I was pretty excited by Jay Tabb and Brian Howard, both amongst their clubs' best players.

The three this week are pretty exciting too, we have a squad with no real weaknesses now.

McCarthy; Cummings, Gorkks, Pearce, Mills; Kébe, Karacan, Legs, McAnuff; Manset, Alf
Subs: Feds, Harte, Obita, HRK, Hunt

I'm aware Alf won't play and McDermott wouldn't dream of dropping Feds or Griffin.

andrew1957 Interesting article by Jonny Fordham in EP

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... c_backbone

He seems to think Shane Long is a plant.

floyd__streete Tbh, name another club who would sell by far and away their top scorer and not sign a SINGLE player by way of replacement

I know, why didn't we replace Doyle?

Name another club who sign their replacements a transfer window before the players they are replacing leave.

Give it to Bryn.

After the failure to get promoted in 2008/9 - summer 09 saw Brendan arrive and immediately have to dispose of 9 of the first 11 of the previous season. He was tasked with a complete rebuild. We were particularly vulnerable in defence as we lost Murty, Duberry and Bikey as well as several back up de...

17 Aug 2011 00:36:27 Reading will look to re-sign Abdulai Bell-Baggie and Pierre Joseph-Dubois to replace Shane Long, Mathieu Manset (linked with a number of clubs, from Aberdeen to Rennes, with one source cheekily mentioning Chelsea), and Noel Hunt (angling for a move to Birmingham or Wolves so he ...

Having said that, one thing that I think we will miss (and the guesstimates above don't seem to take into account) is Longs ability to win penalties by getting just infront or alongside a defender and falling over. Mine did! I think we can halve the number of penalties we'd get compared to last sea...

Mr Angry Isn't Kris Boyd the record scorer in the SPL?

Hardly set the Championship on fire has he?

7 goals in 8 games for Forest.

03 Aug 2011 19:46:33 Joey Barton is wanted by Everton, West Ham and Reading. 03 Aug 2011 11:46:32 Leicester set to make a £5m bid for Reading striker Simon Church following their failed attempts to get Shane Long 31 Jul 2011 18:12:15 Reading will not sign a direct replacement for Shane Long if he is...

no cummings tomorrow and i think griffin is still injured. bit concerned we might see gunnarsson or tabb at right back tomorrow. If they are both injured (I think Griffin has regained fitness), I'd like Nick Arnold to play there, by the sounds of it he was MOTM most games for the "development ...

Now you're being a typical internet user and not reading what you quote. Ian said that Long had only consistently played well when he started a match over two periods of a few months, and that he doesn't offer much other than effort when he isn't scoring goals. He didn't say "Long doesn't score...

A lot of people tipping Reading to finish higher that last season's 5th :shock: possibly the same ones who foresaw mid-table mediocrity last season Not in my case. I might revise it when Long actually goes. But in answer to Floyd's incredulity, I think we've got a better defence this season , our m...

(Long's) only ever played well and successfully for more than the odd game or from the bench for about 4 months of his 5 years with us and those were two periods over two separate seasons with a load of poor performances in between them. He's completely inconsistent. He doesn't offer much other tha...

I've been saying to people that maybe the 5 sub rule isn't actually such a bad thing because we won't need to keep the likes of Taylor around in case we need him for the bench which means he can go out and get league experience but I keep getting shot down. I'm glad there are some people who agree....

I don't think we'll sell to a side outside the PL. I don't think Long wants to earn more money per say, he wants to play in a better standard of league every week or play for Reading. The SPL wouldn't increase the standard, especially if he signed for one of the two teams who could compete in the Ch...

I know he had his 'problems' off of the pitch, but I would have liked him to stay. Most natural goalscorer we've had at the club for a while. Aside from scoring about three goals in two years? A few good runs of form where he scored a lot of goals (two when we went up, one in the Premiership), but ...

HRK is definitely better as a winger. He always used to play there for the reserves, and he's looked lost whenever he's played as a striker in the first team (friendlies against lower league teams don't count for obvious reasons).

Clap clap KHUMALO.

Hunt and Long have been playing with each other for a few seasons now They really haven't. Long only started playing regularly when Hunt got injured in 08/09, and Hunt was injured for the vast majority of 09/10 (and I don't think they played together all season). I think Karacan-Leigertwood is a be...