by Wimb »
13 Feb 2011 12:12
Even if we were in the Premier League players will use us as a stepping stone, it's what makes me laugh about those that bemoan some of our player sales recently.
Sidwell, Shorey, Hunt and Sonko were all players getting decent money and regular playing time in the PL with us and still wanted to move away.
Patience is a virtue that's almost totally dead in football now, but I'm glad I'm a fan of a team that by and large is prepared to look at the long term rather then giving in to fan demands and pressing the panic button. The Brendan Rodgers sacking aside, the club has built it's success on taking a long term view of things. They gave the managers job to people without managerial experience such as McGhee, Pardew and McDermott and gave them the time to get things right. The bulk of the 2005/2006 Championship winning team had been part of the club for several years before they came together and peaked and to expect anything less of this current side is asking for a hell of a lot.
Other sides in this division can sometimes skip some steps by either splashing a lot of cash, or can find a rhythm by winning promotion from a lower division. Norwich and Leeds are doing exactly what this club did after we were promoted in 2001/02, using the momentum of promotion to make a playoff push and have everyone at the club still galvanised by that winning feeling. But generally it takes a number of years to build a team that's going to be safely in the top six or top be in the top two.
Reading on the other hand, have been through the 'trauma' of relegation from the Premier League, a drop that's unrivalled in world football and something that unless you come back straight away can take years to recover from. In many many ways the club is STILL far better off now then it was going into say 2004/2005 or 05/06. The club now has a far greater national profile, the procedes of our PL stay have paid for better facilities for both playing and non-playing staff and the club has learned some painful lessons about how we might go about staying in the top flight should we ever get there again.
Of course it hurts to see other sides pass us and be closer to the Premier League then us. It's frustrating that the club has to sell a bright young home grown talent, or to see the last remnants of a historically good side leave. But if you've got anger towards those things then join the Football Supporters Federation, join STAR and join those who are putting pressure on the governing bodies and the government to sort out the lunacy that is football finance in 2011.
The club is risking being left behind not because it's got a lack of ambition, but because it's not prepared to gamble its long term future on having a season or two in the sun.
If you look deeper at the state of the club, the transfers in/out, the loan moves, the contract situations then there are signs that we might be able to contend sooner then you'd think. Sadly it's not today, but having been involved in a promotion race or been in the top flight up until the final 3 games of the season for the last decade, I'm prepared to give this club the benefit of the doubt and give that patience in the hope that it'll be rewarded with something special once again.
