How many games has Rogers got left?

[brendywendy]

Idiot.

I thought she meant when we'd seen them play, not on the day they were signed.

how rude!
i thought she was quite clear

[Royal_Belly]

'greed hugo

enough promising signs for me to keep the faith so far.

i thoroughly enjoyed the game last night, apart from th eusual sinking feeling when their inevitable against the run of play goal came.though i thought o'dea was blatantly pushed over by burke before he scored, and it shouldnt have stood.
i certainly thought it was the best attacking showing so far, including barnsley IMO
the midfield of karacan, howard and matejovski was awesome in my opinion, a pleasure to watch, great tight control, and really penetrative passing.
add some width, and wed have swamped them IMO-considering they are 4th i thought we made them look pretty poor.
really glad to see brendan going a bit more attacking with only one DM, and two up front.
another improved showing IMO, and that win will come.
best atmosphere of the season so far aswell, and the players did receive a standing ovation for their good play, and work rate, every one stood, applauded and even managed a post whistle "song" which is a much better showing than the boos on saturday.



and as for this:

but when have we ever bought a player and thought "Wow - he's a quality signing!"

So when we bought the unknown cork city nobody for 30 p- you said wow- what a quality signing?
i dont think you really did.

No I didn't Brendy... thats the point I was making!!!

[brendywendy]

i know- see my reply to RL
i quoted you, then her, saying she was excited about kevin doyle, agreeing with you

but i somehow deleted it

either that or i reckon RL hacked my account and she deleted it!

[John Peel]

I don't think - no, hope actually - that we'll be in this situation come November. However, regardless of the fact that a) the heart of the football club has been torn out this summer with the sales and the lack of investment b) the team is young and inexperienced, and is still gelling, there is no way JM or the Board will stand for playing OK, but not scoring, if we're still in this position come the end of the year.

Six months would be enough to turn things around, if needed, and I therefore predict that December will be deadline he's given. I also believe myself that he should be given until that time too.

Look at Jim and Mick - they were given plenty of time and were basically in the exact same situation that we now face in terms of investment levels.

[howser]

To get rid of BR now would be a joke, who else would have taken this job with the, get rid of everyone who is worth anything, and everyone of the high earners and ,still be successful ! Give the man time he is going to do ok !!

One comment made me laugh this week was the Mr Ego " we broke the bank last year to get back to the Premiership" left me confused that one, what fortune did we spend, and on who ???????

[Terminal Boardom]

Will SJM get rid? Only if Nicky Hammond says so.

[papereyes]

a) the heart of the football club has been torn out this summer with the sales and the lack of investment

Talk is cheap, actions speak. He needs to deliever, he's had a lot of faith put in him with this rebuilding work and he's done far too much, far too soon imo.

The heart was gone at the end of the Premiership season. We offered a all-or-nothing offer to some players and got nothing.

Now, I just don't see how that is "Brick by brick" or even how it could be defended as such. We had 2 seasons from that peak in 2007 to start to build a second team and have chosen to do it now. We could have brought in young players to back up the academy players, to gradually replace the side of 05/06 and chose not to. A very short term viewpoint and its biting us on the arse a bit at the moment.

Furthermore, anyone who thinks things would be better under the previous manager - really? Given the form at the end of last season and the inevitable loss of the players (assuming the PL players were on the "1 season to get back up" deal)?

[SteveRoyal]

His contract runs for 3 years.
So... 3 years.

Also, you spelt his name wrong.

[floyd__streete]

His contract runs for 3 years.
So... 3 years.

I bet it is an uncomplicated life being Steve Royal isn't it? Enlighten us as to how you came up with your unusual and memorable username, by the way.

[John Peel]

One comment made me laugh this week was the Mr Ego " we broke the bank last year to get back to the Premiership" left me confused that one, what fortune did we spend, and on who ???????

I know what you mean, it does sound over the top, but big wages were spent to keep the top players. Doyle, USA, Hunt, Harper and Rosenoir would all have been on Premiership wages (maybe 20k or more depending on the player?). Plus we brought in two players who were on Premiership wages with Stoke and Portsmouth, which we would've had to pay in full. Lita would've been on a fair whack too and so was Doobs (incredibly!).

[Jeffers217]

How fickle can the Reading faithful be! I for one didn't see Reading play the kind of football they did on Wednesday for the whole of last season. We totally battered Cardiff and if we still had Doyle or a certain Lita up top it could have been a good 5-1 to us. We are playing much better football. I think the minority of positive supporters will be laughing when we are challenging for the title this time next season

[ZacNaloen]

If the club gets rid of Rodgers when things look so close to clicking together I may well lose patience with the clubs management, and I'm generally a patient person when it comes to the football club.


The only reason we had to be so drastic with our cloth cutting this season was because of the previous Regime and it is no reflection on Rodgers that he is struggling to get results this early, no matter what formation we play. It won't become a reflection until after christmas. Especially when pre-season looked so promising (i.e chelsea game)

[howser]

I agree with you Jeffers on all respects its is going to take a little time to gel it all together, but we will do ok with BR.

There was always the thought that it will take two to three months for this new team to start getting consistent results, and nothing has happened to change my mind on that.

[Maguire]

Depends on cup games I guess but if we make a couple of semi-finals over the next five years of Rodgers' reign then it could be quite a lot.

[floyd__streete]

How fickle can the Reading faithful be!

What exactly is fickle about thinking that RFC are going down the pisser? Fickle are the swathes of fans from the promotion and Premier League years who are staying away in their droves, those who put their money where their mouths are and actually attend matches shouldn't be described as fickle!

[Jeffers217]

I'm just sick and tired of fans who go and are only happy if we win. Last season there were many games we played when we won but the performance was dreadful.

This team have no reason to be booed IMO. Against Cardiff half were under 21- what the hell is booing gonna do for their confidence? I know it was generally a good reception after wed but not on sat or other games. Yer we lost and we need to win but I dunno if people were watching the same game as I did but I saw our lot totally rip into a top 6 team, we would never have dominated like that last season.

These young players have MASSIVE potential- esp Jem after his show the other day. They are making big steps of progress. For goodness sake if they keep making this amount of progress we will be in the play offs by the end of the season.

I love RFC but I hate the fact our fans are so negative- £16,000 is totally embarrassing for a big game. How the bloody hell do we ever hope to keep players like Marek and the others who have left when our own support can't give 2 flying monkies about making a match?
You losers can enjoy sitting in front of the TV- I'm off to Peterborough tomorrow.

[Terminal Boardom]

How fickle can the Reading faithful be! I for one didn't see Reading play the kind of football they did on Wednesday for the whole of last season. We totally battered Cardiff and if we still had Doyle or a certain Lita up top it could have been a good 5-1 to us. We are playing much better football. I think the minority of positive supporters will be laughing when we are challenging for the title this time next season

Taking the stats from the BBC, I would hardly say that we battered them:

Possession: 50/50
SonT: 6/5
SoffT 7/4

[floyd__streete]

Last season there were many games we played when we won but the performance was dreadful.

Agreed, but who cares? Playing badly and winning > playing well and losing.

Against Cardiff half were under 21

Again, who cares? This is the Championship, not a creche.

we would never have dominated like that last season.

You don't get points for possession.

These young players have MASSIVE potential- esp Jem after his show the other day.

I thought that Karacan was dreadful on Wednesay to be honest

£16,000 is totally embarrassing for a big game.

Is that how much a match ticket is, no wonder so many people stay away. If you think that supporters matter and influence a game in any way then you are very naive. Similarly, Hob Nob - this is just a big talking shop, a pantomime, an irrelevance, a cheaper alternative to hiring a therapist.

You losers can enjoy sitting in front of the TV- I'm off to Peterborough tomorrow.

So am I, see you there.

[Jeffers217]

Last season there were many games we played when we won but the performance was dreadful.

Agreed, but who cares? Playing badly and winning > playing well and losing.

Against Cardiff half were under 21

Again, who cares? This is the Championship, not a creche.

we would never have dominated like that last season.

You don't get points for possession.

These young players have MASSIVE potential- esp Jem after his show the other day.

I thought that Karacan was dreadful on Wednesay to be honest

£16,000 is totally embarrassing for a big game.

Is that how much a match ticket is, no wonder so many people stay away. If you think that supporters matter and influence a game in any way then you are very naive. Similarly, Hob Nob - this is just a big talking shop, a pantomime, an irrelevance, a cheaper alternative to hiring a therapist.

You losers can enjoy sitting in front of the TV- I'm off to Peterborough tomorrow.

So am I, see you there.

Well it wasn't a personal dig as you floyd street, just generally. How on earth could you think Karacan was dreadful? He ran the show mate. Yup maybe the possession stats prove a little different but you can't say it deserved to be anything else apart from a home win the other night the way we played and kept the ball.

In terms of fans and support...Stoke City. I don't think they would have finished so far up the table last season if it weren't for their support. I similarly don't think Newcastle would be doing this well this season if it wasn't for their following which is massive. We need to get behind the boys. We're very good at doing it when we play well but such a crap club when they are not which is y we get banter from other fans about how bad we are. Some people gave up on the club when we got relegated. I maybe one of the few who truely believe we can become an established Prem team in the long run. Let's not give up the hope now.

I like Brendan, he speaks well, he knows where the problem lies and he changes the team where he sees fit. Much better than the man we had in last season

[leon]

I like Brendan, he speaks well, he knows where the problem lies and he changes the team where he sees fit. Much better than the man we had in last season

Does he? Don't get me wrong- I think he is a bright young manager etc etc - but I'm not sure what he's done to solve our chronic lack of goals caused by absolutely no width whatsoever, and he doesn't look like learning any time soon.

I though the midfield played well on wednesday but that was because we had so many bodies in there - but how many times did we try and 1-2 our way down the middle of Cardiffs defence and run into a brick wall?

If that's "outstanding football" then forget it - we're not Barcelona. Give us some wingers and some balance, please.