by Elm Park Old Boy »
23 Jan 2012 12:28
Obviously far too early to say. But i have a bad feeling about it all.
I read all the juvenile outpourings on the TSI thread (all about which over-paid, over-rated players people were fantasising we'd buy, and how fast we'd get promoted, how long McDermott had until he was sacked etc) with a sinking heart. Then, just by coincidence, I heard the baying mob of Arsenal 'fans' on 606 last night - calling for Wenger's head after all he's done for their club because they narrowly lost to the champions, haven't won the league in a few years and only spunked tens of millions in the last transfer window.
It all seemed symptomatic of the modern football follower's sense of entitlement. We want 'success' , we want it now, we don't want to have to wait for it or work for it, and anyone who is prepared to let anything get in the way of the short-term fix (patience, morality, careful husbandry and development of young players, the building of a club ethos, etc) must be a fool.
I really genuinely hope I'm wrong on this, but I fear these developments will not result in five or ten years time in a club that I feel so strong a sense of personal allegiance to and affection for. I don't know where these guys' money comes from, and I don't know what their objectives are for Reading FC. But you know what, I suspect they ain't Santa Claus and I will be surprised if the things that give the loyal Reading supporter pleasure and satisfaction are the things that drive them.
As I say, I hope to be wrong, and will happily eat my words a few years down the track if we find that nothing but good comes from this change. But right now I am seriously concerned.