Rival Watch

[LUX]

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[Mid Sussex Royal]

You do realise that you threw the biggest hissy fit in the history of hna? When Bowen got sacked and pauno took over? You are in no position to be pointing fingers at anyone Ian.

The people saying we were drifting out of the play offs were actually correct. Because we have. And now we’re desperately hoping Barnsley fcuk it up.

No amount of playground talk is going to change that. Especially from this urine sodden clown.

And also, if by some kind of freak occurrence we actually make the Play-offs, the minimum requirement is 2 wins and a draw fom 3 games. Can anyone see that happening with our form and confidence of late?

No the minimum requirement is 4 points if Barnsley lose their last 4 games

[Stranded]

The people saying we were drifting out of the play offs were actually correct. Because we have. And now we’re desperately hoping Barnsley fcuk it up.

No amount of playground talk is going to change that. Especially from this urine sodden clown.

And also, if by some kind of freak occurrence we actually make the Play-offs, the minimum requirement is 2 wins and a draw fom 3 games. Can anyone see that happening with our form and confidence of late?

No the minimum requirement is 4 points if Barnsley lose their last 4 games

Quite but can I see us beating Luton & Huddersfield and getting at least 1 result from Swansea or Norwich - yes of course I can.

[royalp-we]

I'd like us to make it if only for the pissy knickers brigade to eat some pie.

Oh wouldn’t it be great some of the vitriol spaffed out over the past 48hrs has been embarrassing. The self entitled have certainly surfaced; and for that alone I’d love the players to prove them wrong.

[CountryRoyal]

I had a moan about parachute payments on Twitter, just had Norwich fans telling me to cry more and that a Reading fan shouldn't be lecturing others on club finances.

If anything, Reading's financial mess is caused in part by the massive gap in finances between Prem, Champ and the parachute payments and trying to chase the Prem money. Plenty of teams gamble and fail, plenty gamble and succeed. The stark reality is that the majority of teams that go between the Prem and Champ is largely becoming a smaller pool of teams.

West Brom, Norwich, Fulham and Watford are constantly yo-yoing and I can only see this increase, if Swansea don't go up soon they will probably fall into a similar mess as we have unless they shed a large chunk of their wages.

Our financial mess was self made. We had a huge and bloated squad. Players on unsustainable wages and long contracts. Madness for the size of the club. We were warned about it and went into a soft embargo. Gomes was brought in to apparently bring on Academy players. What do we then do? Go on another financial splurge and rack up huge debts again. Appalling stewardship.

I hope lessons have finally been learnt. No big spending please. Sell our best players. Use the loan market and bring on our best Academy players. It will be tough. We might struggle but I think we have enough in the squad to stay at this level.

To what end?

[royalp-we]

I had a moan about parachute payments on Twitter, just had Norwich fans telling me to cry more and that a Reading fan shouldn't be lecturing others on club finances.

If anything, Reading's financial mess is caused in part by the massive gap in finances between Prem, Champ and the parachute payments and trying to chase the Prem money. Plenty of teams gamble and fail, plenty gamble and succeed. The stark reality is that the majority of teams that go between the Prem and Champ is largely becoming a smaller pool of teams.

West Brom, Norwich, Fulham and Watford are constantly yo-yoing and I can only see this increase, if Swansea don't go up soon they will probably fall into a similar mess as we have unless they shed a large chunk of their wages.

Our financial mess was self made. We had a huge and bloated squad. Players on unsustainable wages and long contracts. Madness for the size of the club. We were warned about it and went into a soft embargo. Gomes was brought in to apparently bring on Academy players. What do we then do? Go on another financial splurge and rack up huge debts again. Appalling stewardship.

I hope lessons have finally been learnt. No big spending please. Sell our best players. Use the loan market and bring on our best Academy players. It will be tough. We might struggle but I think we have enough in the squad to stay at this level.

To what end?

It’s quite clear that majority of championship clubs will be relying on youth next season. We have some solid foundations to build on, with an academy pool of players too (a distinct advantage compared to others). After a 7th place finish we’ve 100% got enough to finish at this level

[tidus_mi2]

I wonder if we can sneak into the Prem next season if the 6 signing up for the European Super League do indeed get kicked out.

[Snowflake Royal]

I had a moan about parachute payments on Twitter, just had Norwich fans telling me to cry more and that a Reading fan shouldn't be lecturing others on club finances.

If anything, Reading's financial mess is caused in part by the massive gap in finances between Prem, Champ and the parachute payments and trying to chase the Prem money. Plenty of teams gamble and fail, plenty gamble and succeed. The stark reality is that the majority of teams that go between the Prem and Champ is largely becoming a smaller pool of teams.

West Brom, Norwich, Fulham and Watford are constantly yo-yoing and I can only see this increase, if Swansea don't go up soon they will probably fall into a similar mess as we have unless they shed a large chunk of their wages.

Our financial mess was self made. We had a huge and bloated squad. Players on unsustainable wages and long contracts. Madness for the size of the club. We were warned about it and went into a soft embargo. Gomes was brought in to apparently bring on Academy players. What do we then do? Go on another financial splurge and rack up huge debts again. Appalling stewardship.

I hope lessons have finally been learnt. No big spending please. Sell our best players. Use the loan market and bring on our best Academy players. It will be tough. We might struggle but I think we have enough in the squad to stay at this level.

To what end?

If you're asking that question I'm not sure football and Reading is for you.

Football itself is the end. Hang around in mid-table and every season you have a platform to try to build a push from.

Although I'd prefer a relegation to perrenial relegation battles.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Maybe we will get an invite to this new super league...
After all we have won as many Champions League Trophies as Arsenal and Spurs combined...
And have the level of financial losses to put us in the same ballpark...

[CountryRoyal]

Our financial mess was self made. We had a huge and bloated squad. Players on unsustainable wages and long contracts. Madness for the size of the club. We were warned about it and went into a soft embargo. Gomes was brought in to apparently bring on Academy players. What do we then do? Go on another financial splurge and rack up huge debts again. Appalling stewardship.

I hope lessons have finally been learnt. No big spending please. Sell our best players. Use the loan market and bring on our best Academy players. It will be tough. We might struggle but I think we have enough in the squad to stay at this level.

To what end?

If you're asking that question I'm not sure football and Reading is for you.

Football itself is the end. Hang around in mid-table and every season you have a platform to try to build a push from.

Although I'd prefer a relegation to perrenial relegation battles.

It’s a legitimate question determining the exact meaning of the previous post.

I.e would you be happy to spend eternity in one league? I wouldn’t, it would be dull af - as you eluded to with you’d rather a relegation than perennial relegation battles.

That’s all I meant. Once again you had to try and be smart and get an unnecessary dig in. You try too hard mate, give it a rest it’s becoming even more tedious than usual.

[Zip]

To what end?

If you're asking that question I'm not sure football and Reading is for you.

Football itself is the end. Hang around in mid-table and every season you have a platform to try to build a push from.

Although I'd prefer a relegation to perrenial relegation battles.

It’s a legitimate question determining the exact meaning of the previous post.

I.e would you be happy to spend eternity in one league? I wouldn’t, it would be dull af - as you eluded to with you’d rather a relegation than perennial relegation battles.

That’s all I meant. Once again you had to try and be smart and get an unnecessary dig in. You try too hard mate, give it a rest it’s becoming even more tedious than usual.

I am not saying it has to be like this forever but we have to be turn around these vast debts. So until we have done there has to be financial restraint.

[CountryRoyal]

If you're asking that question I'm not sure football and Reading is for you.

Football itself is the end. Hang around in mid-table and every season you have a platform to try to build a push from.

Although I'd prefer a relegation to perrenial relegation battles.

It’s a legitimate question determining the exact meaning of the previous post.

I.e would you be happy to spend eternity in one league? I wouldn’t, it would be dull af - as you eluded to with you’d rather a relegation than perennial relegation battles.

That’s all I meant. Once again you had to try and be smart and get an unnecessary dig in. You try too hard mate, give it a rest it’s becoming even more tedious than usual.

I am not saying it has to be like this forever but we have to be turn around these vast debts. So until we have done there has to be financial restraint.

I agree, and I’d much rather see our own younger players be shit than some aging mercenary from another team.

I was merely asking if your statement was open ended or if you just meant next season etc.

But definitely in agreement. For a club with such a big investment we really have produced some absolute dross in the last few years.

Afaik we’ve always had a pretty big wage bill relative to our revenue ever since SJM came on board. Obviously somewhat overshadowed these days by bigger clubs in the championship and more money in the prem so really stupid wages, but it hasn’t really been sustainable for a while.

[Hound]

I think the biggest frustrations of recent times is the big outlays really havent delivered, and its been the academies and freebies that have

We certainly could be sustainable with the success of the academy and some of the more recent scouting

[CountryRoyal]

I think the biggest frustrations of recent times is the big outlays really havent delivered, and its been the academies and freebies that have

We certainly could be sustainable with the success of the academy and some of the more recent scouting

For sure, even look at this season. Would you say Moore has earned his wage in comparison to Holmes or McIntyre? I sure as fcuk wouldn’t.

Then let’s not even get started on Baldock and Aluko.

I’m disappointed we didn’t utilise Tetek and Camara more this season, they both looked handy, especially Tetek who in the brief bits I’ve seen of him looks pretty comfortable at this level already - though it’s difficult to gauge not watching in person and again, only seeing bits.

Then you’ve got other teams youth. What the oxf*rd was Esteves about? Can’t think of any positive contributions really? Can think of quite a few negative ones!

[Greatwesternline]

I think the biggest frustrations of recent times is the big outlays really havent delivered, and its been the academies and freebies that have

We certainly could be sustainable with the success of the academy and some of the more recent scouting

For sure, even look at this season. Would you say Moore has earned his wage in comparison to Holmes or McIntyre? I sure as fcuk wouldn’t.

Then let’s not even get started on Baldock and Aluko.

I’m disappointed we didn’t utilise Tetek and Camara more this season, they both looked handy, especially Tetek who in the brief bits I’ve seen of him looks pretty comfortable at this level already - though it’s difficult to gauge not watching in person and again, only seeing bits.

Then you’ve got other teams youth. What the oxf*rd was Esteves about? Can’t think of any positive contributions really? Can think of quite a few negative ones!

Esteves is quite good at having received the ball, sort of putting his foot on it, and then rolling it back towards himself. He does that quite a lot.

[Hound]

Esteves was ok. Did a reasonable job - definitely not as much as hoped but don't really get the hate

He made about 2 errors which got punished, otherwise was fairly solid.

[URZZZZ]

I think the biggest frustrations of recent times is the big outlays really havent delivered, and its been the academies and freebies that have

We certainly could be sustainable with the success of the academy and some of the more recent scouting

Quite often the case though isn’t it?

With lower league punts/freebies/academy players, you’d do extensive research on them to make sure they suit what you need/want, and make sure they have the right character for the team etc. You’re unlikely just to sign some random player from a L2 side, for example

Whereas with your “big outlays”, they can be quite often bought for their name, irrespective of whether they’re actually needed/suit your team

Take the obvious one of Aluko. He wasn’t needed because we already had decent wide players in the team (where he was going to play) and he didn’t suit the team as his style of play wasn’t compatible with the rest of the team’s

[Zip]

Esteves was ok. Did a reasonable job - definitely not as much as hoped but don't really get the hate

He made about 2 errors which got punished, otherwise was fairly solid.

I thought he was improving and getting used to the Championship but we have barely seen him over the past three months.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Esteves was ok. Did a reasonable job - definitely not as much as hoped but don't really get the hate

He made about 2 errors which got punished, otherwise was fairly solid.

I thought he was improving and getting used to the Championship but we have barely seen him over the past three months.

Yeh this. It was the expectations that killed him. We thought we were getting a superstar.

[Hendo]

Esteves was ok. Did a reasonable job - definitely not as much as hoped but don't really get the hate

He made about 2 errors which got punished, otherwise was fairly solid.

I thought he was improving and getting used to the Championship but we have barely seen him over the past three months.

Yeh this. It was the expectations that killed him. Kids on twitter thought we were getting a superstar.

Corrected for you.