Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is expecting a tough battle when he takes his team to his former club Reading on Saturday. The Royals are eight points adrift of safety in the Premier League although Rodgers does not believe relegation is a foregone conclusion under new boss Nigel Adkins. Adkins has presided over two defeats since taking over from Brian McDermott but Rodgers reckons he is the right man for the job.
1. A Fergie never forgets. Make a mistake running the line once and it stays on your record for life. 2. No wonder Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea looked uncomfortable yesterday. He hates white things falling from the sky. 3. Even with Roman Abramovich's millions you can't justify throwing out a perfectly good coat.
A new feature on Soccer Tickets Online. He are some of the comments by Andre Villas-Boas, Alan
Pardew, Steve Clark, Brendan Rodgers and Brian McDermott ahead of this weekend's Premier League
matches.
Newcastle United Manager Alan Pardew
Alan Pardew is optimitic ahead of a week where his side face Tottenham and Chelsea.
In my weekly column on SWOL, I take a look back at the weekend's English Premier League and domestic cup action and the talking points that it throws up, as well as any significant news related to English football at large. Follow me @theredarmchair for regular updates throughout the week.
EPL Round 32 Recap: City Rouse, Villa Rise, Reading Ragged
Before we go further into the relegation battle, let's first reserve some praise for Manchester City.
It took a lot longer than it I expected it too, but Reading have hired former Southampton boss Nigel Adkins as their new manager.
When Reading surprisingly sacked Brian McDermott 13 days ago, I thought that they had to have someone lined up to replace McDermott with so little time left in the season.
Reading are poised to announce Gus Poyet as their new manager to replace Brian McDermott who was sacked nine days ago. The Brighton and Hove Albion manager has steered the south coast club to seventh place in the Championship, just ... Continue...
Winning the Football League Championship, then, didn't turn out to be enough for the Reading manager Brian McDermott, who left the club yesterday following its home defeat at the hands of Aston Villa at the weekend with the club's owner Anton Zingarevich stating and it is starting to feel as if there may be a book of stock phrases that football club owners can turn to at just about any time that "change was necessary" at a club which has been hanging around the relegation places in the Premier League and is now separated from the bottom of it only by goals scored.
With only 9 games left in the season, Reading have fired manager Brian McDermott.
McDermott led the club to promotion last season, but after four successive Premier League defeats they are four points from safety and the club has panicked in firing the manager.
Reading released a statement that said:
"Owner Anton Zingarevich wishes to place on record his thanks to Brian.
With the club joint-bottom of the Premier League, stragglers Reading have confirmed that they have parted company withmanager Brian McDermott after four defeats on the bounce.
A Reading statement said:
"[Reading have] announced today the departure of Manager Brian McDermott.
Reading Football Club have sacked manager Brian McDermott with immediate effect. McDermott's last match in charge of Reading was their 2-1 home loss against Aston Villa this past Saturday in the relegation battle. "Owner Anton...
This is a content summary. Visit http://www.epltalk.com to read the entire article
Reading manager Brian McDermott almost missed the chance to run the rule over his fringe players after a steward wouldn't let him watch a reserve match. The Royals boss had travelled to Bournemouth to watch his second-string in a behind-closed-doors friendly. But he was refused entry to the stadium when a steward said he couldn't [.
We keep seeing bad news about Danny Guthrie and the relationship with his new manager Brian McDermott, and the former Newcastle central midfielder hasn't played too much for Reading this season, with just 6 appearances and one goal. Danny Guthrie refused to travel to Sunderland But it's Danny's attitude which seems to be causing [.
Reading midfielder Danny Guthrie has been fined two weeks' wages after he refused to travel to Tuesday night's relegation six-pointer at Sunderland. The Royals lost the match 3-0. But Guthrie, aged 25, had left training early on Monday after apparently discovering that he would not be in the starting line-up for the match.
Today's your lucky day. You're the chairman of Queens Park Rangers, Reading and Southampton. You face the decision of whether to stick with your current manager, or replace him. What do you do? Firing someone is always a difficult...
This is a content summary. Visit http://www.epltalk.com to read the entire article
Today's your lucky day. You're the chairman of Queens Park Rangers, Reading and Southampton. You face the decision of whether to stick with your current manager, or replace him. What do you do?
Firing someone is always a difficult decision. There are so many variables involved. Is it really the manager that is failing, or is it the players who are unable to carry through with the manager's instructions on the pitch?
Arsenal came from four goals down to produce one of the most dramatic comebacks of all time by eliminating Reading from the Capital One League Cup with a 7-5 win following extra time.
Jason Roberts, Mikele Leigertwood, and Noel Hunt all scored in a fantastic first half for the Royals at the Madejski Stadium, with a Laurent Koscielny own goal also frustrating the shaky Damian Martinez.
Danny Guthrie has denied there has been another bust-up with Reading manager Brian McDermott, and he says he's very willing to buckle down and fight for his place at Reading. Danny Guthrie ready to buckle down Danny got upset with the Reading manager a few weeks ago when he was left out of the [...]
Luis Suarez of Liverpool (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Liverpool have only won two for 13 homes matches at Anfield so far this calendar year. The once mighty fortress of the Reds is in danger of being labeled a non-factor in matches after it failing to have the awestruck affect on the opposition for the last few seasons.
Reading 2-2 Newcastle United Premier League 29th September 2012
In-form hitman Demba Ba struck a brace at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday, including a superb volley, to rescue a point for the Magpies and leaves Brian McDermott and co. still searching for their first Premier League win of the campaign.
Brian McDermott says Reading "will larn apace" from their justificative faults after succumbing to a 3-1 licking by Tottenham at the Madejski Stadium. HTTP://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image/62929000/jpg/_62929353_mmftbmcdermottint.jpg
Chelsea retained their 100 per cent start to the season with a 4-2 victory over Reading last night.
But it was the Blues' third goal, scored when the match was level at 2-2, that will be playing on
Royals boss Brian McDermott's mind today. Fernando Torres was quite clearly offside as he tucked
the ball [.
Another pivotal performance from Belgian wing-wizard Eden Hazard helped Chelsea on their way to
a second win of the season at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. However, Premier League new-boys
Reading made a proper game of it, and came close to pulling off a major shock.
At this time of the year, there are a lot of us trying to quantify the unquantifiable. The start
of the new football season sees a frantic dash to predict and analyse, but precious few seek to
factor in the variables that generate so much of the games appeal in the first place. It's
understandable, of course.
Italian poacher extraordinaire Fillipo Inzaghi has several fine accomplishments to his name,
including the record for most hat-tricks scored in Serie A, and is the second most prolific scorer
in European club competitions. But that fine pedigree was not quite enough to turn the shiny head
of Reading manager Brian McDermott, who passed up the [.
Panic has set in among many boardrooms over the past few weeks as chairmen roll the dice for the last time in the hope that a change in manager will be enough to turn fortunes around in the latter stages of the football season and in most cases, avoid relegation! March saw a total of [...]
Reading have fired head coach Brian McDermott following the club's 2-1 home loss to Aston Villa on Saturday, leaving the relegation threatened Royals without a manager for the time being.
"The search for a successor will start immediately," the club said in a statement.
Reading defender Alex Pearce is closing in on a switch to Liverpool. Pearce, 24, is out of contract in the summer and played under Anfield boss Brendan Rodgers in 2009. The Kop chief needs to replace retirement-bound Jamie Carragher, and Pearce would not cost a penny. West Brom and Norwich are also keen but the Republic of Ireland defender would jump at the chance of a move to Anfield.
Golazo de Buttner vs Wigan by rrmisas 1. It was a good weekend for scoring on your debut. Alex Buttner, Nick Powell, Dimitar Berbatov, Mark Lowton, Christian Benteke and Javi Garcia all accomplished that feat. 2. Paul Scholes: he continues to score goals. The Manchester United legend marked his 700th game with a goal against [.
So Arsenal have finally decided to return to Indonesia; their first visit since 1983. Their won't be many from that trip 30 years ago still with the club. Perhaps Stewart Robson could come along for the ride and do stuff for the website; see what he can recall from when he was on the trip all those years ago.
Arsene Wenger looked stunned in his post match interview last night, and there was a great scene on the touchline when Chamakh scored Arsenal's seventh goal. Wenger and the Reading manager Brian McDermott looked at each other and just gave a little shake of the head, they could not believe it.
Wenger has now shook himself and realised that he has been given a great opportunity to keep the Arsenal players fired up and on a high as we face a couple of crucial games in the Premier and Champions league against Manchester United and Schalke.
My expectations for tonight are not great. Away to PL opposition is always difficult with a reserve side, but on the other hand these are the type of games when we really see how our lads perform under pressure.
Will Reading prioritise the League Cup (or whatever it is called this season)? Their next two PL games are QPR away and Norwich at home, both games against direct relegation rivals which will surely have an effect upon McDermott's selections.
My expectations for tonight are not great. Away to PL opposition is always difficult with a reserve side, but on the other hand these are the type of games when we really see how our lads perform under pressure.
Will Reading prioritise the League Cup (or whatever it is called this season)? Their next two PL games are QPR away and Norwich at home, both games against direct relegation rivals which will surely have an effect upon McDermott's selections.
The subject of managerial changes has arisen a few times this season. Generally these changes have been presented in a negative light by the media and fans. Often as "good men" are fired from positions in which they appeared to be safe. Both Nigel Adkins and Brian McDermott steered their respective clubs to excellent promotions in 2011/2012 and were then fired before they'd had the chance to complete a Premier League season many thought they had earned the right to see out.
Sacking Brian McDermott will not save reading from relegation this season. After a bad run of results the Royals sacked their manager earlier this month hoping that the change of management would boost the clubs chances of avoiding the drop this season. But the chances of this proving a masterstroke seem very slim despite a spirited but ultimately fruitless performance at Old Trafford last week.
Brian McDermott was sacked this week, which instigated a period of fawning from various media outlets about how badly the Reading manager had been treated. Not as if his side were close to relegation or anything. Instead, lets put this in perspective by looking at the managerial record of Palermo in Serie A, whose President [.
Venue: St James' Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 19th January, 2013. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Andre Marriner (West Mids). UK TV: None. Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our "match banter" feature for this afternoon's game between Newcastle United and Reading from St James' Park. This of course will be the Magpies' second encounter with Reading, [.
Danny Guthrie had a bit of a bust up with Reading manager Brian McDermott a few weeks ago, when he criticized the manager on his Twitter account, after being left out of the side. Danny Guthrie having troubles with Reading manager And it doesn't seem to have got much better over the last few [...]
Liverpool welcome Reading to Anfield still searching for their first home win of the season. Liverpool were held to a goalless draw at home to Stoke last time out, while Reading picked up a 2-2 draw at Swansea before the international break. The Royals won their last visit to Anfield in an FA Cup replay in January 2010 which was Brian McDermott's first victory as manager of Reading.
