A Royal Rant at Jose Gomes

Before I start, it's best to give you a little background on who I am and why I am posting this. 

I've been a Reading fan since I was about 7. I have seen everything from Uwe Hartenberger to Van Der Kwakk to finishing 2nd and not getting promoted to our record breaking season and to this drivel. Been there done that. Despite my support spanning from the far reaches of time, I have always been a forward thinking and progressive individual who embraces the ever increasing changes and evolution of football. Now I am not looking to become a journalist, pretending to be ITK or looking to belittle anyone else's opinion. This is just my thoughts from my own observations and sources over the past year. I want to share with you where things have started to go wrong after such a positive turnaround. 

So let's begin with the latter. 

Jose Gomes took over a team that was destined for relegation and had some technically talented players trained in a way that was reminiscent of the Royal Navy. You can ask Van Den Berg and Yann Kermogant who can confirm that. There was no confidence in the squad, there was no identity, no spirit and the experience that was brought in had not lived up to their reputation. It was an absolute dogs dinner. So after they fired Paul Clement and the 2 stooges we appointed a man who was relatively unknown to about 99% of the Royal population. Even me. I am a Portugal fan, I watch domestic Portuguese football every couple of weeks and I have literally only seen Jose Gomes twice. Didn't know a lot about him apart from he was assistant to Jesualdo Ferreira who is one of the most successful managers in football outside of the big 3 leagues in Europe. But part of me felt that this guy must have something about him to convince the powers above that he can keep us safe and take us forward. Not only that,  but he would be able to convince the fans and pundits who still wanted Brian McDermott or Parky at the helm. He sounds like quite a guy right?! Jose Gomes's first game was a very "ye old skool" introduction into the Championship. Millwall Away. Talk about being thrown into the Lions Den! The crowd were hostile, the weather was awful, the opposition were doing everything to make life impossible and to top it off we were a man down after 9mins! It just went from bad to worse. We even finished with 9 men by the end of the match. Throughout the game Jose was getting absolutely slated by the BBC Berks team for trying to play out from the back too. It literally could not have gone any worse for him and for us.

After a couple more games we got to Man Utd away in the cup and for me this was the game changer that made our season. I saw something in the team and in Jose that made me believe we would be safe this season. Jose is very open about the way he plays (ironic now right) and I saw for the first time in only a couple of weeks the players were carrying out his philosophy against Manchester United! I actually thought we played really well and even Ole said to Jose after the game "do not ever change the way you play". The team really believed in what they were doing, they had a clear direction, a togetherness and more importantly... Hope. To add to this we signed Lewis Baker, Martinez, Oliveria, Miazga and Ejaria to help add some quality and give the squad a bit of a refresh. I would say that every single one of these guys helped tremendously to keep us up and a lot of credit should also go to Jose, Nigel and the Owner for this. To bring in these players with no affiliation with the club, halfway through the season and have that much of an impact just goes to show you how well Jose has gotten the best out of people. It didn't just stop there though. He was getting the best out of Meite who finally looked like he was deserving of his new contract, Blackett was playing well, the defence looked imperious and Nelson Oliveria (a player I have watched since he was 19) looked to be reliving his best form again. Truth to be told, Jose kept us up, he had a clear vision, he'd won the fans over, the BBC Berks team over and the players absolutely loved playing for him. Things were looking better for us. A few us even believed we might be in for a smoother ride to a mid table finish next season.

Hmmm. Enter pre-season and begin operation undo everything.

It was no secret that Reading were struggling to meet Financial Fair Play (FFP). We have a number of players from the previous regime and before on big money who were surplus to requirements and needed to move on. Jose made no secret of that when he first joined and wanted them out. He also said he wanted a smaller squad to work with. So our first priority is to move on the players who are no longer needed so we can raise funds to sign as many of the loanees that helped to keep us up. It was proving to be a challenging task for the recruitment team who were struggling to find suitors for these players and thus making it impossible for the manager to integrate any new signings as early as possible. But, it did allow for the U23s to get their chance and impress the boss over pre-season. I had watched every pre-season game and I said in my Post Match review of the Chelsea game who I thought was ready for the 1st team. I think with only 5 or 6 additions we would be a team able to meet a realistic expectation of mid table. We needed a new keeper, 1 more centre back, 2 central midfielders and a top striker. The rest would be a mixture of players who were in the managers plans and U23s. To give you an idea of what I thought, see below.

Goalies
New Gk
Southwood
Boyce Clark (out on loan)

RBs
Gunter
Yiadom
Howe (out on loan)

Centre Backs
New CB
Moore
McIntyre
Blackett
Holmes (out on loan)

LB
Richards
Obita
Blackett if needed

Centre mid
Rino
Swift
Holsgrove
East (out on loan)
New Cm (DM)
New Cm (DM)

Wingers/attacking mids
Barrett
Olise
New signing
Frost (out on loan)
Meite if needed
Loader if needed

Strikers
Meite
New Striker
Loader
Baldock

For me this is the perfect balance. Anyone not here is either sold or not part of the team plans.

Well, instead we have a much bigger squad if you look at the current roster.

This is Gomes's 1st big mistake. He made a big fuss about having a smaller squad when he came here and wanting to have a pathway for the youngsters. Instead we have a huge squad again and the youngsters are not able to get a look in. How many times have they been the first to be dropped or substituted this season? More on that later.

2nd Mistake
Over expectation. When we signed Rafael, Lucas Joao, Puscas, Morrison, Miazga, Boye, Pele, Virginia and Ejaria within days of each other it reminded me of what Tommy Burns did when he took over and signed the magnificent 7 (PauLOL BROFLayson included). Jose followed this up with his big talk of promotion and achieving the owners dream of getting us to the Prem. I don't know about you but despite the brief excitement I was more shocked at how quickly his tone had changed and how this would effect the current crop of players. A few additions was definitely needed but this many and now demands of promotion? It sends a very strange message to the team who worked tirelessly over the summer and were hoping to impress us during the next campaign. Well, with the new players this is a huge kick in the teeth for the younger members and I can't imagine it will have the same positivity Jose has throughout the entire squad. 

3rd Mistake
Rotation, Rotation, Rotation. Big clubs in Europe need to rotate to compete at the highest level across the domestic league and the champions league. Look at Bayern, Juve, Man Citeh, Inter, Barca, Real etc. Small clubs like us playing in the Championship need a settled squad of trusted individuals who can rely on each other and the manager to get them through the season. Jose has adopted a big clubs mentality on a small club and sorry Jose but that does not work. You can't keep changing the team every bloody week. It's not even for bad performances either. Richards was dropped for Obita in what I believe to be a publicity stunt. I mean no disrespect to Obita as he is one of my favourite players but at a time where the manager is under pressure, what better way to lift the crowd and deflect the attention away by playing a fan favourite who has spent the last 2 years on the hard road to recovery. I was glad to see Obita back, like everyone, but there was absolutely no reason to drop one of our best players this season who had also just been called up for England U21s. It doesn't stop there either. He's dropped McIntyre every time we need to change from a 5 to a 4 when, and I hate to say it, he should be dropping Moore. He's dropped Barrett off the back of an emphatic and match winning performance against Plymouth. He dropped Olise from the squad when he was probably one of our best players in Pre-Season, which can't have done any good for his confidence. I know Jose will say that this all comes down to the opposition and that they will all play a part but the fact is these players do not want to play a bit part. They are professional footballers that want to win and play as much as possible. They want trust from the manager, the club and the fans. They can't get that if Jose is chopping and changing every bloody week! Look at Norwich and Villa who Jose has drawn comparisons to. They didn't start well as they were finding out their best 11 and their best formation. Then in and around about the equivalent of 3 weeks ago they settled on a formation and soon after a team. You rarely saw the CBs or midfield change unless there was an injury, suspension or a really, really bad performance. And guess what, if you were called up and played well you kept your place, regardless of how young you are.

Mistake 4
Going solo. Just compound the fact Jose is, in my opinion, causing a rift with favouritism. He is then going public and blaming the players. After the Boro game he called out Joao and Puscas for a bad performance against Charlton. That should be kept out of the public and I think he knows he made a mistake here. Puscas is a young man from a foreign country trying to settle into English life, in a new league, new style and a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders. The worst thing you could do is add to that and carry out a public execution of his performance. When confidence is low put an arm over the shoulder and get players loving their job again. When the team are performing at peak levels and riding high but have a bad game then give them a kick. But do that in private. How would you like it if I shared your negatives or things you should have done better from your appraisal all over over social media?

Final chance

Jose has 1 last role of the dice. A draw and a good performance or a win will save his job throughout the international break. He has some big selection decisions to make this weekend and I think he also has a big tactical change to make as well. Play Rino and Pele together to provide more steel and balance. We are getting torn apart by teams bursting through the middle and our more attack minded players not tracking their man as well as a more defensive minded player would. The rest is up to him.

Despite this long rant I really want to see Jose, and the team do well for us. To undo all the good he did last season would be a travesty and I think a lot of fans will be quick to forget the good he's done by focusing on the cold stats as manager.

Forca Jose, for now!