Burn after Reading. Reading (A) League 1. Saturday 16th September 2023. 3pm KO

[Mar]

Last 4, LDWL?

Yup. We were somewhat gifted that Derby win aswell. We returned the favour today I guess.

[Harry Genshaw]

Was there for the taking that. Poor game management by Evatt.

Definitely a shout for poor game management there.

I don't think we can particularly blame Evatt for the midfield going missing for Savage to get a free shot off at his leisure

I felt we should have subbed a couple of the midfield off by then. Dempsey and Thomasson had covered so much ground by then, they were knackered.

You're right though. Vic takes one of his chances and we're winning that long before comedy Dan and the old man come on

[BWFC_Insane]

Evatt is going to have to swallow his pride and start scouring the free market for some players given how weak we are and how we have absolutely nothing up front after Dion (who might be injured too).

You can’t leave the squad like this because we have to stay in touch for January and in this league you won’t make up much more than a 6 point gap in all likelihood even with an inspired January.

We cannot, simply cannot carry on as things are. It’s too light. Not enough quality. Free transfers are imperfect and will have many issues, but the summer was so poor that’s where we are right now.

[officer_dibble]

There’s 20 stone blokes in the stands who would offer more off the bench than Jerome and nlundulu! 3 year fecking deal!

It isn’t the players faults. They aren’t responsible for using our precious resources.

Agreed. Nlundulu is fast moving into my worst ever signings list…we effectively had a 6 month trial and he’s taken up a large percentage of our budget. They’ve cocked the window right up IMO.

[BWFC_Insane]

There’s 20 stone blokes in the stands who would offer more off the bench than Jerome and nlundulu! 3 year fecking deal!

It isn’t the players faults. They aren’t responsible for using our precious resources.

Agreed. Nlundulu is fast moving into my worst ever signings list…we effectively had a 6 month trial and he’s taken up a large percentage of our budget. They’ve cocked the window right up IMO.

There is no doubt for me that as things stand right now he’s the worst cash singing the club has made by a long long distance.

[Bertie Wooster]

There’s 20 stone blokes in the stands who would offer more off the bench than Jerome and nlundulu! 3 year fecking deal!

It isn’t the players faults. They aren’t responsible for using our precious resources.

Agreed. Nlundulu is fast moving into my worst ever signings list…we effectively had a 6 month trial and he’s taken up a large percentage of our budget. They’ve cocked the window right up IMO.

Today (and the Wigan game) just show the complete lack of ambition from the chairman, board & manager in the summer - absolutely appalling summer transfer window on the back of an equally appalling winter window means that we now have a weaker team / squad than last season. A manager who has more lives than a cat & is extremely lucky to still be in a job with a so called chair women with such strong morals. All this promotion talk from the club in the summer....well talk is cheap isn't it.

An arrogant, stubborn, 'know it all' manager with no plan B, C or D, tactically poor, recruitment poor who makes the most horrendous substitutions of any manager I've seen at BWFC, every substitution he makes is negative and makes us worse, those today where unforgivable - when was the last substitution he made that improved us and got a result. Most fans know & knew what was required in the summer and it's coming home to roost very early in the season. Yet another spineless, leaderless, mentally weak performance (2nd half), against a team of kids who clearly wanted it more.

Automatic promotion, I would say we'll be lucky to get in a play off spot at the rate, but at least we will have the best scoreboard & electronic perimeter advertising in the league.

[BWFC_Insane]

There’s 20 stone blokes in the stands who would offer more off the bench than Jerome and nlundulu! 3 year fecking deal!

It isn’t the players faults. They aren’t responsible for using our precious resources.

Agreed. Nlundulu is fast moving into my worst ever signings list…we effectively had a 6 month trial and he’s taken up a large percentage of our budget. They’ve cocked the window right up IMO.

Today (and the Wigan game) just show the complete lack of ambition from the chairman, board & manager in the summer - absolutely appalling summer transfer window on the back of an equally appalling winter window means that we now have a weaker team / squad than last season. A manager who has more lives than a cat & is extremely lucky to still be in a job with a so called chair women with such strong morals. All this promotion talk from the club in the summer....well talk is cheap isn't it.

An arrogant, stubborn, 'know it all' manager with no plan B, C or D, tactically poor, recruitment poor who makes the most horrendous substitutions of any manager I've seen at BWFC, every substitution he makes is negative and makes us worse, those today where unforgivable - when was the last substitution he made that improved us and got a result. Most fans know & knew what was required in the summer and it's coming home to roost very early in the season. Yet another spineless, leaderless, mentally weak performance (2nd half), against a team of kids who clearly wanted it more.

Automatic promotion, I would say we'll be lucky to get in a play off spot at the rate, but at least we will have the best scoreboard & electronic perimeter advertising in the league.

300k on Nlundulu
500k on Vic
300K on CMG
200K on Forrester

That’s getting on for £1.5M quid. You can criticise a lot of things but that’s a fortune by league one standards.

No lack of ambition from the owners. At all. Lack of judgement from the football staff though.

[Bertie Wooster]

300k on Nlundulu
500k on Vic
300K on CMG
200K on Forrester

That’s getting on for £1.5M quid. You can criticise a lot of things but that’s a fortune by league one standards.

No lack of ambition from the owners. At all. Lack of judgement from the football staff though.

This is the fans bond money not the boards (and Vic's fee was last season) - they got over £4.5M of fans cash in the summer and have spent what under a £800k. And before anyone adds wages etc. what about the wages we saved on Lee, MJ Williams, Dapo (and the transfer fee), Sadlier, John and any wages we had to pay for Trafford, Bradley etc.

A team good enough for promotion doesn't lose that game like that today (same with the Wigan game), a mentally weak team with no leaders or tough characters, it's bad news when young Thomason (who I don't really rate as a footballer) is the main leader in the team.

A fact that Evatt ignores window after window - we are going backwards IMO

[officer_dibble]

Is it actually confirmed it’s the fans bond money? I think that’s a sticky situation they have created there regardless mind.

[BWFC_Insane]

300k on Nlundulu
500k on Vic
300K on CMG
200K on Forrester

That’s getting on for £1.5M quid. You can criticise a lot of things but that’s a fortune by league one standards.

No lack of ambition from the owners. At all. Lack of judgement from the football staff though.

This is the fans bond money not the boards (and Vic's fee was last season) - they got over £4.5M of fans cash in the summer and have spent what under a £800k. And before anyone adds wages etc. what about the wages we saved on Lee, MJ Williams, Dapo (and the transfer fee), Sadlier, John and any wages we had to pay for Trafford, Bradley etc.

A team good enough for promotion doesn't lose that game like that today (same with the Wigan game), a mentally weak team with no leaders or tough characters, it's bad news when young Thomason (who I don't really rate as a footballer) is the main leader in the team.

A fact that Evatt ignores window after window - we are going backwards IMO

Where the money comes from doesn’t matter. We are a club still losing money. There is no Eddie Davies who is able and willing to put their hand in their pocket and bankroll us and we all know that isn’t sustainable anyway. We have borrowed money to fund the losses and allow Evatt to spend over £1M in fees in a 6 month period. That’s more than enough to have built a squad that is better than this.

The rest I more or less agree with.

But the issue is how we’ve spent the money not how much we had to spend.

Sure if we had 6M then we’d be better off but nobody does at this level now Ipswich and SW are gone.

[Bertie Wooster]

Is it actually confirmed it’s the fans bond money? I think that’s a sticky situation they have created there regardless mind.

Dibs, if its not I'd be seriously asking what the club are planning to do with the £4.5M fans bond money. It's nice having great corporate suites, better training pitches and an all singing all dancing electronic perimeter advertising & new scoreboards, but I'll be honest I'd rather they had spent the cash on a couple of decent experienced players to get us out of this league.

I really am annoyed with todays spineless 2nd half performance, it's as bad as the wigan performance to me.

[Worthy4England]

Won't be long before someone's defending the recruitment process and blaming the manager for not being able to use them right. Really don't like the model, with a passion.

[officer_dibble]

The problem spending money on players is they might get injured or turn out to be shit.

What I cannot fathom is we had that nlundulu on a 6 month trial and he showed absolutely nothing to merit a fee and a 3 year deal. This summer was make or break to get promoted and they have cocked it right up.

[officer_dibble]

Two defeats to two teams with points deductions and wholesale summer changes early in the season is piss poor for this squad as well - which is 100% the manager. These are the sides we should be fitter and better then by virtue of having a settled squad with a full pre season. All on Evatt that one.

[Bertie Wooster]

Two defeats to two teams with points deductions and wholesale summer changes early in the season is piss poor for this squad as well - which is 100% the manager. These are the sides we should be fitter and better then by virtue of having a settled squad with a full pre season. All on Evatt that one.

Agree 100% another of Evatt's statements when he first joined the club was that we would be fitter than the other clubs - what utter rubbish, the team looks spent after 60-70 mins, Reading looked a lot fitter than us today.

Then we bring on the 'so called' finishers - Jerome & Dan, WFT both are worse than Donaldson and I mean that. These substitutions are hurting us a lot and change the whole game and the way we play. It is all on Evatt yet for some he does no wrong.

[BWFC_Insane]

Won't be long before someone's defending the recruitment process and blaming the manager for not being able to use them right. Really don't like the model, with a passion.

I mean I’m not even sure what the model is. We’ve not built a young and dynamic exciting side. We’ve not recruited a load with huge potential.

The fact is that we’ve struck gold with JDC and that’s superb and credit must be given for that. But this summer is the same as the one before it and the one before that. Every time we’ve left ourselves short and failed to get either the numbers or quality required. Evatt talks about it being his ideal squad and us not needing others or more quality and then reality hits.

The frustrating thing is that I’m not a professional but I knew what was happening this summer wasn’t good enough. I don’t think you need to be a genius to really see it was massively flawed.

If we were taking 19 year olds who failed at higher division clubs like say Crewe used to and playing the money ball system that way then at least we’d get it. But Jerome, Victor and Dan are not moneyball signings.

Victor was signed off the back of his only half successful season and probably when his market value was peaking.

Dan was signed having been useless for 6 months already.

And Jerome was signed to keep him off the pensioners busses for another 18 months.

I fully respect that we might not have been able to afford JCH but the argument that we couldn’t sign him cos he doesn’t fit our system that Evatt has put forward is ludicrously stupid. Couldn’t sign him cos he’s not absolutely and utterly hopeless? That probably rings true.

[BWFC_Insane]

Oh and just to top today off Charles has suspect ligament damage in his shoulder. Having also suffered that I doubt we are seeing him for at least a month and would not be surprised if it takes 2-3 months in reality.

I could barely move it for 4 weeks.

[Bertie Wooster]

Oh and just to top today off Charles has suspect ligament damage in his shoulder. Having also suffered that I doubt we are seeing him for at least a month and would not be surprised if it takes 2-3 months in reality.

I could barely move it for 4 weeks.

It's ok we have Ivan Toney due back soon don't we ?

[officer_dibble]

If Charles is out for a long time it might cost him his job given how reliant we are on him for goals.

[Bertie Wooster]

Quote from Evatt post match "Some of the players looked drained & fatigued" said Evatt when asked about the substitutions "we needed some energy to see the game out". Victor looked really tired, Randell looked physically tired and bringing on two players of that experience should be enough to see us through. It didn't and as a group we have to accept what has happened today and strive for improvement".

Both of the players named have had a two week break.