Updated POLL After Southampton Debacle.

[Royalclapper]

Is it ever actually going to be worth trying to come back up again? If we don't intend to spend much in the way of buying in suitable players if we go up again, we'll just keep going down again and I'd far rather see us competing every week with a few wins and draws in the Championship than losing every week in the Prem. #justsaying

The first line there is the most crucial point for me, very well spotted, if indeed the club wants to continue being an attractive proposition that is.

At the moment we are in danger of becoming an easy touch for anyone looking to top-up their pension pots for the least amount of hassle.

[Once were Biscuitmen]

What players are there to buy anyway? Good players do not need to take a chance on regulation teams they go straight to the better teams. You need to look at cheaper players from the championship whom are playing well now and would like to play half the season in the premiership. Or loans players.
The best plan is to consider the options before January. Either accept regulation as most teams do not stay up if they are adrift at Christmas. (If QPR are doing it why not Reading?) Of course the players might fight for survival knowing what that they will end up in Championship.
There will be a good chance to go straight up this way and Brian might be a good guy for that.

Yep I agree with most of that but we need to be realistic that it may take more than one season to build a team that can secure promotion again.

The level of expectation and the assumption that the Premiership is in any way a level playing field has led to a ridiculous level of vilification for Brian on this forum this year.

I would worry that if we are not promoted by Christmas 2013 we would have a re-run of the Brian out campaign....

[RoyalBlue]

What players are there to buy anyway? Good players do not need to take a chance on regulation teams they go straight to the better teams. You need to look at cheaper players from the championship whom are playing well now and would like to play half the season in the premiership. Or loans players.
The best plan is to consider the options before January. Either accept regulation as most teams do not stay up if they are adrift at Christmas. (If QPR are doing it why not Reading?) Of course the players might fight for survival knowing what that they will end up in Championship.
There will be a good chance to go straight up this way and Brian might be a good guy for that.

Yep I agree with most of that but we need to be realistic that it may take more than one season to build a team that can secure promotion again.

The level of expectation and the assumption that the Premiership is in any way a level playing field has led to a ridiculous level of vilification for Brian on this forum this year.

I would worry that if we are not promoted by Christmas 2013 we would have a re-run of the Brian out campaign....

You are right, the Premiership isn't a level playing field but the situation was made far worse by McDermott and/or the board deciding that the club would try to compete on an entirely different, and much lower, playing field!

And I entirely agree that it will probably take more than one season to rebuild a promotion winning team. That is why it is so frustrating to see us just throw away our PL place with barely a whimper from the club.

[Reading4eva]

Request that he steps aside or is part of a co-partnership with someone more experienced. My guess is Keegan would be a great man to have at the helm.

[Royal Lady]

Request that he steps aside or is part of a co-partnership with someone more experienced. My guess is Keegan would be a great man to have at the helm.

And what has Keegan ever done as a manager that is so great?

The first solution, as I've already said, is to bring someone in as a coach ahead of Nigel Gibbs, let Nigel concentrate on one area of coaching, maybe defence - I don't know, and the other bloke to oversee all the coaching and work on the midfield and strikers or something. Someone who has had experience of coaching at this level would be preferable. I just think McD needs more help. If that doesn't work, at least we'd have seen some semblance of interest from the Board to give it a shot. If we stay as we are, nothing will improve.

[Bandini]

I think brian deserves the whole season and if we go down, so be it. No one will be hurting more than him tonight and there's no better candidate with prem experience immediately available who springs to mind.

Keep. Today was shite but it's alway darkest just before dawn.

Agreed.

Keep and start planning for next season (as others have said).

[The Beardy Man]

I said get rid, not because I think a new manager would keep us up (they won't), but because that way they will have 6 months and 2 transfer windows to build for an assault on the Championship next year...with the additional carrot of half a season of prem football for hungry younger players. I don't think Brian is the man for that, he just looks shell shocked and out of ideas. Reminds me of the end of the Bullivant days too much.

I would hope we would be looking for a young up and coming manager looking to play some football. In fact it is kind of ironic that we would have been far better off bringing someone like Rodgers in now, knowing that at a minimum we will be playing championship football next year. There is time to work on a new playing style.

I think this promotion came too early for us and so we are looking at it as 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Whatever happens, next year we are better placed to try and get back again (infrastructure improvements, club finances, squad experience etc).

[Mr Angry]

Keep.

No-one could do a better job with the available resources and to have got us promoted last season from where we were in September/October was a miracle.

Personally, I'd like my club to show some loyalty to a manager who took over when we were at a pretty low ebb, then got us to a Play Off final and then promotion against the odds, and all whilst having to sell our best players.

We may well get relegated (though I'd love Brian and the team to turn things round and ram the negative and destructive shite that a number of oxf*rd on here seem to think is worth posting as valid comment right back down their throats); but the point is, so will 2 other clubs who have spent shed loads more than us.

Finally, if we do get relegated who better to try and get us back up, especially as the nucleus of the side that won the Championship are still likely to be at the club, as unlike when we went down before, I don't think a lot of our players will be in huge demand from other clubs.

[andrew1957]

Keep.

No-one could do a better job with the available resources and to have got us promoted last season from where we were in September/October was a miracle.

Personally, I'd like my club to show some loyalty to a manager who took over when we were at a pretty low ebb, then got us to a Play Off final and then promotion against the odds, and all whilst having to sell our best players.

We may well get relegated (though I'd love Brian and the team to turn things round and ram the negative and destructive shite that a number of oxf*rd on here seem to think is worth posting as valid comment right back down their throats); but the point is, so will 2 other clubs who have spent shed loads more than us.

Finally, if we do get relegated who better to try and get us back up, especially as the nucleus of the side that won the Championship are still likely to be at the club, as unlike when we went down before, I don't think a lot of our players will be in huge demand from other clubs.

Spot on.

[bracksroyal10]

Has to be the sack if we are to stay up. Teams such as Villa and Southampton have been there for the taking and so poor. Yet we still don't take advantage of the opportunity to win.

The Guthrie Mcd thing seems to be becoming a big personal issue now. Its time Mcd starts thinking about the good of the club and what Guthrie has to offer to the team rather than trying to get one up on the personal battle. He must be wondering what he has to do to get in the team and it says it all that he was the only available centre mid on the bench yet mcd brings on someone who naturally cannot play this position as well.

He has to go.

[The Beardy Man]

Keep.

No-one could do a better job with the available resources and to have got us promoted last season from where we were in September/October was a miracle.

Personally, I'd like my club to show some loyalty to a manager who took over when we were at a pretty low ebb, then got us to a Play Off final and then promotion against the odds, and all whilst having to sell our best players.

We may well get relegated (though I'd love Brian and the team to turn things round and ram the negative and destructive shite that a number of oxf*rd on here seem to think is worth posting as valid comment right back down their throats); but the point is, so will 2 other clubs who have spent shed loads more than us.

Finally, if we do get relegated who better to try and get us back up, especially as the nucleus of the side that won the Championship are still likely to be at the club, as unlike when we went down before, I don't think a lot of our players will be in huge demand from other clubs.

I genuinely do have a lot of sympathy for this position. Were we showing signs of learning lessons from our defeats and slow improvement (even whilst still losing games) I would be with you on this.

Previously you have always had a sense that McD has seen areas we are lacking in and made tactical changes to resolve over the first few months of a season. This year though there is no sense of progress towards a solution.

Were we showing signs of keeping the ball better, or getting harder to break down (even at the expense of losing some attacking potency) I would comparatively satisfied. However, It seems to me that we just aren't progressing in any way. Just hoping for changes in personnel in January whilst trusting to luck in the meantime. I have lost a degree of faith that Mr McDermott really is getting the most out of the players he has at his disposal right at this minute.

[Archie's penalty]

Keep.

No-one could do a better job with the available resources and to have got us promoted last season from where we were in September/October was a miracle.

Personally, I'd like my club to show some loyalty to a manager who took over when we were at a pretty low ebb, then got us to a Play Off final and then promotion against the odds, and all whilst having to sell our best players.

We may well get relegated (though I'd love Brian and the team to turn things round and ram the negative and destructive shite that a number of oxf*rd on here seem to think is worth posting as valid comment right back down their throats); but the point is, so will 2 other clubs who have spent shed loads more than us.

Finally, if we do get relegated who better to try and get us back up, especially as the nucleus of the side that won the Championship are still likely to be at the club, as unlike when we went down before, I don't think a lot of our players will be in huge demand from other clubs.

I genuinely do have a lot of sympathy for this position. Were we showing signs of learning lessons from our defeats and slow improvement (even whilst still losing games) I would be with you on this.

Previously you have always had a sense that McD has seen areas we are lacking in and made tactical changes to resolve over the first few months of a season. This year though there is no sense of progress towards a solution.

Were we showing signs of keeping the ball better, or getting harder to break down (even at the expense of losing some attacking potency) I would comparatively satisfied. However, It seems to me that we just aren't progressing in any way. Just hoping for changes in personnel in January whilst trusting to luck in the meantime. I have lost a degree of faith that Mr McDermott really is getting the most out of the players he has at his disposal right at this minute.

^^^^^^ This. If we showed some fight and McD was mixing it up I'd be with him. We're not doing either of these things unfortunately.

[Terminal Boardom]

Keep. There is no-one who could do a better job than he is doing at the moment. Is the playing squad of premiership standard? Of course not. And any new manager coming in will want a few million to spend in the hope of staying up. As if Reading would ever do that. Keep him in situ - remember, Reading are a second half of the season team.

[Top Flight]

Tragic because, despite what RR says, I do appreciate what he achieved in seasons past and he is a genuinely nice guy (that's McD not RR!). However, these rarely, if ever, count in the cut throat world that is the PL. I suspect the vote would be a lot more in favour of him going but for one, other or both of two factors: It's probably too late to make a difference, unless there is already a replacement lined up, and simply because it's Brian McDermott we are talking about and supporters don't want to see it happen to him as a person. I doubt there are (m)any who are now saying keep him because he can turn things around this season.

Whatever happens, I do not think McDermott will be our manager by the summer of 2014. If we go down, I do not subscribe to the bounce back straight away theory. How often does that really happen? What's more there will be clubs far better placed to compete for the three places next season in the Championship. These are likely to include QPR who will have the financial clout and the right manager to bring them straight back and buck the trend I previously referred to. I also see hints that Harry is already starting to turn his thoughts to that campaign.

Maybe Brian is doing the same - how else can we explain his stubborn and futile persistence in 4-4-2 and his belief that merely throwing 3 forwards on in the closing stages of the game will automatically bring us goals. Perhaps it is so his team will be completely versed in those tactics ready for next season's promotion campaign!

Spot on.

Any other club would have put him out of his misery by now. Everyone is desperate for him to succeed however his outdated tactics, poor transfer dealings and inability to integrate his new signings has doomed us. Unfortunately, when you sit at the top table of English football, the risks are high and his performance does not warrant keeping his job. He should have been sacked after the Villa game.

I for one think it is a great shame that all last seasons hard work has been thrown away.

But it hasn't all been thrown away! We are a better squad now than we were last season. In addition to last seasons strikers of Alfie, Roberts & Hunt we now have the Pog. We have added Guthrie and Mcleary to our midfield. That has improved things and we have seen the emergence of Morrison at the back and Cummings continue his improvements.

As I said before, it may not feel like we are progressing because we are struggling in an absolutely nightmare division. But, the truth is he has managed to take us forward again on the smallest budget in the premier league. McD has improved us again. It may not be enough to keep us up, but he is a GOOD manager and he is still taking us forward.

We all know that we are weak in the centre of midfield and as Shorey says we are not good enough on the ball. Until January McD cannot do anything about that problem.

He is doing a marvellous job at Reading and I don't see the point in sacking him. He needs to add to his squad again to bring it up to Premier League standards. Until the transfer windows re-open in January and then again in the summer he has to make do with what he has.

[Top Flight]

But that is exactly why we need a new manager now.

If we wait until the summer to bring in a new guy then we will suffer our trademark slow start to 2013/2014. If we bring him in now and let him work with the players and youngsters in an aborted Premier League "campaign" he will then be in a much better position to know what signings he needs to make next summer to build a squad that might compete in the championship.

I think McDermott knows better than anyone else what needs to be done to our squad so that it can compete in not just the championship but the premiership. Knowing what needs to be done and then having the funds and resources to be able to pull it off are two different things.

I think McDermott will give us more bang for our buck than anybody else. Who will do a better job than McD on our budget? Please give me a name. It's all debatable at the end of the day but McD is right at the top of the table when it comes to bang for buck.

[melonhead]

Request that he steps aside or is part of a co-partnership with someone more experienced. My guess is Keegan would be a great man to have at the helm.

And what has Keegan ever done as a manager that is so great?

The first solution, as I've already said, is to bring someone in as a coach ahead of Nigel Gibbs, let Nigel concentrate on one area of coaching, maybe defence - I don't know, and the other bloke to oversee all the coaching and work on the midfield and strikers or something. Someone who has had experience of coaching at this level would be preferable. I just think McD needs more help. If that doesn't work, at least we'd have seen some semblance of interest from the Board to give it a shot. If we stay as we are, nothing will improve.

i want keown here as defensive coach.
NOW!

[reading_fan]

Keep.

Besides which, it's all very well everyone saying get rid of him, but no-one has put forward a potential replacement (KK does not count). So if you do want him sacked, who would you get in in his place?

[melonhead]

tactical changes to resolve over the first few months of a season. This year though there is no sense of progress towards a solution.

with guthrie, karacan, and kebe injured, im not sure its been at all possible to make any changes to the tactics/formation/playing staff for these last few games.

and before those games we looked like we had got more solid and were edging slightly forward

[melonhead]

if we are talking replacements- the only two who are available, and would possibly come here are hoddle and curbishley
id be happy enough with either

but id still prefer brian

[Esteban]

Is it ever actually going to be worth trying to come back up again? If we don't intend to spend much in the way of buying in suitable players if we go up again, we'll just keep going down again and I'd far rather see us competing every week with a few wins and draws in the Championship than losing every week in the Prem. #justsaying

The first line there is the most crucial point for me, very well spotted, if indeed the club wants to continue being an attractive proposition that is.

At the moment we are in danger of becoming an easy touch for anyone looking to top-up their pension pots for the least amount of hassle.

That's one of the more ridiculous comments on this thread. Any player with two brain cells to rub together would NOT be looking at Reading to earn as much as possible! We're renowned for having one of the lowest wage budgets in the PL.

If you want McDermott out, fine, go protest in the car park, you may well get your wish. Don't whinge if the next manager spends a small fortune and takes us backwards, though (Mr Rodgers). It took us 130 years to become an established top 10 Championship side, with a few flirtations in the PL. I'm willing to be patient in our attempts to become an established PL side, relegations to boot; but I'm not happy to sack a broadly successful manager without any viable options to replace him. Keep for the time being.