Building A Squad Ethos/The Academy

[Elm Park Old Boy]

By the way, and a little belatedly, top post facaldaqui. Thanks very much for that.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

I was thinking about this the other day.

I think the main this is we are all in it as one. The players, fans, board, coaching staff etc all pull in the same direction and are all on the same page. If you take West Ham and Leicester, they all want the same thing but go in different directions to get there.

There is a certain aloofness from West Ham's players towards their fans, like a big time Charlie attitude. You certainly don't get that from the Reading players. A lot of them turn up early on match day just so they can sign every autograph and have every picture taken on the walk from their car to the ground. You certainly wouldn't get that at West Ham.

The way we conduct ourselves as well is paramount to our success. Jem had his ankle broken by a nasty tackle, but he didn't come out and gob off in the press about it, he just said he was gutted but would support the boys and the club.

I'm proud to be part of this club. I think it was summed up by jobi the other day when he acknowledged the fans saying that we'll be hear a long time after the players.

[SCIAG]

RIP in peace,

Rest in peace in peace?

[BR2]

I'm sure it is not quite so cosy,cosy as some people believe and it is much easier to have a supportive team ethic amongst the players/manager/chairman when you are winning games.
Vision's starting posts were more about how we get to where we are now and in the 106 year rather than what has happened just this season.

I feel that to some extent Brian is a Coppell clone,4-4-2 with two wingers,a few old pros,no very young players,break quickly,make sure with defending by clearing the danger quickly,keep calm and don't go over the top whether you win or lose (the manager).
Staying with management style they are similar other than in one area.
Brian is obviously very close to his players and adopts more often than not the arm-round-the-shoulder and family approach.
In my one and only discussion with Steve Coppell he said that (following advice from his ex-manager Alan Smith at Palace)it is never good to get too close to players because it is likely that one day you will have to get rid of them.

The "Reading Way" seems to have evolved maybe by accident rather than design.
We had to have an academy and it has eventually reaped some rewards (Gylfi,Pearce,Jem)at a considerable cost so we do have a blend of our own and those bought in,something that to varying degrees probably applies to something like 80% of all English clubs.
We now do seem to give players more time than we ever did and are reaping the rewards with Jem and Pearce but arguably not with Church and HRK and last season it worked with Long.
Stability seems to work for us but it is not the only way as Charlton are about to achieve promotion with something like 16 new players however if you look at us and Southampton the approaches for team building are similar.

Whether we can keep going in the same way at Premier level remains to be seen but Norwich and Swansea have bought well but retained a number of players that have built their team spirit.
Brian has already shown that he is ready to add to the "family" when necessary with Connolly,Roberts etc without upsetting the make-up of the side and hopefully he will continue to do so.
Incidentally the jump from Academy to Premier is massive when compared to the jump to Championship so the net will definitely have to be cast wider and more money spent so that we get hopefully at least one player per year good enough to challenge for a first team place.

BTW I reckon Roberts has made all the difference to this side and not only do we not give the ball away so much but the long-ball game has been refined and so the "Reading Way" of playing looks a bit better prepared for the Premier because there you just cannot afford to give the ball away like we did earlier this season.

[Z175]

One aspect of the Reading way is never thinking too far ahead, so the team will not be as complacent about promotion as many on the board have suddenly become.

1. Part of the Reading way is the style of play: the wingplay, the pressing from the front--this has been a legacy of Coppell--it helps that both he and Brian were wingers.

2. Brian has added a certain boldness--Steve became timid and conservative at the end; he did not like risks, whereas Brian will go for three points till the last second and commit to every game, including in the cups.

3. The Reading way involves signing "good people"--increasingly so. Roberts has an MBE, for goodness sake. Not for us the Bullards, Chopras, Dioufs, and Beckfords--team (and squad) spirit is all, and "good people" are likely to contribute positively to that.

4. I believe we also consciously sign intelligent people these days. Listen to the likes of Joby, Jem, Leigertwood talking and you don't get cockney sparrers. We have a lot of smart people in the team. This makes the team able to follow instructions systematically and avoid the rashness or selfishness that would lead to mistakes, sendings off, etc.

5. The whole squad is valued. This philosophy shows its worth when players are injured and the subs and reserves step in and perform close to the standard of those they replace. The squad buys into this principle and therefore no one worries when injuries strike. You don't hear Brian complain about injuries as other managers do.

6. I agree with whoever mentioned Bounce, by Matthew Syed. I read it after I heard Brian refer to it, and it gave me an insight into our approach. The surprising theory behind the book is that winning in sport is not primarily about talent. It's about constantly practising and working to improve, to the point where you might start to achieve unlikely things--such things as our homely team winning away at Anfield and Goodison, or reaching playoffs (hopefully even getting promoted) in competition with players of more renown and supposed skill than ours. This is why we didn't give up with Long and why we don't give up with Church; why we buy the Baseyas, Sheppards, and Mansets of this world; why we take the academy so seriously.

7. The Reading way is also about the financing of the club. We take relatively few financial risks and try to cut our cloth. Fans might moan, but it means that when a good manager and team come along we are ready to take our chance, rather than being hamstrung, like so many other teams in the league--Pompey, Coventry, Forest, Palace, and others--from really being able able produce. By being prudent we have possibly made ourselves one of only ten or so genuinely stable clubs in the league.

8. Brian and the players often talk of taking things "out of the equation", whether it be referees, violent tactics, crowds, media, reputations, expectations, whatever. The idea is to concentrate just on the game and the job of winning, without being distracted by the things you cannot control. It's a simple notion, but very few teams adhere to it.

9. This team enjoys training, enjoys games, enjoys playing for Reading--the Reading way, in fact. They have fun together, they look forward to coming to work. Brian consciously encourages this. He treats players as human beings, even when, like maybe Brian Howard, they have no future at the club; we show responsibility to those we employ.

I call all this The Tao of Slough.

very good.