Coppell Looks For Excuses Already

[brendywendy]

Agents in inducing their players to break contracts shocker !!

Perhaps if he wasn't so slow, Coppell wouldn't be burning bridges and instead would be looking to use the power of agents to poach top players at smaller clubs. Just a thought though, I'm not saying that Coppell should demonstrate any form of intelligence as that would be breaking with his tradition.

its people like royalee who reaffirm my faith in coppell everyday with their overly stoopid postings

[Archie's penalty]

Steve Coppell said:

'Now that training has started, I would hope players' focus will return to football rather than the promises of riches that agents hang in front of their eyes."

Riiight Coppell is unintelligent Royalee. Thick people use constructions like the one above.

[Roger the Rabbit]

Coppell is far from perfect (will all the football managers who are please form an orderly queue, plenty of room in the phone box !).

But to suggest he lacks intelligence is plain silly.

It is simply daft to be criticising him for dealings in the transfer market at this stage and how he's 'burning bridges' is beyond me. Seems that he's actually addressing an issue that may or may not be there by ensuring that the squad know exactly where they stand in terms of the future. He could simply ignore the rumours and hope they go away, but to quote a famously knowledgeable poster he's 'got balls' and is making things clear.

I'm impatient to get the new names in, but in the same way I'm not interested in how much we spend I'm not overly interested in exactly when we buy. I'd rather get the right players in for the start of the season than get any old body in for a huge sum of money and early. OK, it would keep the knee jerk squad happy, but it wouldn;t be right.

[Wycombe Royal]

Agents in inducing their players to break contracts shocker !!

Perhaps if he wasn't so slow, Coppell wouldn't be burning bridges and instead would be looking to use the power of agents to poach top players at smaller clubs. Just a thought though, I'm not saying that Coppell should demonstrate any form of intelligence as that would be breaking with his tradition.

An agent will always do business with ANY manager if it means he earns a load of money from a deal. It makes no difference what Coppell says to the media.

[Ian Royal]

For someone who seems to consider himself intelligent because he is at university, it is bizarre to accuse a man with a degree and numerous other qualifications and indeed successes behind him, of being stupid.

Mind you pretty much any old moron can go to uni these days. Back in Coppell's day it actually meant something.

Royalee is quite clearly the Team Board village idiot. What would we do without him!

[West Stand Man]

For someone who seems to consider himself intelligent because he is at university, it is bizarre to accuse a man with a degree and numerous other qualifications and indeed successes behind him, of being stupid.

Mind you pretty much any old moron can go to uni these days. Back in Coppell's day it actually meant something.

Royalee is quite clearly the Team Board village idiot. What would we do without him!

Not entirely true. Any old moron can go to one of the lesser universities today on the back of scraped A levels; but only a select few can get to the Russell Group Unversities, usually on the back of good A grades and a bit of selection. Mind you, as Coppell did go to a Russell Group uni your point is largely still valid.

[wolsey]

Royalee is quite clearly the Team Board village idiot. What would we do without him!

That's a bit unfair IMHO.

He often makes valid points which are lost because of his over-riding desire to apportion blame for what he sees as failure. (what would he have made of the Waller regime? - probably wouldn't have concerned him because he would have been off seeking reflected glory following the likes of Liverpool)

This, added to his inability to differentiate between opinion and fact, and his tendency to name call at the slightest provocation, invalidates most if not all of his postings as far as I am concerned.

He really could remember that he is a fan and not an analyst, and that as far as supporting a football team goes sometimes it's not wrong to lead with your heart rather than your head.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Boo hoo, agents in trying to get the most for their clients shocker...

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10306~1339113,00.html

Grow some balls Coppell, it's the same for everyone.

.. and does he say anything to contradict that? No. Are you a half wit? Yes. Have you got an education worth talking about? No.

Once again you've missed the point, but nevermind - you can't help it if you're thicker than the Great Wall of China.

"Grow some balls, it's the same for everyone" was your point.

Slating someone as "thick" and "missing the point" when they contradict the very point you made - the only point you made about that article - doesn't show you in a very good light.

I've no interest in debating the merits of your university as it's irrelevant, as even if you do possess a degree of intelligence, you clearly use it about as well as the Venus de Milo uses a golf club.



to be frank, I'm seriously starting to wonder if you are perhaps Kes' best fake username, as unless Coppell once reversed his car over your pet cat, it's hard to imagine your outpourings being a genuine sane viewpoint.

[Roger the Rabbit]

as far as supporting a football team goes sometimes it's not wrong to lead with your heart rather than your head.

Bravo !!

It HAS to be about the heart !!

Heaven help us if we brought intellect into it, I'd have absolutely no input.

[Fezza]

I hate to side with Royalee, but, all that seems to be coming out of the club at the moment is the same faffing as last year.

Whilst I don't doubt for a second that SC and NH are doing their business on the quiet I can't help but feel that if we were to adopt the same (less honest?) approach as other clubs we would have a better chance of signing/keeping players. It's just my view that the club needs to show more public commitment to getting promoted next season.

As an aside, whilst I agree with some of what Royalee says I in no way agree with the petty name calling. If you want to be optimistic then fair play to you even if I think that SC completely lost the plot last season!

[Roger the Rabbit]

It's just my view that the club needs to show more public commitment to getting promoted next season.

If they showed 'public commitment' then they'd just get attacked by the usual mob for setting unrealistic expectations wouldn't they ?

Seems to me the best thing is to ignore the stuff that gets used to fill column inches in the rags and let the club get on with things, then judge on results.

3 years ago no one was especially impressed with either our transfer dealings or our 'ambition' and then the club delivered one of the all time great seasons by any club.

I understand that people want to debate stuff, but in reality whether we think the approach that we think the club are adopting is right or wring makes no odds, they take that approach for a reason and live or die by it. I doubt much will change becasue us keyboard experts think we shoul dbe signing unspecified players more quickly or splashing millions on players for the sake of it.

[Sarah Star]

It's hardly 'less honest' to keep your transfer dealings out of the newspapers, is it?

[Hoop Blah]

they take that approach for a reason and live or die by it

And we died by it last season.

I just hope we don't die again!

[Roger the Rabbit]

they take that approach for a reason and live or die by it

And we died by it last season.

I just hope we don't die again!

Not sure we actually 'died', but we certainly felt a little unwell !

If we did die I suspect that the athiests amongst us are going to have a bit of a surprise as there is quite likely to be life after death....

But of course you are right and Coppell did step forward and openly take responsibility for the fact that some of his decisions were wrong and contributed to the fact that the season probably failed to live up to expectations....

[Alan Partridge]

We do seem to faff around, we are rarely if ever totally certain on what we are/were going to do. I put were there because hopefully they have learnt that lesson via the teams relegation.

Coppell's own quotes at the fans forum were re the right midfield situation 'I ummed and ahhed and couldn't make my mind up whether to do anything, eventually I chose not to do anything and it turned out Little was out for a year and not the 3months originally'

There he admits openly to not sorting the situation, he wasn't sure and wasn't clear that 'yes I need to do something' or 'No we definitely have enough' He made the wrong call big time.

A few names were thrown at him, Taylor, O'Neil, Cahill, all met with the same sort of respone 'we were aware of them but didn't think they were xamount better than what we had' again a bad bad call. Cahill and Taylor played a massive part in Bolton's resurgence and O'Neil is infinitely better than what he had playing on the right hand side last season, the above quote about not sure was about O'Neil.

It just strikes me that Reading as a club are very passive during these windows, not breaking down doors and trying to do something but happy to feed off scraps and 'oh well if we get someone then great if not then nevermind' that sort of attitude is exactly why we are back where we started from, the CCC.

[Sarah Star]

It's one thing saying it was mistake to stick with the same crowd, but when it comes down to it, you just can't bear to let them go can you? Well, I can't anyway. Probably because I haven't really seen any better replacements, but what do I know?

[Fezza]

It's just my view that the club needs to show more public commitment to getting promoted next season.

If they showed 'public commitment' then they'd just get attacked by the usual mob for setting unrealistic expectations wouldn't they ?

Sorry but I get labelled with the STG tag yet even I would say it's very realistic for us to be pushing for promotion back to the top flight!

[Alan Partridge]

It's one thing saying it was mistake to stick with the same crowd, but when it comes down to it, you just can't bear to let them go can you? Well, I can't anyway. Probably because I haven't really seen any better replacements, but what do I know?

Coppell said the exact same thing, followed by 'maybe a fresh pair of eyes needs to have a look at the squad' I'm 50/50, Coppell has done an unrivalled job here and deserves support despite such a dump season las season, having said that SO FAR the exact thing i worried about has happened, the required change hasn't happened at all. There has only been one significant out and it's someone we didn't want or expect to go. Change is inevitable in football and this squad needs a bit of a shake up imo. I think what still disappoints many/annoys many, certainly grates with me was that we really weren't that far away from staying up in lets be honest a pretty average Premier League. A decent right sided player, a decent central midfielder (before the season started) and we'd probably have stayed up fairly comofortably.

[Royal Rother]

All managers whose teams finished lower than expectations will consider they made mistakes during the season. And a good number of those who did not will also have a few "if onlys" in their minds.

The fact is that Coppell is one of the few managers who has the absolute integrity and honesty to answer questiosn thrown at him in an honest and thoughtful manner.

For the small-minded individuals who feel they need to apportion blame and seize on those considered and honest comments, it might leave him more open to criticism than if he had instead put a "wasn't my fault Guv" spin on it all but I for one love that (almost unique in football) quality in him and long may it last.

(I know almost unique is a contradiction but let that one slide if you will....)

[Sarah Star]

I'm not even sure we needed any replacements then. We went down on goal difference - just one goal in the right match would have made the difference up. If they'd only played a bit better - if only - if, if, if...