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[Millsy]

We are achieving nothing with Bowen and co and going nowhere with him and his mates.We were clueless ,spineless and disorganised today.Swansea should be his last game;then out of the door.Otherwise we will be relegation fodder from mid September out..Get the new man in;tell him the budget and let him decide who he wants to ditch and who he wants to keep and then let him develop what sort of structure he wants pre season,Bold decisions are required,we cannot carry on serving up this load of tosh.We got caught cold within five minutes;as a fluke we got back to a draw:then Obita screwed up to give them a win.Why I took the credit on my season ticket after this;I have no idea and a lot of other people are feeling the same way.
Tim wasn’t great today,and please no more Jem.Reasonable footballer,but I would rather listen to the weather forecast on the radio.

We may be a bit gutless at the moment but he pulled us from a relegation team to one talking about the playoffs and a comfortable mid table finish. Not bad for a first stint at management.

I’d like him to have a full season but I suspect it may be a case of if we’re not challenging for a playoff spot by Xmas he might be gone.

[Old Man Andrews]

The trouble is we can bring in another manager but have the same recurring problems. What do you do then? Keep sacking the managers? It’s one of the reasons why we are in such a mess because no manager is given time to stamp their authority on the squad so we lack identity.

I’m far from convinced by Bowen but at least he is in a position to see what the problems are and try and do something about them this summer. So I think we should stick with him but we are going backwards and I think next season will be another struggle.

If a more distinguished Championship manager with a great Championship record becomes available/shows an interest in managing us we would be silly to not consider it. Bowen comes across as a very cheap, "yes man" option who the board/Kia Joorabchian can tell what to do. We need a proper manager imo who can do it in our league, someone of Gary Rowett's ilk just as an example.

Which available managers fit the bill and would be interested in coming to Reading? I always hear names mentioned but in reality they never end up becoming manager. Sometimes you have to stick with what you have and give the existing manager time.

You're absolutely not wrong, your point is one I'd normally agree with as I don't like changing managers willy nilly but there is just something about Bowen that I don't like and I don't trust him to take the team forward.
Ideally I'd like us to start again and build from the bottom up with a manager with a proven track record of managing a long term project. Gareth Ainsworth is that man but I can't see him coming to us now, think he will end up at a front running Championship club eventually. He was very close to coming to us before Gomes got the job and as silly as it may sound I'd much rather have gone down with Ainsworth that season and let him rebuild us with a fit, young and hungry squad than just drift through life with the bunch of chancers we have on the payroll putting in average performances week in and week out.

Think we are all just sick and tired of the constant boredom of turgid football and 14th place finishes. Yes that is probably our level as a club with our finance and fanbase but we have all seen what we can do when we give young players a chance and build a squad and philosophy. We have no footballing philosophy right now, we have no identity. That's our biggest issue.

[Notts Royal]

If a more distinguished Championship manager with a great Championship record becomes available/shows an interest in managing us we would be silly to not consider it. Bowen comes across as a very cheap, "yes man" option who the board/Kia Joorabchian can tell what to do. We need a proper manager imo who can do it in our league, someone of Gary Rowett's ilk just as an example.

Which available managers fit the bill and would be interested in coming to Reading? I always hear names mentioned but in reality they never end up becoming manager. Sometimes you have to stick with what you have and give the existing manager time.

You're absolutely not wrong, your point is one I'd normally agree with as I don't like changing managers willy nilly but there is just something about Bowen that I don't like and I don't trust him to take the team forward.
Ideally I'd like us to start again and build from the bottom up with a manager with a proven track record of managing a long term project. Gareth Ainsworth is that man but I can't see him coming to us now, think he will end up at a front running Championship club eventually. He was very close to coming to us before Gomes got the job and as silly as it may sound I'd much rather have gone down with Ainsworth that season and let him rebuild us with a fit, young and hungry squad than just drift through life with the bunch of chancers we have on the payroll putting in average performances week in and week out.

Think we are all just sick and tired of the constant boredom of turgid football and 14th place finishes. Yes that is probably our level as a club with our finance and fanbase but we have all seen what we can do when we give young players a chance and build a squad and philosophy. We have no footballing philosophy right now, we have no identity. That's our biggest issue.

A 14th place finish signifies progress...if you can’t see that, you’re more stupid than I thought. You don’t go from years of 20th to 3rd with an unbalanced squad in 1 season

[Old Man Andrews]

Which available managers fit the bill and would be interested in coming to Reading? I always hear names mentioned but in reality they never end up becoming manager. Sometimes you have to stick with what you have and give the existing manager time.

You're absolutely not wrong, your point is one I'd normally agree with as I don't like changing managers willy nilly but there is just something about Bowen that I don't like and I don't trust him to take the team forward.
Ideally I'd like us to start again and build from the bottom up with a manager with a proven track record of managing a long term project. Gareth Ainsworth is that man but I can't see him coming to us now, think he will end up at a front running Championship club eventually. He was very close to coming to us before Gomes got the job and as silly as it may sound I'd much rather have gone down with Ainsworth that season and let him rebuild us with a fit, young and hungry squad than just drift through life with the bunch of chancers we have on the payroll putting in average performances week in and week out.

Think we are all just sick and tired of the constant boredom of turgid football and 14th place finishes. Yes that is probably our level as a club with our finance and fanbase but we have all seen what we can do when we give young players a chance and build a squad and philosophy. We have no footballing philosophy right now, we have no identity. That's our biggest issue.

A 14th place finish signifies progress...if you can’t see that, you’re more stupid than I thought. You don’t go from years of 20th to 3rd with an unbalanced squad in 1 season

You're as thick as they come, please stay out of sensible conversations.

[Notts Royal]

You're absolutely not wrong, your point is one I'd normally agree with as I don't like changing managers willy nilly but there is just something about Bowen that I don't like and I don't trust him to take the team forward.
Ideally I'd like us to start again and build from the bottom up with a manager with a proven track record of managing a long term project. Gareth Ainsworth is that man but I can't see him coming to us now, think he will end up at a front running Championship club eventually. He was very close to coming to us before Gomes got the job and as silly as it may sound I'd much rather have gone down with Ainsworth that season and let him rebuild us with a fit, young and hungry squad than just drift through life with the bunch of chancers we have on the payroll putting in average performances week in and week out.

Think we are all just sick and tired of the constant boredom of turgid football and 14th place finishes. Yes that is probably our level as a club with our finance and fanbase but we have all seen what we can do when we give young players a chance and build a squad and philosophy. We have no footballing philosophy right now, we have no identity. That's our biggest issue.

A 14th place finish signifies progress...if you can’t see that, you’re more stupid than I thought. You don’t go from years of 20th to 3rd with an unbalanced squad in 1 season

You're as thick as they come, please stay out of sensible conversations.

You don’t even know me...

[SCIAG]

If you’ve been using the internet for decades then you shouldn’t be feeding trolls.

This forum has a very effective “ignore” function. I would suggest that this site would have far fewer petty arguments if more users were prepared to use it on a few key trolls.

[Old Man Andrews]

A 14th place finish signifies progress...if you can’t see that, you’re more stupid than I thought. You don’t go from years of 20th to 3rd with an unbalanced squad in 1 season

You're as thick as they come, please stay out of sensible conversations.

You don’t even know me...

You appear to be unable to read or understand basic points. I don't need to know you to know you're not very bright.

Not one Reading supporter with any intelligence thinks we should be top 6. We do however have the right to want to have a team that we enjoy watching that has potential to do well. We currently have a team who are stuck in some sort of malaise who accept mediocrity. We should aspire to be Brentford, small club like us but have built a model for success and are doing very well because they built an identity and have a clear philosophy. We have no philosophy or seemingly any ambition right now, the current manager reflects the clubs lack of ambition in my opinion.

[Old Man Andrews]

If you’ve been using the internet for decades then you shouldn’t be feeding trolls.

This forum has a very effective “ignore” function. I would suggest that this site would have far fewer petty arguments if more users were prepared to use it on a few key trolls.

Shut up nob, read my response to Zip and then comment. No trolling, just sensible football discussion. You're a little bed wetter.

[royalp-we]

You're as thick as they come, please stay out of sensible conversations.

You don’t even know me...

You appear to be unable to read or understand basic points. I don't need to know you to know you're not very bright.

Not one Reading supporter with any intelligence thinks we should be top 6. We do however have the right to want to have a team that we enjoy watching that has potential to do well. We currently have a team who are stuck in some sort of malaise who accept mediocrity. We should aspire to be Brentford, small club like us but have built a model for success and are doing very well because they built an identity and have a clear philosophy. We have no philosophy or seemingly any ambition right now, the current manager reflects the clubs lack of ambition in my opinion.

Don’t be a knob end. The reality is that our season was over in October - and Bowen has turned a sinking ship around. He deserves the opportunity to sign a few players of his own (Timbe / Araruna weren’t his choice).

I’m sure you weren’t complaining of the identity or philosophy over Xmas on that awesome run, or when we were 5-0 up just last week.

If you don’t like him then fair do’s. His appointment didn’t go down well with many. But I can’t see how you can suggest that we can suddenly turn in to Brentford after years of recruitment signing over paid dossers.

On your use of the phrase ‘intelligence’. I implore you to look at successful teams and realise that sacking a manger every 9 months is not a remedy for success.

[Simmops]

A 14th place finish signifies progress...if you can’t see that, you’re more stupid than I thought. You don’t go from years of 20th to 3rd with an unbalanced squad in 1 season

You're as thick as they come, please stay out of sensible conversations.

You don’t even know me...

Don't bother. According to him and his best friend Genome its ME ruining the board..... Ffs.

[Old Man Andrews]

Whoops....

[Simmops]

Whoops what WHOOPS WHAT?!

[Jackson Corner]

Don’t be fooled by the score we were second best. Apart from a brief spell when we came from 3-1 down and looked like an undeserved victory.. we have so many poor or overrated players. We have spent millions on Aluko Puscas, McNulty Barrow and Moore and none of them have been any good. I bet Preston, Swansea, Millwall and Brentford have worked on a fraction of our budget and had decent seasons compared to us.
The club love to bang on about our brilliant academy but in reality out of the 50 odd players how many have been any good? Brentford scrapped there academy hasn’t done them any harm.
I don’t believe in sacking another manager will achieve anything as we do need stability.
But I will be suprised if he his still there by Xmas.

[Zammo]

Baldock's interview on BBCRB was an eye-opener - especially about "Mr Nice Guy" Gomes...

In summary:

Manager is not under pressure to pick team

What does that mean ?

[Royal_jimmy]

Don’t be fooled by the score we were second best. Apart from a brief spell when we came from 3-1 down and looked like an undeserved victory.. we have so many poor or overrated players. We have spent millions on Aluko Puscas, McNulty Barrow and Moore and none of them have been any good. I bet Preston, Swansea, Millwall and Brentford have worked on a fraction of our budget and had decent seasons compared to us.
The club love to bang on about our brilliant academy but in reality out of the 50 odd players how many have been any good? Brentford scrapped there academy hasn’t done them any harm.
I don’t believe in sacking another manager will achieve anything as we do need stability.
But I will be suprised if he his still there by Xmas.

Maybe by binning what's not looking like it'll work out long term and replacing it with someone with experience who can make us more successful at home is someone we can build stability with. If Bowen is still manager in a year from now and improves us I'll eat my words.

He has no excuses for next season if he gets to build his own side with new signings, the league is looking weaker next season with no Leeds, West Brom and probably no Brentford or Fulham in it. Villa, I don't see the teams coming down being stronger than those going up. Plus teams coming up like Wycombe and Rotherham will be favourites to drop. Possibly Coventry too. They don't even know where they'll be playing. If he gets up top half challenging for the playoffs he'll have done a good job.

[Uke]

Baldock's interview on BBCRB was an eye-opener - especially about "Mr Nice Guy" Gomes...

In summary:

Manager is not under pressure to pick team

What does that mean ?

Told who to pick (any more was the subtext)

Would suggest Jose was told who to play

[SouthDownsRoyal]

It’s such a difficult one.

I, like most, am fed up with and don’t think it works, keep changing managers, I’d love some continuity for a few years, let the manager build his team and stick with it.

However, the sticking point is, knowing who that manager is. Bowen has done alright this season, steering us to safety, a refreshing change from previous seasons but can he be the that manager we stick by who can really progress the club? That’s the great unknown.

If we stick by Bowen we need to really stick by him and not call for his sacking by Christmas, but if he turns out not to be the man we need it’s yet more wasted time.

The longer and longer we are relegation fodder/lower mid table boredom the more fans we will lose and the harder it will ever be to attract a half decent manager and players to progress us.

Despite not wanting to keep changing managers I’d be happy to ditch Bowen this summer IF a decent candidate becomes an option, if not, there’s no point getting rid.

[Westwood52]

Right or wrong,we should start the new season with a new manager.If we end up dumping Bowen Dec/Jan the new manager will be largely stuck with Bowen’s choices.I know we have improved our position this season;but the performances have almost entirely been turgid.I can only recall Cardiff home as being encouraging (and that was under Gomes).Luton away was great;but that was a freak.Until we scored,Luton hit the post (?) and had a good shout for a pen.I could be entirely wrong and this is just the way the Championship is;a dog eat dog league desperately short of quality.I thought Brentford were impressive;but neither Leeds or WBA were any great shakes.

[Snowflake Royal]

Don’t be fooled by the score we were second best. Apart from a brief spell when we came from 3-1 down and looked like an undeserved victory.. we have so many poor or overrated players. We have spent millions on Aluko Puscas, McNulty Barrow and Moore and none of them have been any good. I bet Preston, Swansea, Millwall and Brentford have worked on a fraction of our budget and had decent seasons compared to us.
The club love to bang on about our brilliant academy but in reality out of the 50 odd players how many have been any good? Brentford scrapped there academy hasn’t done them any harm.
I don’t believe in sacking another manager will achieve anything as we do need stability.
But I will be suprised if he his still there by Xmas.

Maybe by binning what's not looking like it'll work out long term and replacing it with someone with experience who can make us more successful at home is someone we can build stability with. If Bowen is still manager in a year from now and improves us I'll eat my words.

He has no excuses for next season if he gets to build his own side with new signings, the league is looking weaker next season with no Leeds, West Brom and probably no Brentford or Fulham in it. Villa, I don't see the teams coming down being stronger than those going up. Plus teams coming up like Wycombe and Rotherham will be favourites to drop. Possibly Coventry too. They don't even know where they'll be playing. If he gets up top half challenging for the playoffs he'll have done a good job.

Why do you think Bowen is looking like he won't work out long term?

Let's just recap a moment here shall we.

1) Bowen came in as an advisor to Gomes and results picked up.

2) Bowen was made DoF and asked by Gomes to take a step back from involvement with the squad and match days. Results nose dived.

3) Cabral and Morrison have been excellent signings, Puscas and Joao have been reasonably successful or look very promising etc, all under Bowen as DoF

4) Bowen took over from Gomes and we've gone from relegation flailers to mid-table mediocrity occasionally flirting with play off aspirations

5) We entered restart basically safe, and basically out of the play offs, so nothing to play for

5) Our home form is awful, but that is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination

6) We're giving game time to excellent young prospects

7) we have the opportunity to make great strides towards clearing out deadwood, with someone in charge who has seen what they're all like already

Bowen has his first chance to start building the squad he wants

9) We have no big warchest to buy our way out of trouble and give a new guy, and that approach has singularly failed repeatedly

10) Why would any replacement for Bowen elbe any better, there's a reason we've been getting inexperienced or poor managers and it's because in our state we are not attractive. Good managers like Hughton won't touch us with a barge pole, so all we're likely to do is exchange a guy whose done ok with one who quickly is shown to be clueless like Gomes

We have got to stop expecting that our problems can be solved quickly, that we should be at the top of the league and that going through a manager every nine months is a workable situation.

We used to laugh at Leeds and co for their ridiculous sacking rate. And now our fans actually want us to be run as if we are them 4 years ago!!

NO!

Patience is a virtue. Exercise some.

[Hound]

+1 for Ian’s post

Really don’t get the idea of Bowen being sacked or hoping he’ll be gone by Christmas etc

Genuinely think he has done about as well as could have been hoped in the circumstances. The club was in a complete mess when he took over - it still is to an extent.

Bit of stability, cut the squad and wage bill, small steps forward on the pitch is absolutely fine by me

No more sacking managers, letting them blow £10m on new players whilst sidelining other etc please