THE INQUEST

[hatrick_hero]

madejski and coppell! no money spent on new players= no investment= not good enough

[Uke]

Internet posters spending all their time blamestorming probably contributed more to negativity and the lack of the one goals that would have kept us up than any of your choices!

[finnbot4050]

ffs no one is to blame we got found out

[papereyes]

Internet posters spending all their time blamestorming probably contributed more to negativity and the lack of the one goals that would have kept us up than any of your choices!

The Guardian writes

Reading's failure is also the bitter fruit of parsimony. Steve Coppell stuck dogmatically to the formula that worked for him last season, believing he could continue as a humble incongruity in the world's most extravagant swankfest. It worked for one wonderful season. But as much as he deserves credit for picking up the likes of Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt for pittances, it must also be recognised that on the rare occasions that he did spend big, he goofed: his three most expensive signings over the last three years were flops, Seol ki-Hyeon and Greg Halford being quickly moved on and Emerse Faé retained only as a disgruntled reserve. As far back as December 2006 Coppell said he knew his team would lose the element of surprise that helped them to thrive in their first season - admitting other teams would "ProZone us to death" - but he didn't do enough about it.

That's pretty accurate.

Next season, then, could be interesting.

[Bristol Paul]

Disappointed, but over the season, we deserved to go down as we've been terrible for much of it, particularly after Xmas.

[stl_royal]

you cant really pin the blame in one place. you could say all three of those men as well as the players hold some part of it.

[Richi Royal]

It is to easy to point the finger at one person, the blame lies with more than one person

Coppell....why didn't he spend money and consistently pick under performing players?
Hammond... isn't his main job to attract players to the club? I cant see any players we have signed who have needed persuasion from Hammond because they are all unknowns
Madejski...You could give Coppell 100 million pounds to spend but if you wont pay the wages they wont join
Dillon, Downes....The organization of the team defensively and attacking has been shocking and as for set pieces....
Players....I just about deal with lack of skill, but to see players coasting through games and admitting to complacency is totally wrong

There are very few people involved with the running of the team who can say they have no blame, everyone need to have a long hard look at themselves and if they don't want another CCC scrape then they should leave.

[Chaney]

Internet posters spending all their time blamestorming probably contributed more to negativity and the lack of the one goals that would have kept us up than any of your choices!

The Guardian writes

Reading's failure is also the bitter fruit of parsimony. Steve Coppell stuck dogmatically to the formula that worked for him last season, believing he could continue as a humble incongruity in the world's most extravagant swankfest. It worked for one wonderful season. But as much as he deserves credit for picking up the likes of Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt for pittances, it must also be recognised that on the rare occasions that he did spend big, he goofed: his three most expensive signings over the last three years were flops, Seol ki-Hyeon and Greg Halford being quickly moved on and Emerse Faé retained only as a disgruntled reserve. As far back as December 2006 Coppell said he knew his team would lose the element of surprise that helped them to thrive in their first season - admitting other teams would "ProZone us to death" - but he didn't do enough about it.

That's pretty accurate.

Next season, then, could be interesting.

interesting indeed, but Coppell won`t be here to oversee it

[winchester_royal]

If the team for tottenham had been the same as the team for today we would have stayed up.........

I blame coppell, but then again it doesn't who i blame, or who anyone else blames....

[2.8 lita injection]

It's a bugger!

But it's not the first time I've seen Reading relegated and I doubt it will be the last.

I'm fairly confident that we'll be back in the top-flight soon too.

Yeh, like so many were confident that ,despite a lack of PL level investment in players and wages, we would stay up this season!

Not unless Madjeski changes his spots and finally starts to put real money behind all his talk of ambition we won't!

'Compete effectively at this level' - my *rse!

We just stepped onto the slide today. Coppell and our best players will go, accompanied by more empty rhetoric about ambition from our Chairman. We will be fighting at the wrong end of the table again next season.

We have the best manager & chairman in our history but the fans want to blame someone, its enough to make you want to give up on football.

Even trying to blame wally downes, this guy helped make our defence the best in the championship & pretty decent last season.

Short term.

So it was just down to bad luck was it?!

Tell me what promises/boasts Madjeski has delivered on this season?!

Oh, I forgot, he delivered a nice new media centre!

Sometimes you have to accept mistakes were made but i believe in the long term that we will comeback.

I could try and blame people but strangely we could be worse off, sacking coppell is not the way forward.

[Southbank Old Boy]

As manager the buck really has to stop with Coppell.

He's the one who selects the team. He's the man with the final say on the composition of his squad. He's the one who sets the mental approach of the club.

He was magnificent at putting together the promotion winning team, magnificent at keeping that momentum going for the first season but he's failed to improve his squad and failed at keeping his players 'at it' for their second season.

All along he's highlighted the problems that his side are facing but he's not got anywhere close to solving those problems.

At the end of the day it's his fault.

[Number 9]

Who is to blame for getting us into the Premier league in great style and then achieving a 8th placed finish while playing some brilliant football along the way?

[Chaney]

Who is to blame for getting us into the Premier league in great style and then achieving a 8th placed finish while playing some brilliant football along the way?

the same management team that denied that 2nd season syndrome did not exist

[winchester_royal]

I hope Sidwell is ashamed of himself

I wonder how he feels now....

[jetsetwilly]

His interview on Reading World makes interesting watching. Took time to answer the "what's next for you Steve ?" question. Nothing definitive stated but suggested that a fresh pair of eyes might be the answer if he had been too loyal to the old guard.

[Chaney]

I hope Sidwell is ashamed of himself

I wonder how he feels now....

I`m pretty sure he will be pleased with himself next time he checks his bank account

[PEARCEY]

I hope Sidwell is ashamed of himself

I wonder how he feels now....

What has it got to do with Steve Sidwell.....he played professionally and gave 100% last season. He moved on and so should you.

[Millsy]

As manager the buck really has to stop with Coppell.

At the end of the day it's his fault.

Couldn't disagree more.

Fascinates me when people use this argument.

Surely the logic of "buck stopping" is the highest person in the hierarchy.

So why arbitrarily stop the buck half way up the chain? Yes he does some important things, but surely the players do even more important things i.e. play the matches! If we're going to use buckstop logic then it's of course Madejski.

Even moreseo when we KNOW what took us down was losing Sidwell and not spending enough.

Losing SIdwell = thanks to the wage structure

Not buying = funds *may*have been available for purchases but at the end fo the day down to the wage structure.

Wage structure is 100% Madejski's territory.

The buck stops with him.

It is his fault 100% and I do not see a future for RFC with him as our clueless chairman.

[howser]

There are elements in all the above that could be identified as the cause of the relegation, in all honesty we have been pretty dire for the best part of the season, transfers that subject has been flogged to death on here, a very good point on one line previous in this thread, we can spend all we like but the club wont pay the wages !

I think in general that we have shown ourselves, this year to be so out of our depth in this league its embarrasing, no efforts to sttract new "Quality" blood just a mumbo jumbo hotch pot of european second division players.

The coaching and team selection have been so puzzling, loyalty to players that got us in the Prem, what is all trhat about ??? many confusing things that its been hard to know who is actually pulling the strings at the club, but now its done and dusted i am sorry SSC but your course has been run and your backroom as well we need new blood from all the way down, but with the wage structure and transfer fees dont expect another quality top ranked manager, they wont come to the "scrooges" of the prem oops sorry Championship !

[Southbank Old Boy]

Who is to blame for getting us into the Premier league in great style and then achieving a 8th placed finish while playing some brilliant football along the way?

Doesn't count for a lot this season though does it?

Are the league going to overturn our relegation and all the heartache of watching us this season because of a campaign two seasons ago?