Also helps if you have players of Dortmund's quality, m8

Hence: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36014783

I understand your point, but I think it's careless management to just throw them in the deep end because someone else hasn't been playing well if they're not ready.

I and most Reading fans would love for them to have a chance, as long as McDermott thinks they are good enough and ready, there's no point in playing them otherwise. Brian's not going to just throw them in for the sake of it, it could be bad for them.

Ah, I thought you were disagreeing.

Gunter out, Obita doubtful, Kermorgant unavailable as his wife is due to give birth any day now.

I'll go with Al-Habsi, Keown, Cooper, McShane, Taylor, McCleary, Norwood, Evans, Quinn, Cox, Vydra.

1-1.

genome Anyone else spot the helmet in Y25 sporting a Reading shirt with "Yaya Toure" on the back?

I despair, sometimes I really do.

Just bumping this as I found a pic

I'll be honest, I'm not sure what you're getting at Forbes

I know he has been one of our most successful managers in the past but were most of the foundations already put in place by Pardew and Coppell? No. After the 2008/9 season the core of Coppell's team was broken up and even further changed by Rodgers. In fact, Brian did very well considering the stat...

Maneki Neko good stuff.

needed doing once brian had seen the incident.
glad its been dealt with quickly

We move on.

Why weren't they called up then? You said if players were given squad numbers they certainly should be in contention for a first team call up.

IRONY ALERT

But it's fun

If they're given squad numbers they certainly should be in contention for a first team call up. Agreed. In fact I'm surprised Chelsea didn't play Mitchell Beeney, Ola Aina, Kasey Palmer, Fankaty Dabo, Bradley Collins and Charlie Colkett during their poor run of form. As you said, those 'mercenaries...

Charlie Watts saying McShane apologised to the media for how the incident looked but thinks it has been blown out of proportion, BM confirms both players have been fined.

It is absolutely understandable. Not all of those "30 players" are ready or even good enough for first team football. Looking at our first team squad, it's more like 23 players. Of those, two are long-term injured... so that's 21. Of those, 10 were brought in by Clarke and you could argue ...

Who's fault is that? Clarke built the squad, not Brian. And Clarke couldn't find the answer either, save for a run of a few games that coincided with one player's freak run of form. Considering Brian's past record I think he knows a thing or two about team building and should be only be judged once ...

I'm not sure it works like that though. If a squad that's been put together isn't the right mix of personalities, they will never gel into a good team. It's not Football Manager.

Agreed Ian.

Although, are we actually worse than other set of fans? I'm sure every club has its remtards.

An afterthought. With Gunter having been given a new contract (bad enough) I might not renew if Kanu also gets a new contract. Kanu's good form over the years has been spasmodic and his injury record is dreadful so for the club to give him a new contract says to me that there is no real ambition ot...

Buying my first season ticket only to find I'm sat next to a complete bunch of belmonting helmists.

:lol: +1. No idea why this phrase keeps cropping up when it's clearly nonsense. It's a squad that's underachieving for sure, but "potentially the best squad in the division"? Not even close. Yeah. Hurtado was a Chilean international. Other than a cameo appearance away at Rotherham I'm str...