The blame game

[Uke]

God blames TSI

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... c_ambition

[maffff]

The CAT 1 EPPP thing is for future players in 10+ years time.

Are we now focusing our scouting on 6-8 year olds?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

The CAT 1 EPPP thing is for future players in 10+ years time.

Are we now focusing our scouting on 6-8 year olds?

We should be - that's the "golden age" in youth development.

/NoSavillo

[Royal Dee]

Can we have an 'everyone' option

Mcdermott- For not spending his money correcty e.g. instead of bringing in 2 championship players for 5 mill in Mcleary and gunter, he could of spent 5 mil on a quality premier player. 1 real class defender or defensive midfielder might have made all the difference.

Anton- For not proving extra cash. I still maintain that the reason we didnt spend alot in the transfer window is that anton has made a public commitment to the sir john ideology, with the unrealistic, unambitious cloth cutting "Reading Ways". I think the mentality of "stick with the players that got us here" has been the motto so far but i think that will all change in the jan.

Sir John- This year I have seen a big change in him. For the first time after the preseason sheff wednesday defeat, he came out and said that there was money if Brian felt the need to bring in more players. In a recent interview about brian he said that more money should of been spent but he backed brian to spend it... and this is from the person who is known for notorious cloth cutting.

I think the clubs philosophy and out dated ideas on football might be to blame. And before you call me a glory hunter or plastic, Im not saying we should go and spend till we are bankrupt but we are not even sensibly investing and from my business background, i know NOT spending money can also drive your company out of business. we dont want to be playing in league 1 infront of 12,000 every week in 2 seasons time like so many premier league teams have done.

[Woodcote Royal]

I reckon the 25 day gap between games coupled with Federici's bizarre loss of form is what started the rot.

Never mind the goal against Stoke, if he'd kept out Gary Cahill's very saveable effort at Stamford Bridge then we may well have left with all three points and the season would've turned out differently.

We then had the huge gap which meant we had to go through the whole first "game of the season" thing again and turned in an abject performance against Tottenham. It's been downhill since there.

Clearly the biggest problem has been the failure of any of the summer signings bar Shorey to establish themselves as regular first team fixtures.

Then like a runaway snowball the problems have grown to the extent that the team look beaten before they even start matches these days.

Have to agree with a lot of that but, as ever, those who love to start polls prefer to provide just the options that suit their purpose or, are just too blinkered to see the alternatives, one of which I would see as bad luck.

In my view, we are only in the best league in the world because Brian McDermott has got so much right since he's been in charge. Many of those slagging him off would either, never have dreamed 12 months ago that we would be where are now and/or, are only interested in the club when it's in the top flight and don't care what risks are taken with it's financial future in order to avoid relegation.

Southampton have spent £30m so far this season but this is the club that was almost sunk by the cost of it's new stadium and have only arrived at this point following a spell in League One, along with administration and points deductions. As someone who will renew his season ticket regardless, if the Reading way means not doing things the Southampton way and they stay up and we don't, that's fine by me. For long term supporters, being a fan is about a lot more that one season in isolation and the last 20 years have seen us progress to a point where the club is unrecognizable from the form it took throughout the vast majority of it's history.

On this basis, our amazing run to promotion was always a win/win situation providing the huge financial windfall was not squandered but used to progress the club over the FIVE SEASONS that we will benefit financially from one season in the top flight.

Who was to blame for all of McCarthy, Morrison, Karacan, Guthrie, HRK, Kebe, Pog and Roberts (almost a third of our allowed 25 ) being unavailable for Sunderland? 4 of that list are not just certain starters but had been missing for the previous month or more. Clubs with far bigger budgets than ours would be struggling with an injury list like this.

Frankly, I'm sick of hearing Guthrie's name. Jem Karacan (who is more likely to run through a brick wall for this club than refuse to travel to an away fixture ) is our best central midfielder, Kebe our best winger, Morrison the best centre back and McCarthy is light years ahead of Federici. No one gets everything right but, in my view, Brian's biggest error has been in placing too much faith in the limited ability of Adam Federici. If Taylor is not the better 'keeper why are we paying him what must be a very substantial wage?

I would contend that our best side is at least the equal of our main relegation rivals and wise investment of a further £5m next month would certainly have the potential to lift us out of the drop zone, but I wouldn't like to see us risking much more than this.

What I have in common with those who insist on posting so much nonsense on this board as to render it no longer worth the read for some of us, is that I'm hating this season just as much as they are. We both want to see RFC established in the top flight and I've seen nothing to the contrary from anyone at the club.

However, I don't believe chucking the kitchen sink at a "survival at all costs" approach is the best way to achieve that end and throwing McDermott out with the Premiership bath water could be the biggest disaster of all.

Had we been enjoying 4 years of parachute payments prior to this latest promotion, I doubt Brian would have been forced to sell the like's of Long and Sigurdsson and we would most likely have been promoted with a far stronger squad and the very real prospect of a soft landing in the top flight. Well, if one thing is certain going forward it is that we would be assured of this huge advantage in the next four Championship season's.

Furthermore, in McDermott, whose other major "crime" was to get us promoted on a shoestring, we have the man who has shown time and again his talent for scouting and developing much of the young talent directly or indirectly responsible for our 2 promotions to the promised land.

If we can't survive this season, no one more than Brian McDermott deserves the chance to build and keep a team fit to grace the Premiership in a manor that most of us would enjoy and, frankly, some of our blinkered fools should be very careful what they wish for.

[SPARTA]

Whether we spent enough or not, we still spent the best part of £12m to being in the signings we did, when you consider transfer fees, agent fees, signing on fees etc. The buck stops with the manager and Nick Hammond. Man-management, picking the side, tactics; it all comes down to Brian in that respect, and still we stick with the same system that is clearly not working.

[Woodcote Royal]

You mean the one that failed against Everton?

[SPARTA]

You mean the one that failed against Everton?

Shit the bed, you're right. The one win of the season. My apologies.

[Woodcote Royal]

Apology accepted.

[Once were Biscuitmen]

I think the clubs philosophy and out dated ideas on football might be to blame. And before you call me a glory hunter or plastic, Im not saying we should go and spend till we are bankrupt but we are not even sensibly investing and from my business background, i know NOT spending money can also drive your company out of business. we dont want to be playing in league 1 infront of 12,000 every week in 2 seasons time like so many premier league teams have done.

Yes but how many of those double relegations were due to spending too little money rather than say being crushed by mountains of debt?

Hint; it's none of them.

[Maguire]

Is it none of them?

[Big Ern]

The blame lies throughout the club. I sympathise with Brian, but some of his tactical decisions have been very poor. He does not have a 'Plan B' and I think he is out of his depth. Even if he had millions to spend, he probably would have wasted it and not been able to manage bigger players

As far as TSI, then they have clearly over promised and under delivered. The level of investment has been a joke and it is looking more and more likely we were just a 30th Birthday present to Anton from his Dad and Anton does not have the finances to make a difference at the club. I am very worried abut our future at the moment with our Russia Overlords in control.

The players have tried, but some have let the club down with their attitudes..step forward Feds and Guthrie.

All in all, this season has been a total and utter shambles. We deserve to go down as one of the worst teams the Premiership has ever seen.

[Lacoste]

The blame lies throughout the club. I sympathise with Brian, but some of his tactical decisions have been very poor. He does not have a 'Plan B' and I think he is out of his depth. Even if he had millions to spend, he probably would have wasted it and not been able to manage bigger players

As far as TSI, then they have clearly over promised and under delivered. The level of investment has been a joke and it is looking more and more likely we were just a 30th Birthday present to Anton from his Dad and Anton does not have the finances to make a difference at the club. I am very worried abut our future at the moment with our Russia Overlords in control.

The players have tried, but some have let the club down with their attitudes..step forward Feds and Guthrie.

All in all, this season has been a total and utter shambles. We deserve to go down as one of the worst teams the Premiership has ever seen.

+1

[Once were Biscuitmen]

The blame lies throughout the club. I sympathise with Brian, but some of his tactical decisions have been very poor. He does not have a 'Plan B' and I think he is out of his depth. Even if he had millions to spend, he probably would have wasted it and not been able to manage bigger players

If.

As far as TSI, then they have clearly over promised and under delivered. The level of investment has been a joke and it is looking more and more likely we were just a 30th Birthday present to Anton from his Dad and Anton does not have the finances to make a difference at the club. I am very worried abut our future at the moment with our Russia Overlords in control.

Without TSI even the limited investment in wages for Roberts last season would not have happened and promotion would have been significantly harder to achieve.

It's only an 'investment' if you have the realistic possibility of securing a return. The level of spending required to give our squad a good shot at staying up balanced against the risk of still being relegated anyway would have been Dave Whelan style charity. We just have to deal with the fact we don't have a sugar daddy who is prepared to lose money so we can all watch Premiership football every year.

There are many clubs, far bigger than ours, that would love to be in our position. Sure it's a bit embarrassing losing on TV most weeks for one season but we have at least a years worth of Premiership revenues and the parachute payments to consolidate ourselves as a top ten championship club that can regularly push for the playoffs and has a reasonable shot at automatic promotion every few years.

Call it lack of ambition if you like but sometimes life is just what it is.

[Royal91]

TSI only own 51% of club so could it be argued they are accountable for 51% of transfer kitty??

[Hoop Blah]

Who was to blame for all of McCarthy, Morrison, Karacan, Guthrie, HRK, Kebe, Pog and Roberts (almost a third of our allowed 25 ) being unavailable for Sunderland? 4 of that list are not just certain starters but had been missing for the previous month or more. Clubs with far bigger budgets than ours would be struggling with an injury list like this.

Frankly, I'm sick of hearing Guthrie's name. Jem Karacan (who is more likely to run through a brick wall for this club than refuse to travel to an away fixture ) is our best central midfielder, Kebe our best winger, Morrison the best centre back and McCarthy is light years ahead of Federici. No one gets everything right but, in my view, Brian's biggest error has been in placing too much faith in the limited ability of Adam Federici. If Taylor is not the better 'keeper why are we paying him what must be a very substantial wage?

Kebe may be our best winger but he's forever missing long runs of games through injury. If we're going into a season expecting him to be a key player all season then we've made an error of judgement.

If Morrison is our best centre back why did it take so long for him to get a game? He's no better than our other options really and that's born out by the goals we've conceeded when he's been in the side over those other options.

The injury to Karacan has been significant though. We've missed him and the option that having him available would've given us.

As for the long list of players unavailable, I think McDermott probably has an element of blame for the length of that list as apart from Guthrie I'd imagine there are one or two others who missed the game who wouldn't have if we'd had a happier and better performing squad.

[SPARTA]

As far as TSI, then they have clearly over promised and under delivered.

Go on then, how? They said we'd still run a tight ship but with bigger budgets, and we are. They said in 5 years they hoped we would be established in the PL and in the top half. AZ has been in control 7 months!!

[Bandini]

TSI only own 51% of club so could it be argued they are accountable for 51% of transfer kitty??

No.

[melonhead]

I think the clubs philosophy and out dated ideas on football might be to blame. And before you call me a glory hunter or plastic, Im not saying we should go and spend till we are bankrupt but we are not even sensibly investing and from my business background, i know NOT spending money can also drive your company out of business. we dont want to be playing in league 1 infront of 12,000 every week in 2 seasons time like so many premier league teams have done.

Yes but how many of those double relegations were due to spending too little money rather than say being crushed by mountains of debt?

Hint; it's none of them.

youre hugely wrong

[melonhead]

As for the long list of players unavailable, I think McDermott probably has an element of blame for the length of that list as apart from Guthrie I'd imagine there are one or two others who missed the game who wouldn't have if we'd had a happier and better performing squad.

exactly