SUFC and Reading. Compare and Contrast...

[JohnDenver]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/football-league-blog/2011/feb/03/reading-football-john-madjeski

Just read this article in today's paper, and it occurred to me that Reading are an interesting counterpoint to us. Relegated at a similar time, had a brush with the bottom of the league last term, but now picking up. All this despite not spending big.

While we've had three very messy failed gambles on promotion and are now stoney broke, they took their medicine and are building again.

Lessons learned?

 

[Selly]

Lessons learned?

Don`t employ Bryan Robson as your manager...

 

[grafikhaus]

or get a 'sugar daddy' to build a new stadium for you.

 

[Ivanhoe]

And don't let Turry Robinson get anywhere near...

 

[oldblade]

And don't let Turry Robinson get anywhere near...

Is Birch doing any better?

 

[raul]

Think they've managed to maintain a belief in themselves - the way they play/recruit/run the finances - through the natural ups and downs football offers. We've been all over the place.

China....Hungary......

 

[Guesty]

They stayed up that extra season, when the TV revenue increased sharply. That'll have helped

 

[Grecian2000]

Pie bill has come down.

Is the Omega still open on Attercliffe.

 

[Micalijo]

Is Birch doing any better?

I think Birchy could give you approximately 300,000 reasons why he is doing better than Robbo.

 

[Bladesman]

I think Birchy could give you approximately 300,000 reasons why he is doing better than Robbo.

Well ask him to come on here and list the reasons because to me he is making the same mistakes as the pie man did at the moment it would seem.

 

[ChrisBlade]

They are one year behind us in the circle. It is conceivable that their season 2010/11 peters out into an aimless eighth place finish like ours did last season. Then the real comparator would be next year, i.e. will they sell whatever is currently left.

Also I think that Blades fans have a strange tendency to view the Burnley year as another abject failure rather than a very decent season. We were twice one game away from doing a West Brom and we were in my opinion not a squad that was so blessed with superstars that promotion should have been an easy gimme gimme.

 

[mall]

Also I think that Blades fans have a strange tendency to view the Burnley year as another abject failure rather than a very decent season. We were twice one game away from doing a West Brom and we were in my opinion not a squad that was so blessed with superstars that promotion should have been an easy gimme gimme.

On the one hand we had a manager who had us winning plenty but who, when it mattered was out thought three times in one season by one club's manager.
What do you make of that.

 

[ChrisBlade]

Simple question. That revealed the limitations of a manager who was generally presiding over a good season. It does not change the overall analysis of the season as one of relative success.

Put differently, how often would one expect a team to finish in the top three of its respective league in a decade? I would say twice is already decent for most of the 92 clubs. Yes, Wembley hurt big time. Yes, the football was strangely unsatisfying even in many wins. No, coming third and losing to Burnley was not the sign of total underachievement but rather a bitter pill of "oh so close, yet so far".

 

[cahill]

Reading is in the affluent South East and close enough to London to attract top players should they ever get back to the Prem, Sheffield is in the post industrial north whose prosperous days are long gone and whose football clubs will never be able to compete with the money available to other big city clubs. The only way to compete would be to have a one club city eg, Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds. As this is a non -starter (thank god) then we will never again see successfull football in our city. I'd much prefer an unsuccessful Sheffield United, with a loyal fan base, strong identity, history, tradition and sense of belonging than a semi-successful bastard hybrid of a one club Sheffield.

 

[ChrisBlade]

Good point, Cahill. The fact they are indeed pretty meaningless even to a lot of their own fans may well have accorded them the sort of patience the article applauds. They certainly aren't as unforgiving or harsh, but probably also not as fiercely loyal as us. For me the typical example was when I went to a concert in the Brixton academy last year. I met this middle-aged couple, one was from the Midlands, the other from the North West. Both were working in Reading. They had season tickets for like 6 years on the go, yet were not particularly bothered. They picked up going when the club went around houses in the area with flyers encouraging people to come. That was apparently in the early stages of their rise, so they weren't quite Premier League glory seekers. Still to me it illustrates the kind of fan that has bolstered their attendances.

To sum it up. I agree. Rather be a League One Blade than support the likes of Reading, regardless of what league the play in or trophies they may (or may not) get in the next 15 years.

 

[cahill]

They are a bit of a nondescript club and I would imagine the description you give of the people you met fits a lot of their support, new , short term, temporary. Probably a lot of people move to that area from other parts of the country for work and will never fully identify with the club. As it happens where I sat during our season in the Prem I didn't feel a sense of identification, belonging or comradeship to those sat around me. It was sterile and I was relieved to move to another part of the ground the following season.

 

[Deleted member 2102]

Front page of today's FTs Market's section main headline is "Madejski in talks to restructure group debt - Reading FC owner hit by property crash." Looks like his property firms has breached covenants on loans with RBS. This loan was already restructured in 2008.