Rodgers: The 'Truth'

[Royalee]

http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/sport/football/readingfc/s/2063005_brendan_rodgers_the_truth_about_my_royals_reign?

Not really surprised in the slightest, sack the board.

[Chillitsphil]

Nice bloke, crap manager.

[The whole year inn]

Everyone elses fault but his own

[readingbedding]

What a let down, thought it would be more juicier than that with a headline such as 'THE TRUTH'.
He obviously thought he had more slack than what was given to him.
He's not bitter in that interview and I have plenty of respect for him about that, just not good enough at this moment.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Brendan Rodgers: The truth about my Royals reign
By Jonny Fordham
December 22, 2009


Brendan Rodgers has said it came as a total surprise to be sacked by Reading after just six months in charge.

And he believes the decision to terminate his three-year contract was not prompted by Royals chairman Sir John Madejski.

Rodgers also revealed that there was a lack of communication between him and chief executive Nigel Howe, who runs the club on a day-to-day basis.

Speaking from his family home on the outskirts of the town, the 36-year-old Northern Irishman gave a frank account of his 195 days in the Madejski Stadium hot-seat.

Rodgers had called for greater communication between him and Howe when he presented his vision for the club at a meeting with the board on November 18 when he also outlined transfer plans for January.

But he insists the next he heard from Howe was when he was summoned to the boardroom to find out his fate from Sir John less than a month later.

Rodgers said: “I felt we needed more communication between the chief executive and I.

“I never received one call from him and I felt we needed to (be in contact more), so I stipulated that at the meeting.

“So when I was asked to the meeting last week I assumed we were going to talk about players and the January transfer window. But I knew (the real reason) as soon as I walked in.

“The chairman is an honest and loyal man and I could see it was hurting him. As soon as I walked in I knew on the chairman’s face.

“I still have a big respect for him, but in my heart I’m not sure the chairman made the decision.

“I was obviously very disappointed. There was no problem in communication between me and the chairman while I was there.

“It always felt like I was being told to rebuild and given the confidence to do that.

“Not once was I told that my job was in jeopardy. So the day I walked into that meeting last week, my first feeling was shock.

“The night before we had had the Christmas party for the whole club and everything there was fine.”

Rodgers, his assistant Dean Austin and football consultant Frank Lampard senior were all dismissed at the same time last week, but none have had their contracts fully paid off as part of the deal.

In the end Rodgers believes he ran out of time to turn around a club that had won just five out of 21 league games since he took charge.

The former Chelsea academy and reserve team coach said: “If I’d known I would only be given six months then I would have done things differently, but they didn’t really give me a chance.

“I never felt pressure in the job, I wanted the club to be successful and the January transfer window was my only opportunity to put things right. It still doesn’t rack up.

“We had had some bad results, but we were progressing.”

[Barry the bird boggler]

Come and have another go Brendan when there is some money about the place.

[Rex]

Rodgers, his assistant Dean Austin and football consultant Frank Lampard senior were all dismissed at the same time last week, but none have had their contracts fully paid off as part of the deal.

........Surprised. But if Rogers was on a 6 month trial as has been indicated by others then SJM played it cute.

No real bitterness gleaned from that interview which was refreshing to see in this day and age.

Good luck to the man, just the wrong person to follow despite the wane of Coppells years with us. Budgetry refinement and timeframes conspired against him.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

I wonder what he would have done differently??????

[Man Friday]

In denial.

Just not good enough. However, there were signs of improvement and learning. I didn't see the last two games but would have liked to so that I could form my own judgment on the improvement angle. Conceding 4 at home to a team who had not been paid ain't great though and Scunthorpe were dire apparently so drawing at home wasn't great either (notwithstanding the number of chances missed - but some say Scunnie had another 3 good chances themselves).

Time will tell. If he goes on to have a successful career then we made a mistake but I suspect he won't.

[Arnie_Pie]

I posted a while back that JM would not have the cojones alone to sack BR.

Seems he was put under pressure to do so and sounds like a bit of a pathetic spat to me. Sad really, very sad.

[readingbedding]

Oh well, he's gone, history.
I won't miss him particulary.

[Royal With Cheese]

I wonder what he would have done differently??????

I was thinking that. It doesn't make any sense.

[Mr Angry]

This bit made me

“I never felt pressure in the job, I wanted the club to be successful and the January transfer window was my only opportunity to put things right. It still doesn’t rack up.

2 reasons;

1. How on Earth could he NOT have felt pressure in the job - smacks of thinking that REGARDLESS of performances and results, he wouldn't be fired.

2. The January window his "only" opportunity to put things right?? He was appointed in June, and bought in 7 players ffs - that was the time to show that he had the nous to get a group of players together, playing the way he wanted. YET...... we saw some of our brightest young stars (Henry, Davies) farmed out, others (Karacan, Sigi) either dropped, ignored on played out of position whilst his most expensive signing and a quality loanee from celtic left to sit on the bench or dumped in the reserves.

Take responsibility Brendan.

[Royal With Cheese]

^^^ This.

....awaits Royalee's responce.

[Southbank Old Boy]

I wonder what he would have done differently??????

I was thinking that. It doesn't make any sense.

I imagine he means he would have made less long term decisions and more short term ones to get off to a better start and not just look towards building a team for the future. Things that spring to mind

1) Fight a bit harder to keep a couple of the high wage earners
2) Play the likes of Harper and Marek sooner
3) Not sign a couple of young defenders who are prospects for the future but go for experienced pros for the here and now
4) Not treat the first 4 or 5 games of the season as pre-season to give the likes of Davies and HRK a chance to impress
5) Manage his Manager better perhaps?

[Vision]

Not sure anyone comes out of this looking particularly good really.

When all's said and done even with the sales , the squad is good enough to be around mid-table. If he was relatively comfortable in mid-table then he would have been given the time to gradually prove himself up to the task. Not being out of the bottom 5 for nigh on half a season means inevitably that he would be put under pressure. If he really didn't see that as he claims then you have to question whether he's got the awareness and judgement to ever make it as a successful manager reagrdless of his alledged coaching skills.

That said, the club knew this season was going to be tough and were preaching patience amongst the support as we restructure and rebuild. For the most part despite dissenting voices on here and the odd outburst at individual games the fans have actually been remarkably patient. As it turns out the board weren't. Whatever Rodgers' mistakes (and there were plenty of them), 6 months is not long enough really to make the inroads that were required when he took over. Having employed such a relatively inexperienced manager to such a job, to dump him after 6 months is a pretty poor show in my view.

Neither Rodgers nor the board come out of this with any credit to be honest.

[sawyers left arm]

Nigel Howe is a complete to**er and knows nothing about football. Ignorant brummie t**t.

[Royalwaster]

I seem to be in the complete minority but I actually like the guy and am sad it didn't work out. He was clearly committed to the club and not just a glory hunter who would jump ship at the first opportunity. Also, he's an honest guy but that obviously is not the right thing in this media age - he got slammed for being too honest and for being not honest enough. I do believe that he made some mistakes, but that's what you have to expect from a young manager. On the positive side, I think that this season we've seen some very good football but alas not enough goals. His biggest failing probably was not to bring in the fire-power when we needed it. Rasiak wasn't enough.

[midfield diamond]

Lack of communication with N Howe an interesting complaint.
I thought that N Hammond was supposed to be the vital link between the Manager and the Board?

Anyway I'm glad one of them got rid of him before he could inflict any more damage on the Club.

As for SJM he comes out of it smelling of roses - it wasn't really him who pulled the trigger.

[loyalroyal4life]

it doesnt even seem like the board has clear sight of their individual objectives!!