SIGNED - Hope Akpan

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RedRum
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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by RedRum » 09 Jan 2013 00:18

Whitleyhoop Awful awful uninspiring signing!! But let's be fair McDermott went from slough town to us.. Don't be upset by signing "slough town dream players! Did McDermott honest think the fans would warm to this??? WOEFUL WOEFUL


Ill save everyone the trouble: :|

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Terminal Boardom » 09 Jan 2013 00:24

The thing is, the style of football really needs to change. In the event of relegation this season, followed by a subsequent promotion back, anyone thinking that we will be better in 2014/15 is deluded. Hoofball RFC style will not work in the EPL.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by URZZ » 09 Jan 2013 00:31

Sign some fcuking class, pls Reading.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Terminal Boardom » 09 Jan 2013 01:01

It is too late and pretty pointless for that. The only way Reading will stay up is if they get nasty and go more direct. Get some proper thugs into the side - players like Terry Hurlock, Mick Tait, Percy Freeman to kick oxf*rd out of the oppo. Reading are way too vanilla.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by RoyallyFcuked » 09 Jan 2013 01:09

Typical Readingfc style


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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Woodcote Royal » 09 Jan 2013 01:49

rhroyal We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.


An excellent post from someone whose vision is clearly light years ahead of those who chose to post so many embarrassingly blinkered contributions above.

As someone who doesn't think we are dead and buried just yet, if relegation means being able to read more of this after all the glory hunting ignorance has sailed into the sunset, I think I could live with it :|

The worse case scenario was always to take our huge 5 season windfall and use it to build for a stronger future in the way clubs like WBA have done before us.

To many of us who will be back next season regardless, this is what it's all about.........................growing the club long term so that one day we can compete on equal terms with most of the top flight. We will never achieve this by trying to out spend those with greater resources.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by royalsteve » 09 Jan 2013 02:20

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rhroyal We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.


An excellent post from someone whose vision is clearly light years ahead of those who chose to post so many embarrassingly blinkered contributions above.

As someone who doesn't think we are dead and buried just yet, if relegation means being able to read more of this after all the glory hunting ignorance has sailed into the sunset, I think I could live with it :|

The worse case scenario was always to take our huge 5 season windfall and use it to build for a stronger future in the way clubs like WBA have done before us.

To many of us who will be back next season regardless, this is what it's all about.........................growing the club long term so that one day we can compete on equal terms with most of the top flight. We will never achieve this by trying to out spend those with greater resources.



spot on. I thought hope and alexander were the 2 stand out players for Crawley in the fa cup game against us

i still think we can stay up - wont be easy and itll rely on a massive change in results but we still have to play all the teams around us at home so all is not lost yet - whilst it wont be easy, west brom on sat is a must win game and whilst that wont be easy given their start its games like this we have to win if we aim to stay up

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Terminal Boardom » 09 Jan 2013 03:25

Looks like "must win" games have started earlier than usual then.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Libertine » 09 Jan 2013 03:55

So let's see...the developments of the day are as follows;

We signed a League 1 player to replace Legs, the Aussie wunderkind we were high on picked Celtic ( :lol: ) over us and Brian says we haven't been able to get even one PL player not getting games at their current club interested in coming here for the chance to full time first team football. :(

But everything is going according to plan, right?!


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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by PistolPete » 09 Jan 2013 05:42

royalsteve
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rhroyal We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.


An excellent post from someone whose vision is clearly light years ahead of those who chose to post so many embarrassingly blinkered contributions above.

As someone who doesn't think we are dead and buried just yet, if relegation means being able to read more of this after all the glory hunting ignorance has sailed into the sunset, I think I could live with it :|

The worse case scenario was always to take our huge 5 season windfall and use it to build for a stronger future in the way clubs like WBA have done before us.

To many of us who will be back next season regardless, this is what it's all about.........................growing the club long term so that one day we can compete on equal terms with most of the top flight. We will never achieve this by trying to out spend those with greater resources.



spot on. I thought hope and alexander were the 2 stand out players for Crawley in the fa cup game against us

i still think we can stay up - wont be easy and itll rely on a massive change in results but we still have to play all the teams around us at home so all is not lost yet - whilst it wont be easy, west brom on sat is a must win game and whilst that wont be easy given their start its games like this we have to win if we aim to stay up


AN ENORMOUS +1

Days like these make me want to leave HNA forever. Do they also not realise that there are still 22 days of the window left?

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by pea » 09 Jan 2013 08:32

Ian Royal I'm not saying he won't be used, but I can't see him making a big impact in our relegation fight.


If he comes in to replace Leigertwood, and from what I've heard from Crawley fans he could play at our level as he is, then his composure and passing could actually make all the difference by improving our ball retention and keeping the pressure off the defence for longer periods. He may not be a significantly better player but he could still make a big impact on our season.

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Re: Hope Akpan

by Vision » 09 Jan 2013 09:12

Colin Cheeselog
Big Ern I understand your point, and if this is a speculative low risk signing for the future, then great. My point is that Brian has said we need some established players with Prem experience to come in, and Hope Akpan is certainly not that. I agreed we do not want washed up has beens who are only here for the money, but we do need some more established players to come in if we are at least to stand a remote chance of staying up. I am 99.9% sure we are going down, however I do not want us to give up fighting with plenty of games still to play. If these are the signings we are going to make, it appears we have given up already and that will make many supporters lose heart.


Signing young players for the future does not categorically mean we won't be signing anybody else. I'm sure signings like this have no bearing on what players Brain wants for the 1st team between now and the end of the season.

Did people have similar hissy fits when we signed Morrison? It's essentially the same idea; get a prosing young player now, hopefully to come into the 1st team in the future.

Did Man Utd fans have girly rants when they signed Nick Powell from Crewe because he's not Messi?

Signing young prospects and established players are entirely seperate and signing a young player doesn't impact on plans to sign established players.

Perhaps we should have signed established players instead of signing up Pearce, Karacan, HRK etc when they signed as children?


This. Thing is we're unlikely to attract any established Premiership players permanently given our current situation unless we throw ridiculous money at them (Hello Pog!). It's more likely that any proven Premiership players we would sign would be on a loan until the end of the season. This signing makes absolutely no difference at all as to whether we can get that type of player in.

Of course, hardly anyone on here has heard of him and at 21 he's made a couple of mistakes so far in his life/career so clearly it proves we're going to the dogs.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by dogzbollox » 09 Jan 2013 09:20

rhroyal We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.


Excellent post and echoes my thoughts entirely.

I believe that being in the PL is an unexpected windfall to AZ & co, when hands were shaken on the deal to buy the club we were a Championship club who didn't (really) look as if it was going to get promoted. Although expectations from supporters such as us have changed, i.e. we desperately want to remain in the PL, I don't believe that the business plan that was in already place prior to us being promoted will have changed significantly, certainly not enough to keep us in the PL, look it as a kind of 'Take the money & run' scenario.

The money gained from the PL is a lot of dough yes, and although it is a major bonus we can't treat it with a Euro-Millions lottery winner mentality, i.e. run out and buy a Ferrari, a yacht and a big flash pad on the south coast of wherever... which translates in footballing terms to buying big name marquee payers who basically bleed the club dry... Pompey anyone?

We will be -as stated above- be a team that will tear up the championship next season, and although many on here and others like to use the Stoke model as a comparison, I agree with the poster above that WBA is a better model to emulate, but I disagree that we are as far as 5/6 years behind them - 3 possibly.

Keep the faith...


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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Barry the bird boggler » 09 Jan 2013 09:27

Remember the Eddy Grant number "Gimme hope, Jo'anna"...

Give us Hope, McDermott
Hope, McDermott
Give us Hope, McDermott
Before the game it ends
Give us Hope, McDermott
Hope, McDermott
Hope before the game it ends

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Fox Talbot » 09 Jan 2013 09:31

I've seen Akpan play in L1 and he dominated midfield. Good eye for the pass and can get past people in midfield (with the ball at his feet!). Didn't see much of that on Saturday it's true but I think the whole Crawley team was disappointing by their standards.

He's a good buy for the Champ which is where we'll be on 3rd August.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Norfolk Royal » 09 Jan 2013 09:36

There's an added celebrity bonus here as he looks a bit like popular children's TV presenter Andi Peters.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Pepe the Horseman » 09 Jan 2013 09:37

Norfolk Royal There's an added celebrity bonus here as he looks a bit like popular children's TV presenter Andi Peters.

Hope Akpan wouldn't be too pleased to hear that.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by The Beardy Man » 09 Jan 2013 09:40

Woodcote Royal
rhroyal We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.



An excellent post from someone whose vision is clearly light years ahead of those who chose to post so many embarrassingly blinkered contributions above.

As someone who doesn't think we are dead and buried just yet, if relegation means being able to read more of this after all the glory hunting ignorance has sailed into the sunset, I think I could live with it :|

The worse case scenario was always to take our huge 5 season windfall and use it to build for a stronger future in the way clubs like WBA have done before us.

To many of us who will be back next season regardless, this is what it's all about.........................growing the club long term so that one day we can compete on equal terms with most of the top flight. We will never achieve this by trying to out spend those with greater resources.


Another +1 from me also. Top post

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by North Somerset Royal » 09 Jan 2013 09:46

Had a good game on Saturday but according to my Crawley supporting friend he has been very inconsistent and does not always turn up.

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Re: SIGNED - Hope Akpan

by Norfolk Royal » 09 Jan 2013 09:49

Pepe the Horseman
Norfolk Royal There's an added celebrity bonus here as he looks a bit like popular children's TV presenter Andi Peters.

Hope Akpan wouldn't be too pleased to hear that.


Oh yeah, forgot about that.

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