Countdown to Rodgers' return

[Royal With Cheese]

I'm going to cheer if Swansea score.

I've had a Welsh Dragon tatooed on one Buttock and a picture of Rodgers on the other today.

I'll probably spontaneously combust if Swansea take all three points back over the Severn crossing.

[readingbedding]

Epitaph.

He cheered when Swansea scored.

[Big Foot]

Personally I think the ideal scenario is Reading trounce Swansea by 2 clear goals or more and then Brendan Rodgers knocks Tim Dellor out with his Breitling watch

I'm going to wear my Blackbird especially for Brendan and wave it at him from the East Stand

[handbags_harris]

Gutted I'm missing my first home game since Reading 2-1 Watford in November 2003. Having not missed a game home or away in six years, I have now missed two this calendar year One game which I looked forward to over most others this season was Rodgers' return, the opportunity to give the bloke a bit of stick for his failings here. Maybe he would have turned it around but that's all conjecture now. The bare facts are that he left us in a distinctly unhealthy position when he was sacked through poor team selection, spineless displays with no direction, and p*ss poor man-management. His constant soundbites after regular defeats where we had taken the lead were cringeworthy. In all, he seemed to be a bit of a clueless tw@ when he was here.

[Wycombe Royal]

Gutted that I am going to miss this one. Bloody wedding.........

^ same . See you at the wedding then, Wycombe?

[handbags_harris]

Gutted that I am going to miss this one. Bloody wedding.........

^ same . See you at the wedding then, Wycombe?

Are these different weddings or are we all going to the same one?

[Ryn]

I could have handled the fact that he was a crap manager for us if it hadn't been for all the soundbytes that went with it.

World Class

Unlucky in defeat

Rub of the Green

Taking positives

Mourinho

The man was clearly deluded into believing his own hype. If he had been more magnanimous in defeat, more human, more open to his own failings then I think more people would have warmed to him and been more patient.

As it was he just came over as a trumped up arsehole. And nobody likes one of those.

[royal-biscuit-man]

Reading vs Swansea is the undercard to the big one

You know what I'm talking about, Brendan Rodgers' return

In the blue corner we have Tim "bloody nice bloke" Dellor

In the red corner we have Brendan "Big Watch" Rodgers

Come on!!

Absolutely childish and pathetic thread. I don't think that any discernible Reading fan cares any more than the fact that we will be playing Swansea. Sadly, the 10 year old (mental age) mongs in Y26 will no doubt make the rest of us cringe with embarrassment when the 2 teams meet. Brendan was a decent man but it just didn't work out for him. He is highly rated in coaching circles and you kind of know it will work out somewhere else. Good luck for the future Brendan.

Oh no, is Y26 full of mongs? I'm sat there for that game, (i spend more time away from Y19 than in it). I will not be happy if i'm surrounded by a bunch of loud mouthed kid's being a middle aged man.

[Terminal Boardom]

I could have handled the fact that he was a crap manager for us if it hadn't been for all the soundbytes that went with it.

World Class

Unlucky in defeat

Rub of the Green

Taking positives

Mourinho

The man was clearly deluded into believing his own hype. If he had been more magnanimous in defeat, more human, more open to his own failings then I think more people would have warmed to him and been more patient.

As it was he just came over as a trumped up arsehole. And nobody likes one of those.

You forgot "Total Football"

[strap]

Under Rodgers, we played some of the most ineffective, sterile, and passionless football I have ever seen from a Reading team. Quite simply, he was the wrong man at the wrong time. The press conferences and media soundbites that he gave were the most ridiculous, supercilious and fawning that I have ever heard from a Reading Manager. He should never have been given the gig.

100% correct.

[brendywendy]

not sure why anyone cares about his return, and even less so understand why anyone would want to boo or abuse the bloke. he loved the club, tried his best, and didnt oxf*rd us over when he left.
he deserves nothing but our complete apathy

[Maguire]

Epitaph.

He cheered when Swansea scored.

Well I certainly hope i'm not going to die

[Stuka]

Under Rodgers, we played some of the most ineffective, sterile, and passionless football I have ever seen from a Reading team. Quite simply, he was the wrong man at the wrong time. The press conferences and media soundbites that he gave were the most ridiculous, supercilious and fawning that I have ever heard from a Reading Manager. He should never have been given the gig.

Well said.

But I do believe that he has the right team in Swansea, they already play "passing" football.

Agreed. Watching Reading was dull and miserable during his reign. Maybe his is a good manager elsewhere, I've certainly heard it said as much by people who work in football. But as a Reading supporter I though he was crap.

[Big Foot]

not sure why anyone cares about his return, and even less so understand why anyone would want to boo or abuse the bloke. he loved the club, tried his best, and didnt oxf*rd us over when he left.
he deserves nothing but our complete apathy

I'm more intrigued by whether or not Rodgers is going to drop the nut on that posh twerp Dellor

[watfordroyal]

I'm not gonna give any stick, afterall, he's a Royals fan.

He just proved that Reading fans don't make good Reading managers!

[Silver Fox]

Epitaph.

He cheered when Swansea scored.

Well I certainly hope i'm not going to die

readingbedding's gonna get ya!

Swansea won't score of course because as any of the brainiacs on here will tell you Brendan Rodgers is utter poo, this means reading FC will stroll to a 15-0 win even with our entire back 4 needlessly picking up second yellows in the first 15 minutes

[Terminal Boardom]

More interesting will be the players' attitudes towards the game. There are a number whom he brought to the club - Mills, Howard, MacAnuff and Cummings. Plus there are the players who have blossomed under BMcD including Kebe and Karacan. From a purist point of view, it could be a very interesting game of football.

[floyd__streete]

I don’t share the view that Rodgers wasn’t given a fair chance at Reading. Although he also had to sell key players, unlike McDermott Rodgers was able to invest a good chunk of that money on new signings (Mills didn’t come cheap, neither did MacAnuff, Rasiak). 6 months in the job doesn’t seem like very long but the reality is that with 5 wins in 21 league games we were struggling badly and the much discussed budget shortfall would have been even harder to plug on crowds of 8,000 in League One because that is where we were heading. Compared to Sousa at Leicester and a good many more managers who have been axed after short spells in charge at clubs in recent times (Leicester themselves also sacked Martin Allen 3 or 4 years ago who was in the job for barely 3 months), Rodgers had a reasonable crack of the whip. Rodgers and his sympathisers moaned at the time that he was starting to turn the corner when he was sacked, but in his last 4 games we recorded just 4 points and the last couple of games under his tenure comprised of a staggering 1-1 home draw against relegation favourites Scunthorpe in a game we entirely dominated and just a few days before that a quite horrific capitulation against a struggling Palace side.

Rodgers would most likely have been afforded a lot more patience by the supporters if he didn’t come out with such horrific psychobabble guff in almost every post-match press-conference after the defeats stacked up; when you’ve just seen your side blow a 2-0 lead and lose to a hopeless Peterborough side you don’t want to hear about Chelsea and World Class Models. And the absolute mess up he made of the Tommy Smith saga by speaking publicly about the desire of the player to join us was probably the most enduring memory of his hopeless and frustrating spell at Reading. Perhaps he will go on and have good success at Swansea, the culture there probably matches more closely to what he was trying to achieve at Reading. What I would say is that only an idiot would have accepted the poisoned chalice of trying to replace our best ever manager, Steve Coppell. Brendan Rodgers was that idiot.

[Svlad Cjelli]

...... What I would say is that only an idiot would have accepted the poisoned chalice of trying to replace our best ever manager, Steve Coppell. Brendan Rodgers was that idiot.

TBF, Rodgers did say publicly and privately that the job had come 2 years or so too early. It was his dream job and he had to take it earlier than he'd ideally wanted to because of the fear that someone else would come in and be successful and stay in it for years and years.

[Stuka]

Nail on the head with this analysis.

I don’t share the view that Rodgers wasn’t given a fair chance at Reading. Although he also had to sell key players, unlike McDermott Rodgers was able to invest a good chunk of that money on new signings (Mills didn’t come cheap, neither did MacAnuff, Rasiak). 6 months in the job doesn’t seem like very long but the reality is that with 5 wins in 21 league games we were struggling badly and the much discussed budget shortfall would have been even harder to plug on crowds of 8,000 in League One because that is where we were heading. Compared to Sousa at Leicester and a good many more managers who have been axed after short spells in charge at clubs in recent times (Leicester themselves also sacked Martin Allen 3 or 4 years ago who was in the job for barely 3 months), Rodgers had a reasonable crack of the whip. Rodgers and his sympathisers moaned at the time that he was starting to turn the corner when he was sacked, but in his last 4 games we recorded just 4 points and the last couple of games under his tenure comprised of a staggering 1-1 home draw against relegation favourites Scunthorpe in a game we entirely dominated and just a few days before that a quite horrific capitulation against a struggling Palace side.

Rodgers would most likely have been afforded a lot more patience by the supporters if he didn’t come out with such horrific psychobabble guff in almost every post-match press-conference after the defeats stacked up; when you’ve just seen your side blow a 2-0 lead and lose to a hopeless Peterborough side you don’t want to hear about Chelsea and World Class Models. And the absolute mess up he made of the Tommy Smith saga by speaking publicly about the desire of the player to join us was probably the most enduring memory of his hopeless and frustrating spell at Reading. Perhaps he will go on and have good success at Swansea, the culture there probably matches more closely to what he was trying to achieve at Reading. What I would say is that only an idiot would have accepted the poisoned chalice of trying to replace our best ever manager, Steve Coppell. Brendan Rodgers was that idiot.