Brian: The right decision?

[andrew1957]

The thing that surprises me most is that nearly 50% think this sacking was a good idea.

There are many issues here. If the objective of the sacking was to stay up this season, then the owner is clearly deluded.

If the objective was to get out of the Championship next season, then again I question the decision - as Brian had proved a master of getting the most out of a limited squad at that level.

The only other possibility is that the owner wants a complete change in playing style - which might mean several seasons in the Championship before eventually becoming a Swansea (a passing side). This will take great investment and a whole change of emphasis throughout the club.

The problem with the last route is that we already tried it with Brendan. I thought we were mad to sack him at the time and still think that. He should have been allowed to reshape how we played as a long term project - even if it meant a visit to League 1 and we would now be stronger for it.

But neither the fans nor the club were patient enough to wait for the turn round and wanted instant success. So my bet is that the owner is not looking at this option at all but also just wants instant success. Brian has been a victim of this instant success mentality. And I just hope that those of you who think sacking him was a good idea don't regret it if we are languishing at the bottom next season.

Therefore, sadly I suspect we are more likely to end up more like Wolves after sacking McCarthy than Swansea but only time will tell.

[Royal91]

The thing that surprises me most is that nearly 50% think this sacking was a good idea.

There are many issues here. If the objective of the sacking was to stay up this season, then the owner is clearly deluded.

If the objective was to get out of the Championship next season, then again I question the decision - as Brian had proved a master of getting the most out of a limited squad at that level.

The only other possibility is that the owner wants a complete change in playing style - which might mean several seasons in the Championship before eventually becoming a Swansea (a passing side). This will take great investment and a whole change of emphasis throughout the club.

The problem with the last route is that we already tried it with Brendan. I thought we were mad to sack him at the time and still think that. He should have been allowed to reshape how we played as a long term project - even if it meant a visit to League 1 and we would now be stronger for it.

But neither the fans nor the club were patient enough to wait for the turn round and wanted instant success. So my bet is that the owner is not looking at this option at all but also just wants instant success. Brian has been a victim of this instant success mentality. And I just hope that those of you who think sacking him was a good idea don't regret it if we are languishing at the bottom next season.

Therefore, sadly I suspect we are more likely to end up more like Wolves after sacking McCarthy than Swansea but only time will tell.

People keep using Brendon and Swansea as examples but they are an absolute extreme. Swansea pass the ball more than Utd/City/Chelsea. The reason it didn't work is because the change in style was just unrealistic and too dramatic.

Reading don't need to become a Swansea they pass too much for my liking. Our style should be based around Utd!

[winchester_royal]

Timing was all wrong, but ultimately the right decision for next season and beyond.

Indeed, getting rid of a manager with an exemplary record of getting average to teams to overperform in the Championship was definitely the right decision for next season.

But we don't want to have a poor team that overperforms. We want to build a team that will be capable of competing in the Prem next time we go up. Brian hasn't shown himself to be capable of this.

[under the tin]

Timing was all wrong, but ultimately the right decision for next season and beyond.

Indeed, getting rid of a manager with an exemplary record of getting average to teams to overperform in the Championship was definitely the right decision for next season.

But we don't want to have a poor team that overperforms. We want to build a team that will be capable of competing in the Prem next time we go up. Brian hasn't shown himself to be capable of this.

Zatley.

[mr_number]

What if the next manager gets promoted before he's built up the team? Do we sack him as well?

[maffff]

What if the next manager gets promoted before he's built up the team? Do we sack him as well?

Yes, it's the new Reading way

[Isaac Hunt]

Timing was all wrong, but ultimately the right decision for next season and beyond.

Indeed, getting rid of a manager with an exemplary record of getting average to teams to overperform in the Championship was definitely the right decision for next season.

As i said, the timing was wrong. I believe that he should have had until the end of the season. Seemed no point getting rid of him now...the Wigan and Villa games were the ones that did for him. His team selection and tactics for these 2 games were horrendous... IMHO.

You're right, you can't knock his Championship record either....and there is of course an agruement that he learned from previous mistakes/disappointments and made the team stronger. On the other hand, there are some mangers with good records of getting teams up out of the Championship. Doesn't make them good Premier League managers.

Just stating my feelings / opinion, i'm sure many will disagree.

I've only got one real issue with Brian this season, but in my opinion it's a big one and feel that it reflected very badly on him. In the press conference after the Man City game he said something like "we've learned that we need to stay in games", i.e. employing a 5-4-1 formation. The home defeat to Arsenal on the 17th December was the moment he finally realised that you can't play 4-4-2 against sides playing 5-4-1. 17 games into the season.

Of course this is just a maybe, but had he realised a little bit sooner (like pre-season) we may have had a few more points on the board by Christmas and found ourselves in a very difficult position. Who knows. But it took him 17 games / 4 months to finally accept it.

[winchester_royal]

What if the next manager gets promoted before he's built up the team? Do we sack him as well?

Depends how we perform during the season and if there are signs of progression

[Ian Royal]

Whether it's the best decision we'll never know. Whether it'll be successful will largely depend on the replacement, rather than the decision to sack McDermott. And we'll see what happens with that during the rest of this season and next season before we're really able to judge.

But what we do know is it was not a knee jerk reaction, nor was it an unreasonable, illogical or unjustified decision. Anyone suggesting otherwise either has an axe to grind or presumably isn't bright enough to manage manage higher thought processes. That doesn't mean you have to agree with the decision of course.

[Man Friday]

Whether it's the best decision we'll never know. Whether it'll be successful will largely depend on the replacement, rather than the decision to sack McDermott. And we'll see what happens with that during the rest of this season and next season before we're really able to judge.

But what we do know is it was not a knee jerk reaction we don't know that - we don't know how the decision was made, nor was it an unreasonable, illogical or unjustified decision. all those are matters of opinion

Personally I loved Brian to bits and felt that he stood no chance with the money he was given. Having said that, it is true that we were outplayed in EVERY game with the exception of the Sunderland match. Also, he lost out on some bad officiating in several matches but that was always going to happen (see other discussion on that topic).

[moo]

If we do relegated, I was considering who would leave. Funnily enough the most likely candidates are Pog, Guthrie, Gunter and Federici. He blew most the summer budget on 3 of them (wages and transfer fee budget).

[RoyalBlue]

What if the next manager gets promoted before he's built up the team? Do we sack him as well?

Not if he does a better job of adapting/building the squad over the summer, has got the team playing with a style better suited to the PL and hasn't wasted two transfer windows signing misfits, injured players and ones for the future. On the other hand, if with 9 games to go we are falling rapidly, performances and results are pretty dire (particularly against other teams in the relegation zone) and the manager is showing few signs that he knows how to turn things around - then yes!

[Lower West]

What if the next manager gets promoted before he's built up the team? Do we sack him as well?

With the new owner in place. We may well be like many other clubs. With a turnover of managers.

Readings rise was built on stability. Not knee jerk reactions.

I would hate to think that we've merely become a rich boys play thing.

[Elmer Park]

With the new owner in place. We may well be like many other clubs. With a turnover of managers.

It's possible but there's no sign so far of this happening. One sacking, whatever the rights or wrongs, is not much to go on

Readings rise was built on stability. Not knee jerk reactions.

There's no sign so far of this happening so far. Seven straight defeats in November and December would have provided plenty of reasons for an owner who made knee jerk reactions. Whether he deserved to go or not there's plenty of other owners who would have acted sooner.

[sputnik]

If the objective of the sacking was to stay up this season, then the owner is clearly deluded.

Agreed. The history of managers being sacked at this stage of the season seems to confirm this.

If the objective was to get out of the Championship next season, then again I question the decision - as Brian had proved a master of getting the most out of a limited squad at that level.

Again, agreed. Brian's record in the championship speaks for itself.

The only other possibility is that the owner wants a complete change in playing style - which might mean several seasons in the Championship before eventually becoming a Swansea (a passing side). This will take great investment and a whole change of emphasis throughout the club.

The problem with the last route is that we already tried it with Brendan. I thought we were mad to sack him at the time and still think that. He should have been allowed to reshape how we played as a long term project - even if it meant a visit to League 1 and we would now be stronger for it.

A difference between then with BR & SJM and now is that perhaps enough money might now be available to the new manger to buy players more suited to this style of play, if indeed this is what AZ really wants. I guess the appointment of the next manager might give us a clue as to AZ's intentions.

[Millsy]

Right decision? Depends on who we get.

If we do a backwards step and get Dolan, basically at best a Brian but with less experience, who will be so delighted at the random promotion he'll be happy with a 50p transfer budget, I will put a brick through Anton's window.

If sacking Brian is because we're somehow going beyond the Reading Way, no longer need the safety of a puppet manager who is happy with a tiny budget because he's so happy we promoted him, and we go for a manager with some balls, and some record of spending big money then Brian's sacking was sad, but ultimately worth it.

In summary, get Curbs /Adkins / anyone who expects to (and is confident to ) spend some money ( and be sure to give it to him!) and it's an ok decision. Go with another cheap option like Dolan, and I'll be the first to call for Anton to leave for being a confused little kid.

[Rex]

All this about evolving the team yet some of you seem to imply the Manager is culpable for working with what he had. Perhaps we should have stripped the team down to the base bones and built up last summer. Can some if you see the catch-22 of the points put forward. McDermott failed as he wanted the team who took us up to have a fair crack of the Whip in the Premier. Some might only get the one chance to experience that in their career so fair play to McDermott for at least attempting to make something out if a sows ear. It could have worked like our first season in the Prem. It didn't, but it was an unknown risk that for possibly economic reasons had to be taken. Remember the fear of failure we as supporters felt in that first season. They flew that year which was a massive bonus. Second season - 'pah - it's something we can do again'.......failed. This season was the trepidation of the first season with the outcome of the second. We might not experience this again. Who knows, but finance, reputation, team, tactics, opposition, decisions, team availability, etc will make it interesting to find out.

[Terminal Boardom]

Seems to me that it was the right decision but at the wrong time - which appears to be the opinion of most on here. What it does show is that the longer it takes to appoint a new manager, the more it will seem to be a knee jerk sacking which would fit nicely with most of the knee jerk brigade on HNA?

[percyisfreeman]

What if the next manager gets promoted before he's built up the team? Do we sack him as well?

With the new owner in place. We may well be like many other clubs. With a turnover of managers.

Readings rise was built on stability. Not knee jerk reactions.

I would hate to think that we've merely become a rich boys play thing.

Mcd sacking wasn't a knee jerk-reaction, he had plenty time to turn things around, Readings style of play has been painful to watch and very prdictable, I am not pissed off with Readings failures this season, It's the way we have done it, you can blame who you like board management etc, get the basics right and the rest will take care of itself We have played poorly all season, we deserve to be where we are.

[soggy biscuit]

Mcd sacking wasn't a knee jerk-reaction, he had plenty time to turn things around, Readings style of play has been painful to watch and very prdictable, I am not pissed off with Readings failures this season

What you people fail to realize is we HAD to play that way to avoid losing every game 5-0, our team really IS that much worse in terms of quality.
We probably didn't even have more than the 10th best squad last year, yet overperformed.
I fully expected us to beat Derby's record low points tally by a large margin this year, the fact that we've done as well as we have is nothing less than shocking!

Delusional people who think McD has underperformed this year need a serious reality check, if anything we have overperformed and notched up a hell of a lot more points than expected!!!!

Agree with the sentiment if not quite the level of how poor we are.

We were not the best team last season in terms of individual quality yet B-Mac got us on an unbelievable run to secure the title. When you take away that run and team spirit that ends up being dented you are back to having players that were not individually good enough to win the league last season

We may never really know why we spent so little on bringing in higher quality players, people can speculate all they want but unless you were there in the room having the conversation with these people then you simply don't know who made the final decisions and who was advising who.

I think many of us expected to be roughly were we are now.