What do you think of it so far?.......

[genome]

Brian was dealt a shitty hand because of Clarke. Show me a manager who can motiv8 a no-confidence team full of loanees and soon-to-be free agents with nothing to play for.

He deserved to be treated with much more respect. Yes, we have come out of it well, but it doesn't change the fact it was incredibly harsh to sack him.

[Silverfox]

Blimey
Are we still going on about Brian!.. What about Charlie Hurley, Roy Bentley, Harry Johnston et al! let it go and stop chewing the cud.
We are third and doing miles better than expectations.
Managers get sacked, some not fairly , but that's life...I believe a club called Chelsea sacked their manager twice! and are doing rather well!
I'd say real Injustice is the treatment of Gary Rowett when @ the Brum..

[Maneki Neko]

Brian should never have been sacked, he is the only one who can get us out of this mess! What on earth are the Thais doing? Asking for trouble, to put a bloke in charge who does not know the Championship. Why do we play the Dutch way? This is England and we play the English way. Yes, that was my thoughts last Summer and Autumn, needless to say I have changed them now. One further thought has been blown right out of the water. That was "we will be lucky to stay up, I wonder what life will be like in the bottom two tiers after all this time?"
Anyone else care to admit they were wrong? The answer to the title of this thread is certainly not "rubbish" as was the usual response from Eric. I am enjoying the ride, long may it continue.

ive not changed my mind that the treatment of brian was disgraceful and he shouldn't have been sacked.
but im very happy with how its turned out, fer sher

[muirinho]

ive not changed my mind that the treatment of brian was disgraceful and he shouldn't have been sacked.
but im very happy with how its turned out, fer sher

+1000

[windermereROYAL]

Brian who?

[LoyalRoyal22]

quick observation: have a look at our goals from this season, mostly come from really good build up play. The actual quality of our goals generally is really eye catching.

[muirinho]

quick observation: have a look at our goals from this season, mostly come from really good build up play. The actual quality of our goals generally is really eye catching.

Agreed, we dont' seem to get a lot of scrappy goals. they are either good build up, or penalties as a result of good build up. Partly because we are still woeful at converting from corners!

[West Stand Man]

The OP has to be an angling exercise.

To paraphrase;

Only Brian can rescue us from being 3rd in the league and heading for our best season since we were last promoted to the PL.

Put that way it doesn't make much sense really.

[NewCorkSeth]

The OP has to be an angling exercise.

To paraphrase;

Only Brian can rescue us from being 3rd in the league and heading for our best season since we were last promoted to the PL.

Put that way it doesn't make much sense really.

I dont understand.

[West Stand Man]

The OP has to be an angling exercise.

To paraphrase;

Only Brian can rescue us from being 3rd in the league and heading for our best season since we were last promoted to the PL.

Put that way it doesn't make much sense really.

I dont understand.

Have a look at the original post and it ought to make a bit more sense, I hope!

[NewCorkSeth]

The OP has to be an angling exercise.

To paraphrase;

Only Brian can rescue us from being 3rd in the league and heading for our best season since we were last promoted to the PL.

Put that way it doesn't make much sense really.

I dont understand.

Have a look at the original post and it ought to make a bit more sense, I hope!

But his original post is him stating what he thought last summer then admitting he was wrong?

[West Stand Man]

I dont understand.

Have a look at the original post and it ought to make a bit more sense, I hope!

But his original post is him stating what he thought last summer then admitting he was wrong?

I know, just being a touch scurrilous. I will apologise!

[stealthpapes]

Link? I certainly don't remember reading that.

Me either. I bet it's a case of someone reading hugely into a passing comment.

This is probably the interview that's being talked about.
http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... e-11972411

Some of the relevant bits

Little things started disappearing last season. Even if it's a simple case of turning up on time or putting your kits in the right tubs after training.

All those things count because if you don't have discipline those sorts of things creep out onto the pitch and that’s what happened towards the end of last season. It wasn’t good at the end.

***

It was really tough. Basically after the cup game against Crystal Palace I think people downed tools to be honest.

We had the perfect storm really because we had players who were coming to the end of their contracts, we had players who were on loan, we had all sorts of stuff going on.

And I think towards the end people were just going through the motions.

People found it hard to turn up every day and train to their best, which should be a given really. So it was really tough.

***
And talking about the vibe this season compared to last

The games against Barnsley and Brighton when we went down to 10 and saw the games out were really positive.

I think it’s just down to the work we’ve been doing on the training pitch together and the honesty that the manager wants us to act with. If people have a problem they are encouraged to talk it through instead of maybe going behind people’s backs.

Taking McDermott out of the equation - team captains have a lot of influence, especially a strong character like McShane - I'm a bit surprised he wasn't able to stamp a bit more of that attitude. Or maybe it would have been worse without him - who knows? Would be very interested to hear an interview with him or one of the others some years down the line of what was going on the last two seasons behind the scenes, and who the trouble-makers were. He does seem to be pointing the finger a bit there at the loanees and people whose contracts were up (ahem, HRK).

There doesn't seem to be any morale problem now, with the players who have remained - which obviously has a lot to do with Stam - but it also seems Tevreden is very keen to avoid any loanees coming in. Which is maybe another reason to suspect it was the number of loanees that were a huge part of the problem, and having seen how that panned out before, he doesn't want it to go like that again.

When there's nothing left to play for in a season - you're either doing it for the fans, or to impress the manager for next season, or for your team-mates, or to get a new contract elsewhere. Or because that is your nature, and you'd try your best anywhere.

For loanees, only the last one could possibly apply - and tbh of all the loanees, the only one I'd say it would apply to is Alex Fernandez. Normally it's not a huge thing I guess, if you have only a few loanees. But sheer weight of numbers maybe made them have a disproportionate influence.
Very few of the players would have been in the squad during the previous McDermott reign so there wouldn't have been much personal loyalty to him either. (HRK, Gunter, McCleary?)
It's possible that if he'd stayed, brought in his own players, got rid of disaffected loanees, and had a fresh start over the summer, then things would have gone better. But I don't think we would be where we are now.

Not wanting to deviate the thread but the killer comment is clearly

Basically after the cup game against Crystal Palace I think people downed tools to be honest.

We couldn't go up.
We couldn't go down.
We were out of the cup.

What do you expect to happen in this situation?

Also

We had the perfect storm really because we had players who were coming to the end of their contracts, we had players who were on loan, we had all sorts of stuff going on.

That rather pins the blame on the situation rather than the manager.

Anyway, I think BMcD arguably deserved a season with his own team, I think the shite finale to last season would have happened to any manager, that does not stop this season being a beautifully pleasant surprise.

[harry]

ive not changed my mind that the treatment of brian was disgraceful and he shouldn't have been sacked.
but im very happy with how its turned out, fer sher

+1000

+1 = 1001

[[/Rook]]

Hiya.

When Brian first took over it was a mess but there was still a team to work with.

When he returned it was a mess but there was nothing really to work with.

So probably difficult to judge him second time around and rather lame that he got the boot.

But I'm not sure Brian could have put together the team Stam has. Nor installed a fresh philosophy. Without the new signings and approach I don't think we could have stopped the rot. The confidence just wouldn't have been there.

Far more interested in the alternate reality where we signed a decent* striker, rather than the Brian Stayed timeline, though.

*no offense Kermo and that

[KC Royal]

I thought it was poor to sack Brian at the time and I still do, although I've heard a rumour that there may have been a better reason than was apparent at the time. I doubt very much he'd have managed anywhere near as much progress as Stam has, but assuming his head was still in the game I think he'd had significantly improved us from where we were when he joined. If they didn't have the faith to give McDermott at least a full season in charge, they shouldn't have bowed to Madejski and agreed to give him the job in the first place.

The Thais rolled the dice and they appear to have come up 6s. But lets face it, no one could reasonably have predicted this turnaround with a foreign rookie 'name' manager.

I really like what we're trying to do with our play. I like the style of signings we're trying to bring in and I feel much happier with the club as a whole again. If we can keep a reasonable stability off the pitch and somehow manage to fund our enormous wage budget then I think we should be back on an upward trajectory.

It worked out in the end, just a shame we had to spend three or four years managing Anton's oxf*rd ups and put up with that clown Clarke. Let's now get some continuity back in the club for a couple of seasons.

Agree with the BIB, it's what I would have said myself. Though i'm not sure where we would have been this season with Brian, I think it would have been better than last season, but not as good as this season has turned out to be.

That said, not going into why but I wanted us to start afresh a couple of years ago, and we've certainly done that with a foreign manager, different style of play, and many new signings. So i'm looking forward rather than back these days.

[ronnyroyal]

Jim White on TalkSport just announces he sees Reading winning or coming second this year, being impressed with Stam and the January acquisitions. Possibly a kiss of death??

I prefer the softly softly approach, a la McDermott and creeping up on West Ham and Southampton until it was too late. But we can't avoid the fact that 3 deadline day deals and our (false or not) position in the table will bring pundits opinion on a weekly basis, considering how shi** the premier league can be at times.

I'm just happy my little club are competing.

RR

[Sutekh]

Jim White on TalkSport just announces he sees Reading winning or coming second this year, being impressed with Stam and the January acquisitions. Possibly a kiss of death??

RR

He should stick to playing snooker

[ronnyroyal]

Jim White on TalkSport just announces he sees Reading winning or coming second this year, being impressed with Stam and the January acquisitions. Possibly a kiss of death??

RR

He should stick to playing snooker

tbf Danny Mills didn't agree and said he was an 'uneducated Scotsman'

[windermereROYAL]

Who was the guy on talksport that tipped us to go down? can`t take these pundits seriously