New Manager

[From Despair To Where?]

From our point of view, anyone would be a big gamble although I'd rather have someone with a recent track record of getting teams to punch above their weight rather than someone with a recent track record of fcuking it up and getting arsey with the local media because they ask difficult questions.

I'd rather see Allardyce than someone like Moyes and I really don't want Allardyce. His downfall is his own greed, not his ability to manage but much like Big Sam himself, it wouldn't be pretty.

[Old Man Andrews]

Yet BBC Berks are reporting that Nigel is handing a 10 name short list to the owners this morning.

The local press and media are so far behind everything their views or reports should be immediately discounted. The Reading Chronicle being the worst out there currently. It's really embarrassing and this is no doubt the lowest point in that publications history.

Are they all awful human beings, OMA?

They are awful at their jobs. Those who defend them are much worse though.

[John Smith]

From our point of view, anyone would be a big gamble although I'd rather have someone with a recent track record of getting teams to punch above their weight rather than someone with a recent track record of fcuking it up and getting arsey with the local media because they ask difficult questions.

So we're looking for a new man for survival? Sounds quite familiar. When do we drag ourselves out of this spiral?

[From Despair To Where?]

I thought Clement deserved more time but the club have made their decision. The day we drag ourselves out of this spiral is the day we appoint someone and give them more than 30 games to sort it out, although ironically we put up with 4 months of going backwards before sacking Stam. Different regime though.

I can accept a new broom approach in the now if it isn't a sign of how things will be going forward because we are crying out for some stability and consistancy.

[Maneki Neko]

agreed, but that patience cant be a endless/bottomless resource.
you can have patience (as they have had with both clement/stam imo) but expect/need a minimum base level of performance/results that, if you go below you have to question the manager, and whether your patience is well placed.

I think clement was slowly turning things around and doing a good job given his resources. I also think its understandable that they felt he was still falling below that minimum level.
especially as dictated by the January window imposing the false deadline for any trigger pulling

[From Despair To Where?]

I agree but there's a lot to be said for knowing when to pull the plug and I think we've got it wrong with the last 2 managers.

I'm stuck between thinking Clement wasn't given enough time and certain fundamentals still weren't right and something had to change. I'm not distraught but would have been happy if had been given more time. I hope Howe has a firm hand on the rudder and knows what direction he's heading us in. Past experience suggests he will have but the involvement of Joorabchian is a concern as I think he's bad news. He's a football agent, I'd hate to think he had any involvement beyond representing his clients. If we've approached Castro through him then fair enough.

[John Smith]

I agree.

There's a lot to be said for knowing when to pull the plug and I think we've got it wrong with the last 2 managers.

I'm stuck between thinking Clement wasn't given enough time and certain fundamentals still weren't right and something had to change. I'm not distraught that he's gone but I do hope Howe has a firm hand on the rudder and knows what direction he's us heading in. Past experience suggests he will have but the involvement of Joorabchian is a concern.

Fully agree with all of this, however I'd be interested to hear when you thought would have been right to fire Stam? Presumably a lot earlier?

Joorabchian/all of these clueless super-agents are just an obstruction with no interest of the clubs at heart which I was immediately alarmed about too. I was almost open to the idea of relegation if it meant a clear the decks and back up job, but it's clear that it would be a lot messier than that if it does happen.

[From Despair To Where?]

Things started to going rapidly downhill at Christmas and the writing was on the wall from the end of January. Stam seemed to have no clue how slow down the slide, let alone stop it. He was sacked at least a 4-6 weeks too late IMO. There was also a debate as to whether you take a chance and give a new manager a week of the transfer window after very little time with the existing squad.

[Maneki Neko]

I agree but there's a lot to be said for knowing when to pull the plug and I think we've got it wrong with the last 2 managers.

I'm stuck between thinking Clement wasn't given enough time and certain fundamentals still weren't right and something had to change. I'm not distraught but would have been happy if had been given more time. I hope Howe has a firm hand on the rudder and knows what direction he's heading us in. Past experience suggests he will have but the involvement of Joorabchian is a concern as I think he's bad news. He's a football agent, I'd hate to think he had any involvement beyond representing his clients. If we've approached Castro through him then fair enough.

agree.with all of that

[Maneki Neko]

Things started to going rapidly downhill at Christmas and the writing was on the wall from the end of January. Stam seemed to have no clue how slow down the slide, let alone stop it. He was sacked at least a 4-6 weeks too late IMO. There was also a debate as to whether you take a chance and give a new manager a week of the transfer window after very little time with the existing squad.

agree. but you can see why given what he had achieved the season before.
in many ways he had bought himself that extra patience

[Snowflake Royal]

Unfortunately the grumbling on Twitter, Facebook HNA at all does have an impact on the atmosphere around the club and in the stands even if it doesn't lead to outright x out chants.

There has been plenty of booing, jeering, grumbling, silence act. I have heard the odd isolated Clement out and I certainly heard some for Stam.

I think fans will expect an immediate up turn in form and they almost certainly wont get it because Clement was far from the biggest factor in our poor performance.

[Cape Town Royal]

I agree but there's a lot to be said for knowing when to pull the plug and I think we've got it wrong with the last 2 managers.

I'm stuck between thinking Clement wasn't given enough time and certain fundamentals still weren't right and something had to change. I'm not distraught but would have been happy if had been given more time. I hope Howe has a firm hand on the rudder and knows what direction he's heading us in. Past experience suggests he will have but the involvement of Joorabchian is a concern as I think he's bad news. He's a football agent, I'd hate to think he had any involvement beyond representing his clients. If we've approached Castro through him then fair enough.

.

I'd be very interested to know what criteria Howe is placing on the choice of Manager. I thought Clement was the wrong choice, mainly because his personality did not seem to come across as someone who could knock out the lethargy that existed under Stam and also because I thought his style was too close to Stam's, when we needed to energise this team, But, that continuity might have been something the club wanted to continue the evolution of that playing style.

That said i got behind him and am still 50/50 on the timing of his departure..

So given the experiences of Stam and Clement and where we are now, I am really curious to know what vision the club has on how they want us to play going forward and how the incoming manager is going to implement that with this squad, which just seems loaded with apathy..

Huge decision now we have had 2 1/2 years of slow play and 1 1/2 years of poor results, the fans are voting with their absence and we are in clear danger of relegation...

It would be good if once they make the appointment, the club also gives the supporters some thinking as to the reason for the choice of new manager and the vision they have going forward, because if we end up with more of the same I can see us having regular gates of less than 10000 and league 1 football next season.

[From Despair To Where?]

Things started to going rapidly downhill at Christmas and the writing was on the wall from the end of January. Stam seemed to have no clue how slow down the slide, let alone stop it. He was sacked at least a 4-6 weeks too late IMO. There was also a debate as to whether you take a chance and give a new manager a week of the transfer window after very little time with the existing squad.

agree. but you can see why given what he had achieved the season before.
in many ways he had bought himself that extra patience

That's fair comment but we nosedived for 4 months. I also think, as Ian aluded to with regard to Clement, that when there's issues between the CEO and DoF focus is lost.

The club is like a battlefield. It's absolutely fcuked from taking a hammering for the past 6 years by people prioritising their own agendas and missing the point that a well run club benefits everyone.

[Old Man Andrews]

We need Gareth Ainsworth. He's the long term answer and the club would be stupid not to approach Wycombe to at least speak to him.

[Snowflake Royal]

I think our upper management knows exactly what they want to achieve in terms of position and style. Unfortunately I think they've exclusively been dreaming and looking to the sky whilst tripping over their own feet.

And sadly, I think it started with Howe. Wasn't he the one who laughably said we could be the next Arsenal?

In order to achieve your goals you have to have a strong understanding of where you are. If you dont appreciate where you are you can't set realistic step by step goals or target what you need to improve.

Sadly, there seems to be the belief that we're a top Championship club on the cusp of the PL, when in actual fact we're now a struggling Championship club on the cusp of League One. And whilst relegation 2/3/4 years ago may have been fixable without too much damage, the rot of losing is so prevalent we could easily return to League One also ran if we do go down.

I think this is at the heart of why Stam was sacked too late, why Clement has been sacked too soon. Because there's insufficient acceptance that we are where we are and fixing us may take years and maybe a relegation. And as long as that understanding isn't there I don't see it getting much better long term and any relegation ending disastrously.

[Silver Fox]

Isn't it plain to see that all the Castro stories (has there been more than one?) are being fed to the journo by Joorbachian, unfortunately as the journo in question is Charles Watts everybody is lapping it up

[Snowflake Royal]

Isn't it plain to see that all the Castro stories (has there been more than one?) are being fed to the journo by Joorbachian, unfortunately as the journo in question is Charles Watts everybody is lapping it up

Him apparently sitting next to Howe at the game has added significant weight to the stories.

[Hound]

I'm still more than a bit surprised with PC's departure at that time.

He very much did seem to be changing our playing style for the better, and doing a good job of bringing through the youngsters. Results weren't great, but it seemed to be me to be clearly a work in progress. He was hampered by some horribly timed injuries in Bod and Eza as well. Genuinely think we'd be up with Preston and Wigan if those two had been fit, and with a young squad and clear direction for the team. The Leeds first half particularly seemed a blueprint of where we were trying to go, and that was with a half fit Meite

I think Castro may be a good choice, as long as he is genuinely given time to implement his ideas. I don't think we are as 'rock bottom' as some people suggest, but we certainly need a period of stability now

[Old Man Andrews]

The link is very and clearly true, pretty obvious. I believe Castro is first choice but not sure it will happen. We should be focussing on managers who know the Football League and have a proven track record of getting the best out of very average players and who bring youth players through.

[Snowflake Royal]

The link is very and clearly true, pretty obvious. I believe Castro is first choice but not sure it will happen. We should be focussing on managers who know the Football League and have a proven track record of getting the best out of very average players and who bring youth players through.

So Parky then.

Three years to stabilise and get us into boring mid table. Then see where we go from there in terms of getting back to the right end of the table.