Is Adkins the right choice?

[TheSaintlee]

Kind of ignores the success at Scunny though...and the fact you had to ask 'who?' When he was appointed doesn't give me a huge amount of faith in your footballing knowledge tbh.

Time will tell.

to be honest, what does his success at scunny really matter to you?
Paul Sturrock and other managers you probably would not touch have a promotion or 2 out of league 1.
you should be interested in his prem credentials and his ability to deal with the pressure at the top end of the NPC

time will tell but just giving you my opinion

if I was a reading fan, I would not care less about his time at scunny whilst in your position.

[Extended-Phenotype]

May as well have stuck a wig on McDermott and re-signed him.

[TheSaintlee]

May as well have stuck a wig on McDermott and re-signed him.

he did beat us to the title last season with (in my opinion) a squad not as strong as ours.
He was only a what, 2 wins or so below adkins who had an already better squad (in my opinion) with £30m+ spent to it in the prem this season

we did play some fantastic football last season. we really did and at times this season, like away to Chelsea 2-2, at home to villa, 4-1. home to Newcastle 2-0.
but then, Brian McD also had some impressive score lines


how would you feel Brian would have got on had he had £30m spent on his squad?

[grey_squirrel]

I absolutely fail to see the similarities some posters keep drawing between McDermott and Adkins.

One gets his teams to play exciting, intellectual passing, attacking football and the other only understands sunday league hoofball.

[Royalclapper]

A saints Fan here

here my view (if you even care)

When adkins came in to the club there was many who were asking.'WHO..?"
quickly, he brought us a nice brand of football mixed with the ability to go direct.
any comparison with rogers is just wrong, you lot must have seen us lob it back stick to lambert.
we stormed to 2nd place in League 1 after an utterly dreadful start. This was aided by probably the most expensive league 1 squad in history.
when we signed lambert, he cost more than the next 3 big league 1 transfers that season. One of which was another saints player and the other Grant Holt.
(cant remember the 3rd). But we still finished 2nd. A team with Fonte, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Lambert, Puncheon (who did a walkies) Hammond, Schneiderlin.

We then got promoted to the NPC and im sure you got to see our results more closely as the season went on.
Again, with some biggish signings and the retention of some fantastic players, we stayed in the top 2 all season, BUT beaten by your good selves and nearly threw it away.

we were infact, flat track bullies. We had players better than most in the NPC, Lallana, Lambert, Fonte, Shneiderlin, Cork. Who are all doing well in the prem. So that was no an accident.
we played some fantastic football and in the early part of the season, blew most teams away. and at times in style. BUT against the better teams, Adkins was found wanting to a degree. it was a mixed bag against the top 8 but excellent against the rest and this worried me for promotion to the prem.
as much as your style of soaking up pressure against the better teams an winning by taking the few chances you created. and look what happened to both managers

Adkins mannerisms started to really grate with me. Its great when you are winning and he does a press conference without actually saying anything...there will be loads of guff about 'being on the bus'...'drawing a blue line under it'....'how brilliant you are as fans'.....'together as one'...etc

but lets be honest, you know it, saints fans know it, only our utter respect and love for him in general stops us from saying it.
he was found out to be well and truely out of his depth in the prem. Some of our earlier games were an embarrassment. We were/are the 7th highest spenders in Europe. When we went to Anfield earlier in the season. The game was lost before it started as Adkins kept going on about how amazing liverpool were/are. Under our new manager, we took them apart....he did start to turn it around but too many times we dropped point from winning positions. 3-1 against stoke and they had 10 men. yep, finished 3-3.....He was clueless with what to do with the keeper situation. His loyalty to Kelvin Davis was alarming and then his refusal to play Boruc (who has been immense) is disturbing and his attention being turned to a 20 year old with a handful of league 2 games (gazzaniga) was quite frankly bizzare. It took someone from the club to buy boruc over his head and thank god they did
it started to really annoy many saints fans that he kept dropping Lambert/taking him off...at times, taking him off and we lose points as he is as good at defending set pieces as he is scoring them (if you get me)

in short, should you go down, us lot will be watching with interest to see how he rebuilds you.. With saints, he had a core of excellent players who are drawing attention in the prem. he only lost Oxlade-chamberlain and RETAINED everyone else and added the likes of Jack Cork etc

will he get that luxury at yours? will he deal with the expectation of immediate promotion, who knows, but say he does..unless he learns from utterly bizzare mistakes, then you will be back in the same situation in 2 years time

good luck and enjoy his baffling cliches....we did

Under the new manager, as well as taking Liverpool apart, I thought you had also lost at home to QPR.

[TheSaintlee]

that is true that we did lose to QPR
probably one of the most weird games I have ever seen

we had 21 shots on goal, scored 1. their keepers, both Ceasar and green pulled off some unbelievable saves
QPR had 3 shots and scored 2 of them

we were doing very much the right things.

if you look at the score line in isolation then yes, it was a bad result. At the game, it was almost embarrassing how much we pressurised QPR.
however, it was game where their players actually played to some sort of ability. Samba was immense that day.

Just offering my opinion about adkins, if you want to look at results in isolation that is up to you. I am happy we have Pocchetino and im sure you are delighted with adkins.

[melonhead]

I absolutely fail to see the similarities some posters keep drawing between McDermott and Adkins.

One gets his teams to play exciting, intellectual passing, attacking football and the other only understands sunday league hoofball.

oxf*rd nonsense

[melonhead]

May as well have stuck a wig on McDermott and re-signed him.

he did beat us to the title last season with (in my opinion) a squad not as strong as ours.He was only a what, 2 wins or so below adkins who had an already better squad (in my opinion) with £30m+ spent to it in the prem this season

we did play some fantastic football last season. we really did and at times this season, like away to Chelsea 2-2, at home to villa, 4-1. home to Newcastle 2-0.
but then, Brian McD also had some impressive score lines


how would you feel Brian would have got on had he had £30m spent on his squad?

100% agreed
&
safe in the prem

[Denver Royal]

A saints Fan here

here my view (if you even care)

When adkins came in to the club there was many who were asking.'WHO..?"
quickly, he brought us a nice brand of football mixed with the ability to go direct.
any comparison with rogers is just wrong, you lot must have seen us lob it back stick to lambert.
we stormed to 2nd place in League 1 after an utterly dreadful start. This was aided by probably the most expensive league 1 squad in history.
when we signed lambert, he cost more than the next 3 big league 1 transfers that season. One of which was another saints player and the other Grant Holt.
(cant remember the 3rd). But we still finished 2nd. A team with Fonte, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Lambert, Puncheon (who did a walkies) Hammond, Schneiderlin.

We then got promoted to the NPC and im sure you got to see our results more closely as the season went on.
Again, with some biggish signings and the retention of some fantastic players, we stayed in the top 2 all season, BUT beaten by your good selves and nearly threw it away.

we were infact, flat track bullies. We had players better than most in the NPC, Lallana, Lambert, Fonte, Shneiderlin, Cork. Who are all doing well in the prem. So that was no an accident.
we played some fantastic football and in the early part of the season, blew most teams away. and at times in style. BUT against the better teams, Adkins was found wanting to a degree. it was a mixed bag against the top 8 but excellent against the rest and this worried me for promotion to the prem.
as much as your style of soaking up pressure against the better teams an winning by taking the few chances you created. and look what happened to both managers

Adkins mannerisms started to really grate with me. Its great when you are winning and he does a press conference without actually saying anything...there will be loads of guff about 'being on the bus'...'drawing a blue line under it'....'how brilliant you are as fans'.....'together as one'...etc

but lets be honest, you know it, saints fans know it, only our utter respect and love for him in general stops us from saying it.
he was found out to be well and truely out of his depth in the prem. Some of our earlier games were an embarrassment. We were/are the 7th highest spenders in Europe. When we went to Anfield earlier in the season. The game was lost before it started as Adkins kept going on about how amazing liverpool were/are. Under our new manager, we took them apart....he did start to turn it around but too many times we dropped point from winning positions. 3-1 against stoke and they had 10 men. yep, finished 3-3.....He was clueless with what to do with the keeper situation. His loyalty to Kelvin Davis was alarming and then his refusal to play Boruc (who has been immense) is disturbing and his attention being turned to a 20 year old with a handful of league 2 games (gazzaniga) was quite frankly bizzare. It took someone from the club to buy boruc over his head and thank god they did
it started to really annoy many saints fans that he kept dropping Lambert/taking him off...at times, taking him off and we lose points as he is as good at defending set pieces as he is scoring them (if you get me)

in short, should you go down, us lot will be watching with interest to see how he rebuilds you.. With saints, he had a core of excellent players who are drawing attention in the prem. he only lost Oxlade-chamberlain and RETAINED everyone else and added the likes of Jack Cork etc

will he get that luxury at yours? will he deal with the expectation of immediate promotion, who knows, but say he does..unless he learns from utterly bizzare mistakes, then you will be back in the same situation in 2 years time

good luck and enjoy his baffling cliches....we did

Hmmm...so even tho you had a 'decent' manager in Adkins...who had done well in lower leagues...and you may even have stayed up with him...the ownership, with Prem in mind, decided to get rid and go overseas with regard to 'the next level'.

There's a lesson in there somewhere, and who knows how it will play out, but our ownership quite clearly has different thinking than yours does, and different plans on how to get there. But hey, we are Reading, and as such, we are 'punching above our weight' by getting Adkins.

[sandman]

I absolutely fail to see the similarities some posters keep drawing between McDermott and Adkins.

One gets his teams to play exciting, intellectual passing, attacking football and the other only understands sunday league hoofball.

Absolute rubbish and insult to a man who did wonders for our club in a variety of roles.

[Royalclapper]

that is true that we did lose to QPR
probably one of the most weird games I have ever seen

we had 21 shots on goal, scored 1. their keepers, both Ceasar and green pulled off some unbelievable saves
QPR had 3 shots and scored 2 of them

we were doing very much the right things.

if you look at the score line in isolation then yes, it was a bad result. At the game, it was almost embarrassing how much we pressurised QPR.
however, it was game where their players actually played to some sort of ability. Samba was immense that day.

Just offering my opinion about adkins, if you want to look at results in isolation that is up to you. I am happy we have Pocchetino and im sure you are delighted with adkins.

Yes, I'm happy we have got Adkins he seems like a decent enough bloke to me and hope he does well here. Maybe the expectations are a bit more on the level with us but no doubt he'll get his critics here also.

We can't offer potential 90,000 capacity stadiums and CL Football to fulfil potential like you and Brighton though so maybe Adkins will be more comfortable without that hanging over him.

[winchester_royal]

http://www.thetilehurstend.com/2013/3/26/4148128/view-from-the-town-end-on-nigel-adkins

[Extended-Phenotype]

Oh what a surprise, an article sourcing three swooners over Adkins. How broad.

What has Adkins done that Brian (a) hasn't or (b) couldn't have done with £33m, apart from grow his own hair?

[winchester_royal]

Oh what a surprise, an article sourcing three swooners over Adkins. How broad.

What has Adkins done that Brian (a) hasn't or (b) couldn't have done with £33m, apart from grow his own hair?

. Only you could be negative about an article like that.

a) - 4 promotions
b) - who knows

We'll find out just how good they are in comparison in due course.

[RoyalBlue]

May as well have stuck a wig on McDermott and re-signed him.

he did beat us to the title last season with (in my opinion) a squad not as strong as ours.
He was only a what, 2 wins or so below adkins who had an already better squad (in my opinion) with £30m+ spent to it in the prem this season

we did play some fantastic football last season. we really did and at times this season, like away to Chelsea 2-2, at home to villa, 4-1. home to Newcastle 2-0.
but then, Brian McD also had some impressive score lines


how would you feel Brian would have got on had he had £30m spent on his squad?

He possibly did. Our new owner certainly intimated that he was not happy that McDermott hadn't done more to strengthen the squad, particularly during the last transfer window.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Only one promotion matters to us; championship>premier league. Brian did that with Simon Church upfront and Jay Tabb in midfield.

To be honest, I'm not really knocking Adkins. Just believe that, if we had to sack McD, why not seek (or wait for) something better?

[Ian Royal]

When everyone keeps saying how skillz Adkins is becasue he's got 4 promotions on his CV why do they never mention his relegation?

Because it was with a club playing above the level they could reasonably sustain and was entirely expected. And because he also successfully beat one relegation fight against the odds with the same team.

And it has been mentioned.

[winchester_royal]

Only one promotion matters to us; championship>premier league. Brian did that with Simon Church upfront and Jay Tabb in midfield.

To be honest, I'm not really knocking Adkins. Just believe that, if we had to sack McD, why not seek (or wait for) something better?

I think Adkins is as good an appointment on paper as we've ever made. I think he's a massive step up from Brian on paper, and in practice I think we do now have a better manager than a month ago.

Perhaps I'm wrong and he'll prove to be a total failure, but it's hard to find any Saints/Scunny/Bangor (lol) fan with a bad thing to say about the way he does the actual job. Whereas the polls on here would suggest that around 50% of us don't think Brian was up to it.

We'll see in time I suppose, but Adkins' record stands up well in comparison to just about any manager out there.

[ManchesterRoyals]

Only one promotion matters to us; championship>premier league. Brian did that with Simon Church upfront and Jay Tabb in midfield.

To be honest, I'm not really knocking Adkins. Just believe that, if we had to sack McD, why not seek (or wait for) something better?

Who in your eyes is better and would want to come here?

[Ian Royal]

He'd built a side that looked a lot more comfortable in the division from the games I've seen. McDermott unfortunately looked out of his depth and unable to build a Premier League team from the resources he had available and unable to get the best from his players in this league.

That's perhaps harsh on McDermott but once we've decided to let him go owing to his own personal failings Adkins looks like a good replacement. Perhaps not the leap forward some were hoping for but we're not going to be able to attract the best around are we?

Translate looking 'a lot more comfortable' into 8 more points (costing £33m) and I'm not sure that really rings true.

And I'm not really buying the notion we couldn't have attracted better - well structured club with financial backing, good location with ambition to become a premier league contender. Sounds a decent job to me. As it stands we've ditched Greenhorn#1 and replaced him with Greenhorn#2. What was the point?

Adkins had almost as steep a learning curve as McDermott and whilst he had a very good Championship team, he did still have the remnants of a League One squad. This is part of the reason he spent more, as well as recognising he needed to improve from the Championship team, which McDermott didn't do nearly as well. He made similar mistakes to McDermott early on, trying to take on better teams on their own terms and play an open attacking game. An attacking game that still saw them looking more convincing than us going forward even when losing.

However, Adkins clearly learnt from those mistakes as demonstrated by hauling Saints out from below us in the relegation to comfortably above us out of the relegation zone.

This is why we're "trading up". Because he's shown more signs of adapting to the PL. And because he brings fresh perspective and a s;ightly different style of football. McDermott looked to me like he'd got tunnel vision and was too close to the problem to see it effectively and move to solve it. Also the solution was to go against his natural instincts in how to play football. That's why you can argue we needed a change. And why even if Adkins is about the same quality as a manager to McDermott it's a good move.