Predictions

[Sarah Star]

Pessimism can be quite a good thing because you're never disappointed.

Nope. Last season was still very disappointing.

OK, there are some exceptions, but maybe it didn't hit you as hard as some of us optimists.

[Sarah Star]

Pessimism can be quite a good thing because you're never disappointed.

Dis'greed. I think it means you'll never try hard to achieve what you want to achieve.

If you're pessimistic about something you have a chance to change, it may make you work harder. It will depend on your character.

I think we were too optimistic about beating Fulham, and when it didn't work the way we thought it would, we didn't have a back-up plan.

[Royalee]

Pessimism can be quite a good thing because you're never disappointed.

Of course you are, there are clearly a number of people on here who are delighted when their pessimistic 'predictions' come true because it gives them the chance to say 'I was right' ad nauseam.

I'd rather be an optimist every time, you may get the odd disapointment but not as bad as expecting the worst every day of your life !

Yes, I'm ecstatic we got relegated having been to every game last season and spent a couple've grand on the experience you f*cking moron.

[papereyes]

If you're pessimistic about something you have a chance to change, it may make you work harder. It will depend on your character.

I think we were too optimistic about beating Fulham, and when it didn't work the way we thought it would, we didn't have a back-up plan.

Win some other games?

[brendywendy]

Pessimism can be quite a good thing because you're never disappointed.

Of course you are, there are clearly a number of people on here who are delighted when their pessimistic 'predictions' come true because it gives them the chance to say 'I was right' ad nauseam.

I'd rather be an optimist every time, you may get the odd disapointment but not as bad as expecting the worst every day of your life !

Yes, I'm ecstatic we got relegated having been to every game last season and spent a couple've grand on the experience you f*cking moron.

no need

[Roger the Rabbit]

Yes, I'm ecstatic we got relegated having been to every game last season and spent a couple've grand on the experience you f*cking moron.

I'm convinced you are really a very articulate chap ! Nothing like a swear word for winning an arguement...

To quote your buddy, what you did and spent is irrelevant as it's blindingly obvious that you're loving your 5 minutes in the limelight based on falling the right side of the narrowest of decisions.

Shame you won't be able to say this time next year that you went to every game.

[Royalee]

Yes, I'm ecstatic we got relegated having been to every game last season and spent a couple've grand on the experience you f*cking moron.

I'm convinced you are really a very articulate chap ! Nothing like a swear word for winning an arguement...

To quote your buddy, what you did and spent is irrelevant as it's blindingly obvious that you're loving your 5 minutes in the limelight based on falling the right side of the narrowest of decisions.

Shame you won't be able to say this time next year that you went to every game.

I hate being correct about us failing, I'd much rather we'd gone out and bought some decent players to replace some of the overrated dross in our ranks - it would have made my Saturday afternoons travelling up to Sunderland and Newcastle from Bournemouth far more enjoyable. However, the one thing I hate more is a completely blinkered mindset and people who endorse underachievement.

Next season I will be hoping Reading do well as always as I have always and will always be a Reading fan. I just can't bring myself to spend loads more money watching the team when the manager had to be persuaded to stay and lacks drive and mental strength, which will inevitably lead to more underachievement and disappointment.

People are missing the point here - we were good enough to stay up last season - we had the players in our squad to stay up in Matejovsky, Convey, Bikey and so forth, it's just that the manager chose not to be bold enough to throw them in from the start and risk upsetting favourite players who weren't pulling their weight. I personally feel that it will be harder to gain promotion than it was to avoid relegation last season, especially when you take away the best left back the club has ever had and probably one or two others along the way. Probably over 50% of the goals we scored during our glorious promotion campaign were as a direct result of our wingplay and unfortunately we are in the position where neither Convey or Little seem fit enough to play the leading roles they did back then. Add to that that our main driving force in the middle (Sidwell) has also gone and you quickly begin to see that we're barely half the side of 05/06 - and that's without any of our forwards being snapped up.

[SpaceCruiser]

Pessimism can be quite a good thing because you're never disappointed.

Dis'greed. I think it means you'll never try hard to achieve what you want to achieve.

If you're pessimistic about something you have a chance to change, it may make you work harder. It will depend on your character.

I think we were too optimistic about beating Fulham, and when it didn't work the way we thought it would, we didn't have a back-up plan.

But you said about pessimism meaning you'd never be disappointed. When you get a massive disappointment, it can sometimes make you utterly determined to do better next time. When you're not disappointed, where's the movitation?

[papereyes]

Cake?

[Royalee]

Pessimism (or realism in my case) means that you are able to see potential problems early and are proactive in terms of addressing them so that you are often able to rectify the situation and do not suffer the consequences. Over-optimism is reactionary in this way of thinking and it is much harder to solve problems after the event as they often grow and become harder and harder to solve in time.

[brendywendy]

Yes, I'm ecstatic we got relegated having been to every game last season and spent a couple've grand on the experience you f*cking moron.

I'm convinced you are really a very articulate chap ! Nothing like a swear word for winning an arguement...

To quote your buddy, what you did and spent is irrelevant as it's blindingly obvious that you're loving your 5 minutes in the limelight based on falling the right side of the narrowest of decisions.

Shame you won't be able to say this time next year that you went to every game.

I hate being correct about us failing, I'd much rather we'd gone out and bought some decent players to replace some of the overrated dross in our ranks - it would have made my Saturday afternoons travelling up to Sunderland and Newcastle from Bournemouth far more enjoyable. However, the one thing I hate more is a completely blinkered mindset and people who endorse underachievement.

Next season I will be hoping Reading do well as always as I have always and will always be a Reading fan. I just can't bring myself to spend loads more money watching the team when the manager had to be persuaded to stay and lacks drive and mental strength, which will inevitably lead to more underachievement and disappointment.

People are missing the point here - we were good enough to stay up last season - we had the players in our squad to stay up in Matejovsky, Convey, Bikey and so forth, it's just that the manager chose not to be bold enough to throw them in from the start and risk upsetting favourite players who weren't pulling their weight. I personally feel that it will be harder to gain promotion than it was to avoid relegation last season, especially when you take away the best left back the club has ever had and probably one or two others along the way. Probably over 50% of the goals we scored during our glorious promotion campaign were as a direct result of our wingplay and unfortunately we are in the position where neither Convey or Little seem fit enough to play the leading roles they did back then. Add to that that our main driving force in the middle (Sidwell) has also gone and you quickly begin to see that we're barely half the side of 05/06 - and that's without any of our forwards being snapped up.

if they are over rated because of the great things they achieved, does that not just mean they were correctly rated, on the basis of the available evidence

[hutch]

Scrape into the play offs on the last day, easily win the home and away legs against Birmingham and complete a hat trick of play off final losses at Wembley. Good old Reading, promise so much and throw it away at the death.

[Sarah Star]

But you said about pessimism meaning you'd never be disappointed. When you get a massive disappointment, it can sometimes make you utterly determined to do better next time. When you're not disappointed, where's the movitation?

If you can see the disappointment coming, that might be a motivator.

[Laura Norder]

i relly love steve coppell and i want to kiss his bald j=head we willl do well thiss saseon and get to the premerhip agan

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Yes, I'm ecstatic we got relegated having been to every game last season and spent a couple've grand on the experience you f*cking moron.

I'm convinced you are really a very articulate chap ! Nothing like a swear word for winning an arguement...

To quote your buddy, what you did and spent is irrelevant as it's blindingly obvious that you're loving your 5 minutes in the limelight based on falling the right side of the narrowest of decisions.

Shame you won't be able to say this time next year that you went to every game.

I hate being correct about us failing, I'd much rather we'd gone out and bought some decent players to replace some of the overrated dross in our ranks - it would have made my Saturday afternoons travelling up to Sunderland and Newcastle from Bournemouth far more enjoyable. However, the one thing I hate more is a completely blinkered mindset and people who endorse underachievement.

If you think Reading getting relegated from the premiership is an example of the club "underachieving" then you really have no clue.

As a club we'd do well to rank even halfway up the championship. The problem is that fans who have only watched us for a few years know nothing except success, or at least challenging for success. A season of struggle has fans demanding that heads roll for the disgraceful underachievement, as they've never experienced anything like it before. Well, bitter pill time folks, getting relegated was virtually inevitable for us - it just happened a year or two early, and the odds are that we won't be going up next season either, regardless of whoever the manager is. The fact is we aren't a club of premiership stature, and expecting us to go up and stay up is just unrealistic.

I've no doubt the prospect of the team breaking up and us becoming an average championship club will have many turning their noses up in disgust, as it's premiership or nothing for them.


And yes, I was pissed off with us going dowm, and yes I do think we should have strengthened. It's just my personal belief that out scouting network isn't up to scratch, and there players we were finding just weren't good enough.

And for those who moan about Coppell signing players that he'd not seen play, when exactly was he supposed to go and see them play? It's kind of difficult for him to go and watch a match in Portugal or whever if we also happened to have a game the same afternoon.

People are missing the point here - we were good enough to stay up last season - we had the players in our squad to stay up in Matejovsky, Convey, Bikey and so forth, it's just that the manager chose not to be bold enough to throw them in from the start and risk upsetting favourite players who weren't pulling their weight.

Matejovsky wasn't fit when he joined (the Czech winter break is really their "close season" being far longer than their summer break), Convey wasn't fit, and nobody was exactly crying out for Bikey to play at the back. I agree (as does he) that he was too loyal to certain players, but those that came in when they got a chance rarely shone.

I personally feel that it will be harder to gain promotion than it was to avoid relegation last season, especially when you take away the best left back the club has ever had and probably one or two others along the way. Probably over 50% of the goals we scored during our glorious promotion campaign were as a direct result of our wingplay and unfortunately we are in the position where neither Convey or Little seem fit enough to play the leading roles they did back then. Add to that that our main driving force in the middle (Sidwell) has also gone and you quickly begin to see that we're barely half the side of 05/06 - and that's without any of our forwards being snapped up.

That's football. Teams need rebuilding every few years. I guess we really should sack Coppell and try and see if there any managers who have a good track record in building promotion winning teams out there.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Pessimism can be quite a good thing because you're never disappointed.

Of course you are, there are clearly a number of people on here who are delighted when their pessimistic 'predictions' come true because it gives them the chance to say 'I was right' ad nauseam.

I'd rather be an optimist every time, you may get the odd disapointment but not as bad as expecting the worst every day of your life !

I'll stick with realism

[Royalee]

If you think Reading getting relegated from the premiership is an example of the club "underachieving" then you really have no clue.

Another idiot who thinks that just because we're seen as a small club we should be happy with playing in the Championship.

If every club was where they should be as a club then Leeds certainly wouldn't still be in League 1.

From a footballing perspective and the playing staff we had, there's no way we should have been relegated but for Coppell's ineptitude, maybe one day you'll realise that.

[Archie's penalty]

Have just read the whole thread and just want to say I love you guys! Here's to being a misfit!

[Vision]

I hate being correct about us failing, I'd much rather we'd gone out and bought some decent players to replace some of the overrated dross in our ranks

Right so we failed because we didn't buy some decent players.

People are missing the point here - we were good enough to stay up last season - we had the players in our squad to stay up in Matejovsky, Convey, Bikey and so forth, it's just that the manager chose not to be bold enough to throw them in from the start and risk upsetting favourite players who weren't pulling their weight.

No hold on, we had enough decent players, the manager just didn't pick em.

As usual you actually make some valid points but am i the only one thinks you're contradicting yourself here.

FWIW i agree with you about better utilising the players he had at his disposal (although Matejovsky & Convey aren't necessarily the best examples as Convey was clearly not 100% for most of the season while Marek featured in virtually every game once his fitness was up to speed) rather than the transfer market.

I've said it before but Coppell performed miracles for 2 consecutive seasons, last year he was just like any other manager and made mistakes. With the resources available to him here that will inevitably lead to a struggle.

[brendywendy]

If you think Reading getting relegated from the premiership is an example of the club "underachieving" then you really have no clue.

Another idiot who thinks that just because we're seen as a small club we should be happy with playing in the Championship.

If every club was where they should be as a club then Leeds certainly wouldn't still be in League 1.

From a footballing perspective and the playing staff we had, there's no way we should have been relegated but for Coppell's ineptitude, maybe one day you'll realise that.

not sure there is any need to call people idiots-why oh why oh why must it always decend into name calling with you!

im 50 50 on this-my head says-we are barely established as a championship club, we had yo yo'd up and down from there a bit, we are a small club, and realistically, looking at other"small"clubs who are establishing themselves in the top flight theyve all served their yo yo appreticeship 1st-so we have no right to expect any different-and there is just as much chance of us doing a barnsley or a bradford as there is a bolton,
my heart on the other hand kinda agrees with royalee

we need to have the ambition,and the money to push on and put us where we belong for the long term
but my head knows that my heart might be a bit deluded
i can also see where he is coming from with coppell-he did fail-and it may seem like we are rewarding failure with keeping him on, maybe a new broom would have been a better idea, but i do think hes learned his lessons, and i do think we will have a strong squad for the start of the season,