How many Managers have you been through ?

[Forbury Lion]

Full list below, I've got a gap between Ian Branfoot and Mark McGhee as I didn't go to games and wasn't really into football.

Veljko Paunović
Mark Bowen
José Manuel Gomes
Scott Marshall
Paul Clement
Jaap Stam
Brian McDermott
Martin Kuhl
Steve Clarke
Nigel Adkins
Eamonn Dolan
Brian McDermott
Brendan Rodgers
Steve Coppell
Kevin Dillon
Alan Pardew
Tommy Burns
Alan Pardew
Terry Bullivant
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding, Adrian Williams, Jeff Hopkins
Mark McGhee
......
Ian Branfoot


Also, Some joker keeps adding Eddie Niedzwicki on Wikipedia as the manager from 5 September 2020 to 5 September 2020 0 days, played 1, won 1, 100% record.
I assume I didn't miss something on 05/09/20?

The BBC Berks free Reading FC Podcast Mick Gooding interview episode is worth a listen, He said he regrets taking Jimmy Quinn on as co-manager and based on that interview I agree 100%.

[leon]

From about 13 - 18 I drifted away from football - playing and watching (apart from Wokingham Town on occasion) so it's probably really:

Mark McGhee
Jimmy Quinn Mick Gooding.
Terry Bullivant.
Tommy Burns.
Alan Pardew.
Kevin Dillon (CT)
Steve Coppell (god)
Brendon Rodgers
Brian McDermott (1)
Eammon Dolan (CT)
Nigel Adkins
Steve Clarke.
Martin Kuhl (CT)
Brian McDermott (2)
Jaap Stam
Paul Clement
Scott Marshall (CT)
Jose Gomes
Mark Bowen
Velko Paunovic

[RFCMod]

I spent many an afternoon with Ian Branfoot and family as they lived in Tadley and i was in his daughters class at school. I got to spend a day release at the club in 86 i think it was to see how the club operated for a school project. Ian picked me up outside the Hurst School. That day, the team were training on the concrete car park behind the south bank. Madness.

Can you imagine todays modern day footballer being told that they had to train on a concrete car park

[Snowflake Royal]

Full list below, I've got a gap between Ian Branfoot and Mark McGhee as I didn't go to games and wasn't really into football.

Veljko Paunović
Mark Bowen
José Manuel Gomes
Scott Marshall
Paul Clement
Jaap Stam
Brian McDermott
Martin Kuhl
Steve Clarke
Nigel Adkins
Eamonn Dolan
Brian McDermott
Brendan Rodgers
Steve Coppell
Kevin Dillon
Alan Pardew
Tommy Burns
Alan Pardew
Terry Bullivant
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding, Adrian Williams, Jeff Hopkins
Mark McGhee
......
Ian Branfoot


Also, Some joker keeps adding Eddie Niedzwicki on Wikipedia as the manager from 5 September 2020 to 5 September 2020 0 days, played 1, won 1, 100% record.
I assume I didn't miss something on 05/09/20?

The BBC Berks free Reading FC Podcast Mick Gooding interview episode is worth a listen, He said he regrets taking Jimmy Quinn on as co-manager and based on that interview I agree 100%.

Quinn always seemed to get the blame for stuff at the time, but he did go on to manage at a lower level... did Mick?

[Forbury Lion]

Full list below, I've got a gap between Ian Branfoot and Mark McGhee as I didn't go to games and wasn't really into football.

Veljko Paunović
Mark Bowen
José Manuel Gomes
Scott Marshall
Paul Clement
Jaap Stam
Brian McDermott
Martin Kuhl
Steve Clarke
Nigel Adkins
Eamonn Dolan
Brian McDermott
Brendan Rodgers
Steve Coppell
Kevin Dillon
Alan Pardew
Tommy Burns
Alan Pardew
Terry Bullivant
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding, Adrian Williams, Jeff Hopkins
Mark McGhee
......
Ian Branfoot


Also, Some joker keeps adding Eddie Niedzwicki on Wikipedia as the manager from 5 September 2020 to 5 September 2020 0 days, played 1, won 1, 100% record.
I assume I didn't miss something on 05/09/20?

The BBC Berks free Reading FC Podcast Mick Gooding interview episode is worth a listen, He said he regrets taking Jimmy Quinn on as co-manager and based on that interview I agree 100%.

Quinn always seemed to get the blame for stuff at the time, but he did go on to manage at a lower level... did Mick?

Does managing a local estate agent count as a lower level?

I think it was more a realising he didn't need a co-manager, not agreeing to stay on as manager himself when they wanted rid of Quinn and perhaps forgetting the players had once voted that they wanted Quinn dropped after a training ground incident that sent one of the team mates to A&E and therefore they didn't have as much respect for him as they should..... In retrospect Mick should have taken the job himself then taken Quinn or someone else as caretaker assistant manager rather than joint manager.

[Snowflake Royal]

Full list below, I've got a gap between Ian Branfoot and Mark McGhee as I didn't go to games and wasn't really into football.

Veljko Paunović
Mark Bowen
José Manuel Gomes
Scott Marshall
Paul Clement
Jaap Stam
Brian McDermott
Martin Kuhl
Steve Clarke
Nigel Adkins
Eamonn Dolan
Brian McDermott
Brendan Rodgers
Steve Coppell
Kevin Dillon
Alan Pardew
Tommy Burns
Alan Pardew
Terry Bullivant
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding, Adrian Williams, Jeff Hopkins
Mark McGhee
......
Ian Branfoot


Also, Some joker keeps adding Eddie Niedzwicki on Wikipedia as the manager from 5 September 2020 to 5 September 2020 0 days, played 1, won 1, 100% record.
I assume I didn't miss something on 05/09/20?

The BBC Berks free Reading FC Podcast Mick Gooding interview episode is worth a listen, He said he regrets taking Jimmy Quinn on as co-manager and based on that interview I agree 100%.

Quinn always seemed to get the blame for stuff at the time, but he did go on to manage at a lower level... did Mick?

Does managing a local estate agent count as a lower level?

I think it was more a realising he didn't need a co-manager, not agreeing to stay on as manager himself when they wanted rid of Quinn and perhaps forgetting the players had once voted that they wanted Quinn dropped after a training ground incident that sent one of the team mates to A&E and therefore they didn't have as much respect for him as they should..... In retrospect Mick should have taken the job himself then taken Quinn or someone else as caretaker assistant manager rather than joint manager.

Hmmm

If you're talking about at the end of their tenure, there's no way Gooding could stay on with Quinn as an assistant and hard to say there wasn't a clean break required in terms of him staying on with a new assistant.

[Forbury Lion]

Quinn always seemed to get the blame for stuff at the time, but he did go on to manage at a lower level... did Mick?

Does managing a local estate agent count as a lower level?

I think it was more a realising he didn't need a co-manager, not agreeing to stay on as manager himself when they wanted rid of Quinn and perhaps forgetting the players had once voted that they wanted Quinn dropped after a training ground incident that sent one of the team mates to A&E and therefore they didn't have as much respect for him as they should..... In retrospect Mick should have taken the job himself then taken Quinn or someone else as caretaker assistant manager rather than joint manager.

Hmmm

If you're talking about at the end of their tenure, there's no way Gooding could stay on with Quinn as an assistant and hard to say there wasn't a clean break required in terms of him staying on with a new assistant.

I meant at the beginning when Mark McGhee left and Mick went to the chairman to ask what the plans were, the chairman said something like "can you do it then" and Mick instead of saying yes, thought it might be best to share it around with Jimmy Quinn

[LUX]

23 full time, permanent managers, I think, starting with Roy Bentley (just!) - or 22 if you count Jimmy and Geordie as one.

that sounds like my score Dick.

(yep, I remember Dick Habbin's hair too).

[LUX]

I spent many an afternoon with Ian Branfoot and family as they lived in Tadley and i was in his daughters class at school. I got to spend a day release at the club in 86 i think it was to see how the club operated for a school project. Ian picked me up outside the Hurst School. That day, the team were training on the concrete car park behind the south bank. Madness.

Can you imagine todays modern day footballer being told that they had to train on a concrete car park

not quite true, though.

It was behind the Town End.

I am 100% sure of this.

[Snowflake Royal]

Does managing a local estate agent count as a lower level?

I think it was more a realising he didn't need a co-manager, not agreeing to stay on as manager himself when they wanted rid of Quinn and perhaps forgetting the players had once voted that they wanted Quinn dropped after a training ground incident that sent one of the team mates to A&E and therefore they didn't have as much respect for him as they should..... In retrospect Mick should have taken the job himself then taken Quinn or someone else as caretaker assistant manager rather than joint manager.

Hmmm

If you're talking about at the end of their tenure, there's no way Gooding could stay on with Quinn as an assistant and hard to say there wasn't a clean break required in terms of him staying on with a new assistant.

I meant at the beginning when Mark McGhee left and Mick went to the chairman to ask what the plans were, the chairman said something like "can you do it then" and Mick instead of saying yes, thought it might be best to share it around with Jimmy Quinn

Ahh, well it worked ok for a while.

[SCIAG]

Full list below, I've got a gap between Ian Branfoot and Mark McGhee as I didn't go to games and wasn't really into football.

Veljko Paunović
Mark Bowen
José Manuel Gomes
Scott Marshall
Paul Clement
Jaap Stam
Brian McDermott
Martin Kuhl
Steve Clarke
Nigel Adkins
Eamonn Dolan
Brian McDermott
Brendan Rodgers
Steve Coppell
Kevin Dillon
Alan Pardew
Tommy Burns
Alan Pardew
Terry Bullivant
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding
Jimmy Quinn, Mick Gooding, Adrian Williams, Jeff Hopkins
Mark McGhee
......
Ian Branfoot


Also, Some joker keeps adding Eddie Niedzwicki on Wikipedia as the manager from 5 September 2020 to 5 September 2020 0 days, played 1, won 1, 100% record.
I assume I didn't miss something on 05/09/20?

The BBC Berks free Reading FC Podcast Mick Gooding interview episode is worth a listen, He said he regrets taking Jimmy Quinn on as co-manager and based on that interview I agree 100%.

Eddie took control of the team for one day while Paunovic was in isolation. I would put that down as somewhere between a genuine caretaker and that time McDermott picked the team against Man United (with Cisse at centre back).

[Mr Optimist]

McGhee was the start of our upwards trajectory imho.

That was when we started to look upwards to dreams unknown in Reading.

Absolutely agree. It might not be a popular view but the brief Porterfield era between Branfoot and McGhee while not spectacular results wise and mid table obscurity, was also important towards the evolution where football started to be played on the ground again after the final year or two of Branfoot’s time when we were performing bad hoof ball every week.

That last year or so of the Branfoot era is without doubt the worst period I have personally seen in my 40 years as a supporter. Most games it was just a case of how many we would lose by and some of the away performances...Wigan, at Springfield Park as an example, were beyond soul destroying. Made the Burns period seem like watching Barcelona.

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

[quote="RFCMod"

not quite true, though.

It was behind the Town End.

I am 100% sure of this.[/quote]

Luxy, the mists of time must be fogging your memory. If the concrete car park - and it latterly had a rather fetching tarmacadam coating - was behind the Town End it would have engulfed the back bogs, gardens and half the front rooms of the houses in Suffolk Road.

The car park/training ground was hard left out of the South Bank and north of where the Rendezvous was built. Or did the Rendezvous swallow it up?

Actually, I seem to recall it was positioned almost behind the tuck shop in the corner of the Town End adjoining the SB..... but only accessible from Tilehurst Road.....

[LUX]

in the summer holidays I used to cycle down Norfolk Road ( parallel to the Main Stand/ the seats), turn right along Suffolk Rd, and watch Dave Moreline and Gordon Cumming ( inter alia) playing five a side in the car park behind the Town End goal.

For me “ behind the South Bank” would be towards Tilehurst Road / English Martyrs church/ Liebenwood road. This was definitely not there.

More witnesses needed.

[Stranded]

Roy Bentley
Jack Mansell
Charlie Hurley.
Maurice Evans.
Ian Branfoot.
Ian Porterfield
Mark McGhee
Jimmy Quinn Mick Gooding.
Terry Bullivant.
Tommy Burns.
Alan Pardew.
Kevin Dillon (CT)
Steve Coppell (god)
Brendon Rodgers
Brian McDermott (1)
Eammon Dolan (CT)
Nigel Adkins
Steve Clarke.
Martin Kuhl (CT)
Brian McDermott (2)
Jaap Stam
Paul Clement
Scott Marshall (CT)
Jose Gomes
Mark Bowen
Velko Paunovic.

This list from Branfoot down.

[Millsy]

Roy Bentley
Jack Mansell
Charlie Hurley.
Maurice Evans.
Ian Branfoot.
Ian Porterfield
Mark McGhee
Jimmy Quinn Mick Gooding.
Terry Bullivant.
Tommy Burns.
Alan Pardew.
Kevin Dillon (CT)
Steve Coppell (god)
Brendon Rodgers
Brian McDermott (1)
Eammon Dolan (CT)
Nigel Adkins
Steve Clarke.
Martin Kuhl (CT)
Brian McDermott (2)
Jaap Stam
Paul Clement
Scott Marshall (CT)
Jose Gomes
Mark Bowen
Velko Paunovic.

This list from Branfoot down.

Sorry but have to type all of them for it to count.

[Westwood52]

Hmmm

If you're talking about at the end of their tenure, there's no way Gooding could stay on with Quinn as an assistant and hard to say there wasn't a clean break required in terms of him staying on with a new assistant.

I meant at the beginning when Mark McGhee left and Mick went to the chairman to ask what the plans were, the chairman said something like "can you do it then" and Mick instead of saying yes, thought it might be best to share it around with Jimmy Quinn

Ahh, well it worked ok for a while.

I have often wondered how the decision was reached to drop Quinn from the starting eleven for the Bolton play off .Was he injured ,just coming back ?

[Forbury Lion]

Eddie took control of the team for one day while Paunovic was in isolation. I would put that down as somewhere between a genuine caretaker and that time McDermott picked the team against Man United (with Cisse at centre back).

Statistically that makes him our most successful manager then - P1, W1, D0, L0 100% winning record.

In reality, I don't think he was promoted to the role for 1 day was he? - Surely an Assistant Manager should be expected to stand in as part of their role?

[RFCMod]

[quote="RFCMod"

not quite true, though.

It was behind the Town End.

I am 100% sure of this.

Luxy, the mists of time must be fogging your memory. If the concrete car park - and it latterly had a rather fetching tarmacadam coating - was behind the Town End it would have engulfed the back bogs, gardens and half the front rooms of the houses in Suffolk Road.

The car park/training ground was hard left out of the South Bank and north of where the Rendezvous was built. Or did the Rendezvous swallow it up?

Actually, I seem to recall it was positioned almost behind the tuck shop in the corner of the Town End adjoining the SB..... but only accessible from Tilehurst Road.....[/quote]

Bloody hell it was on the right as you started down the slope to the South Bank.The unmade road was alongside it which had the small club shop at the start of it

[Sutekh]

McGhee was the start of our upwards trajectory imho.

That was when we started to look upwards to dreams unknown in Reading.

Absolutely agree. It might not be a popular view but the brief Porterfield era between Branfoot and McGhee while not spectacular results wise and mid table obscurity, was also important towards the evolution where football started to be played on the ground again after the final year or two of Branfoot’s time when we were performing bad hoof ball every week.

That last year or so of the Branfoot era is without doubt the worst period I have personally seen in my 40 years as a supporter. Most games it was just a case of how many we would lose by and some of the away performances...Wigan, at Springfield Park as an example, were beyond soul destroying. Made the Burns period seem like watching Barcelona.

While the end of Branfoot’s time at the club was dire, I have to say that the last months of Bullivant were the worst for me. Abject, awful, clueless performances leading to defeat after defeat after defeat (12 defeats from the last 13 games played).