Hard to see any progress for the forseeable future

[Hampshire Royal]

BR2, of the three players you say we are in danger of losing in January, the only one that worries me is Bikey, but even with him we have Pearce waiting in the wings. If what our Irish posters are saying is true, then Mooney is at least as good as Doyle. Harper is no longer in the first team squad and we don't seem to have missed him.

Needless to say, you omitted to mention the one player who a lot of people say is the driving force behind our current success - Stephen Hunt. As we found out last season, unless you have decent service, it doesn't really matter how good your strikers are.

I saw a bit of the Birmingham game on Saturday and they don't seem to be that good, at least not as good as us at the mement.

[Schards#2]

BR2, of the three players you say we are in danger of losing in January, the only one that worries me is Bikey, but even with him we have Pearce waiting in the wings. If what our Irish posters are saying is true, then Mooney is at least as good as Doyle. Harper is no longer in the first team squad and we don't seem to have missed him.

Needless to say, you omitted to mention the one player who a lot of people say is the driving force behind our current success - Stephen Hunt. As we found out last season, unless you have decent service, it doesn't really matter how good your strikers are.

I saw a bit of the Birmingham game on Saturday and they don't seem to be that good, at least not as good as us at the mement.

Odd that no one offered in the millions then, that being Doyle's worth.

[londinium]

BR2, of the three players you say we are in danger of losing in January, the only one that worries me is Bikey, but even with him we have Pearce waiting in the wings. If what our Irish posters are saying is true, then Mooney is at least as good as Doyle. Harper is no longer in the first team squad and we don't seem to have missed him.

Needless to say, you omitted to mention the one player who a lot of people say is the driving force behind our current success - Stephen Hunt. As we found out last season, unless you have decent service, it doesn't really matter how good your strikers are.

I saw a bit of the Birmingham game on Saturday and they don't seem to be that good, at least not as good as us at the mement.

The slightly worrying bit in you last sentence is the fact that Birmingham have been fairly average- poor so far this season and have still been winning. I'll settle for second though as I can't see any team out there anywhere near as good as us and what potentially Birmingham can be.

[Thaumagurist*]

BR2, of the three players you say we are in danger of losing in January, the only one that worries me is Bikey, but even with him we have Pearce waiting in the wings. If what our Irish posters are saying is true, then Mooney is at least as good as Doyle. Harper is no longer in the first team squad and we don't seem to have missed him.

Needless to say, you omitted to mention the one player who a lot of people say is the driving force behind our current success - Stephen Hunt. As we found out last season, unless you have decent service, it doesn't really matter how good your strikers are.

I saw a bit of the Birmingham game on Saturday and they don't seem to be that good, at least not as good as us at the mement.

Odd that no one offered in the millions then, that being Doyle's worth.

Considering that Cork was in financial trouble, most interested clubs probably were waiting for the value to come down a bit more, when Reading stepped in quickly.

[Franchise FC]

14000 extra seats
30 pound a seat
=£420,000 per game
18 home games
=7 million if we fill every seat for every game.


which we wont.

cost of expansion=loads more than 7 million


.....what we need is a sugar daddy who will build it for free.....

Good job investment isn't based on a one year return, then isn't it

[Franchise FC]

Hardly. £13 million sold, £1.5 million bought is not a freshening up, it's a firesale.
The young players have been picked out of neccesity rather than out of a desire to make them first team regulars. I fully expect to see them out of the squad within two weeks barring further injuries.
I could live with mid table finish if we were rebuilding a team for the future but we are not. A mid table finish this year is a continuation of a downward drift and gradual erosion of our dream team rather than a first step for a growing new side. A totally wasted season that simply puts any genuine stab at a return to the prem back twelve months.

These are quotes that you may wish to review in the light of some real facts now?

£13m in and £1.5m out looks good business now I think, and the youngsters are showing up to be pretty reasonable. Karacan is settling as a regular starter and Pearce looks very comfortable when he plays (I think both will flit in and out this season as they are young and will need nurturing not overusing).

Actually, that's reminded me. Is the £13m in gross ? Didn't we have to pay a big chunk to Cambridge and Orient ?
Still, don't let the facts get in the way of spleen venting.

[Old Biscuitman]

Definitely agree with earlier posts that it's encouraging to see some of the club's younger players being given more of a chance. The one who intrigues me most is Kelly who seems to have quickly emerged from nowhere and is getting games ahead of the likes of Henry and others who have been knocking on the door for some time now. Also ahead of Golbourne who seemed to be being groomed for the left back position.

[Sarah Star]

Do you think the extension might be cheaper built next year anyway because of the credit crunch?

[Platypuss]

Do you think the extension might be cheaper built next year anyway because of the credit crunch?

Not if we need a bank loan to pay for it.

[Old Biscuitman]

Do you think the extension might be cheaper built next year anyway because of the credit crunch?

No, because money will be expensive and the Poles will have gone back to their homeland.

[CMRoyal]

Definitely agree with earlier posts that it's encouraging to see some of the club's younger players being given more of a chance. The one who intrigues me most is Kelly who seems to have quickly emerged from nowhere and is getting games ahead of the likes of Henry and others who have been knocking on the door for some time now. Also ahead of Golbourne who seemed to be being groomed for the left back position.

I think Kelly's considered to be more versatile, isn't he? Can't say I've been overly impressed with him up to now, but I get the impression that he's trying just a bit too hard to impress rather than just doing the simple things well. He'll learn.

[Hampshire Royal]

BR2, of the three players you say we are in danger of losing in January, the only one that worries me is Bikey, but even with him we have Pearce waiting in the wings. If what our Irish posters are saying is true, then Mooney is at least as good as Doyle. Harper is no longer in the first team squad and we don't seem to have missed him.

Needless to say, you omitted to mention the one player who a lot of people say is the driving force behind our current success - Stephen Hunt. As we found out last season, unless you have decent service, it doesn't really matter how good your strikers are.

I saw a bit of the Birmingham game on Saturday and they don't seem to be that good, at least not as good as us at the mement.

Odd that no one offered in the millions then, that being Doyle's worth.

Blimey - that's even better value than I thought and is probably a testimony to JM's financial stability stuff.

This is good stuff Schards, keep it coming.

[BR2]

BR2, of the three players you say we are in danger of losing in January, the only one that worries me is Bikey, but even with him we have Pearce waiting in the wings. If what our Irish posters are saying is true, then Mooney is at least as good as Doyle. Harper is no longer in the first team squad and we don't seem to have missed him.

Needless to say, you omitted to mention the one player who a lot of people say is the driving force behind our current success - Stephen Hunt. As we found out last season, unless you have decent service, it doesn't really matter how good your strikers are.

I saw a bit of the Birmingham game on Saturday and they don't seem to be that good, at least not as good as us at the mement.

I didn't say anything about Birmingham being any good.
Mooney at least as good as Doyle?
Great if that is the case but it's stretching a point surely to compare Mooney with the leading scorer in this division and currently a first choice striker for the same country.
As for Hunt-he has improved considerably on the performer of the second half of last season and the first few games in this one but I would suggest that he is only part of our overall improvement-Bikey,Doyle,Kebe,Noel Hunt,Armstrong have all contributed as much as the little man.
I do agree with you that the supply line to strikers is very important.
BTW when you eventually get to see us play this season you can make your own mind up and not just rely on hearsay.

[brendywendy]

14000 extra seats
30 pound a seat
=£420,000 per game
18 home games
=7 million if we fill every seat for every game.


which we wont.

cost of expansion=loads more than 7 million


.....what we need is a sugar daddy who will build it for free.....

Good job investment isn't based on a one year return, then isn't it

ive been arguing its a good idea for the last two pages
i still do, im just trying to work out how quickly the possible increases in gate receipts will pay off the stadium expansion loan.

[Hoop Blah]

If Mooney was as good as the Irish guy says, and is comparable to Doyle, then I'd imagine we'd have seen a fair bit of him this season already.

He may develop into a hell of a player but to suggest he's as good as Doyle is a little fanciful.

[Woodcote Royal]

Whay are people still discussing the extension? Haven't you seen that Schards has confirmed he was right?

He thinks he's correct. I'm not convinced that 4k empty seats (especially when most of them are in the away stand) is evidence that we shouldn't have the extension built. When Wolves and Birmingham come visiting, we'll see how many people are demanding tickets long after these games have been sold out.

We could, and should, have gone ahead with the East stand expansion despite relegation and failure to do so could yet prove just as costly as the mistakes that led to us dropping out of the top flight.

Even I have been surprised with how well ticket sales have gone this season. 14k STH's was a brilliant effort by the fan base and averaging 19k? at this level is very impressive, too.

However, and as the yet more desperate Schards is never slow to point out, this still leaves 4,000 free seats for most home games.

Should we get promoted at the end of the season, a golden opportunity will have been missed to have increased our capacity to a modest 30k whilst we had the spare seats to cope with all the upheaval.

We would then be back in the Prem with too small a stadium but worrying over whether we should fork out for expansion just in case we get relegated.........................

[Stranded]

BR2, of the three players you say we are in danger of losing in January, the only one that worries me is Bikey, but even with him we have Pearce waiting in the wings. If what our Irish posters are saying is true, then Mooney is at least as good as Doyle. Harper is no longer in the first team squad and we don't seem to have missed him.

Needless to say, you omitted to mention the one player who a lot of people say is the driving force behind our current success - Stephen Hunt. As we found out last season, unless you have decent service, it doesn't really matter how good your strikers are.

I saw a bit of the Birmingham game on Saturday and they don't seem to be that good, at least not as good as us at the mement.

Odd that no one offered in the millions then, that being Doyle's worth.

From the thread where those comments were made, it's clear the poster was comparing Mooney and Doyle at the stage of their careers when they left Ireland ie he believes Mooney to be as good/better than Doyle was not as he currently us with a few seasons in English football behind him.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

[We could, and should, have gone ahead with the East stand expansion despite relegation and failure to do so could yet prove just as costly as the mistakes that led to us dropping out of the top flight.

Have you heard of something called the "credit crunch", Woodcote? I'm pretty sure that would have delayed any extension regardless of whether RFC had decided to go ahead...

[The 17 Bus]

But it would have been started at the end of last season, May time, these fears were not so bad then, I think it is safe to assume that JM had ther finances in place if needed.

[Woodcote Royal]

[We could, and should, have gone ahead with the East stand expansion despite relegation and failure to do so could yet prove just as costly as the mistakes that led to us dropping out of the top flight.

Have you heard of something called the "credit crunch", Woodcote? I'm pretty sure that would have delayed any extension regardless of whether RFC had decided to go ahead...

Nope, that's a new one on me and, I guess, for everyone else who has decided to borrow some money in the last 12 months.