Ex Royals (No not prince Andrew)

[WestYorksRoyal]

Clarke played him out of position and he struggled, that combined with the expectation and pressure of the proce tag ruined his confidence to the point he couldn't finish his dinner.

He was always a fragile confidence player who was hit or miss, and Clarke basically did everything to ensure he was miss.

Just so many of Reading's name signings have been compromised by idiot management not playing them to their strengths eg Stam and Grabban.

Talking of Stam. He's on the new episode of the Gary Neville podcast, The Overlap. He's claiming he wasn't given enough money to spend in the summer after the play off final.

Wasn't that summer when the overspending on shit players started?

[Hendo]

Clarke played him out of position and he struggled, that combined with the expectation and pressure of the proce tag ruined his confidence to the point he couldn't finish his dinner.

He was always a fragile confidence player who was hit or miss, and Clarke basically did everything to ensure he was miss.

Just so many of Reading's name signings have been compromised by idiot management not playing them to their strengths eg Stam and Grabban.

Talking of Stam. He's on the new episode of the Gary Neville podcast, The Overlap. He's claiming he wasn't given enough money to spend in the summer after the play off final.

Lol, is he for real? Money was given, it was spent very poorly.

[Snowflake Royal]

Just so many of Reading's name signings have been compromised by idiot management not playing them to their strengths eg Stam and Grabban.

Talking of Stam. He's on the new episode of the Gary Neville podcast, The Overlap. He's claiming he wasn't given enough money to spend in the summer after the play off final.

Wasn't that summer when the overspending on shit players started?

No,that was in 2010 ish. Its just when it went to a new level.

Dai took us from a ~£28m wage bill we couldn't afford with parachute payments to a £44m wage bill we really couldn't afford without parachute payments.

We wouldn't spend ~£9m on Oliveira so instead we spent £7m on Aluko, brought in Mannone on a ridiculous wage, put Moore on PL money, signed Bacuna and Edwards and Barrow....

[Sutekh]

Clarke played him out of position and he struggled, that combined with the expectation and pressure of the proce tag ruined his confidence to the point he couldn't finish his dinner.

He was always a fragile confidence player who was hit or miss, and Clarke basically did everything to ensure he was miss.

Just so many of Reading's name signings have been compromised by idiot management not playing them to their strengths eg Stam and Grabban.

Talking of Stam. He's on the new episode of the Gary Neville podcast, The Overlap. He's claiming he wasn't given enough money to spend in the summer after the play off final.

He really is as clueless as he was as a manager. He was given money but it was spent really badly ESPECIALLY winding up spending £7.5m on Aluko when he was getting desperate. It was obvious to one and all the club needed a proper striker but yet wouldn't pay Norwich for Oliveira. MADE NO SENSE then or now nor anytime in between.

[Snowflake Royal]

It's a running theme of our failed managers who made dreadful signings and spent a lot to then claim if they'd spent more they'd have been fine.

Rodgers, Stam...

The common theme is that they’re ego maniacs who can't take responsibility for their own failings.

Oh, I'd have definitely been able to succeed in the Championship if I'd had a midtable PL budget rather than a bottom 6 PL budget.

Yeah right. Get back in your box failure.

[Hendo]

It's a running theme of our failed managers who made dreadful signings and spent a lot to then claim if they'd spent more they'd have been fine.

Rodgers, Stam...

The common theme is that they’re ego maniacs who can't take responsibility for their own failings.

Oh, I'd have definitely been able to succeed in the Championship if I'd had a midtable PL budget rather than a bottom 6 PL budget.

Yeah right. Get back in your box failure.

Rodgers may have a leg to stand on, ish.

Incomings that summer were;

Mills - decent, not too bad, not a huge amount spent on him
McAnuff - obviously very good, worth whatever we spent on him
Rasiak - no idea how much we spent on him, but poor investment
Cummings - can't imagine this was a big transfer and was a bit meh
Howard - blew hot and cold. On his day was worth the money, but again don't think it was a huge amount

After finishing 4th the season before, I think it is fair to say that more should've been done to replace the 4 very, very big holes left by Doyle, Hunt, Bikey and Harper.

And whilst he was a failure here, Rodgers is clearly a good manager as he has had success elsewhere.

[The Cap]

Talking of ex-players, and I know this has been mentioned on another thread, Kits was really giving it some after last night's game. He certainly wasn't holding back and, personally, I thought it was great to hear somebody as straight talking and passionate as he is. Fair play to the bloke. Even the last caller was fired up and referred to Selles and the team's lack of a recognised system and identity. I know it's easy to have a pop at Selles all the time and, clearly, a lot of the club's issues go back to the current ownership fiasco. Still great to hear that passion coming through though.

[Snowflake Royal]

It's a running theme of our failed managers who made dreadful signings and spent a lot to then claim if they'd spent more they'd have been fine.

Rodgers, Stam...

The common theme is that they’re ego maniacs who can't take responsibility for their own failings.

Oh, I'd have definitely been able to succeed in the Championship if I'd had a midtable PL budget rather than a bottom 6 PL budget.

Yeah right. Get back in your box failure.

Rodgers may have a leg to stand on, ish.

Incomings that summer were;

Mills - decent, not too bad, not a huge amount spent on him
McAnuff - obviously very good, worth whatever we spent on him
Rasiak - no idea how much we spent on him, but poor investment
Cummings - can't imagine this was a big transfer and was a bit meh
Howard - blew hot and cold. On his day was worth the money, but again don't think it was a huge amount

After finishing 4th the season before, I think it is fair to say that more should've been done to replace the 4 very, very big holes left by Doyle, Hunt, Bikey and Harper.

And whilst he was a failure here, Rodgers is clearly a good manager as he has had success elsewhere.

Mills was equal record signing back then. £2.5m ish. McAnuff about £800k, Rasiak about £800k, Howard about £500k.

It was in our top three biggest transfer windows at the time.

[Hendo]

It's a running theme of our failed managers who made dreadful signings and spent a lot to then claim if they'd spent more they'd have been fine.

Rodgers, Stam...

The common theme is that they’re ego maniacs who can't take responsibility for their own failings.

Oh, I'd have definitely been able to succeed in the Championship if I'd had a midtable PL budget rather than a bottom 6 PL budget.

Yeah right. Get back in your box failure.

Rodgers may have a leg to stand on, ish.

Incomings that summer were;

Mills - decent, not too bad, not a huge amount spent on him
McAnuff - obviously very good, worth whatever we spent on him
Rasiak - no idea how much we spent on him, but poor investment
Cummings - can't imagine this was a big transfer and was a bit meh
Howard - blew hot and cold. On his day was worth the money, but again don't think it was a huge amount

After finishing 4th the season before, I think it is fair to say that more should've been done to replace the 4 very, very big holes left by Doyle, Hunt, Bikey and Harper.

And whilst he was a failure here, Rodgers is clearly a good manager as he has had success elsewhere.

Mills was equal record signing back then. £2.5m ish. McAnuff about £800k, Rasiak about £800k, Howard about £500k.

It was in our top three biggest transfer windows at the time.

That's fine, but it is all relative, right? It might've been one of our biggest transfer windows in terms of money spent, but compared to other teams?

We should've really pushed on after the finish of the previous season and given the players that left, maybe it should've been our biggest.

[Snowflake Royal]

Rodgers may have a leg to stand on, ish.

Incomings that summer were;

Mills - decent, not too bad, not a huge amount spent on him
McAnuff - obviously very good, worth whatever we spent on him
Rasiak - no idea how much we spent on him, but poor investment
Cummings - can't imagine this was a big transfer and was a bit meh
Howard - blew hot and cold. On his day was worth the money, but again don't think it was a huge amount

After finishing 4th the season before, I think it is fair to say that more should've been done to replace the 4 very, very big holes left by Doyle, Hunt, Bikey and Harper.

And whilst he was a failure here, Rodgers is clearly a good manager as he has had success elsewhere.

Mills was equal record signing back then. £2.5m ish. McAnuff about £800k, Rasiak about £800k, Howard about £500k.

It was in our top three biggest transfer windows at the time.

That's fine, but it is all relative, right? It might've been one of our biggest transfer windows in terms of money spent, but compared to other teams?

We should've really pushed on after the finish of the previous season and given the players that left, maybe it should've been our biggest.

Our wage bill was right up there at the top of the division and ~£5m in transfer fees would have been in the top half dozen in the division at the time.

We needed to spend well. Rodgers couldn’t spend well, but he could spend a lot and fail with it. He could have spent twice as much and done not much better.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Talking of ex-players, and I know this has been mentioned on another thread, Kits was really giving it some after last night's game. He certainly wasn't holding back and, personally, I thought it was great to hear somebody as straight talking and passionate as he is. Fair play to the bloke. Even the last caller was fired up and referred to Selles and the team's lack of a recognised system and identity. I know it's easy to have a pop at Selles all the time and, clearly, a lot of the club's issues go back to the current ownership fiasco. Still great to hear that passion coming through though.

There was a rumour that Kits was involved with a US consortium which fell behind Genevra. Would be a great outcome but clearly they couldn't match Genevra's bid.

I thought his criticisms last night were missguided. He talked about low risk passes that go nowhere, but we weren't even managing that in the 2nd half. We simply couldn't control the ball; low risk possession as he described would have been an improvement.

[The Cap]

Talking of ex-players, and I know this has been mentioned on another thread, Kits was really giving it some after last night's game. He certainly wasn't holding back and, personally, I thought it was great to hear somebody as straight talking and passionate as he is. Fair play to the bloke. Even the last caller was fired up and referred to Selles and the team's lack of a recognised system and identity. I know it's easy to have a pop at Selles all the time and, clearly, a lot of the club's issues go back to the current ownership fiasco. Still great to hear that passion coming through though.

There was a rumour that Kits was involved with a US consortium which fell behind Genevra. Would be a great outcome but clearly they couldn't match Genevra's bid.

I thought his criticisms last night were missguided. He talked about low risk passes that go nowhere, but we weren't even managing that in the 2nd half. We simply couldn't control the ball; low risk possession as he described would have been an improvement.

Always good to hear different views and replies. And, in the main, I'd say that the crew on this board offer well informed and educated responses.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Think Jaap getting harsh press for these comments. He basically said we signed the wrong players, and he's right.

His successful team lost 3 massive players in Al-Habsi, Williams and Kermogant (okay he featured but it wasn't the same). I do wonder if he could have retained a decent level with better recruitment.

[Hendo]

Think Jaap getting harsh press for these comments. He basically said we signed the wrong players, and he's right.

His successful team lost 3 massive players in Al-Habsi, Williams and Kermogant (okay he featured but it wasn't the same). I do wonder if he could have retained a decent level with better recruitment.

If that's what he said, then he is bang on - however that isn't what the OP said.

[Clyde1998]

Rodgers may have a leg to stand on, ish.

Incomings that summer were;

Mills - decent, not too bad, not a huge amount spent on him
McAnuff - obviously very good, worth whatever we spent on him
Rasiak - no idea how much we spent on him, but poor investment
Cummings - can't imagine this was a big transfer and was a bit meh
Howard - blew hot and cold. On his day was worth the money, but again don't think it was a huge amount

After finishing 4th the season before, I think it is fair to say that more should've been done to replace the 4 very, very big holes left by Doyle, Hunt, Bikey and Harper.

And whilst he was a failure here, Rodgers is clearly a good manager as he has had success elsewhere.

But at the same time we were cutting costs following relegation from the Premier League. That season was the final year of parachute payments and we had to cash in on our better players; you were never going to be able to replace a Kevin Doyle or Stephen Hunt with a player of the same quality when you were in the Championship - especially when cutting costs. We made a net transfer profit that summer: Doyle (£6.5m); Hunt (£3.5m); Bikey (£2.8m). I imagine the players we brought in were on lower wages as well.

If you look at our most used team under Rodgers - Federici; Cummings, Pearce, Cisse, Bertrand; Kebe, Karacan, Tabb, Sigurdsson, McAnuff; Church - how many of those players were regulars in the previous season? A decent proportion of them weren't experienced at first team level.

We ended up making a profit on Mills and he did well for us; McAnuff captained us to the Premier League and was a regular throughout his time with us; Cummings was our regular RB in that promotion season after looking like he'd be a complete dud prior to that. Howard was a perfectly acceptable signing given we signed him for £500k - did well when he was a regular for us. Rasiak is the only poor signing of the bunch, but he wasn't our primary striking target that summer (Tommy Smith was) - not surprising the 'panic' signing was the poor one. Of the loans: Ryan Bertrand was a good signing; Darren O'Dea was poor and ended up out of the team after six or seven games. I think all our signings (except Bertrand) were made after the season had started - so had to learn the ropes on the job.

Can't complain too much about the transfer business we did with the context in place. We obviously were going to be weaker than the previous season and it would take a bit of time for the new squad to gel and adapt. Ironically Rodgers got sacked when things were starting to pick up - likely because of that interview.

[Clyde1998]

A very good Fulham side though it has to be said. Couldn't quite believe Reading were 2-0 up at half time esp. as I thought looked a bit "iffy' at the back and so it proved, cue fairly uncommon loss of two goal lead as quick as possible on restart. If only Clarke hadn't have been such a total plank he might have made something of that season (and have become a favourite Reading manager).

Thing is, it was Clarke's misuse of Vydra that ruined him here. And Blackman's purple patch was already over before Clarke left.

Had he stayed, we'd have drifted down the table. John, Piazon and co were only interested when we were looking at promotion, once that was out they downed tools

Don't agree. Vydra had several chances in front of goal that season and he just couldn't finish any of them.

One that sticks out was against Wolves away when HRK put him though one on one. He was clear of the defenders, misjudged the pass, took a poor touch sideways and the defenders got back to stop him.

The one I remember was at Milton Keynes where he basically missed an open goal. His finishing was very poor with us.

I think we never used him correctly here though. He was being used as an out-and-out striker, when I think he was always the deeper striker at Watford - behind Deeney. I remember multiple occasions where he was mentally on a different level to the players around him - trying quick passes which those around him couldn't read or anticipate.

[Clyde1998]

Talking of Stam. He's on the new episode of the Gary Neville podcast, The Overlap. He's claiming he wasn't given enough money to spend in the summer after the play off final.

Wasn't that summer when the overspending on shit players started?

No,that was in 2010 ish. Its just when it went to a new level.

Dai took us from a ~£28m wage bill we couldn't afford with parachute payments to a £44m wage bill we really couldn't afford without parachute payments.

We wouldn't spend ~£9m on Oliveira so instead we spent £7m on Aluko, brought in Mannone on a ridiculous wage, put Moore on PL money, signed Bacuna and Edwards and Barrow....

We couldn't afford that wage bill with parachute payments, let alone without - squad was overly bloated, on stupidly high wages and signing the wrong type of players for ridiculous fees.

We didn't make any signings under the Thais where you're thinking 'WTF are we doing?' (you could understand why we signed certain players for the price we did) but that's been constant problem under Dai.

[Snowflake Royal]

Wasn't that summer when the overspending on shit players started?

No,that was in 2010 ish. Its just when it went to a new level.

Dai took us from a ~£28m wage bill we couldn't afford with parachute payments to a £44m wage bill we really couldn't afford without parachute payments.

We wouldn't spend ~£9m on Oliveira so instead we spent £7m on Aluko, brought in Mannone on a ridiculous wage, put Moore on PL money, signed Bacuna and Edwards and Barrow....

We couldn't afford that wage bill with parachute payments, let alone without - squad was overly bloated, on stupidly high wages and signing the wrong type of players for ridiculous fees.

We didn't make any signings under the Thais where you're thinking 'WTF are we doing?' (you could understand why we signed certain players for the price we did) but that's been constant problem under Dai.

Yep, that's what I said.

The Thais rescued us from Vibrac and got the wage bill down to mid £20ms ish, on the way to becoming almost sustainable again, before Dai immediately threw it back up to as high as it had ever been in the PL.

[Sutekh]

And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for all those meddling useless managers he kept appointing.

[Snowflake Royal]

It's staggering how with only a handful of better decisions we could be

Sell Moore for ~£8m - net gain ~£14m
Don't buy Aluko - net gain ~£8m
Sell Loader - net gain ~£3m
Sell Swift - net gain ~£5m
Don't buy Ejaria - net gain ~£4m
Don't buy Puscas - net gain ~£3m

I make that almost £40m better off and we only really miss Swift's contribution. Or from another point of view, 6 decisions cost us twice the value of the club.