The reason we're stuck with Stam

[Jackson Corner]

Well Wigan who finished 23rd with 42 points are running away with L1, Blackburn 22nd (51) are sitting 3rd, and Rotherham who were totally dogshit (23) are in 5th.
Not saying it will be easy but you would have to fancy us.

They can score goals. How many of our overpaid squad will fancy going to Accrington on a wet Tuesday? Relegation would be catastrophic a huge wage bill would have to be slashed and that’s assuming anyone would be interested in buying the likes of Aluko, Mcleary, Moore, Blacket, Illyri, Swift, Barrow, Mannone, Gunter, McShane, Edwards. All with Premier League experience. Can’t see them fancying it at Roots Hall in front 4,000. I can see the owners pulling out and the club going into administration a 20 point penalty and a transfer imbargo. Relegation to league two further points deductions all assets sold to play debts including the ground for housing development. The club wound up and Reading Fc will no longer be in existence. A few brave souls will re start the club as FC Reading est 2025 in the isthmian league with home games at Scoures lane. Exciting times lie ahead.

[windermereROYAL]

Well Wigan who finished 23rd with 42 points are running away with L1, Blackburn 22nd (51) are sitting 3rd, and Rotherham who were totally dogshit (23) are in 5th.
Not saying it will be easy but you would have to fancy us.

They can score goals. How many of our overpaid squad will fancy going to Accrington on a wet Tuesday? Relegation would be catastrophic a huge wage bill would have to be slashed and that’s assuming anyone would be interested in buying the likes of Aluko, Mcleary, Moore, Blacket, Illyri, Swift, Barrow, Mannone, Gunter, McShane, Edwards. All with Premier League experience. Can’t see them fancying it at Roots Hall in front 4,000. I can see the owners pulling out and the club going into administration a 20 point penalty and a transfer imbargo. Relegation to league two further points deductions all assets sold to play debts including the ground for housing development. The club wound up and Reading Fc will no longer be in existence. A few brave souls will re start the club as FC Reading est 2025 in the isthmian league with home games at Scoures lane. Exciting times lie ahead.

Christ I bet you`re fun at parties

[Berry]

Well Wigan who finished 23rd with 42 points are running away with L1, Blackburn 22nd (51) are sitting 3rd, and Rotherham who were totally dogshit (23) are in 5th.
Not saying it will be easy but you would have to fancy us.

They can score goals. How many of our overpaid squad will fancy going to Accrington on a wet Tuesday? Relegation would be catastrophic a huge wage bill would have to be slashed and that’s assuming anyone would be interested in buying the likes of Aluko, Mcleary, Moore, Blacket, Illyri, Swift, Barrow, Mannone, Gunter, McShane, Edwards. All with Premier League experience. Can’t see them fancying it at Roots Hall in front 4,000. I can see the owners pulling out and the club going into administration a 20 point penalty and a transfer imbargo. Relegation to league two further points deductions all assets sold to play debts including the ground for housing development. The club wound up and Reading Fc will no longer be in existence. A few brave souls will re start the club as FC Reading est 2025 in the isthmian league with home games at Scoures lane. Exciting times lie ahead.

Positive thinking...Will Stam create Armageddon also??

[Lower West]

our safe-as-houses goalkeeper

You must be joking.

[leon]

our safe-as-houses goalkeeper

You must be joking.

AAH was a prince amongst men. A sultan, if you like.

[Royal Rother]

Strap wrote.....

We are effectively banking on Burton, Sunderland and Hull having a worse last 16 games than us. Not really a fool-proof strategy is it?

Burton are probably not capable of a significant upsurge but both Sunderland and Hull are highly likely to string a few wins together soon. A couple of the teams at the bottom always do.

We on the other hand are going to keep on losing.

Doomed I’m afraid.

[Hound]

Strap wrote.....

We are effectively banking on Burton, Sunderland and Hull having a worse last 16 games than us. Not really a fool-proof strategy is it?

Burton are probably not capable of a significant upsurge but both Sunderland and Hull are highly likely to string a few wins together soon. A couple of the teams at the bottom always do.

We on the other hand are going to keep on losing.

Doomed I’m afraid.

Why are they? Think they are even worse than us

[Royal_jimmy]

It depends who we win against whether we survive or not as much as getting 6 more wins.

We could probably stay up amassing 4-5 wins and 3 draws if the wins are against Sunderland and Bolton. If we lose to them then we need 6-7 wins.

Those 2 games are huge. We could do with turning over Derby, Forest or Boro but I just can't see it.

[Stranded]

Strap wrote.....

We are effectively banking on Burton, Sunderland and Hull having a worse last 16 games than us. Not really a fool-proof strategy is it?

Burton are probably not capable of a significant upsurge but both Sunderland and Hull are highly likely to string a few wins together soon. A couple of the teams at the bottom always do.

We on the other hand are going to keep on losing.

Doomed I’m afraid.

This argument always rankles. Why will teams who have consistantly been worse performers than us all season suddenly string together a few wins but we will be absolutely unable to?

We have shown that we can beat decent teams in this division, we have wins against Villa and Derby in the bag this season. People thought Sunderland may move up once they got that first home win in the bag, they've lost 4 of the last 5 and picked up 1 point less than us, The only team they beat - Hull.

We are rubbish at the moment but over the past 5 games (looking at the BBC table) - we have taken the same number of points as Barnsley (who look likely to lose their highly rated manager) and actually stretched the gap to the bottom 3 by taking 1 more point than Sunderland and Burton and 2 more than Hull. We've also closed the gap on Sheff Weds.

Brum and Bolton have picked up but Bolton have just lost their main striker to Cardiff.

So in short, we may well go down but we are not doomed, if Stam stays or goes.

We have some massive games left V Bolton, Weds, Sunderland, Forest and QPR and we I can almost guarantee we will pick up a win somewhere no-one expects (Villa or Fulham (a)) as will other sides down there. We also have games against Leeds who are sliding massively (tho new manager may change that) and Sheff Utd who have also drifted. A 6 pt gap is healthy and we have to manage the games against the teams around us and we will be fine.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

I have a feeling that goal difference could also be a factor this season. 6 points above Hull with a better goal difference pretty much counts as an extra point. Albeit we conceded just 1 better than Hull, our goal difference is considerably better than the other teams below us.

[Hound]

both the above 2 posts make a lot of sense. I think sometimes we can be blinded by our own rubbishness to how poor the others team are.

Both Boro at home and Forest have been on poor runs. Our away record actually isn't that bad - I don't think we'll lose both games.

Then looking at the fixtures left - Derby will prob be very tough, as will Wolves obvs - so can write those two off. But otherwise all the other games aren't exactly scary. That 6pt + GD lead is quite a lot to make up for the bottom 3

[Maneki Neko]

Having seen the posts from the weekend about Stam going, they all seem to be linked to the fact that the warm down got cancelled on Sunday and from there on in it seems to be Chinese whispers.

I've thought about this a lot since last year when our form really started to dip and it looked like we had given up. Stam really should have been shown the door In December but here we are in February with two more loan signings and another gutless performance to go with all the others over the last 3 months. Stam is still here and I think he will still be here next season. I believe that he is on huge money and it will cost the club big time to sack him before his contract runs out. I think the new owners are in this as a business proposition only and are probably willing to take a chance that Stam gets us out of this or cut their losses and take a drop down to League 1. If we do go down I think the financial losses would be less that if they had to pay Stam off. The value of the club will drop but with the players we have I think they are banking on a swift return to the Championship and then build again. I really can't see him being sacked.

Thoughts?

You might be right but getting relegated on the basis of coming straight back up would be a dangerous strategy. I think many of the current squad would think they are too good for League 1 and would either want moves away or be demotivated and we could end up staying a lot longer than one year in the division. And the way Stam is going it would more likely be League 2 the season after than a return to the Championship!

Totally agree - getting out of League 1 is harder than it sounds and it would cripple us financially ... !

we haemorrhage money at this level.
if we went down our ticket sales would nosedive further, and we would have to charge less for them, while still having a top end of the championship wage bill.

[John Smith]

They can score goals. How many of our overpaid squad will fancy going to Accrington on a wet Tuesday? Relegation would be catastrophic a huge wage bill would have to be slashed and that’s assuming anyone would be interested in buying the likes of Aluko, Mcleary, Moore, Blacket, Illyri, Swift, Barrow, Mannone, Gunter, McShane, Edwards. All with Premier League experience. Can’t see them fancying it at Roots Hall in front 4,000. I can see the owners pulling out and the club going into administration a 20 point penalty and a transfer imbargo. Relegation to league two further points deductions all assets sold to play debts including the ground for housing development. The club wound up and Reading Fc will no longer be in existence. A few brave souls will re start the club as FC Reading est 2025 in the isthmian league with home games at Scoures lane. Exciting times lie ahead.

All of this written because of a home defeat

Strap wrote.....

We are effectively banking on Burton, Sunderland and Hull having a worse last 16 games than us. Not really a fool-proof strategy is it?

Burton are probably not capable of a significant upsurge but both Sunderland and Hull are highly likely to string a few wins together soon. A couple of the teams at the bottom always do.

We on the other hand are going to keep on losing.

Doomed I’m afraid.

Worst post ever made on this forum.

You clearly have no idea of both side's form or future fixtures.

[Hound]

depends on who we would be able to sell.

Moore would obviously go, Swift , Ilori, Gunter, Barrow, Aluko, Mannone all likely departures.

Then I'd expect they'd try to shift McCleary, Blackett and anyone else on high wages. Reckon they could pull in a fair bit from that lot as well as cutting the wage bill dramatically

Giving us something along the lines of

Jaakola,
Watson, McShane, Joey, Obita
Evans Edwards Kelly, Bacuna
Yann, Dadi

With the bench made of the likes of Smith, Andresson, Novakovich, Richards, Barrett + a few new signings

So wouldn't be the end of the world, though obv would much rather stay up

[Vision]

They can score goals. How many of our overpaid squad will fancy going to Accrington on a wet Tuesday? Relegation would be catastrophic a huge wage bill would have to be slashed and that’s assuming anyone would be interested in buying the likes of Aluko, Mcleary, Moore, Blacket, Illyri, Swift, Barrow, Mannone, Gunter, McShane, Edwards. All with Premier League experience. Can’t see them fancying it at Roots Hall in front 4,000. I can see the owners pulling out and the club going into administration a 20 point penalty and a transfer imbargo. Relegation to league two further points deductions all assets sold to play debts including the ground for housing development. The club wound up and Reading Fc will no longer be in existence. A few brave souls will re start the club as FC Reading est 2025 in the isthmian league with home games at Scoures lane. Exciting times lie ahead.

All of this written because of a home defeat

Strap wrote.....

We are effectively banking on Burton, Sunderland and Hull having a worse last 16 games than us. Not really a fool-proof strategy is it?

Burton are probably not capable of a significant upsurge but both Sunderland and Hull are highly likely to string a few wins together soon. A couple of the teams at the bottom always do.

We on the other hand are going to keep on losing.

Doomed I’m afraid.

Worst post ever made on this forum.

You clearly have no idea of both side's form or future fixtures.

Yeh. I'm not quite as optimistic as you but it does seem odd that the same people that don't think this side can hack a wet Tuesday in Accrington also write off a victory on a wet Tuesday in Burton as inevitable.

[John Smith]

Thank you Vision. Accrington are also a League 2 side and would need a good spell to see them promoted ahead of Notts County, Luton, Wycombe, Mansfield, et al

[Hound]

does anyone in any walk of life ever want to go to Accrington on a wet tuesday night btw?

[Jaytee]

Okay - its not good to watch. Okay we are getting beat (not won at home on a Saturday!) Probably cost too much to sack Stam.
But boycotting games or booing doesn't make a blind bit of difference. If the club were going to be influenced by gate figures then we would have sacked every manager in the last 10 years pretty quickly. Im sure the players are trying - they are just not good enough plus last year we got "the rub of the green" whereas this year we probably haven't had any luck at all (the block tackle which ended up in the net being a great example.).
You have to keep the faith - we survive this season and start afresh next - perhaps with a new manager (Pearson? Parky?).

Its been moan, moan, moan since the Play off final (and that deserved to be moaned about), but we have to back the team and Stam as much as possible. If we give up then pretty quickly the team will follow.

[Royal Rother]

They can score goals. How many of our overpaid squad will fancy going to Accrington on a wet Tuesday? Relegation would be catastrophic a huge wage bill would have to be slashed and that’s assuming anyone would be interested in buying the likes of Aluko, Mcleary, Moore, Blacket, Illyri, Swift, Barrow, Mannone, Gunter, McShane, Edwards. All with Premier League experience. Can’t see them fancying it at Roots Hall in front 4,000. I can see the owners pulling out and the club going into administration a 20 point penalty and a transfer imbargo. Relegation to league two further points deductions all assets sold to play debts including the ground for housing development. The club wound up and Reading Fc will no longer be in existence. A few brave souls will re start the club as FC Reading est 2025 in the isthmian league with home games at Scoures lane. Exciting times lie ahead.

All of this written because of a home defeat

Strap wrote.....

We are effectively banking on Burton, Sunderland and Hull having a worse last 16 games than us. Not really a fool-proof strategy is it?

Burton are probably not capable of a significant upsurge but both Sunderland and Hull are highly likely to string a few wins together soon. A couple of the teams at the bottom always do.

We on the other hand are going to keep on losing.

Doomed I’m afraid.

Worst post ever made on this forum.

You clearly have no idea of both side's form or future fixtures.

Oh blah blah, says the fcuking forum halfwit himself.

So maybe Sunderland and Hull won’t win another game, but whoever they end up being, some teams ALWAYS start winning games against expectation towards the end of the season.

ALWAYS.

And the way things are going I can’t see one of those teams being Reading with Stam in charge.

Ok so maybe I’m the half wit and maybe it will only take 40 points this season but generally it takes circa 50 points to stay up.

Can anybody see Reading getting another 18 points?

Seriously?

[John Smith]

Oh blah blah, says the fcuking forum halfwit himself.

So maybe Sunderland and Hull won’t win another game, but whoever they end up being, some teams ALWAYS start winning games against expectation towards the end of the season.

ALWAYS.

And the way things are going I can’t see one of those teams being Reading with Stam in charge.

Ok so maybe I’m the half wit and maybe it will only take 40 points this season but generally it takes circa 50 points to stay up.

Can anybody see Reading getting another 18 points?

Seriously?

Yes. Quite easily. Next question?