Reading Fan Chat – Bolton v Reading

[thebish]

We will go up again in the next few years , hopefully we will be able to compete and have some fun for a few years then we will go down again because that's about our level . It's great .

aye - that pretty much sums up who we are - and I'd contend it is far more exciting to be a club that teeters between two leagues than a club that sits endlessly in the middle of one - even if it is the premiership. I'd wager we've had more right-to-the-last-game seasons than most clubs - for many clubs their season is effectively over by march/April in that they are not challenging for promotion or fearing relegation and they are out of all the cups...

[Jonah]

Aye like Aston Groundhog Day villa . Mind you they've managed to make this season more interesting .
For done clubs close season must be the highlight . New signings , a bit of hope , ignore the fact all the clubs around you are upgrading at a similar level .
All over by Xmas .
We don't know how lucky we are !

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I'd contend it is far more exciting to be a club that teeters between two leagues than a club that sits endlessly in the middle of one - even if it is the premiership. I'd wager we've had more right-to-the-last-game seasons than most clubs - for many clubs their season is effectively over by march/April in that they are not challenging for promotion or fearing relegation and they are out of all the cups...

Agree with all of that, but am struggling to think of any clubs who have been bang-average top-flight sides – say 8th to 15th, neither threatening Europe nor fearing relegation - for any length of time.

Since coming up in 2011 WBA had three mid table seasons (11, 10, , but last year was dogfight time (they finished 17).
Sunderland went up in 2007 and have finished 15, 16, 13, 10, 13 and 17 - but it’s hardly been dull, and that last, desperate relegation battle also coincided with a run to the League Cup final.
Maybe PL ever-presents Villa, although they finished 6th for three successive seasons (2008 to 2010) and haven’t been far above the drop zone for the last three (16, 15, 15).
Stoke went up in 2008 and have bobbed around in the middle (in chronological order: 12, 11, 13, 14, 13, 9), but also reached the FA Cup final in their third top-flight season… you may remember it….

[thebish]

I'd contend it is far more exciting to be a club that teeters between two leagues than a club that sits endlessly in the middle of one - even if it is the premiership. I'd wager we've had more right-to-the-last-game seasons than most clubs - for many clubs their season is effectively over by march/April in that they are not challenging for promotion or fearing relegation and they are out of all the cups...

Agree with all of that, but am struggling to think of any clubs who have been bang-average top-flight sides – say 8th to 15th, neither threatening Europe nor fearing relegation - for any length of time.

Since coming up in 2011 WBA had three mid table seasons (11, 10, , but last year was dogfight time (they finished 17).
Sunderland went up in 2007 and have finished 15, 16, 13, 10, 13 and 17 - but it’s hardly been dull, and that last, desperate relegation battle also coincided with a run to the League Cup final.
Maybe PL ever-presents Villa, although they finished 6th for three successive seasons (2008 to 2010) and haven’t been far above the drop zone for the last three (16, 15, 15).
Stoke went up in 2008 and have bobbed around in the middle (in chronological order: 12, 11, 13, 14, 13, 9), but also reached the FA Cup final in their third top-flight season… you may remember it….

you're forgetting all the hypothetical ones that suit my contention!

[Jonah]

Villa primarily . It may be a situation more teams face though as the finance table really kicks in . It is beginning to look more like a three tier league based on income . Medium sized clubs are well rewarded financially for staying in the league but can't afford the cost and risk involved in trying to compete with the clubs who can toss 30 million on a squad .
More than ever a club our size has to develop its youth players and be very astute finding and developing players slipping under the radar . Finances dictate that they do get picked off so the the cycle begins again . There's a glass ceiling and a trap door.
We were lucky to achieve what we did under Allardyce as it looks pretty much impossible for a club our size to be able to hit that level again. It's funny how tony pullis is seen as the messiah yet Allardyce is perpetually slated when essentially pullis is applying the same successful approach .
Allardyce has got spam through to the point where they can get bigger crowds and invest a bit more only to be discarded I suspect . He will pop up somewhere else though . As the other thread recognises he should be recognised as one if the greatest most innovative managers of the premiership era .

[Prufrock]

Give me an FA cup win in the next 2 years and I'd happily watch my team in the selotape division 6 or whatever it's called now

Dunno. I imagine Wigan's FA cup heroics now seem a distant memory as they slip into league one obscurity, managed by a pair of racists and with their best players all gone.

I'd happily take an FA Cup win and a prolonged stay in this division.

I bet they don't! I'm firmly in agreement with Boris, merely existing as a football club is a waste of time. I don't do football fan pragmatism. If they go down, they'll most probably come back again like wolves have. Clubs with the right infrastructure usually do. A promotion season is also much more fun than finishing 20th, whichever division it's in.

Aye, I used to be a pragmatist when we were up there, then we got relegated and the world didn't end.

The football is WAY shitter now - watched Liverpool City the other day, and they were playing a different sport to what you see in the Champo, BUT, I still enjoy our games, when I'm watching them all I care about is us winning, and so the drop from the Prem hasn't been that catastrophic. For me, losing and doing badly is what really hurts, not necessarily the division we're doing it in. (Though that's not to say I don't want us to be doing well in as high a league as possible - finishing top 8 in the Prem beats top 8 in the Champo beats top 8 in League 1. But Top 8 in the Champo beats dreary 14th, beat most weeks but never really in danger, in the Prem.)

Would I take an FA Cup win, something to tell the grand-kids about, a '58 that I got to be at or see, over mid-table mediocrity in the Prem? Hell yes. I'll still be telling the little bastards, but I'm far from convinced the grand-kids are going to give a shit about the time we finished 13th and won some games against Aston Villa.

As for the people saying they bet Wigan fans (and I guess Pompey are a better example) are pissed off at the moment, no-one is saying they'd particularly *enjoy* seeing us in the Sellotape 6th Division, just that you'd take the shitness of that for a once in a lifetime go at glory. The Sellotape league would still suck, but we'd have an FA Cup.

[Bijou Bob]

Pardon me for saying so, but your lot last night were a bunch of cynical thugs with very little idea and no craft. There are 3 teams worse than you, so you're safe I suspect, but you can't be happy with what you're watching. Bitter? Probably, but justifiably so.

[officer_dibble]

Aye hope some of yours get the shit kicked out of them by bradford saturday. Mackie for a start the c*nt. diouf was right about him the little sewer rat!

[daib0]

some our highly paid players are getting plenty of stick from our fans too, don't worry!. Many want a big summer clear out. This is easily our worst finish in well over a decade ...

[Athers]

Aye hope some of yours get the shit kicked out of them by bradford saturday. Mackie for a start the c*nt. diouf was right about him the little sewer rat!

Funny how that worked out. Mackie with actual injuries all full of quotes about being "disappointed" by Diouf and then in one game he sneers at Clough and then pretends to be injured himself to waste time.

feck him indeed, El-Hadji.

[Burnden Paddock]

What did Dioufy do to upset him, the cheating time wasting cnut?

[officer_dibble]

I hope he spat on his face and wiped his arse on his car!