Gourlay

[RoyalJones]

I honestly want him gone as soon as possible. The owners did appoint him, but I do feel sorry for both of them, as they are likely to have been badly advised by Gourlay during his time at the club. He seems poisonous, and needs to face the media soon before he's criticised further.

[Zip]

Spot on with your first paragraph.

A couple of questions though;

1) where have you heard that Gourlay is a nice guy?

2) why is Tevreden unprofessional?

Tevreden had some unprofessional conversations to a vulnerable person and said some silly things. To be honest if he was the one who negotiated the Aluko deal he should be sacked for that alone.

Huh?

Indeed. What’s all this about.

[Royalwaster]

I actually think the signings this transfer window have been reasonable given rather limited resources .... Clement clearly wasn't given a large war chest and has had to quite a bit of wheeling and dealing to get in players to fill the gaps. And can't really blame him for not getting rid of dross - why would anyone want our crap?

[Snowflake Royal]

I actually think the signings this transfer window have been reasonable given rather limited resources .... Clement clearly wasn't given a large war chest and has had to quite a bit of wheeling and dealing to get in players to fill the gaps. And can't really blame him for not getting rid of dross - why would anyone want our crap?

Yep Yiadom looks a good signing. Baldock and McNulty seem solid if a bit flawed, Sims seems good.

Meyler seems a stinker, but few predicted that from what I recall. O'Shea still seems an odd one. And Ezatolahi hasn't kicked a ball yet.

It's shown a fairly clear strategy. Bring in a couple who might step up and a bunch who are experienced and know how to fight relegation.

For me we look more threatening up front and better organised in defence. The change to two midfielders, Meyler playing worse than Berg and playing with shit wingers is what is hurting us.

[Maneki Neko]

I actually think the signings this transfer window have been reasonable given rather limited resources .... Clement clearly wasn't given a large war chest and has had to quite a bit of wheeling and dealing to get in players to fill the gaps. And can't really blame him for not getting rid of dross - why would anyone want our crap?

identified positions and characteristics we were short of, and brought players in for those positions, with those characteristics, whilst spending bugger all.

[NewCorkSeth]

I actually think the signings this transfer window have been reasonable given rather limited resources .... Clement clearly wasn't given a large war chest and has had to quite a bit of wheeling and dealing to get in players to fill the gaps. And can't really blame him for not getting rid of dross - why would anyone want our crap?

Certainly not our worst summer but there is the question over how transfers were handled.

Clement seemed unsure about which formation we would be using going into the season. We didn't play a 4-4-2 during pre-season. I don't think the players were signed with a 4-4-2 in mind.

Signing 2 strikers, 1 CM, 1 RB, 1 GK and a CB while moving out 3 strikers and 3 CMs seems to show that they thought we were solid in midfield. The area we are clearly weakest. The 2 loan signings were both made in response to injury and performance issues.

The only explanation I can think of for this is he was hoping to play a 3 man midfield with Meyler, Bacuna, Swift and Kelly seemingly up to the task. Sadly they disappointed in that formation thus far and i doubt (but hope) we will see it again soon. It doesn't take a genius to see we might have wanted to prioritise getting another CM in to add some balance in there.

As for wingers starting a season with Aluko and Barrow as your only fit and ready players for those positions is a joke. The loaning of Sims was a good move but having to rely on Aluko to play/cover for the season fills me with dread.

[Ascotexgunner]

Gourley giving an interview on BBCRB about the current situation, in the next hour. If anyone can be bothered to listen to his drivel.

[Old Man Andrews]

They will just kiss his backside. They can't go for him because he will just start banning the press from matches and press conferences, the bloke is a oxf*rd worm.

[Hound]

I actually think the signings this transfer window have been reasonable given rather limited resources .... Clement clearly wasn't given a large war chest and has had to quite a bit of wheeling and dealing to get in players to fill the gaps. And can't really blame him for not getting rid of dross - why would anyone want our crap?

Certainly not our worst summer but there is the question over how transfers were handled.

Clement seemed unsure about which formation we would be using going into the season. We didn't play a 4-4-2 during pre-season. I don't think the players were signed with a 4-4-2 in mind.

Signing 2 strikers, 1 CM, 1 RB, 1 GK and a CB while moving out 3 strikers and 3 CMs seems to show that they thought we were solid in midfield. The area we are clearly weakest. The 2 loan signings were both made in response to injury and performance issues.

The only explanation I can think of for this is he was hoping to play a 3 man midfield with Meyler, Bacuna, Swift and Kelly seemingly up to the task. Sadly they disappointed in that formation thus far and i doubt (but hope) we will see it again soon. It doesn't take a genius to see we might have wanted to prioritise getting another CM in to add some balance in there.

As for wingers starting a season with Aluko and Barrow as your only fit and ready players for those positions is a joke. The loaning of Sims was a good move but having to rely on Aluko to play/cover for the season fills me with dread.

Meite is a winger. So is Popa. Harriott was fit (but yeah I know...), and McCleary is apparently fit now. That was 5 fit wingers going into the season with one coming back in September

[Sutekh]

Full interview with Ron Gourlay expected on the BBC Berks weekend sports preview show with Tim - 7th Sep, 6pm.

Will more than likely be repeated in the Saturday afternoon sports programme as well.

[NewCorkSeth]

I actually think the signings this transfer window have been reasonable given rather limited resources .... Clement clearly wasn't given a large war chest and has had to quite a bit of wheeling and dealing to get in players to fill the gaps. And can't really blame him for not getting rid of dross - why would anyone want our crap?

Certainly not our worst summer but there is the question over how transfers were handled.

Clement seemed unsure about which formation we would be using going into the season. We didn't play a 4-4-2 during pre-season. I don't think the players were signed with a 4-4-2 in mind.

Signing 2 strikers, 1 CM, 1 RB, 1 GK and a CB while moving out 3 strikers and 3 CMs seems to show that they thought we were solid in midfield. The area we are clearly weakest. The 2 loan signings were both made in response to injury and performance issues.

The only explanation I can think of for this is he was hoping to play a 3 man midfield with Meyler, Bacuna, Swift and Kelly seemingly up to the task. Sadly they disappointed in that formation thus far and i doubt (but hope) we will see it again soon. It doesn't take a genius to see we might have wanted to prioritise getting another CM in to add some balance in there.

As for wingers starting a season with Aluko and Barrow as your only fit and ready players for those positions is a joke. The loaning of Sims was a good move but having to rely on Aluko to play/cover for the season fills me with dread.

Meite is a winger. So is Popa. Harriott was fit (but yeah I know...), and McCleary is apparently fit now. That was 5 fit wingers going into the season with one coming back in September

I would probably play Meite on the RW but given the evidence Clement sees him as a forward.
Popa is clearly not rated despite being fit and I can't say I've ever been impressed with him when he has played.
Harriott I feel bad for but at this point he doesn't seem like he will play much for us even when fit.
McCleary dropped off severely but if he can get back to even half his best he would be better than Aluko.
Add Sims in and we have an ok number of wingers but quality is severely lacking.

[Snowflake Royal]

Certainly not our worst summer but there is the question over how transfers were handled.

Clement seemed unsure about which formation we would be using going into the season. We didn't play a 4-4-2 during pre-season. I don't think the players were signed with a 4-4-2 in mind.

Signing 2 strikers, 1 CM, 1 RB, 1 GK and a CB while moving out 3 strikers and 3 CMs seems to show that they thought we were solid in midfield. The area we are clearly weakest. The 2 loan signings were both made in response to injury and performance issues.

The only explanation I can think of for this is he was hoping to play a 3 man midfield with Meyler, Bacuna, Swift and Kelly seemingly up to the task. Sadly they disappointed in that formation thus far and i doubt (but hope) we will see it again soon. It doesn't take a genius to see we might have wanted to prioritise getting another CM in to add some balance in there.

As for wingers starting a season with Aluko and Barrow as your only fit and ready players for those positions is a joke. The loaning of Sims was a good move but having to rely on Aluko to play/cover for the season fills me with dread.

Meite is a winger. So is Popa. Harriott was fit (but yeah I know...), and McCleary is apparently fit now. That was 5 fit wingers going into the season with one coming back in September

I would probably play Meite on the RW but given the evidence Clement sees him as a forward.
Popa is clearly not rated despite being fit and I can't say I've ever been impressed with him when he has played.
Harriott I feel bad for but at this point he doesn't seem like he will play much for us even when fit.
McCleary dropped off severely but if he can get back to even half his best he would be better than Aluko.
Add Sims in and we have an ok number of wingers but quality is severely lacking.

Is the evidence that Clement sees Meite as a forward rather than a winger that he's played him on the wing about as much as he's played him upfront?

[NewCorkSeth]

Meite is a winger. So is Popa. Harriott was fit (but yeah I know...), and McCleary is apparently fit now. That was 5 fit wingers going into the season with one coming back in September

I would probably play Meite on the RW but given the evidence Clement sees him as a forward.
Popa is clearly not rated despite being fit and I can't say I've ever been impressed with him when he has played.
Harriott I feel bad for but at this point he doesn't seem like he will play much for us even when fit.
McCleary dropped off severely but if he can get back to even half his best he would be better than Aluko.
Add Sims in and we have an ok number of wingers but quality is severely lacking.

Is the evidence that Clement sees Meite as a forward rather than a winger that he's played him on the wing about as much as he's played him upfront?

Yes..
I may have been mistaken looking back and including the pre season games... he did play upfront for most of the friendlies right? I'm not completely wrong am I?

[Hound]

yeah was CF all preseason.

[Ascotexgunner]

They will just kiss his backside. They can't go for him because he will just start banning the press from matches and press conferences, the bloke is a oxf*rd worm.

Have to say there was nothing new. They did it in parts. It was all done nicely nicely.
He basically sounded like a CEO which is that although everything is sh*t, hes saying its all ok and
cushioning any problems and making the world sound rosey......and its not good at the moment.....You know usual BS employers say to employees and shareholders at an AGM.

Couple of things came up.
Clements job is safe (and I think he meant that), and he completely went against Clements comments that we had too many players.
He did admit a couple of players should have gone on loan (so why didn't they bozo!!!) but its too late now.

[John Smith]

Very disappointing response on here regarding last night. Would have expected a lot more members of the forum to have been present. Will have to take Tim Dellor and Anthony Smith's word for whatever was said.

[Snowflake Royal]

I would probably play Meite on the RW but given the evidence Clement sees him as a forward.
Popa is clearly not rated despite being fit and I can't say I've ever been impressed with him when he has played.
Harriott I feel bad for but at this point he doesn't seem like he will play much for us even when fit.
McCleary dropped off severely but if he can get back to even half his best he would be better than Aluko.
Add Sims in and we have an ok number of wingers but quality is severely lacking.

Is the evidence that Clement sees Meite as a forward rather than a winger that he's played him on the wing about as much as he's played him upfront?

Yes..
I may have been mistaken looking back and including the pre season games... he did play upfront for most of the friendlies right? I'm not completely wrong am I?

In fairness, you're right that he played upfront all pre-season. Although pre-season is not really something to make strong judgements on, especially seeing as for much of it our only available strikers were him and Smith, Loader and House.

[Old Man Andrews]

Very disappointing response on here regarding last night. Would have expected a lot more members of the forum to have been present. Will have to take Tim Dellor and Anthony Smith's word for whatever was said.

I am disappointed with you not going. I wanted you to go and cause a massive scene. Scare all of those old codgers in STAR.

[bracksroyal10]

They will just kiss his backside. They can't go for him because he will just start banning the press from matches and press conferences, the bloke is a oxf*rd worm.

Have to say there was nothing new. They did it in parts. It was all done nicely nicely.
He basically sounded like a CEO which is that although everything is sh*t, hes saying its all ok and
cushioning any problems and making the world sound rosey......and its not good at the moment.....You know usual BS employers say to employees and shareholders at an AGM.

Couple of things came up.
Clements job is safe (and I think he meant that), and he completely went against Clements comments that we had too many players.
He did admit a couple of players should have gone on loan (so why didn't they bozo!!!) but its too late now.

Haven't heard any of the interview as yet but if he is saying everything is okay then I am extremely concerned for the future of the club over the next few months.

This is the general problem with the club at the moment or at least I get the impression it is, no specific targets for the team or the players, no drive or ambition to succeed and a lackadaisical attitude/approach to everything.

- Slow uninspiring and sometimes lazy football
- A suffering now but its ok we will deal with it later attitude (NO START SORTING IT OUT NOW!)

We are sleepwalking to relegation and we need to tackle it head on and now, not at Christmas when we realize that we belong in this current situation of a relegation scrap. As said on BBC Berks, our next batch of matches is going to go some way to defining our season.

All the evidence points to issues from the top and rubbing off on the team. Gourlay is not the complete blame but he is undoubtedly the main source. He is out of his depth and this rut will continue until he's gone. Someone needs to come in and shake the club up from top to bottom.

[John Smith]

Very disappointing response on here regarding last night. Would have expected a lot more members of the forum to have been present. Will have to take Tim Dellor and Anthony Smith's word for whatever was said.

I am disappointed with you not going. I wanted you to go and cause a massive scene. Scare all of those old codgers in STAR.

I know, I know. Work man. Horrible invention.

Does the Bush guy not post on here? He must have gone.