Next Reading Manager: Press Conference @ 9:15

[Royal91]

What have they done right?

They've removed a manager they didn't think could do the job they wanted him to do after giving him ample opportunity to make a success of the job he started with promotion.

They didn't just throw him out at Christmas but showed him loyalty worthy of the man, a loyalty that most other clubs probably wouldn't have afforded him.

Quietly drawn up their shortlist of prospective managers and started talking to them about the job, potentially offering it to one candidate who may have turned it down.

They're taking their time trying to find the right person all without turning it into a media circus under pressure from a soundbite generation of fans dying for the latest bit of irrelevant 'breaking news' from Sky Sports News.

Enormous +1

Have to agree, very sensible post from Hoop!!

[Esteban]

What have they done right?

They've removed a manager they didn't think could do the job they wanted him to do after giving him ample opportunity to make a success of the job he started with promotion.

They didn't just throw him out at Christmas but showed him loyalty worthy of the man, a loyalty that most other clubs probably wouldn't have afforded him.

Quietly drawn up their shortlist of prospective managers and started talking to them about the job, potentially offering it to one candidate who may have turned it down.

They're taking their time trying to find the right person all without turning it into a media circus under pressure from a soundbite generation of fans dying for the latest bit of irrelevant 'breaking news' from Sky Sports News.

+2

[Schards#2]

Fordham tweeting that Adkins "isn't in the running". If that's the case, there's plenty of free money to be had on Betfair where he is odds on.

My long shot is Avram Grant, not currently in a job, likes a Russian owner, and a big enough name to attract top players, if that is the owner's intention.

[floyd__streete]

Its actually quite touching how many of you seem to cling to some deluded belief that this situation isn't a complete shambles.

[Maguire]

What have they done right?

They've removed a manager they didn't think could do the job they wanted him to do after giving him ample opportunity to make a success of the job he started with promotion.

They didn't just throw him out at Christmas but showed him loyalty worthy of the man, a loyalty that most other clubs probably wouldn't have afforded him.

I love the fact that you (and others) take the fact that Brian wasn't sacked after 18 games as some kind of positive, as if it would have been perfectly reasonable to do so.

YES! We're so benevolent we're not ditching the guy who's brought us 2.5 seasons of success against the odds after 18 games!!11!!

[floyd__streete]

^ yep. Clutching at straws, deluded fan base we have.

[RoyalBlue]

What have they done right?

They've removed a manager they didn't think could do the job they wanted him to do after giving him ample opportunity to make a success of the job he started with promotion.

They didn't just throw him out at Christmas but showed him loyalty worthy of the man, a loyalty that most other clubs probably wouldn't have afforded him.

I love the fact that you (and others) take the fact that Brian wasn't sacked after 18 games as some kind of positive, as if it would have been perfectly reasonable to do so.

YES! We're so benevolent we're not ditching the guy who's brought us 2.5 seasons of success against the odds after 18 games!!11!!

That really depends on definition of success. Only one season was truly successful. And he really did screw up big time this season on virtually all fronts, not least in the squad that he assembled and his dealings during the two transfer windows.

[Wycombe Royal]

Despite how anyone dresses it up it's an absolute shambles.

How exacrtly? What have the club done wrong so far in their search for a manager?

Not convince a number of targets that we are the best option for starters!

How do you know? Has anyone seen a direct quote from a potential manager or the club saying they have turned us down?

[Wycombe Royal]

Despite how anyone dresses it up it's an absolute shambles.

How exacrtly? What have the club done wrong so far in their search for a manager?

What have they done right?

In other words "I can't answer that so I'll turn the question round". That thought process in itself provides the answer I was looking for.

[wingnut]

Why on earth would any club sack a manager with 9 games to go unless they had a viable successor ready to take over.

Because that manager they're sacking had tried and failed already.

I keep hearing all this rubbish about other clubs always having managers lined up to take over when they sack a failing one. I just don't think thats the case apart from rare examples like Ramos at Spurs or more recently Southampton when they booted Adkins.

Some appointments happen pretty quickly yes, but I don't think they've usually been signed, sealed and delivered when the exiting manager leaves.

Wolves did the same last year and that went well. We had a better - be it very slim - chance of staying up by keeping faith with Brian.

Wolves sacked a manager on a bad run of form who'd just slipped in to the relegation zone on goal difference then appointed his assistant until the end of the season. Nothing was likely to change in that situation.

It's not what we've done. The only similarity is sacking a previously successful manager.

Slight re-writing of Wolves's history there. Wolves had been on a slippery slope for much of the season before that point - like us - and many had speculated about McCarthy being sacked before Xmas - like us (on here, at least, if not in the papers). After sacking him very late in the season - like us - they then tried a number of names for their next manager, each turning them down. So far, we've only had Gus turn us down but the similarities are there for all who care to look for them, rather than stick their heads in the sand.

[Millsy]

Apart from the chants of "you don't know what you're doing" ?

That's the tamest abuse ever.

To be fair I think it's a pretty harsh as far as fan abuse goes. Shouting out to someone that they are completely incompetent in their job is as damning as you could possibly be.

Sure swearing and threatening violence and throwing stuff at him would be worse but that never happens and actually it is less harmful than saying they don't know what they're doing. I'd much rather someone swore at me than told me they don't think I'm competent in my job.

I was one of those who ended up shouting abuse at Bullivant on a cold evening at the Manor Ground where I lost my patience with him. Even then none of us boys said anything worse than you don't know what you're doing, except for "Bullivant Out" and "Taxi for Terry".

Its as harsh as you can get really and if this was chanted at him I really do feel sorry for him and as FS says, kinda makes me think we deserve to lose him and deserve to go down.

Very sad.

[sandman]

What have they done right?

They've removed a manager they didn't think could do the job they wanted him to do after giving him ample opportunity to make a success of the job he started with promotion. Didn't give him the tools to do the job.

They didn't just throw him out at Christmas but showed him loyalty worthy of the man, a loyalty that most other clubs probably wouldn't have afforded him. Loyalty would've been to give him money after he had to continually sell his best players year after year. Do you and others really think that after having Sig and Long sold from under him BM wouldn't have been like a kid in a sweet shop given a bigger budget?

Quietly drawn up their shortlist of prospective managers and started talking to them about the job, potentially offering it to one (three) candidate(s) who may have turned it down. (They may have offered it to three. One who they were very unlikely to get as he could be passing them by, one who is unlikely to join as he has probably had enough of trigger happy owner's to last him a lifetime and one who they likely wanted but were quickly shut down by the players.)

They're taking their time trying to find the right person all without turning it into a media circus (It is a media circus already, we're in the PL.) under pressure from a soundbite generation of fans dying for the latest bit of irrelevant 'breaking news' from Sky Sports News. (I don't care about what SSN has to say about who are the favourites I want the club to actually look like they have some sort of a plan)

Face it Hoop there looks to be very little direction in this process and you can dress it up as much as you want but this is looking increasingly messy. As others have said it's rather naïve of you to think this is going well.

[sandman]

In other words "I can't answer that so I'll turn the question round". That thought process in itself provides the answer I was looking for.

You are the ones claiming that this process is going well so I'm giving you the opportunity to tell us the reasons why.

[mr_number]

That really depends on definition of success. Only one season was truly successful.

Yep, reaching the Playoff Final was a massive failure, as were the two FA Cup Quarterfinals.

[wingnut]

They've removed a manager they didn't think could do the job they wanted him to do after giving him ample opportunity to make a success of the job he started with promotion.

They didn't just throw him out at Christmas but showed him loyalty worthy of the man, a loyalty that most other clubs probably wouldn't have afforded him.

Quietly drawn up their shortlist of prospective managers and started talking to them about the job, potentially offering it to one candidate who may have turned it down.

They're taking their time trying to find the right person all without turning it into a media circus under pressure from a soundbite generation of fans dying for the latest bit of irrelevant 'breaking news' from Sky Sports News.

In my book, loyalty lasts a bit longer than 2 months.

Loyalty would've been giving him the season. If you're going to sack someone and get in someone to do a better job, at least give him the time to do something about it.

We already are a media circus - we're in the Premier League, it comes with the territory. We've already had the Di Canio & Poyet installments & Adkins may be another - if we appoint Dolan (even if it is only for the rest of the season) there will be a fair bit of media comment on us failing to get our preferred choice(s) and now left with the only option available to us.

[Maguire]

Apart from the chants of "you don't know what you're doing" ?

That's the tamest abuse ever.

To be fair I think it's a pretty harsh as far as fan abuse goes. Shouting out to someone that they are completely incompetent in their job is as damning as you could possibly be.

Sure swearing and threatening violence and throwing stuff at him would be worse but that never happens and actually it is less harmful than saying they don't know what they're doing.

I was one of those who ended up shouting abuse at Bullivant on a cold evening at the Manor Ground where I lost my patience with him. Even then none of us boys said anything worse than you don't know what you're doing, except for "Bullivant Out" and "Taxi for Terry".

Its as harsh as you can get really and if this was chanted at him I really do feel sorry for him and as FS says, kinda makes me think we deserve to lose him and deserve to go down.

Very sad.

Yes agree with most of that. It's about as bad as it gets really. Just because they didn't throw eggs at him or release a Waitrose Coq au Vin meal for one onto the pitch dressed in RFC colours doesn't mean it wasn't direct abuse.

[Rollerbob]

I'd just like to see an update from the club - giving some sort of scoop on how the search is going. Sounds as if it's not going too well, but now we don't know if the club has ANYONE in mind - other than Dolan.

So far, from the club itself - all we've received is "McDermott sacked. Hard decision. Will have new manager ASAP." - Leaving us all in the dark really. C'mon Reading FC, tell us what is going on, or what isn't going on (as the case may well be).

[Millsy]

Brian. If we thought he could keep us up we'd have kept him. Obviously we didn't, therefore there was little point in keeping him.

Respect what you say as ever but Im not sure I agree with this. The fight for survival seems to be lost, new manager or not. A new man/ honeymoon period benefit is outweighed by having to learn about the squad. I obviously don't know but it *seems* like we're going for someone to take us straight back up. So to say there was little point in keeping Brian because we're going down is odd to me, as there's no one else who has a better guarantee of getting us back up with this squad than the man who did it against all the odds five minutes ago!

[Millsy]

Its actually quite touching how many of you seem to cling to some deluded belief that this situation isn't a complete shambles.

+100000000

[Millsy]

What have they done right?

They've removed a manager they didn't think could do the job they wanted him to do after giving him ample opportunity to make a success of the job he started with promotion.

They didn't just throw him out at Christmas but showed him loyalty worthy of the man, a loyalty that most other clubs probably wouldn't have afforded him.

I love the fact that you (and others) take the fact that Brian wasn't sacked after 18 games as some kind of positive, as if it would have been perfectly reasonable to do so.

YES! We're so benevolent we're not ditching the guy who's brought us 2.5 seasons of success against the odds after 18 games!!11!!

This.