The end of the Championship Team

[Dirk Gently]

I think that after the events of the last 1 and a half games, it's inevitable that things will change and I think it must mean that we're close to seeing the end of the legendary and record-breaking Championship winning team.

Yes, we've lost one or two already (Sidders to Chelsea and Little to his dodgy achilles), but substantially we've been getting by on the same team for 18 months - and that's 18 months longer than many said we'd be able to. It just goes to show just how good the team that SC put together was that they've been able to hold their own in the Premier League for so long.

SC has performed miracles in eking out superb performances from them time and time again, but I can't help but feel that there's a kind of symbolism that today's adject performance, with 12 of our 15 being from the Championship season, coming on the day the transfer window opens.

I think everyone will agree changes have now got to come - and quite potentially substantial changes - and with them quite possibly will come the end of the Reading team we know and love. Maybe a new owner, maybe changes to the wage structure so that the majority of players are suddenly mercenaries with no "feel" for Reading FC, maybe one or two regulars leaving to fund new purchases or being tempted by brighter lights and bigger pay-packets. Whatever happens, it'll all be different from now on, and it may not be for the better - only time will tell.

In any case, Steve Coppell's Championship-Winning team - I salute you! We may never see your like again.

[Alan Partridge]

Good post DG, we all knew this day would come it has. We are here in 2008 with half of the team playing a league above where they should be. If you take kitson and Hunt out of that team i dread to think where we'd be.

It's time for change and it needs to start this month, and be finsihed in the summer. But for

Hahnemann
Murty
Sonko
could argue Convey
Shorey (he's leaving of his own accord)
Lita
Gunnarsson
and just about all of the back up players (the likes of Federici, Halls, Oster etc)

it's time folks. Thankyou very much for your efforts, but you aren't good enough anymore.

[peckhamwolf]

You looking to bring in about 10 players then or are you hoping 22 points will be enough ?

When you say it has to happen this month ?

[Alan Partridge]

You looking to bring in about 10 players then or are you hoping 22 points will be enough ?

When you say it has to happen this month ?

We need 4 or 5 BIG players to come in straight away and imprve our team, down the spine of it. The rest can be sorted in the summer.

[RoyalBlue]

You looking to bring in about 10 players then or are you hoping 22 points will be enough ?

When you say it has to happen this month ?

We need 4 or 5 BIG players to come in straight away and imprve our team, down the spine of it. The rest can be sorted in the summer.

It's clear to us all that we need them but you can be pretty sure we won't go out and get them.

There is absolutely no reason at all why the deals couldn't have been done and dusted bar the registration, which could have then gone through today. Instead we get told the club haven't got anyone lined up and Sir Steve saying that if he doesn't sign anyone he will make do with what he's got (10/10 for stating the bleeding obvious there Sir Steve!).

[shadesrwrf]

Teams like the one we've witnessed don't come along very often. The last time we saw something similar was the 94/95 season. It's no doubt the end of an era. But I'm sure it's also the dawn of a new one.

Thank you, one and all.

[PEARCEY]

Good post DG, we all knew this day would come it has. We are here in 2008 with half of the team playing a league above where they should be. If you take kitson and Hunt out of that team i dread to think where we'd be.

It's time for change and it needs to start this month, and be finsihed in the summer. But for

Hahnemann
Murty
Sonko
could argue Convey
Shorey (he's leaving of his own accord)
Lita
Gunnarsson
and just about all of the back up players (the likes of Federici, Halls, Oster etc)

it's time folks. Thankyou very much for your efforts, but you aren't good enough anymore.

Bit harsh AP.
In the cold light of day it never seems so bad as the disappointment felt straight after the game. I thought the team were dreadful against Boro and then we promptly beat Liverpool.
I would agree with you re Gunnarsson but the others are very debatable particularly Shorey(I think he will stay) and Convey who as with Sonko still needs time to get back to full speed.
Sonko is clearly struggling for pace(this was not so pre-injury). He was brought back into the team as some sort of saviour to combat the defensive woes already clearly evident. Its put a lot of pressure onto him especially having to play four Premiership games within ten days. That was too much to expect. He should have been rested today.
The team badly need strengthening in central midfield. That has been obvious all season. Why hasn't Bikey been given a chance? Too late now with the ANC coming up. A tough tackling, box to box player is desperately needed.
We need a commanding centre half as well..but so do a number of other Premiership clubs...and possibly a new keeper although Hanhemann may still be useful back-up.
Changes do need to be made but most of the players you mention still have a role to play, albeit in some instances from the bench.

[peckhamwolf]

Teams like the one we've witnessed don't come along very often. The last time we saw something similar was the 94/95 season. It's no doubt the end of an era. But I'm sure it's also the dawn of a new one.

Thank you, one and all.

Chris Makin. What a player he was. And what a looker Hunt is with no hair and no skull embedded in his knee.

[floyd__streete]

Nice sentiments but I will wait with bated breath for the replacements first.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Bit harsh AP.
In the cold light of day it never seems so bad as the disappointment felt straight after the game. I thought the team were dreadful against Boro and then we promptly beat Liverpool.
I would agree with you re Gunnarsson but the others are very debatable particularly Shorey(I think he will stay) and Convey who as with Sonko still needs time to get back to full speed.
Sonko is clearly struggling for pace(this was not so pre-injury). He was brought back into the team as some sort of saviour to combat the defensive woes already clearly evident. Its put a lot of pressure onto him especially having to play four Premiership games within ten days. That was too much to expect. He should have been rested today.
The team badly need strengthening in central midfield. That has been obvious all season. Why hasn't Bikey been given a chance? Too late now with the ANC coming up. A tough tackling, box to box player is desperately needed.
We need a commanding centre half as well..but so do a number of other Premiership clubs...and possibly a new keeper although Hanhemann may still be useful back-up.
Changes do need to be made but most of the players you mention still have a role to play, albeit in some instances from the bench.

The likes of Convey and Sonko are paying the price for our lack of transfer success, or Coppells policy of not really trying to get quality in, over the summer. We don't have a lot of alternatives to Championship winning team which is a laughable situation to find ourselves in almost two years after we knew we were being promoted.

Some players days are certainly numbered but I don't think today's performance has really made much of an impact on that.

[andrew1957]

Good post DG, we all knew this day would come it has. We are here in 2008 with half of the team playing a league above where they should be. If you take kitson and Hunt out of that team i dread to think where we'd be.

It's time for change and it needs to start this month, and be finsihed in the summer. But for

Hahnemann
Murty
Sonko
could argue Convey
Shorey (he's leaving of his own accord)
Lita
Gunnarsson
and just about all of the back up players (the likes of Federici, Halls, Oster etc)

it's time folks. Thankyou very much for your efforts, but you aren't good enough anymore.

Unless SC is given £50 million to spend I doubt you will get 4 or 5 top class players.

[Row Z Royal]

Good post DG, we all knew this day would come it has. We are here in 2008 with half of the team playing a league above where they should be. If you take kitson and Hunt out of that team i dread to think where we'd be.

It's time for change and it needs to start this month, and be finsihed in the summer. But for

Hahnemann
Murty
Sonko
could argue Convey
Shorey (he's leaving of his own accord)
Lita
Gunnarsson
and just about all of the back up players (the likes of Federici, Halls, Oster etc)

it's time folks. Thankyou very much for your efforts, but you aren't good enough anymore.

Unless SC is given £50 million to spend I doubt you will get 4 or 5 top class players.

WCBAP

[paultheroyal]

Did we not play well and beat Liverpool recently?

Did we not score four past Tottenham away from home?

Were we not unlucky at West Ham?

All in the matter of a few games ago?

[Gordons Cumming]

Good post DG, we all knew this day would come it has. We are here in 2008 with half of the team playing a league above where they should be. If you take kitson and Hunt out of that team i dread to think where we'd be.

It's time for change and it needs to start this month, and be finsihed in the summer. But for

Hahnemann
Murty
Sonko
could argue Convey
Shorey (he's leaving of his own accord)
Lita
Gunnarsson
and just about all of the back up players (the likes of Federici, Halls, Oster etc)

it's time folks. Thankyou very much for your efforts, but you aren't good enough anymore.

You know what, mate? You had the nerve to call me negative once.


You're a disgrace.

This team is not dead yet.

[PEARCEY]

Did we not play well and beat Liverpool recently?

Did we not score four past Tottenham away from home?

Were we not unlucky at West Ham?

All in the matter of a few games ago?

But we do need to strengthen defensively Paul..but advocating wholesale changes to the back 5 is a recipe for relegation.
A couple of key improvements to the spine, ie keeper, centre half plus a ball winning midfielder would make the team a lot tighter

[Geekins]

Yes, we've lost one or two already (Sidders to Chelsea and Little to his dodgy achilles), but substantially we've been getting by on the same team for 18 months - and that's 18 months longer than many said we'd be able to. It just goes to show just how good the team that SC put together was that they've been able to hold their own in the Premier League for so long.

SC has performed miracles in eking out superb performances from them time and time again, In any case, Steve Coppell's Championship-Winning team - I salute you! We may never see your like again.

I never looked at it like that before. That has put a smile on my face that our team who played so well in the Championship has also performed brilliantly over the last year in the Premiership. Yes it will change now hopefully, but i believe Coppell will get the right team together to be able to perform to the next level.

The club as a whole want to keep moving forward, so hopefully that mean we will get better!

[paultheroyal]

Did we not play well and beat Liverpool recently?

Did we not score four past Tottenham away from home?

Were we not unlucky at West Ham?

All in the matter of a few games ago?

But we do need to strengthen defensively Paul..but advocating wholesale changes to the back 5 is a recipe for relegation.
A couple of key improvements to the spine, ie keeper, centre half plus a ball winning midfielder would make the team a lot tighter

I agree about strengthening - should of done more in the summer - but so many short memories on here.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Did we not play well and beat Liverpool recently?

Did we not score four past Tottenham away from home?

Were we not unlucky at West Ham?

All in the matter of a few games ago?

But we do need to strengthen defensively Paul..but advocating wholesale changes to the back 5 is a recipe for relegation.
A couple of key improvements to the spine, ie keeper, centre half plus a ball winning midfielder would make the team a lot tighter

We need a box to box midfielder really. A proper replacement for Sidwell. Considering we'll find it almost impossible to replace Little's creativity on the right wing that box to box midfielder probably needs to be a bit more creative and better on the ball than Siddy was too.

Two players that sound a little unsettled at the moment are Diarra and Mendes. Both are probably a bit out of our reach, and not quite the creative box to box player I'd prefer but they are improvements on what we've already got.

[PEARCEY]

Did we not play well and beat Liverpool recently?

Did we not score four past Tottenham away from home?

Were we not unlucky at West Ham?

All in the matter of a few games ago?

But we do need to strengthen defensively Paul..but advocating wholesale changes to the back 5 is a recipe for relegation.
A couple of key improvements to the spine, ie keeper, centre half plus a ball winning midfielder would make the team a lot tighter

We need a box to box midfielder really. A proper replacement for Sidwell. Considering we'll find it almost impossible to replace Little's creativity on the right wing that box to box midfielder probably needs to be a bit more creative and better on the ball than Siddy was too.

Two players that sound a little unsettled at the moment are Diarra and Mendes. Both are probably a bit out of our reach, and not quite the creative box to box player I'd prefer but they are improvements on what we've already got.

Totally agree with you on that..but why should they be out of our league?
If the team are going to compete at his level money is going to have to be spent sooner or later on transfer fees and wages...Coppell cannot keeping making silk purses out of sows ears(or whatver the saying is).
I think Mendes would be a great signing.

[Forbury Lion]

Current first team players under contract may find themselves as squad players if we manage to bring in better players for their positions.

A right winger (or two), a central defender, a goalkeeper, possibly a midfielder and any other usefull players we might find.