Reading are crap

[Agent Balti]

That Roger Titford fella came and sat with us once in a pub on an away game - he seemed to know exactly who I was - didn't realise he read this board tbf. That Fenn bloke doesn't speak for me very often in the E-Po - maybe he should log on here and find out what fans think and convey these thoughts to his little weekly column.

His views are almost anti-football IMO

"View from the Southbank"

I thought it was just me. I feel like twatting him every time I read his sanctimonious shoite. Makes my teeth itch. (Must see the dentist about that.)

[Terminal Boardom]

Although I agree with the sentiments of the originator of this thread, I want to add a few points.

1) The title SHOULD have been 'Football is crap', not 'Reading is crap'. A lot of what happens at the MadStad happens at many many other league grounds/clubs....you just don't realise it.

2) The expense. I just don't get this ! 350 quid for 23 league games....just over 15 quid a game. These prices compare very favourably to the majority of clubs in our division. And folks who bleat on about 7-10 quid to park...there are TWO carparks down Acre Road that charge £5.

3) The atmosphere at the MadStad. Moaning about RFC fans chanting this or that....go sit at a Coventry home game !!...you can hear a flea fart.

4) Those that state they rather go watch non-league / Reading Town whatever. Go and do it. You might be able to get a pint quicker, but the game/standard/crowd etc will be as dull as ditch-water.

5) In my view, the biggest culprit is SKY. They have turned a working mans game into an over-hyped circus...which sadly attracts a different type of 'football fan'. Anyone can cancel their SKY subscription in protest...but in truth, the millions of armchair fans will always far outweigh any protest via subscription cancellations.

Everyone has a right to their opinion....free speech and all that. Personally speaking, much as I cringe at some the things I now see at football (and certainly not just at the MadStad) my love affair with this ruddy club seems to have infiltrated by blood stream and I just can not stop supporting the club I have followed for 4 decades. Reading born and bred.

Funnily enough, I have been able to do 4 non league games for the cot of one Reading home game plus parking

As for the quality of football, sure - it is not Champions League but there is the positive of honesty and integrity amongst the players. Technically there are some very good footballers outside the Football League but mostly they are undone by the pitch quality and fitness. I have seen some stunning goals scored which would not be out of place in the higher levels of the game. Try it sometime. You might actually enjoy it

And the beer is of a much better quality than you would get in the Mad Stad

Point 5 re SKY - Watch the game in your local

Well if the beer is better, and it is so much cheaper, and the goals are so much more stunning.....makes you wonder why Windsor's average gate is 250, and Reading's is over 15, 000

You have already answered this in your own point 5

NL football is a great unknown to many because it does not get the exposure in the media. Fair enough I suppose but I like it that way. There is a twice weekly newspaper devoted solely to NL football so those that have discovered the untapped gem can keep abreast of developments across the pyramid.

Each to their own

[RoyalBlue]

There is also at least one very good monthly magazine devoted to non-league football.

[pea]

I grew up supporting Reading and also Wimbledon as it wasn't cool in school to not support a Premier League time. Then I went to University and Reading were the Premier League team and I could get a Wimbledon season ticket for £60 and watch them climb the non-league ladder

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

I really wonder when it came to the crunch how many of you moaners would actually rather been back in the 70s in front of 3,000 fans watching us either:-

- getting spanked by Rochdale in the 4th Division
...

Had to check that as they only spanked us once, and that was season 83/84, any other defeats were by a single goal. FFS that's sad that I doubted they used to spank us, any real(sic) fan would have used Bury as the example.

[RoyalBlue]

I really wonder when it came to the crunch how many of you moaners would actually rather been back in the 70s in front of 3,000 fans watching us either:-

- getting spanked by Rochdale in the 4th Division
...

Had to check that as they only spanked us once, and that was season 83/84, any other defeats were by a single goal. FFS that's sad that I doubted they used to spank us, any real(sic) fan would have used Bury as the example.

Oh, isn't that true! The absolute definitive of a bogey team!

[Victor Meldrew]

I was there in the days of no money - demanding Frank Waller out, early 80s - and it goes back to the same old thing - in those days there was no real expectation - if we were top half of div 3 we thought we were doing well. Yes, we've been spoiled by success over the years - but who doesn't want to see their team do well and now having experienced the Prem League and top half of the championship, why shouldn't we aspire to do well again?

Agreed RL.
Having seen Reading in the Premier League with Premier League-quality players turning out for us such as Marcus,Shorey,Sidwell,Doyle,Kitson and Little etc I want to see us there again.
I don't want to watch Scunthorpe,Barnsley and Millwall,I want to see us playing (and as in that great first season sometimes matching)the likes of Liverpool,Man Utd and Chelsea.
I want to see the best players around at our stadium as we did not so long ago in Gerrard,Ronaldo and Henry.

We didn't pay much more money to see these star players and now what do we see on a Saturday afternoon?
3 little strikers and defenders who can't defend.
We have one player,Gylfi who just might be up to Premier League standard and two wingers who are very good at Championship level but the rest are Div1 standard or at best the lower reaches of The Championship.

The fall from grace has happened so quickly-it took us about 10 years to build a team good enough to get there and 2 years for it all to fall apart.
During those 10 years the club didn't flinch at spending nearly £1 million on a number of individual players and yet here we now are scrapping around for free transfer or loan players.
We may well soon have one of the better stadia in Div 1 and an Academy that produces a lot of players who turn out to be around Div1 standard.

The disappointment that I (and many others) feel at the dreadful management of our club (management at all levels) is immense-the club just threw away membership of the Premier League because of arrogance and a King Canute attitude as we became one of that long list of clubs to be too good to go down.
I don't want to see a team playing with a dwarf up front hoping to get on the end of scraps or defenders that panic when they have time on the ball-I can see that in non-league football for a few quid.

When I first started watching Reading the old-timers all came out with the "Reading don't want promotion" line and being naiive I thought they were talking nonsense but over 50 years later I now feel the same as them,possibly being due to attaining old-timer status myself.
So for me it is the wasted opportunity to consolidate that hurts and watching our team this season I feel that really we are not very good-"crap"is not a word I use particularly about players because I think of them as just playing at a higher level than they really should be.
I feel let down by the club and "love" has become "mutual friends" and it is now no longer a passionate long term love affair but a celibate relationship,still a relationship as we are trapped by where we happen to be born but now a celibate one.

[Royal Lady]

Totally agree Victor.

I even said to Schards when we walking up to the stadium on Tuesday night "when it gets really cold, I might not bother coming to games" - I've never thought like that before. But, personally, I can't see us going anywhere this season (with the possible exception of down) and what galls me is that you get all excited when the new season is about to start, wondering which players we might sign etc etc - you hear the "our aim is to be back in the Prem" and you believe it, but this year, I believe it's just rhetoric, we're not going to bring in any exciting talent/or a big name who isn't wanted in the Prem, but still wants to play good football - we're just stagnating and I can think of plenty of other things these days that I'd rather be doing.

We went to a non-league game at the end of last season and the ability to walk around the pitch and "change ends" at half time - for the ref to actually hear you shout at him and to see a bunch of lads just enjoying their football and wanting to win, gave me far more pleasure than sitting at the Mad Stad has recently.

[FiNeRaIn]

I'm not interested in watching " big stars" come to play Reading - so I cannot understand what you two are on about. I want to watch us win things and progress as far as we can, I don't care who we play and whose on the opposition team because I go to watch Reading. The only opposition player i've actually noticed this season was Thornton ( Num 4) for Northampton the other night because he was so far above anyone on the pitch. I didn't care to see Ronaldo prancing around our pitch like a oxf*rd, same with Rooney or gerrard and his non-goal celebrations because he expects to beat little clubs like us, we are an inconvenience to him.
I cringe everytime BBCRB go on about playing the " big boys" in the next round of the League Cup. I don't care who we play - I want to get as far as we can. This small time mentality is exactly why Reading will always be a little club.
I actually enjoyed Elm Park and and going on away days in division two far more than I have the last few years. Football is getting worse by every year now. I may turn my attentions to the bundesliga where the balance there is brilliant.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

I may turn my attentions to the SPL where the balance there is brilliant.

[RoyalBlue]

Victor Meldrew and Royal Lady express my sentiments perfectly.

The 'love' of RFC is being sorely tested at present. Yes, our season tickets cost us not an insignificant amount of money but quite frankly leisure time is even more difficult to get and precious when it exists. That's why it is so disheartening to spend it watching the dire 'entertainment' currently offered up by RFC in the interests of the Mad man's cloth cutting. My 18 year old son has already had enough of the empty rhetoric, promises and ultimate disappointment/boredom/dreadful football offered by the club. Only my 15 daughter looks forward to the games in the hope that this week might prove different.

[Royal Lady]

I meant "stars" in the sense that someone who was well-known - it would draw in more people (even if only for the short term) - look at Edgar Davids - sure he might be knocking on a bit, and I'm not saying we should pay silly money/wages for someone like him, but don't you think the fans at Palace are buzzing a little right now - having the chance to see him, hoping he might inject something into the team to help them do well, or whatever.

We have nothing to be "buzzing" about right now - and the fact is, we all know we have no money and if we do spend some money, it will be on wages for a free transfer like Williams or something similar. We've all started to realise that the "glory days" really are in the distant past - we can't compete with some of the bigger championship clubs, let alone with any Premiership ones and we're back to being little old Reading. I'm just glad that the likes of Schards and his brother, who've been going even longer than I have, have seen us in the top flight and experienced some of the joys that has brought (esp in our first season).

[Victor Meldrew]

I'm not interested in watching " big stars" come to play Reading - so I cannot understand what you two are on about. I want to watch us win things and progress as far as we can, I don't care who we play and whose on the opposition team because I go to watch Reading. The only opposition player i've actually noticed this season was Thornton ( Num 4) for Northampton the other night because he was so far above anyone on the pitch. I didn't care to see Ronaldo prancing around our pitch like a oxf*rd, same with Rooney or gerrard and his non-goal celebrations because he expects to beat little clubs like us, we are an inconvenience to him.
I cringe everytime BBCRB go on about playing the " big boys" in the next round of the League Cup. I don't care who we play - I want to get as far as we can. This small time mentality is exactly why Reading will always be a little club.
I actually enjoyed Elm Park and and going on away days in division two far more than I have the last few years. Football is getting worse by every year now. I may turn my attentions to the bundesliga where the balance there is brilliant.

I have always been amazed how many people take no notice of the opposition when they go to a game.
For me it is about watching the whole 22 and not just our side,as in cricket when you watch what the bowler is trying to do and how the batsmen plays him and if you are at a game how you feel about the field placings and whether you would do the same.
I remember when Sidwell played against us for Brentford I said to my mate that I liked his attitude and when he signed for us was delighted.
If you watch the Bundesliga Fine Rain will you notice ANY of the players from either side?
It takes all sorts I suppose.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Surely you watch your team through thick and thin.

This is hardly thin.

[It Is What It Is]

I may turn my attentions to the SPL where the balance there is brilliant.

I prefer to watch the 'Championnat du Cameroun de football', also known as MTN Elite One when reading aren't doing too well

[RoyalBlue]

Surely you watch your team through thick and thin.

This is hardly thin.

It is compared to where we were and what we were promised.

And before anyone goes on about the bad old days in Div 4, if you now own your own house would you happily go back to living in a grotty bedsit?

Life is about getting better not slipping backwards.

[FiNeRaIn]

I may turn my attentions to the SPL where the balance there is brilliant.

Really, really poor and completely off topic. Not remotely funny either.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Surely you watch your team through thick and thin.

This is hardly thin.

It is compared to where we were and what we were promised.

And before anyone goes on about the bad old days in Div 4, if you now own your own house would you happily go back to living in a grotty bedsit?

Life is about getting better not slipping backwards.

It's hardly backwards. We get knocked out of a competition we had no interest in anyway, we've had a slow start to the season. Only 3 games gone and we are in a better position than last year.

[RoyalBlue]

Surely you watch your team through thick and thin.

This is hardly thin.

It is compared to where we were and what we were promised.

And before anyone goes on about the bad old days in Div 4, if you now own your own house would you happily go back to living in a grotty bedsit?

Life is about getting better not slipping backwards.

It's hardly backwards. We get knocked out of a competition we had no interest in anyway, we've had a slow start to the season. Only 3 games gone and we are in a better position than last year.

So you discount where we were just a few years ago? You appear to have the vision of the Mad Man himself if you can't see we are slipping backwards. And the strength of our squad compared to last year?

The banks can spot what's happening, no doubt hence their desire to get their money back whilst the club is still worth something. If they believed the club/business was moving forward in a positive manner they would be happy to invest in it!

[LoyalRoyalFan]

If Madejski won't invest what can we do about it?