RODGERS OUT. END OF

[Focher]

what does AICMFP stand for????

Well, it's actually And I Claim My Five Pounds, but it could be And I Can Manipulate Failing Prostates

That's a foul lie! I cannot and would not manipulate a prostate, you would have to do that via someones dirt-box and I'm not sticking anything up one of those!!!

Royal Lady and Russell St love all that caper

[Focher]

STOP calling me old lady.

Sorry middle aged lady.

[Mr Controversial]

Last Night - I was furious and at the end of my tether - I could be heard calling for Rodgers to be sacked.

However, having slept on it and thought about it in more detail - I actually feel sorry for him.

He is still very young and inexperienced in football management.

Before coming to Reading he would have seen this as his ideal job and when it became available he would have ensured he was in the prime position to take it.

I have no doubt he was a yes man to Madejski at the interview stage and I am certain that his relationships he carried over from working with our players in the youth team played in his favour. I am sure he over egged his connections to Chelsea, he played on his youth and enthusiasm and the fact he geuinely seems likes a nice chap all stacked up in the decision to appoint him...but I cant help feeling his is out of his depth....for now.

Brendan will be a good manager (one day) and the challenge presented to him at Reading was too big for a manager with ten times his experience.

I feel for Brendan - should he lose his job at Reading then I think his mangement career will be all but over at this level which is a shame because I truely belive that in time, and with experience he will become a great manager.

Add to the above the fact that "The Club" have sold off any decent players we had and Madejski has publically announced his intentions to bugger off. How is Brendan to deal with this?

I say keep Rogers but accept that a minimal result this year will be for Reading to remain in the Championship after all a top half finish is all but gone in my eyes anyway . I would ask where his back room staff are and why they dont appear to be supporting him, perhaps Brendan has allowed his position to go to his head and he feels he doesnt need to listen to them?- but hearing him talk last night made me realise that he has been hurt - AND LEARNT from our present predicament.

I wouldnt wonder if Brendan has perhaps realised some of his own short comings and will look to fix these next but he cant do that with us all on his back. I think now he may have seen that he believed his own hype and that has to change.

I say bring in some support staff (Wally Downes, Coppell etc) as assitants to Brendan adn do this ASAP. Then Sack the Board but most importantly - Get behind the team!

[Focher]

[Wimb]

The thing I find most disturbing is BR going from, "this a great club and we will be challenging for promotion and europe, world class etc etc" type quotes.

To "this is a massive task" and "people don't understand" and various quotes about the job by others, that it is a "poisoned chalice" What utter bullshit"

A marvellous set up, good ground, fanbase, academy, recent success, large squad, decent players with experience etc.

Admittedly cautious and limited spending and some frailties still doesn't sound like the most difficult situation in football.

We get BR, we are pleased, we hope for the best, he fails, he now whinges about how bad it all is and in the meantime Ian Holloway quietly goes about his business of winning football games as do many other less flamboyant managers.

We made a mistake, time for change and to move on, it's your call SJM, "piss or get off the pot"

RODGERS OUT!

So you've never gone into a situation thinking 1 thing and then finding its another? Have you ever been to a film by your favourite director, starring your favourite film stars, a film your mates tell you is awesome, only to see it and find it's shit?

You can talk about facilities and recent success but what do they do for you? No matter how good the training ground and the stadium its the players on it who count. As for recent success? We've had 4 good months in 24 ffs. We were relegated in the tamest of fashions with reports of rifts in the dressing room and a manager almost walking away 12 months removed from our best ever finish. We then had a shite start to last season, losing to relegation fodder like Charlton and getting slammed at Ipswich. Somehow we manage to go on a run of form that many say flattered us. Before we slump spectacularly to the point that even with our 'best ever manager' 'good supportive crowds' Kevin Doyle, Andre Bikey, James Harper, Liam Rosenior, Stephen Hunt and Leroy Lita in our team we can't beat the likes of Barnsley, Blackpool, Forest, Southampton etc

Funnily enough we're not winning those games now... perhaps, just perhaps we were in far bigger shit then many would like to believe we were under SSC. The rot had well and truely set in amongst the 'experience and quality' of the side and turning that around was a job even SSC didn't fancy.

So I ask, what the hell was Rodgers supposed to do and say when he came here then? Hindsight is a oxf*rd great thing isn't it and some people will use the stick of hindsight to beat down Rodgers until he's out the club.

Would people have been happy if he said, "We're going to really be up against it this season, you can expect some big names to be sold and you'll have to endure some awful performances until we get it right" SOME PEOPLE might have just accepted that, but those aren't the people that are putting the most pressure on Rodgers now.

I cannot for the life of me understand why the optimism of a passionate man is being used to crucify him. In any other walk of life would you hate your boss for building up your abilities and telling you you had the potential to perform at a higher level?
If memory serves me right our former manager took a group consisting of many players with mediocre ability and turned them into a top 10 PL side.

On top of all this you could regularly hear, even in the closing days of the PL, calls for 'fresh blood' and the chance to 'let the kids play'
How many threads have we seen about Simon Cox, James Henry, Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce over the last 2 years? Similarly how many Rosenior is shit, Harper is shit, Doobs is shit, GET HUNT OUT, USA is past it, Lita is a bad influence conversations and threads have we seen and heard?

So then this man comes in. The 'deadwood' is swept away, and the last of the Coppell brigade is ushered out, saving money and giving fresh talent a chance. However people watch us on the tele against Newcaste and see us fail to beat Forest and Donny and suddenly "WE NEED NEW PLAYERS"

Rodgers then signs new players, and he's slated for 'ditching his policy with the kids' Rodgers then sticks with his new signings even when results don't come straight away and he's slated for being over loyal to his own signings. Then he drops some signings and "he rotates too much"

Honestly if you think this guy could EVER win over the fanbase without being in the top 6 then you're deluded. We are all a bunch of fickle fans, spoiled by success and channelling frustrations out on 1 man who's just walked into an almost impossible situation.

Now he's admitted that maybe despite his hopes and early impressions we might not be good enough to get where he wants us too straight away. Low and behold now people are coming out and slating him

I don't know what I expect from an internet forum other then bollox (from myself included) Success takes time, patience, frustration, trial and error. 0.1% of managers come straight into a team and have instant success, especially at the higher levels with limited resources. Whatever you might think, we do have fairly limited resources and we do need to 'cut our cloth' unless you wish to be down with Bradford.... Fans can live in the economic dreamland if they wish. They can accuse SJM of funnelling all the Premier League gold into his hotel, and say Coppell was never given money to strengthen.

But those same people then ignore free public accounts, testemonies from respected people within the game, and even Coppell himself after he left the club saying he should and could have strengthened. Even when we do spend money it's then 'not enough' just because we made XXX amount more. Once again people refuse to accept that we may actually need that money to SURVIVE and be viable as a club without a sugardaddy. If you have a 3 bedroom house in Surrey you can pay the mortgauge if you're on a 50k a year job. But then if you get a a 20k job you're not going to be able to afford it now are you?

God knows why I've bothered with this essay, those who it's directed at won't read it anyway. But that's my frustations vented anyway.

So go on BR turn this ship around and GIVE UM HELL SON!

[rhroyal]

I'd be so happy to let Rodgers gain his experience here and build himself up as good manager and build up a good team over the years. However that can't happen if we go down. I still think Rodgers will learn and the team will improve in the long term, it's just that we could very well find ourselves back in League 1 in the short term. That's why I want him out.

[Alan Partridge]

Wimb, I would be fully supportive of giving a new man time to change things if I felt he had some idea of what he was trying to achieve. If he had some idea of a system that suits the players available, if he had some idea of who his best team was, even if it was 7 or 8 players with 3 or 4 places up for grabs. THe problem for Rodgers, he doesn't have a bloody clue.

His selections are all over the place, he changes formations mid game in nearly every match, he's bought a load of dross. We are awful in front of goal but we aren't even tough to breakdown. Even Swansea who have struggled for goals this year are resiliant enough at the back to grind out a few draws and go to a place like WBA and collect 3 points. Reading can't. They are lambs to the slaughter at the minute in any game they go to.

There is no direction, and no idea from the man in charge. I don't doubt his work ethic or his passion for the job, but he simply is out of his depth managing a sinking ship with less than a years experience in how to do the job.

[winchester_royal]

I think we've managed to reach a reasonable consensus here. Rodgers hasn't been good enough, but he isn't the reason we find ourselves in the shite position that we do now. He was made to sell our highest earners and in the case of Howard and Cummings had to find a replacement sharpish without having time to actually make a judgement The senior pros have given up on him, and the youngsters aren't all that we thought they might be. He is now the scapegoat, and Madejski and Hammond are happy to keep it that way

[facaldaqui]

Wimb, I agree with what you say. But there's still the issue of poor tactics and apparent ineptitude. If Rodgers showed signs of getting somewhere, I think he'd have more support. He did have it after the defeats by Cardiff and Sheffield and draws with Forest and Donny, because the fans could see how close those games were. When the team appears to be confused and lacking in backbone, that's when the fans object. It's normal.

[rhroyal]

Wimb's post might be the best ever. Like I said, I was happy to let Rodgers and his team take time to gel and improve together. I viewed him as an appointment with a long term view and sense of perspective. However relegation in the short term will ruin absolutely everything that Coppell and Pardew did between then - it is not a risk we can take.

[winchester_royal]

Wimb's post might be the best ever. Like I said, I was happy to let Rodgers and his team take time to gel and improve together. I viewed him as an appointment with a long term view and sense of perspective. However relegation in the short term will ruin absolutely everything that Coppell and Pardew did between then - it is not a risk we can take.

Sacking Rodgers right now would make very little difference though. The current squad isn't good enough, their confidence is shot, and not even Mourinho himself could turn it round. In January if we're still in this position then fair enough, but there is no point now and it would just cause more disruption.

[Royal With Cheese]

Wimb's post might be the best ever. Like I said, I was happy to let Rodgers and his team take time to gel and improve together. I viewed him as an appointment with a long term view and sense of perspective. However relegation in the short term will ruin absolutely everything that Coppell and Pardew did between then - it is not a risk we can take.

Sacking Rodgers right now would make very little difference though. The current squad isn't good enough, their confidence is shot, and not even Mourinho himself could turn it round. In January if we're still in this position then fair enough, but there is no point now and it would just cause more disruption.

But it could be said getting a new manager in before the transfer window opens will give that person more options to change the squad come the window opening.

[Mr Controversial]

I think we've managed to reach a reasonable consensus here. Rodgers hasn't been good enough, but he isn't the reason we find ourselves in the shite position that we do now. He was made to sell our highest earners and in the case of Howard and Cummings had to find a replacement sharpish without having time to actually make a judgement The senior pros have given up on him, and the youngsters aren't all that we thought they might be. He is now the scapegoat, and Madejski and Hammond are happy to keep it that way

+1

Especially the scapegoat part

[facaldaqui]

Exactly, Royal with Cheese. If there's one good thing about our bad run it's that it's come early enough for something to be done about it. Why allow Rodgers to bring in more players at Christmas to fit this system of his that is failing? We need a manager who will change the tactics, play two strikers, and make sure we get some shots in.

[ROKERITE]

The thing I find most disturbing is BR going from, "this a great club and we will be challenging for promotion and europe, world class etc etc" type quotes.

To "this is a massive task" and "people don't understand" and various quotes about the job by others, that it is a "poisoned chalice" What utter bullshit"

A marvellous set up, good ground, fanbase, academy, recent success, large squad, decent players with experience etc.

Admittedly cautious and limited spending and some frailties still doesn't sound like the most difficult situation in football.

We get BR, we are pleased, we hope for the best, he fails, he now whinges about how bad it all is and in the meantime Ian Holloway quietly goes about his business of winning football games as do many other less flamboyant managers.

We made a mistake, time for change and to move on, it's your call SJM, "piss or get off the pot"

RODGERS OUT!

So you've never gone into a situation thinking 1 thing and then finding its another? Have you ever been to a film by your favourite director, starring your favourite film stars, a film your mates tell you is awesome, only to see it and find it's shit?

You can talk about facilities and recent success but what do they do for you? No matter how good the training ground and the stadium its the players on it who count. As for recent success? We've had 4 good months in 24 ffs. We were relegated in the tamest of fashions with reports of rifts in the dressing room and a manager almost walking away 12 months removed from our best ever finish. We then had a shite start to last season, losing to relegation fodder like Charlton and getting slammed at Ipswich. Somehow we manage to go on a run of form that many say flattered us. Before we slump spectacularly to the point that even with our 'best ever manager' 'good supportive crowds' Kevin Doyle, Andre Bikey, James Harper, Liam Rosenior, Stephen Hunt and Leroy Lita in our team we can't beat the likes of Barnsley, Blackpool, Forest, Southampton etc

Funnily enough we're not winning those games now... perhaps, just perhaps we were in far bigger shit then many would like to believe we were under SSC. The rot had well and truely set in amongst the 'experience and quality' of the side and turning that around was a job even SSC didn't fancy.

So I ask, what the hell was Rodgers supposed to do and say when he came here then? Hindsight is a oxf*rd great thing isn't it and some people will use the stick of hindsight to beat down Rodgers until he's out the club.

Would people have been happy if he said, "We're going to really be up against it this season, you can expect some big names to be sold and you'll have to endure some awful performances until we get it right" SOME PEOPLE might have just accepted that, but those aren't the people that are putting the most pressure on Rodgers now.

I cannot for the life of me understand why the optimism of a passionate man is being used to crucify him. In any other walk of life would you hate your boss for building up your abilities and telling you you had the potential to perform at a higher level?
If memory serves me right our former manager took a group consisting of many players with mediocre ability and turned them into a top 10 PL side.

On top of all this you could regularly hear, even in the closing days of the PL, calls for 'fresh blood' and the chance to 'let the kids play'
How many threads have we seen about Simon Cox, James Henry, Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce over the last 2 years? Similarly how many Rosenior is shit, Harper is shit, Doobs is shit, GET HUNT OUT, USA is past it, Lita is a bad influence conversations and threads have we seen and heard?

So then this man comes in. The 'deadwood' is swept away, and the last of the Coppell brigade is ushered out, saving money and giving fresh talent a chance. However people watch us on the tele against Newcaste and see us fail to beat Forest and Donny and suddenly "WE NEED NEW PLAYERS"

Rodgers then signs new players, and he's slated for 'ditching his policy with the kids' Rodgers then sticks with his new signings even when results don't come straight away and he's slated for being over loyal to his own signings. Then he drops some signings and "he rotates too much"

Honestly if you think this guy could EVER win over the fanbase without being in the top 6 then you're deluded. We are all a bunch of fickle fans, spoiled by success and channelling frustrations out on 1 man who's just walked into an almost impossible situation.

Now he's admitted that maybe despite his hopes and early impressions we might not be good enough to get where he wants us too straight away. Low and behold now people are coming out and slating him

I don't know what I expect from an internet forum other then bollox (from myself included) Success takes time, patience, frustration, trial and error. 0.1% of managers come straight into a team and have instant success, especially at the higher levels with limited resources. Whatever you might think, we do have fairly limited resources and we do need to 'cut our cloth' unless you wish to be down with Bradford.... Fans can live in the economic dreamland if they wish. They can accuse SJM of funnelling all the Premier League gold into his hotel, and say Coppell was never given money to strengthen.

But those same people then ignore free public accounts, testemonies from respected people within the game, and even Coppell himself after he left the club saying he should and could have strengthened. Even when we do spend money it's then 'not enough' just because we made XXX amount more. Once again people refuse to accept that we may actually need that money to SURVIVE and be viable as a club without a sugardaddy. If you have a 3 bedroom house in Surrey you can pay the mortgauge if you're on a 50k a year job. But then if you get a a 20k job you're not going to be able to afford it now are you?

God knows why I've bothered with this essay, those who it's directed at won't read it anyway. But that's my frustations vented anyway.

So go on BR turn this ship around and GIVE UM HELL SON!

I agree with your post. I hope in a year or so a lot of people will be feeling rather foolish that they judged so soon.

[The Quiet Man]

Excellent argument Wimb but I think you are wrong in your assumptions.

Football management, as opposed to coaching/managing Academy sides, is a very very tough business where you are either good enough or you're not based on results on the pitch, and there is no room for sentiment either side (you are also well paid for the pressure).

Plenty of managers have taken over good sides and run them into the ground and plenty have taken bad sides and made them better, some times you are the right guy at the right time, other times you could be the best manager in the world but you are at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I don't doubt BR's heart is in the right place but the championship is an unrelently grim struggle where there are no absolutely awful sides (although we are certainly trying to nail this one at the moment) and you get results based on how consistently you compete and win close fought games. You simply don't have the time to d*ck about finding your best side or best suited tactics you need to go in with a game plan that reflects the assets you have got, not the fantasy team you would like to create.

BR has failed to produce a consistent team selection, a recognised tactical strategy that makes the most of what he has got (i.e. don't play premier league passing football in the champ, don't play one up front when you have no one in the side who has pace and is good at it), and has never shown a sense that he knows where the remedy is (his transfer policy has been absolute toilet bringing in players that are actually worse than we have at present).

RFC used to have as one of its key motivators - we may not have the best players but we will have the fittest and most competitive to make up for that - can you say the same now. We have one of the most uncompetitive midfields I've seen at Reading, we look unfit, we have used over thirty players, 5 or 6 different tactical formations, and have no discernable shape when things go against us. In other words BR has built a classic relegation side that starts brightly and fades badly, often completely falling apart when put under pressure.

Sacking him and appointing someone new may or may not be the answer, I'd see it as a acknowledgement of just how far wrong SJM and hapless hammond have got this season (and the last two in terms of team building), and I'd fully expect that relegation may only be avoided by a whisker anyway as a result of the strategy they have pursued. This should not be BR's fight anymore because he is clueless about the answers and has now lost many of the players and most of the travelling support, neither of whom have much faith that he, or the rest of the coaching staff know what they are doing.

I'd go for change while we still have a chance to reshape the team under someone who knows what championship football is about and we still have the majority of the relegation 6 pointers to play (we have only really screwed up Peterborough away so far). It will not be pretty passing football that will get us out of this mess but physical hard work, ugly football (stopping the opposition) and defensive solidity (we do not have many goals in us) that will allow us to escape division one. Rodgers time has come and gone and so should he.

[Dorset-Knob]

Wimb made some very good points as do other 'nobbers' The consensus comment conclusion is where I find myself, there are little or no signs of the improvements BR was going to bring.

We are in the shit and the timing suggests that and experienced manager could still keep us in the division.

I would have settled for that when SSC left, given that a period of reconstruction was probably necessary, but at present we seem to be going back to the drawing board and that is unacceptable.

It is on BR's watch, it is his responsibility, managers are judged on results and performance trends are taken into consideration.

The team is singularly failing, and there are no signs of improvement anywhere so far as I can see, in fact things seem to be imploding!

Therefore the options are do nothing and hope for the best or make a change, I'm for change please!!!

[Ark Royal]

“I wanted to give people chances, and there's no doubt I thought we would have more than ten points from 12 games. But, I’ve given players an opportunity.”

This worries me: it's not the school team. You don't pick players because you want to give them a chance, you pick them because you think they are the best. If you don't know who's best, that's a problem. Coppell didn't give people chances; he'd keep certain players in the reserves for long spells, even when fans were baying for them to have a chance--Matejovsky and Bikey spring to mind, not to mention most of the youngsters. Mind you, Rodgers hasn't exactly given Matejovsky much of a chance.

Agreed. That is the most oxf*rd clueless, bonkers statement I have ever heard. oxf*rd me, I coach 13-year old girls and even I know what my best team is and play them and I work with them two days a week, not seven! This guy is a clueless completecunt and it really begs the question of what does he fcuking do all week? And what the oxf*rd do his backroom staff do? Sit around all day and watch their dicks grow smaller?

I am so fcking angry that my club has been systematically taken apart.

RODGERS OUT!

[Royal Lady]

Perhaps Mr Mad should get rid of Austin and Lampard Senior for a start - maybe grovel to Dillon & Downes and see if they'll step into the breech. If Rodgers doesn't like it, he can resign - mission accomplished!

[brendywendy]

my 4 step plan for sorting this mess out:

1:give BR till december 1st.-giving a good number of games vs average-low quality opponents in which to turn things round/asses how we are really doing
2:bring in M.allen/wally downes/kevin dillon/adie williams/whoever to help inject some fizz to training
3:JM to back the manager with wage funds for loan/free transfers- specifically of strikers
4:if that dont work, throw out the baby and the bath water and start again with a new , experienced manager- who has 1 month to assess the squad in dec. before being able to supplement it further in jan- JM needs to speculate to accumulate here- as in div 1, we will make bigger losses, and be worth even less in resale value


's what i reckon