Fleetwood Town Fans Verdict: Eat, Sleep, Reading Lose Horribly, Repeat
How the fans reacted to yet another horrendous evening for Reading Football Club.
Genuinely it’s getting to a point where I should just dust off the last Fans Verdict and reuse everything apart from adding in new tweets from the fans. It’s getting ridiculous now, isn’t? The same old story, time after time after time.
Yet again on Tuesday night, Reading were really poor, some may even argue they sunk to a new low. But they seem to do that every two months or so these days.
Here’s what the fans had to say after the game as they rued an all-too-familiar story and even more pressure mounted on the manager...
A new low?
It’s been bad for a few weeks now - well, a few years in fact - but Tuesday night really was a different kind of shocking. In and of itself, as a standalone performance, it was atrocious. But combine it with what we’ve had to endure so far this season and everything else happening around the club at the moment and it did feel like we sank to a new low.
It’s just painful now. And the fans are scared that it’s going to get a lot worse before it even begins to get better...
#ReadingFC
— Caroline Parker (@CazParker1871) October 24, 2023
Just when you think you've reached your lowest ebb, they find another new low. pic.twitter.com/d7FMPDq4mK
Game 8 23/24
— Steven Hansell (@steveyroyal) October 24, 2023
Reading 1 Fleetwood 2
Can it get any lower. Abysmal performance. #readingfc pic.twitter.com/sfob8FET9p
No excuses. This is up there with the worst performances I seen. Ruben has to go #ReadingFC
— Cameron #DaiOut (@ronniemac93) October 24, 2023
So much bad going on in the world it's easy to say sport means nothing, but it's a distraction and brings people together. When it goes well it raises the spirits and gives you a real high, but we've just had one of the worst defeats in our history. And it feels crap #readingfc
— Chris Lee (@cribsie) October 25, 2023
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it did last night
— Matty Dempster (@DempsterRfc) October 25, 2023
About as bad as I’ve ever seen it #Readingfc
I have been a critic of Dai for years and have been regularly been called a doomsayer but as much as I was convinced the club was in peril, I never imagined it would get as bad as this. There really is almost nothing left #readingfc
— Nick Knight (@NJK20171) October 24, 2023
Eight points adrift at this stage of the season even with a points deduction is completely and utterly unacceptable.
— Jack (@thesimpsonRFC) October 24, 2023
The standards of this club have dropped so low, that losing and going behind every game is now beyond acceptable. So sad and depressing to see #readingfc
Utterly horrendous on and off the pitch. I've not been this worried in all my 29 years of watching @ReadingFC #sellbeforewedai #readingfc #marchbeforewedai
— Eleanor Flood (@Eleanor18Flood) October 24, 2023
Insane how much times the sentence “the worst half/game of football I’ve seen Reading play in my ___ years of supporting the club” just this season alone. Must’ve seen it about 5 times at the very least. #rfc #readingfc
— Tommy Docherty (@tommy_docherty) October 24, 2023
I’ve glossed over the away defeats with confidence we’ll be fine in games like tonight. The worst half of football I’ve ever seen from us, Azeez coming on has massively improved us though. If Selles doesn’t get the win tonight my faith in him has gone #Readingfc
— Nick Houlton (@Houlton11) October 24, 2023
Ruben Selles
I never, ever want someone to lose their job and will never actively push for it. I want Selles to turn things around, I really do, but this is starting to feel all too familiar.
It’s like a throwback to the weeks leading up to Veljko Paunovic’s sacking. This is going to go one of two ways: we’re either going to turn things around or we’re going to be on the end of a Fulham-style demolition and that will be that. I know which one is looking more likely at the moment.
For many, Tuesday night was the final straw for Selles and the number of fans wanting him to be sacked is at an all-time high...
Ruben Selles needs to go. Probably a good manager but not suited to League one. Need someone to tighten us up and play a more simple style. Similar situation to Brendan Rodgers. #readingfc
— Musito Nazir (@MNazirNewEra) October 25, 2023
As many fans predicted/feared at the time Rubén Sellés is proving to be no where near the standard required. No doubt in my mind that he will fail and has to be let go, can’t see it with the current ownership situation though… #readingfc
— Sam Richards (@SammyRich89) October 25, 2023
Selles is worse than Ince.
— Greg Double (@Dubstep1988) October 25, 2023
At least with Ince, you knew why he was playing a system that didn’t suit the squad.
He thought the players were useless and he played misery ball out of rank pragmatism.
With Selles, it’s ideology. He’s just playing an ill-suited system. #readingfc
Had high hopes for Selles, just one of a few managers I liked.
— Neil Palmer (@neilpalmerphoto) October 25, 2023
But we’re nose diving into oblivion and it’s time for a change. P45 or gardening leave.
Still think there’s a decent team there.#readingfc
I previously gave Selles allowances for all of those factors. However, it is now becoming abundantly clear that, despite all of those mitigating factors, he still has to be called out as also failing through this own lack of competence. #readingfc
— Andy C #FBPE (@AndyRFCCharman) October 25, 2023
There is no excuse now for why Selles isn’t getting results with the talent in this squad, time has to be ticking for him? Seems very stubborn and so many changes each game how are we meant to get momentum and players gelling when we field a different 11 every weekend? #readingfc
— Reading Talk (@RoyalReading106) October 25, 2023
I was all for Selles at the time but he simply isn’t good enough. He stuck by that formation and it’s cost us again. Enough is enough, it’s time to move on. #readingfc
— Harry Sands (@SarryHands) October 24, 2023
Do you know what we need right now? To play the best team in the league on Saturday
— Karl Healy (@Healy29_Hayes) October 24, 2023
If Selles is in charge, i dont know if i'll be able to bring myself to go and watch his 4222 be torn apart by a good team. #readingfc
The best managers do perfect their plan, spot on.
— Dan (@DanielRBlackham) October 24, 2023
Sellés doesn’t fall into that category unfortunately, hence why he is at #ReadingFC
A decent manager acknowledges when the game is getting away from his team and adapts. Sellés doesn’t do this either. https://t.co/Atx6ok8gTV
Even if we didn’t have the point deduction, we’d still be in the relegation zone. Utterly shambolic. Selles needs to leave tonight. #readingfc
— JFlint1871 (@JFlint1871) October 24, 2023
Didn't think I would get there this quickly but Selles is out of his depth here. Too stubborn to change his tactics. Not playing the likes of Elliott and Abrefa. Hunt would get more out of this lot but who even could make the decision? #readingfc
— Jonathan Holdstock (@JH7123) October 24, 2023
Conclusion
Another horrendously bad performance and result. If it carries on like this for much longer then you have to feel Selles is on borrowed time. Or is he? Do we even have the ability or money to fire and pay off a manager? Probably not.
It's depressingly bad at the moment, so look out for one another. If you need a break from the football, take a break. Football, and this club, can take far too much of our emotional capacity sometimes - so when it’s this bad, it’s important to take a break from it if you feel you need to.