I took my best mate, who is a massive Rugby League fan, to the most mind-numbing 0-0 v Port Vale some time during the mid nineties. I'm best man at his wedding tomorrow, so at least that relationship has held, though I'd guess he's never been to another football game since!
Dobsons Choice by West Twelve Media (soundcloud.com) Good pod this week. Thought Dobson come across really well.
Lots of chat about Prem games having a compulsory national anthem for the very important and not ridiculous coronation. Not heard about anything at our level.
Neil Warnock is just bloody amazing. Surely one of the greatest managers of this era? How he got Huddersfield to believe in themselves and get themselves out of the awful mess they were in defies belief. His commonsense approach in not continuing as manager of Huddersfield next season is indeed sensible and praiseworthy. A fine man who was treated abominably by QPR in days gone by. (Reading 'down and out', my goodness!)
That really is bad news. An awful lot of the blame for the season's abysmal performance by the club surely lies squarely on his shoulders?
First ...a really big thank you Dave for all the great work on the Match Day Thread. You really are a star. Thank you so much Now football I have not seen us win since the 22nd October vs Wigan when we went top of the table. (the only home match I missed in that time was of course Watford)....and I didnt go to PNE, Burnley or Stoke away Therefore I am seriously hoping to see them win on Monday...or I might take it personally, and ban myself from going
I agree Warnock has again produced and I am in no doubt we would have been safe under his guidance. However...we would be in the same position as last season, November and a few weeks ago, once again looking for a new manager. Ainsworth was a far greater gamble than Warnock, but it paid off and we going into the close season (contract talks/looking at new signings) with a manager. As much as I'd have loved to see Colin back we'd have had more uncertainty as of 5pm on Monday.
Interesting to see what difference Readings point deduction actually makes at the end of Monday. GA is talking like he’s achieved his goal but the point deduction has changed things. I really think it’s a joke if GA and Les continue after this season. GAs stats are terrible and his style of play is poor. If he stays his target will be mid table, is that the most we can ever hope for?
Les, his days are numbered here I reckon, Gareth, we will have to wait till next season & the change round in players & se what style he plays, listening to Dobson it could all be different, give him a chance Suff & I wouldn’t have thought his target is mid table, that’s a ridiculous statement, looks like you have already made you mind up on him
I think we know what Ainsworth’s default position is though, from his passionate defence of non possession football at Wycombe and after the Burnley game. He might try something different but if it doesn’t go well quickly we’ll be back on anti football. And why would we expect anything else? Dead game on Monday of course, but I don’t imagine we can aim for 20% possession at home.
Les agreed. Ainsworth? Perhaps we need a wake up call. The club is broke. Getting a bright young thing from Ajax is living in fantasy land. No manager worth his salt is going to look at us and if he does he'll soon be gone when things don't work out and the pot of gold he was promised by way of transfer budget turns out to be a few coins scraped together plus the ones found in the bottom of the sofa. Step forward exhibit 1, Micky 'Call me Snake' Beale. And before anyone says we need to be adventurous like Forest. Ill remind you that two of the teams relegated this season had points deductions and 2 last season. Try telling the fans of Reading, Wigan, Wednesday and Derby that without those deductions they would have stayed up. They didn't. End of story. Just as a matter of interest who would you have to replace Ainsworth?
It would be extremely surprising and disappointing if he did. We don't need a result so the pressure is off. The bigger problem is going to be whether he can motivate them to put on a performance. He will know already who is surplus to his requirements for next season and who is eager for the chance to prove himself and I expect him to throw caution to the wind and give the latter that chance
To be honest, while he overstated the case, I don't think his point about possession football is wrong. If it is possession for the sake of it, it is pointless. You have to have players who have both the skills and the patience to keep the ball and create the space for the killer pass. Few outside the top 6 in the Prem do and certainly not a club of our size with our budget
The stats, or at least the ones that I have seen, show that teams with the most possession win about 50% of games, with about 20% drawn and the rest going to the team with least possession. Obviously this is not a prediction on any individual game. Now I’m prepared to believe that Ainsworth’s teams do better than that because he sets his teams up not the have the ball, and that endless passing around at the back is truly dire too, but sadly his Championship level record with us and a full season with Wycombe, who were set up to play his way from day one, shows 14 wins from 57 games ie well under 25%.
Hardly a fair sample size in his defence. One team with a tiny budget compared to the rest of the league and they should have stayed up if the league had applied the points deduction for Derby in the season they should have. The other in complete freefall when he took over. I'm not here to defend him completely and have concerns of my own, but context is pretty important for those stats.
I’m afraid he’s got another team with a tiny budget to keep up next season. Regarding the sample size, it’s the only data available. He looks a lot better at League One level…… ..we’ll see, I’ll have an ST again, how many games I get to is up to Gareth. I’d love to see us winning playing beautiful football. Failing that just winning. Losing and playing hideous footy means the pub will do decent business.
