Monday Musings - Royals, the model to aspire to
Monday, 10th Nov 2008 19:07 by Paul Redfern

We were well beaten by Reading this weekend. More than that, they showed all the qualities that we have yet to show on a regular basis.

Solid at the back with lots of composure, ability on the ball and confidence to slow down and wait for opportunities to come up with the movement of other players, some great passing and crossing. Possession not considered as a dirty word but something to be treasured and the ball passed along on the ground.

All these qualities finished off by Doyle who must have thought Christmas had come early when Albrechtsen went off to be replaced by Davis, and indeed he helped himself to a couple of presents.

We were not bad. Just ordinary. And so lacking in many areas – it is difficult to know where to start, Reading had so many good players and it is easy to see that they are one of the hot favourites to go back up. I later watched MoTD and thought that while Reading could beat a few of the teams in the Premiership, I couldn’t see us beating any. Not even Stoke or Bolton. And the difference between us and Sunderland has widened considerably even though they could face the drop.

There is no secret to it. It’s continuity. It’s the lack of continuity at Newcastle and Spurs that prevents them from ever threatening to break the big four monopoly while the converse is true at Everton and Villa – they are likely to break that monopoly.

Reading have continuity. Steve Coppell is the longest serving manager in the Championship and nine of their team yesterday are the same as those that played last season in the Premiership. Their boardroom appears stable and committed to building a club as opposed to creating a team. They have reserves and also loan players out for match fitness including a player that many of our fans would love to have – Leroy Lita. All this on gates averaging 19,000 as opposed to our 29,000 (see here).

There’s a lesson there. If we had more stability and more continuity – especially at the Boardroom level, with a decent manager allowed to develop and build a club from top to bottom as Roy Keane himself stated his intention of doing so not so long ago. Which is why I am firmly of the opinion that PJ has to be allowed time to not only get the first team right but also the Academy development, the feeder clubs (particularly the American and Dutch links), the scouting network and the training regime.

So far PJ has concentrated on getting the mentality right – now he has to add more class. And from what I saw on Saturday, much more athleticism at the back. Bikey – deservedly made man of the match by our RamZone correspondent - had the composure and the bulk to shrug off Villa. Bulk is what you need at times to compete in the air – wearing the ‘tinhats’ as Sir Purple Nose referred to when mentioning the Stoke and Arsenal match. We are not strong enough in the air or bulky enough at the back to compete with some of the sheer athletes around.

Rebuilding a club is a job that demands patience and slow building – as Dario Gradi (oh why did we ever sack him??) once commented: “It takes nine years to turn a club round.” Coppell is being given the time to do that – let’s hope PJ is. After all, we’re getting around 240,000 more people this season through the gates than Reading and PJ should be able to build a bigger and better club.

But first, I’ll settle for being as good as Reading are at the moment.

Photo: Action Images

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