But the Southampton striker Brett Ormerod is adamant that he and his team-mates still want to

But the Southampton striker Brett Ormerod is adamant that he and his team-mates still want to finish as high as possible in the Premiership despite already being guaranteed a place in Europe next season after beating Watford.Ormerod said: “I don’t think it’s difficult to motivate yourself for the League.”We all know that the table tells how good a season you’ve had – we’re in Europe, we’ve reached the FA Cup final and now we want to finish as high as we can.”It doesn’t matter when we play Arsenal. We know that we’re always assured a tough game against them and it will no different this week.”Obviously people will be looking at this game for clues to the Cup final but we take one game at a time here and once the League fixtures are out of the way then we can look at the Cup final.”We know that almost the whole planet watches that game and it’s going to be a great day but the League is our priority at the moment.”Ormerod is expected to partner Southampton’s leading scorer James Beattie in attack at Highbury as the new England international continues his quest to win this season’s Golden Boot competition. Beattie has hit 23 Premiership goals so far, the same as Arsenal’s Thierry Henry, but one behind Ruud van Nistelrooy of Manchester United.The Southampton manager Gordon Strachan is expected to rest several of his established first-team players with his side facing two games in four days before preparations can start for next week’s final.Chris Marsden is missing as he nurses a knee injury which he suffered in last weekend’s goalless draw against Bolton Wanderers. The England Under-21 captain David Prutton will take his place in the starting line-up while the Norwegian defender Claus Lundekvam is fit again after recovering from an ankle problem.. A glimpse through the keyhole of John Madejski’s Tudor-style mansion would have Loyd Grossman salivating profusely. The reception and adjacent garage are divided by a glass wall so that the publishing tycoon can admire his collection of Rolls-Royces and Italian sports cars from the considerable comfort of his home.

If you sort that out, you sort football out as far as I’m concerned. It’s illogical, unworkable and absolutely out to lunch and crazy.”According to Madejski, the problem has improved slightly in the First Division since the collapse of ITV Digital. Nevertheless a chain reaction starts with the “over-zealous” parents of “Johnny Kickaball” teenagers and ends – via players, agents and managers – in the boardroom.”The only reason [football finance] doesn’t work is that there are far too many sycophantic people on the boards of football clubs that don’t have any pecuniary interest in the club and spend other people’s money like it’s going out of fashion,” he said. “If people on boards had to back the money up with their own money then I think we might see an enormous change.”After making a £1m loss on the club last year, Madejski hopes finally to break even this year, thanks largely to “milking the assets” of the stadium complex built in his name which rises above the surrounding technology park and Courage brewery next to junction 11 of the M4.The Millennium Madejski hotel profits from international business travellers using nearby Heathrow airport; bookings for the adjoining conference centre are solid; and the fledgling 107FM commercial radio station is typically synergistic – based at the stadium and employing a club press officer to provide live match commentaries home and away “You don’t get any of that rap or that sort of thing. It’s just the best kind of music”, said the 62-year-old whose CD collection ranges from Dido and Mariah Carey to Luciano Pavarotti.

(The Italian tenor takes his place in a series of photographs in the reception alongside framed images of a beaming Madejski with his two daughters; the Duke of Kent; and the former Conservative party chairman Lord Parkinson.)Within half an hour’s drive of west London, the “MadStad” – a dubious marketing moniker adopted by a few fans – also hosts London Irish rugby club and has been discussed as an alternative home for Second Division Brentford or the nomadic Fulham. We had Mark McGhee who turned out well until he decided to go off to Leicester,” he said of the acrimonious departureHe added: “I’m very proud of Alan. I think we work well and he would be difficult to prise away. I wouldn’t want him to go just like that without any form of recompense. We would have to start all over again.”Going into Saturday’s play-off semi-final first leg at Wolverhampton Wanderers, Madejski is content with the Royals’ underdog status and relieved that he does not have to face “my old mate”, the Wolves chairman, Sir Jack Hayward, in the final.”We are the underdogs and that is a great position to be in,” he said.