Steve Clarke Sacked

[Winston Smith]

Being sacked by a Thai owner does not mean he will not be wanted by another Thai owner. Pretty much

are you saying it is same same but different?

[Ian Royal]

Takes over when we are 17th. Gets us to a cup semi final and leaves when we are just outside the playoffs. Fans pleased. Distinctly

Brought in a whole new 11, 1 win in 8 playing terribly and seriously considered a sideways move pissing off fans and employers. Overall win rate terrible. Did worse than his sacked predecessor after taking over and may not be doing any better now.

Yeah, it's a shocker.

[YateleyRoyal]

Takes over when we are 17th. Gets us to a cup semi final and leaves when we are just outside the playoffs. Fans pleased. Distinctly

Brought in a whole new 11, 1 win in 8 playing terribly and seriously considered a sideways move pissing off fans and employers. Overall win rate terrible. Did worse than his sacked predecessor after taking over and may not be doing any better now.

Yeah, it's a shocker.

My point still stands - he leaves us a lot higher up the league than a year ago when he came in, taking in a decent cup run along the way.

[Ian Royal]

Takes over when we are 17th. Gets us to a cup semi final and leaves when we are just outside the playoffs. Fans pleased. Distinctly

Brought in a whole new 11, 1 win in 8 playing terribly and seriously considered a sideways move pissing off fans and employers. Overall win rate terrible. Did worse than his sacked predecessor after taking over and may not be doing any better now.

Yeah, it's a shocker.

My point still stands - he leaves us a lot higher up the league than a year ago when he came in, taking in a decent cup run along the way.

Given he's been carrying us down the league for a month, said we'd be no where near relegation and was tasked with promition, best he left now so the new guy doesn't come in when we're 10th, 12th or 15th with no transfer window.

[One8Seven1*]

When you get too big for your boots, then have another sacking on your very junior and unproven CV..

[winchester_royal]

Takes over when we are 17th. Gets us to a cup semi final and leaves when we are just outside the playoffs. Fans pleased. Distinctly

That's an exceptionally simplistic way of looking at it.

Last season he took over when we were 17th, with over half the season still to go, and we finished 19th.

We get to a cup semi-final beating only teams in the same division as us or lower.

He spunks a load of money in the summer bringing a number of players to the club, a number of whom were on loan deals so no long-term benefit of the club, and ships quite a few of our own younger players off to lower league clubs.

Starts well, mostly thanks to a freak run of form from Nick Blackman, before regressing to the norm of last season's dull, insipid, unsuccessful football.

Leaves with the club likely being 4 points off the play-offs, and 12 points off promotion places by the end of this weekend (with only 19 games played), despite having one of the largest wage bills in the division, and having had a greater net spend than the vast majority in the league.

In the meantime he also found time to go round pimping himself to other clubs to try and get the best deal to him, showing a lack of respect to the board, fans, and perhaps most importantly the players that he is supposed to motivate to give their all to the club.

Sorry, you may disagree with the decision which is fair enough, but to suggest that the positive reaction from fans to this decision is worthy, is to be honest, quite worthy.

[Lacoste]

Good post Winch

But don't forget him acting berty big bollocks and getting rid or some very talented and loyal backroom staff and replacing them with his shit in the process.

He can't have any complaints about his dismissal.

[One8Seven1*]

Steve Clarke wasted no time in claiming the doll at the job centre this morning!

[Steve_Upper_West]

ps Get Sal Bibbo back to the club.

Agreed........ BUT is he able to make a 'silk purse'

[YateleyRoyal]

Steve Clarke wasted no time in claiming the doll at the job centre this morning!

Ken Dodd says hi from page six.

[One8Seven1*]

Not even worthy of a page 3!

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Top post Winch. Spot on.

[Hoop Blah]

Having been given far more cash than McDermott let alone Adkins, and being allowed to bring in shed loads of players including Vydra on a £2.5M loan payment arrangement that still baffles me, his lack of loyalty to his employers so soon after that was stunning; had he exhibited brilliant tactical capabilities, and got the team playing well and/or winning, then that indiscretion might have been forgivable. But he played players out of position, including a preference for Vydra down the middle rather than either Sa or Blackman (and which has seen Blackman hit a goal drought) whilst the ineptitude of his substitutions are now the stuff legend by which every other Reading manager will be judged against.

Good bye Steve, and good luck for the future.

I'm not disagreeing it was right to get rid of Clarke but....

I'm not sure you can say he had a bigger budget, relatively speaking, than either McDermott or Adkins. You might be able to make an argument that he had better conditions to work in and, almost certainly, more autonomy and control of things.

The £2.5m for Vydra appears to include his wages, not just a loan fee for taking him for the season. He's a quality player who is proven at this level and the impact he had in his first few games showed that to an extent, but if you've any doubts just look at what he did for Watford.

As for playing players out of position and making some odd choices, I'd totally agree. The one thing I would say is that Blackmans purple patch came when he was playing as a right winger and not straight through the middle. Clarke not playing him through the middle in order to play Vydra or Sa there wasn't a mistake, IMO.

I was a Clarke advocate all along. He wasn't as good as I'd hoped he'd be but I think he had a good, if not spectacular, impact on the side last season and his tinkering was certainly counter-productive. He was as good as gone once he went to talk to Fulham though, so good riddance now.

As for Moyes, there is no way he's going to come to Reading. He'll be the next man in at Newcastle, Swansea or somewhere like that. He won't be looking to rebuild his career at Reading, unfortunately.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Having been given far more cash than McDermott let alone Adkins, and being allowed to bring in shed loads of players including Vydra on a £2.5M loan payment arrangement that still baffles me, his lack of loyalty to his employers so soon after that was stunning; had he exhibited brilliant tactical capabilities, and got the team playing well and/or winning, then that indiscretion might have been forgivable. But he played players out of position, including a preference for Vydra down the middle rather than either Sa or Blackman (and which has seen Blackman hit a goal drought) whilst the ineptitude of his substitutions are now the stuff legend by which every other Reading manager will be judged against.

Good bye Steve, and good luck for the future.

I'm not disagreeing it was right to get rid of Clarke but....

I'm not sure you can say he had a bigger budget, relatively speaking, than either McDermott or Adkins. You might be able to make an argument that he had better conditions to work in and, almost certainly, more autonomy and control of things.

The £2.5m for Vydra appears to include his wages, not just a loan fee for taking him for the season. He's a quality player who is proven at this level and the impact he had in his first few games showed that to an extent, but if you've any doubts just look at what he did for Watford.

As for playing players out of position and making some odd choices, I'd totally agree. The one thing I would say is that Blackmans purple patch came when he was playing as a right winger and not straight through the middle. Clarke not playing him through the middle in order to play Vydra or Sa there wasn't a mistake, IMO.

I was a Clarke advocate all along. He wasn't as good as I'd hoped he'd be but I think he had a good, if not spectacular, impact on the side last season and his tinkering was certainly counter-productive. He was as good as gone once he went to talk to Fulham though, so good riddance now.

As for Moyes, there is no way he's going to come to Reading. He'll be the next man in at Newcastle, Swansea or somewhere like that. He won't be looking to rebuild his career at Reading, unfortunately.

Adkins had a team full of players from the u21s, a club on the verge of bankruptcy, a quagmire pitch because there was no money available to fix it, and still did better than Clarke, with considerably more dignity.

[Hoop Blah]

We looked a much better organised team under Clarke, last season and this, even when we still couldn't score goals.

Dignity though, I'd totally agree.

[One8Seven1*]

@charles_watts 3h3 hours ago
What an ugly, costly mess this has all turned into. Instead of getting compensation, #readingfc end up having to pay out themselves.

Exactly this! It's a shame the snake got greedy, otherwise we would have cashed in on what was supposed to be a large fee, and had a new man in charge and probably a few more points on the board by now.

[sandman]

Having been given far more cash than McDermott let alone Adkins, and being allowed to bring in shed loads of players including Vydra on a £2.5M loan payment arrangement that still baffles me, his lack of loyalty to his employers so soon after that was stunning; had he exhibited brilliant tactical capabilities, and got the team playing well and/or winning, then that indiscretion might have been forgivable. But he played players out of position, including a preference for Vydra down the middle rather than either Sa or Blackman (and which has seen Blackman hit a goal drought) whilst the ineptitude of his substitutions are now the stuff legend by which every other Reading manager will be judged against.

Good bye Steve, and good luck for the future.

I'm not disagreeing it was right to get rid of Clarke but....

I'm not sure you can say he had a bigger budget, relatively speaking, than either McDermott or Adkins. You might be able to make an argument that he had better conditions to work in and, almost certainly, more autonomy and control of things.

The £2.5m for Vydra appears to include his wages, not just a loan fee for taking him for the season. He's a quality player who is proven at this level and the impact he had in his first few games showed that to an extent, but if you've any doubts just look at what he did for Watford.

As for playing players out of position and making some odd choices, I'd totally agree. The one thing I would say is that Blackmans purple patch came when he was playing as a right winger and not straight through the middle. Clarke not playing him through the middle in order to play Vydra or Sa there wasn't a mistake, IMO.

I was a Clarke advocate all along. He wasn't as good as I'd hoped he'd be but I think he had a good, if not spectacular, impact on the side last season and his tinkering was certainly counter-productive. He was as good as gone once he went to talk to Fulham though, so good riddance now.

As for Moyes, there is no way he's going to come to Reading. He'll be the next man in at Newcastle, Swansea or somewhere like that. He won't be looking to rebuild his career at Reading, unfortunately.

Adkins had a team full of players from the u21s, a club on the verge of bankruptcy, a quagmire pitch because there was no money available to fix it, and still did better than Clarke, with considerably more dignity.

Adkins had a very good squad and was even allowed to bring Billy Sharp in when we were struggling for money. He abandoned the under 21's, for the senior players when the likes of McCleary and Williams came back from injury.

[Libertine]

I always thought Clarke only looked at Reading as a stepping stone to get a bigger job. Part of that process though would have been being successful here first. Which he wasn't.

I am not really fond of the managerial merry-go-round the past few seasons but this one the board had no choice on. He lost the faith of the board, the players and the fans. He had to go...just hoping we can finally hire someone who is committed to Reading and not another mercenary.

[Royal Lady]

Coppell until end of season

Worth £10 at 16/1?

Yes - because that is what I have suggested earlier!

[Ian Royal]

Having been given far more cash than McDermott let alone Adkins, and being allowed to bring in shed loads of players including Vydra on a £2.5M loan payment arrangement that still baffles me, his lack of loyalty to his employers so soon after that was stunning; had he exhibited brilliant tactical capabilities, and got the team playing well and/or winning, then that indiscretion might have been forgivable. But he played players out of position, including a preference for Vydra down the middle rather than either Sa or Blackman (and which has seen Blackman hit a goal drought) whilst the ineptitude of his substitutions are now the stuff legend by which every other Reading manager will be judged against.

Good bye Steve, and good luck for the future.

I'm not disagreeing it was right to get rid of Clarke but....

I'm not sure you can say he had a bigger budget, relatively speaking, than either McDermott or Adkins. You might be able to make an argument that he had better conditions to work in and, almost certainly, more autonomy and control of things.

The £2.5m for Vydra appears to include his wages, not just a loan fee for taking him for the season. He's a quality player who is proven at this level and the impact he had in his first few games showed that to an extent, but if you've any doubts just look at what he did for Watford.

As for playing players out of position and making some odd choices, I'd totally agree. The one thing I would say is that Blackmans purple patch came when he was playing as a right winger and not straight through the middle. Clarke not playing him through the middle in order to play Vydra or Sa there wasn't a mistake, IMO.

I was a Clarke advocate all along. He wasn't as good as I'd hoped he'd be but I think he had a good, if not spectacular, impact on the side last season and his tinkering was certainly counter-productive. He was as good as gone once he went to talk to Fulham though, so good riddance now.

As for Moyes, there is no way he's going to come to Reading. He'll be the next man in at Newcastle, Swansea or somewhere like that. He won't be looking to rebuild his career at Reading, unfortunately.

Blackman definitely wasn't playing as winger when scoring. He was playing as a relatively free role right sided forward.

He *might* play well off a main striker like Sa, but really, his only position is wide forward in a front three. Something that's been obvious since not long after we bought him.

Financials is difficult to judge, but Clarke certainly had a far freer reign to bring in who he wanted (within reason) and in the numbers he wanted. Adkins didn't do a good job, but the circumstances he was working under were terrible, having replaced an extremely popular manager and needing to completely revamp a relegated side, with an interfering owner and at times zero finances.