Hoop BlahWoodcote RoyalHoop Blah The most ridiculous thing I've read on here recently is Woodcote laying into the manager for a bunch of pre-season performances and not far off calling for his because of them! Wind up merchant or not it beggars belief.
In which case you need to go back to school.
I've never asked for Adkin's head (and have said many times I believe we are lucky to have him given how his predecessor was treated) but with a very average pre-season and 2? league wins under his belt, so far he's done jack sh*t to show he's as good as McDermott let alone being superior.
McDermott knew the priority was to find away to win matches and his teams always over achieved across the season. He did that from the get go despite losing his best players to balance the books. Even with the best squad we've ever had in the Championship plus a whole pre-season on top of the final eight games in the top flight, Adkins still isn't close to performing that balancing act.
We all love watching pretty football but only gaining promotion by winning matches provides the finances to make this more than a pipe dream. It is by this yard stick that Adkins performance should be judged and losing a 2-0 lead and therefore 2pts, especially given the resources at his disposal, means he needs to up his game.
It's this kind of rubbish that keeps this thread alive.
McDermott didn't always over achieve, anyone who witnessed last season should be more than aware of that.
Adkins tenure isn't a competition to see if he can prove he's better than McDermott, their spells are at the same club but with different aims and ideals to cater for. We are no longer looking to be happy gate crashers at the big boys party and willing to make do with functional and ultimately limited football. We are now building for the future after our last manager, as successful at what he did and loveable he may have been, proved he'd lost his way. At some point the damage becomes irreparable and a fresh voice and approach needs to come in. That's where we'd gotten too. The wounds of being so far out of our depth last season cut too deep and a change was needed.
That doesn't leave some bitter battle for bragging rights between Adkins and McDermott, it just leaves Reading fans lucky enough to be watching their club on the next stage of an interesting journey of progression.
As for calling for his head, I didn't say you did, but your lambasting of what he'd achieved after failing to put the two Bristol sides to the sword in meaningless friendly games was, in my opinion, just plain daft.
It's Pro Adkins nonsense like this that has seen this thread take on a life of it's own.
If McDermott's squad didn't over achieve in last season's top flight, WTF does that say about Adkins performance so far in the Championship with a significantly superior one
And how about this for some total bollox?
Hoop Blah Adkins tenure isn't a competition to see if he can prove he's better than McDermott
So, McDermott wasn't sacked because Mr Ambramovichwannabee felt we needed someone better and, if Adkins turns out to be worse, that's OK
If there's one thing we should all be able to agree about it's surely that we are pig sick of being top flight whipping boys.
However, so far, McDermott's approach is more likely to bring that to an end than Adkin's. Pretty football is worth jack sh"t if it doesn't produce the wins that result in promotion that secures the revenue to finance the kind of team we all want to watch.
Adkin's team is being financed by parachute payments secured by those who over achieved under McDermott and, if he wants to justify his appointment, he will need to get this excellent squad performing close to it's potential in the near future or suffer the consequences.
McDermott wasn't sacked so we could lose to both Bristols inside a week (even if they were just friendlies) and be looked down upon by Bournemouth.............................Adkin's fan club are going to be sorely disappointed if they think this is the case.
He's a good manager with the best squad in this clubs' very long history and they will expect that to be reflected in results this season.
