10 years ago on Friday....

[The Southbank]

I make no apologies for posting this now.

I missed this as I was in Ibiza (poor planning on my behalf), and I've never let it down.

That being said, that evening I met three Reading fans out there as well, and we sunk a brewery load well into the night. Will never forget that!

I feel old.

 

[Madejski]

Problem for me is that for me, that's the peak, I could follow Reading the next 60+ years and I know it'll never be as good as that. I'm tied in for all of the mediocreness to come that Reading is renowned for..

Best team the Football League has ever seen, and hopefully ever will.

 

[Walkley_Owl]

Problem for me is that for me, that's the peak, I could follow Reading the next 60+ years and I know it'll never be as good as that. I'm tied in for all of the mediocreness to come that Reading is renowned for..

Best team the Football League has ever seen, and hopefully ever will.

I'd argue that Busbys Babes, Liverpool of the 70s, Arsenal of the 80s and various other clubs who have lifted the Championship are better than Reading circa 2006. The Football League existed prior to 1992 fella

 

[Magic]

Ten years since we made the top 6 in this division too. What a great decade.

 

[Madejski]

I'd argue that Busbys Babes, Liverpool of the 70s, Arsenal of the 80s and various other clubs who have lifted the Championship are better than Reading circa 2006. The Football League existed prior to 1992 fella

You know what I mean..

Plus saying "Best team the Football League has ever seen since Sky fucked up English football" wouldn't sound quite as good..

 

[Walkley_Owl]

You know what I mean..

Plus saying "Best team the Football League has ever seen since Sky fucked up English football" wouldn't sound quite as good..

The best team to win the 2nd tier.....

Sent from my YOGA Tablet 2-830F using Tapatalk

 

[Dazza]

I make no apologies for posting this now.

I missed this as I was in Ibiza (poor planning on my behalf), and I've never let it down.

That being said, that evening I met three Reading fans out there as well, and we sunk a brewery load well into the night. Will never forget that!

I feel old.

Thanks for making me also feel old. I remember when we lost the first game of that season at home to Plymouth and thinking this team had no chance of promotion and that Coppell wasn't the right man for the job.

 

[HarvSFC]

Finishing 8th in the Premier League the season after, where did it all go wrong?

 

[kelbiiz]

Very cool!!! i like it

 

[The Fack]

Truly put us to the sword on Boxing Day 2005. That Reading team and the one in 2008/09 were the best Championship sides I ever saw at Molineux.

 

[Dazza]

Finishing 8th in the Premier League the season after, where did it all go wrong?

It went wrong because we didn't invest enough money in the squad the following season which ended with us going down to the Championship.

 

[markwwfc1992]

Who is on the left in the top picture, is it Ivar Ingimarsson?

The other two, Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt both ended up playing for us, and Ivar played for us before his move to you (if it is him)

We also had Marcus Hahnemann in goal too, crazy bastard he was, but a likeable guy.

 

[Luke_1884]

Good side Reading were that year, do they still have the record for points?

We got absolutely dicked by them at their place.

 

[Veggie Legs]

Good side Reading were that year, do they still have the record for points?

We got absolutely dicked by them at their place.

Yep, 106. I think it's the record across all divisions.

 

[Super_horns]

Were we the only team you guys didn't score against (nor did we mind you!) in that season?

 

[Aaron-Bcfc]

Thanks for making me also feel old. I remember when we lost the first game of that season at home to Plymouth and thinking this team had no chance of promotion and that Coppell wasn't the right man for the job.

Coppell lost his first game with us and fucked off. Wanker.

 

[The Southbank]

Who is on the left in the top picture, is it Ivar Ingimarsson?

Shane Long.

It was an absolute pleasure to watch that team.

 

[Madejski]

Finishing 8th in the Premier League the season after, where did it all go wrong?

With almost entirely the same team too.. In fact if it wasn't for injuries we could have easily had the same starting 11 every game as we had in the Championship.

Well we should have finished 5th.. Lost to already relegated Watford at home in the penultimate game and had a last minute winner unfairly disallowed in the final game at Blackburn. Just winning those final two games which was perfectly possible would have put us ahead of Spurs on GD. Still annoys me to this day that we never took up the opportunity of playing in Europe the next season, we will probably never get another shot at it.

Where it went wrong.. Short term losing Steve Sidwell to Chelsea was massive, our best player and the one the team was built around. Massive lack of investment that next season too, spend nothing, drop 10 places. Though we spent hardly anything to get up and be successful. Since then probably again lack of good investment. Just this time rather than not spending it, we've shoved it all into high wages and so cannot compete on transfer fees with anyone. Given we've been in this league for over a decade, including three seasons in the Prem, one as recently as 2013, then a £2.5m transfer fee record is nothing.

 

[blademan89]

We went up in 2nd too this year to the prem. How fucking depressing.

 

[Madejski]

We went up in 2nd too this year to the prem. How fucking depressing.

You would have won the league comfortably had it not been for us. Took us ages to overtake you. We didn't go top until late November.

I think the best part of the 106 team is how the only two games we somehow lost were Plymouth (H) and Luton (A)..

 

[blademan89]

You would have won the league comfortably had it not been for us. Took us ages to overtake you. We didn't go top until late November.

I think the best part of the 106 team is how the only two games we somehow lost were Plymouth (H) and Luton (A)..

Yes i think we played wolves away midweek when we lost top spot. We had a bit of a rough patch early new year then came good again when it mattered. Clinching promotion on good friday as it happened away at cardiff.

 

[Super_horns]

We were the 3rd side to go up upsetting the media by beating their darlings from Leeds in the final..

Messed up once we got promoted - King getting injured and spending millions on the likes of Matt Jackson and Chris Powell who were well past it by then.

 

[Dazza]

Were we the only team you guys didn't score against (nor did we mind you!) in that season?

Yeah. The only other side we failed to beat at least once in the league that season was Leeds. Both games were 1-1.

 

[Dazza]

With almost entirely the same team too.. In fact if it wasn't for injuries we could have easily had the same starting 11 every game as we had in the Championship.

Well we should have finished 5th.. Lost to already relegated Watford at home in the penultimate game and had a last minute winner unfairly disallowed in the final game at Blackburn. Just winning those final two games which was perfectly possible would have put us ahead of Spurs on GD. Still annoys me to this day that we never took up the opportunity of playing in Europe the next season, we will probably never get another shot at it.

Where it went wrong.. Short term losing Steve Sidwell to Chelsea was massive, our best player and the one the team was built around. Massive lack of investment that next season too, spend nothing, drop 10 places. Though we spent hardly anything to get up and be successful. Since then probably again lack of good investment. Just this time rather than not spending it, we've shoved it all into high wages and so cannot compete on transfer fees with anyone. Given we've been in this league for over a decade, including three seasons in the Prem, one as recently as 2013, then a £2.5m transfer fee record is nothing.

What money we did spend went on crap players like Emerse Fae. 2.5 mil and he played a total of 8 times.

 

[Madejski]

What money we did spend went on crap players like Emerse Fae. 2.5 mil and he played a total of 8 times.

We just finished 8th in the Prem, and we spend half of our modest transfer budget on him..

I think it says a lot that our best signing that season was probably Kebe, and it took him 1.5 years to come good, by which time we were long back in the Championship. We also signed Cisse, Rosenior and Matejovsky, none of which are close to being good enough for the Prem.

I think at the time we had a very poor scouting department though, not used to searching for a higher quality of player. If they weren't playing in the bottom two English divisions, the SPL or the Irish league then we had no clue.

I think that's something less important for smaller clubs going to the Prem now. The amount of money you get and have available to spend, you are able to bring in players that you know about and know their qualities, rather than having to search carefully around.

 

[EricSabin]

Problem for me is that for me, that's the peak, I could follow Reading the next 60+ years and I know it'll never be as good as that. I'm tied in for all of the mediocreness to come that Reading is renowned for..

Best team the Football League has ever seen, and hopefully ever will.

How many did you get? 106?

 

[Dazza]

How many did you get? 106?

Yeah. Is a chance Northampton could get more than that this season.

 

[EricSabin]

Yeah. Is a chance Northampton could get more than that this season.

Win all our 9 remaining games and we can get to 109. Reckon we'll end up about 102