Brian: The right decision?

[Bandini]

A Quick summary of BMc reign at Reading:

1st season: Took over with the club in the Championship relegation zone. Lead the club to a 9th place finish, won at Anfield, and went on to make our 1st FAC 1/4 final in over 80 years.
2nd Season: A second succesive FAC 1/4 final including a win at Goodison. Finished 5th in the league, taking us to within 1 game of promotion.
3rd season: Won us The Championship
4th season: made a terrible start having bascially been given very little to spend. Turned it round to pick up 14 points from 7 games, a run that took us out of the PL relegation zone.

All in all, the 2nd most successful manager the club has ever had.

4 (four) games later he was sacked.

All achieved with a style that brought countless late winning goals and had the fans chanting his name pretty much every game bar the last few matches. Not surpirsing considering he'd dome so much for the club in over a decade. Dont ever recall us getting gubbed 5 or 6 during his tenure either. Certainly not to teams bottom of the league or even a division below.

When Nigel Adkins has achieved 10% of that, you can all come back and tell me he's doing a decent job.

(Sorry its taken 114 pages to mention that.)

You forget to mention being awarded Manager of the Month 5 weeks before being unceremoniously sacked.

Getting emotional reading your post, TLM.

Absolutely disgraceful decision to get rid of him.

[Extended-Phenotype]

All achieved with a style that brought countless late winning goals and had the fans chanting his name pretty much every game bar the last few matches. Not surpirsing considering he'd dome so much for the club in over a decade. Dont ever recall us getting gubbed 5 or 6 during his tenure either. Certainly not to teams bottom of the league or even a division below.

End of thread.

Tbf it's pretty hard to get gubbed by that many when you have 11 players camped in you own half for 90 minutes.

[Big Foot]

All achieved with a style that brought countless late winning goals and had the fans chanting his name pretty much every game bar the last few matches. Not surpirsing considering he'd dome so much for the club in over a decade. Dont ever recall us getting gubbed 5 or 6 during his tenure either. Certainly not to teams bottom of the league or even a division below.

End of thread.

Tbf it's pretty hard to get gubbed by that many when you have 11 players camped in you own half for 90 minutes.

Worked pretty well to win the title, at the expense of that free flowing footballing team managed by.....you've guessed it.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Tbf it's pretty hard to get gubbed by that many when you have 11 players camped in you own half for 90 minutes.

Worked pretty well to win the title, at the expense of that free flowing footballing team managed by.....you've guessed it.

Not complaining, just pointing out the blindingly f/cking obvious fact that different styles of football can produce different results.

[Royalee]

Tbf it's pretty hard to get gubbed by that many when you have 11 players camped in you own half for 90 minutes.

Worked pretty well to win the title, at the expense of that free flowing footballing team managed by.....you've guessed it.

Yeah, that team which stayed up and were above us when Adkins was removed. Also probably worth noting he inherited a team a whole league below us and still finished his time there above Brian. Don't let facts get in the way of one of your shit tirades though.

[RoyallyFcuked]

Adkins will prove the doubters wrong. Id rather watch us lose playing decent football (or at least trying to) than watch us lose playing dire football anyway

[Handsome Man]

We've got to give Adkins until at least next year.

We might just be more likely to go up if we played a more direct form of football, and we would probably be seeing slightly better results, but our players need to learn to pass to each other before we can face the Premier League again. We need a system into which premiership-quality players can fit, and that isn't going to happen instantly. Adkins looks like a man with a long-term plan, whereas McDermott was only ever looking to the next game.

[Man Friday]

A Quick summary of BMc reign at Reading:

1st season: Took over with the club in the Championship relegation zone. Lead the club to a 9th place finish, won at Anfield, and went on to make our 1st FAC 1/4 final in over 80 years.
2nd Season: A second succesive FAC 1/4 final including a win at Goodison. Finished 5th in the league, taking us to within 1 game of promotion.
3rd season: Won us The Championship
4th season: made a terrible start having bascially been given very little to spend. Turned it round to pick up 14 points from 7 games, a run that took us out of the PL relegation zone.

All in all, the 2nd most successful manager the club has ever had.

4 (four) games later he was sacked.

All achieved with a style that brought countless late winning goals and had the fans chanting his name pretty much every game bar the last few matches. Not surpirsing considering he'd dome so much for the club in over a decade. Dont ever recall us getting gubbed 5 or 6 during his tenure either. Certainly not to teams bottom of the league or even a division below.

When Nigel Adkins has achieved 10% of that, you can all come back and tell me he's doing a decent job.

(Sorry its taken 114 pages to mention that.)

You forget to mention being awarded Manager of the Month 5 weeks before being unceremoniously sacked.

Getting emotional reading your post, TLM.

Absolutely disgraceful decision to get rid of him.

...and then Anton fecks off. Nothing more "annoying" than being sacked by somebody who then decides to jack it in.

[melonhead]

We've got to give Adkins until at least next year.

We might just be more likely to go up if we played a more direct form of football, and we would probably be seeing slightly better results, but our players need to learn to pass to each other before we can face the Premier League again. We need a system into which premiership-quality players can fit, and that isn't going to happen instantly. Adkins looks like a man with a long-term plan, whereas McDermott was only ever looking to the next game.

and just like the other great long term planner we had in recent years he seems to be in danger of not winning that next game more than we'd all like

[Extended-Phenotype]

We've got to give Adkins until at least next year.

We might just be more likely to go up if we played a more direct form of football, and we would probably be seeing slightly better results, but our players need to learn to pass to each other before we can face the Premier League again. We need a system into which premiership-quality players can fit, and that isn't going to happen instantly. Adkins looks like a man with a long-term plan, whereas McDermott was only ever looking to the next game.

and just like the other great long term planner we had in recent years he seems to be in danger of not winning that next game more than we'd all like

I think that's the issue, ain't it?

Long term overhaul in prep for going up and staying up = rocky first season or so
Short term championship football by numbers = yo-yo of champ success and prem failure

[melonhead]

i dont think you need to play like swansea/barcelona to stay up or succeed in football.
i dont think the way we play now is any more entertaining than before. its probably less so.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Tbf it's pretty hard to get gubbed by that many when you have 11 players camped in you own half for 90 minutes.

Worked pretty well to win the title, at the expense of that free flowing footballing team managed by.....you've guessed it.

Yeah, that team which stayed up and were above us when Adkins was removed. Also probably worth noting he inherited a team a whole league below us and still finished his time there above Brian. Don't let facts get in the way of one of your shit tirades though.

McDermott Championship Titles - 1

Adkins Championship Titles - 0.

[floyd__streete]

Yeah, that team which stayed up and were above us when Adkins was removed. Also probably worth noting he inherited a team a whole league below us.....

.....with a massive budget for that level

[Royalee]

Yeah, that team which stayed up and were above us when Adkins was removed. Also probably worth noting he inherited a team a whole league below us and still finished his time there above Brian. Don't let facts get in the way of one of your shit tirades though.

McDermott Championship Titles - 1

Adkins Championship Titles - 0.

Nigel Adkins 3 league titles, 2 runners up finishes, 4 promotions.
McDermott 1 league title, 1 promotion.
Jason Roberts 1 rubbish Twitter account

[Royalee]

Yeah, that team which stayed up and were above us when Adkins was removed. Also probably worth noting he inherited a team a whole league below us.....

.....with a massive budget for that level

Yep, with a much weaker starting point. Don't think his budget was too big at Scunthorpe either tbh

[Extended-Phenotype]

i dont think you need to play like swansea/barcelona to stay up or succeed in football.
i dont think the way we play now is any more entertaining than before. its probably less so.

1) True but a better passing game and a broader plan probably helps. But then this could turn into a direct vs flowing football argument which let's be honest, I don't think anyone has succeeded in winning.

2) Agreed to an extent but then I see it as work in progress, so I'm personally not expecting us to have made the transition from direct to 'entertaining' (flowing/passing) football in this short space of time. Personal taste, I like a good passing side - if the journey to get there is a bit ugly, I'm cool with that. It's my opinion that limited football is less likely to keep you up, though of course it isn't impossible.

Some folk like a more 'honest' straightforward approach to sport. Others like things a little more elaborate and attractive. Difficult to say what works best for what level of club but I'm of the opinion that losing doesn't really matter if you put your ass on the line. I'd rather lose by taking the game to the opponent, then by being regimented and systematic and being broken down.

But again, that's a matter of taste I suppose. With Reading, I think Nigel has the right idea (for me) and I think we can achieve that target given enough patience, plus I believe we'd stand a better chance in the top flight if our football evolves in this direction.

Whether Brian could have taken us in this direction, I really don't know - perhaps he was too pragmatic to dare, maybe he was even right to be. But Adkins is our manager now and I'm yet to see anything that merits real complaint.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Yeah, that team which stayed up and were above us when Adkins was removed. Also probably worth noting he inherited a team a whole league below us and still finished his time there above Brian. Don't let facts get in the way of one of your shit tirades though.

McDermott Championship Titles - 1

Adkins Championship Titles - 0.

Nigel Adkins 3 league titles, 2 runners up finishes, 4 promotions.
McDermott 1 league title, 1 promotion.
Jason Roberts 1 rubbish Twitter account

No Championship titles, though.

[floyd__streete]

Don't think his budget was too big at Scunthorpe either tbh.....

.....where he took over a side which was already top of the league, of course

What has he had now, 20 games in charge? I defy anyone to say his first 20 games has been more successful than BMCs first 20.....both took over poorly performing sides in relegation trouble, BMc gave us the most thrilling cup run we've had in a quarter of a century and took us to comfortable safety. Adkins was of course operating in the Premier League for a chunk of that time with a team clearly out of their depth.....and possibly a manager out of his depth too

Comparisons have been made as to how well we're doing compared to the start of the 11/12 Championship season. A more interesting comparison is how we're doing compared with BMC's first full season in the job; after 14 games of 10/11 we were precisely 1 point and 1 place worse off than we are now. Worth mentioning too of course that in consecutive summers BMc had to deal with the loss of the key player from the previous season. Who did Adkins lose.....Kebe - reading between the lines the two of them didn't exactly get on anyway - and Mariappa who was hardly a class performer for us, lets be brutally honest.

There are - of course - several ways to skin a cat, what I find most irritating about the Nigel Adkins Circus is the certainty with which sonme people speak of the supposed superiority of the football he is trying to play.....as if Stoke City - a club with whom until very recently we were always competitive with and who themselves saw Reading as a 'business model' to follow before these TSI charlatans showed up - haven't had 5 consecutive hugely successful seasons in the Premier League playing the kind of percentage football many now mock BMc for in the face of not hugely inspiring results and performances under Adkins!

[windermere_royal]

I just don`t give a shit any more, just saying FFS will this argument EVER end?

[melonhead]

i dont think you need to play like swansea/barcelona to stay up or succeed in football.
i dont think the way we play now is any more entertaining than before. its probably less so.

1) True but a better passing game and a broader plan probably helps. But then this could turn into a direct vs flowing football argument which let's be honest, I don't think anyone has succeeded in winning.

2) Agreed to an extent but then I see it as work in progress, so I'm personally not expecting us to have made the transition from direct to 'entertaining' (flowing/passing) football in this short space of time. Personal taste, I like a good passing side - if the journey to get there is a bit ugly, I'm cool with that. It's my opinion that limited football is less likely to keep you up, though of course it isn't impossible.

Some folk like a more 'honest' straightforward approach to sport. Others like things a little more elaborate and attractive. Difficult to say what works best for what level of club but I'm of the opinion that losing doesn't really matter if you put your ass on the line. I'd rather lose by taking the game to the opponent, then by being regimented and systematic and being broken down.

But again, that's a matter of taste I suppose. With Reading, I think Nigel has the right idea (for me) and I think we can achieve that target given enough patience, plus I believe we'd stand a better chance in the top flight if our football evolves in this direction.

Whether Brian could have taken us in this direction, I really don't know - perhaps he was too pragmatic to dare, maybe he was even right to be. But Adkins is our manager now and I'm yet to see anything that merits real complaint.

i dont see pressing, counter attacking quick break football as limited in any way
i do acknowledge that keeping the ball for longer will mean less goals are scored against you though
and i too see no reason for complaint in the start adkins has made on the rebuilding job