Bust up between Clement and Barrow

[CountryRoyal]

I’d be up for switching roles. Let’s have Barrow be the manager and Clement waddling down the wings, would at least provide something milding resembling entertainment.

[Ascotexgunner]

Driving home I heard the interview and Clement was saying its between "the club" and Barrow.
I don't know their history but Im wondering if this issue flared up about the time he had off when his wife had a baby. Ive seen many players carry on playing but it did seem odd that he had time off unless there were complications.
We really appear to be in a bad place full stop now. Somethings got to give.

[Hound]

what has to give, is Gourlay and Nani get off their fat backsides and start shifting out from the following on 1st Jan:

Popa, Pelle Clement, McShane, Mannone, Edwards, Aluko, Meyler, Richards (loan), Loader (loan), Harriott plus one or two others that I've no doubt forgotten

And bring in 1 extra decent CB

[Old Man Andrews]

what has to give, is Gourlay and Nani get off their fat backsides and start shifting out from the following on 1st Jan:

Popa, Pelle Clement, McShane, Mannone, Edwards, Aluko, Meyler, Richards (loan), Loader (loan), Harriott plus one or two others that I've no doubt forgotten

And bring in 1 extra decent CB

Who is going to take them though? I absolutely agree with you but I just don't see a club coming in for someone like McShane, Meyler or Mannone and giving them the same wage as we are paying. Why would they take a pay cut and leave?

[NewCorkSeth]

Did he work hard under Stam though? One big criticism of Stam on here from many was that no one was working hard that second season.

He is a talented player, but Clement is always going to pick the hard working and good attitude of Meite over him at the moment

With such a ridiculously big squad, Clement cannot let anyone undermine his authority or else its going to all break down. If you have a group of 10 players disrupting because they are not in the starting 11, it will all fall to sh!t very quickly.

Barrow, Popa, Edwards, Meyler, McShane, Mannone, Clement and McNulty I guess could all fall into that disrupting section?

He has isolated players already and I can imagine his continued faith in Aluko will eventually cause a rift with the fans so against him.

I do think OMA is correct in thinking Clement is likely to go sooner than Barrow.

How can you not isolate players when you have a 34 man squad? We’ve used the second most players of any club in the division this year. I, like most of our fans, would like to see the first team picked from the same group of maybe 14 each week - leaving 20 players disappointed

The big failing was in not getting rid of the deadwood in the summer - inevitably going to lead to this sort of issue

GK - Mannone, Walker, Jaakkola
RB - Gunter, Yiadom
CB - Moore, Ilori, O'Shea, McShane
LB - Blackett, Obita, Richards(Loan)
CM - Bacuna, Swift, Kelly, Meyler, Edwards(Sell), Ezatolahi, Clement(Loan), Rinomhota
WG - McCleary, Barrow, Aluko, Sims, Harriott, Popa(Sell)
ST - Meite, Bodvarson, Baldock, McNulty

Boom. 30 man squad cut down to 26 with loans and sales. From that 26 you can take out Rinomhota as he is unlikely to be overly upset at being dropped and Harriott as he is barely a footballer at this stage.

That makes it a 24 man squad with 3 goalkeepers and 4 strikers. A couple of them will always feel hard done by. My guess is McNulty and Mannone.

That's 4 other players left to feel disappointed and 2 of them are here on loan so no risk in dropping them.

[Ascotexgunner]

what has to give, is Gourlay and Nani get off their fat backsides and start shifting out from the following on 1st Jan:

Popa, Pelle Clement, McShane, Mannone, Edwards, Aluko, Meyler, Richards (loan), Loader (loan), Harriott plus one or two others that I've no doubt forgotten

And bring in 1 extra decent CB

The size of the squad is unbelievable...thing is I doubt we will get much for that lot. Certainly not enough for a decent CB.

[Hound]

Reckon McShane would be a good signing for a Div1 club, on a 2 year contract. Only 6 months left here, so let him go for free and he'd prob go for it. Edwards as well if fit.

may well need to loan out the likes of Meyler and Popa, but they are young enough that they wont want to just sit out their contracts and not play I doubt. Esp with International ambitions still.

Doubt any will take Aloluko but they should be working 24/7 to find out.

We should be sorting out loans for as many of the U23s as possible ready for the new year

[bcubed]

If he has breached discipline he should be dropped

It’s how he responds to that now. Either he sulks and goes in Jan or gets his head down and contributes

We could have done with him yesterday from the bench

Clement wasn't picking him way before this breach of discipline. They seem to dislike each other from Swansea days. You wouldn't mind if Clements was getting the best out of all the other players. The present situation suggests a big rift in the camp with a lot of players claiming to be injured. Sorry Clements the job of a manager is to unite and motivate. The players all looked scared stiff at the moment.

This ^^^^
Wouldn't be surprised if the non selection led to the breach of discipline
Doesn't excuse it but it would just point to the dislike Clement has of Barrow

[WoodleyRoyal]

If he has breached discipline he should be dropped

It’s how he responds to that now. Either he sulks and goes in Jan or gets his head down and contributes

We could have done with him yesterday from the bench

Clement wasn't picking him way before this breach of discipline. They seem to dislike each other from Swansea days. You wouldn't mind if Clements was getting the best out of all the other players. The present situation suggests a big rift in the camp with a lot of players claiming to be injured. Sorry Clements the job of a manager is to unite and motivate. The players all looked scared stiff at the moment.

This ^^^^
Wouldn't be surprised if the non selection led to the breach of discipline
Doesn't excuse it but it would just point to the dislike Clement has of Barrow

We don't know when this breach of discipline happened though, yes it has only just been mentioned, doesn't mean it's only just happened..

[Platypuss]

If he has breached discipline he should be dropped

It’s how he responds to that now. Either he sulks and goes in Jan or gets his head down and contributes

We could have done with him yesterday from the bench

Clement wasn't picking him way before this breach of discipline. They seem to dislike each other from Swansea days. You wouldn't mind if Clements was getting the best out of all the other players. The present situation suggests a big rift in the camp with a lot of players claiming to be injured. Sorry Clements the job of a manager is to unite and motivate. The players all looked scared stiff at the moment.

Yay, confirmation bias and motivated reasoning all in one post. Kudos!

[RoyalBlue]

If this is all about a personality clash I think it's Clements job to get over it. We don't have many options in his position and I think we all agree that the current formation is worth pursuing, particularly with McCleary back.

Can't agree - the manager is the boss.
If players won't/don't toe the line - they go.

And if the manager's line doesn't get good results, he should go. Shut the door on your way out Clement.

[Rea Ding]

Barrow played well last season, yet there is no excuse for his apparent actions. I stand by Clement and if he persists to carry on this way he should go in January. Would get rid of some deadwood like Popa, Pelle Clement, Gunter. Mcnulty and Meyler haven't paid off either sadly

[TheBaldOne]

Barrow is ridiculously overrated and offers nothing defensively. I'd like to see a front three of Obita Meite McCleary eventually.

[Hendo]

Mcnulty and Meyler haven't paid off either sadly

Sure, lets write them off on the handful of appearances they have had in a struggling team.

Especially McNulty who has stepped up 2 divisions and played 2 +6 games this season.

What message would that send out to players we are looking to sign? Come and play for Reading but if you don't play well in 5 games with a struggling team, we are going to ship you out in 3 months.

oxf*rd hell.

[King Cnut]

I reckon Barrow fell asleep during Clements team talk.

[Rea Ding]

Mcnulty and Meyler haven't paid off either sadly

Sure, lets write them off on the handful of appearances they have had in a struggling team.

Especially McNulty who has stepped up 2 divisions and played 2 +6 games this season.

What message would that send out to players we are looking to sign? Come and play for Reading but if you don't play well in 5 games with a struggling team, we are going to ship you out in 3 months.

oxf*rd hell.

Never said we should get rid of either of them, but both didn't even make the bench and we are ending October so they haven't exactly stared that well

[Snowflake Royal]

If he has breached discipline he should be dropped

It’s how he responds to that now. Either he sulks and goes in Jan or gets his head down and contributes

We could have done with him yesterday from the bench

Clement wasn't picking him way before this breach of discipline. They seem to dislike each other from Swansea days. You wouldn't mind if Clements was getting the best out of all the other players. The present situation suggests a big rift in the camp with a lot of players claiming to be injured. Sorry Clements the job of a manager is to unite and motivate. The players all looked scared stiff at the moment.

Clement continued to play him when he arrived. Barrow started the season with injury / fitness issues and hasn't really performed at all. Clement has given him a chance to stake his place and he's failed to do so. Certainly he's contributed less than Sims, Baldock and Meite.

Suggests to me the one with a problem is Barrow.

Players can't be allowed to rock the boat. Play for the team or not at all. As Hound says, if Barrow reacts well, then great. If not we should be getting rid.

[bcubed]

Barrow has played 3 full games
So hes hardly been given much of a chance.
If the manager believed in him I'm sure he would have had more games under his belt

[URZZZZ]

Barrow has played 3 full games
So hes hardly been given much of a chance.
If the manager believed in him I'm sure he would have had more games under his belt

Yet Aluko has only played 1 full game this season and is blamed for everything, so surely he hasn't been given much of a chance either? Bringing him in for the odd game, ala QPR is not going to help his confidence, just like Stam bringing in Blackett last year for one every 5 gamed didn't help him either

[Theroyalbox]

I did say Barrow was shite several months back*

I then followed it up a few months later by saying he was good. Oh well.