The Convenient Truth

[rfcjoe]

Mate I aint being funny or anything but this is Reading Football Club all over! No feckin ambition! Its really starting to get on my tits now! I really hope we make a signing to put me right but fook me I'm getting sick and tired of paying for a ST and the team doesn't get invested in or added to.

[joe999]

agreed. £6,000 in the past 2 seasons between 3 people in this house

plus t-shirts, food, travel, PETROL

I might as well just get my earnings to go straight into Madejskis account, save the steps in the middle

[rfcjoe]

I'm really considering making a sign for sundays game saying something like ' Sign Joe Mattock' or ' Could we sign someone else aswell please?'
Along them lines......

[joe999]

at least its nice and formal

they even get a please

Just no pleasing some people is there...





"Thats just what Jesus said sir!"

[FiNeRaIn]

Expect to be ridiculed by ian royal and royal rother for this.
Have to say, I agree with the sentiment despite its juvenile texting. We haven't got any ambition, I wish people would stop masking it and papering over the cracks. In two seasons of prem football, not ONE signing to shout about, to excite the supporters. We deserved to be relegated for out lack of investment and we are showing absolutely no sign of doing anything to bounce back. It was a brick by brick sensible approach that got us there, but then we didn't change our business plan to suit modern times and modern business, we failed miserably.

[readingbedding]

What's the Capital City of Lithuania?

[Royal Rother]

It was a brick by brick sensible approach that got us there, but then we didn't change our business plan to suit modern times and modern business, we failed miserably.

Dreadful failure wasn't it?

Modern times and modern business are extremely unsettled. Whilst massive clubs like West Ham, Brum, Derby and many more smaller clubs are quite likely heading for financial disaster, we are not.

Over-cautious? Well, yes probably, but at least we are not facing the embarrassment and ignominy of administration and points deductions that will inevitably follow for more and more clubs as the modern business world bites into football. Our cautious approach will bear fruits as others fall around us. There won't be many of our rivals for promotion (QPR aside of course) in a strong position to strengthen come January having shot their loads pre-season.

Let's see how we get on with this squad. I think it is perfectly decent enough to be Top 2 as it stands but heads need to be in the right place which is the big un known factor. If it's not good enough then, with our surplus funds, we will be able to pick some tasty fruits in a few months' time to resurrect / reinforce a challenge.

You, and many others, will be sceptical / cynical about the likelihood of any willingness to make such investment - we shall see.

[Southbank Old Boy]

There won't be many of our rivals for promotion (QPR aside of course) in a strong position to strengthen come January having shot their loads pre-season.

You're not seriously suggesting that we're just keeping our powder dry to allow us to make a move in January are you?

We'll be told in January that not a lot of business is done in January, and that all the good players are already taken and clubs don't want them to leave, you pay a premium in the January window etc etc.

I could maybe understand the idea of giving our squad a chance to prove itself IF we hadn't done that for the last two seasons and IF we hadn't lost the backbone of the squad as it was.

[Stranded]

I am sick and tired of the "lack of ambition" line, the last few months are the first time in over a decade where things haven't gone so well and suddenly we have no ambition - bollocks.

Even the year we last got relegated we were building the current stadium, this club has constantly shown ambition to be better than it was and overall that goal is still being acheived, yes we've taken a step back in the last few months but knocks and bruises are part of development.

The club has moved from being seen as a lower division side to being seen as a club that many see as being back in the top flight last year after one bad season.

The chances are we will go up again (this year or in a future season) and probably come back down again at some point afterwards - this is the stage we have moved ourselves to - becoming an established team at the next level is the hardest step and one will make mistakes trying to acheive regardless of who is in charge of the club.

Our two years in the sun have artificially (in some ways) heightened peoples expectations and more of a want it now mindset. The club is in a very strong position to get where we all want, just not necessarily as quickly as we would like, but hey that's life.

Really good article on us in When Saturday Comes this month about by the way, and how the Prem has changed the club/fans. Well worth a read.

[Royal Rother]

There won't be many of our rivals for promotion (QPR aside of course) in a strong position to strengthen come January having shot their loads pre-season.

You're not seriously suggesting that we're just keeping our powder dry to allow us to make a move in January are you?

I thought it was pretty clear that I was saying that we would see how we get on with what we've got - incidentally most people outside of the more negative-minded Reading supporters consider us near-favourites to go up even without Kitson, Little and Shorey - and if it's not good enough and we are not competing for Top 2 by January, then strengthen. We will have the money to do it comfortably, no-one else, QPR aside, will have such funds available, risk-free to the long-term financial stability of the club.

(Doesn't mean a lot but on TalkSport this morning Simon Claire of Corals and Jason Cundy both tipped Reading to win the league.)

[cmonurz]

I am sick and tired of the "lack of ambition" line, the last few months are the first time in over a decade where things haven't gone so well and suddenly we have no ambition - bollocks.

Whilst I agree that we are now a 'bigger club', with a large fan base and wider knowledge of the club and its supporters, 'ambition' is rightly or wrongly attached to funding an improved playing squad, which it could be argued has not happened since we achieved promotion (were we the first Premier League side ever to be relegated with a poorer squad than the one that took us up?!).

[Southbank Old Boy]

There won't be many of our rivals for promotion (QPR aside of course) in a strong position to strengthen come January having shot their loads pre-season.

You're not seriously suggesting that we're just keeping our powder dry to allow us to make a move in January are you?

I thought it was pretty clear that I was saying that we would see how we get on with what we've got - incidentally most people outside of the more negative-minded Reading supporters consider us near-favourites to go up even without Kitson, Little and Shorey - and if it's not good enough and we are not competing for Top 2 by January, then strengthen. We will have the money to do it comfortably, no-one else, QPR aside, will have such funds available, risk-free to the long-term financial stability of the club.

(Doesn't mean a lot but on TalkSport this morning Simon Claire of Corals and Jason Cundy both tipped Reading to win the league.)

These are pretty much the same people that know very little about the goings on at the club apart from on a very superficial level. They're the same people that almost to a man said we'd get relegated in our first season in the Prem and then said we'd be fine during our second.

As much as it fills and sells newspapers, gets people to visit websites, watch TV or call into the Radio, the expert analysis and predictions, even the books the betting shops run are just basically a shot in the dark.

They may prove to be right, but our manager has expressed similar concerns that he needed to freshen up the squad etc, he even said he knew we'd be in trouble last season after the West Ham home game. I don't think we've done enough to allay those fears. We may still be in and around the play-off areas, I'd be surprised if we're not because basically all teams are aren't they, but I think we're just stagnating too much to be moving forwards with a long term plan.

That frustrates me, especially after all the talk of the last few months, and in fact the last few years.

[Southbank Old Boy]

I am sick and tired of the "lack of ambition" line, the last few months are the first time in over a decade where things haven't gone so well and suddenly we have no ambition - bollocks.

Even the year we last got relegated we were building the current stadium, this club has constantly shown ambition to be better than it was and overall that goal is still being acheived, yes we've taken a step back in the last few months but knocks and bruises are part of development.

The club has moved from being seen as a lower division side to being seen as a club that many see as being back in the top flight last year after one bad season.

The chances are we will go up again (this year or in a future season) and probably come back down again at some point afterwards - this is the stage we have moved ourselves to - becoming an established team at the next level is the hardest step and one will make mistakes trying to acheive regardless of who is in charge of the club.

Our two years in the sun have artificially (in some ways) heightened peoples expectations and more of a want it now mindset. The club is in a very strong position to get where we all want, just not necessarily as quickly as we would like, but hey that's life.

Really good article on us in When Saturday Comes this month about by the way, and how the Prem has changed the club/fans. Well worth a read.

I can see where your coming from Stranded, but I think the problem is the way the club have matched squad development and investment to the overly ambitious soundbites coming out of anyone involved in the running of the club.

The infrastructure has moved on in leaps and bounds. We've seen the most successful side in the clubs history. You can't say the club hasn't been a success or shown a certain degree of ambition.

The problem is that we got so far and then bottled it. The ambition ran out.

[Stranded]

SOB, like I have said, we are currently having a bad period and nobody would argue that we could have done more during the last windows - of course it doesn't necessarily follow that we wouldn't still be looking forward to Forest away in the Championship this weekend.

The recruitment of the right players to move us on now is the hardest part for a club like us whether we like it or not and is the key to moving on to the next level of our development as a club.

I don't agree that the ambition has totally disappeared, if it did upon relegation we'd have lost a hell of a lot more key players than we have to date. We will sign a new left back and have a very decent squad with some decent young players coming through (something people have been dying to see for ages and now it seems to be happening seem to want to buy players to go ahead of them). Very few clubs (or businesses even) continually grow, there are always spells when you fall back and have to come again. That is where we are now and it's actually quite exciting (in some ways more so than trying to hang on to 17th place in the division above), in others not so. The next 2 years will decide how we will grow and how quickly.

[Southbank Old Boy]

I don't agree that the ambition has totally disappeared

So you do agree that we've shown less ambition than before then?

I think that's more what people mean by lack of ambition. It's all relative I guess

Personally I track it all back to the refusal of the club to go for a place in Europe. I think that set the tone for the last 18 months

[Sarah Star]

I think it's just the feeling of uncertainty. Every time one of the first team leaves - Glen Little, Kitson, Shorey - it leaves a bit of a hole and my glass that looked half full seems a little bit emptier. When Kitson left it was a shock, but when we signed Noel Hunt I felt more optimistic, and seeing Karacan play was a big boost. But now Shorey's actually gone, I'm slipping back into pessimism. Another signing and I'll feel better; a win on Sunday and I'll believe it doesn't matter.

[Big Ern]

Our cautious approach will bear fruits as others fall around us. There won't be many of our rivals for promotion (QPR aside of course) in a strong position to strengthen come January having shot their loads pre-season.

What a wonderful world of make-believe and false hope you live in.

[Gordons Cumming]

.......................... having shot their loads pre-season.

[Royal Lady]

[rfcjoe]

It was a brick by brick sensible approach that got us there, but then we didn't change our business plan to suit modern times and modern business, we failed miserably.

Dreadful failure wasn't it?

Modern times and modern business are extremely unsettled. Whilst massive clubs like West Ham, Brum, Derby and many more smaller clubs are quite likely heading for financial disaster, we are not.

Over-cautious? Well, yes probably, but at least we are not facing the embarrassment and ignominy of administration and points deductions that will inevitably follow for more and more clubs as the modern business world bites into football. Our cautious approach will bear fruits as others fall around us. There won't be many of our rivals for promotion (QPR aside of course) in a strong position to strengthen come January having shot their loads pre-season.

Let's see how we get on with this squad. I think it is perfectly decent enough to be Top 2 as it stands but heads need to be in the right place which is the big un known factor. If it's not good enough then, with our surplus funds, we will be able to pick some tasty fruits in a few months' time to resurrect / reinforce a challenge.

You, and many others, will be sceptical / cynical about the likelihood of any willingness to make such investment - we shall see.

just because you wrote alot doesn't make you right.