An admission/apology re BR

[swansea jack]

Maybe fitness is something he learned from us. We lost a lot of games late on and Shane Long must have put on a stone easily. Rodgers talked about technical training a lot, he overlooked fitness. Also, you're better on the ball than we were which means you don't have to chase around after it so much.

Only been watching from afar over the last 5 years but pretty sure out fitness has remained similar over that period.

We seem to fill most of the spots in the player distance chart at the end of each game but the mileage is, largely, being done to find space rather than in chasing the ball.

[Svlad Cjelli]

The one thing that brought it all to a head was Matt Mills.

If you remember, Mills had been dropped from the team - effectively for standing up to/rebelling (delete as you prefer) and saying to BR that the players didn't understand what they were meant to do.

Mills was dropped right at the end of October (after the defeat to Leicester, as it happens), and over the next few weeks when dropped Mills & BR clashed several times and things seemed intractable. It all came to a herd at the start of December when BR told Mills he'd had enough and was transfer listing him the following January.

Others in the club were not happy at this £2M investment effectively being thrown away at a cut price over a clash of egos and a question of authority - and that was the issue that brought things to a head and explains exactly why the decision was made on that date (16th December).

[Ian Royal]

Shame we couldn't have got rid of both of the cock ends at the same time.

[The Rouge]

What Rodgers has done subsequently demonstrate that he is a talented manager, however, that does not alter the fact that he was simply the wrong fit for Reading at the time.

You could argue that, in the long term, Reading should have taken the relegation to give Rodgers time an ultimately come back stronger but it's not a view I would agree with as we may not have recovered and relegation is certainly where we were heading.

Where I would say I was wrong about Rodgers is that I felt he can across as a bit of an arrogant git in his interviews, yet his response to beating his former employers in a play off final could not have been more gracious. He had the greatest opportunity in history to stick two fingers up at the chairman, the fans and the club in general yet he didn't take it and said, literally, nothing disparaging about Reading then or ever since. That showed a level of class that is rare in the game these days.

Personally, I wish him all the best for the future and find Swansea growing on me as they take on the Premiership. Good luck to them.

Gr8 post - agree with this. I wouldn't have sacked him. A few things needed sorting out but people forget how many chances we had per game. Long and Church and others just couldn't hit the target.

[Hoop Blah]

Agree with Rouge and Schards there.

I do think we were playing ok and results didn't quite reflect the majority of performances. I don't think we'd have ended up going down, but we certainly wouldn't have had the dramatic upturn in form that McDermott managed because Rodgers obviously didn't have the backing of the players in what he was trying to do. They all responded to the safe pair of [familiar] hands that the club turned too when appointing everyones best buddy McDermott.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

there is some evidence about starting to lose the dressing room though

Is there?

It just tends to be an assumption fans make when results aren't going well, which is why it's a staple of moronic fans who call radio phone-ins.

[Ian Royal]

Good post from Schards. Completely agree.

As a person I dislike Rodgers and find him arrogant and full of shite. But there is no doubt in my mind he wanted the best for the club and still has a lot of time for us. It's only his time with us, that's made me dislike him and tbh in 5 or 6 years, if it was good for both parties, I'd be happy for him to have another crack with us.

[Svlad Cjelli]

there is some evidence about starting to lose the dressing room though

Is there?

It just tends to be an assumption fans make when results aren't going well, which is why it's a staple of moronic fans who call radio phone-ins.

See my post above (second one on this page).

[KC Royal]

I don't think Matt Mills was totally a Rodgers signing as it happens. We'd been linked with him and watching him for quite a while so I think it might've been something that was almost signed and sealed before he came in.

Agree with this, I'm sure I remember Mills saying when he joined that we'd first made contact with him in May.

Just a thought, was Dean Austin partly to blame during BR's reign? I was never sure what he actually did at the time, or what Frank Lampard Snr's role was either. I notice Rodgers didn't take either of them with him to Swansea.

[KC Royal]

The one thing that brought it all to a head was Matt Mills.

If you remember, Mills had been dropped from the team - effectively for standing up to/rebelling (delete as you prefer) and saying to BR that the players didn't understand what they were meant to do.

Mills was dropped right at the end of October (after the defeat to Leicester, as it happens), and over the next few weeks when dropped Mills & BR clashed several times and things seemed intractable. It all came to a herd at the start of December when BR told Mills he'd had enough and was transfer listing him the following January.

Others in the club were not happy at this £2M investment effectively being thrown away at a cut price over a clash of egos and a question of authority - and that was the issue that brought things to a head and explains exactly why the decision was made on that date (16th December).

Interesting, never knew that. I never actually considered Mills to be a Rodgers signing, more a Hammond/McD signing, as alluded to in my previous post.

[Forbury Lion]

Brendan Rogers = Right man, Wrong time.

Sure Brendan would have turned it around in time but we were heading for League 1 and action had to be taken, Signing new players wasn't an option but a new manager who could get the best out of the existing players was a short term solution which has also worked out well as a long term solution.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Decent manager. Too inexperienced to roll his own, but looks damn fine smoking a ready made.