Rival Watch

[Dirk Gently]

I just want our beloved club to be run sensibly again.

100% this. It's been a decade of shambles, and I'd love the club to get back to being boringly sensible. I think we really took for granted under Madejski that the club was actually pretty well run. It may not have splashed the cash much, but it generally made decent decisions.

But people who saw that at the time were in the minority. The vocal majority wanted more and more free money thrown at the club. ISTR them all wanting the club to be taken over by a rich foreign "investor".

Be careful what you wish for...

[YorkshireRoyal99]

like anyone thought Paunovic would be pushing for promotion when he was brought in. And all his good form came off the back of Bowen's team and preseason.

oxf*rd off sacking a manager less than six months into their tenure just because we're midtable. Go support Leeds or Watford if you want that.

Obviously the board did at the time of making the decision.

Mid table in L1, despite your extremely low standards, is a failure though. There probably aren't that many clubs who would keep hold of an underperforming manager for 6 months or more, depending on the situation. If the board don't really care where we finish next season and just want to start a rebuild to get a side capable of going up again, then fair enough. If we are targeting the play offs, which I think we should be and likely will be, then I can't see a manager lasting much more than 6 months if we are underachieving.

Why should we have to settle for mid table when the likes of Derby, who started last season in far worse situations than ourselves, can still manage to compete for a play off position? Again, apologies, but I just think being happy to be mid table is just shite. If that's the sort of "ambition" the club would want to encourage as well, then I'd be saying sack the lot of them without very good reasoning (i.e. the owner budgeting for a mid table finish, for which I'd then be saying get shut of the owner).

Yeah let's continue having a manager or two a season. Real route to success.

All depends on who you are, who you have in charge, what your expectations are etc. I'm not saying or even advocating for changing our manager all the time, what I am saying is, get out of the habit of keeping underperforming managers for longer than necessary. If the clubs aim is to be in the play off positions and we are in mid table, that's not good enough, people should be under pressure with their jobs.

As I say, if someone from the club comes out and categorically says that we shouldn't be expecting to be in the higher positions of the league for whatever reason(s), then fair enough I won't be expecting it.

[Sutekh]

Sheffield Wednesday will attempt to repair the damage suffered against Peterborough tonight.

[South Coast Royal]

I just want our beloved club to be run sensibly again.

100% this. It's been a decade of shambles, and I'd love the club to get back to being boringly sensible. I think we really took for granted under Madejski that the club was actually pretty well run. It may not have splashed the cash much, but it generally made decent decisions.

He may not have splashed the cash in the last couple of seasons of his tenure but we were for some years very big spenders at the lower levels.

There is no set format for achieving success-City, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Chelsea have done quite well with rich foreign benefactor owners and Brighton, Brentford, Palace etc have done ok without.

Watching Coventry and Sunderland this season, teams can play attractive, successful and watchable football without spending loads of money as have Middlesborough-in each case I suggest it is mainly down to the manager.
Picking the right one is a lottery-let's hope that Reading buy the winning ticket some day soon.

[Sutekh]

I just want our beloved club to be run sensibly again.

100% this. It's been a decade of shambles, and I'd love the club to get back to being boringly sensible. I think we really took for granted under Madejski that the club was actually pretty well run. It may not have splashed the cash much, but it generally made decent decisions.

He may not have splashed the cash in the last couple of seasons of his tenure but we were for some years very big spenders at the lower levels.

There is no set format for achieving success-City, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Chelsea have done quite well with rich foreign benefactor owners and Brighton, Brentford, Palace etc have done ok without.

Watching Coventry and Sunderland this season, teams can play attractive, successful and watchable football without spending loads of money as have Middlesborough-in each case I suggest it is mainly down to the manager.
Picking the right one is a lottery-let's hope that Reading buy the winning ticket some day soon.

Out of interest was Puscas the last player that Reading spent a transfer fee on?

[Dirk Gently]

100% this. It's been a decade of shambles, and I'd love the club to get back to being boringly sensible. I think we really took for granted under Madejski that the club was actually pretty well run. It may not have splashed the cash much, but it generally made decent decisions.

He may not have splashed the cash in the last couple of seasons of his tenure but we were for some years very big spenders at the lower levels.

There is no set format for achieving success-City, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Chelsea have done quite well with rich foreign benefactor owners and Brighton, Brentford, Palace etc have done ok without.

Watching Coventry and Sunderland this season, teams can play attractive, successful and watchable football without spending loads of money as have Middlesborough-in each case I suggest it is mainly down to the manager.
Picking the right one is a lottery-let's hope that Reading buy the winning ticket some day soon.

Out of interest was Puscas the last player that Reading spent a transfer fee on?

Ejaria, according to Soccerbase.

[South Coast Royal]

100% this. It's been a decade of shambles, and I'd love the club to get back to being boringly sensible. I think we really took for granted under Madejski that the club was actually pretty well run. It may not have splashed the cash much, but it generally made decent decisions.

He may not have splashed the cash in the last couple of seasons of his tenure but we were for some years very big spenders at the lower levels.

There is no set format for achieving success-City, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Chelsea have done quite well with rich foreign benefactor owners and Brighton, Brentford, Palace etc have done ok without.

Watching Coventry and Sunderland this season, teams can play attractive, successful and watchable football without spending loads of money as have Middlesborough-in each case I suggest it is mainly down to the manager.
Picking the right one is a lottery-let's hope that Reading buy the winning ticket some day soon.

Out of interest was Puscas the last player that Reading spent a transfer fee on?

Probably.
One further thought.
Brighton and Coventry have had some terrible years with no ground and the inability to spend much on players.
Maybe Reading as a club and its players have had it all a bit easy with having a modern ground and top class training facilities-with those two other clubs there has been a very close relationship between managers, players and the fans breeding a united effort..

The same goes for Luton and although I don't care too much which of them and Coventry get promoted I would probably prefer Coventry because of their style of play and for getting the best of that good little player Hamer who, when not getting sent off, has been one of the best players in the Championship as shown last night and previously against us.

[tidus_mi2]

He may not have splashed the cash in the last couple of seasons of his tenure but we were for some years very big spenders at the lower levels.

There is no set format for achieving success-City, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Chelsea have done quite well with rich foreign benefactor owners and Brighton, Brentford, Palace etc have done ok without.

Watching Coventry and Sunderland this season, teams can play attractive, successful and watchable football without spending loads of money as have Middlesborough-in each case I suggest it is mainly down to the manager.
Picking the right one is a lottery-let's hope that Reading buy the winning ticket some day soon.

Out of interest was Puscas the last player that Reading spent a transfer fee on?

Ejaria, according to Soccerbase.

That'll be correct since that summer we signed Joao, Puscas and Ejaria on loan with an obligation to buy the following summer. I seem to recall that was the reason his transfer was delayed too because at that point it was clear we were going to smash FFP and I'm sure they didn't want to approve it but the deal had already been agreed and signed off by the EFL the previous season.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Did we not pay anything for Felipe Araruna from Sao Paolo in the January transfer window that same season?

[Sutekh]

Did we not pay anything for Felipe Araruna from Sao Paolo in the January transfer window that same season?

I know it's not always the best but transfermarkt says Reading paid 350k Euro for Araruna in January 2020. Just for the record Araruna is currently still without a club.

[From Despair To Where?]

Is he still without 2 functioning legs?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I thought he would have had a fee, just didn't look at transfermarkt. So he will have been the last player who paid a fee for?

[tidus_mi2]

I'll be honest, I completely forgot about Araruna

[blythspartan]

I'll be honest, I completely forgot about Araruna

Who’s Araruna?

[genome]

Surely not

[AthleticoSpizz]

Surely not

yeah…..game-on

2-0 up not even halftime yet

[Hound]

Peterborough look absolutely terrible

[genome]

One might say it looks like they're down to 10 men

[Ascotexgunner]

3-0....Posh look shocking.....and nervous....and shapeless

[Loafer]

They'll win 5-0 I guarantee it

Although next season against clarke-harris won't be fun