MCDERMOTT SACKED

[Man Friday]

Brian paid the price for not winning games.

And why didn't he win games? Because he wasn't given anywhere near enough money to invest in new/better players.

What's th epoint of Zingy if he's not going to invest properly.

[melonhead]

Whether you think the sacking (or timing thereof) is wrong, does anyone disagree that the style of football employed by Brian is outdated, predictable and more often than not horrible to watch (even when we win)? Anyone?

.

brian played the system and tactics that most suited the players he had at his disposal

Yeah - again and again - even when it clearly wasn't working with 'his boys'.

He'd been here long enough to assemble 'his' squad, and it isn't good enough.

played some lovely football when we had gylfi tbf

season 1, squad in a mess-rodgers spent alot of money on a couple of players, leaving us with no money to fill all teh positions we needed to, leaving us with a hopelessly unbalanced and malfunctioning side.brians focus in that season was simply cobbling together anything he could afford to stop the club going down.
season 2. lost best player we had built the team and style around, had to rebuild again, with no money available. found a formula and took us to the play off final
season 3. lost best player, had to rebuild the team again with no money. club got a little money from AZ, spent it very wisely, took us up as champions.
season 4. had no money to spend, but filled the gaps we needed to fill with whatever quality he could get.

never really had the chance to build a squad properly.

[melonhead]

^ again, I ask – with 9 games left and relegation certain, which managerial candidate worth his salt will really want a confirmed relegation on his CV?

Someone with a pedigree in the football league, confident he can take a club like Reading back into the PL. Someone like Mcdermott.

[Man Friday]

season 1, squad in a mess-rodgers spent alot of money on a couple of players, leaving us with no money to fill all teh positions we needed to, leaving us with a hopelessly unbalanced and malfunctioning side.brians focus in that season was simply cobbling together anything he could afford to stop the club going down.
season 2. lost best player we had built the team and style around, had to rebuild again, with no money available. found a formula and took us to the play off final
season 3. lost best player, had to rebuild the team again with no money. club got a little money from AZ, spent it very wisely, took us up as champions.
season 4. had no money to spend, but filled the gaps we needed to fill with whatever quality he could get.

never really had the chance to build a squad properly.

feckin brilliant points.

[barelylubedcock]

What on earth is this 'identity' stuff? Identity for whom? Any other identity is just your own perception. It's not real, it's not tangible.

Whether you like it or not, Reading FC cannot be the popular, moderately successful club who do things in a ever so cuddly fluffy manner that makes the world go "Awww...ickle Reading, bless!" and be successful year on year. It's a business, with much at stake. It's cut-throat and nasty. It is not about a club having this fictional 'soul' that the owners have to take into consideration each time we lose a manager we have an affinity with 'because he was a nice bloke'.

Get a grip. This isn't the same game that was played in the 70's which people love to hark back to oh so often. Oh, but look how far we've come! Yes, and we'll soon be back there if pointless sentiment is what people think the club needs to progress.

It's like no manager, ever, at any other club has ever been sacked! OH THE HUMANITY!!!

Brian paid the price for not winning games. And winning is what it's all about. Identity? It's all in your head.

I disagree - the last ten years have been successful for the club and it has developed its own identity. Not a 1970s or 80s identity but a modern one for a small, middle-class club in a small, middle-class town.

The achievements in the last 10 years massively overshadow anything the club did beforehand and we did it without being a bunch of vulgar arseholes. I want the club to win and I want the club to get entrenched in the Premiership but its not going to happen overnight and I want to enjoy it.

[Agent Balti]

Brian paid the price for not winning games.

And why didn't he win games? Because he wasn't given anywhere near enough money to invest in new/better players.

What's th epoint of Zingy if he's not going to invest properly.

Not entirely. He couldn't coach the team to pass the ball, like 90% of the teams in the Premiership. His inability to coach the team properly was also culpable.

He invested in Caricco, Guthrie...players who can PASS the ball. Where the hell have they been? Bypassed (pun intended) because Brian couldn't see beyond the outdated obsession with wingers.

[melonhead]

What on earth is this 'identity' stuff? Identity for whom? Any other identity is just your own perception. It's not real, it's not tangible.

Whether you like it or not, Reading FC cannot be the popular, moderately successful club who do things in a ever so cuddly fluffy manner that makes the world go "Awww...ickle Reading, bless!" and be successful year on year. It's a business, with much at stake. It's cut-throat and nasty. It is not about a club having this fictional 'soul' that the owners have to take into consideration each time we lose a manager we have an affinity with 'because he was a nice bloke'.

Get a grip. This isn't the same game that was played in the 70's which people love to hark back to oh so often. Oh, but look how far we've come! Yes, and we'll soon be back there if pointless sentiment is what people think the club needs to progress.

It's like no manager, ever, at any other club has ever been sacked! OH THE HUMANITY!!!

Brian paid the price for not winning games. And winning is what it's all about. Identity? It's all in your head.

I disagree - the last ten years have been successful for the club and it has developed its own identity. Not a 1970s or 80s identity but a modern one for a small, middle-class club in a small, middle-class town.

The achievements in the last 10 years massively overshadow anything the club did beforehand and we did it without being a bunch of vulgar arseholes. I want the club to win and I want the club to get entrenched in the Premiership but its not going to happen overnight and I want to enjoy it.

agreed

and that identity is tangibly, identifiably different to other clubs

[melonhead]

Brian paid the price for not winning games.

And why didn't he win games? Because he wasn't given anywhere near enough money to invest in new/better players.

What's th epoint of Zingy if he's not going to invest properly.

Not entirely. He couldn't coach the team to pass the ball, like 90% of the teams in the Premiership. His inability to coach the team properly was also culpable.

He invested in Caricco, Guthrie...players who can PASS the ball. Where the hell have they been? Bypassed (pun intended) because Brian couldn't see beyond the outdated obsession with wingers.

lol.

[Royal With Cheese]

^ again, I ask – with 9 games left and relegation certain, which managerial candidate worth his salt will really want a confirmed relegation on his CV?

Someone with a pedigree in the football league, confident he can take a club like Reading back into the PL. Someone like Di Matteo, Poyet or Adkins.

We'll see, eh. Don't forget that Di Matteo and Adkins both struggled somewhat in the Prem with clubs of similar size to Reading and both were sacked.

I will LOL if we get 9 games of Eamon Dolan as caretaker manager

Even he'll admit, he's no Terry Connor.

I'm genuinely baffled about what this will achieve.

[Agent Balti]

I disagree - the last ten years have been successful for the club and it has developed its own identity. Not a 1970s or 80s identity but a modern one for a small, middle-class club in a small, middle-class town.

The achievements in the last 10 years massively overshadow anything the club did beforehand and we did it without being a bunch of vulgar arseholes. I want the club to win and I want the club to get entrenched in the Premiership but its not going to happen overnight and I want to enjoy it.

We're not going to become vulgar arseholes, but the point being that it doesn't MATTER that we're a 'nice club'. It doesn't win us anything any more than Fulham who are supremely dull...or dirty Leeds...or family-loving Everton...whatever perception is alluded to, losing a manager isn't the end of Reading FC, like some would suggest.

If we won 6 out of the next 9, nobody would care about 'identity' all of sudden, I would wager. But as soon as something 'bad' happens, the Reading FC world may as well just implode, it seems.

[barelylubedcock]

I think it does matter. Maybe not as much as it does to some, but it still does to me.

[Agent Balti]

agreed

and that identity is tangibly, identifiably different to other clubs

So? How does that 'help'?! What's this identity FOR?

[Wax Jacket]

I disagree - the last ten years have been successful for the club and it has developed its own identity. Not a 1970s or 80s identity but a modern one for a small, middle-class club in a small, middle-class town.

The achievements in the last 10 years massively overshadow anything the club did beforehand and we did it without being a bunch of vulgar arseholes. I want the club to win and I want the club to get entrenched in the Premiership but its not going to happen overnight and I want to enjoy it.

We're not going to become vulgar arseholes, but the point being that it doesn't MATTER that we're a 'nice club'. It doesn't win us anything any more than Fulham who are supremely dull...or dirty Leeds...or family-loving Everton...whatever perception is alluded to, losing a manager isn't the end of Reading FC, like some would suggest.

If we won 6 out of the next 9, nobody would care about 'identity' all of sudden, I would wager. But as soon as something 'bad' happens, the Reading FC world may as well just implode, it seems.

Reading's not a small town anyway - small towns are places like Newbury and Tunbridge Wells

[melonhead]

agreed

and that identity is tangibly, identifiably different to other clubs

So? How does that 'help'?! What's this identity FOR?

thats just such nonsense.

how does your identity help you?
what is your identity for?
why is it important for you to be a certain type of person over another?
why is it important that you have principles and stick to them?


its not about how that helps you to win, its simp-ly about what it is about yourself, or your club that you hold dear

[BraisingsteakRoyal]

@melonhead

Agreed, but he was given the last 18 months and three transfer windows to start rectifying that, and obviously in AZ's eyes he hasn't done that.

It's a bold statement to say that in season 4 he had no money to spend. It'd be pretty mental if AZ said to him there was no money and then 6 weeks later sacked him.

It's more likely IMHO that there WAS money available, and Brian didn't spend it all, (or in AZ's eyes) wisely enough. Mariappa and Akpan have been the only really successful Brian signings this season (Roberts last season), as Kelly was more than likely brought in based on our new Fulham bloke.
For each of these three there have been a couple of Gunters, Guthries, Carrico, Joe Mills etc.

[Royalclapper]

You just cannot knock Brian for his outstanding achievements with this club over the last few seasons. I think what has done him is the lack of reinvention once a lot of the hard work had been done.

When I left Wembley after the P/O final, I didn't honestly think we would go on and win the league the following season, in fact, It felt like the chance had gone again for the foreseeable couple of years. The other thing of note from that game was the underlying feeling that the way Swansea played was probably going to be the new minimum standard requirement to compete upon gaining promotion. Once the hangover post-Forest had worn off, that's when a considerable effort was needed to attempt the transition. And lets face it, if a footballing outpost like Swansea can become a fashionable commodity, then there will always be hope for other similar clubs with similar aspirations.

Hopefully, a new era will not reconfigure our reality beyond that of reasonable expectation, while at the same time, will allow for a positive future with a contemporary philosophy.

[melonhead]

until i hear from brian about the money i cant really say
it could simply be that AZ is desperate to stay up, and is doing the only thing left to him to try and get that result, regardless of the budget he gave brian.


the fact remains that due to the sales and fire fighting job brian was forced to do in the years leading up to this one that he hadnt had the opportunity to build anything.
the fact remains that we came up this season needing saints/QPR esque money spent on a total rebuild to give us a decent chance of staying up.
you say he had the chance. i disagree.

[Agent Balti]

agreed

and that identity is tangibly, identifiably different to other clubs

So? How does that 'help'?! What's this identity FOR?

thats just such nonsense.

how does your identity help you?
what is your identity for?
why is it important for you to be a certain type of person over another?
why is it important that you have principles and stick to them?


its not about how that helps you to win, its simp-ly about what it is about yourself, or your club that you hold dear

OK, why does it only matter NOW then? Our 'perception' isn't going to change to the outside world, but people seem to think that it's baby out with the bath water. It's not the end of the world, tis my point. 'We' have to change, we can't be the same as we ever were. Every club moves on, we have to do the same.

If anyone ever thought that AZ would come in, leave it as is, and just mosey along in the 'Reading Way' is mistaken. Change was always inevitable when a situation like this came along.

[Man Friday]

Money? A few million in the PL? Don't make me laugh. Brian never stood a chance with the level of investment made. Even SJM wouldn't have supplied any less with PL money coming in. The investment needed was in relation to that made at Southampton and West Ham. A few million was nowhere near enough.

[The Rouge]

brendy, would you concede that he bought some players, had some money and generally stuck with ledge, mcanuff, jem etc a little too much..?