Reading failing to invest

[melonhead]

Does no one remember the Football Focus interview with AZ when they did the programme from the Mad Stad?

.

brian implied different on numerous occasions.
its not clear who was telling the truth.


of the two. im more likely to trust brian.
that doesnt mean my trust is well placed

[Elm Park Pasty]

If they had 10 mill to spend i thought they should have started on Jan 1 not leave it till last day more or less

I am sure something was floating around just after the end of the transfer window saying the Gylfi one was not knee jerk, and had been brewing for a week or so as Spurs ummed and aaahed about getting a new forward. In the end they were supposedly too late which knocked on to what we wanted to do.

[mbb]

10 mill for 1 player in my eyes is big money especially for Reading



But why wait to the end of January? At the start of the year Gylfi was just about making the Spurs bench, maybe we would have had a better chance.

As good as Gylfi is, why only him? I go back to my comment that Brian was never looking at the more expensive player, not his fault, that is how it was for him as scout
and manager before the AZ takeover!

[melonhead]

still wouldnt really relate to the summer

[Elm Park Pasty]

I'm not sure I would see the point in the blame game anyway. Sometimes s*** just happens, and it is how you react that defines you. AZ has started that reaction and we have to see where it leads. As I said earlier, for those who feel that there must be blame, no one will ever know if they don't know what finance has been available throughout this period.

[mbb]

Does no one remember the Football Focus interview with AZ when they did the programme from the Mad Stad?

.

brian implied different on numerous occasions.
its not clear who was telling the truth.


of the two. im more likely to trust brian.
that doesnt mean my trust is well placed

And on saturday he said maybe he should have spent more in the transfer window!

[melonhead]

he said we

[Elm Park Pasty]

10 mill for 1 player in my eyes is big money especially for Reading



But why wait to the end of January? At the start of the year Gylfi was just about making the Spurs bench, maybe we would have had a better chance.

As good as Gylfi is, why only him? I go back to my comment that Brian was never looking at the more expensive player, not his fault, that is how it was for him as scout
and manager before the AZ takeover!

As said above I think the Gylfi was mentioned as being ongoing for a few weeks and depended on Spurs. As for others? I know someone somewhere said AZ presented BM with a list which BM (supposedly) poo-pooed as he didn't come up with it (this could even be the infamous list reported before Xmas) but again without any form or corrobaration this could just be conjecture.

[ManchesterRoyals]

10 mill for 1 player in my eyes is big money especially for Reading



But why wait to the end of January? At the start of the year Gylfi was just about making the Spurs bench, maybe we would have had a better chance.

As good as Gylfi is, why only him? I go back to my comment that Brian was never looking at the more expensive player, not his fault, that is how it was for him as scout
and manager before the AZ takeover!

The same goes for Zaha didnt want to pay the extra for him in the summer, but i also agree why 10 mill on one player why not a few decent signings

[melonhead]

10 mill for 1 player in my eyes is big money especially for Reading



But why wait to the end of January? At the start of the year Gylfi was just about making the Spurs bench, maybe we would have had a better chance.

As good as Gylfi is, why only him? I go back to my comment that Brian was never looking at the more expensive player, not his fault, that is how it was for him as scout
and manager before the AZ takeover!

tom ince
and that 8 million bid for that spanish player say youre wrong.


and for manchester royals- zaha was never coming here. we agreed a price, the club then put it up, so im glad we backed out of that
and the player knew he had interest from some of the biggest clubs in the country.

[mbb]

he said we

He/ We, it would still be the money that AZ said on national TV was available!!


Now I remember why I stopped posting on Hob Nob, some right picky "Hob Knobs" on here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[melonhead]

he said we

He/ We, it would still be the money that AZ was available!!


Now I remember why I stopped posting on Hob Nob, some right picky "Hob Knobs on here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pretty important considering the point


" i should have spent more" would be an admission of culpability in the manner you described
"we should have spent more money" could infer that the blame lay elsewhere for the budget

[RoyalBlue]

he said we

He did indeed. He also referred to the 'budget being the budget' - straight out of the 'Madejski Reading Way' book of phrases.

However, he then went on to boast about the £10M bid for Sig as evidence that we were trying to sign players! That would suggest the budget was at least £10M.

No wonder supporters are confused as to whether the financial clout is there or not!

[glass half full]

he said we

He did indeed. He also referred to the 'budget being the budget' - straight out of the 'Madejski Reading Way' book of phrases.

However, he then went on to boast about the £10M bid for Sig as evidence that we were trying to sign players! That would suggest the budget was at least £10M.

No wonder supporters are confused as to whether the financial clout is there or not!

The best 'excuse' for not spending money will be compensation for Brian and Nigel!

[Millsy]

...do people forget that last time we were promoted we took a similar 'trust in the group' strategy and finished 8th?? Is this not similarly our first season in the prem after winning the league below?

...

I made this point in the summer, that we need not invest but it was pointed out that there is a world of difference between a team that completely demolishes a division, like our record breaking Team 106 did, and one that happens to go on an unexpected run of form and punches above their weight and squeezes into top spot thanks to Alfie's heroics.

It's a chalk and cheese situation BUT I do have sympathy with what you say which is why this time oddly I will not blame the board for not investing in the summer and I also don't blame them for not investing in January - they simply couldn't attract people here +/- really didn't look hard/wide enough.

In all this I feel for Brian.

[RoyalBlue]

he said we

He did indeed. He also referred to the 'budget being the budget' - straight out of the 'Madejski Reading Way' book of phrases.

However, he then went on to boast about the £10M bid for Sig as evidence that we were trying to sign players! That would suggest the budget was at least £10M.

No wonder supporters are confused as to whether the financial clout is there or not!

The best 'excuse' for not spending money will be compensation for Brian and Nigel!

There won't be that much. I think they were both on one year rolling contracts.

[Stevie G]

No facts, just opinion, he lost the dressing room in December but recovered by supporting the old guard, but just over a month later that group could once again see that they were carrying the club, dipped their performance and weren't adequately taken to task. Pernaps Brian thought that he was on safe ground following the Reading way line, but while he tried to look positively on the remaining games in response to the relegation rival losses, the management would have seen that enough was enough. While they do employ a manager they do also have to listen to the other 20 key members of the club. I see similar parallels to our last 2nd season in the Prem and the subsequent miss on the Champoinship play-offs.

[Ian Royal]

With hindsight, what I think we can say is that we were too conservative with the signings and money in the summer. With McDermott having too much faith in the squad he had and having no coherant signing strategy so that he could make one or maybe two key signings in each area of the pitch to really make a difference, as part of an improved and integrated updated playing style. Also not enough drive from Hammond or Madejski or Anton to make available or force McDermott to use the resources we needed to spend.

For me, one of McDermott's problems throughout his time at the club has been a chief scout's approach to signing players. He's gone out in the summer looking for players he thinks will be good, but without enough reference to an overall strategy for the team and playing style. This is why we've started badly under him three seasons running IMO. He's rescued it in the Championship with some astute emergency signings under pressure when it's become totally apparent what our weakness is. Without a loan window in the Premier League and with fewer games before the official window slams shut he didn't have that opportunity.

This problem shows in the brief attempt to play slightly better and more flexible football at the start of the season before quickly abandoning it for what he knew worked in the Championship. But of course that didn't work, although he persisted with it far too long and to the point where he must have been almost at the brink of a sacking after getting so badly shown up by Utd, Arsenal and even Sunderland. Finally he saw some sense, put a team together that worked to some degree, even found a combination that saw us nearly keep a clean sheet and start playing reasonably ok against Sunderland.

He then tweaked it, got it wrong and abandoned it the second his big man upfront got suspended. And he went right back to what had seen us getting torn to pieces and humiliated. The performances looked directionless and like the players had little or no confidence in getting results at the first sign of adversity in a game. At the start of the season the players looked confused when they took the lead and like they hadn't been given any direction or consideration on how to hold a lead. Presumably because no one had thought that we might actually take a lead against Premier League clubs early on and we were just in for a desperate fight not to conceed and maybe sneak a goal or two at the end.

Even the turnarounds in January largely seemed to come from opposition teams deciding they'd already won and taking their foot off the peddle virtually handing the initiative to and playing into our strengths from remembered fight backs, late goals and turnarounds last season.

Pretty much everything has gone wrong this season. Reliable players have been sub-par. Injuries have hit at the wrong time and screwed us over. Internal strife has caused problems and made players we needed unavailable. Ref decisions and luck has largely gone against us. The entire management structure of the club has failed. But we can't replace the lot, so we replace the figurehead, the man who carries the can and takes the plaudits depending on what happens on the pitch. And we look for new direction and new ideas. Something we desperately need. We do it with the idea that we need a new approach next season and some rebuilding, that it's best that the new man gets time with the squad to plan his summer dealings and preseason in detail, knowing the players we have and what they can do. And with the faint hope that just maybe, some new ideas now may give us that strange bump in fortunes that could see us survive against all odds.

So no, I don't think our performance is just down to a squad that's not good enough because of a lack of investmant. The blame can't be laid at anyone persons door, instead it should be shared around everyone's.

[Northern Git]

With hindsight, what I think we can say is that we were too conservative with the signings and money in the summer. With McDermott having too much faith in the squad he had and having no coherant signing strategy so that he could make one or maybe two key signings in each area of the pitch to really make a difference, as part of an improved and integrated updated playing style. Also not enough drive from Hammond or Madejski or Anton to make available or force McDermott to use the resources we needed to spend.

For me, one of McDermott's problems throughout his time at the club has been a chief scout's approach to signing players. He's gone out in the summer looking for players he thinks will be good, but without enough reference to an overall strategy for the team and playing style. This is why we've started badly under him three seasons running IMO. He's rescued it in the Championship with some astute emergency signings under pressure when it's become totally apparent what our weakness is. Without a loan window in the Premier League and with fewer games before the official window slams shut he didn't have that opportunity.

This problem shows in the brief attempt to play slightly better and more flexible football at the start of the season before quickly abandoning it for what he knew worked in the Championship. But of course that didn't work, although he persisted with it far too long and to the point where he must have been almost at the brink of a sacking after getting so badly shown up by Utd, Arsenal and even Sunderland. Finally he saw some sense, put a team together that worked to some degree, even found a combination that saw us nearly keep a clean sheet and start playing reasonably ok against Sunderland.

He then tweaked it, got it wrong and abandoned it the second his big man upfront got suspended. And he went right back to what had seen us getting torn to pieces and humiliated. The performances looked directionless and like the players had little or no confidence in getting results at the first sign of adversity in a game. At the start of the season the players looked confused when they took the lead and like they hadn't been given any direction or consideration on how to hold a lead. Presumably because no one had thought that we might actually take a lead against Premier League clubs early on and we were just in for a desperate fight not to conceed and maybe sneak a goal or two at the end.

Even the turnarounds in January largely seemed to come from opposition teams deciding they'd already won and taking their foot off the peddle virtually handing the initiative to and playing into our strengths from remembered fight backs, late goals and turnarounds last season.

Pretty much everything has gone wrong this season. Reliable players have been sub-par. Injuries have hit at the wrong time and screwed us over. Internal strife has caused problems and made players we needed unavailable. Ref decisions and luck has largely gone against us. The entire management structure of the club has failed. But we can't replace the lot, so we replace the figurehead, the man who carries the can and takes the plaudits depending on what happens on the pitch. And we look for new direction and new ideas. Something we desperately need. We do it with the idea that we need a new approach next season and some rebuilding, that it's best that the new man gets time with the squad to plan his summer dealings and preseason in detail, knowing the players we have and what they can do. And with the faint hope that just maybe, some new ideas now may give us that strange bump in fortunes that could see us survive against all odds.

So no, I don't think our performance is just down to a squad that's not good enough because of a lack of investmant. The blame can't be laid at anyone persons door, instead it should be shared around everyone's.

+1 on that Ian

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Personally I reckon Brian is such a modest unassuming fella that felt incredibly lucky to have landed the top job at Reading. Because of this he wanted to defy the odds & please the board by trying to do the almost impossible & stay up on a shoestring.

Bless his cotton socks for trying to do that but he's paid a big price. For me all signs point to him having money available but not spending it. I also think there is definitely a 'little Reading' mentality that feeds through to the way we scout for players & perhaps we didn't aim high enough but again we've tried to do it on the cheap.

I also think there could be some truth in JM being a little bit of a tightass & not supporting big investment. With Anton not wanting to initially rock the boat & upset the atmosphere he might well have kept his mouth shut in the summer & not forced the issue.

I don't buy into the notion that he's a big time charlie throwing his weight around. I reckon he's done this with a heavy heart.