Your General Feeling Towards The Club?

[melonhead]

yeah, that^^^^


and even then id still be positive, that's why its called support

[CountryRoyal]

yeah, that^^^^


and even then id still be positive, that's why its called support

I thought support was hurling abuse at all your players for every little mistake they make?

Guess I'm doing it wrong.

[blueroyals]

Negative. No long term planning.

Surely as director of football I'll make sure that the players manager A wants to sign align to the owners objectives (playing style, etc)
And as chief exec I'll make sure that the manager I hire aligns to those objectives too

So that when managers change we aren't faced with _yet_another_squad_rebuild_ because the new manager doesn't like the players the previous one brought in.

I like the way clubs are run elsewhere in Europe - a separation of responsibilities - the owners/president decides strategy, the DoF signs the right type of player for that strategy, and the coach just does the tactics and training, so in 6 months time when the manager gets sacked (as usual), it has little impact...

SURELY that's one of the reasons to have a director of football, for some continuity between managers?

[melonhead]

don't think an owner should have any say in playing style

we clearly had long term plans to change playing style as a club under Adkins and Clarke, and brought the players in to match- according to budget.

these players definitely have the footballing ability, as brian said the other day, this lot can play.

just think we went too far, and also lost the team ethic/identity, as well as our mental strength, which brian is now trying to remedy.
but the style hasn't changed that much under brian. we are definitely more of a passing side than we were last time he was here

[paultheroyal]

Positive.

[blueroyals]

I don't know. In my ideal, perfect world a DoF wouldn't have signed Sa or Fernandez if they weren't going to be played/play well and would have had the foresight to identify a replacement for Blackman months ago when he was rejecting contracts, not spunking a not insignificant sum on a 34 year old.

[RoyalJames101]

Negative. No long term planning.

Surely as director of football I'll make sure that the players manager A wants to sign align to the owners objectives (playing style, etc)
And as chief exec I'll make sure that the manager I hire aligns to those objectives too

So that when managers change we aren't faced with _yet_another_squad_rebuild_ because the new manager doesn't like the players the previous one brought in.

I like the way clubs are run elsewhere in Europe - a separation of responsibilities - the owners/president decides strategy, the DoF signs the right type of player for that strategy, and the coach just does the tactics and training, so in 6 months time when the manager gets sacked (as usual), it has little impact...

SURELY that's one of the reasons to have a director of football, for some continuity between managers?

Would you not class the progress made by the academy and the new training ground complex as long term planning?

What your saying would be the ideal situation I think regarding styles etc, however, I don't think its something that would work at this level.

When it comes to hiring a new manager and players, a club of our stature sometimes just has to take the best it can in the current circumstances. It would be too risky and pricey to hold out for the 'perfect' manager if you have sacked your manager whilst in a relegation battle.

[Extended-Phenotype]

It's an interesting point though

I suppose the problem is the pool of managers/players available to some teams (like us) makes it tricky to be particularly fussy about fitting a style etc. If they are any good, you are lucky if they want to come here and not sure we can be turning folk away because they might not align to some ethos which is generally pretty meaningless.

Good managers should be adapting their ethos to the players they have available. And I think that's exactly what Brian has done both terms.


Re: thread title, I think people will always be dissatisfied until they realise that Reading, like almost all other clubs, is treated like a business by everyone other than the fans. The fans are really the only ones who care about promotion and winning and performance and such. To everyone else associated with the club, these are just secondary to the finance. It's just the way it works now.

[melonhead]

I don't know. In my ideal, perfect world a DoF wouldn't have signed Sa or Fernandez if they weren't going to be played/play well and would have had the foresight to identify a replacement for Blackman months ago when he was rejecting contracts, not spunking a not insignificant sum on a 34 year old.

ddnt need a replacement then, cos he was shit and doing bugger all.
Sa was played under Clarke though....

[blueroyals]

I don't know. In my ideal, perfect world a DoF wouldn't have signed Sa or Fernandez if they weren't going to be played/play well and would have had the foresight to identify a replacement for Blackman months ago when he was rejecting contracts, not spunking a not insignificant sum on a 34 year old.

ddnt need a replacement then, cos he was shit and doing bugger all.
Sa was played under Clarke though....

That's my point, no point making these signings if you're going to sack the manager 6 months after and hire a manager that doesn't play them because of attitude/style/position.

Swansea are a good example I think - clear direction from the top RE: playing style, hired managers that implemented that style and signed only players that work with that style. Howe and Hammond can't make their minds up and we've ended up with a clusterfuck of players with no identity.

[melonhead]

I don't know. In my ideal, perfect world a DoF wouldn't have signed Sa or Fernandez if they weren't going to be played/play well and would have had the foresight to identify a replacement for Blackman months ago when he was rejecting contracts, not spunking a not insignificant sum on a 34 year old.

ddnt need a replacement then, cos he was shit and doing bugger all.
Sa was played under Clarke though....

That's my point, no point making these signings if you're going to sack the manager 6 months after and hire a manager that doesn't play them because of attitude/style/position.

.

but we didn't know the manager was going to turn out shit/ cnut then...

[melonhead]

clear direction from the top RE: playing style, hired managers that implemented that style and signed only players that work with that style.

exactly what happened here with adkins and Clarke

and look at Swansea now

[Stranded]

I don't know. In my ideal, perfect world a DoF wouldn't have signed Sa or Fernandez if they weren't going to be played/play well and would have had the foresight to identify a replacement for Blackman months ago when he was rejecting contracts, not spunking a not insignificant sum on a 34 year old.

ddnt need a replacement then, cos he was shit and doing bugger all.
Sa was played under Clarke though....

That's my point, no point making these signings if you're going to sack the manager 6 months after and hire a manager that doesn't play them because of attitude/style/position.

Swansea are a good example I think - clear direction from the top RE: playing style, hired managers that implemented that style and signed only players that work with that style. Howe and Hammond can't make their minds up and we've ended up with a clusterfuck of players with no identity.

Bad time to use Swansea as an example - after they fired Monk without any replacement lined up and are now managed by a 60 yo club legend in his first managerial post who looks a bit out of his depth.

There was never any plan to sack Clarke, he bought that circumstance on himself by flirting with Fulham - deciding to stay "for now" and then seeing results unsurprisingly fall away. So far McD is playing a similar style but trying to move on players who it appears he feels are affecting the group dynamic he likes - he is playing a fair number of Clarke's players too and saying the right things about others - Hurtado for example.

[Maneki Neko]

No real evidence of hoofball either
Playing quick attacking passing football.
As matches the players

[Forbury Lion]

don't think an owner should have any say in playing style

That's like saying Mark Zukerberg, the owner of Facebook should have no say on how his employees run Facebook.

Generally, the owners want results as their first priority followed by the type of football that excites the paying customers as that generates a higher return on their investment through higher ticket sales/tv revenue.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Generally positive.

The Clarke era was a bit of a black mark for me.

1 point off the play-offs when he was sacked.

Now 10 points off.

and yet STILL not as bad as sacking a manager for being second in the top flight, or even sacking a manager who was the current Premier Championship holder........let it go m8

[If you still hate Futcher]

No real evidence of hoofball either
Playing quick attacking passing football.

I never get this belief that BMcD is a hoofball manager. In his previous spell he had to adapt the playing style to accommodate who was left after the yearly fire sale and, once he did have a bit of money, overachieved so much that the 5 year plan for promotion to the Prem was achieved in 6 months.

This, together with the (in my view) knee-jerk decision to sack him first time around, meant that he never got any chance of developing a "preferred style" although the signings of Guthrie and Caricco (sic?) to me do point to wanting to evolve the style

[download]

55 / 45 positive/negative. So yes positive but not by a long way.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Knowing this lot, it'll rise and fall depending on the result of the day.

[CountryRoyal]

don't think an owner should have any say in playing style

That's like saying Mark Zukerberg, the owner of Facebook should have no say on how his employees run Facebook.

No I isn't. He invented the damn thing. Last time I check our Thai overlords knew very little about the game of football, let alone created it. The two examples aren't really comparable tbh.