Opposition fans back from the game

[Nameless]

Find the comment about T.Ince only being there because of his dad quite funny given that Stoke only got highly rated Liam Delap on loan because err...his Dad is a coach there.

They also think Tince is here on an inflated contract !
Seems we not only have got him playing way better than he did at Stoke but probably for about 1/3 of the money !
Which is the basket case club ?

[From Despair To Where?]

I think people focus on Ince a bit too much. He’s a good bloke, open and honest and knows his stuff, and does the media stuff well. But he has a super experienced back room team - Eddie N, Rae, Bowen as well. It’s 4 very experienced (but not too old to be dinosaurs) knowledgable coaches hopefully pulling in the same direction atm

Obvs ‘outcoached by Ince’ is a nice easy soundbite though

His record is also good lower down the leagues. He had a couple of high profile failures and an embarassing gif, then disappeared so he has to be awful. That's how football works.

I seem to remember Steve Coppell was seen as a bit of busted flush on the basis of one very short spell at a high profile but absolute basketcase club.

Ince has always done well in "backs to the wall" situations which suggests he's exactly the man to get us back on an even keel but long term maybe not the man to take us massively forward. I'm quite happy for him to get us back on an even keel, it's what we've been crying out for for nearly a decade. I like his honestly and lack of manager speak billshit.

[Snowflake Royal]

I think people focus on Ince a bit too much. He’s a good bloke, open and honest and knows his stuff, and does the media stuff well. But he has a super experienced back room team - Eddie N, Rae, Bowen as well. It’s 4 very experienced (but not too old to be dinosaurs) knowledgable coaches hopefully pulling in the same direction atm

Obvs ‘outcoached by Ince’ is a nice easy soundbite though

His record is also good lower down the leagues. He had a couple of high profile failures and an embarassing gif, then disappeared so he has to be awful. That's how football works.

I seem to remember Steve Coppell was seen as a bit of busted flush on the basis of one very short spell at a high profile but absolute basketcase club.

Ince has always done well in "backs to the wall" situations which suggests he's exactly the man to get us back on an even keel but long term maybe not the man to take us massively forward. I'm quite happy for him to get us back on an even keel, it's what we've been crying out for for nearly a decade. I like his honestly and lack of manager speak billshit.

Even keel would be nice. I'd rather we didn't do another surprise failed promotion campaign and fall apart again the season after. A solid 10th to 15th without a limp home finish, followed by a good 5th to 9th would suit me right good.

I've noticed that everyone always like's the new manager's honesty and lack of bullshit manager speak for the first few months, but once things are going wrong, start complaining about it.

I think its probably fairly easy to be refreshing and honest and miss the cliches when things are going fairly well or you're still dealing with someone else's legacy. But that when things are going badly everyone retreats to the same cliches because you can't do interview after interview saying the players were shit, your tactics didn't work and you're in real trouble without getting yourself fired even quicker.

[exileinleeds]

Find the comment about T.Ince only being there because of his dad quite funny given that Stoke only got highly rated Liam Delap on loan because err...his Dad is a coach there.

Hands up, I only give a flying fruitcake about Reading....I don't follow or care about the lives or careers of anyone unconnected with the club.

When I was watching today's game, it went out for (their) throw in, and, being Stoke the guy that took it was 'Delap'....I thought, so Rory Delap is still playing for Stoke- known for his long throw in....Imagine my surprise when I realised! I am an actual old fart.....and then read some of their fan forum & discovered that Jagielka not only is still alive, but is now on the Stoke books....he belongs in Sheffield in THAT season.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

His record is also good lower down the leagues. He had a couple of high profile failures and an embarassing gif, then disappeared so he has to be awful. That's how football works.

I seem to remember Steve Coppell was seen as a bit of busted flush on the basis of one very short spell at a high profile but absolute basketcase club.

Ince has always done well in "backs to the wall" situations which suggests he's exactly the man to get us back on an even keel but long term maybe not the man to take us massively forward. I'm quite happy for him to get us back on an even keel, it's what we've been crying out for for nearly a decade. I like his honestly and lack of manager speak billshit.

Even keel would be nice. I'd rather we didn't do another surprise failed promotion campaign and fall apart again the season after. A solid 10th to 15th without a limp home finish, followed by a good 5th to 9th would suit me right good.

I've noticed that everyone always like's the new manager's honesty and lack of bullshit manager speak for the first few months, but once things are going wrong, start complaining about it.

I think its probably fairly easy to be refreshing and honest and miss the cliches when things are going fairly well or you're still dealing with someone else's legacy. But that when things are going badly everyone retreats to the same cliches because you can't do interview after interview saying the players were shit, your tactics didn't work and you're in real trouble without getting yourself fired even quicker.

I think it's going to be a good few seasons yet before we start pushing towards the play offs/promotion consistently yet. The league isn't particularly strong and we've seen plenty of lower sides have a good season, but I don't think we will be doing it consistently for a few seasons yet.

[Stranded]

Sod plans and targets to a degree (tongue firmly in cheek here), just win as many games as we can and see where we end up. We've already won nearly 40% of the games we managed to win in the whole of last season, so anything is possible - though 12th to 16th is most likely after this start.

[Snowflake Royal]

Sod plans and targets to a degree (tongue firmly in cheek here), just win as many games as we can and see where we end up. We've already won nearly 40% of the games we managed to win in the whole of last season, so anything is possible - though 12th to 16th is most likely after this start.

Yeah, obviously WNG and all.


Just think we're way off promotion actually being more than a 1 season train wreck with extra damage. And we could do with some consistent upper mid table mediocrity for a couple of seasons to get our feet back under us rather than this crazy rollercoaster.

[Royal_jimmy]

Let's just get to 50-55 points and safety before worrying where we might be in a few years.

[URZZZZ]

Sod plans and targets to a degree (tongue firmly in cheek here), just win as many games as we can and see where we end up. We've already won nearly 40% of the games we managed to win in the whole of last season, so anything is possible - though 12th to 16th is most likely after this start.

Yeah, obviously WNG and all.


Just think we're way off promotion actually being more than a 1 season train wreck with extra damage. And we could do with some consistent upper mid table mediocrity for a couple of seasons to get our feet back under us rather than this crazy rollercoaster.

Could argue that’s exactly what we did under McDermott, went from 9th to 5th to 1st under him. It didn’t make us any more/less ready IMO, we were thoroughly outplayed that season

Course it is still very early days and noticed Ince had a fairly similar situation and start at Blackpool in his last job (in terms of being seriously depleted numbers wise and limited in the market) at the start of the season. They had 31 points after 17 games yet only finished on 46 points (surviving on the last day of the season)

But I think you just have to take your chance when you can. Huddersfield being the latest example

[CountryRoyal]

I think people focus on Ince a bit too much. He’s a good bloke, open and honest and knows his stuff, and does the media stuff well. But he has a super experienced back room team - Eddie N, Rae, Bowen as well. It’s 4 very experienced (but not too old to be dinosaurs) knowledgable coaches hopefully pulling in the same direction atm

Obvs ‘outcoached by Ince’ is a nice easy soundbite though

Without knowing what goes on behind the scenes, I’m of the opinion Bowen has had the biggest impact. The recruitment so far (appears) to be near perfect. Every player we have brought in has not only exceeded expectations, but outperformed their predecessors from last season. The weakest player has been Hendrick and even he is an improvement on a lot of the dross in seasons gone by, it’s just unfortunate for him that he’s outshone by the impressive Fornah, Loum and Tince.

The fact we haven’t paid a transfer for any of the new lads is quite frankly ridiculous.

[Snowflake Royal]

Dropping Bowen for Clowno was an absolute travesty.

[PieEater]

I think people focus on Ince a bit too much. He’s a good bloke, open and honest and knows his stuff, and does the media stuff well. But he has a super experienced back room team - Eddie N, Rae, Bowen as well. It’s 4 very experienced (but not too old to be dinosaurs) knowledgable coaches hopefully pulling in the same direction atm

Obvs ‘outcoached by Ince’ is a nice easy soundbite though

Without knowing what goes on behind the scenes, I’m of the opinion Bowen has had the biggest impact. The recruitment so far (appears) to be near perfect. Every player we have brought in has not only exceeded expectations, but outperformed their predecessors from last season. The weakest player has been Hendrick and even he is an improvement on a lot of the dross in seasons gone by, it’s just unfortunate for him that he’s outshone by the impressive Fornah, Loum and Tince.

The fact we haven’t paid a transfer for any of the new lads is quite frankly ridiculous.

I like that he's got us playing as a team with players who put in effort and seem to care. I get the impression as a group they get on pretty well which after the previous seasons of internal discontent is remarkable.

[Royal Rother]

I know it was only a 2-1 win against an out-of-form team with a new manager sussing things out, but I really liked what I saw yesterday and am more optimistic than most about the season's prospects.

And I am bowled over by the job that Ince & Co are doing.

(But I haven't seen the 4-0 nasties!)

10th or higher - maybe I'm alone in this (and I appreciate it's really too early for intelligent predictions and squad depth may prove the biggest drawback when / if our usual spate of injuries kick in again) but right now I actually think we could scrape the play-offs.

There's usually one surprise package who maintain pretty consistent form - why can't it be us this season?

Anyway, shoot me down after Watford if you like!

[Nameless]

Dropping Bowen for Clowno was an absolute travesty.

You wonder what might have happened had Bowen stuck to his instinct and done the DofF role back then.

[Hound]

For sake of argument, if we got the main men back fit, didn’t suffer too many more injuries and brought in say Luongo and Carroll we could line up a bit like this (obvs could argue on exact team but again for illustration)

Lumley
Yiadom Holmes Sarr McIntyre Baba
Hendrick Loum Fornah
Ince Joao

Bouzanis, Hutch, Ejaria, Meite, Long, Hoilett, Luongo/Carroll

With back up looking like

Luongo/Carroll, Tetek, Ehib, Abrefa, Craig, Clarke(s), u23s….Dann (lolz), Moore

Probably missed someone as well

That side could undoubtedly be top 10/ pushing play offs. Just don’t see them staying fit long consistently enough to give us that depth

[Stranded]

This squad is capable of finishing anywhere between where they are now and 22nd - it will depend on injuries and also being able to keep up the level of intensity over a whole season.

If our levels drop, so will we. If we can sustain them at the current high level, then anything is possible.

[3points]

For sake of argument, if we got the main men back fit, didn’t suffer too many more injuries and brought in say Luongo and Carroll we could line up a bit like this (obvs could argue on exact team but again for illustration)

Lumley
Yiadom Holmes Sarr McIntyre Baba
Hendrick Loum Fornah
Ince Joao

Bouzanis, Hutch, Ejaria, Meite, Long, Hoilett, Luongo/Carroll

With back up looking like

Luongo/Carroll, Tetek, Ehib, Abrefa, Craig, Clarke(s), u23s….Dann (lolz), Moore

Probably missed someone as well

That side could undoubtedly be top 10/ pushing play offs. Just don’t see them staying fit long consistently enough to give us that depth

probably add Femi Azeez into the mix for a bit of depth up front / out wide too (if he ever stays fit for longer than 3 games) and also Guiness -Walker seems a pretty reasonable squad player

Big concern I have is how we'd manage a long term injury to Yiadom. I guess it'd be a mix of either Hoilett and Holmes

[From Despair To Where?]

I'm actually thinking the World Cup break will help us. Its full on for another 2 months then a 3 week break

[Nameless]

I'm actually thinking the World Cup break will help us. Its full on for another 2 months then a 3 week break

Several of our players won’t benefit from that break though....

[Chairman Mao]

I think people focus on Ince a bit too much. He’s a good bloke, open and honest and knows his stuff, and does the media stuff well. But he has a super experienced back room team - Eddie N, Rae, Bowen as well. It’s 4 very experienced (but not too old to be dinosaurs) knowledgable coaches hopefully pulling in the same direction atm

Obvs ‘outcoached by Ince’ is a nice easy soundbite though

His record is also good lower down the leagues. He had a couple of high profile failures and an embarassing gif, then disappeared so he has to be awful. That's how football works.

I seem to remember Steve Coppell was seen as a bit of busted flush on the basis of one very short spell at a high profile but absolute basketcase club.

Ince has always done well in "backs to the wall" situations which suggests he's exactly the man to get us back on an even keel but long term maybe not the man to take us massively forward. I'm quite happy for him to get us back on an even keel, it's what we've been crying out for for nearly a decade. I like his honestly and lack of manager speak billshit.

honestly dont think you need/want next level 4d chess management and taking us to the"next level" sometimes
it shouldnt be that hard.
getting a squad together, addressing gaps in squad with available money, getting them playing together with some team spirit, giving them shape and formation, get them knowing their jobs, getting/keeping them fit and giving them a rocket every now and then.

i think thinking about that next level has been the cause of many of our problems. just do the basics well and go from there