They must have been so pleased with themselves; they made some pro Coppell banners, turned a piece of concrete into a shrine, chanted his name for a couple of hours and even made it onto the local radio. However, I believe very strongly, it was those fateful couple of hours that have been the real reason as to why we are where we are!
It would have been better for both club and manager to part company then rather than a season later, leaving the club and in particular the “faithful Reading fans” with broken dreams of no promotion and then a host of top named players leaving the club due to ambitions moving in different directions and Sir Madskints strict policy on wage caps within the club, after all a chairman who wants to sell a business should be interested in having zero debt in the books regardless of the fans feelings.
If the chairman and manager had parted company at the point of the clubs relegation, it would have sparked a new interest in the club with a host of managers, tried and tested ones, banging on Sir Madskint door. With RFC recently releasing their financial details, it was clear that they were prepared to keep their star players, Doyle, Hunt, Bikey & eventually Kitson to name a few to have one last shot at getting back to the big time. With Coppell deciding to stay the players even brought on to the idea that Reading would go straight back up! It is at this point the final nail in the coffin was firmly banged in!
The players needed freshening up with new idea’s and new beliefs coming in on the pitch and around the training ground and I’m afraid to say, keeping Coppell at the club didn’t spark any new enthusiasm, nor did it provoke any reaction for the clubs “seasoned” premier league stars. If anything, it brought them a guaranteed starting place in Coppell’s plans knowing that the failure of promotion would give them an exit from the club come what May.
If Coppell had decided to go and the players had decided that without Coppell they would go too, it would have left the club with a new manager (probably one that was capable and with promotion experience, perhaps someone like Alan Curbishley), with the funds for transfers and new players looking to prove themselves at a club with one main aim in the season - promotion at all costs!
Doyle, Hunt & co didn’t live up to their previous billing in the league and towards the end of the campaign, perhaps like the manager, had already decided that this was going to be their last season at the club. I mean why would they want to fight for promotion when things got tough in the league, I’ll tell you why – the club had already given them a golden ticket out of the championship by offering them an out if promotion failed!
If you ask me it was because the manager was already in the USA watching his son play golf, he was already on the continent scouting coaching routines for his next job in football.
Fans of the parking space protest you have a lot to answer for!
