Next Reading Manager: Press Conference @ 9:15

[under the tin]

There is enough in this squad to bounce back straight away. Same squad that was four US against arsenal and up against chelsea. Better bunch of players than qpr imho

No, sorry. Can't see this.
When we went up, we went "on a roll". Footballers are all about confidence. When confidence is high, decisions seem to go your way, energy levels are increased, and the luck of the gods seem to smile on you, culminating in results often being better that the actual performance deserved.
The 2006 side looked like champions-elect. Could anyone say the same about last seasion's team?

I don't think this squad could repeat that.
In any event, a rebuild is on the cards. Feds will start murmuring about needing to play at the top level for the sake of his international career, Pearce will be a Liverpool player, Harte, Hunt, Church, are on the last bits of their careers here, Ledge and Jobi might have got a bit cheesed off with all the stick they have had to endure here from a section of the fans, and may seek moves to refresh their careers. Kebe's ongoing battle with multiple injuries is starting to weigh against him.

[Cobi]

Fordham again says Adkins is not in the running. Where the fcuk next then?!

[Hoop Blah]

"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Yes, the football we play lacks sophistication, and is probably a couple of decades out of date, but that's because pragmatism shows we get better results playing that way.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.

I don't think he lost the players backing, but I do think they possibly lost belief in what he was asking them to do. They could probably see that it wasn't working and that it wasn't really helping them a lot of the time.

As for not having the options to give us the variety to change things during the game, with 7 subs on the bench McDermott always had the variety to change things tactically depending on the situation of the game. Swansea away being an obvious example, or many of the other games we led in and didn't see out the game.

The players he had on the bench, and the balance of the squad was his doing, there's no excuses there.

[Colin Cheeselog]

No doubt the same wakners who are begging for Adkins' appointment now will be the very same wakners who are the first to scream for his sacking two years down the line when we are 2nd from bottom in the prem again.

Yep, and the same mongs who were screaming abuse at McDermott (and others) at the Villa game are now moaning about us not having a new manager. They should just be happy that they got their wish.

What is the optimum time for getting a new manager? Too soon and people say the old manager was stabbed in the back as a replacement was already lined up, too long and it's apparently a shambles.

[Royal Lady]

Fingers crossed here for Darren Caskey as player/manager - but get in early if you want a pie before the game.

It's all just total speculation - nobody knows. The more you go on and on and on about bloody Adkins or whoever, the more you convince yourself it's going to be them.



What I do know is that we need to get the absolute right person in and someone who we will stick with for a few years to enable them to build the right team to fight for their life in the Premiership next time we go up.

[Hoop Blah]

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

They had a bookie on the radio the other day and even he was admitting that the market is so small on these books that the smallest of bets can make the odds shift around quite a bit as well.

[Royalwaster]

No doubt the same wakners who are begging for Adkins' appointment now will be the very same wakners who are the first to scream for his sacking two years down the line when we are 2nd from bottom in the prem again.

Yep, and the same mongs who were screaming abuse at McDermott (and others) at the Villa game are now moaning about us not having a new manager. They should just be happy that they got their wish.

What is the optimum time for getting a new manager? Too soon and people say the old manager was stabbed in the back as a replacement was already lined up, too long and it's apparently a shambles.

I really cannot remember hearing any abuse directed at McDermott at the Villa game. OK there was booing and then the cheering when Legs came off, but abuse at McD I cannot remember.

[Maguire]

Apart from the chants of "you don't know what you're doing" ?

[Barry the bird boggler]

I hear Eddie Howe could be a contender......

[Hoop Blah]

I suspect AZ & SJM decided that BM was not the right man long-term but that they would not get involved in discussions with, and approaches to, others behind his back, therefore made the move to sack him without having anyone lined up.

Totally at odds with the way most clubs operate but RFC aren't like most clubs, thankfully.

I can't remember us ever having a replacement lined up when sacking managers before (or having contingency when we lost someone like Pardew or McGhee), and I don't think most clubs do either as it happens. I can't really think of examples of other clubs having a replacement lined up when they've sacked an incumbent manager, apart from Spurs when they had discussions with Ramos and got slated for it.

The sacking was totally justified and the timing made total sense, even if some can't see that or just happen to disagree, but there is a logic about it and its easily justified.

For all those who are slating the club for the time being taken to appoint the next manager, here's a little context for you. So far it's been 14 days since McDermott was given the boot. Below are the number of days between previous manager departures and their replacements taking office.

Rodgers to McDermott (perm deal) - 40
Coppell to Rodgers - 24
Pardew to Coppell - 29
Burns to Pardew - 28
Bullivant to Burns - 7
Portifield to McGhee - 70
Branfoot to Portifield - 21
Evans to Branfoot - 30

So the quickest appointment was Burns. We all know how well that turned out.

[soggy biscuit]

I hear Eddie Howe could be a contender......

Howe (not) for now

[melonhead]

No doubt the same wakners who are begging for Adkins' appointment now will be the very same wakners who are the first to scream for his sacking two years down the line when we are 2nd from bottom in the prem again.

Yep, and the same mongs who were screaming abuse at McDermott (and others) at the Villa game are now moaning about us not having a new manager. They should just be happy that they got their wish.

What is the optimum time for getting a new manager? Too soon and people say the old manager was stabbed in the back as a replacement was already lined up, too long and it's apparently a shambles.

I really cannot remember hearing any abuse directed at McDermott at the Villa game. OK there was booing and then the cheering when Legs came off, but abuse at McD I cannot remember.

you mean when the crowd were booing and jeering his every decision?

[melonhead]

sacking poorly timed,and makes no sense to me. but now that hes gone, it makes sense to take as long as it takes to get the rightbloke in.
and if that means leaving dolan in charge for th erest of the season, so be it.

[winchester_royal]

I find it odd that so many people are against Dolan getting the job, especially as it seems to be these same people lamenting the end of the 'Reading way'.

Seems like a real football guy who the players respect a lot, and doesn't have a blemish on his cv (unlike a number of the other candidates, and indeed our former manager who was sacked by Woking).

Not my first choice, but definitely not my least favourite.

[NTRoyal]

Unfortunately my dream of a comedy end to the season has been left in tatters, with Phil Brown taking the Southend job.

[Royal With Cheese]

Unfortunately my dream of a comedy end to the season has been left in tatters, with Phil Brown taking the Southend job.

There's always Michael Appleton.

[Royalwaster]

Apart from the chants of "you don't know what you're doing" ?

Well that's fairly mild 'abuse' surely - I don't engage in that sort of thing but given the abject performance delivered once again against one of our main rivals it's hardly that surprising or 'abusive'. It's nothing compared with what happened at Blackburn last season and I don't think many of those involved meant it as a call for his sacking.

[Ian Royal]

Apart from the chants of "you don't know what you're doing" ?

That's the tamest abuse ever.

[melonhead]

-i dont remember hearing any abuse.
-what about when X
-but that is tame abuse

[Ian Royal]

:roll:

-i dont remember hearing any abuse.
-what about when X
-but that is tame abuse

I didn't say there hadn't been any. But that is the weakest excuse for abuse I've seen. It might as well be "Brian dear chap, one questions whether you are doing a particularly good job at the moment, have a nice day."

No wonder people complain about our fans being pathetic middle-class plastic losers if you think "You don't know what you're doing" is a good example of a manager being abused.