Where do we go from here 21/22 season?

[SCIAG]

Shame we lost Holsgrove and Novakovich, they could have filled some more slots for a lot less money. Hopefully a couple of Onen, Tetek, Melvin-Lambert, Camara, Lawless, Nevers, Dorsett and Bristow can begin the full transition to first team.

See Nova has had a decent if unspectacular season, top scoring for his club in SB with 7 in 28, playing most games for a bottom half side.

Holsgrove would have basically been playing the role that Tetek has. Maybe he could have played in the advanced role ahead of Semedo, but he wouldn’t have worked as cover for Laurent and Rino. He’s moved on to better things.

Nova, who knows how things would have turned out, but he’s not exactly done much to make us regret letting him go.

[Taffster]

For me I would really like to see us try and get FFP under control now even if it means battling to stay up over the next few seasons.

Personally would sell -
Olise
Puscas
Moore
Swift

Not due to ability or importance to the team but you could probs bring in 20/25 mil and move a significant amount from the wage bill, Combine that with releasing Aluko and Baldock and you would except to be somewhere in line with FFP.

Moving forward I would be move Ejaria in to CAM as I think we will end up seeing the best of him there, when he comes in field currently his passing is actually really good and quick.

Ins would obviously be dependent on money but would like to strengthen the following -

Striker
Wingers x 2
CM
LB X 2 (Would be happy with the 2nd choice lb to also be the type of player to cover LW)
CB

Would then expect to see more of Tetek (if he signs a new contract) and Onen/Camara

[WestYorksRoyal]

There are basically 2 questions we don't know the answer to:

1) Will we be in a position to strengthen the squad? Even looking at bargains, free transfers and loans, it's a good market for cheap deals and we could have a squad with better depth than this season. If our hands are so badly tied we can't even offer contracts or spend £500k on a well scouted lowe league player, we could move backwards.

2) Will we have a points deduction? Self explanatory enough.

With so much uncertainty, relegation in 21/22 seems possible, as does kicking on from this season and getting a top 6 finish.

[Hendo]

There are basically 2 questions we don't know the answer to:

1) Will we be in a position to strengthen the squad? Even looking at bargains, free transfers and loans, it's a good market for cheap deals and we could have a squad with better depth than this season. If our hands are so badly tied we can't even offer contracts or spend £500k on a well scouted lowe league player, we could move backwards.

2) Will we have a points deduction? Self explanatory enough.

With so much uncertainty, relegation in 21/22 seems possible, as does kicking on from this season and getting a top 6 finish.

I think this covers more than half the teams in the league

[Elm Park Kid]

If our owners are willing and able to support us and find a way through FFP then we will be in a stronger position than a lot of clubs in the league. We can get some of the higher wage misses off the books and try again.

I'd feel a lot more confident if we had a manager with a proven record in the championship. But we are where we are and it's just time to stick it out and see how Pauno gets on.

[Taffster]

If our owners are willing and able to support us and find a way through FFP then we will be in a stronger position than a lot of clubs in the league. We can get some of the higher wage misses off the books and try again.

I'd feel a lot more confident if we had a manager with a proven record in the championship. But we are where we are and it's just time to stick it out and see how Pauno gets on.

Finishing 7th with only a small number of signings not proven him enough for you?

[WestYorksRoyal]

If our owners are willing and able to support us and find a way through FFP then we will be in a stronger position than a lot of clubs in the league. We can get some of the higher wage misses off the books and try again.

I'd feel a lot more confident if we had a manager with a proven record in the championship. But we are where we are and it's just time to stick it out and see how Pauno gets on.

Finishing 7th with only a small number of signings not proven him enough for you?

Not really. The first half of the season was pure luck and doesn't count if you believe people on here.

[Snowball]

Yeah I don’t really see the grounds for optimism for next season. We will almost certainly have a worse squad. That’s the thing which annoys me most about this season. If it was up or bust then why hamper our own chances with an overly cautious approach in games.

We haven't really been thrashed this season, even in those two 0-3 home defeats. I guess the Brentford games are the nearest and by the 90th minute they didn't look THAT bad.

Not saying we shouldn't have gone for it a bit more, but PERHAPS the theory is if you open up more you get some heavy defeats instead of narrow wins or draws.

[Elm Park Kid]

If our owners are willing and able to support us and find a way through FFP then we will be in a stronger position than a lot of clubs in the league. We can get some of the higher wage misses off the books and try again.

I'd feel a lot more confident if we had a manager with a proven record in the championship. But we are where we are and it's just time to stick it out and see how Pauno gets on.

Finishing 7th with only a small number of signings not proven him enough for you?

Yeah, decent first season overall. But one season doesn't really show much other than he's not obviously out of his death. There's some promising signs he has what it takes - but ideally you'd want someone that has proven in the past that they know how to get promoted out of this league (or similar).

[Snowball]

If our owners are willing and able to support us and find a way through FFP then we will be in a stronger position than a lot of clubs in the league. We can get some of the higher wage misses off the books and try again.

I'd feel a lot more confident if we had a manager with a proven record in the championship. But we are where we are and it's just time to stick it out and see how Pauno gets on.

Finishing 7th with only a small number of signings not proven him enough for you?

Not really. The first half of the season was pure luck and doesn't count if you believe people on here.

Nobody is saying it was pure luck, but it HAPPENS that we played a lot of sides who were playing poorly or were barely settled.

The run "counts" of course it does. It just is the case that we had an easy start and some of us started to believe the hype.

But in which of those first 8 games did we really look like champions?

Barnsley fans keep saying that in most of their games they are the poorer side, but they 'somehow" win.

The only two halves where I really fancied us were the first halves of both Bournemouth games.

We are a very decent, not-quite-ready side who in the first 8 games conceded plenty of possession, plenty of shots and plenty of shots on target. We had a ridiculously good conversion-rate and a striker who could do no wrong. It wasn't quite sustainable, that's all.

I think in the last third of the season we looked physically and mentally tired, lacked ideas, our talisman started missing penalties and easy chances, morale dropped a little and we started regressing to the mean a bit.

I just wish those 8 games had been spread around, or had come at the end of the season

I personally think we kinda got bushwhacked by Barnsley's totally-unexpected run. Without them we would have scraped into 6th and probably lost in the semi's. It's odd that this 6th is seen as way better than 7th.

I think 7th for the recent Reading side is an excellent result, especially considering we couldn't strengthen in January. I just hope we beat Huddersfield and cement 7th, with a decent gap to 8th.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Finishing 7th with only a small number of signings not proven him enough for you?

Not really. The first half of the season was pure luck and doesn't count if you believe people on here.

Nobody is saying it was pure luck, but it HAPPENS that we played a lot of sides who were playing poorly or were barely settled.

The run "counts" of course it does. It just is the case that we had an easy start and some of us started to believe the hype.

But in which of those first 8 games did we really look like champions?

Barnsley fans keep saying that in most of their games they are the poorer side, but they 'somehow" win.

The only two halves where I really fancied us were the first halves of both Bournemouth games.

We are a very decent, not-quite-ready side who in the first 8 games conceded plenty of possession, plenty of shots and plenty of shots on target. We had a ridiculously good conversion-rate and a striker who could do no wrong. It wasn't quite sustainable, that's all.

I think in the last third of the season we looked physically and mentally tired, lacked ideas, our talisman started missing penalties and easy chances, morale dropped a little and we started regressing to the mean a bit.

I just wish those 8 games had been spread around, or had come at the end of the season

I personally think we kinda got bushwhacked by Barnsley's totally-unexpected run. Without them we would have scraped into 6th and probably lost in the semi's. It's odd that this 6th is seen as way better than 7th.

I think 7th for the recent Reading side is an excellent result, especially considering we couldn't strengthen in January. I just hope we beat Huddersfield and cement 7th, with a decent gap to 8th.

The opening run wasn't in isolation though. We put together a great run over Christmas with a thread bare squad, our performance against Bournemouth was far better than anything on that run. We pushed Norwich and Brentford in their prime and were extraordinarily unlucky to lose those games. It's just that, at the end of the season, the team have looked fatigued and tired and unable to show resilience and bounce back. That's the sort of thing you can improve with a better squad and a bit more experience.

[Snowball]

A lot will depend on

1. Will reading get a points deduction?

2. If so, how big?

3. How many other teams might get the same deduction or even a higher one?

4. IF Olise goes, do we get screwed for 7 Mill or manage 20 Mill or 15 and a year's loan-back?

5. If Olise stays will he go off the boil because he wants the big time?

6. If Joao stays, which Joao will it be? That is massive.

7. Can we find a way to use Puscas, or sell him and get another Joao style hold-up man?

8. Will we keep McIntyre, Morrison?

9. Will Morrison stay strong and fit?

10. Might we get offers for players like Rhino, Laurent, Joao that tempt us and change future plans?

11. Whether we get a deduction, will we have a transfer embargo or not?

There are probably a couple of dozen of these "ifs", starting with Pauno going or staying, but provided we are allowed to trade and don't get hit with anything worse than -6 points, I think we will be top half, at least

[Snowball]

The opening run wasn't in isolation though. We put together a great run over Christmas with a thread bare squad, our performance against Bournemouth was far better than anything on that run. We pushed Norwich and Brentford in their prime and were extraordinarily unlucky to lose those games. It's just that, at the end of the season, the team have looked fatigued and tired and unable to show resilience and bounce back. That's the sort of thing you can improve with a better squad and a bit more experience.

I don't massively disagree. We had the obvious run and a few decent ones, but we also had the early four straight defeats 2-3, 0-3, 0-3, 2-4 and have had a few too many draws.

And I also think, because Joao could do no wrong for over half a season we began to rely on him too much and had no-one who could genuinely cover for him.

[Taffster]

If our owners are willing and able to support us and find a way through FFP then we will be in a stronger position than a lot of clubs in the league. We can get some of the higher wage misses off the books and try again.

I'd feel a lot more confident if we had a manager with a proven record in the championship. But we are where we are and it's just time to stick it out and see how Pauno gets on.

Finishing 7th with only a small number of signings not proven him enough for you?

Yeah, decent first season overall. But one season doesn't really show much other than he's not obviously out of his death. There's some promising signs he has what it takes - but ideally you'd want someone that has proven in the past that they know how to get promoted out of this league (or similar).

Such as? Given we finished above all of the teams (bar Norwich) who have managers with previous promotions I would suggest it's not that big a deal. Infact beside Steve Bruce, Neil Warnock and Chris Houghton I can't think of many managers who are "proven".

Also add in the fact McDermott wasnt "proven" I would argue there are more managers out there who have achieved promotion on the back of no experience than there are who have more than one promotion on the C.V.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

There are basically 2 questions we don't know the answer to:

1) Will we be in a position to strengthen the squad? Even looking at bargains, free transfers and loans, it's a good market for cheap deals and we could have a squad with better depth than this season. If our hands are so badly tied we can't even offer contracts or spend £500k on a well scouted lowe league player, we could move backwards.

2) Will we have a points deduction? Self explanatory enough.

With so much uncertainty, relegation in 21/22 seems possible, as does kicking on from this season and getting a top 6 finish.

I think this covers more than half the teams in the league

We could also finish mid table

[Snowflake Royal]

There are basically 2 questions we don't know the answer to:

1) Will we be in a position to strengthen the squad? Even looking at bargains, free transfers and loans, it's a good market for cheap deals and we could have a squad with better depth than this season. If our hands are so badly tied we can't even offer contracts or spend £500k on a well scouted lowe league player, we could move backwards.

2) Will we have a points deduction? Self explanatory enough.

With so much uncertainty, relegation in 21/22 seems possible, as does kicking on from this season and getting a top 6 finish.

I think this covers more than half the teams in the league

We could also finish mid table

We're certainly due a run of mid-table mediocrity.

How many seasons between 10 and 16 (inclusive) over the last 25 years?

It's 3 since about 93/94 isn't it?

4 promotions, 3 relegations, 4 PO Finals, 2 more PO semis, about six relegation battles won. Another 5? Play off bids narrowly missed...

[bcubed]

There are basically 2 questions we don't know the answer to:

1) Will we be in a position to strengthen the squad? Even looking at bargains, free transfers and loans, it's a good market for cheap deals and we could have a squad with better depth than this season. If our hands are so badly tied we can't even offer contracts or spend £500k on a well scouted lowe league player, we could move backwards.

2) Will we have a points deduction? Self explanatory enough.

With so much uncertainty, relegation in 21/22 seems possible, as does kicking on from this season and getting a top 6 finish.

I think this covers more than half the teams in the league

We could also finish mid table

or just avoid relegation

[Stranded]

There are basically 2 questions we don't know the answer to:

1) Will we be in a position to strengthen the squad? Even looking at bargains, free transfers and loans, it's a good market for cheap deals and we could have a squad with better depth than this season. If our hands are so badly tied we can't even offer contracts or spend £500k on a well scouted lowe league player, we could move backwards.

2) Will we have a points deduction? Self explanatory enough.

With so much uncertainty, relegation in 21/22 seems possible, as does kicking on from this season and getting a top 6 finish.

I think this covers more than half the teams in the league

We could also finish mid table

I had a proper look this morning at where teams finishing 7th (I know we could still finish 8th) tend to go the following year for this century and it's a mixed bag but in recent years the trend is very much for a mid-table finish but in the bottom half of the table.

Since the 1999/00 season, clubs that finish 7th have done the following the next year:

Champions: 2 - us in 05/06 and Wolves in 08/09
Runners-up: 1
Play-offs: 4
Top half (7-12): 3
Lower middle (13-18): 10
Relegation Battle (19-24): 1 - us the year we fired Stam

Only one team has finished in the top half (Boro in 12th in 12/13) since Swansea beat us in the play-offs in 2010/11 the year after finishing 7th.

So based on historical records of other clubs we have a 33% chance of improving but based on our record, we'll either win the league next year or just avoid relegation.

[Snowflake Royal]

Be interested* to see the same thing for all play off losers and 8th and 9th.



*not enough to do it.

[Scutterbucketz]

A lot will depend on

1. Will reading get a points deduction?

2. If so, how big?

3. How many other teams might get the same deduction or even a higher one?

4. IF Olise goes, do we get screwed for 7 Mill or manage 20 Mill or 15 and a year's loan-back?

5. If Olise stays will he go off the boil because he wants the big time?

6. If Joao stays, which Joao will it be? That is massive.

7. Can we find a way to use Puscas, or sell him and get another Joao style hold-up man?

8. Will we keep McIntyre, Morrison?

9. Will Morrison stay strong and fit?

10. Might we get offers for players like Rhino, Laurent, Joao that tempt us and change future plans?

11. Whether we get a deduction, will we have a transfer embargo or not?

There are probably a couple of dozen of these "ifs", starting with Pauno going or staying, but provided we are allowed to trade and don't get hit with anything worse than -6 points, I think we will be top half, at least

I occasionally get some Reading FC inside info via a solicitor who works for the club and I was recently told that McIntyre would love to stay at Reading as he’s a Royals fan, but with our finances in as bad a way as they are we can’t afford to give him the contract he wants. He’ll be gone by the sounds of it.