what do Reading fans want?

[rob the royal]

i want reading to win the league!

and i don't care which one. otherwise it's just boring innit

[Cookie]

i want reading to win the league!

and i don't care which one. otherwise it's just boring innit

we done that two years ago, by a big margin

[Barry the bird boggler]

I want us to be able to compete at the highest league level in the country. To me that means a squad that is capable of keeping out of the Premiership relegation battles season after season.

Mind you a nice chap with several billion pounds who wants to achieve something by taking a nothing club to be consistently the best in Europe would also be appreciated.

[Vision]

"what do Reading fans want" easy really ! we have reached the top league in europe, we had a great season last year, but for those of us that have supported the "Biscuitmen or "Royals" for more years than we care to remember want us to stay there ! and sadly the only way we do that is to invest in players that can keep us there, and my concern is that we don't appear to have the club structure that will do that, the Premiership is an expensive place to be, and to thier credit we have managed it so far, but I for one would rather be a Blackburn, Villa or Portsmouth who invets in mainyaining thier Prem status rather that a Middlesboro,, Fulham or Bolton who spend thier time looking over thier shoulders trying to stay there.

Whilst i'd agree with a lot of what you say i'm not sure your examples are very good. Bolton have finished above Villa,Pompey and Blackburn for the last few seasons and are only struggling this season because they lost the manager that made them tick, which might suggest that as important as investment is, continuity is equally important (an argument that could be made of Charlton as well). I'm also not convinced that Fulham haven't invested any less than Blackburn have recently either. You can add Sunderland to that list as well probably.

My point is that there is no real blueprint for success in football. If there was everyone would approach it exactly the same. You have to do what is best for you.

Middlesboro are an interesting club because in many ways their approach is something I think could work for us. They have integrated an awful lot of local youngsters into their team in the last couple of seasons and if they can marry that with shrewd additions in the transfer market and good management (Southgate???) then i believe its possible to hold your own in this division without having the revenue resources of the top dozen or so teams in the Division. They also have a local chairman who has an interest in his local area similiar to ourselves.

I really hope it works out for them (obviously not at our expense) because it might encourage others to follow suit. Having said that, i'm also well aware of the fact that the Middlesboro public haven't exactly embraced it judging by their attendances this season.

[Arch]

"what do Reading fans want" easy really ! we have reached the top league in europe, we had a great season last year, but for those of us that have supported the "Biscuitmen or "Royals" for more years than we care to remember want us to stay there ! and sadly the only way we do that is to invest in players that can keep us there, and my concern is that we don't appear to have the club structure that will do that, the Premiership is an expensive place to be, and to thier credit we have managed it so far, but I for one would rather be a Blackburn, Villa or Portsmouth who invets in mainyaining thier Prem status rather that a Middlesboro,, Fulham or Bolton who spend thier time looking over thier shoulders trying to stay there.

Whilst i'd agree with a lot of what you say i'm not sure your examples are very good. Bolton have finished above Villa,Pompey and Blackburn for the last few seasons and are only struggling this season because they lost the manager that made them tick, which might suggest that as important as investment is, continuity is equally important (an argument that could be made of Charlton as well). I'm also not convinced that Fulham haven't invested any less than Blackburn have recently either. You can add Sunderland to that list as well probably.

My point is that there is no real blueprint for success in football. If there was everyone would approach it exactly the same. You have to do what is best for you.

Middlesboro are an interesting club because in many ways their approach is something I think could work for us. They have integrated an awful lot of local youngsters into their team in the last couple of seasons and if they can marry that with shrewd additions in the transfer market and good management (Southgate???) then i believe its possible to hold your own in this division without having the revenue resources of the top dozen or so teams in the Division. They also have a local chairman who has an interest in his local area similiar to ourselves.

I really hope it works out for them (obviously not at our expense) because it might encourage others to follow suit. Having said that, i'm also well aware of the fact that the Middlesboro public haven't exactly embraced it judging by their attendances this season.

Relentlessly insightful, Vision. Once in a while, couldn't you just shoot your mouth off without engaging your brain first... you know, like the rest of us?

[Gus the teenage cow]

for middlesboro read charlton and look what happened to them, u can't churn out quality youngsters every year, the gene pool will dry up...anyway poaching of youngsters is much more commonplace nowadays

there is one answer, money invested by wise management

[Vision]

for middlesboro read charlton and look what happened to them, u can't churn out quality youngsters every year, the gene pool will dry up...anyway poaching of youngsters is much more commonplace nowadays

there is one answer, money invested by wise management

You dont have to churn out quality youngsters every year though. They don't just hatch and fly away within a year. Chances are if they are local as in Boro's case you'll have more chance of keeping them for longer than usual as there will be an affinity with the club. Charlton survived without any problems at all until the fans started getting impatient with the manager and he wanted out.



Whilst i'd agree that money invested wisely is crucial very few clubs manage it. We have proved up until now that there is more than "one answer".

[Gus the teenage cow]

surely if we have more than one answer then we have no answer and we are only procrastinating

[Victor Meldrew]

for middlesboro read charlton and look what happened to them, u can't churn out quality youngsters every year, the gene pool will dry up...anyway poaching of youngsters is much more commonplace nowadays

there is one answer, money invested by wise management

You dont have to churn out quality youngsters every year though. They don't just hatch and fly away within a year. Chances are if they are local as in Boro's case you'll have more chance of keeping them for longer than usual as there will be an affinity with the club. Charlton survived without any problems at all until the fans started getting impatient with the manager and he wanted out.



Whilst i'd agree that money invested wisely is crucial very few clubs manage it. We have proved up until now that there is more than "one answer".

I totally agree that the combination of homegrowns and signings is the blueprint for most clubs-even the very top clubs would like to work that way but their demanding owners/fans want to see the best immediately and so,apart from Arsenal which really is a special case,that is what happens-they pay a lot of money for mainly proven players.

Coming back to Middlesborough they like West Ham historically and Man City currently have consistently brought through young and mainly local players-it has been their ethos and to some extent Everton's as well.
Reading have no great history of doing this ,losing out to clubs like Southampton,Palace and Oxford locally,but the great hope is that the longer we remain a Premiership club the greater the chance of attracting the really promising youngsters and not just numbers that we release to play non-league football when they reach age 18.

I remember a discussion on here about 6 years or so when we were dreaming of Championship(and remotely about Premiership)football.
I think it was Mr Angry who said he would hate to see us become like Derby County,a club that signs loads of Eastern Europeans that we have never heard of and by doing so making our club non-descript with no local player input and no heart.

We have quickly risen to the current dizzy heights and when we got Bikey and Maite on loan I thought again about the Derby County analogy and since then we have brought in Fae and Cisse who also haven't been an immediate success.
Currently there are no locals in or very near the first team whereas 'Boro often have 3 or 4 and City even more and to some extent Everton and Villa have succeeded in bringing through their own.

In time we get to love our imports,Murty,Harper,Marcus and Kitson as if they were always our own but it's still not the same as Archie,Adie and Scott Taylor who failed by a whisker to become Premiership players with us.
As the youngsters in the manager's eyes are not ready yet we have to keep on buying but if we don't continue buying and trying to improve our side then the youngsters will be good enough because they will only have to play in The Championship.