Can't be bothered anymore

[frimmers]

we never have this trouble at the rec:)

[Wax Jacket]

If you have been a fan for 25 yers then you will know there have been far worst times than this. We are going back to division one so what? 90% of the years I have supported this club have been in the bottom two tiers, it's what comes with supporting a club like Reading. If you want glory pop down JJB buy yourself a Chelsea shirt and sit in the pub every Sunday afternoon, with all the other plastic tossers who claim to be life long Chelsea fans and yet have never been within a mile of Stamford Bridge.
A true Royal is for life not just the Premiership.

Read his post again - when does he mention wanting glory? You've totally missed the point he was making.

not to mention the wider point alluded to about how dispriting the modern-day football experience is

[Royal Lady]

I sat there last night - esp during the first half and actually contemplated how long it would take me to walk back to Lower Earley. You can't blame the players out there, too many have been thrown in at the deep end and, sadly, most of them are just not ready yet. I've seen us struggling in old Div 3 and Div 4 - I never had ANY expectations back then tbh. We'd lose and it would be shite but we'd come back the next week and hope we might do better. Now it's all completely changed - I think the Premier League and the big money/tv revenue etc has done this. £450 for a season ticket this season to be served up the tripe I have witnessed so far just isn't on. Sure we've got a great stadium, but what if our crowds dwindle to 6,000 for home league games? You won't even get served in the concourse any quicker, because they won't open all the outlets! Even the burger vans didn't turn up in the East. I'm under no illusion that we've already seen our best days and our future is probably in and around division 1 now, because we simply cannot or will not compete when it comes to spending some money. We won't attract the right type of player that we need - who'd want to come to us in reality? We appear to have used all our efforts to secure Tommy Smith (and fail) and so now what for the remaining few days of the transfer window? We're told Matt Mills is not match fit - so why leave him on the bench all game last night? Marek is obviously fit, same goes for Harper - why aren't we playing them at least? Davies looks like he might be able to do a job for us, others like Siggurdsson look promising - but I have no doubts that we'll struggle this season now.

I'm not going to stop going altogether (hell, I've already paid up front for games with my ST), but when it's cold and wet and there's a chance of babysitting duties on a Saturday afternoon, I'll be changing nappies rather than trudging up to the Mad Stad. Last night was the reality for me.

[southbank1871]

In fairness though RL, you can't go to a second round Carling Cup game against Barnsley and not expect to be totally disappointed

Agree with many of the sentiments though, barely enjoy going to matches at the Madjeski these days if I haven't been drinking heavily beforehand.

[Royal Lady]

In fairness though RL, you can't go to a second round Carling Cup game against Barnsley and not expect to be totally disappointed

Agree with many of the sentiments though, barely enjoy going to matches at the Madjeski these days if I haven't been drinking heavily beforehand.

I didn't expect us to get a result tbf - and I was slightly encouraged during the second half - but yesterday, in such a small crowd, reminded me of the old Elm Park days and away days where we took one coach and, albeit we're now at the Mad Stad, I can see us going back to that pretty damn sharpish.

[Silver Fox]

Marek is obviously fit, same goes for Harper - why aren't we playing them at least?

You went last night didn't you?

[Royal Lady]

In LEAGUE games, obviously.

[Norfolk Royal]

LOL at people saying they can't be bothered any more. You should have been around when we were in the old fourth division and getting relegated from the old third. Then you'd know the meaning of misery.

At least in those days Robin Friday was playing. And Minty. And Les.

[Pseud O'Nym]

not to mention the wider point alluded to about how dispriting the modern-day football experience is

I remember those great days, back in the '70s, when you used to get herded down the Oxford road by riot police, and all the side roads were blocked off by mounted police, and all the shops - even some houses - had steel shutters pulled down over their windows, and visiting supporters trains were shunted into the sidings and... that's why I gave up on football for about 20 years, it's much better now.

[howser]

This is all so expected that we were heading this way, the club has done nothing to give the fans any indication that they have the ambition to return to the top flight, often said we spent £2m on Mills, "showing the ambititon of the club to return to the premierhip", well in todays, maybe obscene, football world that isnt exactly much to pay, thats the nature of the beast. As for the team the young lads are doing a fantastic job, but they shouldn't all be thrown in at once, but BR has no option with the ripping apart the spineof the side, also Pearce is a fabulous prospect, but he has neither the experience or Reading first team experience to be Captain, no disrespect to him but it has to be someone who has authority in the club.

[Silver Fox]

In LEAGUE games, obviously.

I meant didn't you see anything last night that suggested why we aren't playing Harps and Marek in league games, obviously

[Royal Lady]

LOL at people saying they can't be bothered any more. You should have been around when we were in the old fourth division and getting relegated from the old third. Then you'd know the meaning of misery.

At least in those days Robin Friday was playing. And Minty. And Les.

Did you actually ready MY post grandad?

[Schards#2]

In LEAGUE games, obviously.

I meant didn't you see anything last night that suggested why we aren't playing Harps and Marek in league games, obviously

I saw Marek do more creatively in one game than the entire midfield have done in the 4 league games so far.

[Royal Lady]

In LEAGUE games, obviously.

I meant didn't you see anything last night that suggested why we aren't playing Harps and Marek in league games, obviously

No.

[Ian Herring]

In my opinion, none of it is a surprise really, is it? As Foch says, we have the look of a club that is everything that is wrong about modern football today. As soon as Justice Taylor decided to go all-seat, as soon as the old 'big five' got their wishes granted with the formation of the Premiership, as soon as Murdoch and his rapacious pay-tv execs saw a market open up for them, any pretence that a once solid and quite beautiful (I don't care that is was sometime violent or dirty or unpleasant - it was simply FUN) sport would survive as anything less than a Disney-fied and over-exaggerated pantomime of what it once was, was gone.

Going to games now is similar to going to a school fete, or some 'on ice' spectacular with fat provincials in cheap suits or 'slacks' on the mike 'exhorting' crowds with that kind of accent you only ever hear on local radio. It's as cringe-making as attending corporate 'gee-ups' or 'kick-offs' or 'team-building' events with a company. That same, utterly flared, over-hyped and pumped pile of passionless shite you used to go to football to avoid.

Because football - as a fan at least - was about passion, local feeling, identity, and fire in your belly.

I watched a game at my local park the other day. Sunday morning stuff. The football was shite, yes. (But have a look at what is served up for your big tickets these days (Birmingham v Stoke anyone? - empty seats everywhere in a so-called 'traditional' football city in what was supposed to be a local derby) but it was the essence of what some of us once loved. Grass, sky, boots, goals, and everything kept simple. Bit of swearing, the occasional fisticuffs, some searing, off-the-cuff humour.

Not the anodyne, anaesthetised, utterly truly plastic shit the experience is today. I've been going nearly thirty years now. And wouldn't give you a tuppenny toss for what football has become these days for the average fan. It could have all been done better. But of course it wouldn't be. Moneymen and business types don't hover too much over issues such as tradition or the word 'fan'. Spivs and marketeers are spivs and marketeers in whatever trade they're in.

It's become an onanist's sport. A pile of shit. Where maniacs with microphones and PA systems that could disturb the peace on the moon, mental defectives in day-glo orange think they understand crowd dynamics or even human beings, players wear hair bands and male grooming products and writhe around like new-born foals who've trod on a piece of glass, and goal 'celebrations' for the retarded.

As far as I'm concerned, it needs to be folded up and fired straight out of General B's spunk cannon into outer space.

You can poke it.

*cue 'dinosaur' jibes and the hamper-bringer brigade's opprobrium*

[Silver Fox]

In LEAGUE games, obviously.

I meant didn't you see anything last night that suggested why we aren't playing Harps and Marek in league games, obviously

I saw Marek do more creatively in one game than the entire midfield have done in the 4 league games so far.

We're talking about the same marek yeah? Matejovsky? Because I didn't see the one I'm talking about do anything creative at all last night, maybe he's just too good for the rest of the team and they can't handle his skillz?

[Royal Lady]

It's amazing how differently fans can view the same game. I thought Antonio was the new Bas Savage yet others are saying how well he played.

[Silver Fox]

TBF I thought Antonio looked like he had some good pace, unfortunately he was never really going to do anything with it

[loyalroyal4life]

TBF I thought Antonio looked like he had some good pace, unfortunately he was never really going to do anything with it

well when you sign a player from tooting its not as if he is going to turn out to be the next andrew cole

[Norfolk Royal]

LOL at people saying they can't be bothered any more. You should have been around when we were in the old fourth division and getting relegated from the old third. Then you'd know the meaning of misery.

At least in those days Robin Friday was playing. And Minty. And Les.

Did you actually ready MY post grandad?

Congratulations on having a baby btw. You kept that pretty quiet.