Adkins has no plan?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Whilst we're off the subject of doom and gloom, despite not really having found our full, consistent, starting 11 or got properly going yet, and despite having only one player looking capable of getting over 10 goals, we're still picking up points at a rate that will see us firmly in the Play Offs if it continues through the season.

We've lost one meaningful match and been narrowly away from picking up a couple more wins. Even if a couple of the wins we do have were perhaps got a little by the tips of our fingers.

Fook knows where we'd be if we had a fully fit and in form squad. Or another decent striker. The championship is so tight that the margins are tiny between a run of poor results and drifting downwards and a run of great results and storming the division. We're placed well early on and we've still got plenty of room for improvement.

Not much to genuinely be upset about.

Agreed, but I think that says a lot about how shite the whole of the Championship is again this season.

So whilst that means it may be easier to get out of it, it means a team doesn't have to be particularly good to do so - they can be adequate and lucky, which is what McD's Championship-winning team was.

And we've all seen what happens when an adequate Championship team goes up.

[winchester_royal]

Plenty of good posts on this thread already, it's nice to see HNA is recovering from TDD-g8.

As Dirkers pointed out, a balancing act needs to be found between short term pay-offs and long term success. Obviously the focus for the club at the moment is the academy, so bringing through the younger players is important, but teams that rely on 18/19 year olds rarely get promoted from this league. Likewise the club is trying to change the general playing philosophy that runs through it, but teams in transition rarely get promoted from this league.

This is why we're seeing the team take a direct approach in certain phases of the games, and why we're bringing in experienced pros like Baird and Bridge. Adkins is (for now at least) succeeding where Rodgers failed, in that he is finding a way to pick up points whilst also working with long term targets in mind. I was critical of BM for being too reliant on stop-gaps like Harte and Griffin and not looking to the future, so I'm hoping Nige will be looking to develop younger players alongside the experienced guys we're bringing in. Only time will tell how well judged this current strategy is, but looking at his time at Southampton I have faith that he knows what he's doing.

[melonhead]

think there is a distinct lack of credit still for brians "adequate" team tbf


twice in our history weve won that trophy.
i think its wrong to look at any team that does that as in any way being simply adequate.
in many ways what they achieved was exceptional. if you think they were merely adequate, that makes their achievements all the more exceptional.
what happened the year after is in many ways irrelevant to that. imo



though i get the feeling behind the sentiment, and certainly agree the last championship winning side was more towards the adequate than exceptional end of the spectrum

[Binfield Royal]

Fruits wrote: I worry that Atkins might leave owing to lack of investment in new players.

How many times have you seen A manager walk out on a club, not often!!

Atkins has grit and determination in his character. No investment, so what bring the academy players through the system an into the first team as he did at Saints.

The Great Lord Sir Coppell of Cheam (All praise to him) did. He walked out on Bristol City after a month because of promises of financial support to build the team that did not materialise.

[Royal Prince]

For me it's all about building up the players confidence again, and what better way to do this than securing three clean sheets in the row? Hopefully that's now laid the foundations on which we can build, so lets go forth with a bit more courage and really start imposing ourselves on games.

Onwards and upwards!

[facaldaqui]

I am not a very big fan of Adkins. I am surprised at how unintelligently he talks--however, since he has a great record and a degree I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Quite frankly, my heart sank when we appointed him, but then it already sank after we sacked McDermott, whom I was in favour of keeping. In fact, I am always in favour of keeping managers rather than sacking them too soon--even Rodgers; and so I am willing to give Adkins plenty of time to get it together. Clearly, he is short of options up front, which he has never been at previous clubs.

I do not subscribe to the idea that Adkins' style is any more likely than Brian's to get us out of the division. Both styles got teams out of the division before. A rewriting of the past seems to be taking place on this board, which is that Brian's team were lucky to go up, so no wonder we came back down. The truth is you do not win this league on luck. I thought we did look like a premier side in those late wins against West Ham and Southampton, with Roberts in his pomp. And I remember a run of seriously bad luck early in that championship season, when we lost a series of games we should have won.

There seems to be amnesia about the fact that the team we put out in the premier was not as good as the one that got promoted: the likes of Gunter, McCleary, Guthrie, and Pogrebnyak did not seem to fit in, which disrupted the team, and we ended up playing Jay Tabb, who rarely started the previous season. McDermott should take the blame for that decline; but I do not think anything should be taken away from his championship-winning side. I suppose it might be a decade or two before they become accepted as Reading legends.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Fruits wrote: I worry that Atkins might leave owing to lack of investment in new players.

How many times have you seen A manager walk out on a club, not often!!

Atkins has grit and determination in his character. No investment, so what bring the academy players through the system an into the first team as he did at Saints.

The Great Lord Sir Coppell of Cheam (All praise to him) did. He walked out on Bristol City after a month because of promises of financial support to build the team that did not materialise.

Beg to differ on that - Coppell was given a big kitty, spent it & then fcuked off.

[LoyalRoyal22]

I thought the 433 was showing real good signs on Wednesday. Seems we are progressing nicely IMO

[melonhead]

How many times have you seen A manager walk out on a club, not often!!

Atkins has grit and determination in his character. No investment, so what bring the academy players through the system an into the first team as he did at Saints.

The Great Lord Sir Coppell of Cheam (All praise to him) did. He walked out on Bristol City after a month because of promises of financial support to build the team that did not materialise.

Beg to differ on that - Coppell was given a big kitty, spent it & then fcuked off.

he walked cos signings were made without his consent
ie he didnt spend all of that kitty

[melonhead]

I thought the 433 was showing real good signs on Wednesday. Seems we are progressing nicely IMO

yeah


that



but people are in whinge mode and want it all sorted NOW!!!

[savage 4 england]

Whilst we're off the subject of doom and gloom, despite not really having found our full, consistent, starting 11 or got properly going yet, and despite having only one player looking capable of getting over 10 goals, we're still picking up points at a rate that will see us firmly in the Play Offs if it continues through the season.

We've lost one meaningful match and been narrowly away from picking up a couple more wins. Even if a couple of the wins we do have were perhaps got a little by the tips of our fingers.

Fook knows where we'd be if we had a fully fit and in form squad. Or another decent striker. The championship is so tight that the margins are tiny between a run of poor results and drifting downwards and a run of great results and storming the division. We're placed well early on and we've still got plenty of room for improvement.

Not much to genuinely be upset about.

Agreed.

However, it will be very frustrating if we fail to sign any attacking players in the near future. I feel we are two players off being shoe-ins for automatic. Like you said, very fine margins indeed.

[Ian Royal]

Plenty of good posts on this thread already, it's nice to see HNA is recovering from TDD-g8.

As Dirkers pointed out, a balancing act needs to be found between short term pay-offs and long term success. Obviously the focus for the club at the moment is the academy, so bringing through the younger players is important, but teams that rely on 18/19 year olds rarely get promoted from this league. Likewise the club is trying to change the general playing philosophy that runs through it, but teams in transition rarely get promoted from this league.

This is why we're seeing the team take a direct approach in certain phases of the games, and why we're bringing in experienced pros like Baird and Bridge. Adkins is (for now at least) succeeding where Rodgers failed, in that he is finding a way to pick up points whilst also working with long term targets in mind. I was critical of BM for being too reliant on stop-gaps like Harte and Griffin and not looking to the future, so I'm hoping Nige will be looking to develop younger players alongside the experienced guys we're bringing in. Only time will tell how well judged this current strategy is, but looking at his time at Southampton I have faith that he knows what he's doing.

Have I missed a signing or have you used the wrong name!?

[winchester_royal]

Plenty of good posts on this thread already, it's nice to see HNA is recovering from TDD-g8.

As Dirkers pointed out, a balancing act needs to be found between short term pay-offs and long term success. Obviously the focus for the club at the moment is the academy, so bringing through the younger players is important, but teams that rely on 18/19 year olds rarely get promoted from this league. Likewise the club is trying to change the general playing philosophy that runs through it, but teams in transition rarely get promoted from this league.

This is why we're seeing the team take a direct approach in certain phases of the games, and why we're bringing in experienced pros like Baird and Bridge. Adkins is (for now at least) succeeding where Rodgers failed, in that he is finding a way to pick up points whilst also working with long term targets in mind. I was critical of BM for being too reliant on stop-gaps like Harte and Griffin and not looking to the future, so I'm hoping Nige will be looking to develop younger players alongside the experienced guys we're bringing in. Only time will tell how well judged this current strategy is, but looking at his time at Southampton I have faith that he knows what he's doing.

Have I missed a signing or have you used the wrong name!?

I'd check the OS if I were you bud.

[Green]

I've always said that I think Sean Dyche could come in and do a job for us.

[melonhead]

Completely hypothetical... but...

If Adkins were to leave tomorrow, who would we realistically get to replace him?

Parky?!
Gunnarsson?!
Murty?!

[Ian Royal]

Plenty of good posts on this thread already, it's nice to see HNA is recovering from TDD-g8.

As Dirkers pointed out, a balancing act needs to be found between short term pay-offs and long term success. Obviously the focus for the club at the moment is the academy, so bringing through the younger players is important, but teams that rely on 18/19 year olds rarely get promoted from this league. Likewise the club is trying to change the general playing philosophy that runs through it, but teams in transition rarely get promoted from this league.

This is why we're seeing the team take a direct approach in certain phases of the games, and why we're bringing in experienced pros like Baird and Bridge. Adkins is (for now at least) succeeding where Rodgers failed, in that he is finding a way to pick up points whilst also working with long term targets in mind. I was critical of BM for being too reliant on stop-gaps like Harte and Griffin and not looking to the future, so I'm hoping Nige will be looking to develop younger players alongside the experienced guys we're bringing in. Only time will tell how well judged this current strategy is, but looking at his time at Southampton I have faith that he knows what he's doing.

Have I missed a signing or have you used the wrong name!?

I'd check the OS if I were you bud.

Wahey!

[RoyalBlue]

The Great Lord Sir Coppell of Cheam (All praise to him) did. He walked out on Bristol City after a month because of promises of financial support to build the team that did not materialise.

Beg to differ on that - Coppell was given a big kitty, spent it & then fcuked off.

he walked cos signings were made without his consent
ie he didnt spend all of that kitty

Curious to know who you think those signings were.

[Cureton's Volley]

Completely hypothetical... but...

If Adkins were to leave tomorrow, who would we realistically get to replace him?

Parky?!
Gunnarsson?!
Murty?!

Fook that would be heaven! Parky as boss with Murts + Bryn as his assistants... Give it a few years for the 3 to get more experience and Adkins to take us up (and hopefully not, but probably back down) and that's is an RFC management dream team

[Cureton's Volley]

Ooooooh we could draft in Rougier in as Physio

[AthleticoSpizz]

lol

and Royalee as press officer