SC hasn't a clue.

[Vision]

Steve Coppell - The greatest manager we have had in my 25 years watching Reading.

But......Whatever club he is at he will never last more than 3/4 seasons. His teams are made up of unknown grafters, if his team does well they either leave because the club isn't big enough (lets face it he will never be in charge of a big club), or they get too big for their boots, and he can't manage that type of player. Everything happening now was always on the cards, the same happened at Palace.

Time for a change after this season is out.

But isn't that true of all managers apart from those with the financial clout to constantly buy the best players available?

Sides have a natural lifespan and in modern football that is getting shorter and shorter. The trick is to try to maintain some sort of form whilst going through those periods when you're transitioning from one incarnation to another (apologies that sounds way too Dr Who) As a manager this is made all the more difficult when its you and crucially your club's policy to buy "promise" rather than "proven".

[brendywendy]

The trick is to try to maintain some sort of form whilst going through those periods when you're transitioning from one incarnation to another

i think still being in the playoffs, with almost an entirely new team counts duntit?

[Hoop Blah]

Agree Vision.

The only way around it is to be buying that promise ahead of the time you lose your current players or to buy a certain amount of proven to help carry the promise.

I don't think we did enough of either, at least not successfully anyway. We didn't buy a Sidwell replacement until he'd left and when we did we bought 'promise' but at a price that we probably could've got proven (although we did try to get Brown which would've made a hell of a difference from what I've seen of him).

We did the same for Shorey to an extent, although the proven player we bought for this level has been a success. We haven't got much in the way of promise coming thought ready to step into Hunt's boots when he leaves, and same can be said of Doyle too (we have Hunt Jnr and Long of course).

It's a tough ask to keep any team evolving of course, but maybe that's just another nail in Coppell's coffin because he has admitted that he finds it hard to break up a team and replace it with a new one. That's certainly been apparent over the last 2 years.

[Focher]

Steve Coppell - The greatest manager we have had in my 25 years watching Reading.

But......Whatever club he is at he will never last more than 3/4 seasons. His teams are made up of unknown grafters, if his team does well they either leave because the club isn't big enough (lets face it he will never be in charge of a big club), or they get too big for their boots, and he can't manage that type of player. Everything happening now was always on the cards, the same happened at Palace.

Time for a change after this season is out.

But isn't that true of all managers apart from those with the financial clout to constantly buy the best players available?

Sides have a natural lifespan and in modern football that is getting shorter and shorter. The trick is to try to maintain some sort of form whilst going through those periods when you're transitioning from one incarnation to another (apologies that sounds way too Dr Who) As a manager this is made all the more difficult when its you and crucially your club's policy to buy "promise" rather than "proven".

I agree, but you could argue that in comparison to the level his side has been playing (Brentford and Brighton apart) Coppell has had a certain degree of financial clout at his disposal to keep his sides going, but has decided not to use it. Palace were not that skint under Noades. Perhaps taking apart freaks like Wenger and Ferguson almost every managers lifespan is 3/4 seasons then time to move on.

[brendywendy]

though dismantling the greatest ever reading team, and coming up with another one equal to it straight away wasnt likely whoever we had as manager was it?

[Hoop Blah]

though dismantling the greatest ever reading team, and coming up with another one equal to it straight away wasnt likely whoever we had as manager was it?

Nope, a very tough ask! As your post above says, making the play offs this season is still a decent achievement despite the manner in which we're going about it.

I think we missed a trick by not investing at a time of strength though. That's how you maintain and build on success. Coppell doesn't seem willing to do this though and we didn't address the gaps left by Sidwell and Little when we should've done or bring in more quality when we had the chance.

IMO it's a bit of a sad waste when you look back at where we were and the opportunity we had but let slip through our fingers.

[Barry the bird boggler]

though dismantling the greatest ever reading team, and coming up with another one equal to it straight away wasnt likely whoever we had as manager was it?

No not on the budget JM puts in place.

[Hoop Blah]

though dismantling the greatest ever reading team, and coming up with another one equal to it straight away wasnt likely whoever we had as manager was it?

No not on the budget JM puts in place.

Which is?

[Alan Partridge]

though dismantling the greatest ever reading team, and coming up with another one equal to it straight away wasnt likely whoever we had as manager was it?

I don't think anyone realisitcally expected that to happen.

Coppell's and RFC in general reluctance to sepnd the going rate rate in the Premiership for players cost them their place in that division. They should never have been relegated last season but the lack of quality in the squad ultimately cost them their place.

However that's old ground.

I maintain if the football had been decent in the last few months but we just hadn't got the run of the green or just been outplayed by teams playing well on the day we wouldn't have this much reaction on the board. Fact is the football has been appalling for months. When they play as they have been and lose to utter rubbish like Ipswich and Forest while hardly working the opposition goalkeeper, it's not acceptable really is it?

Is £27 a ticket at Blackpool and God knows what else expense + a 6 hour journey worth the second half capitulation?

In the squad there are no answers to the problem, the excuses have come from everywhere about everything. Certain players, systems, signings, the chairman,the supporters, the manager, the tactics, the ball boys,absolutely everything and the answer is there is not one simple thing to blame.

He has tried absolutely everyone in his squad and the reality is they are no better than the other players. He has a squad of similar (average) ability in lots of positions. Now that lies at the door of whoever bought these players.

The one shining light about this entire season is the young players who have done well this year not just here but at other clubs. I would sooner see Sigurdsson play than HArper and Robson Kanu than that mercenary Hunt. In all honesty they couldn't do much worse. The signings of Little and Kitson were so short sigthed it ws untrie and the thought that we will actually sign Kitson permanently is just depressing as far as I'm concerned. We let a young local lad who could have possibly been the future of this club go for £200,000, who then scores near on 30 goals in his first season as a regular, let a couple of young strikers go out on loan and then spend a reported fee of £2.5million on an injury prone player who we saw the best years of 2-3years ago. I didn't realise it was 2005 again?

[Snowball]

If we could figure out the problem, we'd be managers, but whoever said we've been flattered, think again.

Look at these results. just the wins. This CANNOT be flattering. Not 19 wins. I think we came down with a hangover from relegation and a few players maybe wanting to go... face it, we looked none-too-good at the start of the season, drawing at Forest, losing at Charlton and Ipswich, but we still had want-away Sonko here (and wasn't he one of the problem-people?)

Then THE MANAGER (and the staff) (and the team) got the team playing again and we steadily climbed the table

6-0 Wednesday
4-0 Watford
4-0 Swansea
3-0 Wolves
3-0 Derby
4-1 Bristol
4-2 Palace
3-1 Birmingham
3-1 Burnley
3-1 Coventry
2-0 Norwich
2-0 Plymouth
2-0 Sheffield Utd
2-1 Doncaster
2-1 Wednesday
1-0 Wolves
1-0 Doncaster
1-0 Barnsley
1-0 Blackpool

51-8

At the end of November we were in dire straits. We were third, true, but with no games in hand and already 12 points off top-spot. (I use this marker-point because it marked the lowest point up to then. We really looked to have NO CHANCE of top spot and not a great chance of second-spot.)

46 Wolves
40 Birmingham
34 Reading
31 Sheffield
30 Burnley
29 Cardiff
30 Plymouth!
28 Swansea
28 Preston

Forget all the bullshit, all the bollox, take a look at the facts of the case, the top six after 20 games is the same top six after 42/43 games, the two sides with an outside chance of the play-offs are still there. Apart from Plymouth's fall from grace the best 9 are now the best 8... the OVERALL form and the positions is/are more or less stable.

Now remember that when we took that snapshot we had played the same amount of games. Now Cardiff and Reading have a game in hand

This is what the "half-a-season" since that date has meant

46 83 37 1.61 Wolves
40 77 37 1.61 Birmingham
34 70 36 1.64 Reading
31 76 45 1.96 Sheffield United
30 69 39 1.70 Burnley
29 73 44 2.00 Cardiff

28 65 37 1.61 Swansea
28 65 37 1.61 Preston

So of the top 8/9, points per game last 23/24 games (23 for Reading, an exact half-season)

2.00 Cardiff
1.96 Sheffield United
1.70 Burnley
1.64 Reading
1.61 Wolves
1.61 Birmingham
1.61 Swansea
1.61 Preston

Gained 1 points on us (but played one extra game) - WOLVES
Gained 1 points on us (but played one extra game) - BIRMINGHAM
Gained 1 points on us (but played one extra game) - SWANSEA
Gained 1 points on us (but played one extra game) - PRESTON
Gained 3 points on us (but played one extra game) - BURNLEY

Gained 9 points on us (but played one extra game) - SHEFFIELD
Gained 8 points on us (same number of games) - CARDIFF

Two sides have put together very good half-season runs. other than that we have held our own. If we draw our game in hand we will have kept exact pace with Wolves, Birmingham, Swansea and Preston, slipped 2 points against Burnley. If we WIN at Derby we will have gained two points on Wolves, Birmingham, Swansea and Preston, and kept pace with Burnley.

Of COURSE I recognise how horrible 2009 has been and this is only one way of looking at things, but for me the interesting thing is the top 9 then makes the top eight now and that apart from two clubs making a move, everything is as it was 23 games ago. You should note that the unlucky 1-0 defeat versus Sheffield distorts matters A LOT. Had it been 1-0 the other way we'd have achieved 3 points less than Sheffield having played one less. That's how thin the margins are!

[Tilehurst Mike]

though dismantling the greatest ever reading team, and coming up with another one equal to it straight away wasnt likely whoever we had as manager was it?

I don't think anyone realisitcally expected that to happen.

Coppell's and RFC in general reluctance to sepnd the going rate rate in the Premiership for players cost them their place in that division. They should never have been relegated last season but the lack of quality in the squad ultimately cost them their place.

However that's old ground.

I maintain if the football had been decent in the last few months but we just hadn't got the run of the green or just been outplayed by teams playing well on the day we wouldn't have this much reaction on the board. Fact is the football has been appalling for months. When they play as they have been and lose to utter rubbish like Ipswich and Forest while hardly working the opposition goalkeeper, it's not acceptable really is it?

Is £27 a ticket at Blackpool and God knows what else expense + a 6 hour journey worth the second half capitulation?

In the squad there are no answers to the problem, the excuses have come from everywhere about everything. Certain players, systems, signings, the chairman,the supporters, the manager, the tactics, the ball boys,absolutely everything and the answer is there is not one simple thing to blame.

He has tried absolutely everyone in his squad and the reality is they are no better than the other players. He has a squad of similar (average) ability in lots of positions. Now that lies at the door of whoever bought these players.

The one shining light about this entire season is the young players who have done well this year not just here but at other clubs. I would sooner see Sigurdsson play than HArper and Robson Kanu than that mercenary Hunt. In all honesty they couldn't do much worse. The signings of Little and Kitson were so short sigthed it ws untrie and the thought that we will actually sign Kitson permanently is just depressing as far as I'm concerned. We let a young local lad who could have possibly been the future of this club go for £200,000, who then scores near on 30 goals in his first season as a regular, let a couple of young strikers go out on loan and then spend a reported fee of £2.5million on an injury prone player who we saw the best years of 2-3years ago. I didn't realise it was 2005 again?

Absolutely spot on and I agree with every word of this. The worst thing Coppell has done is to bring back Little and Kitson which smacks of desperation and we have long seen the best of these two players. I think these signings have probably had a significant detrimental impact on the morale of the players who these two initial ousted from the team.

[Snowball]

When we lost Glen Little (I mean the one who could play, not the current one) we lost the ability to keep the ball.

Hunt, even when playing well, wasn't about possession. Ditto Kebe.

And we are forever knocking long stuff for flicks.

We don't seem to have the wherewithall to take a breather, to calm things down, to knock it round the back four, to take the sting out of a game. So going 1-0 up we don't slow down, consolidate. Kebe is all rush, Hunt is all rush. We have zero calmness.


Now add two things. We have seen this season, the CBs, wellying it clear, any old how, any old way. We give away far too much possession.
When we go behind it gets even worse and the FBs starting pinging it long, too.

But the other thing I've seen this season that seems new (to my memory at least) is the safety-first, ball-into-touch, time and time again. It's as if they have had drummed into them DO NOT GET CAUGHT IN POSSESSION. Now I am aware that getting caught might well be bad and that we have time to recover to defend the opposition throw-in, BUT, if, instead of putting it in row Z we pinged it up the line into the channels, surely, overall we would gain advantage?

Don't confuse, the LB/RB or CB WITH TIME, lumping it. That's bad. But if we have time, we should be looking to bring the RB-LB or winger into play and then our usual wing-play. We avoid the risk of losing possession by GUARANTEEING the opposition possession via a throw-in.

But the overall thing is we are FRANTIC... when on top it looks like "tempo" but when we are not on top it looks like headless-chicken or panic

We need a leader, but we also need someone to put his foot on the ball.

[Snowball]

Absolutely spot on and I agree with every word of this. The worst thing Coppell has done is to bring back Little and Kitson which smacks of desperation and we have long seen the best of these two players. I think these signings have probably had a significant detrimental impact on the morale of the players who these two initial ousted from the team.

I agree. Kitson has been "OK" but frankly Little has been awful.

We seemed to be progressing steadily, getting better and better, culminating with the 3-1 at Birmingham (and remember Noel Hunt got a bad injury there)

The home game v Cardiff, was just one of those games, and remember Cardiff then were on a half-season run that is the best form in the whole of the league (46 points in their last 23 games)... so it was no disgrace to fail to beat them, they are a very good side.

Then came the Saints game away and I really began to wonder. I've said before that it all smacks of a dressing-room problem. Was it Hunt (again?) and a bad reaction from others to his wage-hike? Was it SCC wanting/not-wanting Harps to go?) Was it bringing Lita back in and playing him straight away? That must have felt like a smack in the face for Long, Hunt, Henry. The guy can play but his attitude to helping the club really sucks.

I don't KNOW, but I do know that this squad is a lot better than its 2009 form

[Vision]

Steve Coppell - The greatest manager we have had in my 25 years watching Reading.

But......Whatever club he is at he will never last more than 3/4 seasons. His teams are made up of unknown grafters, if his team does well they either leave because the club isn't big enough (lets face it he will never be in charge of a big club), or they get too big for their boots, and he can't manage that type of player. Everything happening now was always on the cards, the same happened at Palace.

Time for a change after this season is out.

But isn't that true of all managers apart from those with the financial clout to constantly buy the best players available?

Sides have a natural lifespan and in modern football that is getting shorter and shorter. The trick is to try to maintain some sort of form whilst going through those periods when you're transitioning from one incarnation to another (apologies that sounds way too Dr Who) As a manager this is made all the more difficult when its you and crucially your club's policy to buy "promise" rather than "proven".

I agree, but you could argue that in comparison to the level his side has been playing (Brentford and Brighton apart) Coppell has had a certain degree of financial clout at his disposal to keep his sides going, but has decided not to use it. Palace were not that skint under Noades. Perhaps taking apart freaks like Wenger and Ferguson almost every managers lifespan is 3/4 seasons then time to move on.

I'm not sure that period of his tenure at Palace is really comparable to now to be honest as the really big Sky money wasn't there. Think we're talking pre-Bosman era as well which of course changed the whole power base of football in favour of players/agents. The financial cost of Premiership survival and the riches on offer to players now (just to sit on a bench at a top half Premiership club) mean that even relative success comes at a price with the deamnd from the bigger boys for your best players and even if you have the will to turn them down theres always the unsettling fact that the player is never quite the same for you again.

Its not impossible of course and clubs of a comparable size to us do manage to survive but you have to be prepared to take a gamble on speculating to accumulate in the circus that is the Murdochship. Its something we as a club (and you can include Coppell,Hammond &JM in that) weren't prepared to do. I realise its frustrating and its why I never argue with those that say we didn't do all we could to stay up but personally I can't criticise the club too much for it.

3/4 years maybe the lifespan of a manager or maybe its the lifespan of a team. So inevitably if you can't instantly buy players to replace those of the same calibre that you've had to sell (or have gotten 4 years older and past their prime) then you have 2 choices. Get a fresh face in with new ideas, new enthusiasm and a different set of contacts or give the person that took at least 2 full seasons to build that golden team in the first place another 2 seasons to see if he can do it again. The latter option is very very rarely the path that gets taken mainly I suspect because if we're all honest, new faces are much more exciting than the same ones you've been staring at for the last 5 years. That could be true of players as well as supporters although once again the way Modern Football is, the honeymoon period gets ever shorter and shorter.

[Negative_Jeff]

I prefer Snowball`s analysis to his statistics and agree with most of what he says.
The original post is a bit harsh but essentially true. Coppell can manage but he has been here for six years and the team has really only performed well for a period of eighteen months. I don`t think he set out to create that team in 2005, he stumbled on it. What he did do was to consolidate on the style and tactics and kept the show on the road brilliantly.
Coppell`s teams have never been my cup of tea, they give the ball away too easily. It is easy to press teams high up the pitch with pace and energy when you are winning, but when you are losing this degenerates into hoofball as the midfield players are forced to retreat. Games against superior passing teams, notably Southampton and Swansea this season, highlight the point.
The best way Hob Nob could honour Coppells achievements would be to resist speculating on a successor until he has finally gone.

[Deathy]

He is obviously an intelligent bloke. Most pundits rate him as a very canny / astute / clever manager.
So why then, for the third season during his reign at the Club have we seen a spectacular collapse in form during the second half of the season.
And why does nothing appear to be done. The answer: Steve Coppell does not know how or why the team were playing so well - therefore he has no clue what to do about them doing so badly. He does not know how to manage
Soon after he leaves we'll find out what went wrong.

My mumma always said, Football's like a box of choc-o-lates, yooooo neva know wot yur gunna geat.

[Fezza]

We came down with, and still have, the best squad in the Championship. With the players we have we should be ahead of Wolves (who we have taken 6 points from this season).
SC has been utterly tactically naive since before Christmas (as he was last year and the year before), surely the time has come to recognise what a good servant he has been, pat him on the back and send him off with a gold watch and his P45?

[Royal Rother]

I keep making the comparison with 2004/5 when we ended the season playing long-ball shite that was depressing to watch and Coppell said at that time he really didn't know why we were doing that as it certainly wasn't the way they were being coached.

Dominant teams are never created at the first click of the manager's fingers - Coppell's record of handling big-name players, making big-money signings and having a Plan B, C, D or even E can be called into question as much as you (some posters) like, but his overall managerial record suggests there is a pretty decent chance that he is very close to creating another damned fine team - there is certainly more chance of that than that he hasn't a clue what to do.

I'm sure he will go at the end of the season but he will leave a far better club than the one he joined; I hope his lasting legacy will be the fine crop of young players he has handled tenderly (too bloody tenderly perhaps!) over the last 2 or 3 years, who will now come good under a new manager with (hopefully) a similar philosophy.

[ankeny]

He should have gone at the end of last season,a new manager,new ideas and perhaps one that would turn Madjeski upside down and shake some decent transfer money out of him.

[brendywendy]

He should have gone at the end of last season,a new manager,new ideas and perhaps one that would turn Madjeski upside down and shake some decent transfer money out of him.

LOL

itll take more than a good shaking to achieve that

and LOL

lose half the team if SC left in the summer-all our best players gone
-total rebuild of team= mid table if we were lucky