Brian: The right decision?

[Royal With Cheese]

Gorkss looks a spent force.

He's not that good.

[RoyalBlue]

'Getting rather more from his resources'? So 0.1 ppg is 'rather more'?

FTR, I really don't think that 29 games with a squad that was entirely of McD's making that were used to plying the style of football he was asking them to play V 8 games with a squad Nige had no influence in putting together and whom he was asking to play an almost alien style of football because that was the remit he was given when offered the job is reasonable grounds for comparison just yet.

There have been vast improvements in several of the individuals who Bri struggled to get the best out of, and if we can invest smartly this window and mould those individuals into a team that plays attractive, winning football (which NA has shown consistently in the past he is capable of doing) then next year will be a lot of fun. You only have to listen to how the players' attitudes have changed since he came in to realise the effect he's had. Even if that hasn't transformed into a statistical improvement just yet, there are more grounds for optimism than negativity.

Any comparison between the two is impossible until December at the very least.

Exactly - anything else is clearly a desperate & clumsy attempt by McDermott's strongest & most loyal supporters to discredit AZ's decision.

[creative_username_1]

cant argue that watching us lose is now much more entertaining and pleasing on the eye
but we are still losing.

like him, think hes got what it takes to make a good fist of next season, but lets see us win a few first before going mental

this

[Alexander Litvinenko]

It's not the results so much as the attitude and the way things were done. .

In winning the Championship we were sold the great con-trick of how great the strength, togetherness and unity of the squad was.

Then at the start of the season we had a player and the manager publicly disagreeing over whether the player was fit enough to play, and the player's girlfriend tweeting about disloyalty; we later had a player refusing to travel to an away because "his head wasn't in the right place", and all the while one player (brought in by the owner's personal efforts alone) was earning a lot more than everyone else whilst a promising young defender (we were shipping goals at the time) was in visible contract dispute with the club and not playing - but the club's publicity machine kept insisting his non-selection was nothing to do with this.

That all smacks of a manager who'd lost control of his fragmented squad, and who couldn't inspire them or manage them to meet the heightened and corrupting demands of the Premier League.. At the same time, he persisted in playing 4-4-2 for long after it was thoroughly discredited, and just appeared to have no Plan B (the player who'd been bought to provide a Plan B wasn't playing)!

As a result, some of the performances were abject. It's all very well being beaten by Aston Villa, Southampton and Sunderland if you compete, but for those three matches, at a crucial point of the season and against potential relegation contenders were just didn't turn up. Those three games were the most gutless and spineless performances I've seen from a Reading team in 37 years - we offered absolutely nothing. No ideas, no desire, no creativity and no fight - just going through the motions of playing without contributing anything positive.

If McDermott had gone then, in early December I'd not have been surprised or disappointed, because he clearly didn't have the ability to lift, inspire or motivate his players (as Wigan and Villa at home later proved) - and perhaps his successor would have had the chance to rescue things in the January window. (But, of course, it wouldn't have been Adkins as he wasn't available then.....)

[Royalwaster]

I can't see McAnuff, McCleary or Robson-Kanu leaving. And if we play the same way as we have been, they will absolutely destroy Championship defences. Guthrie and Karacan are good enough to hold their own against Championship midfields at least. Pog and ALF are capable of getting close to 20 goals. Federici and McCarthy are two fo the best keepers you'll see next season. Our defence and lack of depth upfront are our biggest weakness. And Mariappa, Kelly and Gunter are all amongst the best defenders at that level, so all we really need there is a left back and someone to challenge Morro.

Gorkss looks a spent force.

Think we also need an AM who can weigh in with some goals - Guthrie has not looked like he is that player really; maybe HRK could be if he plays in a more central behind-the-striker type role ... ? At the moment, I just don't see enough goals in our side - but I guess that could change against weaker defences in the Champ.

[maffff]

.......against a team who had nothing to play for.

Except about an extra £5m for finishing 10th instead of 17th.

[KC Royal]

Almost 2 months on the decision to replace McDermott with Adkins looks very 50/50 to me. Adkins is a better PL manager but McDermott imo is the better Championship manager. I’m not sure our passing game will be quite so effective in the Championship. Teams won’t give us the space they do in the PL and will try and do a job on us; McDermott’s Leeds immediately springs to mind here. I still remember well the job we did on Southampton in the home game against them 2 years ago, well until they went down to 10 men anyway, and McDermott’s post-match interview after the Brighton home game a couple of months later. The first half yesterday was like my fears being realised.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

McDermott should never have been sacked in the first place. We were going down and he would have taken us back up anyway. We've just replaced a man who was very loyal to the club with someone McDermott walked all over in the Championship. Poyet was obviously the first choice, and when that failed, they obviously frittered around with other options, because it took ages to find a replacement. Parkinson should have got the job, couldn't have done any worse than Adkins has done.

[KC Royal]

I should add that at the time I thought it was the wrong decision to sack Brian. And as much of a fan of Brian's as I am i'll admit he was struggling, Adkins results have to me been ok overall and he was doing an ok job at Southampton this season. There are gaps in the squad that need filling, but i'm excited about next season, although that was the case before Brian left. There's certainly going to be pressure on Adkins to succeed, especially as I expect Leeds to go up.

[winchester_royal]

We've just replaced a man who was very loyal to the club with someone McDermott walked all over in the Championship.

Ah yes, 1 point is an absolute walking over.
In that case, what was Adkins doing to McDermott in the prem before he got sacked by Saints this season

[sandman]

Getting sacked by Saints for the same reasons we're led to believe that Brian was sacked for by Reading.

[The Prisoner]

Why is everyone afraid of Leeds? We know they have a good manager obv, but their squad is very average. And before anyone says "ah, but so was ours when he got us promoted" lightning doesn't strike twice. We were lucky to go up, and so would they be. I like Brian, but some of the things that went on in the first two thirds of this season were frankly baffling.

You know they are nailed on for 6 points against us tho!

[maffff]

Getting sacked by Saints for the same reasons we're led to believe that Brian was sacked for by Reading.

...whilst keeping his team outside of the relegation zone.

[sandman]

Only just and having been given a far bigger budget.

[maffff]

Why is everyone afraid of Leeds? We know they have a good manager obv, but their squad is very average. And before anyone says "ah, but so was ours when he got us promoted" lightning doesn't strike twice. We were lucky to go up, and so would they be. I like Brian, but some of the things that went on in the first two thirds of this season were frankly baffling.

You know they are nailed on for 6 points against us tho!

I can't see them being anything more than average. If he performed a miracle they'd be Premfodder. Apparently McDermott seems staunch 4-3-3 passing football with Leeds, which is baffling. So we'll see on that.

More change of us getting McCormack from them, than them getting any of the sorts of players their fans think they'll get.

[winchester_royal]

Getting sacked by Saints for the same reasons we're led to believe that Brian was sacked for by Reading.

Nope, he was sacked because Cortese didn't like him, and wanted to snap Pocahontus up while he was available. At the time Saints were 3 points above relegation and on a decent run of form. Whereas Brian was sacked following a shocking run of form and performances that left us a long way from safety with United and Arsenal away to come.

[Maguire]

Southampton were the 7th highest net spenders in the transfer market in the whole of Europe

[maffff]

Still sacked for the same reasons.

But whether that was the right decision is a question for saintsweb, not for us, and I hope they have a similar thread to this. And within that queries about whether it was right for Poch to leave Espanyol, with a thread on the Espanyol forum about whether that was the right decision for Poch to leave 'by mutual consent' (essentially sacked) for Javier Aguirre and queries on the Real Zaragoza forum about whether it was right to sack Aguirre for...............

[ftw, in my view:
McD - yes.
Adkins - possibly not, neither here nor there so far, next season will be where it shows for them if they kick on.
Pochettino - yes
Aguirre - yes].

The only one of those four managers that wasn't failing at the time of their departure was Adkins who seemed to have his team safe and in a position where they were gaining momentum.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

We've just replaced a man who was very loyal to the club with someone McDermott walked all over in the Championship.

Ah yes, 1 point is an absolute walking over.
In that case, what was Adkins doing to McDermott in the prem before he got sacked by Saints this season

4 points, 1-1 and 1-3.

Get your facts right.

[sandman]

Having been given the funds to do so.