by Ian Royal »
23 Apr 2015 19:41
I don't tend to think of myself as negative about Reading FC. Whilst I have lost patience with some managers quite drastically, I'm virtually always positive about the future of the club and I believe strongly in giving someone time to build. Not that I won't call for someone's head if I think there's a risk of a Bad Things™ happening in the short-term.
But this year, for the first time in 20 years, I think the next season is going to be bad. I'm not looking forward to it and here's why.
In virtually every significant measure I can think of Steve Clarke's performance is worse than his predecessor.
Points per game: -------------1.00 vs 1.19
Win Ratio: ------------------------23% vs 33% (32% vs 38% including cup games)
Loss Ratio: ------------------------45% vs 48%
Clean Sheets: --------------------1 every 4.4 games vs 1 every 3 games
Scoring Nil: -----------------------1 every 2.2 games vs 1 every 3 games
Goals scored per game:------0.82 vs 1.24
Goals conceded per game:--1.32 vs 1.71
Giving Clarke 5 games grace after taking over, and ignoring the table before 10 games have been played, we've averaged 17th position under him, compared to 14th under his predecessor.
So we win less, we earn fewer points, we keep fewer clean sheets, we score less, and we score nil more often. But we concede less and we lose ever so fractionally less. Forgive me for not being enthused.
Our inadequacies have been painfully obvious this season. We don't have a goalscorer. We're woefully short of both quality and options on the left flank. We can't centre the ball accurately or dangerously. And we don't get bodies in the box from midfield (even the strikers aren't in there that often!).
Clarke's answer to this and the loss of Murray, was to sign Yakubu. A player, of questionable age, that he has given the grand total of 328 league minutes to in the three months we've been paying him. For a return of zero league goals.
Since then he's brought in Appiah, who's played 97 minutes of league football and also scored zero league goals. He's loaned out Dominic Samuel who went on to get six goals for Coventry before falling foul of another nasty injury.
But "Clarke's only had the notoriously difficult January transfer window and very little money to make signings though!” I hear you cry. “He's going to rebuild the squad this summer and sort out our problems!”
Well the first part of that is definitely true. Although he was able to put together deals for promising young quality in the form of Chalobah and Ake from Chelsea whilst he's been here.
So lets have a look at Clarke's record with attackers in the transfer market previously. Is there anything to suggest he knows what he's doing when it comes to bringing in new attackers?
Well Romelu Lukaku obviously sticks out, but I think it's unlikely Chelsea are going to loan us someone of his quality, especially seeing as Clarke's had four months without managing it already. Bamford, for example, seems unlikely to be sent to us to develop further given his performance at Middlesbrough.
Other than that it's Rosenberg, Anelka, Vydra and Anichebe. From what I can find at least.
Rosenberg – didn't score in 33 appearances
Anelka – didn't score in 7 appearances
Vydra – 3 goals in 25 appearances
Anichebe – 1 goal in 11 appearances
Well, er... that doesn't bode well. I didn't actually know what I was going to find when I posed that question. I didn't think it would be that bad though.
Will Clarke actually have that much money to make the changes necessary?
Okay, so we've shifted Drenthe and Guthrie. Yes, we can lose Kelly and Andersen. And either cut the wages of Pearce, Karacan and Federici or lose them too.
But our parachute payments drop significantly next season too. And how many of you would have any of those last five high in your 'want to move on list'? I know mine features Pogrebnyak, Blackman, Akpan and Robson-Kanu far more prominently. All here for another year courtesy of Zingaravich Financial Disasters Ltd.
Assuming someone isn't crazy enough to offer them a better deal.
What are Leeds up to at the moment? QPR like over-expensive wasters don't they?
So basically, money is unlikely to be available to pay for top class Championship strikers and wingers. (Please let the changes to FFP mean I'm wrong about this!)
Finally, two of our bright lights under Adkins at the start of the season have gone back faster than a stunt man on a wire under Clarke. He's already sold Cox once (at West Brom). He doesn't seem to fancy midfielders who can (sometimes) make creative passes - Norwood. And this also bodes badly for Aaron Kuhl, one of the major talents from the Academy.
Maybe I'm suffering more than I realise from a Wembley hangover. But I just can't see any good news on the horizon. → Yay, we've survived a relegation no one really expected to happen anyway!
Oh shit, what about next season without the abject Wigan, Millwall and Blackpool.
Er...Rotherham...Chesterfield if the win the play offs maybe ... er... Help!?!
Someone, anyone, please give me some genuine reasons to think something good might actually happen.