Clement sacked!

[Stranded]

Sad to see him go, and would've loved him to be a number two here, to an experienced Manager. Thought he was a genuinley good guy

However results speak volumes & lets face it, we've been pants for months. His inability to shore up the defence has been his downfall, and IMO its not due to the quality of player we have, but down to the coaching, direction & understanding between the players.

Thanks for your effort Paul.

Onwards....

+1

I think the fact he only discovered by default that Jaakkola is our best keeper speaks volumes for his judgement AND Beasant's - perhaps he should also be on his way

DId anyone at any point until recently think Jaakkola was ever going to be more than a No. 2 for us? It was under Clement that he was given a contract extension that most people couldn't believe.

[leon]

I'm a bit shocked by this. Despite being critical of Clement, I could see some improvement - I'm not convinced that it's a particularly good move.

[Old Man Andrews]

Truth is none of us know if this is a good move or not. I guess we will all know in about a month eh.

[Forbury Lion]

Sad to see him go, and would've loved him to be a number two here, to an experienced Manager. Thought he was a genuinley good guy

However results speak volumes & lets face it, we've been pants for months. His inability to shore up the defence has been his downfall, and IMO its not due to the quality of player we have, but down to the coaching, direction & understanding between the players.

Thanks for your effort Paul.

Onwards....

+1

I think the fact he only discovered by default that Jaakkola is our best keeper speaks volumes for his judgement AND Beasant's - perhaps he should also be on his way

DId anyone at any point until recently think Jaakkola was ever going to be more than a No. 2 for us? It was under Clement that he was given a contract extension that most people couldn't believe.

I've always rated him, but probably assumed we'd signed two keepers ahead of him so they must be better.....but, Federici was backup and at one point not even under contract IIRC & sleeping on Sonko's sofa

I'm sure the new manager will review the coaching staff they inherit.

[10539.4 Miles Away]

After thinking it was a bit of a 50/50 decision at first I'm now 100% behind the choice to get rid. It was made by Nigel Howe and that man has lived and breathed Reading FC for a serious amount of time. If he believes it's the best decision for the club he has my backing. (for what that's worth on the other side of the world!)

Actually looking forward to seeing what happens next.

[Libertine]

I thought that Clement did a reasonably good job considering what he inherited/stepped into. Would have liked to see him get a chance with a new regime. Obviously the new regime had other thoughts on that plan.

We move on...

[Old Man Andrews]

After thinking it was a bit of a 50/50 decision at first I'm now 100% behind the choice to get rid. It was made by Nigel Howe and that man has lived and breathed Reading FC for a serious amount of time. If he believes it's the best decision for the club he has my backing. (for what that's worth on the other side of the world!)

Actually looking forward to seeing what happens next.

I just can't see that Howe would change for the sake of it. He must have spoken to the staff and players over the past week or so and come to the conclusion Clement is bad news.

[Cape Town Royal]

This whole thing just feels strange under Clement.. It's as if this team just has spells in game when they just do not turn up.. Look at the Ipswich game, first half they just sat off and watched - second half totally different should have won the game. Yet as shown in the recent games against at Leeds, Wigan and Stoke, they were clearly playing for him.

Clements interview post Ipswich summed it up for me. He just does not trust this squad to deliver what he wanted. Performances said they were playing for him so are they just not good enough or is it a concentration thing?

Personally, I don't think this squad is that good, especially in midfield and certain key things have needed addressing pretty much since the play off final (a left back [once Obita was injured], a driving midfielder leader type a commanding goalkeeper) etc..

I really am 50/50 on Clement, because in the last few games I began to see a future for this team, the young players seemed to have talent and shown they can cut it (albeit early days) the Ezatolahi signing shows promise in an area we need to strengthen and the team were playing for the shirt... Lets be honest had we got the equaliser at Leeds, I think that would have wiped out all our coupons for the last three games because I am willing to be there is not a Reading fan on here that thought we would go through those games unbeaten.

Yet, the points return is shocking over the last year or so and some of the signings have been absolutely dismal..

OMA made a comment (not picking you out) about Howe speaking to the senior Pro's and that got me thinking, who are they and are they they key players for us? McShane - No / O'Shea - Not really and not after this season / The midfield - Edwards - No / Meyler - No - if he comes back firing now the you would have to ask yourself where has he been for the first 3 months of the season. The only senior pro's who have been here a while who you would think have a future here and who's opinion would count are Moore and Gunter, but even Gunter is no longer first choice in his position, so if you spoke to that list of seniors what are you going to get back.

I think maybe sums up the problem under Clement. Maybe he is not a natural leader managing a team without many leaders...

Difficult one but I really feel we need a strong manager. We need to get in someone, who is dynamic and get us playing with pace and a clear direction... I think the style under Stam, maybe less so under Clement has allowed some (particularly Swift) to drift through games and that has to stop.. At the weekend we will be up against a team that plays with pace and a clear identity and if we do not turn up we could get slaughtered.. Maybe if that happens it could be a timely lesson for both the new CEO and any prospective manager (obviously i hope we suddenly turn into world beaters and win 3-0).

Good times!

[Hound]

I do feel the timing is a little strange, and on reflection, still not really happy with the decision

I do massively worry we'll bring in a manager who will think 'experience' will get us out of our position, turn back to carthorses like McShane, Meyler, Edwards and O'Shea, and we'll be back near square 1 as we were when PC took over

Does feel to me that PC learnt a lot over the last couple of months and started getting a few people playing to their potential. I felt optimistic about the future of the team.

Be generally gutted if we bring in someone like Bruce, Pardew or Hughes

[Tilehurstsouthbank]

Be generally gutted if we bring in someone like Bruce, Pardew or Hughes

This.

[WoodleyRoyal]

the dai's probably wanted him gone a while ago but RG was keeping him in the job, now was a good time from a PR point of view, new CEO wanting his own man etc etc

[John Madejski's Wallet]

I'm a bit shocked by this. Despite being critical of Clement, I could see some improvement - I'm not convinced that it's a particularly good move.

^^ That

We've actually had some backbone coming back into games the last few matches

Clement had also finally really that Aluko etc. can fukk off. Sadly a new man will likely bring all the 'names' back in and the cycle will start again

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Strange timing...and I think he deserved longer.

Rodgers, Clarke and Adkins were all sacked in Dec though and on each occasion we stayed up.

[Nomad_Royal]

I fall into the surprised and a little disappointed camp. I really thought he had a monumental job when he was appointed, after Stams ruinous time here and having been to just about all home games and 70% of the away games for the last 2 years really thought I saw signs recently that we were making progress. A terrible start to the season has given way to fighting performances , younger players getting a chance and a recent improvement in form.

However Clement was a Gourlay appointment and probably suffered from that. None of us really know what is going on behind the scenes and as I was really pleased that Howe was appointed CEO, trust him to get us back on course. I hope he has someone in mind to replace Clement.

I really wish Clement the best in the future and will always remember him as the reason we stayed in the Championship last season.

[Dave the rave]

Surprised and a bit disappointed as he seemed a decent bloke. But it’s a results business. No coincidence the day after Howe was appointed CEO.

Decent bloke or not, statistically he is our worst ever manager after 28 league games. Although Stam is our 2nd best after 28 games so what do statistics tell one?!?

Makes you wonder why anyone would bother taking a tally

[Lower West]

Bollocks do we. The club has lurched from one disaster to another since Madejski first sold up. That predates Gourlay and plenty of it happened on Howe's watch.

His record with Burns, Rodgers, McDermott 2, Clarke and Stam are hardly great. I was optimistic, But literally his first action in charge has been to sack the man trying to fix our problems and throw us deeper into turmoil.

Great job Nige.

McDermott won the league, Clarke was brilliant until he had his head turned, Stam was one penalty off the premier league

You call that a failure?

McDermott's second stint.
Clarke was good for about 2 months. Stam had one lucky season and left us far worse than he found us.

Yeah, I call that failure.

With 6 loan players. Sa moving abroad. Little left in the squad at all for McD to work with. Which was obvious if you went to the last game that season away at Blackburn. In came Brian Tevreden. First signing was Gravenberch second was Stam. There's where matters went wrong. McD has a good eye for players. Should be given the summer window and the start of the season.

[paultheroyal]

Something clearly wrong with Clement's man management approach. Felt it very odd first game of the season how outspoken Darren Bent was about him on Sky Sports. Very unusual for a pundit / current player be so scathing about an ex manager. Very odd as for the cameras and fans he seemed a decent bloke. But his stats are just truly shocking and can be no complaints with this sacking.

Genuinely torn yet excited which way we turn now. Few weeks ago I was in the Bruce, McCarthy, Pearson camp only because I wanted to see some fight to get us out of this mess.

Parky / Murty - is this more a case of heart ruling head etc - does their track records warrant a crack at our job?

Or do we go more.....Luton, Wycombe, Lincoln approach. What I would say is that after reading the statement from the club the dutch connection and method is now fully at an end.

New manager will have no issues culling this squad. Will be a mass exodus. Hopefully some decent exciting signings to come as well.

[Snowflake Royal]

For moving on to our sixth successive failure without addressing the actual problem by scapegoating yet another person not at fault.

THe club have addressed the problem. They removed Gourlay, installed Howe and then Howe disposed of Gourlay's remaining influence at the club in Paul Clement. They have clearly identified the issue and we have to trust them.

yup....We need fresh heads now to move forward. Were we progressing under Clement?.....well the stats say not....in fact league position says we are worse currently. Nigel Howe has a great record at this club, he knows us and clearly as you rightly say, he needs to remove the problems and the team progress quicker. We cannot afford to keep plodding along picking up the odd point here and there. 3 points from the last 12 is relegation form.

Sample of three is completely non-standard and too small, just to manipulate numbers to support your view.

[Millsy]

Long overdue.

Good ****ing riddance.

Yeah nice honest bloke etc but give me a Colin (not *the* Colin necessarily) who does the business over a nice guy who doesn't any day of the week.

Let down by crappy players the dick Gourlay true, but he still doesn't know his best team, and we have made no progress at all since he joined.

Shit end of season
Shit preseason
Shit this season

Ok those who love to use stats to confirm their bias will point to us being slightly less shit lately. Big wow and I'd say that's down to Nani anyway.

Cheerio Clement. Thanks for doing nothing at all for us.

Welcome back Nigel Howe, someone I never wanted out.

Welcome back Reading way.

[RoyalBlue]

I'm staggered at some of the excuses being wheeled out for Clement's dismal performance as manager with us (record speaks for itself and is significantly worse than those in his other two roles as manager, which weren't great themselves).

Most astounding is the 'It was Gourlay's fault/Gourlay's interference' excuse!

Clement was recruited by Gourlay as Gourlay's man and had previously worked with the him, so surely knew what his style was before he joined. If he knew he meddled in team matters but still chose to join, then that was his choice and should not be used as an excuse for his failure to perform as a manager at our club.