I wrote this article for Sport First on 14/9/2003.
When Don Howe was forced out as manager of Arsenal in March 1986, I remember him saying that he didn't understand why. As he said, "Our youth team are top of their league, our reserves are top of their league, and the first team are fifth in their League. I don't think that things are going too badly."
And much the same is true of Reading. At the time of writing, our Under-19s are top of their league with a 100% record and not a goal conceded yet. The reserve team are top of their division, again with a 100% record and no goals conceded. The reserves are also top of their group in the league cup competition. It's only the first team letting the side down, and they're in the highest Football League position in the club's 132-year history!
So I think that Reading fans have every right to ask why manager Alan Pardew feels that this is the right time to leave. As he spends his time gardening whilst serving out his notice period, perhaps he can look back and ask what he meant when he told a Fans Forum back in August that he wasn't going anywhere. And also ask himself how he has repaid the loyalty shown to him by chairman John Madejski during the couple of rocky patches of his managerial career when another club might have decided to let him go.
It seems likely that his eventual destination will be West Ham United. There was a time when people viewed West Ham as a slightly different type of football club - they had a proud record of not sacking a manager for almost a century, and they also inspired loyalty in players like Trevor Brooking who stuck with them even after relegation. That's presumably a different Trevor Brooking from the one who said on Football Focus last week that because the direct approach to Reading for Alan Pardew had failed, his club would now have to try "other methods" to get their man. There is clearly now a vacancy for the position of "different type of football club", possibly never to be filled again.
And if Pardew does end up at Upton Park, then David Connolly had better start looking for a change of location himself. Pardew told that same Reading Fans Forum that he had a "bad gut feeling" about Connolly who seemed to be a player more in the game for himself than for the team.
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