by RoyalinBracknell »
13 Dec 2015 11:10
ILoveMoonPig Not sure I get why everyone is so desperate to have BMD back in charge. Several reasons, really:
1. Weren't we all a bit bored of the '90s style hoofball? The direct and fast approach scored goals against weaker opposition but proved really simple for average premiership sides to break up. There was no articulate passing and no decent off-the-ball movement. Does nobody remember the boing during the particularly boring game against Villa?
2. He had a good run here. What he did here was incredible, year after year and for that, he deserves his recognition. But I would be gutted for e guy if he came back, couldn't get the team right and we ended up bobbling around the lower half of the division
3. The whole point of removing a manager is to step forward, change things about and make progress. Why go back to something you had four years ago that had already shown the limits of how much it could achieve?
That said, if he does get the job, I'll still support his management of the club. At least Brian seems like a decent bloke.
1. The style of play McDermott adapted for the second half of the 09-10 season certainly wasn't hoofball and was a pleasure to watch. I don't think we ever played that consistently well or as attractively under Adkins, Rodgers or Clarke. At the time McDermott had a limited amount to spend on players and we were regularly losing our best players (from memory didn't Gylfi leave on the final/penultimate day of the transfer window so we had to use the funds to bring in whoever we could afford at short notice - we got Ian Harte (which turned out to be a great signing) and Leigertwood came in on loan a few months after. In the circumstances I think McDermott adapted well to the conditions, and built a team which was strong defensively and in central midfield, had decent wing play from Kebe and McAnuff, and a more direct focus from either Long or Roberts. But I certainly don't agree it was just hoofball or that it was boring to watch - there were plenty of really strong performances with high energy and tempo, good organisation, a real grit at times and some really good play on occasions - for all some people speak about us being 'lucky' to win away to Southampton in April 2012, look at those first two goals. The cross from Kebe for the first is sensational and the link up play between Le Fondre, Hunt and Kebe for the second is a brilliant piece of play. We also had a patched up side that night with no Leigertwood or Karacan (I'm not too convinced that under Adkins or Clarke we would have won such a big game in those types of circumstance) and McDermott's attacking substitution in bringing Le Fondre on for Tabb won us the game. We scored plenty of late goals under McDermott and showed spirit and resolve in regularly coming from behind - something we've very rarely been able to do in the somewhat apathetic tedium of many of our games under our last two managers.
2. No matter what happens McDermott's first two and half seasons with us will always be there and can never be forgotten or written out of history. Some people say 'stop looking back to the past' but it seems far more sensible for me when people look at what McDermott achieved with Reading at this level (have we ever had a more consistent manager in the Championship/Division 1 across all their seasons?) and think we might be able to build on that again, hopefully with a more stable ownership this time who will provide a bit more backing and won't be as pressurised into selling players allowing him to have the chance to build something a bit more long-term. It seems really bizarre for me when people look back to the successful past and think we should automatically rule him out because of it. Yes it would be disappointing if we ended up relegated to League 1 with him but then that would be disappointing with any manager - I think it's far more likely McDermott would avoid any such disaster though than some of the candidates mentioned and I'd back his chances of success. There's no point in avoiding making a managerial appointment that you believe should go right just on the slight possibility it might somehow go really wrong.
4. Instead we stepped back significantly, changed things about and found they didn't work, and have made no progress whatsoever - quite the opposite really in terms of our record on the pitch. I think our problems in the Premier League were as much caused by a distinct lack of investment and probably interference from the owner than anything else. Hopefully McDermott and the board as a whole will have learnt from that experience and will make better strategic decisions if we are indeed promoted (and whilst I think we need to invest much more in the summer next time we get promoted, I also think we've made mistakes in strategy when we've got relegated - on both occasions we've tried to drastically change our style of play and ended up just above the relegation zone in the Championship 18 months after relegation from the Premier League, which has probably delayed our return.)
The fact is McDermott did an excellent job leading the club at this level and has worked with some of the board before. The one time he was given decent financial backing to plug holes in the team (January 2012) he had us promoted within three months. He might not be able to take us to the top half of the Premier League but right now we're a heck of a long way from anything like that - for the moment we need to focus on being a consistently strong, competitive Championship team once again and I can't really think of any better candidate to achieve that here than Brian McDermott.
Luzon is nowhere near being considered.
