Reasons I'm worried about next season.

[Royal Rother]

I think a lot of the tinkering is pure desperation to try and muster a result. They say doing the same thing over & over is insanity don't they?

This group of players needs to be culled asap. They have got used to losing and just accepting it...

It's only insanity if it's not working. And not much that he's done has worked really. Pure desperation is not something I favour as a management technique.

Clarke hasn't exactly done the morale of the squad much good by bringing in inferior players like Knight, Appiah and Yakubu. Poorly thought out and wholly unnecessary panic measures all of them.

I can imagine a number of players looking around and thinking WTAF is he doing?.

[MR. CYNICAL]

Clarke had no right to play weakened/joke teams in the league! People payed good money to travel to/attend those games. All the cup games were only around £10, those were the games where he should of rested players.
Remember Steve Coppell?

[Extended-Phenotype]

All that effort Snowball has put into defending Clarke and we go and get fingerbanged 2-0 by Brentford! Wonder how many losses Snowy can go before he runs out of stats to massage?

Clarke is horse bollocks.

[SCIAG]

Why, what did McD ay that was a lie?

Admittedly he didn't say "I've just won the Championship and been given only £2.5m to keep the club in the PL (which I'm just about doing)" but he could hardly say that, could he?

One way or another, he lied about Pogrebnyak, as he's both said 1) he'd been looking at him for months and actively wanted him to join, and 2) Anton forced Pogrebnyak upon him out of the blue

Another lie (or at least a huge mistake) is that £2.5m transfer budget you've just brought up, given we spent double that in the summer, another £2m in January, a huge amount on signing on fees, and made much larger offers for Aspas and Sigurdsson.

[sandman]

Why, what did McD ay that was a lie?

Admittedly he didn't say "I've just won the Championship and been given only £2.5m to keep the club in the PL (which I'm just about doing)" but he could hardly say that, could he?

One way or another, he lied about Pogrebnyak, as he's both said 1) he'd been looking at him for months and actively wanted him to join, and 2) Anton forced Pogrebnyak upon him out of the blue

Another lie (or at least a huge mistake) is that £2.5m transfer budget you've just brought up, given we spent double that in the summer, another £2m in January, a huge amount on signing on fees, and made much larger offers for Aspas and Sigurdsson.

He said that in the initial meeting, a day after promotion to the PL, he was told over the phone that his budget for the season would be £2.5 million. That's not the same as saying it was the final amount spent.

[sandman]

And close to £7 million is still nowhere near good enough for the PL.

[Doolittle]

If Clarke had had Murray to call on, and if the Cup run hadn't changed the priorities, I'm sure his League record would have been significantly better.

His use of loan and short-term signings has been mixed, but his hands have been tied by finances, and the ones that didn't work were all low-risk shots to nothing.

So, jury firmly out. This seems like a case where last season's performance is likely to be a poor guide to next season's, because the group of players is likely to change quite a bit. I prefer to be excited rather than worried by the leap into the unknown, at least until reality bites !

In the Champ, an awful lot seems to depend on finding a striker who has the pace and/or strength to bully defenders, and create their own chances (like Wilson, Gestede, Afobe, Assombalonga, Martin, Deeney, etc).

Our current strikers are all similar, in being able (allegedly !) to convert the obvious chances, but not being able to impose themselves on defences with their movement or physical presence. If Clarke could fix that, either by developing from within (possibly Samuel, given time ?), signing the right lower League striker (often where these players come from), or a young Prem loanee, it would make a big difference.

[Royal Lady]

Why, what did McD ay that was a lie?

Admittedly he didn't say "I've just won the Championship and been given only £2.5m to keep the club in the PL (which I'm just about doing)" but he could hardly say that, could he?

One way or another, he lied about Pogrebnyak, as he's both said 1) he'd been looking at him for months and actively wanted him to join, and 2) Anton forced Pogrebnyak upon him out of the blue

Another lie (or at least a huge mistake) is that £2.5m transfer budget you've just brought up, given we spent double that in the summer, another £2m in January, a huge amount on signing on fees, and made much larger offers for Aspas and Sigurdsson.

We made big offers (for us) but knew we wouldn't get the players - that was purely so the club could say we'd tried to buy players.

McD said he'd looked at Pog when he was signed because he hardly tell the truth could he?!! He told the truth when he'd left and I'm glad he did. I suspect Coppell could have said similar about his time here too.

The Reading way has had its day - I don't expect us to spend tens of millions but I do expect us to spend enough on the right players to give us a fighting chance next season.

[Royal Rother]

The only way we will spend lots is if we sell lots.

[Lower West]

The Reading way has had its day - I don't expect us to spend tens of millions but I do expect us to spend enough on the right players to give us a fighting chance next season.

Reading have to build teams from within. Simply isn't the money to compete with other clubs. Not that other clubs have much to show for the money being spent. At least players from within will play with passion. Journeymen are two a penny.

[Ian Royal]

Why, what did McD ay that was a lie?

Admittedly he didn't say "I've just won the Championship and been given only £2.5m to keep the club in the PL (which I'm just about doing)" but he could hardly say that, could he?

One way or another, he lied about Pogrebnyak, as he's both said 1) he'd been looking at him for months and actively wanted him to join, and 2) Anton forced Pogrebnyak upon him out of the blue

Another lie (or at least a huge mistake) is that £2.5m transfer budget you've just brought up, given we spent double that in the summer, another £2m in January, a huge amount on signing on fees, and made much larger offers for Aspas and Sigurdsson.

He said that in the initial meeting, a day after promotion to the PL, he was told over the phone that his budget for the season would be £2.5 million. That's not the same as saying it was the final amount spent.

Then why do people raise it like it was all he was allowed to spend? If it's the first figure he was given and he had much more than that when it came to the actual spending, why even mention it?

[Ian Royal]

Why, what did McD ay that was a lie?

Admittedly he didn't say "I've just won the Championship and been given only £2.5m to keep the club in the PL (which I'm just about doing)" but he could hardly say that, could he?

One way or another, he lied about Pogrebnyak, as he's both said 1) he'd been looking at him for months and actively wanted him to join, and 2) Anton forced Pogrebnyak upon him out of the blue

Another lie (or at least a huge mistake) is that £2.5m transfer budget you've just brought up, given we spent double that in the summer, another £2m in January, a huge amount on signing on fees, and made much larger offers for Aspas and Sigurdsson.

We made big offers (for us) but knew we wouldn't get the players - that was purely so the club could say we'd tried to buy players.

McD said he'd looked at Pog when he was signed because he hardly tell the truth could he?!! He told the truth when he'd left and I'm glad he did. I suspect Coppell could have said similar about his time here too.

The Reading way has had its day - I don't expect us to spend tens of millions but I do expect us to spend enough on the right players to give us a fighting chance next season.

Or he could have said that Anton recommended him and he thought it was a good buy. Enough to keep face and not a complete fabrication.

What about the rest of the signings that cost more than £2.5m? Any explanation for that yet?