Untrue truisms

[stealthpapes]

League positions a pretty firm indicator when they're definitely below us more seasons than not.

[Millsy]

what?

[Snowflake Royal]

So, Plymouth.



Like, if you started watching football in the 60s, we'd have been in tier 3 the whole time and them in tier 2. Maybe if that was it and you'd not moved on, maybe. Anything remotely modern - and we're calling Adam Ant and Duran Duran modern here - and its a big, fat nope.

Purley using recent league position probably isn't ideal - Plymouth have had periods of financial issues which dropped them down the divisions. That suggests between ~2004 and ~2016, ourselves and Wigan were bigger clubs than Leeds?

Well, by some reasonable measures we absolutely were.

[under the tin]

In the days before SKY's ££££, it all used to be cyclical. It's far less so now.
Herbert Chapman's Huddersfield were the best back in the 20/30's, the Wolves team of the 50's was certainly amongst the best sides in Europe. In the 56 years I've followed RFC, we've played both of them at tier 3 level, along with Aston Villa, Derby, Sheff (Wed and Utd).
Tier 3 football is where the majority of my time watching Reading is about, including our debut seasons at the Madstad!
Clubs around us rose, then fell (apart from Villa, who never looked back).

Alongside these stellar visitors, our natural peer group, amongst the teams I've watched us face in the same league most often were Fulham, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton. These are now all stable established Prem sides, and given the way that the money goes round in football these days, we are unlikely to ever see them at our place in this league again.

I always held the opinion that the most important signing a club makes is the team manager, but nowadays I realise it's equally about the quality and commitment of the people who make that managerial appointment. Any super-rich idiot can hire and fire this month's latest new thing manager, who then spaffs millions on over priced players and wages. Hello Mr. Dai. See also Newcastle, Leeds a few years back, Spurs today.
We have lacked that senior management quality ever since SJM sold up, whereas our old peers have that in Spades.

Richardson probably won't be picking the team here when the Royals once again grace the Prem, but just remember, to get to Coppell, we went through Pardew, McGhee, Porterfield, etc.
Equally, to get SJM, we had to get past Waller. When Couhig eventually flips the club, we as fans need to be vigilant to make sure that the post-SJM mistakes are not repeated.
It's a re-building process. See it as that, and it keeps the faith strong.
URZ