Wakey wakey

[PEARCEY]

Pearce is a good prospect but club captain before he has even established himself in the side?

Ingi is club captain - HTH

Obviously. In his absence Pearce is captain.

HTH

[Archies Volley II]

Pearce is a good prospect but club captain before he has even established himself in the side?

Ingi is club captain - HTH

Obviously. In his absence Pearce is captain.

HTH

So Pearce has not been made club captain - so why claim it was an error to do so

[PEARCEY]

In my view it is an error to make him vice captain when the club captain may be out of the side for months. In effect Pearce becomes captain on the park where it matters most. He has not yet established himself in the side.
Its not rocket science.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

I said it after the nottingham forest game and ill say it now. it's all well and good having 90% of the ball, but it's what you do with the other 10% that counts.

if rodgers wants to play 4-5-1, we need a linking front man, something we don't have

[PEARCEY]

I said it after the nottingham forest game and ill say it now. it's all well and good having 90% of the ball, but it's what you do with the other 10% that counts.

if rodgers wants to play 4-5-1, we need a linking front man, something we don't have

I agree. The formation just isn't right at the moment. We are playing in a similar style to Swansea of last season but without someone of Jordi Gomez's ability in midfield to pull the strings or with a Jason Scotland type forward who can hold the ball and wait for support.

[ankeny]

Much as the young players are exciting to see come through we should have never got rid of so many players at the same time.We could have done with some old heads out there,simple as that.We are playing catch up already,Buck needs to buy quick or its a season of struggle.

[Royal Rother]

Other threads not good enough for you?

[2.8 lita injection]

Anyone would had thought we are in administration with all the players leaving, sometimes i think spending silly and going bust would had been easier to handle.

[Chaney]

playing catch up after two games?..get real for gods sake, a win on Tuesday are we are likely to be mid table, the table doesnt tell a true story till after 7 or 8 games

[MR. CYNICAL]

But where would a defeat on tuesday leave us?

[Archies Volley II]

In my view it is an error to make him vice captain when the club captain may be out of the side for months. In effect Pearce becomes captain on the park where it matters most. He has not yet established himself in the side.
Its not rocket science.

That is a fair statement and valid point for discussion - maybe because it was late last night but thought you seemed to be looing for things that were wrong and had "invented" one just to have a pop at it - sorry for the way I repsonded.

Anyway, to discuss, I think (as I am sure many others do) Pearce will be our captain long term so making him Vice captain first makes sense. At this time it is a lot of responsibility, argeed.

However, at the moment most of the team are yet to establish themselves and I would imagine the majority of the younger players now getting their chance (rightly or wrongly) have been captained by Pearce at youth and Reserve levels so maybe the decision is more about them than him?

[PEARCEY]

In my view it is an error to make him vice captain when the club captain may be out of the side for months. In effect Pearce becomes captain on the park where it matters most. He has not yet established himself in the side.
Its not rocket science.

That is a fair statement and valid point for discussion - maybe because it was late last night but thought you seemed to be looing for things that were wrong and had "invented" one just to have a pop at it - sorry for the way I repsonded.

Anyway, to discuss, I think (as I am sure many others do) Pearce will be our captain long term so making him Vice captain first makes sense. At this time it is a lot of responsibility, argeed.

However, at the moment most of the team are yet to establish themselves and I would imagine the majority of the younger players now getting their chance (rightly or wrongly) have been captained by Pearce at youth and Reserve levels so maybe the decision is more about them than him?

Dont worry....no need to apologise for expressing your view. Dont get me wrong. I would be chuffed to see Alex Pearce captain this side for the next decade. My 6 year old son is obviously a Pearce. His middle name is Alexander. He wears with pride Pearce on the back of his Reading shirt...
The problem I have is that Pearce is still learning and is making mistakes. He is a great prospect but should he be captaining the side in Ivar's absence? I dont think so. Its expecting a lot from him. I do accept your point that a lot of the players are used to him captaining them but jeez against experienced outfits its asking a lot of all of them.
I thought yesterday showed great promise at one stage in the first half but when we went 1-0 down my instinctive reaction was one of thinking defeat was inevitable. Partly because Newcastle would gain massive confidence from scoring and that our youngsters would then crumble.
Your argument that BR chose such a young side may have been forced upon him through injuries may also be valid. It may partly explain the selection and indeed justify it although I still thought the formation was wrong.

[Archies Volley II]

On the (vice) captain front I guess the question is who else could it have been?

As I see it there are 2 "old heads" who are well respected and looked up to at the club - Gunnar and Ingi - one of which has been made captain. As neither (due to age and fitness) are guaranteed to be first choice it would be a mistake to make the other vice captain.

The ideal choice in terms of experience, time at the club and fitness would be Harper - but that didn't really work out last year and with him possibly leaving in pre-season it would have been a non starter.

Looking through the squad in terms of age and experience who else is there? Hunt and Liam don't strike me as captain material..... Bikey would have been an "interesting" choice! Maybe USA should have been given one more year?

My point is at the time the decision was made there only seemed to be one candidate - maybe it is too soon and he does have much to learn (hopefully he learnt a leason yesterday he will not forget in a hurry!) and therefore it will not be great for the next few months but long term it could just be the making of him.

However, maybe his mistake yesterday would not have happened if he was just a young player trying to impress - maybe then he would have just chased the ball rather than turning to shout at/encourage (generally perform captains duties) the rest of the defence? It is a valid argument but from what I have seen of him he is a natural leader and would have done that whatever!

For what it is wiorth I can see us playing games this season with niether Pearce or Ingi on the pitch and Gunnar, Mills and possibly Smith (or A. N. Other new signing) wearing the arm band - just at the moment things have happened too fast and too soon. The game against the most experinced team in the biggest stadium after the longest journy just occured at the worst time - its over now and whist I am unsure how strong Newcastle will be over the whole season (how many of their starting 11 yesterday will still be there after Jan?!?) other teams will get beat by 3, 4, or even 5 up there this season.

[roberto_11]

As any monkey can see, we are struggling to score goals.

We need to get Marek dictating the play in the middle of the park, as he has the vision and creativity to open up defences.

We need to get a 20 goal a season striker (which Rodgers has said openly in the press we need, in order to replace Doyle).

Lastly we need another class winger to replace the lost camel rider that is Jimmy Kebe.

I like Robson-Kanu, he looks dangerous at time. But Church , Kebe and Long dont seem to be the answer with regards to creating chances and scoring enough goals.

If all these problem areas are sorted we will be comfortably mid table. Otherwise it will be a long old season Im afraid

[MartinRdg]

But where would a defeat on tuesday leave us?

Bottom?

[Royal Lady]

LOL @ Martin - that's funny coming from you!

[roberto_11]

At the moment expectation >>>> performance

We are coming out of the best era in Readings history. We obviously want to get back to that. I look at Wigan and see Reading as a similar story (relatively quick promotion up from Div 2 to Prem in the last few years) and I see us as a bigger club (fanbase, potential catchment area, stadium etc). Most of us subconsciously believe we should have been in their position after we finished 8th in 2007.

Why arent we in that position?

A few bad decisions by Coppell, mainly in the transfer market. Not replacing Seol properly when Little was injured for the season as he was so vital in creating chances for us. Wasting over 2 million on Emerse Fae then not giving him a chance, when we should have been spending it on a reliable centre back or someone like Dean Whitehead to properly replace Sidwell once it was clear that Cisse wasnt up to it. Being so loyal to Sonko when it was obvious he wasnt the same player before his injury and was costing us goals by the bucket load (Spurs away).

If you look at Wigan, the same season we finished 8th they had their very own 2nd season syndrome and only escaped with a last day win at Sheff Utd. If you survive the 2nd season you are able to spend more money and establish yourself much better. Every season in the Premier League is obviously worth so much more revenue than the Championship. Just look at Bolton aswell, and watch Sunderland fly this season. If we had not lost at home to Fulham that day we would have stayed up and may be in a similar position to them now.

Coppells bad decisions extended into our next season when his biggest frailtly as a manager was exposed for the 3rd time in 5 seasons, lack of trust in changing his system and dropping his favourites when it all goes pear shaped. We now need to cut our costs or end up like Southampton, where they pumped too much money into desperately trying to get back, and when the parachute payments ran out, UH OH. Out came the kids.

John Madejski is a very good businessman. As much as he can be frustratingly tight compared to other chairman at times, Im so glad we have him. He just wouldnt run the club into a position like Southamptons of this world. Hes overly cautious. That means that we will always live within our means. Hes not a Dave Whelan type sugar daddy figure that is keeping Wigan afloat. He knows the parachute payments are up next year, and so selling the crown jewells is the only option in his eyes to make sure we dont run out of of money.

Unfortunately bad decisions and management by Coppell cost us our chance to establish ourselves in the Premiership. The only reason he stayed in the job for 2 years of being rubbish was the fact that he the 106 season blinkered everyone for a while after. Maybe it was complacency with that crop of players aswell.

As a club we are in a new era where we are starting again. We just cant afford to take the risk to go straight back up. I heard that if Birmingham hadnt gone up last year they would have been in serious trouble, as they had spent so much moeny.

Rodgers is the person to rebuild a good young team, and in a few years take us back up. Players like Mills show the sort he is looking for. Good young talent who will be able to play in the Prem. Thats got to be better than the shite like Brooker and Owusu that people forget Coppell signed when just started. Give him a chance, it will be a tough season but we wont get relegated. JM just wont let it happen, and we know he has the money in the bank for signings in case an of an emergency, unlike the Charltons and Southamptons of this world.

[winchester_royal]

Delete this please mods.

Sensible posts aren't allowed on this board.

[Arch]

It will be quietly retired to the pasture of another thread where it won't disturb the sensibilities of the easily offended.

And even as I write!

[The Quiet Man]

Disagree with you Roberto, difference between us and Wigan was that their chairman publicly stated he was determined to stay in the premier league and was prepared to spend £20 to 30 million of his own money to do so - our chairman publicly said he would not bankroll premier league football and was actively looking to sell. After we were relegated there was, as far as I understand, a clause in Coppell's contract that basically said he was sacked, all JM had to do was say sorry Steve time to go and he would have gone, as it was Coppell himself was unconvinced whether to stay and was convinced by a car park demonstration and the arguments of his chairman to stay. A number of fans myself included felt on balance he should have gone and we should had the rebuild we are doing now last season but I'm a fan not an owner.

I love what Madjeski has done for RFC but he is not and does not aspire to be a premier league chairman at any cost (doesn't stop appearing on camera or in the press at every opportunity when we were there). I've no problem with how rich or not he is, it is his money to do what he will with it and if there was anybody else out there prepared to take over the club and finance it he would sell.