Based on This Season ONLY: Clarke or McDermott?

[No Fixed Abode]

Under Clarke the team (for whatever reason) was going off a cliff. .

Err - they were on a poor run - but off a cliff? Massively exaggerating here..

from 2nd, winning every week, to 13th and winning 1 in 8
I wont insist its an actual cliff, but its certainly cliff-like.

Reading were not 13th when Clarke left. Know your facts.

[Maneki Neko]

his team were when brian took over
and id say the further drop is defo something to do with him leaving, so its still his fault after he left

[John Smith]

Does Clarke's dire plummet minus our superb patch early season equate to the work McDermott has done so far?

[No Fixed Abode]

I suppose at least BM has been consistent. Consistently mediocre. Taking them 1 place further down the table from when he took charge.

[genome]

Err - they were on a poor run - but off a cliff? Massively exaggerating here..

from 2nd, winning every week, to 13th and winning 1 in 8
I wont insist its an actual cliff, but its certainly cliff-like.

Reading were not 13th when Clarke left. Know your facts.

11th after the full round of games that weekend

But if you want to argue the difference between dropping from 2nd to 11th and 2nd to 13th, be my guest

[No Fixed Abode]

11th is better than 14th (currently). Good improvement under BM eh!

[Maneki Neko]

theyre both cliff like imo

one cliff is just slightly bigger than the other

[genome]

brokenrecord.gif

[Maneki Neko]

11th is better than 14th (currently). Good improvement under BM eh!

its ok kes. Clarke is alright, hes got over it, so have we. no one hates him, or think hes the worst manager ever, you don't have to keep sticking up for him.

[No Fixed Abode]

11th is better than 14th (currently). Good improvement under BM eh!

its ok kes. Clarke is alright, hes got over it, so have we. no one hates him, or think hes the worst manager ever, you don't have to keep sticking up for him.

I'll give up if you give up defending BM - who clearly isn't doing a good job.

[Maneki Neko]

I think, in context, hes doing just fine

[No Fixed Abode]

I think, in context, hes doing just fine

So Sa and Blackman left. But the rest of the squad has had more time to gel and still can't improve under BM.

[Lower West]

To be fair to Brian he should be the given the summer and the start of next season. Clarke did huge untold damage to the club with the clear out of playing staff and coaches. If anything has put us backwards in terms of transition from the Atkins era. Also Brian's influence will take time to work it's way through the whole club. We cannot compete with the bigger spenders. So need to groom home talent. That progresses seamlessly up through the different age groups. With a distinct style of play.

On reflection Clarke was all words. Detached from the fans. He only ever saw this post as a springboard to better things.

[msmivie]

SIMPLE STAT
Clarke 21 League matches. 27 points
McDermott. 20 League matches. 24 points

[No Fixed Abode]

He only ever saw this post as a springboard to better things.

TBF- That's what most of the players do when they sign for Reading unless they're in the latter part of their career.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Results nothing in it - depends if you treat the 2 games lost under Kuhl as Clarke...

I reckon Clarke became unsettled because of the transfer policy more than anything else which obviously contributed to the poor run.

I am not sure the players signed in the summer are even Clarke's quite honestly; possibly Piazon as he was from Chelsea but the owners have contacts in Portugal/Spain so not convinced the three players from there were following Clarke's recommendation.

[royalp-we]

Personally; Clarke.

This 'damage' people keep bleating he did to the club is blown out of proportion by the McDonut lovers; he was raising the profile of the club and got us to Wembley; albeit the league form wasn't superb but I think if he had stayed and not spoken with Fulham, he could have achieved something really great here with his contacts. All Ifs, buts and maybes. But I'd feel a great deal more optimistic if Clarke stayed even if we were 14th as we are. I'm really struggling to take any positives from either our performance or small talk currently being served up.

I'm all for giving BMcD some time; probably till around Oct/Nov. He could get this so called 'Reading way' back in our sails. But football is far more cut throat now and PERFORMANCES is what MUST be delivered. Sooner rather than later. Bringing him back seemed like a 'nice' thing to do. Being nicey-nice with our recruitment will ultimately get us nowhere.

[Ian Royal]

McDermott. Easily.

McDermott's consistently had us around mid-table, picking up points against the teams we have to and working hard under difficult circumstances. Bar the odd game we've looked like a better organised, better unit that cares more, but with some deep flaws.

Under Clarke we looked toothless to start, then looked world beaters for 6 out of 7 games and then looked like relegation favourites for the next 8/9. Not only that but Clarke demonstrated a complete lack of commitment to the project and was instrumental in our bad down turn in form and confidence by consistently playing an unbalanced, lightweight and weak side from about Burnley / Middlesbrough onwards.

It's a disgrace the question is even being asked.

When you add in previous, Clarke has no history that he can point to as his own good managerial appointments and was dire in his first six months with us. Whereas McDermott has achieved a lot on his own.

And regardless of whether Clarke was better or not, he got sacked and is no longer manager. We need to live in the now. We can't afford to become Leeds and sack a manager every six months, and if we do I'll be quitting supporting the club. We need stability and if we can't have good success, I can't think of anyone I'd rather have in charge whilst we struggle.

[Dr_Hfuhruhurr]

I think Clarke rather stained his time in charge by talking to a rival club to become their manager, and then telling us all it was all OK, because it was his professional duty to do so. Compared to that, losing away to a Northern club on a Tuesday night is all rather tame.

[Lower West]

I think, in context, hes doing just fine

So Sa and Blackman left. But the rest of the squad has had more time to gel and still can't improve under BM.

It isn't a computer game where you buy players based on stats. Put on them on the pitch and expect them to play beautifull football.

This squad isn't right. So so obvious.