[jjamez]

Well here we are, the last game of the season and what a nightmare it has been for both sides, with safety guaranteed for Huddersfield and relegation to league one for Reading. It proves to be a bank holiday monday designed to be polar opposites in regards to the moods of thousands of blue and white fans.

One thing's for certain both teams face a summer of upheaval regardless of which league they are plying their trade in, with both sides looking destined for new managers, town looking to welcome their new owner(s) and a fair few players coming to the end of their contracts. The new prospective owner Kevin M Nagel appears to be coming to watch the game tomorrow, with his takeover all but cleared by the relevant authorities. Its worth noting that when asked on twitter about the future plans, he seems to say we a lot, which to me indicates that there are a few other individuals in the background supporting him financially.

Considering where we have been all season, the fact that we have survived just shows what a proper manager can do for a side, something we should really consider as we move into a new appointment over the summer, although would anyone be really amazed if Neil didn't end up fancying staying on for one 'final' season? Especially when Sharon loves it around here, in all seriousness though, I think the new owner will look at bringing his own man in, but wouldn't be surprised if warnock is in the picture somewhere. He has however stated in the press that he can't do another ten month stint and could return to football next February if needed somewhere, although he has retired in the press nearly a thousand times and done the exact opposite, but I feel that tomorrow will be his last ever game in charge of Town. So with that being said, what happens next season or over the summer? well, it appears Paul Buckle, the former Luton and Bristol Rovers manager is coming as some sort of advisor to Nagel, Buckle managed Sacramento for Nagel before and has held a few advisory roles in the US. Chris Markham, the technical director of Bolton was at the game on Thursday, but I feel that was in a supporting berth, with him being a Town fan, but every so often 2+2 does equal 5, so who knows. One thing I have heard is our favourite former Luton manager is one of the candidates for the job here and I have heard in some spaces that this is agreed and was regardless of what division we were in, his trusty sidekick and recruitment analyst are both joining him here, if it is true. Not sure how I feel about that, but if we take away the personality of the guy, his football was pretty good at Luton. But we shall see what happens here.

In terms of the playing squad, Warnock believes we only need one or two new faces, but in truth i feel we need 5 at a minimum, with a few of our youngsters needing to go out on loan and get some proper playing time. We have a few out of contract at the end of the season in the forms of Josh Ruffles, Danny Ward, Josh Koroma and Tomas Vaclik to name a few. It wouldn't surprise me if Ruffles was allowed to leave, he's been fairly solid in the last part of the season, but it is the season and a bit before that concerns me, as for Ward, he's a frustrating player that arguably hasn't deserved to start as much as he has this season and his returns and contributions have been a bit disappointing to me. Sure, the goal on Thursday was fantastic and important but there have been many anonymous games from him this season, would I be surprised if he stayed, no, would I be disappointed if he left, also, no. Vaclik came in injured and it was obvious, but his last few games before Nicholls came back showed what he can do, will he stay, if Nicholls does, I would be saying no, if Nicholls is going to leave and the clubs knows about it, then we could do far worse than the Czech number 1, if he wants to stay that is, a player with his pedigree will have no end of potential suitors across the continent. As for Koroma, the guy has put in some top performances in the last part of the season and has shown what he is capable of, is it a Simon Baldry situation. It is said that Koroma has been offered a new deal at the club a few times, but his agent likes his players to move on, tomorrow could well be his last game in a Town shirt unless something changes. So theres a few places in the squad that would need filling, plus the end of loans for Waghorn, Knockaert, Hungbo, Smith and Lowton, I feel like someone else is missing too, out of those, I'd like to go after Hungbo again, especially if Koroma does leave, the others are welcome to go, but again that leaves some more spaces to be filled, sure the likes of Pat Jones etc can take some of the slots but I feel we still need a little bit more in the squad. From the squad itself and still under contract, I'd not be surprised if Boyle and Mahoney were shipped out, Camara had been interesting a few prem clubs but now he's drifted a bit so I could see that interest dying down, otherwise you'd potentially look at Rhodes, but I'd keep him as the experienced striker at the club and look towards signing another new striker and/or developing Harratt and Simpson. Out of the other younger players, I feel that Diarra, Spencer and a few others, maybe even one of Simpson or Harratt could do with some prolonged game time for half a season at a minimum, look at the effect it had on Headley, I would like that to happen, but at the end of the day it comes down to the new man in charge, and what sort of budget we have to operate with.

Moving on to tomorrow and our visitors Reading started the season off well under the guidance of former Manchester United midfielder Paul Ince. Obviously Tom was a key player in the system and barge pole striker Andy Carroll too, but the financial pressures that have been lingering around the Royals for a while now came to bite them, six points were deducted from them but this didn't come until their form had gone off a cliff, much like us under Corberan in his first season here. The Royals struggled for points and found themselves getting drawn into the relegation dogfight. Like a number of teams around them they elected to change the manager, with former player and academy coach Noel Hunt chosen to lead the team to the end of the season, although with relegation now confirmed, it could be that Hunt is asked to lead the team in league one next season, although it is highly likely that he, or whoever they go with, will have some turbulent waters to deal with, there will be a few players wanting out, with the likes of Lucas Joao coming to the end of his contract at the club, unlike previous season, there doesn't seem to be a stand out player that they could sell to balance the books like they had with Michael Olise the other season, but as ever, there will be plenty of scope with the tricks that agents get up to, but out of the three that have gone down, who would i say are best placed, I'd be inclined to say Reading have the most quality overall, Carroll despite being 34, if fit is a handful, especially in league one, Tom McIntyre looks a solid defender but he could be one of those that gets moved on to create funds, otherwise, it is a largely average squad, but probably better overall than what Wigan and Blackpool possess.

In terms of ones to watch, Andy Carroll always seems to do something against Town, whether that was back in the Prem when he was at West Ham or wherever really, he nearly signed on loan for Town when Lee Clark was manager, but a few injuries put an end to that possibility. Now 34 and always seemingly injured, his best days are long behind him and low end championship, top end league one is probably around his place now. The aforementioned Joao is also a constant thorn in Huddersfield's side, with the Portuguese striker always seeming to score against them. The former Wednesday striker is coming to the end of his deal in Berkshire and will probably move on this time and will have plenty of suitors, his main issue, as ever, injuries. Finally, and maybe just because of the ex player factor, i'm going to say Tom Ince. I feel he got a bit of a rough end of the stick when he was here, there was plenty of endeavour from him, he was maybe just lacking a little in the final third, would I have sold him at the end of the first prem season, no, would i have sold him knowing who was coming in to replace him, definitely not. Would i have him back, on the right sort of contract maybe, he'd offer far more than what Mahoney has this season and would offer a little bit more fluidity in the front lines.

In terms of head to heads, Reading have the beating of us fairly comfortably, however, it feels like in the last few years we are the scourge of them, relegating them this season, costing them millions in the play off final, and having a slightly better record against them in the league, we scored 8 goals past them last season, with Ward scoring quite a few of those, including a hattrick. With that being said, tomorrow is a dead rubber and I expect both sides to throw caution to the wind with nothing but pride to play for.

Played for both seems a wee bit tricky to do from memory, I can remember Simon Church, but that is only because he started running his mouth off in the press the other week, saying how he would love Reading to turn us over and see them safe over us. Tom Ince is an obvious other, whilst Danny Williams is a player that was key to Reading that we poached after the play off final, see it was fine for us to do it, but not for O'brien and Toffs to leave! Williams was a good player that struggled with injuries, but would have been a very useful player to keep around after we had got relegated especially with Mooy and Billings both leaving the club. Naby Sarr become somewhat a cult icon at Town and joined Reading earlier this season after he was released by us, somewhat stupidly considering we brought in Will Boyle. Ollie Norwood left Town to join Reading as he felt they had the better chances of getting promoted, he did well there and did manage to get to the Prem, but not exactly how he thought it would go. Any others, because I am officially struggling now.

Team news for tomorrow, I'd not expect too many alterations from Warnock as such, we may see some of the loanees drop out and be replaced by younger players, we could possibly see a first start for Harratt, I guess it depends on what sort of conversations have been had behind the scenes on who is staying and who is going.

Anagrams, sorry you'll have to wait for the anagram machine to recharge for next season, apologies that this thread is brief, I've been busy with work and have a lack of computer usage.