Turning water into wine

[muirinho]

Interesting interview with the journalist Michael Calvin, in TheJournal about his book "State of Play". The interview (and probably the book) are well worth a read. But I thought about this paragraph about Paul Clement at Reading was worth bringing to the attention of the board

It’s interesting that we’re speaking on the day that Paul Clement, who features quite heavily in the book, gets sacked. He’s a very intelligent, driven man. He has a very broad, almost educational approach to sport and his work.

Yet football managers tend to be prisoners of their football clubs. They’re there for a long time, maybe with the wrong people around them, and it’s very difficult to get out of that. Paul Clement was at Reading, a club who are frankly on a hiding to nothing. You talk to scouts and people in the game and they’ll say ‘there’s no money there’. So he has a substandard squad — he’s trying to turn water into wine.

https://www.the42.ie/michael-calvin-sta ... 5-Dec2018/

[Zip]

I’d like to know how much this author really knows about our club. To say “there is no money there” is plain stupid. We had the third highest net spend in the Championship in 2017. This year the club could have sold Moore for big money but turned down offers. Clement was given a budget. It wasn’t huge but it was more than some clubs in this division. We also have a huge squad that much be costing a fortune in wages.

It will be interesting to see how much money Gomes is given next month.

[Jagermesiter1871]

Yeh that's nonsense clearly said by someone with next to no knowledge of the club.

[leon]

That strikes me as written by Clements mate.

[From Despair To Where?]

I don't think there is much wriggle room money wise. We must be sailing fairly close the the wind with FFP so there probably is very little money available until we offload, and as we have discovered, if the players aren't performing are are permacrocks, no one will want to buy them.

What I would contest is that we have a substandard squad. What we have is a good squad putting in substandard performances over a period of 12 months and that is the key task for any manager coming into the club, finding the right system and motivating the players to cosistantly perform at a level they are capable of.

Having the "wrong people" could also be pointing the finger behind the scenes; coaching staff, medical staff, Gourlay etc. I don't think he's saying too much that hasn't been said on here a thousand times in the past year. We have been on to a hiding to nothing with shit management on and off the field.

[CountryRoyal]

Our owners are billionaires (at least together they are) and admittedly not outrageous ones, but it’s still a shit ton of money.

Now, how much they can actually pump into the club without breaching FFP is a different matter. Unfortunately a club the size of ours doesn’t have the largest revenue streams. It doesn’t help when we’re shit and people don’t go, it’s a vicious cycle.

[Snowflake Royal]

I don't think there is much wriggle room money wise. We must be sailing fairly close the the wind with FFP so there probably is very little money available until we offload, and as we have discovered, if the players aren't performing are are permacrocks, no one will want to buy them.

What I would contest is that we have a substandard squad. What we have is a good squad putting in substandard performances over a period of 12 months and that is the key task for any manager coming into the club, finding the right system and motivating the players to cosistantly perform at a level they are capable of.

Having the "wrong people" could also be pointing the finger behind the scenes; coaching staff, medical staff, Gourlay etc. I don't think he's saying too much that hasn't been said on here a thousand times in the past year. We have been on to a hiding to nothing with shit management on and off the field.

Yes, we're clearly spending plenty but I agree there's probably not a lot of leeway and we're stretched to at or beyond what we can afford and need to shift dead cost... So we can't just pay what's necessary for that star player we want when the opportunity arises.

I do think the squad is substandard though. Not at individual level, but because it's a bloated squad of about five different manager's idea of what they want to do and who is necessary to achieve it. We're really not much of a team, more a collection of dysfunctional individuals.

You get the feeling Pardew, Coppell and McDermott built a solid and coherent base, looking to add just the right couple of pieces to finish the whole. Whereas the approach since Madejski sold up seems to have gone more and more into just bringing in perceived quality individuals with little thought to personality or how they will mix with the group and what areas are our biggest problem. Hence going a couple of years with one right back, or no specialist left back, or desperately short upfront, or a weird and unbalanced midfield.

I think Clement tried to begin addressing that, time will tell how Gomes goes on it. But more out than in is important.

[Hound]

Agree sounds like an apologist for Clement

Getting rid of the majority McShane, Edwards, Popa, Harriott, Meyler, Clement, Smith, Mannone, Aluko would undoubtedly free up quite a bit of cash and must be the priority. Would also consider strongly any offers for Moore, Gunter, Barrow, Kelly and any of the forwards

[RoyalBlue]

I’d like to know how much this author really knows about our club. To say “there is no money there” is plain stupid. We had the third highest net spend in the Championship in 2017. This year the club could have sold Moore for big money but turned down offers. Clement was given a budget. It wasn’t huge but it was more than some clubs in this division. We also have a huge squad that much be costing a fortune in wages.

It will be interesting to see how much money Gomes is given next month.

Yes, Clement was given a transfer budget but decided to use it to make the potential miracle even more miraculous by largely signing a load of stagnant water.

[Nameless]

Management should involve more than just spending money.
If Clement had been able to bring other skills to the job (motivation, man management, tactical awareness, flexibility, improvisation, organisation) he may have stood a chance.
It’s lazy to think that without huge sums of money a manager can’t succeed.
Just ask Sir Steve....

[Snowflake Royal]

Management should involve more than just spending money.
If Clement had been able to bring other skills to the job (motivation, man management, tactical awareness, flexibility, improvisation, organisation) he may have stood a chance.
It’s lazy to think that without huge sums of money a manager can’t succeed.
Just ask Sir Steve....

Yes. Equally being a good manager doesn't guarantee you'll succeed everywhere, or necessarily anywhere if you take awful jobs.

[Nameless]

Management should involve more than just spending money.
If Clement had been able to bring other skills to the job (motivation, man management, tactical awareness, flexibility, improvisation, organisation) he may have stood a chance.
It’s lazy to think that without huge sums of money a manager can’t succeed.
Just ask Sir Steve....

Yes. Equally being a good manager doesn't guarantee you'll succeed everywhere, or necessarily anywhere if you take awful jobs.

So Clement’s track record as a manager is not down to his managerial ability but his lack of judgement in terms of which jobs he takes ?

[Denver Royal]

Maybe he's been getting bad advice? Man Yoo are looking for a good manager, so he should maybe accept that job when it's offered to him. Wait, maybe Man Yoo is an awful job? Maybe accept the Spurs job if Poch leaves.

Heard that Lamps is doing a good job, in his first job, at an awful job.

[sandman]

Some of you seem to be confusing Clement with Stam.

Clement had nowhere near the amount of money to spend that Stam spent, and wasted, on the dross we have in the side now.

[muirinho]

Some of you seem to be confusing Clement with Stam.

Clement had nowhere near the amount of money to spend that Stam spent, and wasted, on the dross we have in the side now.

TBH, I'm not sure how much of that was Stam, and how much of that was Tevreden.

I don't think there is a lack of money as such on the owners front, I think it is related to FFP. They are terrified of breaching FFP. TBH, it doesn't seem to have done other clubs much harm, but this is Reading, and my paranoid side thinks that other "bigger" clubs would get away with breaches that we wouldn't.

Author is clearly a friend of Clement's, nevertheless, he's quoting agents etc when talking about Reading being generally crap.

So it may not be true, but that's irrelevant if it is perceived to be true.

If we're seen as a badly run club with no money to spend, then we're not likely to attract the kind of manager OR player we would like.

It may be tricky to get rid of some of the players we wnant to, but I think it is going to be far harder to bring in new faces. Or at least, new faces that we would like to see.

[Snowflake Royal]

Management should involve more than just spending money.
If Clement had been able to bring other skills to the job (motivation, man management, tactical awareness, flexibility, improvisation, organisation) he may have stood a chance.
It’s lazy to think that without huge sums of money a manager can’t succeed.
Just ask Sir Steve....

Yes. Equally being a good manager doesn't guarantee you'll succeed everywhere, or necessarily anywhere if you take awful jobs.

So Clement’s track record as a manager is not down to his managerial ability but his lack of judgement in terms of which jobs he takes ?

I didn't mention Clement.

[Nameless]

Yes. Equally being a good manager doesn't guarantee you'll succeed everywhere, or necessarily anywhere if you take awful jobs.

So Clement’s track record as a manager is not down to his managerial ability but his lack of judgement in terms of which jobs he takes ?

I didn't mention Clement.

Although it’s a reasonable inference in context....

[Lower West]

Our owners are billionaires (at least together they are) and admittedly not outrageous ones, but it’s still a shit ton of money.

Now, how much they can actually pump into the club without breaching FFP is a different matter. Unfortunately a club the size of ours doesn’t have the largest revenue streams. It doesn’t help when we’re shit and people don’t go, it’s a vicious cycle.

There might be a time when the novelty of owning the football club wears off. Successs in another business venture means little. Given our main owner rarely attends games.

[Franchise FC]

Water to wine is easy - potassium permanganate works perfectly, especially if it's after the guests have had a few first

[leon]

Water to wine is easy - potassium permanganate works perfectly, especially if it's after the guests have had a few first

Yes you could just fruit, sugar and yeast and wait for a bit.