An analysis of Reading's current situation

[Ian Royal]

Stock Exchange report today values Autotrader at £4-billion. Just saying.

What are you saying ?

Just dreaming really that maybe if SJM had held onto Autotrader and flogged it now, he could have been the benevolent billionaire we always wanted.

I suspect he didn't have the international connections or internet savvy to have got it to this position.

[Forbury Lion]

Just dreaming really that maybe if SJM had held onto Autotrader and flogged it now, he could have been the benevolent billionaire we always wanted.

and if I thought of facebook before Mark Zuckerberg I might be the benevolent billionaire I always wanted to be.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, You could say selling up for £240m or whatever and living off that for life was a win, whereas working on for 20 more years building it up into a billion pound business may give you more money that you don't need but less time to spend it and enjoy it.

[Tankite]

Stam is the new Manager and he's bringing in dutch backroom staff.

There is now a large dutch presence at the Club and something started to nag at me.

Someone will know, is it Thailand that has a longstanding tie up with Holland since the days of the Dutch East Indies?

[Nameless]

I believe several Asian countries would have trading links with the Dutch East India Company, and also with British, Portugese and French equivalents. I think the Dutch link would be stronger with Indonesia though.

[Lower West]

There is now a large dutch presence at the Club and something started to nag at me.

Perhaps Heineken will the new club sponsors?

[CountryRoyal]

Stam is the new Manager and he's bringing in dutch backroom staff.

There is now a large dutch presence at the Club and something started to nag at me.

Someone will know, is it Thailand that has a longstanding tie up with Holland since the days of the Dutch East Indies?

Nope, Indonesia.

[Top Flight]

It's not really a good thing that there will be such a large Dutch presence at the club. Holland, with a talented side didn't even qualify for the Euros. Some footballing experts they are.

[Nameless]

It's not really a good thing that there will be such a large Dutch presence at the club. Holland, with a talented side didn't even qualify for the Euros. Some footballing experts they are.

Scotland aren't there either, should we think of a ban on Scottish players ?

[Old Biscuitman]

It's not really a good thing that there will be such a large Dutch presence at the club. Holland, with a talented side didn't even qualify for the Euros. Some footballing experts they are.

Scotland aren't there either, should we think of a ban on Scottish players ?

Now there's an idea.

[CountryRoyal]

It's not really a good thing that there will be such a large Dutch presence at the club. Holland, with a talented side didn't even qualify for the Euros. Some footballing experts they are.

Jesus Christ. Do you actually ever think before you post?

The worrying thing is that it does seem you've applied some warped unique logic to it.

[AthleticoSpizz]

are the Dutch going to buy-out whats left over from the Thais and sell off the bicycle stands for development?

[Lower West]

are the Dutch going to buy-out whats left over from the Thais and sell off the bicycle stands for development?

Reading will be the new Ajax youth academy.

[AthleticoSpizz]

More like the "ajax that scours" lane

For those that are old enough to remember the adverts

[Royal1988]

So as Jaap Stam is all but confirmed as our new manager, I now bring you part two of my analysis (don’t worry it is not as long as the first!) Well not so much of an analysis now, as it is more my thoughts, as we are now looking to the future.

This appointment raises the question that when it seems that everyone knew he would be our new manager two weeks ago, why has it taken this long to announce it? Is it just that they had to agree terms with him? Or is it another example of the owners having to get together, or were they just waiting for Nigel Howe to come back from holiday to formally announce it while everything behind the scenes has been going ahead for the last two weeks? If it has indeed taken two weeks to get anything done, then at least this lengthy process will not have had any impact this time, as everyone is on holiday, or busy at the Euros. I hope that the answer is the latter, and in the last 2 weeks, JS has been busy preparing for his new role. While the timing has been convenient this time for this lengthy period between appointment and announcement, it would be rather different if this happens again during the season, as then we could be needlessly without a manager for vital matches. I also hope that the decision to change now is so that we will not change mid season once again.
When I first heard Jaap Stam was the likely candidate, I was against it as he had no experience in senior management, let alone the Championship. After taking a step back however, I see that this may not necessarily be a bad thing. It means that he will not come with any pre-conceived ideas and may work with what he has rather than trying to turn the team into something that they are not. Plus, his experience with youth may be useful (and I and not saying that Brian McDermott would not have been good with the young players given time). However, I still worry that his inexperience will ultimately turn out to be a hindrance, not because of the man himself, but because gaining this experience will take time, and I fear that he will be judged on his results early on. If they are not very good, the owners could decide to get rid, and we will be back to square one. I have seen both one and two year contracts mentioned. A one year contract would suggest that they indeed do attend to go down this route.

I mentioned before that one of our biggest problems last season was our mental strength, from the Fulham game onward, often not being able to see out wins, or hold onto draws. While he undoubtedly has this mental strength, it is something that can’t really be coached, you either have it or you don’t, so while we have lost several players from last season, we do still have some and so JS may well have the same problem as our last two managers unless he is backed by the Thais and gets some new players to mix with the youngsters and the remaining players. Failure to do this may not help his cause, or our results.

You may have noticed a theme emerging here. It is of course, give him time. And this brings me back to my earlier point about togetherness. While I was not the biggest fan of getting Jaap Stam as manager, as long as there are no extenuating circumstances such as his training methods injuring a lot of our players (I’m not saying it will, but it happens). As long as he has the dressing room and can motivate the players while they still have something to play for, then I will get behind him, and support him, even if our results are not very good. I hope that we can all do the same, even those who wanted BM to stay, and not start calling for him to go after a run of a few bad results. Then hopefully, if we can all back the dutchman, especially when things are not going our way, it will help the team too, and maybe, just maybe it might help convince the owners to stick with a manger and bring some stability back to the club.

[CountryRoyal]

So as Jaap Stam is all but confirmed as our new manager, I now bring you part two of my analysis (don’t worry it is not as long as the first!) Well not so much of an analysis now, as it is more my thoughts, as we are now looking to the future.

This appointment raises the question that when it seems that everyone knew he would be our new manager two weeks ago, why has it taken this long to announce it? Is it just that they had to agree terms with him? Or is it another example of the owners having to get together, or were they just waiting for Nigel Howe to come back from holiday to formally announce it while everything behind the scenes has been going ahead for the last two weeks? If it has indeed taken two weeks to get anything done, then at least this lengthy process will not have had any impact this time, as everyone is on holiday, or busy at the Euros. I hope that the answer is the latter, and in the last 2 weeks, JS has been busy preparing for his new role. While the timing has been convenient this time for this lengthy period between appointment and announcement, it would be rather different if this happens again during the season, as then we could be needlessly without a manager for vital matches. I also hope that the decision to change now is so that we will not change mid season once again.
When I first heard Jaap Stam was the likely candidate, I was against it as he had no experience in senior management, let alone the Championship. After taking a step back however, I see that this may not necessarily be a bad thing. It means that he will not come with any pre-conceived ideas and may work with what he has rather than trying to turn the team into something that they are not. Plus, his experience with youth may be useful (and I and not saying that Brian McDermott would not have been good with the young players given time). However, I still worry that his inexperience will ultimately turn out to be a hindrance, not because of the man himself, but because gaining this experience will take time, and I fear that he will be judged on his results early on. If they are not very good, the owners could decide to get rid, and we will be back to square one. I have seen both one and two year contracts mentioned. A one year contract would suggest that they indeed do attend to go down this route.

I mentioned before that one of our biggest problems last season was our mental strength, from the Fulham game onward, often not being able to see out wins, or hold onto draws. While he undoubtedly has this mental strength, it is something that can’t really be coached, you either have it or you don’t, so while we have lost several players from last season, we do still have some and so JS may well have the same problem as our last two managers unless he is backed by the Thais and gets some new players to mix with the youngsters and the remaining players. Failure to do this may not help his cause, or our results.

You may have noticed a theme emerging here. It is of course, give him time. And this brings me back to my earlier point about togetherness. While I was not the biggest fan of getting Jaap Stam as manager, as long as there are no extenuating circumstances such as his training methods injuring a lot of our players (I’m not saying it will, but it happens). As long as he has the dressing room and can motivate the players while they still have something to play for, then I will get behind him, and support him, even if our results are not very good. I hope that we can all do the same, even those who wanted BM to stay, and not start calling for him to go after a run of a few bad results. Then hopefully, if we can all back the dutchman, especially when things are not going our way, it will help the team too, and maybe, just maybe it might help convince the owners to stick with a manger and bring some stability back to the club.

There was me thinking part 1 was long enough it didn't need a part 2. Silly me.

[paddy20]

Problem with McDermott was that there didn't seem to be any direction. You couldn't see what he was trying to achieve. With Stam we should have an enthusiastic young manager that has a Dutch philosophy of playing good tough football. If the fans can understand what their manager is trying to do, even if it takes time, they are a lot happier.
Its now down to the Thais to provide some decent funds to get a decent team together.

[Sutekh]

Problem with McDermott was that there didn't seem to be any direction. You couldn't see what he was trying to achieve. With Stam we should have an enthusiastic young manager that has a Dutch philosophy of playing good tough football. If the fans can understand what their manager is trying to do, even if it takes time, they are a lot happier.
Its now down to the Thais to provide some decent funds to get a decent team together.

Something obviously happened between losing at Blackburn and Brian getting the push 3 weeks later.

Perhaps the departure of Nicky Hammond, and further staff changes with Chris Davies going and Ian Wood-Smith leaving the board, focused their minds more on the football side of things and so they've taken the opportunity to totally rebuild the operation behind the scenes and finally put an end to "the Reading way". Having Brian there would have maintained links to the "old ways" and mindset so a totally refreshed dynamic is on its way.

Whether it improves results obviously remains to be seen, but it's worth a go....

[sandman]

Problem with McDermott was that there didn't seem to be any direction. You couldn't see what he was trying to achieve. With Stam we should have an enthusiastic young manager that has a Dutch philosophy of playing good tough football. If the fans can understand what their manager is trying to do, even if it takes time, they are a lot happier.
Its now down to the Thais to provide some decent funds to get a decent team together.

Sorry but you can't give someone a single January transfer window, sell your two top scorers in the process and then expect him to show you the direction he wants you to head in. All this whilst he's stuck having to use someone else's squad and players that are not going to be at the club the following season because they're on loan.

[Nameless]

People need to drop the reference to Sa as our 'top scorer'. Mathematically yes, but in reality he was not a goal machine and he was replaced like for like (in terms of strike rate) .

[sandman]

People need to drop the reference to Sa as our 'top scorer'. Mathematically yes, but in reality he was not a goal machine and he was replaced like for like (in terms of strike rate) .

So he was our second top scorer or not?