Brian: The right decision?

[Lower West]

Purely for nostalgic reasons & to get a bit of a bond back with the club & fans, I'd welcome Brian or Steve back with open arms.

Perhaps Clarke went too far and destroyed the soul of the club. With all the personnel changes. Much as Brian was sacked against the wishes of the board at the time. If Arsenal are happy to employ Brian in a scouting role then the man must have good qualities.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Purely for nostalgic reasons & to get a bit of a bond back with the club & fans, I'd welcome Brian or Steve back with open arms.

Perhaps Clarke went too far and destroyed the soul of the club. With all the personnel changes. Much as Brian was sacked against the wishes of the board at the time. If Arsenal are happy to employ Brian in a scouting role then the man must have good qualities.

I don't think you can lay all of that at Clarke's door to be fair to him. The downward spiral started pretty much after we got promoted and in that first summer transfer window. Some big mistakes made on signings e.g Guthrie & all of a sudden there are some bang average players on silly money & the existing squad has their nose out of joint.

We've still not recovered from that now really have we?

There's been so much chopping and changing since 2012 it's not hard to see why lots of us are completely disillusioned with it all. Perhaps a familiar face in charge is just what's needed right now.

[Cureton's Volley]

Brian comes home, I'm buying an ST

[Lower West]

Brian comes home, I'm buying an ST

Might be part of the thinking. For the club to be successful longer term it needs us and our dosh.

[RG7Fan]

Brian comes home, I'm buying an ST

I always found his post match interviews difficult to watch / listen to, like he was really camera shy or something. Mind you not nearly as bad as Adkins - everytime he said 'the lads are working really hard on the training ground' I felt like driving my car in to the nearest ditch at 60mph without my seatbelt on.

I think he would generally be a popular choice with the fans and the atmosphere would improve in the stadium, how long that would last without the results I dont know.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

When the owner is bringing in players on mega wages it undermines the manager.
Drenthe, Pog
Roberts was great, but didn't we get one years playing for 3 years wages.
So many long term injuries hurting the heart of the budget.

[sdt1965]

well i remember Brian talking to another club

[Winston Smith]

I always found his post match interviews difficult to watch / listen to, like he was really camera shy or something.

through all my #bringbrianback campaigning I have never once thought of it like that. You have really put a different angle on things and opened my eyes, RG7Fan. I have* now moved to the brianout camp.








*not

[Extended-Phenotype]

Aye, but the difference was that he had paid his dues in terms of success in the eyes of the fans, was performing well and Wolves were a Premier League proposition during a time Brian was looking for a new contract at Reading.

You couldn't begrudge him the opportunity.

[Winston Smith]

well i remember Brian talking to another club

Sure? I remember national newspapers claiming Brian was one of Wolves preferred people to take over there but RFC quickly tied him down to a new contract.

At the time Brian said he had been in contract negotiations for 3 weeks with RFC and when the Wolves rumours started in the papers he didn't respond with any comment, and the club quickly agreed to new terms for him.

[Vision]

The whole "building a team" thing is interesting. I recall an interview with Brian shortly after TSI came on board saying all he ever wanted was to be able to manage and not have to lose his best players. I always thought that was a little naïve to be honest.

My feelings at the time I think were that it was a long term strategy AZ was looking at (clearly using Southampton as a model) and he clearly didn't fit that *.I could see the footballing logic behind it but didn't like the fact that we'd become the sort of club to treat a manager who'd achieved so much with us, so badly**.Not that we didn't have previous for it though. Older fans will recall we did the same thing with Maurice Evans although rather perversely we replaced his more measured neat and tidy football with Branfoot's new age (yes it really was the "high press" of it's time) long ball game.

The irony behind all this though was that almost the exact moment AZ embarked on this course, was the moment he realised he couldn't commit long term himself and started to bail out. This was compounded by making the mistake of thinking that Adkins was the driving force behind Southampton's rise as opposed to simply being a decent manager who benefitted from the previous manager's signings and a peerless youth system. It soon became apparent that far from building something , Adkins was going to have to fire fight for most of his time here.

Which brings us up to date. I'm not sure it's really possible to build a side over a period of time in the way it was back when Coppell was in charge. Football has become far more "short term". The financial rewards for Premier League football are so huge that it blinkers everything. Club's simply can't afford to just build as you just fall further and further behind and players themselves know that sitting on a Premier League bench is financially far more rewarding than playing in the Championship. It's another reason why the loan system is so huge these days.

Anyway I'm rambling again now but my point, if there is one, is that the next appointment will give us some indication of the way the Thais see us going forward. Will each season be a separate challenge for promotion until patience or money run out or are they looking to someone to continue building on the excellent existing Academy infrastructure?

* For all of Anton's disasters he was committed to the development of the Academy and the infrastructure around the club which has, and will, continue to bear fruit over the coming years.

** It's unlikely that Brian's promotion would have happened without AZ's intervention. I think we lost to Hull when the takeover announcement was made (give or take a day either way) but I remember McD's post match interview being one of the most depressing and downbeat I'd ever heard from any Reading manager. That defeat meant we slipped out of the play off places so by no means out of the race but momentum was slipping. Fast forward a couple of weeks and in comes Roberts. Also Jimmy Kebe signs a lucrative new deal and all of a sudden is off the treatment table and delivering on the pitch.

[Hoop Blah]

All good point Vision, and I totally agree on the short termism and it's effect on clubs approaches. I'm almost hopeful that we, as a club, give up on chasing the dream and appoint someone with a more long term approach and just look to lose in the play offs each year whilst developing good players and playing entertaining and winning football.

I can't wait for the first use of We Move On though.

[genome]

#wng

[Green]

Christ on a f*cking bike. is this still going?

Hope you weren't too badly affected by the flooding, winders.

What's it looking like up at the moment?

[melonhead]

I recall an interview with Brian shortly after TSI came on board saying all he ever wanted was to be able to manage and not have to lose his best players. I always thought that was a little naïve to be honest.

naïve?

in context, a perfectly rational response to the last few years of trying to build something, but having to sell all his best players

[Hoop Blah]

I recall an interview with Brian shortly after TSI came on board saying all he ever wanted was to be able to manage and not have to lose his best players. I always thought that was a little naïve to be honest.

naïve?

in context, a perfectly rational response to the last few years of trying to build something, but having to sell all his best players

But how many managers in world football have that luxury?

3 or 4?

[Vision]

I recall an interview with Brian shortly after TSI came on board saying all he ever wanted was to be able to manage and not have to lose his best players. I always thought that was a little naïve to be honest.

naïve?

in context, a perfectly rational response to the last few years of trying to build something, but having to sell all his best players

Very few clubs are in the position where they can keep players that are in demand and wanted by bigger fish. To assume that because there's an injection of cash from a supposedly wealthy new owner, he'll no longer lose his best players was a little naïve in my opinion. We didn't suddenly become Real Madrid or Barcelona overnight, despite what Jay tried to tell us at the time

[Winston Smith]

how many managers in world football have that luxury?

3 or 4?

Have you actually just run an assessment on every single manager in world football?

[Hoop Blah]

how many managers in world football have that luxury?

3 or 4?

Have you actually just run an assessment on every single manager in world football?

Yes.

[Winston Smith]

how many managers in world football have that luxury?

3 or 4?

Have you actually just run an assessment on every single manager in world football?

Yes.

fair play.