Periodically Reading gets cited here as an example of what Newport as a city should be able to achieve. BBC report yesterday when they were deducted six points + six suspended:

... According to figures at Companies House Reading posted losses of £42m in the year to 30 June, 2020, £30.1m in the previous year and £21m in the 12 months to 30 June, 2018 - a total of £93.1m. The EFL has averaged the club's losses for 2019-20 and 2020-21 and allowed for Covid-19 costs to give the lower figure of £57.8m, but that still triggered a sanction...

It begs the question "Where did the £90 million come from that they have lost." Mortgaged the ground maybe? But you can't do that twice. They've lost a lot of games lately. They look like relegation candidates now.

The enormous riches of the Premier League may be tempting some clubs to take unreasonable risks in a bid to get promoted.

For possibly one season. The driving force presumably is the parachute payments. It always created unequal competition in the Championship.

According to Kevin McGuire the football finance expert on the excellent “ Price of Football” podcast - the total debts of Reading over the last 10 years have exceeded £220 million, despite 2 years of Premier League revenue plus parachute payments.

They were spending £220 on wages for every £100 of revenue in the championship last year.

And they then sign Andy Carroll!

I’d have signed Carol Vorderman instead, at least she might have been better with the figures

The figures are staggering and I suspect have taken a lot of supporters by surprise. They had every possible advantage when they moved to the Madejski but just blew it. When he first got involved Sir John's fortune got them into the new ground but he recognised that richer and richer overseas investors were getting involved and he needed one to continue to compete, but he got into bed with a guy - I can't remember if he was Russian or Israeli - who it turned out didn't have the funds he claimed to. Next came a bunch from Thailand who only really wanted to build on the very large car park. When that stalled they bailed out and it's now a Chinese brother and sister who seem not to have understood the rules around what proportion of your income you can pay out in wages.

I don't fully understand the rules but supporters commenting online seem to think there's a strong possibility the six points suspended will be deducted next year.