Mark Bowen

[Stranded]

I'd like to know who appointed Ince as manager and why, I suspect being available and cheap ticked a couple of boxes, being a well known also helped. Given the limitations I imagine we had and the fact he achieved the goal of keeping us up last season I won't say it was a bad initial appointment but we now need a manager who, combined with their coaching staff/assistant can do a better job of managing/coaching players and choosing tactics.

Hopefully Mark Bowen will be involved in manager recruitment, If we go down we needs someone with League One experience, ideally someone who knows how to get a team promoted. If we stay up, we need someone with Championship experience who can keep us up or maybe a League 1 high flyer ready to step up a league.

It will have been the owner and the CEO I imagine - it may also have just been written into the deal when he took over on an interim basis that if he keeps us up, he would get a permanent contract.

[Chairman Mao]

Sorry if covered somewhere else (can't see it) but Bowen said last night we needed £12m player sales to achieve the business plan target.

How can that have been remotely possible?

Its obvious we only agreed to it to keep last season at -6

that seems like a very sensible decision to me.
at least gave us the chance to avoid relegation. twice

[South Coast Royal]

Am not sure that I buy into this "knows the club" stuff which is so often trotted out in football.
It is said that Spurs for example might appoint Ryan Mason because "he knows the club" and look how badly Lampard who "knows the club" has done at Chelsea, and at the top of the betting favourites for us are the inexperienced O'Shea, Hunt and Murty.
Why?
Because they know the club?

If ever a club needed somebody to come in and take a fresh look at everything then surely it is Reading.
Bowen has his job probably because he "knows the club" but his input may be questioned as he has played a recent role in our possible relegation.
It's all very well giving him credit for organisation and a plan, that is the bare minimum for anybody in his role and he may not have the full confidence of the owner, e.g. if he did suggest sacking Ince earlier so maybe he isn't the right guy in any role.

Anyway we will see in the coming weeks who will be taking our mess of a club forward and hopefully it doesn't include people who know the club.

[RoyalBlue]

Sorry if covered somewhere else (can't see it) but Bowen said last night we needed £12m player sales to achieve the business plan target.

How can that have been remotely possible?

Its obvious we only agreed to it to keep last season at -6

that seems like a very sensible decision to me.
at least gave us the chance to avoid relegation. twice

And we would've been successful in that if they'd bitten the bullet and got rid of Ince a lot sooner.

I believe that Bowen said last night that he knew of this season's 'inevitable 6 point deduction around the turn of the year' . Yet Ince didn't start talking about needing to go for wins, rather than draws until after it happened at the start of this month (needless to say he didn't secure any). By then he had thrown away countless winnable points with his utter negativity both on and off the pitch. Not only that, but most of the performances under him this year had been absolutely dire and there was no sign of him being capable of turning things around.

The moment he started abdicating all responsibility, claiming 'you can't coach decision making', throwing his players under the bus, rubbishing their abilities and pointing the finger at named individual players, the alarms bells should've been ringing crazily and he should've been fired.

Had that happened, I am confident that Noel and Eddie would've been able to do enough to steer us to safety.

[RoyalBlue]

I wasn't a great fan of Bowen as manager but I think he's doing a pretty good job in his current position in incredibly difficult circumstances.

[Royal_jimmy]

Echo what everyone else has said. I like Bowen and he sounds like he has a grip of the mess and how to turn us around. Let him execute that. He came back to have a hands on role with us so let him work his magic. I trust the bloke and thought he did well with the signings we brought in. Sadly a few of them haven't performed.

[Lower West]

I'd like to know who appointed Ince as manager and why,

The six point deduction this season was nailed on. Someone at the top gambled. As it was better option than 12 points last. Selling £12m of players would have decimated the squad to very little. You be hacked off if you were the one left to hang out to dry by your employer. The one left to face the wrath of fans and answer the questions of the media. Meanwhile the person pulling the strings remains silently in the shadows.

[PATRIQT]

I'd like to know who appointed Ince as manager and why

ISTR an article at the time stating that Ince was friends with Dai and Ince came in to do him a favour - hence why when Bowen (the hired football man) went to the owner (who hasn't a fcuking clue how to run a football club and has two folded football clubs as a result aready) stuck by his mate.

Dai is a waste of space!

[Snowflake Royal]

Basically sounds like we could have met the Business Plan if we'd sold Puscas for ~£2m as hoped, Ejaria for a couple million, Joao for about £5m and Moore for a couple.

But once Puscas obviously wasn't going anywhere and nor was Moore, there was zero point in trying any of the others.

Moore must be the most damagingly costly players in our history. Over the last three years he's cost us about £6m in wages, £8m in lost transfer revenue and in that time we've got about half a dozen good performances out of him.

It's basically an entire season’s revenue pissed up the wall on one player.

[tidus_mi2]

Yeah I get the feeling seeing the Bowen transcript is that there was probably hope high earners might be sold or maybe a youth player has a breakthrough and can be sold for big money, but the former failed because of long term injuries and Pisa failing to get promoted and the latter failed because, frankly, Ince put his faith in more experienced players and not youth players.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Basically sounds like we could have met the Business Plan if we'd sold Puscas for ~£2m as hoped, Ejaria for a couple million, Joao for about £5m and Moore for a couple.

But once Puscas obviously wasn't going anywhere and nor was Moore, there was zero point in trying any of the others.

Moore must be the most damagingly costly players in our history. Over the last three years he's cost us about £6m in wages, £8m in lost transfer revenue and in that time we've got about half a dozen good performances out of him.

It's basically an entire season’s revenue pissed up the wall on one player.

Just one of the many bad decisions made by the club ultimately there. I think if it wasn't for his injury issues over the last couple of seasons, particularly this one, I think we'd have moved Moore on. It would have made a big difference to our wage bill but it still wouldn't have stopped a points deduction. I don't think we'd have ever got those figures for the players above bar maybe Puscas and Ejaria. Couldn't see anybody paying £5m and a couple of million for 2 players out of contract this summer, it was never achievable.

[Hound]

Would love to know the entire cost of Aluko and Moore to the club

Though tbf we got a dodgy 3m loan fee for Aluko iirc

[tidus_mi2]

Would love to know the entire cost of Aluko and Moore to the club

Though tbf we got a dodgy 3m loan fee for Aluko iirc

I wonder if we got away with that one because we lost his services for the season, rather than Watford taking the piss by having Udinese buy Kamara for a ridiculous fee then loaning him back.

[Royal_jimmy]

Basically sounds like we could have met the Business Plan if we'd sold Puscas for ~£2m as hoped, Ejaria for a couple million, Joao for about £5m and Moore for a couple.

But once Puscas obviously wasn't going anywhere and nor was Moore, there was zero point in trying any of the others.

Moore must be the most damagingly costly players in our history. Over the last three years he's cost us about £6m in wages, £8m in lost transfer revenue and in that time we've got about half a dozen good performances out of him.

It's basically an entire season’s revenue pissed up the wall on one player.

Pretty much!

[Orion1871]

Basically sounds like we could have met the Business Plan if we'd sold Puscas for ~£2m as hoped, Ejaria for a couple million, Joao for about £5m and Moore for a couple.

But once Puscas obviously wasn't going anywhere and nor was Moore, there was zero point in trying any of the others.

Moore must be the most damagingly costly players in our history. Over the last three years he's cost us about £6m in wages, £8m in lost transfer revenue and in that time we've got about half a dozen good performances out of him.

It's basically an entire season’s revenue pissed up the wall on one player.

Not digging at Joao here, but there was no way anyone would pay that for a player with a year left on his contract and a pretty substantial injury record.

[Snowflake Royal]

Basically sounds like we could have met the Business Plan if we'd sold Puscas for ~£2m as hoped, Ejaria for a couple million, Joao for about £5m and Moore for a couple.

But once Puscas obviously wasn't going anywhere and nor was Moore, there was zero point in trying any of the others.

Moore must be the most damagingly costly players in our history. Over the last three years he's cost us about £6m in wages, £8m in lost transfer revenue and in that time we've got about half a dozen good performances out of him.

It's basically an entire season’s revenue pissed up the wall on one player.

Not digging at Joao here, but there was no way anyone would pay that for a player with a year left on his contract and a pretty substantial injury record.

I think he's the only one we could have got a couple for, the rest realistically 1 max, if not free.

[RoyalBlue]

Basically sounds like we could have met the Business Plan if we'd sold Puscas for ~£2m as hoped, Ejaria for a couple million, Joao for about £5m and Moore for a couple.

But once Puscas obviously wasn't going anywhere and nor was Moore, there was zero point in trying any of the others.

Moore must be the most damagingly costly players in our history. Over the last three years he's cost us about £6m in wages, £8m in lost transfer revenue and in that time we've got about half a dozen good performances out of him.

It's basically an entire season’s revenue pissed up the wall on one player.

Not digging at Joao here, but there was no way anyone would pay that for a player with a year left on his contract and a pretty substantial injury record.

Would've depended on whether one of the teams pushing for promotion (or maybe even fighting relegation) wanted a proven goalscorer (amongst some of the best in the division IMO but clearly not that of the clown Ince) to help them kick on. Not much use waiting for his contract to run down, if the need was immediate.

[Forbury Lion]

I'd like to know who appointed Ince as manager and why

ISTR an article at the time stating that Ince was friends with Dai and Ince came in to do him a favour - hence why when Bowen (the hired football man) went to the owner (who hasn't a fcuking clue how to run a football club and has two folded football clubs as a result aready) stuck by his mate.

Dai is a waste of space!

Let's hope he makes friends with some successful managers then.

[72 bus]

I'd like to know who appointed Ince as manager and why

ISTR an article at the time stating that Ince was friends with Dai and Ince came in to do him a favour - hence why when Bowen (the hired football man) went to the owner (who hasn't a fcuking clue how to run a football club and has two folded football clubs as a result aready) stuck by his mate.

Dai is a waste of space!

Where does this idea that Ince and Dai are friends come from ?
Ince lives in Bramhall just south of Manchester and does not speak Chinese, Dai lives in China and does not speak English.
Where did they meet ? How did they strike up this friendship (google translator) ?

[72 bus]

I wasn't a great fan of Bowen as manager but I think he's doing a pretty good job in his current position in incredibly difficult circumstances.

Doing well ?
Men's team relegated, Cat one status lost, Women's team most likely relegated as well