um pahars

Come on fella, let's not try and pass the blame on to the fans on this one. Even if the scenario was as you painted (which I very much doubt BTW), then it's still up to those in charge to make the best decision as they see fit.

The idea that our man from Barclays (who is probably a Reading fan anyway) is telling us what day to day decisions we have to take is pure folly. GM tried to insinuate that a while back, but it is pure poppy****. Our man will be laying down targets and deadlines (and they may indeed be very harsh), but he will be leaving up to the management of the Club to deliver upon them. Mr Barclays is not playing the role of the Administrator.

With all due respect (and I fully accept Davis has performed well this season) I have to say I don't think a goalkeeping coach on some serious wonga is a priority at this point in time!!!!!! The story is that Webster wanted o go to Ipswich, Ipswich wanted him, but we held out for compensation. Ipsich baulked at that and went elsewhere for their coach. We could have saved some decent wonga, but played it all wrong. Another poor choice.

Spot on. We have had a myriad of opportunities and choices to make, we have just chosen the wrong ones. Of course Lowe wants to succeed (both for £££'s and ego), but sadly his return has failed to live up to the pre season hype. As you succinctly put it, "He isn't managing on a limited budget; he is mismanaging on a limited budget"

With us still paying some of his wages (a deal that we refused to countenance a few months back, which would indicate how desperate we are to save some ££££'s)????? Maybe we should have let Webster go back there as well, saving £££'s on his salary????? ££££'s that coud have gone towards keeping more important players. There have been choices, we just seem to be making the wrong ones.

LOL at the apologist comparing us to the football giant of Oxford United. With all due respect to Oxford, things must be really bad if this is the best response that can be wheeled out when being faced with a shambles on and off the pitch!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps you have to question who is identifying and acquiring the players that have been brought in. It would appear that quite a few have come in without Jan even seeing them play!!!!!

Me too. It was all too Wigleyesque for my liking. Nice guy, good coach and loads of hype didn't cover the deficiencies of this revolutionary coaching set up. But have we gone too far down the trodden path now for any change to be of any use??? Once again, just like with Wigley, have we lost the all important close season in terms of prepaation and ins and outs??? Has the rot set in, a rot from which we will never recover???

Indeed he will, but just because he will also benefit from success doesn't ean he is able to deliver it. His tenure ended in failure last time around and it looks as though lightning has struck twice.

(a) He hasn't really featured, and (b) the manager persists in playing a formation which is not achieving results. But what about the money spent on the 9 or 10 new players we have got in (transfer fees, agents fees, players fees etc etc etc). We have had choices throughout this sorry period, looks like we made the wrong ones.

Have another think about that one. Ostlund definitely underperformed here, but he played 22 times for Sweden. James by comparison is being skinned every week!!!!!!!!!

And being serious for a minute, I reckon most of those players would waltz into our current team. Idiakez - Played well towards the end of last season and would bring some experience to the middle of the park. Rasiak - Considering we don't look like scoring, I think he would definitely get a look in. Wright - Give me right every day over James at right back. May even be an option in midfield. Lucketti - Definitely play him at centre half. Would pick him ahead of Lancashire or Wotton. Vignal - As a proper left back, he would get a game. Ostlund - Not sure about him, but he's certainly better than James at right back. Licka - Probably not!!!!!!! I'm not the greatest fans of some of the above, but it shows how far we have fallen that I would accept most of them back into the team for tomorrow night!!!!!!!!!!!!! Total Football Me Up](*,)](*,)

As for Bootboy, then surely you would have to say that he worked wonders keeping us up after inheriting that bunch of no hopers;) Business meetings vs Giving it to Crouch. You had your chance, but you just melted. All bark and no bite:D:D:D I want your babies (do you fancy 9 stone lilly white tax clerks???):smt055:smt008:smt061:smt060

But going back to your original point Ron, the Execs knew they were living on borrowed time and didn't give a fcluk what the Crouch and Wilde (and others) were saying. They knew that from the day they kicked Wilde and then Crouch out that their cards were maked and it would only be a matter of time before they were kicked out of office. In fact they even offered to resign at one point if their contracts were paid up in full.

They did it in an attempt to scare supporters into accepting the SISU bid as being good for the Club, and in turn put pressure on the shareholders to accept the proposal. Sadly, their plan backfired on them. Hone, Hoos and others told me that the reason they did not implement Plan B was that they wanted to continue running the Club as a quasi Premiership club so that it was attractive to the many suitors they were trying to entice. Their plan was to make it look good for as long as possible in a hope that someone would come in (and SISU fitted the bill for them). As an aside they also doubted the Club's ability to save on Plan B as they felt the cuts needed would probably end in relegation as the playing budget was one of the only area of variable costs that could be slashed (needless to say that if they ended up paying peanuts then they would get youngsters!!!!).

Reason I mention it Phil is that when i first read those minutes and discussed it with others we all wondered whether it was fair that one shareholder (or small group of shareholders) was privy to unpublished price sensitve information. It's quite a serious situation, whether it was via a pro Loweite still at the Club or whether Lowe was talking direct to Barclays. IMHO it's something that need to be answered.

Which attendees???? Wilde wouldn't even serve on the same board as him at that time, Crouch had (and still has) no time for him, so he was never in a position to be representing their interests at that time. Why did Barclays talk to him about sensitive information. I doubt they would share the information with other shareholders, so why Lowe??

Lowe has just over 5% of the shares, that is no controlling interest. Even with his close allies it was something like 25%, which is no controlling interest (besides there is no legal tie in for Lowe's cabal, just a voluntary alliance which has no legal basis). It is a valid point to be asking why Barclay's were discussing the Club's finances with someone who was a mere shareholder at that time.

It would make sense considering it's half term, but haven't seen anything advertised anywhere.

To be fair I don't think he did. He did offer, but then it turned into a fight with Hone. There has never been any concrete evidence to date and it would be in the Annual Report if he did (although this years Accounts still haven't come out). (Agree with alot of your other stuff though).

Sad Old Git will spit his dummy out when he sees those pre season quotes promising us all that!!!!!!!!!!

Ron, I really don't know why you're wasting your time with this fool. He quite clearly hasn't got a Scooby about what was going on during that period, where the balance of power lied and the various battles that were being fought!!!!!!!

Before the decision was made: I am delighted the fans want me to stay although I also realise how small a margin for error there is. We cut it very fine to stay up and people's emotions could easily have been different. But it is nice that they have taken to me and I would love to stay here." "I would love to carry on but we just have to see how things pan out in the next week to 10 days." "There is a big job to be done. I would like to do it but we will have to see what happens. There are a lot of variables and a lot of speculation about how the situation might be resolved." "survival has given us a bit of breathing space to plan for next season and I have a very clear vision of what I want to do." "When the dust settles after the game we have to look at how we move the club forward." After being sacked: ""I didn't think it was going to be my last game if I am perfectly honest." And Wilde doesn't mention how Pearson dipped out: "we held a meeting with Nigel which was extremely constructive and helpful and the board were impressed with what Nigel had to say" There was no mention by either side that Pearson wanted to dip out and to try and portray this fantasy of yours as being fact just makes out to be slightly dim (actually very dim).

Rich, what do you think Plan B entailed???? Plan B that should have been implemented when the parachute money ran out entailed redundancies and cut backs on and off the pitch. Hone's few million overspend certainly did not help in any shape or form and probably made the cutbacks a tad more savage, but cutback would have had to have been made. You can't have yout revenue fall from circa £50m to £14m and nt expect any pain!!!!!!!