MATCHWATCH : Coventry City (a)

[YorkshireRoyal99]

We could finish bottom

Would be deserved

Yeah I wouldn't be massively surprised if Wigan turned us over next week actually. It's obviously a game we've got to win really, but I think a lot of fans will be expecting a win but might get a shock.

Hunt back to the U23's, the U23 players back to the U23's and reset.

[Hound]

Agree with this. It's a long road back from here. Anyone who thinks we'll piss league one is deluded. We have an owner who has no clue. Last time we dropped there 25 years ago it took us 4 years and we had Madejski then!

Just this. Wasting all that money yet appointing utterly useless nomarks to lead the club. Least that now seems to be under control. Hoping for a managerial appointment in the summer of someone who knows the lower leagues but is hungry with ambition.

I don't know, next year is an important season for Bowen I'd say. It's obviously not solely him, the owner ultimately makes the decisions, but a lot of pressure will come on those behind the scenes if we don't do well next season as well.

I've said it for a while though now, we need a new owner, it doesn't matter who we have in place below him, we need a better owner who has an understanding of football. I don't really care if they put in less money than Dai, as long as it's enough to get us back to the Championship and keep us there, assuming we still go down.

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

[Snowflake Royal]

Just this. Wasting all that money yet appointing utterly useless nomarks to lead the club. Least that now seems to be under control. Hoping for a managerial appointment in the summer of someone who knows the lower leagues but is hungry with ambition.

I don't know, next year is an important season for Bowen I'd say. It's obviously not solely him, the owner ultimately makes the decisions, but a lot of pressure will come on those behind the scenes if we don't do well next season as well.

I've said it for a while though now, we need a new owner, it doesn't matter who we have in place below him, we need a better owner who has an understanding of football. I don't really care if they put in less money than Dai, as long as it's enough to get us back to the Championship and keep us there, assuming we still go down.

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

Well it's the owner who seems to have appointed most of our managers, and who refuses to sell players, and who sets how much we spend.

[Hound]

I don't know, next year is an important season for Bowen I'd say. It's obviously not solely him, the owner ultimately makes the decisions, but a lot of pressure will come on those behind the scenes if we don't do well next season as well.

I've said it for a while though now, we need a new owner, it doesn't matter who we have in place below him, we need a better owner who has an understanding of football. I don't really care if they put in less money than Dai, as long as it's enough to get us back to the Championship and keep us there, assuming we still go down.

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

Well it's the owner who seems to have appointed most of our managers, and who refuses to sell players, and who sets how much we spend.

Well it’s up to Bowen now isn’t it? At least for now

Like I said the previous criticism fully justified but I don’t think he has a lot to do with the football side now tbh

[Royalcop]

The owner doesn’t need to know anything about football but they need the self-awareness to understand this and then to bring in people who do know what they are doing - look at the Wrexham owners.

[Elm Park Kid]

The owners have displayed an appalling lack of judgement and knowledge when it comes to the club. We are getting relegated for what appears to be a financial cock-up. I'm sure that we'd all prefer to have people in charge who actually know what they're doing.

However . . . . they are also billionaires and as long a they are in charge the club isn't going to face any risk to its future. In fact, the EFL's strict financial rules will have left us in a much better situation that if we had gotten relegated 3-4 years ago.

The old 'Reading way' is now extremely difficult given the amount of money being thrown around in the Championship and how PL clubs can pick off our youth players for small sums.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

Well it's the owner who seems to have appointed most of our managers, and who refuses to sell players, and who sets how much we spend.

Well it’s up to Bowen now isn’t it? At least for now

Like I said the previous criticism fully justified but I don’t think he has a lot to do with the football side now tbh

That's the thing though, is it really up to Bowen? He isn't the one putting the money into the club and calling the shots, ultimately he's only advising footballing decisions, some he will get right, others he won't. But it's down to Dai (and/or whoever else) to accept them.

For all the money Dai has put in, we managed 1 top half finish where we completely collapsed, overpaid greatly on various players over the years and have been well out of control of what we've done. I know it's all for the right intentions, but a lot have been wrong decisions. Just looking back, thinking about how sky high our wage bill was and some of the players we had, we were paying top wages for players like Dave Edwards, David Meyler, Sam Baldock etc and that doesn't even include the likes of Puscas, Aluko, Baldock etc. Gunter and McCleary as well. We were paying promotion-contending wages for bottom half players consistently, and sticking with that idea.

[Elm Park Kid]

The owner doesn’t need to know anything about football but they need the self-awareness to understand this and then to bring in people who do know what they are doing - look at the Wrexham owners.

Wrexham are in a league with no financial controls. Rob and Ryan literally just bought a load of players and manager who were too good for the National League. If there were no financial rules in the Championship I expect that we'd be doing ok.

[Royal_jimmy]

What constitutes ‘getting our club back’?

We’re going down. It happens in football. Nothing dramatic, we’re just playing div1 football next season

Best just to accept it and enjoy it. It can’t be much worse than the last few years tbh

League one is shit. It's worse than this

[Royal_jimmy]

What constitutes ‘getting our club back’?

We’re going down. It happens in football. Nothing dramatic, we’re just playing div1 football next season

Best just to accept it and enjoy it. It can’t be much worse than the last few years tbh

Well, for a period of about a decade up to about 10 - 12 years ago we were an example of how to run a club well and reasonably sustainably. That's probably what I'd be aiming for.

Succession planning
Intelligent signings of players with potential on the up
Use of youth
Mixed with some experienced pros not on their way to the knackers yard.
Living within our means.
Producing players people want so we can get some good seasons out of them and then sell to supplement our income.

That's now allowed on Dai's watch

[Snowflake Royal]

The owners have displayed an appalling lack of judgement and knowledge when it comes to the club. We are getting relegated for what appears to be a financial cock-up. I'm sure that we'd all prefer to have people in charge who actually know what they're doing.

However . . . . they are also billionaires and as long a they are in charge the club isn't going to face any risk to its future. In fact, the EFL's strict financial rules will have left us in a much better situation that if we had gotten relegated 3-4 years ago.

The old 'Reading way' is now extremely difficult given the amount of money being thrown around in the Championship and how PL clubs can pick off our youth players for small sums.

Actually, 3/4 years ago we could have been cutting our cloth and solving our financial problems so they were better than now, rather than adding another ten or twenty million to our wage bill.

[Royal_jimmy]

Just this. Wasting all that money yet appointing utterly useless nomarks to lead the club. Least that now seems to be under control. Hoping for a managerial appointment in the summer of someone who knows the lower leagues but is hungry with ambition.

I don't know, next year is an important season for Bowen I'd say. It's obviously not solely him, the owner ultimately makes the decisions, but a lot of pressure will come on those behind the scenes if we don't do well next season as well.

I've said it for a while though now, we need a new owner, it doesn't matter who we have in place below him, we need a better owner who has an understanding of football. I don't really care if they put in less money than Dai, as long as it's enough to get us back to the Championship and keep us there, assuming we still go down.

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

We have a football retard in charge so we know that won't happen

[Snowflake Royal]

What constitutes ‘getting our club back’?

We’re going down. It happens in football. Nothing dramatic, we’re just playing div1 football next season

Best just to accept it and enjoy it. It can’t be much worse than the last few years tbh

League one is shit. It's worse than this

Watched a League One game live just this week. It was quite entertaining and there was some decent football on display, from a team in the relegation zone.

[Royal_jimmy]

Just this. Wasting all that money yet appointing utterly useless nomarks to lead the club. Least that now seems to be under control. Hoping for a managerial appointment in the summer of someone who knows the lower leagues but is hungry with ambition.

I don't know, next year is an important season for Bowen I'd say. It's obviously not solely him, the owner ultimately makes the decisions, but a lot of pressure will come on those behind the scenes if we don't do well next season as well.

I've said it for a while though now, we need a new owner, it doesn't matter who we have in place below him, we need a better owner who has an understanding of football. I don't really care if they put in less money than Dai, as long as it's enough to get us back to the Championship and keep us there, assuming we still go down.

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

That's rubbish. He authorised the club to spend stupid money beyond our means to a point where we've sold our stadium and training ground to fund bang average overrated players. Of course it's his fault.

[Royal_jimmy]

I don't know, next year is an important season for Bowen I'd say. It's obviously not solely him, the owner ultimately makes the decisions, but a lot of pressure will come on those behind the scenes if we don't do well next season as well.

I've said it for a while though now, we need a new owner, it doesn't matter who we have in place below him, we need a better owner who has an understanding of football. I don't really care if they put in less money than Dai, as long as it's enough to get us back to the Championship and keep us there, assuming we still go down.

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

Well it's the owner who seems to have appointed most of our managers, and who refuses to sell players, and who sets how much we spend.

+1

Dai is 100% responsible and we should be doing what we can to hope he sells, I just don't see anyone wanting to buy us in the mess we're in though

[YorkshireRoyal99]

What constitutes ‘getting our club back’?

We’re going down. It happens in football. Nothing dramatic, we’re just playing div1 football next season

Best just to accept it and enjoy it. It can’t be much worse than the last few years tbh

League one is shit. It's worse than this

Watched a League One game live just this week. It was quite entertaining and there was some decent football on display, from a team in the relegation zone.

You have got incredibly low standards then.

[Snowflake Royal]

League one is shit. It's worse than this

Watched a League One game live just this week. It was quite entertaining and there was some decent football on display, from a team in the relegation zone.

You have got incredibly low standards then.

Not as low as you if you're happy with more of the same in the Championship.

[genome]

All the owner can really do is put the right person in to manage the club. Seems that has fallen to Bowen so it’s on him now to sort it out

Obvs I get the criticism of Dai and much of it is justified, but I bet he has very little to do with the actual running of things

Not really sure what a new owner actually gives us? Dai has kept cheap tickets, put money into the club and hopefully now just let Bowen get on with things

Well it's the owner who seems to have appointed most of our managers, and who refuses to sell players, and who sets how much we spend.

+1

Dai is 100% responsible and we should be doing what we can to hope he sells, I just don't see anyone wanting to buy us in the mess we're in though

Alright Jimmy, we get it.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Watched a League One game live just this week. It was quite entertaining and there was some decent football on display, from a team in the relegation zone.

You have got incredibly low standards then.

Not as low as you if you're happy with more of the same in the Championship.

What a higher division? Which is, quite literally, a better standard than bottom of the table at League One?

[St Pauli]

I had an inkling this was going to happen when I moved to Cardiff. I started getting into football as a young lad the season before we lost the first playoff final. And really it was a great time for the club in my younger years when I went as a teen and in my twenties.

Performances have trailed off in my thirties when as a married man and young father I could attend fewer games, but at least I was living in Reading which clearly helped the club. Now I’ve moved away the club has collapsed in on itself and relegation beckons.

I’m sorry all, had I known this would happen I’d have stayed in RG1.