How impressed are you with BMcD's return to the club?

[Vision]

All in all I guess it's worth it if results pick up, but with these bizarre signings and players being frozen out, can't help but wonder if something is not right behind the scenes.

What bizarre signings? Kermogant is precisely the target man striker we've been missing, George Evans is a highly thought of young prospect who's already had success at league level and a Latvian International with a great goalscoring record in Polish football.

They're exactly the sort of signings a lot of our successful seasons were based on. Think Roberts, Sidwell and Kebe as comparable from the past.

If anything it's the 6 loan signings we made in the summer which would appear bizarre.

[The Sum of the Parts]

I think the new manger has just been shuffling around the players to get the combination of skills and attitudes he thinks will be most effective together. Those may not be the best individual players, but it's the blend and the building of an effective team that's the art of management.

BMc was blessed with a transfer window in which to do that, which not all managers have had at the start of their tenure.

PS - Not sure 10 or 12 games is really enough to make an quantitative comparisons on. Almost always results dip as a manager changes things around and tries things - in 2003 Steve Coppell took over in early September, in December we suffered three consecutive 3-0 defeats.

It's normal and inevitable that any team goes through a number of change cycles as it adapts to changes and develops - search "Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing" if you're interested in the psychology of it.

[stealthpapes]

It took Coppell about 18 months and a dash of luck to get there.

McD has a 'previous' in that he's sorted teams out quite rapidly, but I think it'd be unfair to judge him on that this season. The aim is only going to be to get the building blocks in place, the less useful blocks out of the club, be clear of the bottom few places and enjoy the FA cup.

[The Sum of the Parts]

It took Coppell about 18 months and a dash of luck to get there.

McD has a 'previous' in that he's sorted teams out quite rapidly, but I think it'd be unfair to judge him on that this season. The aim is only going to be to get the building blocks in place, the less useful blocks out of the club, be clear of the bottom few places and enjoy the FA cup.

You'd think so - and that'd be only fair to him.

But I do think there's extra pressure, and extra incentive, to "go for it" now in the second half of this season. The key to getting to the play-offs - or so I'm told - is to stay in or around the top 8 or 10 or so until the six weeks or so before the end of the season, and from that point it's all down to grit, determination, teamwork, keeping your nerve - whatever you want to call it. I can't quantify why, or give any statistics, but I really feel there's a definite feeling that this season isn't as dead as some fans think - and that there's a real will to sneak into the play-offs this year.

[CountryRoyal]

It took Coppell about 18 months and a dash of luck to get there.

McD has a 'previous' in that he's sorted teams out quite rapidly, but I think it'd be unfair to judge him on that this season. The aim is only going to be to get the building blocks in place, the less useful blocks out of the club, be clear of the bottom few places and enjoy the FA cup.

You'd think so - and that'd be only fair to him.

But I do think there's extra pressure, and extra incentive, to "go for it" now in the second half of this season. The key to getting to the play-offs - or so I'm told - is to stay in or around the top 8 or 10 or so until the six weeks or so before the end of the season, and from that point it's all down to grit, determination, teamwork, keeping your nerve - whatever you want to call it. I can't quantify why, or give any statistics, but I really feel there's a definite feeling that this season isn't as dead as some fans think - and that there's a real will to sneak into the play-offs this year.

Gwarn my son love the optimism! That's what we need.

Problem is that we can't string two good performances together, and even though there have been glimmers of hope, our inconsistency is damning. I hope to be proved wrong and a convincing performance and a win against Ipswich tonight would be perfect.

I won't hold my breath though. It's the reading way.

[The Sum of the Parts]

It took Coppell about 18 months and a dash of luck to get there.

McD has a 'previous' in that he's sorted teams out quite rapidly, but I think it'd be unfair to judge him on that this season. The aim is only going to be to get the building blocks in place, the less useful blocks out of the club, be clear of the bottom few places and enjoy the FA cup.

You'd think so - and that'd be only fair to him.

But I do think there's extra pressure, and extra incentive, to "go for it" now in the second half of this season. The key to getting to the play-offs - or so I'm told - is to stay in or around the top 8 or 10 or so until the six weeks or so before the end of the season, and from that point it's all down to grit, determination, teamwork, keeping your nerve - whatever you want to call it. I can't quantify why, or give any statistics, but I really feel there's a definite feeling that this season isn't as dead as some fans think - and that there's a real will to sneak into the play-offs this year.

Gwarn my son love the optimism! That's what we need.

Problem is that we can't string two good performances together, and even though there have been glimmers of hope, our inconsistency is damning. I hope to be proved wrong and a convincing performance and a win against Ipswich tonight would be perfect.

I won't hold my breath though. It's the reading way.

Maybe, but they know that if it all "clicks" - and there are promising signs - the team is currently 3 just wins outside the play-offs. A decent run (maybe inspired by the FA cup, as McD did in 2010) would give them the momentum at just the right time. It's not as if any of the teams above us are setting the world on fire, after all.

But please - don't take this as me saying that they *will* get into the play-offs. All I'm saying is that the team and the club will still believe there's a very real possibility of getting into them and will be going for that - as opposed to many fans who seem to have given up completely on the league already this year.

[RoyalJames101]

Win tonight and we'll be 9 points off the play offs with 17 games to go, 51 points to play for.

Stranger things have happened but we would need to find some sort of consistency which we've lacked for the last 2 and a half seasons.

[CountryRoyal]

We'd still need to average over 2 ppg and hope the team's above us falter.

Not impossible, but highly unlikely based on what we've seen from this team.

[The Sum of the Parts]

We'd still need to average over 2 ppg and hope the team's above us falter.

Not impossible, but highly unlikely based on what we've seen from this team.

BMc would no doubt respond to that by saying you've not seen *this* team yet - you've seen the majority of the players, but playing in someone else's team.

[Ian Royal]

Also, BMcD is the man who got Shane Long to fill his boots and the side to go from good to 8 wins on the bounce two seasons in a row.

If he can get it to click, it often clicks hardcore. With the squad we've got, I could easily see a couple of good wins in, say 5 games without defeat, leading to a streak of 3/4/5 wins in a row under McDermott.

I could also see us looking decent and making slow progress whilst continuing to draw blanks and concede soft goals, going another 10 games with only 2/3 more wins.

[No Fixed Abode]

If

[Portsmouth Royal]

We'd need to average 2 points a game from here on in to even come in to the reckoning for the playoffs.

We have seen nothing thus far to suggest the kind of consistency required for such a run, so I wouldn't put my money on it.

That being said I have a slightly tatty flat cap that would go down a treat with some BBQ sauce I imagine....

[Longhorn1970]

It took Coppell about 18 months and a dash of luck to get there.

McD has a 'previous' in that he's sorted teams out quite rapidly, but I think it'd be unfair to judge him on that this season. The aim is only going to be to get the building blocks in place, the less useful blocks out of the club, be clear of the bottom few places and enjoy the FA cup.

You'd think so - and that'd be only fair to him.

But I do think there's extra pressure, and extra incentive, to "go for it" now in the second half of this season. The key to getting to the play-offs - or so I'm told - is to stay in or around the top 8 or 10 or so until the six weeks or so before the end of the season, and from that point it's all down to grit, determination, teamwork, keeping your nerve - whatever you want to call it. I can't quantify why, or give any statistics, but I really feel there's a definite feeling that this season isn't as dead as some fans think - and that there's a real will to sneak into the play-offs this year.

I don't think the players lack any desire, everyone wants to win games but this is a dog awful league to get out of and there is obviously a pressing need to balance the books at the same time ..

[RoyalBlue]

It took Coppell about 18 months and a dash of luck to get there.

McD has a 'previous' in that he's sorted teams out quite rapidly, but I think it'd be unfair to judge him on that this season. The aim is only going to be to get the building blocks in place, the less useful blocks out of the club, be clear of the bottom few places and enjoy the FA cup.

How are we building for next season? We are still stuffed with loanees who will be gone, are running down contracts on a number of other good players, are signing 'old' boys with only a year or so left in them, and other new signings are also on relatively short term contracts. Got to be an awful lot of effective transfer activity in the summer with some decent investment. The Reading way? Pigs cleared for take off.

[paultheroyal]

I think it's a shame that we're losing our strong off the ball play and neat tidy passing. It looked like we were starting to make some really good progress.

I worry what will happen when we lose Vydra as he seems to be involved in the majority of our creative moves.

All in all I guess it's worth it if results pick up, but with these bizarre signings and players being frozen out, can't help but wonder if something is not right behind the scenes.

BINGO!

We have our daily winner with the "not right behind the scenes quite".

Well done.

[kwik-silva]

It took Coppell about 18 months and a dash of luck to get there.

McD has a 'previous' in that he's sorted teams out quite rapidly, but I think it'd be unfair to judge him on that this season. The aim is only going to be to get the building blocks in place, the less useful blocks out of the club, be clear of the bottom few places and enjoy the FA cup.

How are we building for next season? We are still stuffed with loanees who will be gone, are running down contracts on a number of other good players, are signing 'old' boys with only a year or so left in them, and other new signings are also on relatively short term contracts. Got to be an awful lot of effective transfer activity in the summer with some decent investment. The Reading way? Pigs cleared for take off.

A few of those loanees have options to buy attached though, so that depends on which we plan on making permanent (presumably we won't be bringing Fernandez)

[Extended-Phenotype]

Tbf his past achievements with us doesn't absolve him from scrutiny.

There really hasn't been much improvement and it's fair to point that out.

[tee peg]

The frustrating thing is the way we have gone down hill from the start of the season.I was a
"fence sitter" with regards to Brian but I am slowly feeling those negative vibes.

[Maneki Neko]

how anyone expects an positive progress at all after 3 managers in 2 years, Clarke ripping up the squad and replacing with a bunch of loanees, Clarke wanting to go to Fulham and being sacked and brian having to restructure the squad, losing our top scorer etc is beyond me.

give him time and I have no doubt we will have a team worthy of th eplayoffs next year.
this year, however, is a write off

[No Fixed Abode]

Clarke sacked = 1 point off the play-offs
McDermott in charge = 13 points off the play-offs