Were we spoilt in 2007?

[Archie's penalty]

We now know that we will be relegated this season, this will mean our second relegation in three premiership seasons.

In the other season (2006-7) we finished eighth, yes eighth and surprised the league with our, spirit, verve and determination. We won 16 games, more than 2007-8 and 2012-3 (so far) put together.

So were our expectations of the premier league raised unnaturally by our experience in 2006-7? If they were, perhaps it makes this season easier to take?

[TBM]

So were our expectations of the premier league raised unnaturally by our experience in 2006-7?

No - cos we were relegated the season after

[Archie's penalty]

So were our expectations of the premier league raised unnaturally by our experience in 2006-7?

No - cos we were relegated the season after

True but our expectations were unnaturally high that season too.

[Sanguine]

I think you've re-written history there. I don't recall many thinking we would do anything except battle against relegation in 07-08, or at best finish a 'comfortable' 13/14th.

[Norfolk Royal]

We now know that we will be relegated this season, this will mean our second relegation in three premiership seasons.

In the other season (2006-7) we finished eighth, yes eighth and surprised the league with our, spirit, verve and determination. We won 16 games, more than 2007-8 and 2012-3 (so far) put together.

So were our expectations of the premier league raised unnaturally by our experience in 2006-7? If they were, perhaps it makes this season easier to take?

What it shows all too clearly is that we are failing to learn from history.

[Winchester Royal]

I wouldn't say we were spoilt. We knew we were promoted with a great team and that team continued to perform in the manner they had in the Championship, with improvements such as Seol Ki-Hyeon also adding weight. There was never a concern about quality with that squad.

This season, we retained the side that many would say fluked the title, and didn't make sufficient improvements. We knew that the team was weaker than in 2006-07 and didn't maintain the spirit that the team had at the end of last season. We also got promoted playing direct football and just didn't have the quality.

The two seasons are difficult to compare as the teams were just so different.

[Schards#2]

In 2007 I never had any doubt we had the quality to stay up. From the end of last season, I've never been in any doubt that (withut huge investment) we would be relegated by a distance. Even in winning the championship, we looked second best in many games.

[Archie's penalty]

I agree with all that. But there was a lot of bullish optimism on here in the summer. Many seemed to think we had a good chance of survival. This season has been an eye-opener. We need to be a lot better when we come back up.

[creative_username_1]

We now know that we will be relegated this season, this will mean our second relegation in three premiership seasons.

In the other season (2006-7) we finished eighth, yes eighth and surprised the league with our, spirit, verve and determination. We won 16 games, more than 2007-8 and 2012-3 (so far) put together.

So were our expectations of the premier league raised unnaturally by our experience in 2006-7? If they were, perhaps it makes this season easier to take?

What it shows all too clearly is that we are failing to learn from history.

err...things are dynamic

[melonhead]

We now know that we will be relegated this season, this will mean our second relegation in three premiership seasons.

In the other season (2006-7) we finished eighth, yes eighth and surprised the league with our, spirit, verve and determination. We won 16 games, more than 2007-8 and 2012-3 (so far) put together.

So were our expectations of the premier league raised unnaturally by our experience in 2006-7? If they were, perhaps it makes this season easier to take?

What it shows all too clearly is that we are failing to learn from history.

surely if we were doing all our learning from history spending nothing in your first season up is a great idea, guaranteed to see us finish just outside europe

[melonhead]

I wouldn't say we were spoilt. We knew we were promoted with a great team and that team continued to perform in the manner they had in the Championship, with improvements such as Seol Ki-Hyeon also adding weight. There was never a concern about quality with that squad.

.

never a concern from me, or you
but many on here, and in the wider football world considered us relegation fodder cos theyd never heard of anyone on our team
its also possible to surmise from their careers after leaving that maybe they were a touch low on quality after all, and the success was built purely on the team ethic

[Winchester Royal]

I wouldn't say we were spoilt. We knew we were promoted with a great team and that team continued to perform in the manner they had in the Championship, with improvements such as Seol Ki-Hyeon also adding weight. There was never a concern about quality with that squad.

.

never a concern from me, or you
but many on here, and in the wider football world considered us relegation fodder cos theyd never heard of anyone on our team
its also possible to surmise from their careers after leaving that maybe they were a touch low on quality after all, and the success was built purely on the team ethic

Fair point, it was a touch fortunate that that team was built on a number of players who were performing at their peak for those two seasons. Nobody had heard of them and I remember, living in Winchester at the time, a load of Southampton fans telling me we'd come straight back down because we didn't have any top class players...

I think its only Sidwell, Shorey and Long that have continued to play regularly in that league, although I could be forgetting some.

[Ian Royal]

I agree with all that. But there was a lot of bullish optimism on here in the summer. Many seemed to think we had a good chance of survival. This season has been an eye-opener. We need to be a lot better when we come back up.

It's pretty natural for fans to look at their own team and be optimistic. I think a lot of people had similar views to Schards over the summer. I think I went on record saying that if we relied on the same central midfield we'd be doomed and the only way we could get away without completely replacing it, would be to sign someone outstanding like Sigurdsson to sit in the hole.

I think many of us (myself included) got a bit carried away with the big money (wages) signing of Pogrenbyak and a PL player in Guthrie. Along with two of the better Championship defenders in Gunter and Mariappa. And we lost sight of the deficiencies we'd got away with last season.

I still think with a better plan from the start and better management, we'd have been in with a semi-realistic shout of survival right up until the penultimate, if not last game of the season. There is quality in our squad, although not really enough by any means, and no one really standout. But with a slightly different rub of the green and say a win against Stoke, Chelsea or a non-re-arranged Sunderland match... hell, even Swansea. We may have seen a very different season. And the margins in those games were very small.

Once your playing catch up in the PL - especially with a bunch of slightly limited hard-workers - you're boned. Because you simply can't put together a long enough run of good results to lift confidence, because of the gulf in class between the top 6 or 7 clubs and the rest of the division. And you will get one of those in a match cropping up to break your runs of form. Then you're just stuck in a never ending feedback loop of poor results feeding poor results and low confidence and form. Even when we did get a run of form together, the second we came up against a savvy club who refused to let us use "Reading Time" we fell apart again.

[SydenhamRoyal]

I agree with all that. But there was a lot of bullish optimism on here in the summer. Many seemed to think we had a good chance of survival. This season has been an eye-opener. We need to be a lot better if we come back up.

corrected for you

[One Beer is never enough.]

TBF, I've been spoilt throughout my time supporting Reading... only finished in the bottom half 4 times, and only 2 of those being relegation years (soon to be 5-3 I know).

1991-92 Div 3 46 16 13 17 59 62 61 12th
1992-93 Div 28 46 18 15 13 66 51 69 8th
1993-94 Div 2 46 26 11 9 81 44 89 1st R1 R2 Football League Trophy R2 Jimmy Quinn 37
1994-95 Div 1 46 23 10 13 58 44 79 2nd R3 R2 N/A Stuart Lovell 15
1995-96 Div 1 46 13 17 16 54 63 56 19th R4 QF N/A Jimmy Quinn 19
1996-97 Div 1 46 15 12 19 58 67 57 18th R4 R1 N/A Trevor Morley 23
1997-98 Div 1 46 11 9 26 39 78 42 24th R5 QF N/A Carl Asaba 12
1998-99 Div 2 46 16 13 17 54 63 61 11th R1 R2 Football League Trophy South R1 Martin Williams 11
1999-2000 Div 2 46 16 14 16 57 63 62 10th R3 R2 Football League Trophy South SF Darren Caskey 23
2000-01 Div 2 46 25 11 10 86 52 86 3rd R2 R1 Football League Trophy South R2 Martin Butler 30
2001-02 Div 2 46 23 15 8 70 43 84 2nd R2 R3 Football League Trophy South QF Nicky Forster 19
2002-03 Div 1 46 25 4 17 61 46 79 4th R3 R1 N/A Nicky Forster 16
2003-04 Div 1 46 20 10 16 55 57 70 9th R3 R4 N/A Shaun Goater 14
2004–05 Champ10 46 19 13 14 51 44 70 7th R4 R2 N/A Dave Kitson 19
2005–06 Champ 46 31 13 2 99 32 106 1st R4 R4 N/A Dave Kitson 22
2006–07 Prem 38 16 7 15 52 47 55 8th R5 R3 N/A Leroy Lita 14
2007–08 Prem 38 10 6 22 41 66 36 18th R3 R3 N/A Dave Kitson 10
2008–09 Champ 46 21 14 11 72 40 77 4th R3 R3 N/A Kevin Doyle 18
2009–10 Champ 46 17 12 17 68 63 63 9th R6 R2 N/A Gylfi Sigurðsson 12
2010–11 Champ 46 20 17 9 77 51 77 5th R6 R2 N/A Shane Long 25
2011–12 Champ 46 27 8 11 69 41 89 1st R3 R1 N/A Adam le Fondre 12

[grey_squirrel]

So?

So what?

Do you think Fulham, Wigan, Stoke, Sunderland, WBA, Norwich, Swansea fans are indulging in "oh but aren't we fortunate to have got so far"?!?

This 'we have come a long way' and had more promotions than relegations mentality is getting tiresome and tedious now.

Spoilt?

Nope failed to prepare again.

We had a better chance/opportunity than 2005/6/7/8 and f/cked it up.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Nope failed to prepare again.

We had a better chance/opportunity than 2005/6/7/8 and f/cked it up.

I can't see how we had a better opportunity than in 2006. We had a great team that year, effectively a premier league quality team in the championship. It ought to have been the platform for a decent stay in the top division.


This season's team got promoted against the odds, with few players able to really cut it in the premier league. It would have needed a fair bit of surgery to stay up.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Nope failed to prepare again.

We had a better chance/opportunity than 2005/6/7/8 and f/cked it up.

I can't see how we had a better opportunity than in 2006. We had a great team that year, effectively a premier league quality team in the championship. It ought to have been the platform for a decent stay in the top division.


This season's team got promoted against the odds, with few players able to really cut it in the premier league. It would have needed a fair bit of surgery to stay up.

I disagree with that. This season's PL has generally been of a poor standard despite the ludicrous difference in the money sloshing about. When we arrived the first time you had the likes of Rooney, RVP, Henry, Ronaldo, Torres etc at their peaks. There's just not as many 'stars' in the PL now & I don't think the football has been that good.

What I guess I am trying to say is we could have easily stayed up this season - the bottom half in general has been truly p1ss poor IMO.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Nope failed to prepare again.

We had a better chance/opportunity than 2005/6/7/8 and f/cked it up.

I can't see how we had a better opportunity than in 2006. We had a great team that year, effectively a premier league quality team in the championship. It ought to have been the platform for a decent stay in the top division.


This season's team got promoted against the odds, with few players able to really cut it in the premier league. It would have needed a fair bit of surgery to stay up.

I disagree with that. This season's PL has generally been of a poor standard despite the ludicrous difference in the money sloshing about. When we arrived the first time you had the likes of Rooney, RVP, Henry, Ronaldo, Torres etc at their peaks. There's just not as many 'stars' in the PL now & I don't think the football has been that good.

What I guess I am trying to say is we could have easily stayed up this season - the bottom half in general has been truly p1ss poor IMO.

The premier league is weaker than in 2007, that's true.

The difference is that we are much weaker than we were in 2007.

We are not a couple of players away from staying up. We are miles away, and much the same in ability across all positions. We'd have needed to sign five good players just to have a decent shot at staying up, and probably at least eight to feel confidence in doing so.

[creative_username_1]

How is strength/weakness of a football league measured?