Extended-PhenotypeBrogueExtended-Phenotype I mean, it isn’t particularly cultist to believe the owners, privy to 99% more information than the average fan while wanting pretty much the same thing in terms of success, might sign a decent candidate.
If that’s Leam Richardson, fine. I get that what the owners want/can spend doesn’t always align with what the fans demand we spend, but it’s not really in their best interests to sign any old oxf*rd just because they are cheap. There must be something about him. I’m sure his record came up in conversation, and perhaps the owners think the some eras are more relevant than others.
The charge that people are “brainwashed” in favour of Couhig seems conversely applicable to those who preemptively insist he can do no right.
Just out of interest what has he done right.? Not trying to be contrary, but in his first 6 months what’s he done right?. And I get all the steadying the ship financially, I’m not interested in all that, that’s a given and something any new owner would have done. I’m on about the day to day operational decisions of running a football club. What are his achievements so far.
Appointed a new CEO who is inexperienced and not up to the job imo. Was naive to bring in someone like that with the club on its knees.
Weaker squad than last season. Over hyped expectations in the transfer market and where we would finish
Lost Nigel Gibbs missed out on our preferred number two and replaced him with Scott Marshall - who is awful.
Spent all his time going on about how the beer should be cold and the hot dogs hot. But here we are 6 months in nothing has changed on the match day experience and if anything his flagship policy of getting a good tannoy system has got worse
He’s fired a manager and looking to replace him with someone who looks like won’t be any sort of upgrade.
We’ve lost the greyhound car park
Match day tickets have increased
We’ve lost paper tickets
Car parking prices have increased
Ticket office opening hours have reduced
Can’t order tickets from the ticket office anymore.
Lots of redundancies
Stadium still looks run down
Royals TV is worse than having bbc berks as the official commentary
If someone could provide a list things he’s improved I’d be keen to know.
I think not giving him ANY credit for figuring out and persevering with the acquisition of the club, and arguing “anyone would have done that” is a bit dismissive. I don’t personally believe we could have or would have been bought without some form of legal trapping, and prising Reading from Dai’s clutches deserves recognition as a rather extraordinary achievement.
I’m not very knowledgeable on Joe Jacobson, but I think it’s worth remembering that much like player signings, Reading are working within the limitations of what we can afford and who wants to work here. It’s a bit early days to say this appointment is a poor one, and it kinda exemplifies my point about shit-tinted sunglasses where Rob is concerned. This needs to be a bad signing, therefore just say it is without much evidence.
A lot of arguments are made about the squad being weaker, but there are a couple of reasonable counters to that. First, same as above, we are working within limitations that naive fans operate without. Second, the players that left haven’t really gone on to shine elsewhere. Bindon, Smith and Knibbs aren’t really playing. This typically suggests a team being greater than the sum of its parts, and that team aspect is something a manager creates. Third, the players who have come in may be flopping, but they aren’t necessarily flops. O’Conner, Williams, Richie and Marriott have all been good acquisitions. Kyereewa, Lane and Doyle have a lot of promise that might be realised yet.
Your disappointment with Leam isn’t surprising, but it’s a bit disingenuous to use this signing as an example of a poor decision before we’ve even seen a game under his tenure. Reading are a side who can’t sign big name, top drawer managers. So we have to sign ones that aren’t obvious. Leam’s record is patchy, and that’s why we can get him. The hope is that the fantastic form he has had is what we will get here, rather than the bad form that keeps him from being a manager for teams above Reading. This has as much potential to be a shrewd signing as a poor one. We just don’t know yet.
As for prices going up and costs coming down - what did you expect for a club being stewarded out of a financial hole? It’s precisely this financial strategy that will make Reading a stable club again with a future.
In the end, I have no strong opinion on the owners one way or the other. It’s just too early to hysterically frame them as Satan’s spawn, and too soon to argue that any of their decisions have turned this club around. All we have is evidence of someone trying to beat a path for the club and while it may bend in unexpected or questionable directions sometimes we ultimately won’t know if the path was good until we get where we want to be, or fail to.
Let’s see how Leam gets on. I mean, it sounds like Rob sacked Hunt for the right reasons (he said himself Reading lacked an identity and a strategy). So Leam must have sold himself on this. He might bring some form out of struggling players like Lane and Doyle. He might start afresh and try Wing in a different position, closer to the action. He might give different players a chance. Who knows what positive effects he might have before we have a meltdown and use the signing as yet another stick to bash the owners with in what seems like a pretty relentless crusade of making sticks out of anything to hand.
I just think it’s kinda weird, tbh. Everything is binary these days - something has to either be amazing else it’s absolute toilet, someone has to heroically angelic else deplorably evil. It’s so Gen Z. I’m personally a fan of nuance, though I appreciate it’s a dirty word in 2025.
This is probably the best post on here in years
