So says this article. "I understand Royals boss Steve Coppell has agreed a fee for a foreign player. Coppell declined to name the player, who can play in midfield or defence, for fear of alerting other interested parties, but a deal should be concluded in the next few days." Any guesses who it is? It also confirms Sidwell has a £50,000-per-week deal with Chelsea. Seems like a strange fit for them, but it's not hard to see why he would take their money.
A pre-contract deal (the kind that are great in FM) or a transfer? Was Mensah's contract running out? I'm pretty sure Fae's wasn't. I don't think Mensah plays in midfield, though. Anyway, this is intriguing..I hope we find out soon.
Overseas player? Are we getting a Brazilian? CD and CM? I will say this, it is clear to see what Coppell thinks will keep us in the prem for another season, we're piling up defenders like cordwood. Fae and Mensah are both possibilities, though Fae doesn't meet the defender description ( I don't think) and Mensah isn't really also a mid, though I'd guess he could play there. Mensah is probably the best guess, as he is clearly Coppell's top target of the past year. Maybe a darkhorse would someone like pablo Mas, as Reading seem well aware of the US team, or Sharlie Joseph, as they seem to scout MLS well. Be nice to sign someone soon, though. Be nice to have everyone on board by the peace cup, start building right away.
Either Joseph or Mastroeni would be interesting. I'd prefer Joseph, as he's younger and has the potential to be a better player, but Mastroeni would add some bite to the team. edit: just saw this on the French board. No source or anything, but it sounds..definitive from the poster. (at the bottom) https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=460508&page=2
For anyone like me who eagerly read the signing post and wondered who Emerse Fae and John Mensah are (I'm new at this but I'm trying!), I followed the links posted in some of the threads regarding Fae and then did a quick Google search on both players that turned up some interesting background articles on the Sky Sports page from August/October of 2006 and January 2007 regarding Reading's previous interest in the players at http://home.skysports.com/worldcup/player.aspx?plid=15947&clid=1221 for anyone who might be interested. It looks like Reading pissed off Nantes by trying to get Fae so close to the beginning of the 2006 season - the Nantes chairman is referred to in one article as "slamming Reading for making contact with their player" and it is further described that the Nantes chairman "fumed" and called Reading's contact "unacceptable." Now that Nantes is relegated, perhaps things have changed. I have Setanta but haven't seen much French club soccer. It looks like Fae, while on the Ivory Coast World Cup team, did not play in the Cup, although he is apparently highly recommended by Drogba (and that can't be bad). It doesn't look like he has scored many goals for Nantes but the brief statistics I quickly looked at don't give much sense of his value as a midfielder; in the articles he's described as both a "tough" and "hard" tackling midfielder (rather than an explicitly offensive midfielder - as one of the threads mentioned, Coppell seems to be looking to strengthen the defense). Fae is also described as a Nantes "star " - and that is certainly exciting. Regarding Mensah (also referred to as a "star" - am I the only one whose telescope is too small to see all of the stars), I followed links to articles on the Sky Sports page that reported that rumors were apparently swirling as late as the January transfer window that Reading was still interested in the Ghanian defender despite his "long absence" from playing for Rennes due to a thigh injury (yikes?). An article link from about a week ago said that Lyon is also interested in Mensah. Having won their sixth consecutive league title, Lyon can of course promise Mensah Champions League play next season. So, Reading might have some competition for his skills. It looks like Mensah had 4 starts in the last World Cup with a total of 37 international appearances. Both Fae and Mensah were each reportedly offered 3.5 million pounds by Reading back in August of 2006.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/r/reading/6661413.stm Cisse clinches switch to Reading Cisse has spent the last two seasons with Boavista Reading have completed the signing of midfielder Kalifa Cisse from Boavista. The 22-year-old Frenchman, who has spent the last two seasons with the Portuguese side, becomes Steve Coppell's first signing of the summer. Royals director of football Nicky Hammond said of the £1m signing: "Kalifa is a 6ft 2in central midfielder who has also played in defence. "He has real athletic ability and the technical attributes that should be well-suited to the Premiership." ________________________________________ Another defensive buy (boring)....hopefully, we'll poach a nice attacking/creative midfielder out of the Portuguese league. Besides an attacking midfielder, I would love to see us address the wings so that we can (1) provide insurance for Convey (2) keep Hunt off the field for large portions of the game...he's a late game "scrapper" but his lack of skills were evident late in the season (3) provide more pace on both wings...both Little and Seol need to buy jets if they want to provide us with more pop next year.
ahm...well, Cisse is a nice player. I can't say much about thim other that he is brave when disputing the ball and plays better as a dm than cb. He is a destructive kind of player...but it's true what Nicky Hammond said when it comes to his physical attributes. He's suited for the premier league alright.
I think you are being a little too hard on Hunt. He may not be the best player to ever lace on a pair of boots, but there are few players who work as hard as him. In our late season swoon Hunt was one of the few players showing any spark at all. Cisse may turn out to be a great swoop, but we really need stephen Hunt's energy and "working for the team" attitude as well.
Don't get me wrong...I like and respect Hunt. However, to stay up next year, we need folks with both energy AND football skills...especially at the wing position. He's a great Premiership sublate in the game or an occasional starter but he's not a Premiership starter for a team that wants to stay up another year.
LOL! When I first read this on soccernet.com ... I saw "Cisse to Reading" ... I tought they meant old whats his name ... Djiberal Cisse or whatever... the ex-Pool player. I thought for a minute... "Wow! Now that's quite a scoop" there. Anyhoo, congrats on your new signing!
I know little about this Cisse other than having heard the name before..but I'll trust Coppell and Hammond's judgement.