Dirk GentlySutekhDirk Gently ...
My one criticism of NH was that when the time came to push on in 2007 he couldn't really think big enough - but that's also something to be held against SJM, especially as there wasn't the money to do what they needed due to the latter's publishing and property failures.
Would actually say that that is nothing to do with NH - he wouldn’t scout players or define the budget - and more down to failings of the manager in deciding to be too loyal and having no real plan B after Scott Brown decided he he’d shockingly prefer the safe predictability of European football and winning things with Celtic rather than the likely unrewarding challenge of replacing Steve Sidwell.
Absolutely agree on that point - I was thinking more about overall ambitions and the club infrastructure. The stadium expansion would have allowed us to push on and put us on a different level (as well as shown the likes of Scott Brown what we were all about), but NH & SJM wimped out of committing to it.
Ditto renewing the contract of Catalyst, who'd been so integral to the promotion and first PL year. Yes, Catalyst had bumped up their price massively, but NH's attitude was that we'd seen the "magician's trick" and didn't need them any more. We did.
They backed out of the stadium expansion because we got relegated.
According to the BBC article at the time planning permission was approved, work was planned to start in the summer of 2008:
Reading to extend ground capacity (BBC News) Reading have been granted permission to extend the capacity of the Madejski Stadium from 24,045 to 38,000.
The Royals submitted the plans earlier this year and they have now been approved by Reading Borough Council for work which will start in summer 2008.
"We're extremely pleased the council has approved our plan," chief executive Nigel Howe told the club's website.
"Although we hoped work would start this summer a number of factors have to be addressed before work can begin."
Reading finished eighth in their first season in the Premiership, missing out on a Uefa Cup place by just one point.
Howe said the expansion would help the club in its aim "to become an established force in the top flight," and they had delayed it until 2008 to avoid inconveniencing fans.
"If we started now, the necessary enabling works would not be completed in time for the start of the season," he said.
"That would entail disruption to existing seats and that is something we have always been very keen to avoid.
"We have said all along that no final decisions had been made on the finer detail of the design and we will now take our time to make sure that the right decisions are made.
"We want to make sure the project is carried out properly and not rushed."
I think Sidwell's gone on record to say we offered more money than Chelsea, but he wanted the opportunity to work under Mourinho and thought he'd improve by being around better players.
Scott Brown was probably fairly typical of the time: why go to Reading to be in a relegation battle? Seem to recall my dad talking to a scout during the 2007-08 season when I played at a youth tournament; he was saying we had a number of players lined up who wouldn't've considered joining us until we'd stayed in the Premier League for two seasons.
We also struggled to adapt to changing our pool of players available to us - we made a number of signings from Europe (particularly France) in that period, but those players are going to have differences in how they integrate when compared to a player from the English lower leagues.
