Next Reading Manager: Press Conference @ 9:15

[Jay o/]

"Brian had lost the players" who might that be then?

Oh wake up! When ever a manager is struggling, there is always a number of players who will be glad when he's gone. It will be no different here.

[SINCE1964]

Lets face it we have one of the weakest Premiership squads ever and Brian was on a hiding to nothing having massively over-achieved last season.

At the start of last season I thought if we could have made the play-off that would have been a great result given the quality of the squad and we won the freaking league instead.

If we had just missed out last season and then strengthened this season Brian would still be in the job and the club would be in a much more favorable place in the squad development cycle to be going up to the top tier.

Agree entirely, was interviwed by Dellor outside the ground Xmas 2011 and said we would finish 14th!
Massively overachieved.

[Millsy]

We have options we just need to use them carefully and quickly. I'd even say bring Brian back if we go down, but that seems unlikely

There is still no massive rush, but really, even if it could happen, what would be the point of bringing McDermott back?

It would be utterly ridiculous and wont ever happen! We will "move on" and rightly so. Onwards and upwards for both manager and club.

Ridiculous? Completely.
Will it ever happen? Of course not.
Must we move on. Yes, of course.
Will we be the laughing stock of English football? Obviously.

Agreed with all of the above, but the daftness is not the suggestion, it's the predicament we're in; the predicament that leads to that being a real suggestion, even though I agree it would be an absurd thing to do.

We are over a week on and have no manager. We obviously want one which is why we've tried but we have been snubbed so far. If we can get Adkins then fine but if he turns us down (which is looking very likely) then were left with Curbs, who may also turn us down and then Coppell (!) and then well be scraping the bottom of the barrel for anyone even vaguely sane. And in that position, if we had an option of a manager who saved a team from relegation in season one, then got them to the playoff finals in season two, then won the league in season three, with a negative transfer budget, and then wasn't completely annihilated in the Prem despite by far the lowest resources there we'd be praying for such a manager to join us. That man is of course Brian and so as I said IF WE GO DOWN, there would be no one better to turn to.

As I say yes it's bizarre and of course it,l never happen, but that's the bizarre situation Anton has dumped us in.

This is of course assuming that Adkins and curbs turn us down and there are no other good candidates. But as has been suggested, that isn't necessarily the case and we need to be patient. So I'm being patient. In Anton I have to trust alas.

[Eaststandman]

"Brian had lost the players" who might that be then?

Oh wake up! When ever a manager is struggling, there is always a number of players who will be glad when he's gone. It will be no different here.

Just as I thought then, no real evidence, merely speculation, as for your remarks, well poor employees are often glad when a threat to their cosy existence is removed or leaves. Losing Guthrie for example would be tragic judging by the evidence we've actually seen wouldn't it?

[MmmMonsterMunch]

2WW1WC You seem a bit obsessed with Curbs & Coppell no offence!

Would rather have Sir John in charge than Coppell again.

[Millsy]

2WW1WC You seem a bit obsessed with Curbs & Coppell no offence!

Would rather have Sir John in charge than Coppell again.

Yeah that's fine I am definitely obsessed about Curbs! I have no probs sticking my neck out.

But Coppell? Nah. I've never seriously suggested we bring him back because I don't think we should. Bt if we're struggling to get someone in, we could do a lot worse. I'd love to see what Coppell would do with the transfer budget allegedly promised to Poyet!!!

[SPARTA]

Dick Advocaat odds drop from 66/1 is now 17/1

That's a big jump.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Decent odds, decent surname

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

"Brian had lost the players" who might that be then?

Oh wake up! When ever a manager is struggling, there is always a number of players who will be glad when he's gone. It will be no different here.

The implication wasn't that it was a few. It was that it was most of them. The reality is that there have been few games this year where the players lacked effort. What they lacked was ability, and virtually no tactics can get round that problem.

We started 4-4-2, and people said going 4-5-1 was the answer. So we went 4-5-1, and when the results dried up, people said that playing one up front was the problem.

We ended up playing a tactic of trying to keep it tight and nick a late goal or two because when we played more open it was us getting hit by those goals, because we weren't good enough.

Moans about tactics are an irrelevance, as we aren't down to bottom with 23 points because of poor tactics. If it was poor tactics, that would imply this team is underachieving, and to be frank, I see little evidence of that at all. McDermott got about as much as anyone could realistically hope for out of that set of players.

Yes, the football we play lacks sophistication, and is probably a couple of decades out of date, but that's because pragmatism shows we get better results playing that way. It's as if people think we could just spontaneously decide to play like Swansea and we'd be mid-table.


"He's lost the dressing room" and "he has no Plan B" are just the latest cliches of paint by numbers fan punditry. There's nothing to suggest he lost the backing of the players, and given that we very clearly switched from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1, the suggestion that he only had one tactic is quite daft. Yes, he rarely changed tactically during a game, but it's not as if we had options on the bench to give us much variety to do so.

[AthleticoSpizz]

At last Rev.

A post that actually reflects common sense and reality.

Nice one, +1

[Pepe the Horseman]

Dick Advocaat odds drop from 66/1 is now 17/1

That's a big jump.

Where are you looking? Still 66/1 as far as I can see.

[Retroroyal]

Must,must be a British manager,prefabily someone with past Reading connections, Parkinson,Sanchez,or even Martin Allen doing wonders at Gillingham. Jamie Cureton would be a good call, still banging in the goals, would make a great Player Manager. But the biggest prize would be Roy Bently, if we could tempt him out of retirement.
But please please no foreign Manager.

[excavvyinbrittany]

Dick Advocaat odds drop from 66/1 is now 17/1

That's a big jump.

As I have hinted at before the bookies will fluctuate the odds to attract money. There have been some ridiculous names in the betting including Kebe and McDermot to name but two.
For the bookies a stagnant market will not attract money so introduce new names cut odds are means of attracting possibly mug money for them. They currently know the same as the rest of us absolutely nothing

[akranes]

Incoming Dick. I can feel it.

(end of season)

[Eaststandman]

"Brian had lost the players" who might that be then?

Oh wake up! When ever a manager is struggling, there is always a number of players who will be glad when he's gone. It will be no different here.

The implication wasn't that it was a few. It was that it was most of them. The reality is that there have been few games this year where the players lacked effort. What they lacked was ability, and virtually no tactics can get round that problem.

We started 4-4-2, and people said going 4-5-1 was the answer. So we went 4-5-1, and when the results dried up, people said that playing one up front was the problem.

We ended up playing a tactic of trying to keep it tight and nick a late goal or two because when we played more open it was us getting hit by those goals, because we weren't good enough.

Moans about tactics are an irrelevance, as we aren't down to bottom with 23 points because of poor tactics. If it was poor tactics, that would imply this team is underachieving, and to be frank, I see little evidence of that at all. McDermott got about as much as anyone could realistically hope for out of that set of players.

Yes, the football we play lacks sophistication, and is probably a couple of decades out of date, but that's because pragmatism shows we get better results playing that way. It's as if people think we could just spontaneously decide to play like Swansea and we'd be mid-table.


"He's lost the dressing room" and "he has no Plan B" are just the latest cliches of paint by numbers fan punditry. There's nothing to suggest he lost the backing of the players, and given that we very clearly switched from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1, the suggestion that he only had one tactic is quite daft. Yes, he rarely changed tactically during a game, but it's not as if we had options on the bench to give us much variety to do so.

Thanks for that Rev you answered the question with the same conclusion I had reached, a succinct opinion based on reason and not hysteria or imaginary "facts"
I'm surprised by the amount of nobbers who think, that by saying something as if it were fact, somehow makes it true!

[paultheroyal]

Dick Advocaat odds drop from 66/1 is now 17/1

That's a big jump.

Gone out to 80s on mine!

It's all about Adkins. He is teasing with us. After being spotted on m4 10 days ago it looks like he is ready to finish off rest of the journey and come to the madstad.

[AthleticoSpizz]

^ I think that anybody with any real affiliation to the team for the past 30/40 years and HNA membership for the last dozen would totally agree Eaststand.

[RockheadRumple]

Dick Advocaat odds drop from 66/1 is now 17/1

That's a big jump.

Gone out to 80s on mine!

It's all about Adkins. He is teasing with us. After being spotted on m4 10 days ago it looks like he is ready to finish off rest of the journey and come to the madstad.

Nice try.

[Agent Balti]

Sorry, I can't believe that if the players were all total automaton droids that that they had NO opinion on whether that their manager was good enough or not.

If that were the case, then they would be pulling results out of the bag, regardless. Anton would have his fingers on the pulse to see if Brian was still capable of motivating the players. He wouldn't have sacked Brian if he thought that it was the players were just a gallimaufry.

[Jay o/]

@CalvinRFC1871
Nigel Adkins has got the #readingfc job expect a press conference tomorrow pm #Doomed #NoAmbition should have just kept MCD #GoingDown

I'm unsure if this is an assumption based on him hearing we have been back in talks with Adkins, or he's actually ITK, but looking at his account he's just a family man and Reading fan, nothing points to him being a wind up.

@CalvinRFC1871
@vinty_boy #InTheKnow #RumourMill #readingfc They've been back in for him today so my spies tell me #Insider #Mole