Ince, Rae and Bowen... how whelmed are you with their appointment?

[Jackson Corner]

Up until the last 3 games I would have been happy to let him have a go. But his responses after losing three nil to the side with the worst home record in the championship, and then a pitiful performance in our final home when we didn’t even manage a single shot on target, and then an embarrassing defeat to a truly laughable goal away at Luton. All three games he seem to laugh off as it didn’t matter. Well it matters to all the fans the forked out a lot of money to watch those games, when you’re a professional manager footballer you should always give your best we didn’t and he seemed more than happy with that.

[skipper]

Generally speaking, happy with it all.

Last season might be the foundation we needed. We've been shook and now we have a permanent team installed, I'm quietly optimistic for a ream who challenge a bit more. No more roll overs. Let's get the best we can out of the players we have.

[Royal_jimmy]

Up until the last 3 games I would have been happy to let him have a go. But his responses after losing three nil to the side with the worst home record in the championship, and then a pitiful performance in our final home when we didn’t even manage a single shot on target, and then an embarrassing defeat to a truly laughable goal away at Luton. All three games he seem to laugh off as it didn’t matter. Well it matters to all the fans the forked out a lot of money to watch those games, when you’re a professional manager footballer you should always give your best we didn’t and he seemed more than happy with that.

+1 with this, there were shades of Pauno in his interviews. He also leaves his subs too late in games. If we stay up next year it'll be a miracle.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Up until the last 3 games I would have been happy to let him have a go. But his responses after losing three nil to the side with the worst home record in the championship, and then a pitiful performance in our final home when we didn’t even manage a single shot on target, and then an embarrassing defeat to a truly laughable goal away at Luton. All three games he seem to laugh off as it didn’t matter. Well it matters to all the fans the forked out a lot of money to watch those games, when you’re a professional manager footballer you should always give your best we didn’t and he seemed more than happy with that.

+1 with this, there were shades of Pauno in his interviews. He also leaves his subs too late in games. If we stay up next year it'll be a miracle.

I think it's too early to tell at this stage if staying up would be a miracle or not. We're certainly up against it with ooc players and restrictions, but I don't see why we can't build a competitive team to stay in the league. There is also a sense of what business every other team in the league does as well, who loses/keeps players, points deductions elsewhere etc.

I'm very much reserving my judgement of what to expect for this season until the transfer window is closed. Being realistic though, I'd imagine, no matter how good/bad of a summer we have, we will end up finishing anywhere from 23rd-17th.

[Stranded]

Up until the last 3 games I would have been happy to let him have a go. But his responses after losing three nil to the side with the worst home record in the championship, and then a pitiful performance in our final home when we didn’t even manage a single shot on target, and then an embarrassing defeat to a truly laughable goal away at Luton. All three games he seem to laugh off as it didn’t matter. Well it matters to all the fans the forked out a lot of money to watch those games, when you’re a professional manager footballer you should always give your best we didn’t and he seemed more than happy with that.

+1 with this, there were shades of Pauno in his interviews. He also leaves his subs too late in games. If we stay up next year it'll be a miracle.

Whilst disappointed with the ending, I am making absolutely no judgement on next season until we have an inkling of what the side looks like next year.

Was Ince playing the same formation as VP because that was all that would really work with the players we had? Will the club recruit to allow a shift in formation, i.e. a move to a 3-4-3 - will we bring in a striker who can either compete with or compliment Joao (if he stays).

Which of the players will return, who will come in on loan, will our free agent signings be players on the way down or on the way up?

For possibly the first time in a long time, it can be argued that the end of last season will have little impact on the start of the next.

[Chairman Mao]

not entirely sure which manager some people think would want to come here - given the state of the club, the state of the finances, the likely wage we can offer them, the inability to sign players/spend any money, and the liklihood we will lose half our players in the summer.

so id settle for a manager/DOF who can stabilise the club/team, instil a bit of mental and physical fortitude in whatever players we do have, work hard in the loan and free transfer market, come up with a system/formation that is hard to beat,work to improve the youth players we will need to utilise, and get us through this oxf*rd nightmare without relegation/going out of business

[Ascotexgunner]

Well it's not a great start from Bowen saying he made a mistake with Puscas, when there's every chance that player will be back next season. Pisa have been told he is theirs for 4 mill, but it depends whether they get promoted.
Currently they can't afford him.
Just wondered would anyone here want to give him another go. Personally I think he can do a job but we needed better wide players at the time. We seem to have made a bit of progress in that area with Ince probably staying and maybe keeping the loanees. Would he be worth another go?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Well it's not a great start from Bowen saying he made a mistake with Puscas, when there's every chance that player will be back next season. Pisa have been told he is theirs for 4 mill, but it depends whether they get promoted.
Currently they can't afford him.
Just wondered would anyone here want to give him another go. Personally I think he can do a job but we needed better wide players at the time. We seem to have made a bit of progress in that area with Ince probably staying and maybe keeping the loanees. Would he be worth another go?

I would for his ability and the potential that he has shown, particularly in a two up top, however I think the financial situation dictates that we need to try and get him off the wage bill. He's had a decent record for Pisa, so there may be some suitors in Italy for him.

I think I read somewhere that Bowen specified it was "the club" that made an error with Puscas as we didn't do enough research on him before we signed him, which would sound plausible. I'm not sure how much influence he would have had over transfers at that time.

[Ascotexgunner]

Well it's not a great start from Bowen saying he made a mistake with Puscas, when there's every chance that player will be back next season. Pisa have been told he is theirs for 4 mill, but it depends whether they get promoted.
Currently they can't afford him.
Just wondered would anyone here want to give him another go. Personally I think he can do a job but we needed better wide players at the time. We seem to have made a bit of progress in that area with Ince probably staying and maybe keeping the loanees. Would he be worth another go?

I would for his ability and the potential that he has shown, particularly in a two up top, however I think the financial situation dictates that we need to try and get him off the wage bill. He's had a decent record for Pisa, so there may be some suitors in Italy for him.

I think I read somewhere that Bowen specified it was "the club" that made an error with Puscas as we didn't do enough research on him before we signed him, which would sound plausible. I'm not sure how much influence he would have had over transfers at that time.

You are indeed correct.

He said: “It was put to me that there was this young player at Inter Milan who had done well with Romania’s Under-21s’. Cardiff were very interested in him, as were Birmingham City.

“The associates of the owner said to go and get him. I think in hindsight, they probably didn’t do enough background and homework on the player.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Well it's not a great start from Bowen saying he made a mistake with Puscas, when there's every chance that player will be back next season. Pisa have been told he is theirs for 4 mill, but it depends whether they get promoted.
Currently they can't afford him.
Just wondered would anyone here want to give him another go. Personally I think he can do a job but we needed better wide players at the time. We seem to have made a bit of progress in that area with Ince probably staying and maybe keeping the loanees. Would he be worth another go?

I would for his ability and the potential that he has shown, particularly in a two up top, however I think the financial situation dictates that we need to try and get him off the wage bill. He's had a decent record for Pisa, so there may be some suitors in Italy for him.

I think I read somewhere that Bowen specified it was "the club" that made an error with Puscas as we didn't do enough research on him before we signed him, which would sound plausible. I'm not sure how much influence he would have had over transfers at that time.

You are indeed correct.

He said: “It was put to me that there was this young player at Inter Milan who had done well with Romania’s Under-21s’. Cardiff were very interested in him, as were Birmingham City.

“The associates of the owner said to go and get him. I think in hindsight, they probably didn’t do enough background and homework on the player.

I remember being on holiday at the time and I was sat next to a lad with a Birmingham City shirt on the day after Puscas tore Cardiff (also ironically) a new one. That lad was absolutely fuming that Birmingham didn't sign him at the time, bet he's laughing somewhere now.

He told me he was so sure that Birmingham were going to sign him before we did and thought he'd be the difference between either of the two clubs being mid table or promoted.

[Hendo]

I would for his ability and the potential that he has shown, particularly in a two up top, however I think the financial situation dictates that we need to try and get him off the wage bill. He's had a decent record for Pisa, so there may be some suitors in Italy for him.

I think I read somewhere that Bowen specified it was "the club" that made an error with Puscas as we didn't do enough research on him before we signed him, which would sound plausible. I'm not sure how much influence he would have had over transfers at that time.

You are indeed correct.

He said: “It was put to me that there was this young player at Inter Milan who had done well with Romania’s Under-21s’. Cardiff were very interested in him, as were Birmingham City.

“The associates of the owner said to go and get him. I think in hindsight, they probably didn’t do enough background and homework on the player.

I remember being on holiday at the time and I was sat next to a lad with a Birmingham City shirt on the day after Puscas tore Cardiff (also ironically) a new one. That lad was absolutely fuming that Birmingham didn't sign him at the time, bet he's laughing somewhere now.

He told me he was so sure that Birmingham were going to sign him before we did and thought he'd be the difference between either of the two clubs being mid table or promoted.

Jeez, his performance v Cardiff that day was unreal. Thought we had an incredible player on our hands. I still think missing the 1-on-1 just before he got subbed got to him quite badly, as did the miss v Blackpool this year.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Yeah it was, it was a great week for me, class holiday and it finally looked like we turned a corner with our results. Unfortunately, that only seemed to last a week.

[Forbury Lion]

In Ince we have stability, I can only imagine what other candidates were on the shortlist but if recent history is anything to go by they would have less experience of this country, this league and this club than Ince so I'm glad they went with him.

Bowen, He's got experience here, he's spoken of the mistakes, he knows changes are required and the owners seem to value his opinion (they've hired him twice), so again better than some of the other options they could have gone with, As long as he doesn't fancy appointing himself manager he should do okay (probably be more committed than ever since it's a second chance)

[Snowball]

Up until the last 3 games I would have been happy to let him have a go. But his responses after losing three nil to the side with the worst home record in the championship, and then a pitiful performance in our final home when we didn’t even manage a single shot on target, and then an embarrassing defeat to a truly laughable goal away at Luton. All three games he seem to laugh off as it didn’t matter. Well it matters to all the fans the forked out a lot of money to watch those games, when you’re a professional manager footballer you should always give your best we didn’t and he seemed more than happy with that.

Agreed

I think the idea that the players "took a rest" with a sigh of relief
is a too-easy get-out clause.

The fact is he was manager for TWO 3-defeats in a row sequences, and while he MIGHT turn out to be OK, there is nothing to say he is GOOD. As the stats clearly show, his points per game were very similar to Pauno this season and a lot worse than Pauno last season.

Personally, I suspect he is interim manager extended.


I will be delighted if he succeeds and we end up clear of the bottom three, but I remain to be convinced.

I have liked the (apparent) vibe and good-things-being-said about Bowen but I'm already getting deja vu.

[paultheroyal]

I like Ince's talk. We have fire in the dressing room. It will now become his team. He is here very early in the process ready for next season. He will have a style of play. He got us the points needed to stay up when most said we are doomed. What's not to like?

I am actually really looking forward to next season. New faces, probably a record number of new players, exciting times. So to answer the original thread title, yeah, i am happy with some joy.

[TiagoIlori]

It shows a severe lack of ambition. No other way of putting it. When we have Ainsworth (who I wouldn’t have taken personally by the way) and also Warnock a few months back openly saying they'd consider the job, I struggle to believe we couldn’t have found a much better manager than Ince.

[Lower West]

Well it's not a great start from Bowen saying he made a mistake with Puscas,

That comment also related to the broader recruitment structure within the club. Puscas has scored 8 times in 19 outings for Pisa. Square peg in round hole at Reading.

[Stranded]

With Brian Carey joining today as Head of Recruitment, I am starting to get very very whelmed by what the club is looking to do.

As I've said, if Ince just ends up as a catalyst for change then he will be one of the more important appointments in years. The club seem to be putting everything in place to allow Ince to just focus on getting whatever squad we have in competitive shape.

[paultheroyal]

With Brian Carey joining today as Head of Recruitment, I am starting to get very very whelmed by what the club is looking to do.

As I've said, if Ince just ends up as a catalyst for change then he will be one of the more important appointments in years. The club seem to be putting everything in place to allow Ince to just focus on getting whatever squad we have in competitive shape.

Absolutely - and what a time to appoint a Head of Recruitment....

[Nameless]

With Brian Carey joining today as Head of Recruitment, I am starting to get very very whelmed by what the club is looking to do.

As I've said, if Ince just ends up as a catalyst for change then he will be one of the more important appointments in years. The club seem to be putting everything in place to allow Ince to just focus on getting whatever squad we have in competitive shape.

Absolutely - and what a time to appoint a Head of Recruitment....

When we aren’t allowed to recruit anyone ?