Relegation the Reading Way

[Wimb]

I'm just not convinced, but then I assume our respective definitions of 'good in the long run' are different. Your way is fine if you fancy being a Crewe, I look at the club and what to see us sustain in the top division. I don't see how getting relegated, signing a few more like Roberts, and giving Lawson D'Ath a career contribute to that.

Build a new, better team in a league which is more forgiving to younger players which will allow us to compete properly next time we come up a la West Brom. Not suggesting we become a Crewe at all.

Sometimes you need to take a step backwards to then take 2 steps forward.

Not ideal of course, but relegation might not be the end of the world.

Doing that is pretty difficult though, the only real club to have done the yo-yo club thing well and is in the Prem now is West Brom, although Middlesbrough, Bolton and Charlton did fairly decent efforts around 10 years ago.

Right now, I'm unconvinced that Anton would spend the type of money that West Brom did to get them to the place they are now.

After relegation in 2005/06 (after two years in the PL) WBA spent wisely and cheaply, only spending about £2.5m on new players with a few good frees like Hartson,Koren, McShane and Kiely.

However they flopped in the play-offs and so decided to go on a bit of a spending binge before 07/08 and added nearly £13m of talent to the squad, including long term prospects like Brunt (£3m), Morrison (£1.5m) , Barnett (£2.5m) and Luke Moore (£3m). Admittedly this was helped by big sales of Koumas and Kamara.

Then when they went back up they spent another £14.5m on players, before another £4m was spent in the year they finished runners-up to Newcastle and finally started to establish themselves.

West Brom also weren't afraid to change managers, going through Bryan Robson, Tony Mowbray, Roberto Di Matteo and Hodgson in the space of 5 years.

Back to Reading and IF we go down, even with a bit of cash generated for the likes of Pog, could you see this club spending £15.5m on new players in the space of 2 seasons in the Championship, when they've only committed roughly £5m so far in the Premier League?

West Brom have rightly been lauded for being able to establish themselves in the top division but they didn't exactly do it on the cheap and they didn't do it sticking with one manager....

[Hoop Blah]

I know they're flying high right now and look reasonably comfortable, but I don't get why, after just two seasons, West Brom are suddenly seen as so well established.

[Wimb]

I know they're flying high right now and look reasonably comfortable, but I don't get why, after just two seasons, West Brom are suddenly seen as so well established.

Depends what you consider well established. I'd consider 3 consecutive seasons with the strong possibility of a fourth to be established and when it's 4 seasons out of the last five 5 and 7 out of 11 seasons in the top division then it's pretty safe to say you're an established team in my book. Do take the point that they're not exactly Fulham, but they're on a par with teams like Wigan and Stoke for me.

[Royal Rother]

Yo-yo or well-established? Or both?

4 spells in the PL in 11 years isn't it?

I think they've done bloody well and would be more than happy if Reading did the something similar. By not seeing this one season as more important than next, or the one after, or the one 5 years down the road I think we are giving ourselves a better chance of becoming a yo-yo club (with capabilities of morphing into well-established) than the likes of Bolton, Blackburn, Hull, Portsmouth, Birmingham and all the numerous other clubs to have experienced a brief flirtation with the PL only to gamble on survival and thus scupper financial stability for the forseeable future.

Debates have always raged on about amounts that fans would see as a reasonable amount to spend (almost always far more than the people running the club think) but the decisions are made by the good guys who run the club, not the fans, and that (and they) deserves respect because they are doing that with the long-term future of the club at heart and in mind.

[cmonurz]

RR, Wimb has set out the figures, West Brom spent £30m on new signings across three seasons in order to find that stability. They took as much of a 'risk' as some of the clubs you subsequently listed.

When we sold the likes of Doyle and Long you no doubt bemoaned those like me criticising the lack of reinvestment, now you laud West Brom for doing just that.

[Royal Rother]

I didn't Moan about those sales actually.

[cmonurz]

I didn't Moan about those sales actually.

The sales no, those moaning that a few million wasn't spent on the team, yes, and you have consistently. Unless we discover a secret tunnel to Rio under the west stand, we aren't going to suddenly produce numerous youth players of PL standard - we will have to invest at some point, as West Brom did.

[Victor Meldrew]

I didn't Moan about those sales actually.

Well you wouldn't would you?
It was revenue for the club.
From your many postings it is clear that you have no passion or sense of adventure when it comes to football and see only the economics involved which I find a very strange attitude to sport.
I suppose you just can't take the accountant out of................................an accountant .

[Hampshire Royal]

I didn't Moan about those sales actually.

Well you wouldn't would you?
It was revenue for the club.
From your many postings it is clear that you have no passion or sense of adventure when it comes to football and see only the economics involved which I find a very strange attitude to sport.
I suppose you just can't take the accountant out of................................an accountant .

Maybe they want insurance, Victor.

[Victor Meldrew]

I didn't Moan about those sales actually.

Well you wouldn't would you?
It was revenue for the club.
From your many postings it is clear that you have no passion or sense of adventure when it comes to football and see only the economics involved which I find a very strange attitude to sport.
I suppose you just can't take the accountant out of................................an accountant .

Maybe they want insurance, Victor.

Well computed HR.

[Pete10]

Utter rubbish going down .

[ManchesterRoyals]

Utter rubbish going down .

Thats a given

[windermere_royal]

Utter rubbish going down .

10 is that your age?

[RoyalBlue]

Not only do we seem to want to single-handedly try to buck the established economic approach of the PL but we also think we can play a completely different way from every other team in the PL. According to the ESPN 'experts' we are the only team persisting with 4-4-2 when every other team is playing with a lone striker and that as a consequence our midfield is overrun.

[Royal Rother]

Who are the ESPN experts?

[cmonurz]

Not only do we seem to want to single-handedly try to buck the established economic approach of the PL but we also think we can play a completely different way from every other team in the PL. According to the ESPN 'experts' we are the only team persisting with 4-4-2 when every other team is playing with a lone striker and that as a consequence our midfield is overrun.

Its not 442 that's killing us, it's that we can't adapt our game when need be to another formation or strategy and close the game out.

[Royal91]

4-4-2 is not the problem its our rigidity and lack of bravery to be patient (Attacking Perspective). Our first thought is always throw in a cross. All the best teams recycle the ball come back and spread it to the other winger. Doing this will pull the other team about and stretch the pitch.

The problem lies with playing two out-and-out wingers. We need one winger playing the crossing game and one winger coming inside and interchanging.

Our strikers never drop short and look to turn and play from there, but I believe Alf can do that role.

From a defensive perceptive the wingers should be tucking in more and the CM's should be more disciplined. L,Wood and Tabb are always too far apart and never make many passes between themselves and defensively are too spread.

Our CM are only getting overrun when they give the bloody ball away.

Attacking wise to rigid.
Defensively just not disciplined in shape and positioning and our CM's can not retain possession to save their lives, building excessive pressure.

That's my opinion anyway.

[Royal Rother]

Jeez, the only area you didn't mention was between the sticks and that might just be our biggest problem right now!

[Gunny Fishcake]

Utter rubbish going down .

10 is that your age?

[shadesrwrf]

Realistically I can't see Reading coming back from today's defeat. There's nothing happening on the pitch that suggests fortunes are about to change. OK, so the team can't actually be relegated by Christmas but I think we all need to start facing up to the fact that our hold on this league is slipping fast. A win today would have given us a fighting chance. A draw against a team also dicing with Premiership death would have been acceptable. Losing was not an option.

Let's face it. It's all over now.