Like Father, Like Son

[tenthreeleader]

I suppose it does, at that .... who knew?

___

“Why is Dad always so aggressive?”

Ryan sat next to his mother at the kitchen table on the night before the Watford match. The team was going to take an early matchday coach the next morning – ownership had decided against lodging the players in a hotel the night before the match.

It wasn’t necessarily a deal-breaker for the team’s chances, but Ryan still would have preferred a relaxed buildup to the match rather than scrambling to get everyone on a coach at 8 a.m.

But for now, Ryan sat with Patty and they talked about the person to whom they were related by marriage.

“Remember what your father went through to keep the job you have,” she said. “All the fights he had to endure. It put an edge on him and he kept it in things that had to do with football.”

“Well, yes, but there’s a lot of conflict in him.”

“Yes, but he also had the sense to understand where his position was strongest,” she answered. “He inherited a team that was on the up, and he knew it. He knew that getting over with the fans was going to be the biggest factor in his success, so he became their defender. You don’t have that luxury, but you do have the relationships he built with them. That’s how we won his battles, and you have his legacy with them to win yours.”

“At least that’s what he thinks,” Ryan answered, taking a sip from a cup of tea.

“Well, he’s always said it’s your team,” she replied patiently. She had spent many years defending her husband’s behavior which could at times be quite fiery, but she also knew that much of that fire was directed at protecting her and their family.

“It’s just funny,” Ryan said. “Just once it would be interesting if he said something like ‘you should get a gift for Dai and get on his good side.’”

“I think he’d rather scratch his eyeballs with a fork,” Patty smiled.

“He’s fought for everything he gained in the game,” she added. “It’s not in his nature to sit down and shut up when there’s a principle to fight for.”

“Or a person to fight,” Ryan smiled.

It wasn’t exactly a fair characterization, but for the time being, it would do. Rob was not a fighter by nature but if you got into his business, he could make you regret it. And everything he did was for his family, even though sometimes the added bonus of an ego stroke could make the fight sweeter to win.

He did have an ego. Most great managers do. They don’t get their jobs unless they think they can do them better than anyone else, and once Rob showed he actually could do it better than anyone else, he wasn’t shy in telling people about it.

But Ryan was different. Though he had his mother’s red hair, he didn’t have the redhead’s famed fiery temper. He was a different person, and didn’t always like to mix it up with the press, board members, media types or any of the other hangers-on that dog a professional football club.

Winning on the pitch was the most important thing for him, and he figured that once he showed he could do that, the other battles would take care of themselves.

While Rob slept in the next room, Ryan realized that he faced a decision he was eventually going to have to make; whether to fall into his father’s orbit or break away into deep, uncharted space.

Just then Annie, who had overheard the conversation, entered the kitchen and crossed behind her husband to rub his shoulders.

“You can do anything you want,” she reminded him. “You can do anything you set your mind to. Whether or not your father is a brilliant manager – which he was and probably still is – you can carve your own pathway.”

Patty smiled at her daughter-in-law and spoke with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

“Maybe one Rob Ridgway is enough,” she said playfully.

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

10 September 2022
Watford v Reading, Championship Match Day #9

Ryan stepped off the coach at Vicarage Road at the head of his team and then stepped aside to watch his players pass, one by one, into Watford’s home ground.

He was watching for any signs that the ride from Berkshire had had any negative effect on anyone – limps, tight muscles, sore joints, anything that might affect his decisions on how the team should play on the day.

Seeing nothing amiss, he proceeded to the visiting manager’s office and finished filling out his team sheet. There wouldn’t be a lot of change from Stoke, but some players needed to get back into the lineup after coming back from international duty.

One of those players was Casadei, who had looked very good for Italy’s u-19s and appeared to be riding a good streak of form. So as Ryan briefed the team on the day’s tactics, he had the young midfielder in mind.

“We’re going with 4-3-3 today,” he said, in a tone of voice that would have made his father proud. “We’re flipping both attacking forwards to the middle, and we’re going to play a little tiki-taka today.”

That brought some smiles from the players, who had something new to talk about. This was a new look for Reading and for Ryan as well, having not used the tactic in a Championship match to date, so unveiling it playing away to the sixth-placed team was a real risk.

But the players loved it. Casadei liked it even more when Ryan used an Italian word to describe his role for the day.

“Play a mezzala style,” Ryan said, in a tone that would have raised his father’s eyebrows. Rob had managed in Italy before coming to Reading, and he would have no more started a mezzala player in midfield than he would have stood on the touchline without his pants.

“We want possession today and that means Cesare has a role to fill,” Ryan said. A player in the half-spaces could link midfield to forwards in a narrow attack, and that was just what Ryan had in mind.

“They are weak up the middle,” Ryan said. “Focus play through the middle, let’s move the ball among these gentlemen and when we wear them out, we’ll pip a goal and head back home. What do you say, lads?”

Loud agreement greeted the manager which was gratifying for more than one reason. Buy-in is always good to see from players, but enthusiasm was something quite different.

The team went through its warmups in high spirits and punctually at 3:00, the match kicked off.

Ryan expected a strong start from the home team, which had crashed 4-0 against Huddersfield in its prior match. Stung to the quick and challenged by their manager, Watford started out on the front foot, while Ryan’s tiki-taka was able to deny Watford what it most wanted, which was possession.

Reading picked up some unfortunate good fortune twelve minutes into the match, when Watford’s Udinese loanee, Hassane Kamara, hobbled off injured rubbing his right calf, taking a pretty good wing player right out of the equation for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, once again the Royals had a hard time producing quality attacks with the possession they had, which was the lion’s share over the first half hour. Watford had the only two good chances of that time period and it took a full 35 minutes before Ince came close with a rasping drive from eighteen yards that barely missed the crossbar, which wouldn’t have helped but which would have made a much better sound.

Still and all, they got to halftime scoreless and that was a victory of sorts for a team being asked to tinker with its engine while the motor was running. Casadei hadn’t played badly but there was a general staleness to the Royals that came with a lot of matches in a short period of time, and that would simply take time to overcome.

The need became more urgent when Ismalia Sarr opened the scoring for Watford four minutes after the restart. The Senegalese beat Lumley with some ease with some help from the Brazilian João Pedro, who at age twenty was evidently not old enough to have only one name.

Ryan decided to stick with Casadei in his role and was rewarded when he found Yiadom with a seeing-eye ball down the flank for the overlapping fullback. His cutback found Junior Hoilett right where he was supposed to be, and the ball was right where it was supposed to be soon after, which is to say in the back of the net.

It was another battling performance away from home. Three points were probably not on the cards, but the one Reading got would have to be enough.

Watford 1-1 Reading
Sarr 49; Hoilett 72
A – 19,348 (1,110 away)

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

Some rest was good, but Ryan, of course, never stopped working.

All he wanted was for his team to get into some sort of rhythm. They were performing above expectations, to be certain, but this business of playing twice a week for a month and then once in ten days was playing hell both with training as well as fitness.

The squad was small, yes, but they were all getting chances to play and that much was fine. But Ryan was still learning the art of how to balance a squad and the various needs of each of its players.

He managed men differently than a lot of managers did – he gave them credit for being men until they gave him a reason not to. That seemed fair to everyone.

That meant the players were on their best behavior until they messed up and drew Ryan’s ire. He had made it plain that if he ever called a player by his first and last name, that player was in trouble he didn’t want to be in.

Which was why Dean Bouzanis had been called, by name, to the manager’s office on the Monday following the Watford match.

Now the team’s third-choice keeper after the promotion of the precociously talented Coniah Boyce-Clarke to the senior squad, Bouzanis hadn’t been taking his training with a sufficient level of seriousness in recent days.

He sat across the manager’s desk from Ryan, who motioned to a television screen on the wall to his left and took a remote from his desk.

“Dean, watch this,” Ryan said, hitting the play button for an obviously pre-recorded sequence of video.

The video was from the last few training sessions and showed, in the main, Bouzanis standing around. Or sitting, a cardinal sin in most managers’ training sessions. To be fair to the player, Ryan also included some decent work done by the Australian in training, but after a minute or so, his point had been made.

“What’s up with that?” Ryan asked.

“Well, I went down the pecking order a bit, and I reckon I didn’t handle that as well as I should have,” the keeper admitted.

“That’s an understatement,” Ryan said, trying not to sound severe but knowing he needed to say what had to be said next.

“It isn’t professional,” Ryan said, and Bouzanis looked up at him with a wounded expression.

“I’ve played two hundred senior matches, gaffer,” he replied. “I think that deserves a bit of consideration.”

“Which is why I’m talking with you here, behind a closed door, instead of out on the ground in front of your teammates,” Ryan said, with just enough of a knife edge in his voice to cut the skin but not cause bleeding. “That’s out of respect for you. Can I see better in training, please?”

Bouzanis nodded. There was really nothing he could say, and both men knew it.

It was once said of the American baseball manager Frank Robinson that he could “step on your shoes but not mess up your shine.” It was precisely this effect Ryan was trying to have on Bouzanis, who as a new arrival at the club prior to Ryan’s taking charge, should have known better than to challenge the manager in the first place.

“Look, Dean,” Ryan finally said in an effort to break the silence, “anyone can make a mistake. Let’s consider this one yours and move on from it. You want to play, I’d like to have you available for selection, but I can’t pick you when you behave like that in training.”

“Understood,” Bouzanis said. Showing he had learned, he waited for Ryan to end the meeting.

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

He really hadn’t wanted to discipline Bouzanis, who was immensely likeable and a player popular with his teammates. But Ryan hadn’t felt he had a choice.

At this level, the game wasn’t for mollycoddles. Everyone knew that. The fact that some people had it easier than others simply reinforced the idea that sometimes life was just unfair.

Ryan made it a point to hand out praise as well – not to the point of being obsequious, but to let the players, especially Bouzanis, know that he could notice the good as well as the bad, as the team continued its strong start to the season.

Things had even cooled down with the front office and the board room, to an extent. Dai still hadn’t put in an appearance at the stadium and wasn’t likely to as long as he was less popular than scurvy among the Royals faithful.

All this gave Ryan time and space. And that was what he needed most – the time to get the players to come together as a true team, the kind that everyone wants their team to be but which for some reason never quite figures out how to get there.

Yet, Ryan had achieved very strong results with a very simple tactic, and that had raised a few eyebrows around the Championship.

In his pre-match media briefing prior to hosting Sunderland, Ryan tried to explain it. Unfortunately for him, Anderson was the questioner, who wanted to know why he couldn’t seem to find anything more complex to give his charges than a simple 4-2-3-1.

Ryan chose to be discreet in his answer this time, though, deciding to see how it might work out for him.

“Because the Championship is a real grind, Colin, as you are well aware,” he began. “There are very few leagues in the world, perhaps probably none outside England, who expect 46 regular season matches out of their players. I feel that if you’re going to succeed in a league like this one, you have to keep it simple, especially since we have a small squad and not a lot of room for error. I want this team to learn together, work together and above all play together regardless of who is out there from one match to the next. The time will probably come when I’ll want to throw in a wrinkle at a key moment or for a key opponent, but none of that matters if we can’t beat the drop after starting so well. I hope that answers your question.”

Anderson looked at Ryan like he had just been hit by lightning. Finally, he spoke. “Yes, yes it does, Ryan,” he said. “Thank you.”

He then got a chance to talk about the Black Cats, one of England’s recent hard-luck clubs. Netflix miniseries notwithstanding, it hadn’t been very pleasant to be a Sunderland fan in recent years. Despite resources thrown into the club by a parade of owners, there wasn’t a lot in the way of results to be seen for it all.

Sunderland had won only one of its first seven matches, placing them four points behind Reading even with the points deduction added in. The fact that they had three draws was the only thing keeping them out of the drop zone.

They were probably looking for an away day in any event, having played their last two matches at home and winning neither. First they had crashed 3-nil to Norwich, which was galling enough for a Sunderland fan, and then they had failed to protect leads of 2-nil and 3-2 in a 4-4 draw with Millwall that, rather surprisingly, saw both teams score own goals.

Ryan had snickered when he saw the analytics from that match. The XG was Millwall 1.1, Sunderland 0.5. So naturally it had wound up 4-4.

The media meeting was more lighthearted than he could remember it being. He didn’t mind that a bit.

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

14 September 2022
Reading v Sunderland – Championship Match Day #10
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Match Theme: Workin’ Day and Night – Michael Jackson

 

Ryan got some good news from Hirons upon arrival at the ground. He was informed that Carroll, Abrefa and Nesta Guinness-Walker were all available for selection, reducing the load in the training room by half.

Guinness-Walker was the farthest away of the three from full match activity so after speaking with the player, Ryan made him available for u-21 play until his match sharpness and fitness returned to their normal levels.

Carroll, on the other hand, went straight into the team. Scouting reports showed that Sunderland could be victimized through the air and there was nobody on the team better to take advantage of that fact than he was.

Abrefa made the substitutes’ bench, held back by Yiadom’s recent good form, but he said he was ready for anything the manager might decide, and he was training better since recovering from his twisted knee as well.  

They were prepared to face a Sunderland team that was replete with its usual drama, having sagged all the way to 22^nd place in the early going and increasing the pressure on their latest manager, Tony Mowbray.

They had only played seven matches, the fewest in the Championship, but had only collected six points from them and that had their intensely loyal fan base already in five-alarm-fire mode.

Still, they traveled in their thousands, which boosted Reading’s gate, made Dai more money and delayed the fans’ wish for him to sell up. You couldn’t win for losing sometimes.

While the teams warmed up, Ryan watched second-placed Bristol City hold leaders Norwich to a 0-0 draw in Norwich, an impressive result with the hosts already three points clear of the field after only nine games played. They entered to the King of Pop, with the music selectors hoping some of his magic would rub off on the team.

As the match kicked off, Ryan decided to listen to Rae and pull the team back from its favored positive approach to a more balanced one. He then watched as Sunderland started on the front foot and won two corners within the first five minutes.

Ryan gave the arrangement a few more minutes before switching back and was immediately rewarded. A long ball to the center of the field shook Yakou Meite loose down the right. He reached the area and cut back for Ince, who calmly slotted home fifteen minutes into the match to give Reading the early advantage.

Yet, despite everything they had done to gain the early advantage, there was no “boots on necks” from the team for the remainder of the first half. Mowbray had his team in the perfect response mode to the goal, with Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo spearheading the attack and nearly finding the range 35 minutes into the match.

Then Carroll took a high ball over the top of the Sunderland defense and lashed home, only for the goal to be rightly chalked off for offside. Despite Sunderland’s known deficiencies in the air, Reading’s crossing was awful in the first half and as such there was no service to Carroll, who didn’t play well as a pressing forward by nature.

Still, Reading got to the break ahead 1-0 and these things could be forgotten, or at least worked on, to prepare for the second half.

Worrying to Ryan was Naby Sarr’s complete switching off in the first half right after the goal. He had also been carded early in the match and was a prime candidate for early replacement, but Ryan decided to personally talk with his central defender during the halftime break.

“Naby, I need to know if you want to be out there,” Ryan said, and the defender reacted with shock.

“Of course I do,” he said indignantly.

“Then you need to prove it to me,” Ryan said levelly, turning away from his defender. “Because you don’t look to me like you do.”

Thus fortified, with the rest of the team in better spirits, the second half began and again Reading looked sluggish in the early moments of play.

But then it was Ince making another play – sadly, for the wrong team. His woeful ball forward just after the hour was intercepted by Joe Gelhardt and just like that, it was 1-1 in 62 minutes.

“We look like we’ve never tried to pass or cross a football before,” Ryan moaned. Rae shrugged, while further down the bench, Rob was waiting for his turn to speak.

“Take the focus off the right wing,” he finally said, when Ryan had nodded for his father’s advice.

He had a point. With Meite first shifted to the striker position when Carroll came off four minutes after the Sunderland goal, and  then to left wing, he could be paired against the yellow-carded American international Lynden Gooch. With Ince striking well but not passing well, it seemed the logical thing to do.

But nothing helped. Sunderland had the majority of attempts in the match despite 61 percent Reading possession, but was spectacularly wasteful with them. The result was a draw that neither team liked, but which got Sunderland out of the drop zone and which made the Royals unbeaten in four – though they had only managed to win one.

Reading 1-1 Sunderland
Ince 15; Gelhardt 62

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

Ryan was not in a good mood. The television screen was the reason for his ire this morning – not because it was in the kitchen, but for what information was passing across it.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said what I said yesterday after the match,” Ryan mused, and Annie crossed behind her husband to rub his shoulders in response.

“You told the truth,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

It was going to be another ‘old home week’ for the next game, at Wigan. Their boss was Shaun Maloney, whose career Rob Ridgway had rescued in a £2 million snip from Aston Villa in 2007. There was good feeling between the managers as a result of that fact, but the newly-promoted Latics were 23^rd in the table and they had started the season on minus three points due to poor financial management the season before. However, a win over Reading would move them out of the drop zone.

Yet, Ryan’s team had ascended into positive territory, while Wigan had found it more difficult.

And, this was part of Ryan’s problem.

Having been asked about Wigan’s situation in the aftermath of the Sunderland match, Ryan had spoken his mind. He said he thought Maloney was doing an excellent job all things considered, but that the managers had more in common than they had differences.

“We’re both coming into uncertain situations,” Ryan said. “He’s had to deal with making up points and so have we. The challenges are similar.”

So it was that Ryan read the words on the screen as Sky Sports started its morning show.

“Reading owners displeased with Ridgway’s financial analysis,” it read. He could only imagine what that might mean. He soon found out.

“Reading Football Club’s ownership group has released a statement denying that manager Ryan Ridgway came into an uncertain financial situation when he took over at the start of the season,” the presenter read, while Ryan’s jaw dropped at the news.

“Good Lord, we were on minus six points!” Ryan yowled, nearly shaking his fist at the television screen. “And these people seem to think that’s fine and bloody dandy!”

“Easy, baby,” Annie said, gently kissing the top of her husband’s red head. “No one here thinks any less of you.”

“It’s just a totally unnecessary controversy,” he said, as the presenter went on to repeat ownership’s claims that everything was wine and roses from a financial standpoint.

“They do seem to have a zero tolerance policy for dissent, though,” Annie said, risking her husband’s wrath even as she tried to lower his temperature through humor.

The statement said the club reserved the right to sanction its manager for making statements of a non-footballing nature that were not approved by management.

“We appreciate Mr. Ridgway’s efforts on behalf of the club,” the statement concluded, “but we reserve the right to speak about the club’s affairs to ourselves.”

So it was that training that morning was a little more tense than usual. Ryan had to brush aside questions about the communication from reporters as he entered the ground, which was probably part of the reason the statement had been issued in the first place. Ryan had no ability to reply.

Arriving in his office, he hurled his warmup bag onto the couch beside his desk. Rae had just arrived and checked in to help calm his boss down.

“Madejski would never have done that to my dad,” Ryan snarled.

“Maybe that’s part of the problem,” Rae suggested, and Ryan instinctively knew what he meant.

“So all I have to do is win the European Cup,” he answered, flopping down onto the couch beside his gear bag.

“Your dad is an icon at this club,” Rae replied. “Owners don’t generally do these sorts of things to icons.”

At the day’s media availability, Weatherby was full of questions. As she usually was, but this time Ryan saw an opportunity for mutual gain from the conversation.

“No, Jill, I don’t know where it comes from,” Ryan said. “It was an innocent thing, but obviously the owners took offence and that means I have to be mindful of their thoughts.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” she admitted quietly after exchanging glances with the manager. She knew she had to look into the issue – and that glance shared with Ryan indicated to him that she was going to get to the bottom of things.

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

More Money, More Problems
By Jill Weatherby
Special to the Reading Evening Post

Remember that midweek missive from Reading FC’s ownership group aimed at the forehead of manager Ryan Ridgway? Get ready for more bad news.

Sources close to the club have informed me that Dai Yongge may have issues meeting September’s payroll obligations, a situation that is sure to enrage many supporters.

Ridgway, for his part, is downplaying the significance of the statement made, naturally from China, which took him to task for essentially telling the truth – he has a small squad and not much margin for error given the club’s ongoing financial constraints.

I can reveal that the overall situation is better than it was twelve months ago, when the Royals were staring down the barrel of draconian penalties for financial mismanagement. That mess has largely been cleared up, but the early season fixture list, which has featured more away matches than home, have resulted in what sources call a “temporary bubble” on the club’s balance sheets.

“The club are playing well and eventually that should lead to a better gate and an easing of our situation,” the source, who was naturally speaking on the condition of anonymity, revealed to me this week. “But for the short term, we need some home matches.”

So why the acrimony toward the manager, who seems to have done nothing wrong?

“I can’t fathom it,” the source told me. “Ryan’s a lovely chap, he’s always got time for anyone at the club who wants a chat, and he’s as honest as the day is long. He doesn’t duck tough questions and he doesn’t deserve the way he’s being treated at the moment.”

“It’s almost like he’s being used as a pawn by the owners,” the source concluded. “If something bad happens he’s expendable but as long as things are going well, criticism can be deflected onto him without worry. Either way, the owners win.”

If this reporter has learned anything in twenty years of covering the Royals, it is that a Ridgway never takes a slight, real or imagined, sitting down. It is unlikely that this very real slight to the younger Ridgway will go over well with either the playing staff or with supporters.”

[tenthreeleader]

17^th September 2002 – Championship Match Day #11
Wigan v Reading – DW Stadium, Wigan
Referee: Tony Harrington
 

Ryan tried to keep his bad mood away from his squad as they warmed up to take on the Latics. A little constructive fire in the belly wouldn’t hurt, of course, but his issues with ownership couldn’t be allowed to get in the way of the team’s play.

So, after swallowing a couple Pepto-Bismol at the hotel to soothe a justifiably upset stomach, Ryan went to the team breakfast as ready he would ever be to do his job.

Wigan had started the season in a similar situation to Reading – except they started the season on minus three points instead of the Royals minus six. However, Wigan hadn’t played nearly as well as Reading over the start of the season, and as such still sat in 23^rd place when the match started, at least out of the negative with five points.

“Clear out the gunk from your game today,” Ryan said in the team talk. “We haven’t played like we can for a few weeks now. Make this be the day that that changes.”

There was a light moment before the match as Ryan, Wigan manager Shaun Maloney and Long gathered for a brief conversation. The latter two had played for Rob at Reading, one was still there and the other was trying to grow his reputation as a manager.

Long was the first to snap out of the reverie, if you will, taking advantage of Ben Amos’ blunder with only three minutes on the clock. He fumbled Andy Yiadom’s early corner and put it right on Long’s boot, who didn’t miss. One-nil to Reading in a shockingly early breakthrough.

To their credit, though, Wigan didn’t flinch. They started getting forward in a controlled way and looked very much like a team that would have something to say before the match was over.

And just over ten minutes later, they did, as the wonderfully named Max Power scored a goal-of-the-month candidate with a 25-yard turn-and-shoot thunderbastard that cleanly beat Lumley to the top left corner of his goal.

Maloney pumped his fists as his players celebrated a moment of brilliance that had leveled the score. Quietly, Ryan clapped his hands to show encouragement rather than being upset at the equalizer.

For some reason, that really revved up Azeez. Tom McIntyre took the kickoff and moved play to the right side of the Wigan penalty area, got to the byline and laid off for Azeez, who was standing at the edge of the six- yard box. Just a minute after Power’s equalizer, Reading led again and this time you could see Wigan shoulders slumping all over the pitch after Azeez’s first goal of the season.

McIntyre’s influence continued, as the first half wound down. With just a minute to go before the break he shook loose down the left once again and squared for Azeez from near the corner flag. Azeez flicked on for Long, who had slipped his marker in the six-yard box and had the simplest of finishes for a 3-1 lead at half.

Ryan couldn’t keep the smile off his face as the team sat for the team talk. “Hell, I can’t think of anything to add other than that if you screw this up I’ll make you run laps for a week,” he grinned, to the reaction he wanted to see from his team. They were loose, happy and looked like they had unfinished business.

The second half began and Amos then robbed Long of his chance to take the match ball home with him with a reflex save ten minutes into the half that was frankly stunning. But Reading didn’t need to score any more and with the Latics wilting, it was a relatively simple thing to take the three points back to Berkshire.

Wigan 1-3 Reading
Power 14; Long 3, 43, Azeez 15

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

“Mr. Ridgway, you have a visitor.”

Ryan’s PA, Lizzie Sharp, stood in the doorway to the manager’s office with an odd expression on her face.

“You look perplexed,” Ryan said, stating the obvious.

“It’s Sir John,” she replied, and Ryan’s face suddenly wore a similar expression.”

“Well, then please show him in,” Ryan said, rising to meet the life director as he entered the room.

“Ryan, I just wanted to go over a few things with you,” the Royals’ former owner said as he entered the room, hand extended.

Ryan shook his hand and motioned him to a seat on the couch next to the manager’s desk. Sir John sat, and Ryan offered him a cup of tea, which the older man gratefully accepted.

“So, what can I do for you?” Ryan asked, handing him a steaming hot cuppa from a kettle behind his desk.

“About this ownership business,” Sir John said. “I’m not happy about how we’re being portrayed in the press.”

“What can I do about it? All I seem to do is make the situation worse by being honest.”

“Well, you really can’t do a lot about it,” Sir John replied. “But perhaps I can. I spent many years and a lot of money helping build this club and it annoys me to see statements like we have seen coming from China.”

Leaving aside the fact that Madejski himself had helped create the problem by selling the club to Dai, his reaction to Ryan’s situation was at least heartening.

“So, why are you here with me now instead of with the board?” Ryan asked.

“Because you need to know what might happen at board level and it would be best if I told you personally,” Madejski said. “Your father would have gone crazy had he not known what was going on back in his day.”

“I think it’s fairly obvious that I’m not my father,” Ryan said, “but I appreciate your letting me know.”

“One thing you must learn as you progress in your profession,” Madejski replied, “is to know where you stand with key figures at your club. I’m telling you that I plan to advocate on your behalf with Dai, and you need to know that before I do it.”

“Of course, Sir John. I meant no offense.”

“None taken, young man,” Madejski said, rising to leave. “Do what you normally do but do not be surprised if you read some unusual things in the press.”

Ryan showed Madejski to the door and then went to sit back behind his desk. “And that would be different from now in what way?” he mused to himself as he went back to watching video.

# # #

[sherm]

Just caught up with all of this 10-3

Magnificent as always from you sir 

 

KUTGW!

[tenthreeleader]

Thank you, Sherm ... lots of ways this particular story can go!

___

With Huddersfield coming in to end the team’s two-week layoff at the weekend, the first phrase that went through Ryan’s mind after the penultimate training session prior to the match came from Lloyd Bridges.

The veteran actor, as part of the cast of Airplane! had uttered the immortal words “I picked a bad week to quit sniffing glue” to react to bad news. As Ryan looked at his medical report, he felt the same way.

Lumley, Hendrick and Long had all pulled up lame during the session, with injuries not severe enough to be season-threatening but surely enough to break up a winning eleven for the weekend.

Lumley and Hendrick had done it to each other by colliding in a defensive set piece drill. The goalkeeper left with a sore neck, and Hendrick left with a tight thigh after contacting Lumley’s knee during the challenge.

While Hirons sorted that out. Long then went down with a twisted knee during the next drill. None of the injuries was major but all three would put the players involved in serious doubt for the weekend.

Soon the word was passed – two weeks for Lumley and at least a week for Long, who was the club’s leading goalscorer, while Hendrick’s involvement would likely be a game-time decision for Ryan to make.

The next day was almost as bad, as Naby Sarr went down right after the dynamic stretching that starts every workout, with a knock suffered in the first drill. Like the others, it wasn’t a dramatic injury, but Ryan was faced with the prospect of making up to four changes to the team that had smothered Wigan so convincingly two weeks before.

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[FMandStrategyGamePlayer2024]

That's a lot of injuries, hopefully the physios don't go on strike!

[tenthreeleader]

1 October 2022 – Championship Match Day #12
Reading v Huddersfield Town -Select Car Leasing Stadium, Reading
Referee: Robert Madley
Game Theme: Workin’ Day and Night – Michael Jackson

The news was better for Ryan when he got to the ground for the matchup against Town. Rahman passed a fitness test but was still limited by Hirons, but Hoilett was available and Sarr would have been available if called upon but was still sore.

The eleven was still changed out but the biggest change was Bouzanis for Lumley in goal. Ryan hardly had to tell the Australian that he was getting his chance after finally starting to train better, but the goalkeeper’s expression in the changing room said all that needed to be said without a word being exchanged between the two men.

The fans were starting to get in Ince’s business on social media, since after a fast start the midfielder had fallen on comparatively hard times in terms of his recent performances and as a result when his name was announced in the starting eleven, a smattering of boo-birds made their opinions known.

Ryan didn’t appreciate that – no manager who cares about his players would be pleased by such an attempt to veto his team selection – but he tried to put it to the back of his mind as the match kicked off.

Across from his technical area stood the glowering figure of Neil Warnock, the tough-as-nails manager of Huddersfield Town and onetime boss of Sheffield United when they were (mostly to them) controversially relegated from the Premiership in 2004.

Aside from the visiting boss still looking like he wanted to throw darts at a picture of Carlos Tevez, the opening minutes saw Reading start brightly, with two corners in the first four minutes and a pretty good chance that Carroll scooped over the bar.

The form of the Wigan match was there, Ryan was certain. It just needed an outlet.

Twenty-two minutes into the match, the outlet showed up in the form of a gift-wrapped chance courtesy of the Town central defenders. Ince started with the ball on the left, laying ahead for Nesta Guinness-Walker, deputizing for the injured Loum. His return ball for Ince was headed away by Jonathan Hogg, who brought the ball to control before passing ahead to Fulham loanee Anthony Knockaert at the edge of the box.

Knockaert overran it and Ince was right there to claim the ball, twelve yards from goal. Tomas Vaclik had no chance, and Ince had changed some minds in the stands with the first goal of the match.

Not quite ten minutes passed before the next piece of good news arrived. Femi Azeez, who had accepted the Young Player of the Month trophy before the match, celebrated by taking Yiadom’s throw from the right touchline, pivoting, and placing a perfect cross to the far edge of the six-yard box. There was Ince, waiting to score with his head this time. Two goals in eight minutes had put Reading ahead comfortably.

And that started Warnock yelling.

Ryan stood, a picture of patience, on his touchline. He didn’t want anything he might have said to interfere with a truly memorable touchline rant from Warnock, which was enough to give Ryan’s players all the motivation they needed.

Casadei rumbled a drive off the woodwork in response, and with Huddersfield hanging on by their fingernails, they attempted to climb back into the match with Danny Ward breaking in on the left. But there was Bouzanis, out to challenge and showing strong hands to hack Ward’s drive around the post.

Moments later, it was Town’s Watford loanee, Joseph Hungbo, who created a scoring chance. Sadly, it was for the other team as he was dispossessed by Yiadom on the right. Three passes later the ball was in the eighteen for Carroll, back to goal and ready to do some business. But instead, he laid off his good shot position for a better one from Azeez, and the Young Player of the Month calmly stroked Reading’s third past Vaclik three minutes from the interval.

Ryan chose to remind his team that they still had 45 minutes to play and even though the first 45 had been rather thrilling, the job was quite literally only half done.

The Reading team that took the field for the second half was not as attack-oriented as the one who had cut Warnock’s team to ribbons in the first half, but it was certainly good enough. Town managed only one shot on target in the final 45 minutes, and when you enter play trailing by three, those are the kind of numbers that make the outcome fairly clear.

Tom Holmes headed home in seventy minutes for a 4-0 lead, but the goal was chalked off for passive offside against Guinness-Walker, leaving the central defender to wonder had happened as his celebration ground to a halt.

But Town never came near Bouzanis, who got to celebrate a clean sheet on his return to the eleven, in the midst of teammates who had played a nearly perfect game.

Reading 3-0 Huddersfield Town
Ince 22, 34; Azeez 42

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