It is one man's fault

[Alan Partridge]

'we shouldn't spend good money, look at Leeds' is possibly the WORST arguement on here.

What about Portsmouth? a similar club to us struggling at the bottom, invested in quality and are a top club now with a cup final to look forward to. Or what about Aston Villa? Or Wigan? Or Sunderland? Or Everton? Fulham gave it a go in January..but i forgot the HNA experts 'Fulham are already down'
.

Portsmouth, Wigan and Fulham have chairmen willing to throw money away to keep their clubs up. They have not "invested", they are just Abromovich types to a lesser degree.

When we can get average crowds of 40,000 and have fan bases even remotely approaching Aston Villa, Sunderland and Everton, they would be worthwhile comparisons.

Portsmouth and Wigan average less than us, could have added West Ham to my list, while I'm not saying we should be competing with these teams, they were examples of clubs that in the last 10-15 years have all been around the bottom of this division, and with wise investment have moved onto bigger and better things.

Of course they have 'invested' they have paid the going rate for players in this day and age, every other club has done that this season, apart from one. Have a guess who?

[royals pete]

Surely Coppell has a right to ask 'why don't my forwards shoot ; why dont my players put in decent crosses ; why can't corner kicks cause problems; why don't players kick start the crowd; why dom't they look for the ball; why don't no-end of changes get a player response.' ??????? Anyone can call us plastic but that is missing the point. Difficult to sing your hearts out from a chair and when there's no response on the pitch. The goal conceded yesterday must have been one of the worst, straight from a throw-in in their own half and a staraight run throuigh the middle. Oh well, we're not down yet !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rhroyal]

People are being very very harsh on Coppell. Firstly 2 great seasons, don't forget that. But now think of this year. Do you remember when Ipswich had a great first season, made loads of changes and went down? Sunderland had a decent first season, made changes and set what was then the record for the lowest amount of points. Wigan's second season syndrome last year came from breaking up the original squad and brining in new players, disrupting the spirit, and what happened at West Ham was blatant for all to see. I could completely understand Coppell trying not to make the same mistake and keep the core of the squad together, and I'm pretty sure that if he could go back in time now he would change his mind. It was an honest error with logic behind it. Sticking with players who are not performing is less defendable mind you.

[Big Ern]

And that man is Steve Coppell

1. He decides we need no investment in the summer

2. He decides we need no investment in the winter

3. His subs are too late

4. His team selection is crap

5. He has personal vendettas against certain people

6. He has love affairs with others

If we go down it is his fault, some will blame the chairman, but the money has always been there.....it is coppell who has refused to spend it

You are the biggest tool on hobnob

[winchester_royal]

And that man is Steve Coppell

1. He decides we need no investment in the summer

2. He decides we need no investment in the winter

3. His subs are too late

4. His team selection is crap

5. He has personal vendettas against certain people

6. He has love affairs with others

If we go down it is his fault, some will blame the chairman, but the money has always been there.....it is coppell who has refused to spend it

You are the biggest tool on hobnob

We are all allowed our own opinion you stuck up prick...

[dobcheck]

Interesting comment from JM in his programme notes yesterday "We have already devoloped plans to make significant investment in the playing squad during the summer" Now if we stay up it will be interesting to see how much this investment is. For the record i think when a team has a great season the players and manager are rightly lauded and when they fail they should expect to take some flak, i think Coppell excepts that and i think any fan has their right to give him some stick even though he has been our best ever manager.

[Big Ern]

[quote="dobcheck"]Interesting comment from JM in his programme notes yesterday "We have already devoloped plans to make significant investment in the playing squad during the summer" quote]

Just a ploy to get us to renew season tickets. We have been conned by that promise for the past 2 seaosn, it has worked then, so no doubt it will work this year as well.

We will not spend big, regardless of what division we are in next season.

[Big Ern]

And that man is Steve Coppell

1. He decides we need no investment in the summer

2. He decides we need no investment in the winter

3. His subs are too late

4. His team selection is crap

5. He has personal vendettas against certain people

6. He has love affairs with others

If we go down it is his fault, some will blame the chairman, but the money has always been there.....it is coppell who has refused to spend it

You are the biggest tool on hobnob

We are all allowed our own opinion you stuck up prick...

Agreed, and my opinion is that you are the biggest tool on hobnob.

[Forbury Lion]

And that man is Steve Coppell

Agreed, however he is also responsible for leading us to a record breaking championship title and our best ever finish in 136/7 years, so overall he's still in credit.

If the worse happens and we get relegated I can think of no better manager at that level to rebuild the team and push for promotion. If we somehow stay up I believe Steve Coppell and co will learn from the mistakes of this season, besides I can't think of any other manager who can do a better job and would be willing to join Reading on the salary offered with the challenge of signing players on the wage structure dictated by the board.

[rhroyal]

If we stay up, surely we're looking to spend on the level of Sunderland to strengthen to avoid the same next season, our squad is that poor to be honest. We have a core of Bikey at centre back, Matejovsky in midfield and, if we keep him, Lita up front to build a Premiership team around in my view. What would be a real blessing is if everybody has seen Shorey this season and ignores him. Not only would we keep him, he'd have to commit to Reading and prove to everyone he is a good player again, which would surely get him back to his best. Can't see it happening unfortunately. I think we can keep Rosenior at right back next year. USA is an interesting one. He's been great since xmas but earlier in the season he looked a bit dodgey. Also, he's 35. I know GKs keep going longer, but he'll be 36 next year and surely you have to start looking for a replacement (Bring back Jamie Ashdown? He was for a month or so ahead of Marcus, before he chose Pompey.)
Hunt, Convey, Harper, Doyle, Ingimarrsson, Kitson and Cisse can be used a squad players but can't be surefire starters any more.

The right side would be priority 1, priority 2 would be a proper defensive midfielder could can protect the back 4 and give Marek the freedom to go forward and create. Then we'd need another centre back, and a striker could can bang in 15 goals or so. I think with quality signings in each of those positions we'd have enough next season. However we need to stay up first......

[WestCoast Life]

I can think of no better manager at that level to rebuild the team and push for promotion.

He wouldn't be interested. He is off no matter what happens, I just hope he doesn't string it out until pre-season (like Hoddle at Wolves).

besides I can't think of any other manager who .. would be willing to join Reading on the salary offered with the challenge of signing players on the wage structure dictated by the board.

Thats a worrying prospect.

[earleyroyal]

If we stay up, surely we're looking to spend on the level of Sunderland to strengthen to avoid the same next season, our squad is that poor to be honest.

And that is the heart of the problem. Someone said to me yesterday 'won't you enjoy it more in the CCC anyway' and I see their point - if we stay up this season, does anyone think we'll strengthen enough to compete next season? No, it'll be 'the players have kept us up' and we'll spend about 10 million at most. Next season, if we do stay up, will be worse than this one, because the investment won't come. Madejski is entitled to do this, but he must try to sell the club at every opportunity as he isn't a Premiership chairman.

Sunderland spent around £40 million didn't they - can anyone really see this happening?

[.:BigDaveInTheDungeon:.]

And that man is Steve Coppell

1. He decides we need no investment in the summer

2. He decides we need no investment in the winter

3. His subs are too late

4. His team selection is crap

5. He has personal vendettas against certain people

6. He has love affairs with others

If we go down it is his fault, some will blame the chairman, but the money has always been there.....it is coppell who has refused to spend it

damn coppell for taking the club to its highest ever league position, damn him for that points record. and who would replace him? if you look the most successful football teams are the ones that stick with the managers, we'd be stupid to get rid of him.

[rhroyal]

But you'd think that money must surely be there. Survival would mean 3 seasons of Premiership TV revenue and ticket sales. It comes to over £40million a season. That'll be over £80mill for the past 2 years and a further £40mill forecast. Where has it all gone? Not on the players wages, we know that. As for transfers, we've spent less than £5mill since we came up. Coppell claimed that money was available in January and he chose not to spend it. Well, if he's learnt his lesson, there should surely be a massive stockpile ready to use up.

[Royal Lady]

When we go down, we won't spend much money. If we were to stay up, we still wouldn't spend much money.

[finnbot4050]

he thought this team was good enough they was last year and he is our best manager i hate all the people slagging off the manager/players all it was is that we got found out this season and if we stay up u will see that he will get rid off players and buy lots of players in

[LoyalRoyal22]

bring back burns

[rfc58]

I'm sure most of the people on here really support manure with their big time thinking.

Reading are still in a good position (status/finance), we could be like sheff wed,leeds,forest,leicester.

It will be ok.

Yes we are still in a good position, but if we had spent say £20 million, do you think this "rash" spending would have crippled the club, all things considered ????

OK, I know it may not have guaranteed safety, but I think four quality/proven Prem class players may have added to the squad, and that extra class might have fed better balls through to our forwards (as an example), so all talk of Doyle not scoring for god knows how long might have just have been a bad dream, if he and the rest had quality service to feed on.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

To add my view and to answer the original point of this thread- this is certainly not one mans fault.

I cannot believe how Nicky Hammond comes out of this so unscathed - I mean, what value does an ex-keeper like Hammond bring to RFC. As I understand it, he is in charge of identifying possible transfer targets and ensuring that we encourage them to come to RFC. From my point of view this is the key area in which we have failed and it has had the biggest influence on our impending relegation.

An interesting point that came from the recent Fae/Sonko saga, was a comment made by Fae in which he said "I would never join a club again until I have met the manager". This would suggest to me that Mr Coppell didnt have much to do with the Fae transfer. I honestly believe that the reason we didnt make any significant signings is not due to Mr Coppell but due to a lack of ability by Mr Hammond who in all honestly couldnt encourage someone out of a burning building, let alone in to Reading FC.

Maybe clear lines are drawn that we dont know about, transfers are for Mr Hammond to deal with, Mr Coppell is to stay well clear, and Mr Hammond squeeky voice alone is enough to deter anyone from taking RFC seriously. I suspect we had a long list of transfer targets, I would even wager that RFC made several bids that we are unaware about, I am 100% sure that the reason the transfers failed was due to an uninspiring, football "has been" who never even played anywhere near the level of football we are at now. This might also go on to explain why Mr Coppell didnt feel it necessary to give the limited new signings we have made a decent run in the team.

Wherever you look at RFC, the staff or the players, we are built on a shoestring and we have been caught out - Mr Hammond especially!

As they say, you pay peanuts, you get monkies.

Mr C

Ask Wenger.

You don't get offered the job of Director of Football at Arsenal if you're no good at the job. In fact you have to be the best.

Hammond can only sign players Coppell wants, Coppell didn't want anyone.

[mr_number]

I'm sure most of the people on here really support manure with their big time thinking.

Reading are still in a good position (status/finance), we could be like sheff wed,leeds,forest,leicester.

It will be ok.

Yes we are still in a good position, but if we had spent say £20 million, do you think this "rash" spending would have crippled the club, all things considered ????

OK, I know it may not have guaranteed safety, but I think four quality/proven Prem class players may have added to the squad, and that extra class might have fed better balls through to our forwards (as an example), so all talk of Doyle not scoring for god knows how long might have just have been a bad dream, if he and the rest had quality service to feed on.

I think part of the problem was that there weren't four or five proven premiership players about... everyone was after that type of person... £5million on the likes of Chopra was a real risk for Roy Keane. If there'd been players available, then I'm sure Coppell would have bought them.