Brendan's moaning again!

[CMRoyal]

We did have a better manager lined up. And he's now in charge.

I meant a better manager than Brian, a man deemed not good enough for serious consideration in the summer.

The circumstances in the summer were completely different. However, Brian has stepped in and shown in just a few games more ability in his little finger than Rodgers had in his entire tome of convoluted football tactics.

Hmmm, as decent as the three draws were, I don't want to ever experience a trip like that one to Plymouth again. Reminds me why I was a home-games-only wimp when we were in the third and fourth tier. If that's improvement, the bar's been set very low indeed. When we win a game, that's when you can start making claims for improvement under McDermott.

[Wimb]

Fair point about Noel Hunt, he wasn't fit on Rodgers arrival, and whilst I quite like Noel, he strikes me as someone who needs a quality player like Doyle alongside him. Hunt is brave, reasonable touch and an eye for goal. He's better than his brother but still not got a fantastic all round game or that burst of pace to get by people. I would actually say Church is a more all rounded player than him. Those two might have worked quite well. As soon as it was confirmed Hunt was out (because it was early) another striker should have been brought in. I've never rated Long and whilst I'd accpet he chipped a few goals in towards the end of last season, i think his play was exaggerated by the horrific form of the others. He's never held down a first team place here and never will.

Thing is with Rodgers though Wimb, he'd say the cobblers above, then the next interivew would mention transition, then the next interview would mention playoffs, just didn't do himself any favours. IT's not just him admittedly, the board are horrendous for that. This was a transition season and he could have gone down the Billy Davies route of talking things down a little. I am fully aware that most can form a decent opinion and a sense of realism about the situtation, but still the clubs PR does have an impact on that. RFC's is awful.

Reading had enough home games against poor opposition to be higher up the table, and the last 2 were just really grim. Both teams were toilet. Moses made Palace look better than the average side they are and Scunthorpe are the worst team I've seen in yonks. Reading didn't beat either.

Agreed AP, especially about the results. But if you do look back on those games we didnt win he didn't get the best of luck, We battered Donny and Scunthorpe and deserved to beat Ipswich as well. You could place the blame for that on the players BR picked but how many times would the Sig waste such golden chances as he did against Scunny?

I think what riles the likes of me, Royalee and some other 'BR supporters' isn't so much that he was sacked, more the fact that he was sacked after it finally looked as if things were moving up. Rodgers had seemingly realised the likes of Cummings weren't up to it and given the transfer window would have been trying to bring players in that could actually solidify the team.

Rodgers was never going to be a short term quick impact manager, his various PR statements and interviews all pointed towards a man who was going to sacrifice short term success for long term gain and the board (and many fans) seemed to have accepted that. Again had we gotten 6-9 extra points that our performances arguably deserved then everyone would have been happy to carry on.

Im just dissapointed and annoyed that the board have pulled the trigger when the club was at worst in a relegation battle (not doomed for the drop) and at best was heading up towards mid table safety.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

Can't see anything wrong in Rodgers' reported comments. Less than half a season, after the changes to the team, is self-evidently not long enough.

But it's all aqua sub ponte guys. let's not argue about it any more eh? Rally round the flag.

[Thomas L'Heureux]

We did have a better manager lined up. And he's now in charge.

I meant a better manager than Brian, a man deemed not good enough for serious consideration in the summer.

The circumstances in the summer were completely different. However, Brian has stepped in and shown in just a few games more ability in his little finger than Rodgers had in his entire tome of convoluted football tactics.

Sorry, but out of all the drivel in this thread, this comment is probably the most deluded of the lot.

And personally, I think Wimb's take on this is spot on to be honest. Fair enough Rodgers could have done a lot of things differently, but I definitely do not agree with him getting the sack when there has been no talk of bringing in a replacement. Sacking him is a backward step in the long-run, and given the position the club are in at the moment, we don't have the luxury of being able to take too many backward steps.

[bcubed]

Don't see anything wrong with what Rodgers has said to be honest. I find it laughable that he wasn't given until the cup game, as much as I hate conspiracy theories the whole 'did he have a 6 month clause' in his deal is making more and more sense.

He was harshly sacked, we weren't the worst team in the league and even the manager himelf and the board had said all along that it was a long term project. Sadly the powers that be shit the bed and pulled the trigger for whatever reason and have now placed their trust in someone with even LESS experience then BR.

Nothing against BM there, and not saying Rodgers was world class or didn't make mistakes but to be fair he has every right to express his opinions far as im concerned.

Well said - totally agree

[Focher]

although going over old ground, i really don't think that Madejski would have sacked Rodgers if it wasn't for Cummings and Mills being shit or not playing. I think that really wound JM up seeing £2.5m of 'talent' either sat on the bench or not playing, like Halford and Fae.

[strap]

Shaun Cummings £300k
Matt Mills £2M and not even on the bench
The Tommy Smith joke
Panic buying of Rasiak/McAnuff
Playing 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, or whatever permuation you care to mention

Just five reasons the Clueless Charlatan Bodgers should be treated with utter contempt by the fans. Sadly there will always be apologists for such a manager, but he was so far out of his depth it was embarassing.

Manager of a Blue Sq side at best, or perhaps an Academy Head, that's his natural station in life, and he should get on with it and stop bleating. No class, no dignity, no honour. An arrogant fool who couldn't keep his loud mouth shut.

Good riddance, and I hope he never darkens RFC's door EVER again.

[brendywendy]

Panic buying of Rasiak/McAnuff

without whom wed be bottom

Playing 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, or whatever permuation you care to mention

played as many permutations in the prem under coppell

[Thomas L'Heureux]

Shaun Cummings £300k
Matt Mills £2M and not even on the bench
The Tommy Smith joke
Panic buying of Rasiak/McAnuff
Playing 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, or whatever permuation you care to mention

Just five reasons the Clueless Charlatan Bodgers should be treated with utter contempt by the fans. Sadly there will always be apologists for such a manager, but he was so far out of his depth it was embarassing.

Manager of a Blue Sq side at best, or perhaps an Academy Head, that's his natural station in life, and he should get on with it and stop bleating. No class, no dignity, no honour. An arrogant fool who couldn't keep his loud mouth shut.

Good riddance, and I hope he never darkens RFC's door EVER again.

How on earth is the supposed 'panic buys' of Rasiak and McAnuff one of the 'five reasons that Rodgers should be hated by us fans'?

With them we would probably be propping up the rest of the division now.

[Woodcote Royal]

So it's Madejski's fault Reading have no forwards The main problem is going into the season (having had an entire pre season) thinking Long, Church and Raisak is enough. Rodgers spent close to £4million this summer if the sums are correct. So he had money to change things. I accept he lost certain players. He never managed Doyle, he was gone pretty much as he turned up, Hunt was gone last season, he was awful in the last 1/3 of the season. Hahnemann he didn't get, so those were the main 3. He wasted money on Howard. He wasted money on Cummings and whilst I quite like Mills, I'm not sure he's going to prove the best signing ever. Rasiak is ok, he'll chip in with goals here and there, Bertrand is decent enough in this league and McAnuff has been his star bit of work.

But that's not good enough if we're being honest here. Reading couldn't score a goal towards the end of last season with all the players here. He needed to completely revamp the frontline, instead he went 1 up front...mainly being Long at the start of the season. Guess what we didn't score any goals.

He came out with a load of crap about challenging for Europe, consistant Premiership football, skillful soldiers and models. He was starting a season in the championship with poor forwards, Federici, Pearce and Cisse. It's not going to happen. So he didnt' help himself.

The thing towards the end was, he was talking about having such a young side, now if he'd continued with the majority of players that played fairly well against Forest, I would completely accept that. But he didn't. Nearly the entire team were internationals or had had at least a full season under their belt in the championship. He was dropping players like Sigurdsson for Gunnarsson. He was playing the slowest 2 centre halves in this clubs history together regularly. It was all a bit of a mess, it struck of a bloke that had lost the plot if truth be told.

It was poor, the results were poor and in this day and age managers take the brunt of it. Rodgers just made it that much easier for them to make that decision.

Agree with most of that, AP.

Of course it's right that 20 games isn't long enough but this decision could only have been made on the basis that his superiors didn't feel he was heading in the right direction.

Furthermore, having paid a heavy a price for giving Steve Coppell the benefit of the doubt, the club simply couldn't risk sleep walking into yet another disastrous relegation. this time to the third tier.

If Brendan wants to be a successful manager in this country he needs to let go of Jose's apron strings.

The harsh realities of his chosen profession dictate that those who hold his kind of aspirations must realise them within a realistic budget whilst avoiding a nose dive through the leagues. This would put him high in the stratosphere with the likes of Clough and Ferguson.

While Brendan learns his trade at smaller clubs he needs to get his head out of the clouds and start taking some much needed advice from the likes of David Moyes, who has already travelled his chosen path with some success and without the billions thrown at his friend Jose from one of the worlds richest men.

Whatever Roy Keane's budgets may be at Ipswich, many managers in this league can only dream of the 3.5 million given to BR and either he didn't have a clue how to spend it wisely or, he simply believed that our Chairman's wallet was a bottomless pit.

Wake up and smell the coffee, Mr Rodgers.

[CMRoyal]

Shaun Cummings £300k
Matt Mills £2M and not even on the bench
The Tommy Smith joke
Panic buying of Rasiak/McAnuff
Playing 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, or whatever permuation you care to mention

Just five reasons the Clueless Charlatan Bodgers should be treated with utter contempt by the fans. Sadly there will always be apologists for such a manager, but he was so far out of his depth it was embarassing.

I don't know, I just think he's the type of person who attracts polarised views. It's surely more nuanced than your type of view versus, say, Royalee's. My own go thus:-

Cummings - yes, mistake.
Mills - I'm not convinced by him, but given that we nipped in ahead of Forest amongst other intersted parties, there must be something there so I still err on the side of injuries hampering his progress at this moment in time.
Smith? Yep, embarrassing.
Rasiak/Mcanuff - clearly not panic buys, and both have done ok; excellently in Jobi's case, in fact.

The formations were a bit frustrating early, but he did seem to settle on a decent setup a few matches from the end of his tenure, especially in midfield. Howard's injury was particularly unforunate in its timing, I thought.

So yes, he made mistakes but in my opinion he was learning from them, and there was a lot more progress to come. I never warmed to the guy, but still feel he should have been given longer in the job.

[Alan Partridge]

So it's Madejski's fault Reading have no forwards The main problem is going into the season (having had an entire pre season) thinking Long, Church and Raisak is enough. Rodgers spent close to £4million this summer if the sums are correct. So he had money to change things. I accept he lost certain players. He never managed Doyle, he was gone pretty much as he turned up, Hunt was gone last season, he was awful in the last 1/3 of the season. Hahnemann he didn't get, so those were the main 3. He wasted money on Howard. He wasted money on Cummings and whilst I quite like Mills, I'm not sure he's going to prove the best signing ever. Rasiak is ok, he'll chip in with goals here and there, Bertrand is decent enough in this league and McAnuff has been his star bit of work.

But that's not good enough if we're being honest here. Reading couldn't score a goal towards the end of last season with all the players here. He needed to completely revamp the frontline, instead he went 1 up front...mainly being Long at the start of the season. Guess what we didn't score any goals.

He came out with a load of crap about challenging for Europe, consistant Premiership football, skillful soldiers and models. He was starting a season in the championship with poor forwards, Federici, Pearce and Cisse. It's not going to happen. So he didnt' help himself.

The thing towards the end was, he was talking about having such a young side, now if he'd continued with the majority of players that played fairly well against Forest, I would completely accept that. But he didn't. Nearly the entire team were internationals or had had at least a full season under their belt in the championship. He was dropping players like Sigurdsson for Gunnarsson. He was playing the slowest 2 centre halves in this clubs history together regularly. It was all a bit of a mess, it struck of a bloke that had lost the plot if truth be told.

It was poor, the results were poor and in this day and age managers take the brunt of it. Rodgers just made it that much easier for them to make that decision.

Agree with most of that, AP.

Of course it's right that 20 games isn't long enough but this decision could only have been made on the basis that his superiors didn't feel he was heading in the right direction.

Furthermore, having paid a heavy a price for giving Steve Coppell the benefit of the doubt, the club simply couldn't risk sleep walking into yet another disastrous relegation. this time to the third tier.

If Brendan wants to be a successful manager in this country he needs to let go of Jose's apron strings.

The harsh realities of his chosen profession dictate that those who hold his kind of aspirations must realise them within a realistic budget whilst avoiding a nose dive through the leagues. This would put him high in the stratosphere with the likes of Clough and Ferguson.

While Brendan learns his trade at smaller clubs he needs to get his head out of the clouds and start taking some much needed advice from the likes of David Moyes, who has already travelled his chosen path with some success and without the billions thrown at his friend Jose from one of the worlds richest men.

Whatever Roy Keane's budgets may be at Ipswich, many managers in this league can only dream of the 3.5 million given to BR and either he didn't have a clue how to spend it wisely or, he simply believed that our Chairman's wallet was a bottomless pit.

Wake up and smell the coffee, Mr Rodgers.

Possibly your best post Woodcote. Can't agree with that more.

It was more Chelsea pensioners than Chelsea FC with Jose's blueprint here. Simply didn't have the players.

[ankeny]

Shaun Cummings £300k
Matt Mills £2M and not even on the bench
The Tommy Smith joke
Panic buying of Rasiak/McAnuff
Playing 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, or whatever permuation you care to mention

Just five reasons the Clueless Charlatan Bodgers should be treated with utter contempt by the fans. Sadly there will always be apologists for such a manager, but he was so far out of his depth it was embarassing.

Manager of a Blue Sq side at best, or perhaps an Academy Head, that's his natural station in life, and he should get on with it and stop bleating. No class, no dignity, no honour. An arrogant fool who couldn't keep his loud mouth shut.

Good riddance, and I hope he never darkens RFC's door EVER again.

How on earth is the supposed 'panic buys' of Rasiak and McAnuff one of the 'five reasons that Rodgers should be hated by us fans'?

With them we would probably be propping up the rest of the division now.

McAnuff is good as signing as any class of 2007,he is brilliant

[Ark Royal]

Results were improving? Rodgers penultimate game in charge, Reading 2-4 Crystal Palace. Rodgers - who had bigged up our youth products - dropped the best young prospect of the lot in Sigurdsson, played his 4-5-1 guff, saw his useless goalkeeper concede twice at his near post and his side ended up getting absolutely thrashed by a side who hadn't even been paid . If that is a sign of results improving then I am a chinaman.

"You thought.....that was worse than Tuesday?"

+1

The Palace performance was woeful; and it was Brenda's team. 'Improving'? Fcuk off.

[The Goat was fed]

The main problem for me was he failed to manage expectations.

If he had come out and said something like...

"I believe I have the capabilities to take this club into Europe, but it will be long struggle to reinvent this side, it will take time etc."

I would have given him the time of day. Instead he just talked shite and frustrated everyone. I must admit I thought the timing of the sacking was wrong - if he had to go it should have been after QPR. Having said that Palace was a joke and I'm in the Tim Dellor school of thinking that Scunthorpe was even worse. We were outclassed against Palace, against Scunthorpe you just knew they were going to equalise because our defence is embarrassing.

[Ups and Downs]

i would be very suprised if we spend a penny in this transfer window and, with a potential job on the line, McDermott will take that a lot easier than Brendan would have done, which is one of the main reasons he was got shot of in my opinion.

There was no way he was given enough time. Fair enough, the tactics were a bit all over the place, but you can only surmise that was because he was still getting used to the players (many of which had never played at this level) and was still trying to find the best team.

I'm not overly upset that he's gone because there's no way to know for sure whether he would have turned things around, but at this moment in time I'd rather he was in charge than McDermott, who I fear will simply be Madejskis patsy. Fingers crossed he's got a pair of nuts and, having been at the club fo so long, realises extra men of quality need to be bought in fast.

[brendywendy]

hes been told, as was rodgers that no one will be coming in without some money from elsewhere- probably from player sales
balls aint got nowt to do with it

[RoyalBlue]

Had we lined up a better manager, that would be understandable. That we haven't makes the timing of the sacking a bit of a mystery.

We did have a better manager lined up. And he's now in charge.

So why didn't the fools who are in charge of this club appoint McDermott first time around (his abilities can't have changed that dramatically in the short time Rodgers was in charge) and save the £500K paid to Watford (plus whatever they will now have to pay in compensation to all those sacked)? That money could have been spent instead on much needed players (or more likely gone into the cloth cutting fund!).

And how many more times will people on here witter on about the £3.5M given to buy players whilst ever so conveniently (Madejski style) overlooking the value and quality of players sold, as our squad was decimated by the cloth cutting. Yes, lots of other managers would have loved that amount of money to add to their already good, established and stable squads!!

Two former Reading managers (Gooding and Coppell) have now stated that Rodgers was pretty much on a hiding to nothing and I would bet that there are plenty of other very good and experienced managers who would agree with that.

[Woodcote Royal]

So why didn't the fools who are in charge of this club appoint McDermott first time around

Here's a thought

Perhaps they thought Rodgers would do a much better than he did.......................I know this is a bit out of left field but........................................

[RoyalBlue]

Here's a thought

Perhaps they thought Rodgers would do a much better than he did.......................I know this is a bit of left filed but........................................

So they went and blew all of that money on what they 'thought', rather than what they knew? Don't forget they are now telling us what a great record and background McDermott has and that can't have changed much in the last few months!

No matter how you try to justify their actions, either he clearly wasn't a very obvious and clear candidate for the job or they cocked up big time.

And, unless they are now confident that McDermott is better than Rodgers or anyone else they could get (assuming they are prepared to spend some money) why are they leaving him in charge at such a critical time for the club?

although going over old ground, i really don't think that Madejski would have sacked Rodgers if it wasn't for Cummings and Mills being shit or not playing. I think that really wound JM up seeing £2.5m of 'talent' either sat on the bench or not playing, like Halford and Fae.

But don't forget that much of that £2.5M also sat on the bench for a while under McDermott so perhaps there was a good reason why Rodgers wasn't/couldnt play him.