Relegation the Reading Way

[Royalclapper]

The dramatic turnaround in form last season coincided with growing speculation of a new investor at the club. The £££'s lit up in the players minds which turned them into seemingly improved players. Same would happen at most clubs in that position. Strikes me that things have become a bit to 'cosy' again. It would be a stretch to think that a top half finish was possible this time around with this group, but shirley there's some kind of improvement left in them.

And what was the excuse the year before when we were 12th in February and ended up at Wembley? We are getting better, we aren't being hammerd ala Southampton and we've always started slow under McD anyway. Once we've got the monkey that is the first win off our back then I expect us to kick on. I truly believe we will stay up.

If we play every home game like we did against Newcastle and pick up points here and there away from home then there's no way we will be bottom 3.

It's not an excuse, we finished 12 points and 4 places higher last season. Shane Long's improvement did help the cause that season and he's proving to be a decent player at his price point which someone else is now annoyingly benefiting from.

I'm pinning everything I've got on there being a similar improvement this time, It's just so difficult to get wins in this league, not impossible though.

[Madstad to Nadderud]

Well at least I will get to see a few games next season, attacking football rather than being constrained by having to play in a certain way most of the time i.e. park everyone and the buss in front of goal, cheaper prices, no twitter rants about not playing or the style of play (the last one being true), etc, etc...

[threebs]

Is this poor start maybe a blessing in one way, As Anton Z has said he wants to make us a top 10 club in five years, this start has given him an idea of the serious level of investment he needs to make in the next few years.
Bear in mind that only Pog and Shorey out of the 5 summer signings are regulars in the side. Shorey and Pog have been okay, but Pog for me is not going to score enough goals, 6 in 12 games at Fulham sounds great, but take out the freak 4 in one game then 2 from eleven ratio is not going to keep us up.
Players in and out in January is surely on the cards if Anton is serious about making us into that top 10 side.

[Hertfordshire Royal]

I'm not reading 11 pages of this shit but i'm pretty sure my overall response would be LOL.

We've only played 7 games, calm down to a panic for a bit.

Think people forget we have played one game less than everyone else too (except Sunderland of course!)

[leicsRoyal]

Can't say that I am feeling overly reassured by so many saying we've only played 7 games and that we always start slowly. That might be a decent point if we didn't have 8 less games this season!

[larry1971]

The crumb of comfort I take so far is that we are not shipping goals in the way that say, Norwich and Southampton are, although the Norwich win against Arsenal was a blow, and the performance against Newcastle which proves we are near to winning games at home against qualitiy opposition if, and its a big if at the moment, we play well.

The goal difference indicates we are close to being competitive.

that's true but certainly against Spurs and Liverpool that was more down to poor finishing on their part rather than good defending from us and you can't help feeling that unless we improve sooner or later we are going to be on the end of a very heavy thumping.

[Maguire]

Can't say that I am feeling overly reassured by so many saying we've only played 7 games and that we always start slowly. That might be a decent point if we didn't have 8 less games this season!

But then we're only trying to finish fourth bottom, not win the league!

[Maguire]

Another plus point:

We can't get second season syndrome because we're already rubbish

[leicsRoyal]

Can't say that I am feeling overly reassured by so many saying we've only played 7 games and that we always start slowly. That might be a decent point if we didn't have 8 less games this season!

But then we're only trying to finish fourth bottom, not win the league!

I know what you mean but I'd sooner we tried to finish as high as we can.

[PBR]

relegation the reading way? bottom of the league but we can be proud because we have the most "intelligent" footballers in the league. who needs players like dzeko or van persie when we have intellectual powerhouse jason roberts.

[bcubed]

Another plus point:

We can't get second season syndrome because we're already rubbish

This may be the only real positive of the season so far

[MmmMonsterMunch]

You are like a broken record jesus.

[sandman]

Is:- Buying players like Robin Friday

I don't think buying dead people is really the way to go.

[Vic_Flange]

This really has to be the shittest thread of......... Oh excuse me my missus just woke me up I fell asleep, where was I oh yes, the shittest thread in HBA history, the sodding Reading way, god / allah / save us all

[Handsome Man]

Buying players like Robin Friday - we have Jimmy Kebe
Using every resource to build the best playing squad - we got new Russian owners to get Jason Roberts
Playing with a team spirit - like equalising twice in the last five minutes of a game
Having Managers who will buy skill with problems rather than mediocrity - Guthrie could come good, but we have done well to avoid players like Joey Barton
Building tactics around the strengths of the players - we built a team around Sigurddson then built a team around Long and then got promoted once they had left
Developing home-grown players - Karacan, Pearce, MacCarthy, etc

[urz13]

Can we have a thread just for the Siege? Like the snowball stat thread, and then he doesn't have to annoy anyone with his incessant, ridiculous ramblings.

[Cypry]

Is not:-
Refusing to invest adequately in the playing staff - In your opinion - I'm quite happy with a £10M+ spend this summer - far more than we've ever spent before
Refusing to spend money - See above
Keeping players in the squad who will not get a game Like who? Believe it or not, Church and Gunnarsson are the only two outfield players not to have featured yet this season
Buying players for their strengths and then refusing to play to them tactically We tried to play 4-5-1 with Guthrie, it didn't work (Spurs(H) anyone? Livepool(A)?) - would you prefer that Brian was more Rogersesque and simply persevered with an approach that was quite obviously not working? As for Pog, he'll come good - we were playing a lot more into his feet on Saturday (rewatch the game if you don't believe me), and sooner or later it'll click
Failing to utilise the rules of the division for the benefit of the team I really have no idea what you're on about here.....

[Vision]

'The Reading Way', as such, was hijacked, first by Madjeski and then recent Managers to cover the lack of investment on the playing side. It has never been that! Nor has it ever been a refusal to buy talented players who might be a little difficult to handle. BMcD cannot even handle Guthrie apparently and he's a pussy!

p.s do'nt call me Jesus!

LOL. So pre Madejski we invested in the playing side did we?

The Reading way pre-Madejski was for the most part bouncing between tiers 3 and 4 as opposed to bitching about being at the foot of the top tier of English football. I loved those early days of watching us but you can't seriously be suggesting that we invested more in the playing side back then or that it was a better "blueprint" for success.

[AbovetheI]

Is:- Buying players like Robin Friday
Using every resource to build the best playing squad
Playing with a team spirit
Having Managers who will buy skill with problems rather than mediocrity
Building tactics around the strengths of the players
Developing home-grown players

Is not:-
Refusing to invest adequately in the playing staff
Refusing to spend money
Keeping players in the squad who will not get a game
Buying players for their strengths and then refusing to play to them tactically
Failing to utilise the rules of the division for the benefit of the team


The Reading Way is not currently being followed!

I don't get it. Are you saying that the Reading way is not to refuse to spend money?

[sandman]

Is:- Buying players like Robin Friday

I don't think buying dead people is really the way to go.

Um, yeah, you have'nt quite got it, have you?

If ''it'' is the fact that you're an idiot then yeah I got it.