⚽ Is The Grass Greener?
This is one of those posts where I know what I want to write about, the points that I want to cover and the information that I want to share. But feel utterly clueless in how to write it.
Is it a post about the highs and lows of a football fan? The rollercoaster of emotion? The desire for something to change (the grass being greener on the other side)? Should I stick to the information, the facts or should it be filled with emotion? How much detail should I share? Should it be a long, detailed analysis or cover the points and let the readers fill in the detail?
I don't know where this post sits in this thought process - definitely in the emotion-filled side of things, this would have been impossible to hide. Hopefully enough details for you to understand how I feel and why I feel like this. Probably not though - it took a lifetime to create this feeling, impossible to convey in a few hundred / thousand words. Perhaps this should become a post in itself but I sat down this morning with an objective which needs to be fulfilled.
So please join me on my emotional rollercoaster...
It was just over a month ago since my visit to Kidderminster Harriers and the embarrassing FA Cup defeat to non-league opposition. Following that match, I wrote:
This is the worse Reading team that I can remember for a long, long time and is battling to stay in the Championship. The last time we were in this league position (relegation to "Tier 3"), I'd travelled to Oxford United...
A couple of days after the Oxford United defeat, the manager (Terry Bullivant) did the only honourable thing that a manager in his position could do - resign. But it wasn't enough to stop us from getting relegated.
A couple of days after our FA Cup defeat to Kidderminster, there was no resignation. Just defiance. The manager would fight on and I began to fear where he would take my beloved Reading.
Next up, came a humiliating 7-0 defeat to Fulham.
Then a 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough, throwing away a lead and losing in the 95th minute.
Then a 2-0 loss to Luton.
Then a 4-3 defeat to Huddersfield.
Then another thrashing, this time 4-0 at QPR.
6 losses in a row. Terrible performances and still, no sign of a sacking nor resignation.
Next, losing 2-1 to Bristol City then 3-2 Coventry City. Throwing away leads in both games.
Still no sign of a sacking nor resignation.
Fan protests increased. A pitch invasion after the Coventry defeat (our 8th loss in a row) with the target being our manager, Veljko Paunovic and the club's owners.
But still nothing. And a crunch relegation battle at Peterborough just days away.
Another woeful performance but a draw. 1 point. And the team bus blocked in after the game by angry travelling fans.
What had to happen for our manager to get sacked? Did the club need confirmation of our relegation to League One to confirm that he was shit at his job?
As yesterday approached and the 2 teams below us (Peterborough and Derby), played each other, we played away to Preston North End, a ground I will never return to with little hope of ending our 12 match winless run which started in November.
Somewhat surprisingly, we won. 3-0 up and doing just enough to hold on to a 3-2 victory. A much needed win in the battle for survival.
And then this in his post match interview...
He was finally gone, after a win. Perhaps explaining why the players actually tried.
I won't pretend to be disappointed. I cheered, the first time in my life that I can remember cheering the departure of a manager and the hope of avoiding relegation returned.
Then my thoughts turned to who would we get to replace him? There are plenty of managers available with a good track record in the Championship - Tony Pulis, Garry Monk, Neil Warnock to name a few. Then more exciting options, unrealistic options like Zinedine Zidane or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The optimism felt good.
And then the news broke. Paul Ince.
I have inserted many words here. Many attempts to convey my feelings in 1 or 2 words and failed. So I have deleted all of my attempts
It's been a long time since I cried watching football. Perhaps the 2001 Division 2 play-off final and the painful extra time defeat to Walsall. I've never cried at a manager appointment but last night, I felt the tears come. The inconsolable disbelief that he was the best option. Perhaps he was the only option - due to his son, on loan Tom Ince currently playing for our club...
The board: "Eh lads, we're sacking the manager after the Preston game, anybody got any ideas who can take over"?
Tom: "I've got to go, my dad's picking me up."
The board: "Does he like football?"
Tom: "Yeah, he was a manager but..."
The board (interrupting): "Let's go talk to him."
When Everton appointed Rafa Benitez as manager last summer, it took the football world by surprise. But he has a good track record and there was reason to be optimistic. I thought I'd search Twitter simply for the term "Paul Ince" (an unbiased and emotionless search term) to see if I was alone in my disappointment but the verdict was unanimous, Reading would get relegated.
You think you've had it hard? Imagine your manager getting sacked after he finally wins a game (but nearly throwing away a 3-0 lead!) for the first time since November and then in the same second finding out Paul Ince is replacing him 😂
Going for a young fresh manager… No. Going for an experienced proven manager.. No. Going for someone on the scrap heap that hasn’t managed for years and didn’t prove to be very good back then… Yes. Reading fans must be gutted.
Paul Ince as Reading manager?🤔
Makes sense, hasn't managed for eight years since he was sacked by Blackpool having won just 12 times in 42 games.👍
Paul Ince = Derby staying up unfortunately
Did I read that right? Reading have sacked their manager and have appointed Paul Ince!?
Paul Ince temporary at Reading. They’re down 🤣
Paul Ince - not managed since 2014! Wow what a strange appointment.
Just when Royals’ fans thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse - Paul Ince becomes your manager!
This has to be an early April Fool ?? If Ince is the answer what was the question ??
And perhaps my personal favourite:
This is like replacing poo just to end up getting the whole sewage plant. Ince is awful.
I could go on. There are hundreds, if not thousands of comments along these lines. None of them quite hitting the spot of how I feel right now.
As one of the comments says, he's been out of work since 2014 after doing a shit job and getting sacked by Blackpool.
Prior to that, he managed Notts County for a few months, getting sacked (or leaving the club by "mutual consent") after losing a club record 9 games in a row.
Prior to that, a disappointing year with MK Dons which saw him quickly leave.
Prior to that, 6 months in charge at Blackburn, winning 3 games in 17 and earning himself the sack.
I'm really struggling to digest this appointment. Velkjo Paunovic needed to leave, there's no doubt about that. But appointing a manager who was only there to pick up his son after the match fills me with nothing but sadness.
Whatever the outcome of this season, there's no way Paul Ince will achieve less than my expectations, he can only over-achieve.
I played football and was a passionate fan of my club so I can understand how you feel. Because my club, which I played for and later supported, went through turbulent years from the first to the third league and back to the first. All the clubs you mention are well known to me because I played betting for many years. It is absurd that a coach can lead a club with such results for so long, maybe it was necessary to put more pressure on the club's management by the fans after the third lost game in a row. I don't know what Paul is like as a coach, I remember him as a player of the English national team, but just pick him up from the road and bring him to the bench, it's a little silly, I know it's not so funny to you, but maybe he learned something in the last 7-8 years. Maybe it will be a positive shock, as you said it may just surprise you and not disappoint you because you already are.
✌👀
Greetings, my friend @the-gorilla
That's interesting, tell me more 🙂 Which club did you play for and how long ago? I might have bought (or sold) you on Championship Manager or Football Manager at some point 🤣
I just replied to o1eh too to say that I don't recognise Reading FC any more compared to the club it was when I started supporting them. This appointment's made me really think about whether it's a club I can care for any more (which sounds ridiculous). I might pop down and watch Eastbourne Town and see how that makes me feel.
The game has changed so much in the last 7-8 years from a managerial point of view. Jose Mourinho's a great example of somebody whose methods were new and fresh but now his approach is old, he hasn't kept up. At least Jose can say he was good.
I think that the players will start playing again. They'll be motivated again and since (on paper), they should be pushing for promotion we'll survive comfortably. Which will reflect well on Paul Ince. Hopefully, not well enough for them to make him permanent. We'll see. Paul Ince's last 4 jobs he lasted less than a year and none of the club's fans have a nice word to say about him. Time will tell. We've got a home game against Birmingham tonight - a game we should win. I might try to watch it and see what's changed.
I played for the younger categories (pioneers, cadets and juniors) in the first Croatian league for my city of Šibenik.
It was nice to play and travel around Croatia and various tournaments abroad
I as a player had good technique I was not very fast but I had a good left foot which was my biggest advantage and I played everything on the left side. But to succeed in sports you have to live sports 24 hours a day. It’s very hard when you’re a teenager and your friends are having fun in town and you have to go to bed early because you’re playing an important game in the morning. I really enjoyed going out with friends late into the night in the company of girls, beer and cigarettes.
So I wasn’t very disciplined and my parents weren’t strict with me (maybe they should have been) to forbid me from going out.
So I’m not sorry which I did not succeed as a player because I didn’t deserve it with my behavior.
But I would definitely recommend to any parent that the child engages in sports regardless of ultimate success. Because you make a lot of good friends and continue to play sports recreationally.
And in the case of Reading, I think club managers should have better scouting for both players and coaches, because there must be a young coach somewhere in the neighborhood (especially in your country) who is hungry for success and with a good vision. Such a young coach should have already been on the bench as an assistant, but who can take over the team in case of dismissal of the head coach and not look for him on the street, whatever his name is. A coach doesn’t necessarily have to be some former player who was good and known as a player.
No one knew about Mourinho when he appeared, he gave up playing football because he considered himself a bad player and switched to management and later was a translator for Sir Bobby Robson in Sporting Lisbon.
We all know how football should be played but there are not many people who can convey their vision on the field, get the most out of the players, motivate their team and make a crucial move at the right time, if it was that easy we would all do it. As you said, only time will tell if it was a good move by the club's management.
I wish good luck to your club in the continuation of this season, I will follow as much as I can.
You report on the situation and whether Paul managed to raise the team.
Your story sounds a lot like a friend I used to play 5-a-side with 🙂 He was technically brilliant and left-footed. He captained Bournemouth Reserves at the age of 17 but the training and the inability to do anything other than football eventually broke him. Having already been warned, him and a few others went for a night out, just a few days before the end of season break. He knew what he was doing and wanted out - so they all go released.
He ended up going into finance and being very successful - all of the skills, determination, leadership qualities, etc. that he learnt on the pitch were applied off of it.
I can't help but think "what might have been" - Bournemouth were promoted to the Premier League a few years later - with players that he was better than. Imagine that. I nutmegged him more than once 🤣 He never regretted it though.
I would have liked us to promote Michael Gilkes to the role until the end of the season. He's the Under-23 manager and a fans-favourite from his playing days. But we'll see. His first game in charge is being played now - a game I expect us to win.
Yes, you need to give a chance to a coach who leads the juniors if he is good and that is the right and logical move they should have made.
In football today and even in my time when I played, it was not the most talented players who succeeded, but the most persistent. A lot of talented players are overestimated, because a talented player has an innate sense of the ball and quickly learns the game while a persistent player makes up for it with his strength and learns slowly but in the long run he survives.
So today I also watch people on television as expert commentators and I played with them and they were nothing special.
But simply the more you invest the more you get, with a little luck that is always needed.
I think the reason that the manager was not fired for so long was money. The owners were not ready to pay more to someone new, and someone new was not ready to take on such a difficult task for the money offered to him. It is quite risky to take a team that is fighting for survival. If the team leaves the league, it will have a bad effect on the future career of the manager. And here came Paul Ince. The man missed football and is ready to return for any money. If he succeeds, it will open the door to great football for him forever. If not, no one will be surprised.
I thought this too... but they wait for things to reach crisis point and then sack him anyway (although the term "mutual consent" suggests that Veljko finally realised that he needed to leave).
From Paul Ince's point of view, he's got absolutely nothing to lose. He's irrelevant as a football manager and has been for a long time. If he fails, then it's just another failure to add to the list.
It's inevitable now that Paunovic has gone that the players will try. With many of them out of contract in the summer, they'll play like Paul Pogba ready for their next pay day. We have a good squad filled with internationals and even a Premier League winner. We have a squad that should be pushing for the play-offs. If they tried, then we'll avoid relegation comfortably. If they try, it will appear that Paul Ince has done a good job, paving the way for a permanent appointment and then inevitably, a disappointing 2022/23 season.
I've thought long and hard about my affiliation with Reading FC. Growing up, they were my pride and joy. Owned by a Reading businessman who loved the club. Built the club up when it almost disappeared and nearly merged with bitter rivals Oxford United. But I don't recognise this club any more. Deducted 6 points for financial dealings which are far from ethical. Faceless Chinese owners who have caused the good directors who understood the club to leave. I feel like a man, looking at his wife and thinking "you're not the person I fell in love with. Where has she gone?"
Reading would have been better off appointing club legend, and Under-23 manager Michael Gilkes as interim manager. He'd have had everybody's backing and like Paul Ince, nothing to lose. And cheap. But we went for somebody who has no affiliation with the club whatsoever. An abysmal track record in management. Who hasn't even been in management for the past 8 years. During which time, even the great Jose Mourinho went from a superb manager too one who gets paid to much before getting the inevitable sack.
I just don't understand it. Even from a financial point of view, it makes no sense.
If it was in my country, and the reason was not money, then I would think that the reason is personal ties. For Paul Ince, this is a perfect way to get a job, but what will he give the club? By what criteria was he chosen? I read about him on the Internet. His coaching career is even worse than mine in the Fantasy Premier League.
Could the owners deliberately want the club to move to the lower league? Hidden financial problems? Maybe there are plans to sell the club for less than its true value? Stop, we're talking about Britain, so I reject such options. Will have to wait, maybe time will tell.
After the victory of Reading, I wanted to congratulate you, but fell asleep :( The next day your post appeared, and there was nothing to congratulate.
I would like to comfort and cheer you up...but I have no idea how to do it. All that remains is to continue to support his team. God works in mysterious ways.
Ha ha - thanks. My plan is to go and watch Eastbourne Town instead 🤣
🤣 😂😅
I'm glad you don't get discouraged ))
That means his son will be in the team all the time lol
😢 Yeah. And he'll get subbed off after 85 minutes so that he can get a standing ovation or Paul can appear to be unbiased.
We'll stay up. It doesn't matter who they'd appointed, they'd have kept us up. My greatest fear, is that we'll stay up and he'll be appointed as permanent manager. Then we'll get relegated next season instead.
I don't know why I care - I support Eastbourne Town now 🤣