Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

Getthebeerens
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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Getthebeerens » 24 Nov 2021 23:51

I think I’ve had enough of football in general obviously watching Reading lose more than they win doesn’t help.
But at the end of the day the richest clubs will always win or it will get you bloody close.

I hope Tracey Crouches fan led review really does make some big changes for the good and fixes this corrupt sport.

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Sutekh » 25 Nov 2021 06:04

Prefer the 60s and 70s and 80s for football, players weren’t the fittest athletes about just blokes who had a bit of talent and could identify with the mug punters. Football was much more of an even playing field and while clubs and fans wanted to win every game it wasn’t the obsession driven by greed that it is today.

Also the game wasn’t continually on the telly all the time so people actually cared when a game was on the box and international and European club fixtures actually meant some something rather than being an elaborate methodology to play a load of meaningless games to maximise ££££.

And the British played in a British way, who wouldn’t love to see another Wimbledon type “anti-football” team rise up and start stuffing all these boring possession at all costs & everyone behind the ball teams you get nowadays.

How to reclaim the game? Like most areas of life, get the money out of it and play it like what it actually is - just a game!

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by blythspartan » 25 Nov 2021 08:05

Sutekh Prefer the 60s and 70s and 80s for football, players weren’t the fittest athletes about just blokes who had a bit of talent and could identify with the mug punters. Football was much more of an even playing field and while clubs and fans wanted to win every game it wasn’t the obsession driven by greed that it is today.

Also the game wasn’t continually on the telly all the time so people actually cared when a game was on the box and international and European club fixtures actually meant some something rather than being an elaborate methodology to play a load of meaningless games to maximise ££££.

And the British played in a British way, who wouldn’t love to see another Wimbledon type “anti-football” team rise up and start stuffing all these boring possession at all costs & everyone behind the ball teams you get nowadays.

How to reclaim the game? Like most areas of life, get the money out of it and play it like what it actually is - just a game!


Really good post.

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Millsy » 25 Nov 2021 11:15

I guess anyone who wants just a game can choose to watch a lower league team. Reading Town perhaps?

I do agree though, although I wasn't around in those decades, but it sounds about right.

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by RoyalBlue » 25 Nov 2021 11:18

genome
Zip
NathStPaul I don't want to speak for anyone but I think the majority can accept losing games of football, we have all been around long enough to understand you cannot win every game and some seasons your team can lose far more than they win. What is hard/impossible to stomach is a lack of determination and effort. There has been a real lack of passion at our club for a number of seasons now, very rarely will you see us giving it a good go in games and camping in our opponents box. If we had thrown the kitchen sink at Sheffield United last night then none of us would be sitting here slagging off the team, we'd have been unlucky against what is a decent opposition. The fact is we played like getting the equaliser wasn't that important, that then causes the frustration amongst the supporters and rightly so.

Last night is the classic example of a lack of passion and commitment for me, the players didn't really look too concerned about being a goal down and neither did the manager. Sometimes in games of football you just have to go for it, we showed no sign of going for anything last night. It was drab, dour and uninspiring which is seemingly the new norm for the club. Look at our attendances, look how many never came back to watch football after the restrictions were lifted. People didn't and don't miss it, the players and club have to make the stay away supporters miss it and they just aren't.



Agreed.


Actually, I'd say Carroll looked like he gave a fcuk last night. The rest didn't seem to, but I don't really think footballers tend to not care, they just looked a bit clueless and shot of confidence.


I agree. Despite the riches they can accumulate I honestly don't think people can get to the higher levels of a sport and stay there if they didn't care. The demands both mentally and physically are tremendous and you really need to enjoy what you are doing to put up with that day in day out.


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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by RoyalBlue » 25 Nov 2021 11:20

It's the EPL and EFL that I am falling out of love with, rather than Reading Football Club itself.

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by tmesis » 25 Nov 2021 17:00

RoyalBlue It's the EPL and EFL that I am falling out of love with, rather than Reading Football Club itself.


One difference is that when you are younger, the whole league feels more exciting. You see the promotion/relegation battles and you have clubs you'd like to see do well, maybe a few you dislike you hope do badly etc.

Get older, and nearly every club has annoyed you in some way, and you begrudge any success any of them have. Absolute worst for me is the premier league title race (and all major trophies, come to think of it) which are virtually always contested by teams you don't want to win.

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Zip » 25 Nov 2021 17:33

I have to say watching Cheltenham Town in front of just 2600 fans in a Cup replay last week was a bit of a wake up call. There was more atmosphere than at any Reading game I have been to this season. It felt raw almost gutteral.
Being so close up to the action really made a difference.

There seemed so much more of a connection between the players and the crowd too.
That connection just isn’t there between Reading players and the crowd these days and it’s been like that for a number of years.

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Mr Optimist » 25 Nov 2021 17:52

I think the ride of the last 25 years or so of progression and in particular the period between 92 and 06 was exciting as it was unchartered territory, and Reading FC was starting to realise the potential the town had for a football team beyond being lower division fodder.

We’d seen glimpses of this potential in my lifetime in the late 70s and 80s when fleeting success came along, cup runs, the 85-86 season, but when we got to Division 2 in 86 we had a reasonable first season then stunk the place out the next season after selling the spine of the team and quickly dropped back to our traditional Division 3 home. That two seasons in the old second division seemed exciting and glamorous to me as a teenager, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Leeds, West Brom, Birmingham City, Stoke, Crystal Palace, Ipswich etc, on an equal footing, well it was for the first season anyway. It always felt like we were swimming against the tide though and eventually the unambitious RFC would eventually be back.

Older generations of Reading fans I spoke to would tell me about great sides of the 1960s and early 1970s that showed real promise of breaking the lower league shackles, but ultimately lack of ambition and investment won the day, and also accusations of Chairmen really not wanting the club to progress up the ladder as they would have to dig deeper in to their pockets and almost throwing promotion at the last hurdle to avoid this!

That period in the mid 90s and through the Madejski stadium early years the club felt on a roll and the dream of regular second division football on a proper equal footing and even getting to the promised land no longer seemed a pipe dream. We got wrapped up in the excitement of it all, taking big followings and crowds and expectations growing. Unchartered territory.

Now we have the been there done that T-shirt of the Premier League and discovered that all that glitters isn’t gold, there is still a football equivalent of a glass ceiling and eventually what goes up must come down, unless you have an oligarch or oil money to fund your dreams (thank you Leicester for keeping a flicker of boyhood dreams alive). Modern football is like a different game to the 1980s game,in the same way that 1950s football was a different game to my Grandad, what he’d make of the modern game now would be interesting as he was falling out of love with 80s football! We (of a certain generation) are probably just modern football weary, and for me personally Qatar 2022 and David Beckham greasing up to the Qataris for his £10m makes me want to jack it all in, but it will only take a half decent RFC again to win me round!


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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Mr Optimist » 25 Nov 2021 17:56

RoyalBlue It's the EPL and EFL that I am falling out of love with, rather than Reading Football Club itself.


Yep, and add FIFA to that too, Qatar 2022

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Franchise FC » 27 Nov 2021 17:34

Snowflake Royal I think most of them care. I just don’t think they have any direction on how to score.

It's just pass it to death and rely on a flair player creating something from nothing.

I've banged on about this before, but successful teams have a consistent pattern of play to an end purpose.

Pardew
Fozzie on the shoulder running the offside trap and Hughes breaking down the middle to catch team on the break after soaking up pressure.

Coppell
Harper moves the ball wide quickly as we attack down the flanks to feed the strikers and midfielders hitting the box late.

McDermott
Control the midfield battle and hit the channels for Long to chase.

Feed Sigurddson to cut inside and bend it in the far post.

Spoil in midfield and get the ball wide quickly for Kebe and McAnuff to feed Roberts / Hunt / Alf

None of this is especially complex. Or disguised. We just did it well and so consistently that everyone knew where everyone else was and what they'd be doing. It's also direct and with the clear purpose of creating a goalscoring chance.


Now the direction is just pass and have a free role so no one knows where anyone else is. Everyone has to look before they play. And no one knows what ball is going where and when.

Carroll is a poor signing because he's just a name striker to bring in with no plan on how to use him. We don't play to his strengths. We aren't changing to play to his strengths, so we aren't going to get the best out of him. Just as we didn’t with Puscas.


Well, that didn’t age well
One start, one win, one goal played entirely to his strengths

It’s only a start, but it belies no plan on how to use him

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by Barney » 27 Nov 2021 17:46

Snowflake Royal I think most of them care. I just don’t think they have any direction on how to score.

It's just pass it to death and rely on a flair player creating something from nothing.

I've banged on about this before, but successful teams have a consistent pattern of play to an end purpose.

Pardew
Fozzie on the shoulder running the offside trap and Hughes breaking down the middle to catch team on the break after soaking up pressure.

Coppell
Harper moves the ball wide quickly as we attack down the flanks to feed the strikers and midfielders hitting the box late.

McDermott
Control the midfield battle and hit the channels for Long to chase.

Feed Sigurddson to cut inside and bend it in the far post.

Spoil in midfield and get the ball wide quickly for Kebe and McAnuff to feed Roberts / Hunt / Alf

None of this is especially complex. Or disguised. We just did it well and so consistently that everyone knew where everyone else was and what they'd be doing. It's also direct and with the clear purpose of creating a goalscoring chance.


Now the direction is just pass and have a free role so no one knows where anyone else is. Everyone has to look before they play. And no one knows what ball is going where and when.

Carroll is a poor signing because he's just a name striker to bring in with no plan on how to use him. We don't play to his strengths. We aren't changing to play to his strengths, so we aren't going to get the best out of him. Just as we didn’t with Puscas.


Thank Christ you have no input to who RFC bring to the club !!!!

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Re: Do you sometimes think you`ve had enough.

by windermereROYAL » 30 Jan 2022 12:33

BUMP.
So two months on from the original post and unbelievably things have actually got worse, I didn`t think that was possible but it has.
It`s clear that fans are abandoning the club in their thousands under the present regime, yes I`m still going but I think February will be a defining month for me, 6 games, if we are not over 30 points by the end of it then it`s see you next season under a new management team in league one.


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