Sold 80 goals and bought 20.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Not with Henry we weren't.

I really think Coppell got it wrong with Cox too. He could've been the spark we were missing when we didn't have right midfielder and everything was getting far too predictable and stale with the old guard. Sometimes you just need a burst of enthusiasm or someone willing to try something off the cuff. He did that against Spurs in the cup (??) and was then completely overlooked and so left.

That was his moment, and the club/Coppell didn't give him his chance even though the team was crying out for it.

Yes, but that's probably all part of the same "don't want to disrupt the core squad" that stopped Coppell bringing in the players that might well have kept us up.

[Hoop Blah]

So it's not the club doing what's best for the player then?

I think we do pretty well looking after our players but I think it's a bit naive to think that we put players welfare over what is best for the club. We use that as an angle at times yes, and we sell that approach to players, but at the end of the day the managers and the powers that be run the club do what they think is right for the team/club.

[Svlad Cjelli]

The club and the manager are quite distinct things at some times - to the despair of both parties!

[Vision]

Not with Henry we weren't.

I really think Coppell got it wrong with Cox too. He could've been the spark we were missing when we didn't have right midfielder and everything was getting far too predictable and stale with the old guard. Sometimes you just need a burst of enthusiasm or someone willing to try something off the cuff. He did that against Spurs in the cup (??) and was then completely overlooked and so left.

That was his moment, and the club/Coppell didn't give him his chance even though the team was crying out for it.

I still maintain that Cox simply didn't give himself enough time if he really wanted to make it here.

He came back from loan at Swindon in January and came off the bench to play in the two cup games against Spurs. We only had two league games against Villa & Man Utd before he asked for his move. If he'd have thought we'd have been relegated then I reckon he may have bided his time a bit more.

He *may* have been a catalyst, who knows, but at that time scoring goals wasn't really our problem. Given that the goals subsequently dried up that may have given him another chance had he stayed. He chose not to and we (perhaps reluctantly,perhaps not) let him go.

Still maintain Cox leaving was more to do with Cox himself than anyone else.

[Hoop Blah]

I agree that he probably would've given it more time if he thought we were going to get relegated.

I imagine he'd had plenty of discussions with Coppell about what he needed to do to get into the side though and was confident that he wasn't going to get into the team for the rest of the season having done all he could to prove himself.

I'd disagree that we weren't starting to struggle for goals by then as well. We'd put a few past Liverpool not too long before but (and I've just checked this to check my memory wasn't playing tricks on me) but we'd only scored more than 1 in goal in a game on 3 other occassions (one in the cup v Spurs) between the start of November and end of January.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Or the reality that young players are not really given a chance at RFc, dirk says the prem is not the place to blood youngsters, tell Fergie that, or Rooney or loads of others that were good enough for a start in the side they were at, sadly, or not, we really did not trust a few, FFS Coppell was criticised for letting Siggy go out on loan while we were in the Prem, albeit after the event and he had come good.

Take a look at 2009/2010 after Xmas, Church, Long , siggy and pearce were all making an impact, did we build on that ? No

[marcusopp]

More and more we're consolidating ourselves as a Championship team.
From where we've come from, that's progress.
But will that be good enough for the fans post 2005?

And a top championship club too.
Not everyone can win all the time. We're in a transition stage at the moment, waiting for our current squad to gel. It's southamptons time, their squad has been togther a while, no one has poached any of their stars (except oxlade-chamberline) and their wage bill is probably manageable. But they are a bigger club than us. As are Leeds, sheffield wednesday....
It's great progress.
Who remembers RFC 1-0 York city, attendance 1004, elm park, 1st Jan 1993! Those days are gone!

[melonhead]

Again, when it suits us.

As much as agree it is part of what the club sells itself on I don't remember us doing what's right by the player with Salako, Henry, Cox, Halford etc etc.

Certainly with Cox we did - let him go with relatively little hassle when it was clear he'd not get opportunities here.

My point being that Cox should've had more opportunities at the time so that he didn't have to be moved on.

That would've been the best thing for the likes of Henry and Cox. They were both overlooked for largely non-performing established players.

henry and cos both had chances, neither impressed that much, and indeed they have both taken a while to really establish themselves as decent players at this level(cox still hasnt established himself as a good player at prem level imo)
were we supposed to just keep playing them every week until they were good?

tbf to us, and them, they both realised this, and so did we, and let them go/wanted to go to further their careers/improve/develop

[Simon's Church]

Fairly sure Cox never started a game for us and can't have made more about 5 sub appearances, so he didn't really get much of a chance.

[melonhead]

Fairly sure Cox never started a game for us and can't have made more about 5 sub appearances, so he didn't really get much of a chance.

cos he wasnt good enough.and/or we had better players at the time

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Fairly sure Cox never started a game for us and can't have made more about 5 sub appearances, so he didn't really get much of a chance.

cos he wasnt good enough.and/or we had better players at the time

Using that logic young players will very rarely get a chance, Cox showed promise, as have other oung players, but managers overlook them as they go for the safe option. Can you blame them as their job depends on the success of the team, and lets be honest yuo dont win anything with kids.

[Hoop Blah]

Fairly sure Cox never started a game for us and can't have made more about 5 sub appearances, so he didn't really get much of a chance.

cos he wasnt good enough.and/or we had better players at the time

Cox's only involvement just before he left was his man of the match display against Spurs in the cup (he'd just come back from scoring a small shed load down the road whilst on loan).

He came on at half time, played out of position on the right (the spot where we used something like 7 players to try and cover for Little - all of them failing), and was the best player on the pitch. After that he was dropped completely from the squad for the next two league games. I don't think he ever started a game for Reading.

I don't call that getting a chance myself, for whatever reason. I just don't think Coppell fancied him.

I can understand Visions point of view because it's valid. You're just making stuff up on this one.

As for Henry, when he covered for Kebe the next season I think he did as well, if not better than Kebe but was promptly dropped for Kebe to return. I'm slightly biased as Henry is by far my preferred type of player but his passing and crossing was very good. His cameo when he came on and won us the game against Norwich (I think) showed his promise.

[melonhead]

i thought they were both mince tbf

id kill for henry back today though, and possibly coxy too(but only in desperation)

[Hoop Blah]

How many times did you watch Cox play?

[melonhead]

actualy watched teh reserves most weeks in the prem
got a coxy autographed away shirt

[Hoop Blah]

So, keeping in mind the fact he was on loan for most of those two seasons, I'm guessing you didn't see much of him?

[melonhead]

saw him play a fair bit tbf
but if you want to continue with this daft nit picking, please carry on

[peterroyal76]

i thought they were both mince tbf

id kill for henry back today though, and possibly coxy too(but only in desperation)

Cox would back into our team at the moment.

[melonhead]

i thought they were both mince tbf

id kill for henry back today though, and possibly coxy too(but only in desperation)

Cox would back into our team at the moment.

meh


i did say id take him back now(but only in desperation)


the point is-was he good enough then though

[peterroyal76]

He probably wasn't good at the time, but he certainly is now IMO.