Football

In 36 years of watching Reading, today's disgraceful spineless capitulation was possibly the most embarrassing performance I've ever had the misfortune to witness. 20 years ago we were relegated from the championship bottom on 42 points, this year we will probably stay up with 43 due to the incompetence of teams below us but fuck me are awful.

I have never heard quotes like this from a manager before. Bear in mind this was a "must win" game in a relgation battle.

Reading manager Paul Clement:

"At the end, we got what we deserved, we were not professional for the entire game.
"I can't ever remember a situation where I've had to speak about a performance like that.
"It was shameful and embarrassing from the point where Ipswich got their first goal to the end of the game.
"It was completely unacceptable and I'm very disappointed and sorry for our fans."

These are edited quotes. He also mentioned "schoolboy errors" and "complete lack of professionalism"

I listened to the interview, Clement was asked if he would like to.discuss any individual performancs and he hesitated for a looong time before saying that would be done behind closed doors. He was so angry, I really thought he was about to lay into players on live radio. Unbelievable that most of this squad finished 3rd last season

Blackburn went down with 51 points last season

How different is the squad to last season when you narrowly missed on promotion to Huddersfield? I don’t think I’ve seen a championship team drop in position like this before?!? From contenders to relegation fodder in 13 months. It could always be worse I guess.

What happened to Stam?

Squad is largely the same, although Williams & Al-Habsi left & we have had a catastrophic injury list.

Stam was sacked 7 games ago, most fans would say far too late. The miniscule bounce when Clement arrived (2 wins & a draw) has probably just about saved us. However following that interview yesterday I wouldn't be surprised if he resigned even if we do stay up.

West Ham fan lament about the move to the new stadium and the lack of familiar surrounds.
Love the quote at the end. Not sure if it should live hear or in the hipster thread...

A typical complaint I heard before the Stoke game came from Tom Girling, a 52-year-old who has been following West Ham since he was 13. “This place is soulless,” he said, gesturing at the stadium and the empty expanse in which it’s located. “It’s got nothing. I used to go to Upton Park, grab a programme, nip in the pie and mash, have a bet, into the boozer, meet my pals, all good, have a laugh, then out afterwards. I’ve got nish here. I’m out in the elements drinking beer out of a plastic glass.”

I told him that I’d seen a pie and mash kiosk outside nearby Hackney Wick station, and there is one on the perimeter of the stadium. He looked at me as if I’d suggested becoming a Spurs fan.

“You mean the fashionista place?” he asked scathingly. “No, no, no. I’m not being funny… you’ve got all these trendy bearded people and they’ve got all these 13-hop ales I don’t understand. I’m old school. I like a pint of Carling. I’m a working-class boy. Football’s a working-class man’s game.”

Fake news, no one likes Carling.

Ha. Where’s this from?

The fact is that most clubs have had to move. Some have adapted and settled in but it’s completely killed the experience of going to watch some teams. Bolton were ripped out of the town and are now six miles away on a horrible retail park. I’ve got mates who won’t go because the trains are shit and you end up drinking in a Harvester before the game.

Whereas Burnden Park was a delight of course.

The mists of time.

Never had the pleasure but gather it was a dive. But at least it had pubs and the pie shop and you could walk from town.

I went to watch Reading a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what their old ground was like - sounds like @elpresidente will know - but the train to Reading and the bus to a shit retail park where tickets were £25 was enough to put me off watching pro football for a couple of years.

It makes you realise how well Arsenal and Tottenham have done to keep their stadiums in the heart of the community.

Article in the guardian. Apologies for the mobile link..

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/29/why-west-ham-fans-are-in-revolt?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Reading is very similar to Bolton’s ground.

Found it - cheers.

@tommmmmmm

I’m hoping the fact that spurs haven’t had to move (though it’s taken all sorts of dealings and machinations) from our neighbourhood means that we don’t get that disenfranchisement, despite the idiocy of our impending season ticket pricing policy alienating our core support.
There’s something about the rituals of going to a match, the places that you gather that can’t be replicated when you move, and which most clubs in the rush for the cash seem to forget about. Staying close by means that stuff isn’t lost.
I remember riding past Maine road when I lived in Manchester and being in awe of this massive stadium that just appeared out of this mass of terraced housing. And thinking how inextricably linked to that community that club was.
You can’t move too far away from your roots no matter how much financial incentive there is if the fans are going to have a shit time...

In the case of Man City, did winning alleviate the pain of moving stadiums? And do city fans feel that stadium is “theirs”?

our neighbourhood

Where is that exactly?

PS Shouldn't you be catching up on sleep or something?

I went to watch Reading a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what their old ground was like

An utter dump - tiny ground, penned in on all sides, which could never have been converted to an all seater stadium.

I think that's the crux of the matter; a lot of these old grounds that people reminisce over were crumbling, decaying old stadia, that couldn't meet the standards laid out in the Taylor report. Many were in locations where there wasn't the space to expand the foot print of the stadium, so clubs had to move.

though it’s taken all sorts of dealings and machinations)

Some of them illegal, allegedly.

#itwasntreallyarsonyourhonour

I’m sure with Man City, the ground was a selling point for Shinawatra and then the Abu Dhabi mob when they invested so presumably all has been forgiven.

None of City fans I know seem to pine for Maine Road.

I think the fact that City got a state of the art stadium for free softened the blow to the fans.

There's a happy middle ground between decaying and dangerous, and sterile and soulless, and there aren't many modern stadiums in English football which have found it.

Yeah, none of that will come to light for a while.
The clubs out for self and whilst I hope they pay more than lip service to redeveloping the area, and improving the community, most of the negotiations have been around getting as much from local government as possible, much like your lot did with the move to the emirates.
Never a good look at when compulsory purchase orders have to be pulled out..

Spurs do give tickets to my work.

I thought about going tomorrow but I decided that I want to spend as little time as possible with my boss.

Speaking of the club “our”.
I am catching up on sleep when I can more worried about the missus as she’s working off about 5hrs in the last 5 days..

Elm Park was a shitpit stadium, but at least in town and near pubs.