Coppell !! . . Has he lost it ?

[cmonurz]

IMHo the management of this club has been seriously neglected since a complacent summer of 2007.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

He barely ever had it.

People tend to forget the changes thrust upon him by contracts prior to 2005/6, one wonders if he'd have had the balls to play Convey had Norwich not bid for Hughes or bring in new strikers had Forster's contract not been up. I doubt it.

Hughes played on the right. Convey played on the left. Hughes departure to Norwich didn't exactly have a lot to do with Convey playing the next year. Playing Convey didn't need "balls". It took Convey learning how to play here to make himself useful, rather than playing the role Stephen Hunt has played for the last few months.

Doyle had been watched for a while and would probably have come in regardless. We probably wouldn't have signed Lita had Forster stayed

[papereyes]

IMHo the management of this club has been seriously neglected since a complacent summer of 2006.

corrected

[Royalee]

Hughes played on the right.

No, he was being played on the left, HTH.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Hughes played on the right.

No, he was being played on the left, HTH.

Royalee is correct

Although Hughes played a lot of his football on the right for us, most of his last season was spent on the left with Little on the right and Convey trying to get fit and adapt to life and football in England

Even Brooker kept Convey out of the side!

[Alan Partridge]

IMHo the management of this club has been seriously neglected since a complacent summer of 2006.

corrected

This is the main problem for me, those of us who time and again have mentioned that we feel Coppell failed in the transfer windows, are reminded that 'he has brought players in' and all the 'bargains' we've collected.

Well now is the problem. A host of average signings over the last 3 years have increased squad quantity but not the quality at all. You look at the central midfield today, both changed again and are they any better? No not really. There really is no difference between Harper, Gunnarsson, Karacan and Cisse. All very similar types of players, the only one who is different is Marek and he is still yet to provide any sort of consistency in a Reading shirt. It's a similar story in the defensive positions where really there is very little between any of them.

Again up front Doyle on form is an excellent player but there's not much between the others, we sign Mooney 'looks a bargain, great signing' He was the target man that the club scouted and bought to replace Kitson. We spend money and wages on him and then loan him out to Norwich and bring back Kitson again without Mooney kicking a ball in the league for us. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

We've got some good young lads here, lots of them out on loan, I truly believe that we could have done a lot worse than give some of these lads a chance instead of going for the nostalgic signings of Little and in particular Kitson. Henry has done well at Millwall and on his other loans, he's had bits and pieces of good play here, Karacan is no worse than any of the others in the middle, we have no idea on Mooney although he's scored for Norwich now.

I said it earlier at the game and my belief now is that Coppell's team selections and substitutions are that of a man who has absolutely no idea of what to do and who to play. He couldn't sit you down and say this is my strongest team, he doesn't know. It's what you get when you have such a big squad that is so similar across the field.

This is the culmination of all those failed windows for a couple of seasons now, Coppell's and his backroom team's dealings really have been woeful and he's lived off 1 summer where he got it spot on in the year we broke all the records. Since then it's been a total tail of woe.

[Focher]

i can understand Coppells tinkering with the midfield and forwards, the 2nd half of the season they have been sh1t. The biggest thing for me this season that makes me think coppell has possibly lost it is the exclusion of Bikey, the best defender we have had since dariusz ver dove check.

[Millsy]

He barely ever had it.

ALOL

[AthleticoSpizz]

ALOL

Post of the month...brilliant

[Millsy]

Has he lost his proven and consistent magic in the space of a few games?

How about.... no.

Much more likely the team's going through a sticky patch.

Bizarrely enough not every team wins every game ever and sometimes goes through periods of losing.

It's called football.

HTH

Still ALOL at some of the comical views being expressed here...

[Alan Partridge]

Has he lost his proven and consistent magic in the space of a few games?

How about.... no.

Much more likely the team's going through a sticky patch.

Bizarrely enough not every team wins every game ever and sometimes goes through periods of losing.

It's called football.

HTH

Still ALOL at some of the comical views being expressed here...

None more so than this one in my opinion.

Consistant magic?

The only thing consistant is the annual second half of the season plummet with exactly the same problems and exactly the same post match 'i don't know the answer' interviews.

[Woodcote Royal]

Spot on

Thanks for everything, Steve but your third post Christmas slump is one too many.

I really don't mind you telling the press every week that you haven't got a clue what's going wrong, I just object to the fact that the club I support has to pay you for this priceless observation and would prefer to have a manager who knows what he's doing.

There was a time when you fell into this category but not any more so, it would be nice if today was your last ..................we'll put the leaving present in the post.

[The 17 Bus]

If you believe that Coppell has no idea of what is wrong then you misjudge the man. He will not come out and tell us what is going on behind the scenes, never has and never will. He will not come out and tell us what he can, or cannot spend on players. He will not tell us what goes on between him and the Chairman, think back to some of the comments from Pardew when he left, perhaps a few here might then rethink and consider that the tight hold on the money is still happening at RFC, and there is not much that the manager can do about it.

[Schards#2]

Spot on

Thanks for everything, Steve but your third post Christmas slump is one too many.

I really don't mind you telling the press every week that you haven't got a clue what's going wrong, I just object to the fact that the club I support has to pay you for this priceless observation and would prefer to have a manager who knows what he's doing.

There was a time when you fell into this category but not any more so, it would be nice if today was your last ..................we'll put the leaving present in the post.

Woodcote Royal wrote re Coppell 28th Feb - Only a fool would want him sacked now.

Looks like Woodcote's proved his point for once.

[papereyes]

We spend money and wages on him and then loan him out to Norwich and bring back Kitson again without Mooney kicking a ball in the league for us.

2 in 2 now for Norwich is just adds another layer of "hmmm" to the dealing

[Barry the bird boggler]

Yes! He lost it 2 years ago as his transfer dealings have shown. Only Chris Armstrong and Noel Hunt have been a success (note that since Noel Hunt started not getting a game our results have nosedived) and Cisse a partial hit. Tabb never gets a game so no-one can rate him yet and Harding was just a pointless deal.

At least, though, we've tried a damn sight more in terms of signings than last year when we threw it all away by wasting time bringing in a luxury player and another whose level isn't much above the French 2nd Division.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Coppell has lost the plot big time.. His post match interviews carry confused quotes stating he does not know what the reason is for the loss of form, it's getting harder to win games a home, utter bo**ocks.

If you don't play any fooball to create chances from open play you don't win games.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Hughes played on the right.

No, he was being played on the left, HTH.

Royalee is correct

Although Hughes played a lot of his football on the right for us, most of his last season was spent on the left with Little on the right and Convey trying to get fit and adapt to life and football in England

Even Brooker kept Convey out of the side!

Brooker started 22 games that season, all on the left, I'd imagine. Hughes may have done quite a few shifts there, but probably not as many as Brooker.

Regardless, the point is that it wasn't about having the balls to play convey. Convey looked pretty useless in his first season - some nice little touches, but far too cautious and always looking for the safe pass rather than taking a gamble to try and create. It took Convey learning to adapt his game to get him in the team.

Given that Brooker was given a free at the end of the season, and Hughes wasn't capable of being anything other than a "utility player" for us (and generous as it was, I'm sure we could have turned down Norwich's bid for him if we really felt he was a vital part of the team) it doesn't really hint at Coppell being forced into anything. There are a lot a criticisms that can be levelled at Coppell, but one of his strengths is as a team-builder, and to suggest that the title-winning team of 2006 somehow just fell into his lap as a fluke is ridiculously blinkered.

[friday fan]

I don't think Sir Steve has lost it the players have. Now where do we go from here.

1. The fans get behind the team, it worked in the first season of the Prem and maybe the reason we got relegated was partly due to the pressure from the fans in the last 6 games - Answer to arrange more theme days like in the past and no negative vibes

2. Copell needs to change things around, I like the idea of

USA
Rosenior/Murty if he is fit
Bikey
Doobs
Pearce
Kebe
Bikey
Harper
Little
Kitson
Doyle

Bench ;

S Hunt
N Hunt
Feds
Matejovsky
Tabb

Now hereis what needs to be done with a bit of luck

win boths games in hand
Keep the results up with Birmingham and Wolves
Hope Wolves beet Birmingham on April 7
we beat Birmingham last game

beleive it or not the season is not dead we just need to believe and lift the team

[bottom left hand corner]

I don't think Sir Steve has lost it the players have. Now where do we go from here.

1. The fans get behind the team, it worked in the first season of the Prem and maybe the reason we got relegated was partly due to the pressure from the fans in the last 6 games - Answer to arrange more theme days like in the past and no negative vibes

2. Copell needs to change things around, I like the idea of

USA
Rosenior/Murty if he is fit
Bikey
Doobs
Pearce
Kebe
Bikey
Harper
Little
Kitson
Doyle

Bench ;

S Hunt
N Hunt
Feds
Matejovsky
Tabb

Now hereis what needs to be done with a bit of luck

win boths games in hand
Keep the results up with Birmingham and Wolves
Hope Wolves beet Birmingham on April 7
we beat Birmingham last game

beleive it or not the season is not dead we just need to believe and lift the team

Why no armstrong hes our player of the season IMHO