Brian: The right decision?

[winchester_royal]

McDermott was never allowed to have a squad good enough to play attractive football but HE was good enough to make lesser players, playing a more functional style, out perform teams that cost far more money to assemble.

Sacking McDermott, and the timing of it in particular, was a highly unprofessional decision taken by an owner who clearly knows less about the game than he likes to believe.

Well, I was a fan of BMcD too but that is blatant nonsense. He had the opportunity and missed it. If you are right in your assertion that he never had that opportunity then please explain how Adkins managed to get that same group of players to start playing that style of football?

I won't bless some of the blinkered observations here with a response but you seem to be missing the point. Any fool can get a group of players to play pretty football but it's worth jack if it doesn't produce results.

McDermott was all about getting the very best from limited players and that was because he had to.

He bought the likes of Ledge because he was only given a tiny fraction of the £10m+ raised from selling Long and Siggy and it is utterly pathetic of others to suggest this was not the case.

What McDermott achieved with the resources at his disposal is never likely to be surpassed and nor are we likely to see ever again the likes of Doyle, Long and Siggy arrive for next nothing and go onto make the huge profits that they did for this club.

Whatever ADKINS (I highlight our manager's name for the anal prick who felt this was the most pressing observation to make regarding my previous post and invite him to refer to previous contributions where the correct spelling has normally been applied) achieves here it will take many years to match Brian McDermott's huge contribution to all things RFC, which was sadly cut short by an arrogant, walking wallet which has yet to be open in the manner previously suggested it would.

You're right, McD was good at getting the best out of the squad, and getting the team playing winning football...until this season. Where he has failed to get the best out of a number of his signings, as well as players who've been playing under him for a while.

Ledge cost >1m as well as being on hefty wages. If McD wanted to replace Siggy with another AM he could have done so at that price. He chose to revert to a more direct style because that's how he likes his football to be played. Fair enough, and as I've said many times on here he deserves credit because it was successful for a while, but it blatantly wasn't working this year and if we are looking to compete at a higher level in the long run then a change had to be made.

'Arrogant walking wallet' - You've never even met the guy you sad little man.

[RockheadRumple]

Reading Chronicle:

"You can see the massive progression we have
made under the new manager and the contrast
in styles," argued Le Fondre. "No disrespect to
Brian and how we played before, but it's a totally
different kind of football in the Premier League
than the Championship.
"If you keep giving the ball away, trying to turn
teams and don't have any sustained possession,
teams tend to hurt you.
"Premier League clubs have got players good
enough to keep the ball for five or six minutes
and suddenly you are chasing shadows. One false
move and they cut through you straight away.
When strikers are at the top of their game they
only need one chance and you are one nil down
and chasing the game."
Reading were starved of possession in the Premier
League under McDermott which, in turn, invited
pressure from opponents.
Latest statistics reveal that opposition teams
carved out an average of 18.6 shots at Reading's
goal during matches this season - the highest for
any team in the top five leagues in Europe.
However, Le Fondre, 24, says things have
improved under Adkins over the eight matches
he has been in charge.
"He's only been here a handful of games, but
we've come on leaps and bounds," he suggested.
"We're keeping the ball better and starting to
control games with a little more possession.
"We're getting a foothold in games which we
weren't really doing earlier in the season. We were
sort of riding our luck and hoping for the best.
That's tough to say but that's what we were
doing.
"We were hoping someone came up with a bit of
magic or that Adam Federici or Alex McCarthy
had a 'worldy' in goal, and we would take it from
there.
"Now there's more structure about our play. With
a bit of fine tuning we can keep progressing."
Reading, boosted by £60 million in parachute
payments over the next four years, are expected
to challenge for promotion back to the Premier
League next season.
And Le Fondre declared: "I think we will come
back stronger next season, we will have that
hunger to play in the Premier League again, it's
what everyone wants.
"We've all got to have that hunger and desire to
play there because it's the best league in the
world. We know what the Championship is all
about. We ground it out the season before last
and won the title and we need to do it again.
"I believe we've got enough experience and
quality to do that."
Le Fondre, however, is one of several players
attracting the attention of rival clubs including
Premier League newcomers Cardiff City.
The striker top scored for Royals with 12 Premier
League goals over the season - the same as
Chelsea's Juan Mata and Manchester United's
Wayne Rooney.
He also set a new record for most goals scored by
a substitute in a Premier League season and was
named Player of the Month for January.
However, he accepted players are certain to leave
Madejski Stadium over the coming weeks.
"That's just the nature of football," he said. "You
rarely see clubs do nothing in the summer. If you
do you stand still and people pass you by. You
always need to improve."

Hopefully he'll be gone soon.

Every fan has been saying the same thing about what McDermott's tactics were like, mostly pretty vicious and harsh comments too. Just because a player says it, he's suddenly some kind of idiot prick? What a holier-than-thou attitude, particular for someone who is a mere spectator of this mans work.

Are you really suggesting that you disagree with him?

[Ian Royal]

I thought you lot told us Adkins was having a clear out because these players can't play his style.

Nope.

[sandman]

I think you'll find the answer you're looking for Ian Beyal is yep. We've been told by people on here that it's good certain players are leaving because they are not "technically" good enough and we need to judge Atkins when he gets players who can play his style.

[Ian Royal]

I think you'll find the answer you're looking for is yep Ian Beyol.

Only negative nancies like Floyd.

Anyone with half a brain who'd seen much of our players over the last few years could see most of them were capable of playing slicker football under the right set up. McAnuff, Kebe, HRK, ALF, Pog, Guthrie, Carrico, Gunter, Kelly, Mariappa, McCarthy all easily capable. And perhaps more suprisingly Karacan is emerging as a better player now we're playing slicker stuff.

A few key signings is all we need.

Pretty intelligent summary of our woes last season under Bri from ALF there.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Sounds positive from Alfie - hopefully he intends to stick around.

[AthleticoSpizz]

and so he bloody well should, Rotherham to the Prem in a few sharp months

and besides, isn't he contracted?

[Royalee]

+, as it goes Adkins is a perma-tanned, smug, Scouse, ex-Saints tosser who looks like a massive pleb in a blue tie.

I actually agree with that word-for-word, but I'm glad he's our Manager. Best man for the job.

About as attractive a photo as his style of football.

[AthleticoSpizz]

says the georgous Royalee

[MmmMonsterMunch]

and so he bloody well should, Rotherham to the Prem in a few sharp months

and besides, isn't he contracted?

He is under contract but if the right club comes knocking there's no cast iron guarantee we can keep him.

[West Stand Man]

I won't bless some of the blinkered observations here with a response but you seem to be missing the point. Any fool can get a group of players to play pretty football but it's worth jack if it doesn't produce results.

McDermott was all about getting the very best from limited players and that was because he had to.

He bought the likes of Ledge because he was only given a tiny fraction of the £10m+ raised from selling Long and Siggy and it is utterly pathetic of others to suggest this was not the case.

What McDermott achieved with the resources at his disposal is never likely to be surpassed and nor are we likely to see ever again the likes of Doyle, Long and Siggy arrive for next nothing and go onto make the huge profits that they did for this club.

Whatever ADKINS (I highlight our manager's name for the anal prick who felt this was the most pressing observation to make regarding my previous post and invite him to refer to previous contributions where the correct spelling has normally been applied) achieves here it will take many years to match Brian McDermott's huge contribution to all things RFC, which was sadly cut short by an arrogant, walking wallet which has yet to be open in the manner previously suggested it would.

Wow, you really are in a grump. You'll need to explain how and why anything I said was 'blinkered'. My observation is simple, you claim that B McD was hampered by being forced to buy/ play people who could not dealer attractive passing football. That is clearly not true as I have shown above.

I started by saying I am a fan of his. I agree that he did a huge amount for us an that his changes were vital. Where I annotate agree is that it was one one else's fault that he bought in a passing player (Guthrie) and chose, initially, to bypass his natural talent and then dropped him because he didn't fit our direct style.

I we were to go on playing the traditional Reading direct style we needed players to fit that. We didn't get them.

[AthleticoSpizz]

and so he bloody well should, Rotherham to the Prem in a few sharp months

and besides, isn't he contracted?

He is under contract but if the right club comes knocking there's no cast iron guarantee we can keep him.

Its up to club and contract if we can keep him.

[sandman]

McDermott was never allowed to have a squad good enough to play attractive football but HE was good enough to make lesser players, playing a more functional style, out perform teams that cost far more money to assemble.

I don't get this argument. When a manager is in charge for >3 years he will have assembled a squad of players that will be playing the way he wants them to play. It was McD's choice to use the Siggy money to replace him with Leigertwood. It was McD's choice to abandon to midfield of Tabb/Howard that was looking so effective towards the back end of the 09/10 season. It was McD's choice to replace an overlapping full back in Bertrand with a guy who didn't offer much in open play but would help with set pieces.

He opted for efficient, percentage football. It got us promoted, so it obviously worked, and for that he will rightly get plenty of praise. But lets not pretend that he was forced into playing that way, our wage bill was one of the highest in the league. We've decided to move forward and adopt a style of play that will hopefully be more than just efficient, and there is little evidence to suggest that Brian would have wanted to, or been capable of overseeing such a transition.

Deary be. He did not get the Sig money to buy Leigertwood he got a small percentage of it to sign Ian Harte to take over set piece duties as we'd lost an effective set piece taker in Sig and bring Leigertwood in on loan. He was told he had to sell the following summer before he could sign Ledge permanently which he did by having to sell his Captain and subsequently his top scorer (for the second season running). Tabb/Howard were played front of the back four and as there was no chance of him getting the money to sign a replacement as good as Sig it had to be abandoned. If you remember properly he did try to carry on that formation at the start of the 10/11 season but no one was good enough to play the CAM role.

While we're talking about pretending why are you pretending that he negotiated the contracts and the wages? Hammond does that after the manager identifies the targets that fit the transfer money given by The Board. When you sell over £10 million pounds worth of talent and get about £3 million back in transfer fees surely it stands to reason that the players you sign are not going to be as good as the ones you've lost. The fact is that when you lose the likes of Shane Long and Gylfi Sigurdsson with their talent and replace them, with all due respect, the likes of ALF and Leigertwood you have to change your style of play because they are not as gifted.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest Brian would've been able to adapt and change the overall style it's in the way he changed the team and built it around Gylfi playing him in the right position when he originally came in. It's the way he dealt with losing Gylfi and made Shane the focal point. It's in the way he dealt with the loses of those big players by buying players on a small transfer budget and winning the title with them in a style that was adapted to suit them.

To say he wasn't adaptable is just laughable.

[winchester_royal]

McDermott was never allowed to have a squad good enough to play attractive football but HE was good enough to make lesser players, playing a more functional style, out perform teams that cost far more money to assemble.

I don't get this argument. When a manager is in charge for >3 years he will have assembled a squad of players that will be playing the way he wants them to play. It was McD's choice to use the Siggy money to replace him with Leigertwood. It was McD's choice to abandon to midfield of Tabb/Howard that was looking so effective towards the back end of the 09/10 season. It was McD's choice to replace an overlapping full back in Bertrand with a guy who didn't offer much in open play but would help with set pieces.

He opted for efficient, percentage football. It got us promoted, so it obviously worked, and for that he will rightly get plenty of praise. But lets not pretend that he was forced into playing that way, our wage bill was one of the highest in the league. We've decided to move forward and adopt a style of play that will hopefully be more than just efficient, and there is little evidence to suggest that Brian would have wanted to, or been capable of overseeing such a transition.

Deary be. He did not get the Sig money to buy Leigertwood he got a small percentage of it to sign Ian Harte to take over set piece duties as we'd lost an effective set piece taker in Sig and bring Leigertwood in on loan. He was told he had to sell the following summer before he could sign Ledge permanently which he did by having to sell his Captain and subsequently his top scorer (for the second season running). Tabb/Howard were played front of the back four and as there was no chance of him getting the money to sign a replacement as good as Sig it had to be abandoned. If you remember properly he did try to carry on that formation at the start of the 10/11 season but no one was good enough to play the CAM role.

While we're talking about pretending why are you pretending that he negotiated the contracts and the wages? Hammond does that after the manager identifies the targets that fit the transfer money given by The Board. When you sell over £10 million pounds worth of talent and get about £3 million back in transfer fees surely it stands to reason that the players you sign are not going to be as good as the ones you've lost. The fact is that when you lose the likes of Shane Long and Gylfi Sigurdsson with their talent and replace them, with all due respect, the likes of ALF and Leigertwood you have to change your style of play because they are not as gifted.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest Brian would've been able to adapt and change the overall style it's in the way he changed the team and built it around Gylfi playing him in the right position when he originally came in. It's the way he dealt with losing Gylfi and made Shane the focal point. It's in the way he dealt with the loses of those big players by buying players on a small transfer budget and winning the title with them in a style that was adapted to suit them.

To say he wasn't adaptable is just laughable.

This is a good post tbf Sandy, but I don't agree that he was forced into a certain style, and I'm not sure he's been shown to be overly adaptable. He brought in players like Griffin, Harte, and Ledge because they were the players that best fitted the style he wanted to implement.

And I don't think I said he wasn't adaptable...I just don't believe he wanted to change the style of the team, and he's not shown that he is capable of developing a team that plays in the way we are moving towards.

[winchester_royal]

But seriously, I'm sure this is boring everyone to tears now, so I'm going to stop biting.

[Big Foot]

I actually agree with that word-for-word, but I'm glad he's our Manager. Best man for the job.

About as attractive a photo as his style of football.

Victim of his own success who had an inferior team to the absolute grade 1 KUNT in charge now but still beat him to the Championship title - wish I was that ugly.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Why is attractive football a dirty word?

We’ve carved out twice as many chances per game under NA and almost doubled our possession. It’s only a matter of time that confidence goes up, strikers start hitting the target and chances/possession turns into wins.

And I’ve seen nothing to suggest McD would have won any of the games NA lost. Can’t really understand the criticism. I mean, I didn’t want McD to go and appreciate everything he did, but that doesn’t translate into hating Adkins, the progress he has made and what he may achieve in the future.

Sorry if that's a bit rational for this thread.

[maffff]

Why is attractive football a dirty word?

Because people look at the extremes. Swansalona, passing it around between the defence with no attacking impetus.

[winchester_royal]

Why is attractive football a dirty word?

We’ve carved out twice as many chances per game under NA and almost doubled our possession. It’s only a matter of time that confidence goes up, strikers start hitting the target and chances/possession turns into wins.

And I’ve seen nothing to suggest McD would have won any of the games NA lost. Can’t really understand the criticism. I mean, I didn’t want McD to go and appreciate everything he did, but that doesn’t translate into hating Adkins, the progress he has made and what he may achieve in the future.

Sorry if that's a bit rational for this thread.

Well, exactly. There's nowt wrong with trying to be optimistic about the direction the club is heading in, and just because one supports the decision made by Anton it doesn't mean that one doesn't appreciate what Brian did in his time here.

[Man Friday]

Why is attractive football a dirty word?

We’ve carved out twice as many chances per game under NA and almost doubled our possession. It’s only a matter of time that confidence goes up, strikers start hitting the target and chances/possession turns into wins.

And I’ve seen nothing to suggest McD would have won any of the games NA lost. Can’t really understand the criticism. I mean, I didn’t want McD to go and appreciate everything he did, but that doesn’t translate into hating Adkins, the progress he has made and what he may achieve in the future.

Sorry if that's a bit rational for this thread.

You really love yourself with that pretentious name tag and spouting "words of wisdom" left, right and centre, don't you?

Sorry, ignore that comment. Got up wrong side of bed.

Anyway, 99% of us that still wish McD was here don't hate Adkins, not one iota. He's neither done, or said, anything wrong and I wish him all the best for the future, certainly while he's with us.

On the other hand, I honestly don't see the improvement that some people are talking about. I do accept, however, that a lot of people on here are emphatic that there has been improvement in our play so I may be wrong on that score.

Still think, however, that McD was treated harshly and I cannot believe that he was given much money. That which he was given I believe he spent well on the whole. Pound for pound, better than, say, Ferguson.

For me the jury is definitely out on Zingy. Will he provide the cash? Will he avoid meddling in team matters? Will he support the manager?

Time will tell...