Poll Shows Strong Backing For Reading Manager

Understandably, there was plenty of frustration amongst the Reading fanbase after Tuesday night’s defeat to Millwall, a loss that only aggravated some existing grumbles. While #StamOut was in the very small minority, there were still enough contrasting opinions flying round Twitter that we decided to run a quick poll to see just how our followers felt about the Dutchman.

As you can see from the picture above, out of just under 1,200 votes, just 12% want to see Stam out of the club right now. Conversely, 73% are happy with the former Manchester United defender, at least for the time being.

The most popular vote was perhaps the most obvious in the circumstances. Generally Reading fans have faith in Stam’s management but most feel improvement needs to happen. How quickly that improvement needs to come is something we can’t gauge from the poll but it does seem as if he’s got a fair bit of leeway with the fans, despite some more vocal members of social media calling for change.

Finally, some questioned why we ran such a poll in the first place. To that I have two real answers. Firstly, it’s 2017 and we’ve already seen Harry Redknapp and Frank De Boer sacked within months of taking on jobs at Championship & Premier League level, so to assume any manager is safe is foolhardy.

More importantly, polls like these are a great way for the ‘silent’ majority to have their say. Your twitter timeline might be full of multiple tweets from the same fans who hold a particular view, yet a poll like this helps cut through those who shout loudest to get closer to a more genuine view.

Myself and Westy discussed Stam at length in Monday’s Tilehurst End Podcast, so for a bit more analysis I’d highly recommend giving that a listen.

In the mean time, please feel free to let us know what you make of the Reading boss in the comments section below. Signing up takes about 30 seconds.