Coppell out!

[Royal Lady]

^ Woodcote is also the guy who sits in his car to hear the team and if he doesn't like the sound of it, reckons he would drive off home again!

[Woodcote Royal]

Woodcote, don't class yourself as a 'supporter' as you are not, you're an embarrasement to the genuine football who follows their side through good and bad.

Supporters continue to get behind their team even when the going gets tough. You flounce out like a big girl's blouse after 47 minutes and vow not to come back until things are good again. The two things are very different.

Hopefully you are as good as your word and give/sell your ticket to a genuine supporter. At least it'll be one less empty seat among the many.

Support seems to be a word you struggle to comprehend.

It must really hurt when you turn up on a match day, grinning from ear to ear at every empty seat that comes into view, to know that many of them have been paid for by loyal supporters who are happy to financially "support" their team whether they get to watch the game or not.

And, funnily enough, what I do with my seat when I choose not to use it is none of your business but, rest assured, it will be mine for years to come for fear of having to sit anywhere close to some of the sad individuals who inhabit other areas of the ground.

[Schards#2]

Woodcote, don't class yourself as a 'supporter' as you are not, you're an embarrasement to the genuine football who follows their side through good and bad.

Supporters continue to get behind their team even when the going gets tough. You flounce out like a big girl's blouse after 47 minutes and vow not to come back until things are good again. The two things are very different.

Hopefully you are as good as your word and give/sell your ticket to a genuine supporter. At least it'll be one less empty seat among the many.

Support seems to be a word you struggle to comprehend.

It must really hurt when you turn up on a match day, grinning from ear to ear at every empty seat that comes into view, to know that many of them have been paid for by loyal supporters who are happy to financially "support" their team whether they get to watch the game or not.

And, funnily enough, what I do with my seat when I choose not to use it is none of your business but, rest assured, it will be mine for years to come for fear of having to sit anywhere close to some of the sad individuals who inhabit other areas of the ground.

Is this the latest Woodcote theory of why the ground is never full? All the empty seats are bought by philanthropists who buy them with no intention of going?

What you do with your seat is indeed no business of mine but if you vacate it after 47 minutes and vow not to sit in it again until things are going better, don't pretend you are a supporter as it insults actual supporters.

I don't give a toss what you do other than a) laughing at you, and b) praying you never buy a seat anywhere near mine if you ever decide to put your toys back in your pram and come to another game. Hopefully you won't though, obviously.

[brendywendy]

the ground isnt full because were in a shit league, playing shit teams schards
its fuller than before we romped the championship, and thats the big test, not just arbitrarily taking % fullness as the only measure regardless of situation.
i imagine if we go up well pretty much sell out every game again
& i guess the club, who monitored the enquiries about more tickets during our two seasons up there, will know exactly how many more potential customers we could attract if the seats were there.
though im not sure the ground capacity is of much relevance today

[Woodcote Royal]

Woodcote, don't class yourself as a 'supporter' as you are not, you're an embarrasement to the genuine football who follows their side through good and bad.

Supporters continue to get behind their team even when the going gets tough. You flounce out like a big girl's blouse after 47 minutes and vow not to come back until things are good again. The two things are very different.

Hopefully you are as good as your word and give/sell your ticket to a genuine supporter. At least it'll be one less empty seat among the many.

Support seems to be a word you struggle to comprehend.

It must really hurt when you turn up on a match day, grinning from ear to ear at every empty seat that comes into view, to know that many of them have been paid for by loyal supporters who are happy to financially "support" their team whether they get to watch the game or not.

And, funnily enough, what I do with my seat when I choose not to use it is none of your business but, rest assured, it will be mine for years to come for fear of having to sit anywhere close to some of the sad individuals who inhabit other areas of the ground.

Is this the latest Woodcote theory of why the ground is never full? All the empty seats are bought by philanthropists who buy them with no intention of going?

What you do with your seat is indeed no business of mine but if you vacate it after 47 minutes and vow not to sit in it again until things are going better, don't pretend you are a supporter as it insults actual supporters.

I don't give a toss what you do other than a) laughing at you, and b) praying you never buy a seat anywhere near mine if you ever decide to put your toys back in your pram and come to another game. Hopefully you won't though, obviously.

How many more "Pr*ck of the Year" contenders are you going to post.................take it easy! You won hands down months ago.

For the record. I said I would not be attending next weeks match.

Anyone who was sat near me yesterday will know that I merely said my goodbyes and left.

Having witnessed the East Stand die hards boo their team on countless occasions (and once in particular as they trooped off at half time with the score standing at 0-0 ) only an idiot of the highest order would suggest that my conduct makes me a worse supporter than many of those you sit amongst.

Rather than vent my spleen at the team (especially when I blame the manager and not the players) I left because I couldn't stand the thought of watching another 45 minutes of what I'd witnessed in the first half.

PS. I'm guessing the fact that your head remains firmly lodged where the sun never shines has prevented you from realising that the number of empty seats has regularly failed to correlate with our attendance figures.

Many STH's are not attending every game this season and your suggestion that this make us inferior supporters is just another of your blinkered observations to add to the rest that litter this forum.

[stl_royal]

i was against it this time last year, but now were seeing the same thing again. its time for steve to go, hes off it now. cant put a competitive team out, and refuses to make any changes. with the way things are going were not going up automatically, and i dont think were going to win the playoffs. we'll be sitting down in the ccc for another few years.

albeit im going to feel awfully dumb if we turn around and start winning.

[Denver Royal]

Woodcote...a couple questions if I may...

1. You really believe you are better if you leave after 47 mins than someone who may have got a prediction wrong on a meaningless internet message board?

2. We're 3rd in the Championship and may get promoted to the Premiership...a lofty status given our history. What do you think of fans who stayed til the end? Do you think they are idiots?

[Royal Lady]

I remember us going two-nil down at home to Middlesbrough on the first of our games in the Premiership. I bet he didn't go home early that day.

And it's not just the fact he said he left after the second goal went in, it's the fact that he's stated on here that he wouldn't be coming back unless Coppell changes the team, and the fact that he's mentioned in the past that he's sat in his car waiting to hear the team before deciding whether to get out and go to the game. If all "supporters" were like him, we'd have about 3k in the ground every match. And, once again, he feels the need to through insults around, when all anyone has done is dare to criticise him for his action in "supporting" the team.

[Woodcote Royal]

Woodcote...a couple questions if I may...

1. You really believe you are better if you leave after 47 mins than someone who may have got a prediction wrong on a meaningless internet message board?

2. We're 3rd in the Championship and may get promoted to the Premiership...a lofty status given our history. What do you think of fans who stayed til the end? Do you think they are idiots?

Back on planet earth, as a STH who happily buys a seat for the season whether he uses it or not makes me a better supporter than those who stayed just to boo the team.

It's not my fault, or the players, that the managers response to his team's failure to score for more than a month was to pick an unchanged team but I knew that, had I stayed, my state of mind would not have helped the team.

This might have put me on a par with hundreds of fans who turn up every week and spend most of their time hurling abuse at the team or certain players regardless of whether we are winning or losing.........and I wasn't prepared to sink to that level.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

If you want to go home early, then go. Its your seat, do what you want with it.
Staying doggedly to the end of a crappy match proves nothing in my opinion. Honestly, who cares.

[Woking Royal]

I rarely post on here these days. Partly due to simply being too busy, and in part to the standard of debate on here in recent years. True respectful debate seems rare, and it seems if you don't have the same opinion as the next man you will be insulted & ridiculed in the misguided belief that it will change your mind, or that you will be seen to be less intellegent than the other poster. In reality neither happens.

I will stick my head above the parapet to say this..................

So far this season, apart from an early flurry, and then very briefly on odd occassions, the standard of football I have seen played by us has been woeful. How on earth we are where we are in the league I do not know.

On Saturday I was bored out of my brain from start to finish. I go to football to be entertained, and I have not been entertained properly for quite a few weeks now. That is what the football club is here for. To entertain. I am extrememly busy running my own business, and have a wife & family to give time to also. Football is my time on a Saturday afternoon. I get to go & enjoy football the game I love. And watch Reading, the team I have followed for over 40 years.

On Saturday I said to my daughter at half time that I did not think I could stomach a 2nd half like the first, and quite honestly I had better things to do. Had I got my way I probably would have bumped into Woodcote in the Car Park.

I will not be using my ST next week. After a hard weeks work I cannot face the 5 hour round trip outing to watch the utter utter shite I watched on Saturday. I really cannot. That is my choice. It does not impinge upon any of you. I cannot justify the time & expense to watch a stagnant team, that has been underinvested in, and which is lacking the spark & ambition to be different. To improve. We currently have a side that is worse on paper than the team we had 3 or 4 seasons ago. That is not progress.

I haven't read any of the other threads on the game. Again, I don't have the time. But Federici had his chance but on Saturday he was woeful. He should not stand frozen on his line whilst a striker nods in a ball in HIS 6 yard box. His flapping hand at the other scrambled goal looked like a girl trying to swat a troublesome fly. Where was the suicidal commitment to claim the ball that a keeper at this level must posses. Hanneman back. End of.

Lita has reverted to his usual fall on his arse form. Noel Hunt back.

The midfield??? Well ................ in all honesty play with 7 men instead and leave them all on the bench. Can't be much worse.

Is it time to give Murty a run out (if it's possible, not sure it is, again don't have time to read these thins up?) We need to rediscover how to pass the ball on the ground, not keep banging long balls, and a bit of passion.

I hope the game next Saturday is a whole lot different, and that I miss a really good performance. You can all have a good laugh then, and I will be pleased at that.

So ................ what are we up to Woodcote?

[Woking Royal]

Heck!! I knew time was going slow on Saturday, but it seems I have lost another hour of my life too!! I thought it was only about 10.15am. But the post says 11.15am. With the hours dissapearing at the blink of an eye, all the more reason to us my time more carfelly next Saturday.

Better get on with some work!!!

< PS, I won't be debating the above, so save your breath on the insults>

[bobby m's syrup]

Whatever Mr Coppell does at the end of the season, the damage is already done. If, (which seems likely), we fail to achieve automatic promotion and fail in the play offs, the bubble will have well and truly burst. The remaining, (effective), rump of the 05-06 side will want away and we could well struggle next season. There also appears to be a problem behind the scenes at the club which possibly only a change of managership can eradicate.

However, changing horses at this stage of the campaign would be a risky, albeit tempting solution to the problem which appears to have affected the team on and off for the last 18 months or so.

[The 17 Bus]

In the past, when there were sod all ST holders at RFC a drop in crowds would show up in the attendance figures, however it does not now, and all sold seats are included as attendance.

The powers at RFC should be very worried about what is happening, I know a few ST holders that cannot stomach any more of what they are having to watch, BORED is the answer when you ask if they have enjoyed a game, which was similar to many last season.

It is time for JM to get involved, IMHO, he and SC should sit down with Howe and Hammond and decide what road they want RFC to take now. At the moment we are 3rd, we could be higher, but we seem to have stagnated, and taken the foot off the accelerator, why do we not go after any higher priced players?? WHy do we not make signings that excite the fans, and you want to go down and see them play, why is it all so fecking dull?

I am frustrated with Coppell at the moment, we signed two players in the transfer window, one on loan and one for money, both are players that Coppell has known from the past, neither have even been involved in a first team game yet.

[Thaumagurist*]

Another pathetic Royalee knee-jerk.

[Once were Biscuitmen]

So at worst we are probably heading for 'only' our 5th best finish in 138 years?

And this is both a crisis and a reason for getting rid of our best manager of all time?

Now I think on calmer reflection the half century spent in the 3rd tier watching some pretty awful football was probably a worse experience than the seeming torture some of you are having to endure.

[Woodcote Royal]

So ................ what are we up to Woodcote?

Many thanks for such a rare contribution (it was worth waiting for )

In this tough economic climate, I, too, resented having to watch the product of 2 weeks Steve Coppel had spent with his team when, like you, I could have been enhancing my own business.

It's not that we lost and never looked like winning but that most of our problems are self inflicted by a manager who, once again, elected to do nothing to stop the rot other than to repeat what had already failed in previous matches.

Let's pretend Hunt is injured so I can drop him and when Lita fails to score for the hundreth time I'll bring Hunt on with 10 minutes to go or, as was the case against Preston, bring him on and stick him on the wing

Right now, the thought of drinking your good self under some pub table has much appeal but I'm already taking steps to ensure that next Saturday produces a serious boost to the wallet

[Arch]

< PS, I won't be debating the above, so save your breath on the insults>

If the universe is governed by a supremely powerful, benevolent and provident creator, why does He allow Reading fans to suffer so?

Go on. You know you want to!

PS Good post, Woking. You're missed here.

[Stranded]

What we need to do and I sincerely hope the management team are doing it this week, is look for a plan B.

Teams know if they cut off our wingers we’re done for, so we need to have a ball player in the middle of the park who creates another problem for the opposition. Now Marek may not be the answer, but he is the only one that fits the bill at the moment so he must start next week IMO.

We’ve brought a player in this Jan (Tabb) who is apparently creative and can play anywhere across the midfield, well lets see him given a go for either Hunt on Kebe. Hunt just doesn’t look effective at the moment as he’s also been sussed by opponents and his dead ball game has gone to pot as well – without that you do have to question, what he currently brings to the side if he can’t adapt his game to beat the problems he’s now faced with. Kebe just looks scared a lot of the time. Dropping one of them will also let them know their place in the side isn’t guaranteed.

If Bikey’s fit then stick him back in defence for either of the current incumbents.

Up front, bringing Hunt back in makes sense prob for Lita but you have to ask what was different about the way Norwich played to help him get 8 in 12 (or whatever it was) compared to what we do. If you keep hoofing the ball up to him, he’s going to look ineffective – so on Sat I think we need to see a side with Tabb, Marek, Bikey and N.Hunt in it.

[Royalee]

Another pathetic Royalee knee-jerk.

I've been saying the same thing for over a year now you f*cking moron.