I think Mooney needs 1 more season on loan before making a crack into the first team. I do like him going forward, but right now I don't think he is ready.
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/sport/football/readingfc/s/2054540_bikey_happy_to_be_at_reading_fc Anyone afraid of Bikey staying in the squad? From what i saw last season, he's becoming a liability, especially with his temper (Burnley game, INT Cameroon game). I'm surprised the club continues to let him play games after the stint @ the Burnley playoffs game. He lost complete total respect for the club and threw down his reading kit. Shame shame.
http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/s...30/40302-royals-eye-nugent-in-hunt-swap-deal/ There could be a possible swap with Portsmouth sending SHunt to Pompey and Nugent coming here. This would be an amazing move for us if we pull this off.
i have a massively positive view of the coming season. i don't know why, but i think we're going to be monsters. we won't be 106 pt monsters, but auto prom, here we come. of course, this is the peak in the roller coaster that is every season for me. I'm sure valleys await. even so, i think we're going up. i think rodgers is the real deal. and I love the way the youth seem to be ramping up, this is a team with a ton of skill, a lot of hunger and a lot of energy. and Rodgers is the right man for them.
I don't really know if we can be auto promotion contenders. For me it's a toss up. Either we are mediocre or we do very well and get an auto pro spot. I have to agree with you Mschofield on Rodgers. For some reason, I really like this guy and I think he will do well at the club. I just can't wait until next week. The season is almost here! The Reading/Chelsea pre-season game will be on Chelsea TV on Setanta at 1:15 EST USA. I finally get to see how the youngsters blend in with the team. Reading will also be debuting their new away kit.
Just saw Reading's game against Chelsea. Overall, I am pleased with our performance. For the first 25 minutes or so we gave the ball cheaply to Chelsea and sat back on the ball. Then Kebe scored on a nice goal in which he turned Cech and scored. At this point, we started to play better and Shane Long dribbled at the two Chelsea centerbacks from the halfline to right up to the penalty box where he was dragged down by Terry. Davies came up and side footed the ball to Cech's side and scored. The second half did not have any real scoring chances for Reading and Chelsea scored two with 10 minutes remaining including a Pearce own goal. Improvements needed to be made on defending set pieces. They got way too many headers from corners and were very unlucky to not score on one. From today's performance, I am excited about next week and believe we will have a good season.
Yup, looks like we got Matt Mills. Apparently the Doncaster fans rate him very highly at center back and they would have liked more than 2 million for him. Some what strange for Reading paying this much for a center back, but we need one and it sounds like a good deal for us. Welcome Mills
we paid 2m to Doncaster? FFS, that has to be their record sale, doesn't it? By like double? Well, a good player, no doubt, and with striker, center back is the biggest concern (are we actually selling bikey, though?). Now we shift hunt to pompey and nab us a goalscorer, and we're ready to rip this championship to shreds. i hope.
Yes, I think it is Doncaster's record sale. I would think this signing would lead to a Bikey departure. I hope that swap deal with Pompey is still alive seeing they got Viduka now. If that happens, auto promotion is a high possibility.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11708_5489403,00.html Yay lets unload this liability and cash him in!!
now, with you on that emotion for hunt. and I know, Bikey is a card waiting to happen every time out. But when he's not getting cards, he's a great f'ing center back, the best we have, by a long shot. I'd love to see if rodgers could get the insane out of him. probably won't though. I will say this, he'll be burnley's best defenders, and get tossed a lot in what's going to be a mess of a season if he ends up there. This also mentions harper, who is a bit of class, but is also probably a bit extra now, with Marek and Karacen playing the same role
Anyone else shocked that Shunt is worth 3m pounds, and Bikey 2.8m? I mean, i'm not totally down on the floppy haired idiot that was hunt, but Bikey, also a hot head, is a really, really intriguing defender. If someone figured out how to cut down on his games to ejections ratio, he'd a be a big time star. hunt, in the end, is hunt (credit, scored against chelsea). anyway, hate to lose Bikey. Esp right now, we need some experience
Also, and this is a rant but... We get 6.5m for Doyle (whom in no way could we stop from leaving), 3m for Hunt (again, time to leave) and now 2.8m for Bikey. Yet we bring in only Mills ( 1.5m (up to 2 is we go up)) and now on tSmith we up our offer from a laughable 750k to 1.2m, when they've demanded and been offered 1.8m. ffs, who are we kidding? Btw, in case you've noticed, the roller coaster that is my fandom is now heading downhill fast. getting very depressed here. Smith would cure me, though.
We have sold our high priced players, got rid of their huge premier league salaries, and we haven't really brought anybody in. We've received around 10m and only bought Mills. This clubs needs to think towards the future and buy some experience. It drives me insane how conservative we are with our money. I appreciate what Madejski has done with the club, but he needs to open his wallet more. On the Smith deal, I think the 1.2m bid is reasonable. Smith is on his last year of his contract and is a good player, but not really premier league quality. On the other hand we really need a striker and we might need to match that 1.8m bid.
Agree. I mean, not sure Smith is the best player in the championship as watford insist, but he's the guy Rodgers wants, so buy him already. the money: Doyle, 6.5, Hunt 3, Bikey 2.8 and that young striker, for 600k. to me, that's 13.4 in, and 1.5 out. We can't justify spending 13.4m, but we sure as hell can justify spending 3.4m, or even 5m or 6 m, and still walk away having both the players we need and having been financially very sensible. On the chronicle site, it was pointed out that sjm has no recouped his losses (thank him for incurring them), owns the stadium outright, and made 10m pds last season. True, we face no parachute payment next season, but we've cut wages and we've got a ton of young talent. Investing in a couple experienced players to steady this team could be huge, and would certainly up the price he'd get for selling the club.
One or two players would be enough to ensure survival. If we go with just youngsters this will be a long, grueling season. It is frustrating as a fan to see some of the better players, Doyle & Bikey, leave the club without any intention of investing any of the transfer fees. It also makes little sense from a business standpoint, pharmaceutical companies don't merely sell a drug until a patent runs out and then realize they're supposed to have an R&D pipeline.
I for one, truly believe, that... we will not be promoted this season. -Inexperienced Manager -No proper investment of plentiful earned $$$ <--- this one is important -Who is our star player(s)? Do we even have one? and last but not least... -Our home kit has been getting worse since our relegation. Honestly, what is with the "V" around the neck this year. We are screwed. It also doesn't help, that we haven't scored a single league goal in the past 3 games. I was highly optimistic about last season but i don't know about this year.
Okay, we're now talking about Harper perhaps being back on the market? This is a side that needs experience. tommy smith would really help, as would ivar (though not sure if he'll be healthy enough to make a difference for a while. I mean, projected as a sept/oct return, but probably not match fit for a month after he's back. I'm getting nervous. I still think the young talent on this team is exceptional, and if they "get it" they could turn Reading's season around on a dime. I think with one goal scorer, we could even now hang around the middle of the table until spring. But we've got to get someone who can create goals from air. Not sure we're missing Hunt, am sure we're really missing Doyle. Federici is a fine replacement for marcus (sniff). Mills looks like a player, and with pierce and ivar and gunn stilla round, that's fine. But we do need to be winning balls, and davies/karacan isn't doing that. Harper/Karacan might.
Ok now we have a few new faces. Jobi McAnuff, Rasiak, and Darren O'Dea all will be introduced in the starting squad. Rasiak is a mixed bag, but I heard he is a quality striker and should get some goals. McAnuff is good. He was probably the best player aside from Smith. O'Dea is on loan until January, but it is a fantastic move. He is a quality player for Celtic and I am surprised he is here because he was trying to get a starting place in Celtic's first team.
Whether or not we've authored a swap deal with Harper for Howard is unclear. Probably won't know until later today.
Rosenior and Harper won't be coming back to Reading FC Well we just lost Harper and Rosenior. Real sad that Harper is leaving, and its not even to a Premier League club. I still think Rosenior had something to give as he's still young. Especially when I read this, but it looks like Reading is letting a lot of players go. Kinda sad , it really is a new era.
Brought in Cummings though, who is supposed to be good but at this point is probably not equivalent to having Rosenoir. What I'm more perturbed about is the attitude on Hobnob about Rodgers being our absolute savior. Given that we're likely to be flirting with relegation this season, only consistent improvement will do for me.
You know, if Bertrand had a been a permanaent signing, and Cummings is, as Rodgers notes, a nice bookend for him, I think we would have seriously upgraded our outside backs. Betrand will soon be better, imo, than shorey at his best. But the fact that we tossed rosenoir as he was "getting old" at 25 is kind of odd. You know, the cupboard was very full when rodgers arrived, and he's jettisoned a lot of the items in the front to get to the stuff in the back. If he's right, we could be in for another glorious spell, but it seems a huge risk. Is there a starter in our lineup this weekend who started a year ago? I guess Kebe and Cisse, possibly.