"You can carry on fighting but there comes a time when you've made your point and it had got to that stage. We had to fight jolly hard and I'd like to thank the team who helped us get this very good result under difficult circumstances," he explained.

"We had a feeling of injustice and we weren't prepared to roll ever and accept the status quo."

In a final show of defiance, Madejski bullishly declared that promotion remains the priority for this season. Reading are hoping to achieve a top two finish so that next August they can take up a place in England's top division for the first time in their history.

Whilst the dream has been put on hold recently, the goal of any new manager will be promotion.

"We will move on, we will move forward and we will still get into the Premiership by the end of the season," declared Madejski.

"The fans are still behind us and we still want to get to the promised land. We've just had a hiccup that we could have done without. We've been sidetracked but our resolve is still there and we'll still do the best we can this season to try and get into the Premiership.

"I'm sure a lot of people will want it even more now. We've got something here that can't be taken away in spite of people leaving."

In September 1999 talk of promotion to the Premiership would have been unthinkable.