Simon Cox

[Sun Tzu]

Someone made a suggestion, I gave a reply - doesn't really need Mr Know-it-all to come back with nothing much else of interest to add.

Thanks for the usual nonsense.

I never understand why you find it so hard to grasp the nature of a discussion board !

Please inform the rest of us when you consider it acceptable for us to add comments to any pronouncement you chose to make !

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

I assume it is Rasiak, who seems to average about one goal in 3 games at this level, and that is often with struggling clubs.

Tho it could be Long I guess.

[Royal Lady]

he's been injured.

He's been in their 18 man squad for every match this season.

Well, and trust me on this, he's not been 100% fit, he's been having trouble with his leg.



So, Sun Tzu - who is this proven goalscorer you speak of, who can cut it at this level? And why isn't he doing so now?

[Sun Tzu]

So, Sun Tzu - who is this proven goalscorer you speak of, who can cut it at this level? And why isn't he doing so now?

I'm sure you could work your way round Google and check Rasiak's record. Whether he can do it for us I have no idea. He's not played many games though has he !

Makes no difference as to whether Mr Cox is the answer. He'd be a gamble, are you suggesting he wouldn't ?

[Wycombe Royal]

he's been injured.

He's been in their 18 man squad for every match this season.

Well, and trust me on this, he's not been 100% fit, he's been having trouble with his leg.

Not many players are ever 100% fit, and many play with injuries.

Ingimarsson, Armstrong, Doyle - and those are only the obvious ones we know about.

Just sounds like an excuse to me....

[Sun Tzu]

Not many players are ever 100% fit, and many play with injuries.

Ingimarsson, Armstrong, Doyle - and those are only the obvious ones we know about.

Just sounds like an excuse to me....

It would be worrying for WBA if they were having to include players who are not fit in their match day squads. Of course it could also be that he's fit enough to play but not fit enough to play at his best meaning he's not made the breakthrough that would have been hoped.
If that's the case you'd hope they stick by him and give him time to get properly fit and push for a place. I obvioulsy don;t have the personal connections with him that others tell us they do, but he never struck me as the sort of player who would make excuses if he wasn;t performing....

[Royalee]

So, Sun Tzu - who is this proven goalscorer you speak of, who can cut it at this level? And why isn't he doing so now?

I'm sure you could work your way round Google and check Rasiak's record. Whether he can do it for us I have no idea. He's not played many games though has he !

Makes no difference as to whether Mr Cox is the answer. He'd be a gamble, are you suggesting he wouldn't ?

I reckon he's probably featured in around the same number of games as Cox, but scored one more than him.

[Sun Tzu]

So, Sun Tzu - who is this proven goalscorer you speak of, who can cut it at this level? And why isn't he doing so now?

I'm sure you could work your way round Google and check Rasiak's record. Whether he can do it for us I have no idea. He's not played many games though has he !

Makes no difference as to whether Mr Cox is the answer. He'd be a gamble, are you suggesting he wouldn't ?

I reckon he's probably featured in around the same number of games as Cox, but scored one more than him.

For us !

Rasiak has a fair few games for other clubs and a fair few goals.

With the best will in the world Cox is so far a one season wonder a division below this.

I'd be delighted if he goes on and does really well atthis or a higher level, for us or someone else.

But it's not unheard of for players to be dynamite in Div 1 and nothing if they move up.

My point is simply that IMHO Cox gets mentioned becasue he's a local rather than because he's the answer to whatever the question is.

[Royal Lady]

Tbf, I think he gets mentioned because he showed some brilliance during the half a game of the Spurs cup game that Coppell allowed him to play - people could see he could do a job for a us - he was playing on the wing then as well.

Then we let him go for £200k. We could have just let him go on loan for a full season and then taken stock at the end of that, see where we were, see how well or not Cox had performed. That is my only real criticism of Coppell - I don't believe he gave Cox a good enough chance to prove himself here.

Anyhoo, he finds out today if he's playing tomorrow. And, this is purely conjecture, but he was really sticking up for the players here when I spoke to him - I wonder whether he has actually been approached with a view to a loan move to us. That, or he's just a really nice bloke who still has great regard for RFC and whoever plays for them. Which is nice.

[Focher]

Cox was nothing more than a victim of being in a Premier League side, and he was not good enough for that Premier League side. £200k was great business for someone who had never started a league game for us, unfortunately for us he has proved to be better than we thought, and i don't think you can really blame Coppell, or most importantly Cox for wanting to move on, he wanted to play.

[CMRoyal]

Tbf, I think he gets mentioned because he showed some brilliance during the half a game of the Spurs cup game that Coppell allowed him to play - people could see he could do a job for a us - he was playing on the wing then as well.

Then we let him go for £200k. We could have just let him go on loan for a full season and then taken stock at the end of that, see where we were, see how well or not Cox had performed. That is my only real criticism of Coppell - I don't believe he gave Cox a good enough chance to prove himself here.

Anyhoo, he finds out today if he's playing tomorrow. And, this is purely conjecture, but he was really sticking up for the players here when I spoke to him - I wonder whether he has actually been approached with a view to a loan move to us. That, or he's just a really nice bloke who still has great regard for RFC and whoever plays for them. Which is nice.

All good points, but let's face it Churchy looked good in the half a game of the Burnley playoff that Coppell allowed him to play but he hasn't quite come good yet on the back of that performance. I think SC's judgement of the youngsters is largely proving to be right - apart from Gylfi, only those that broke through last season have really progressed, and even then one of those, Pearce, is showing why he couldn't hold down a regular place. So, I back SC's instincts on this one, especially when you consider that Cox didn't want to go out on loan so that was not necessarily a good option at the time. Hope I'm proved wrong if he comes to us, obviously. But at the moment I would point you in the direction of your other half's dictum that the one way to make a Reading player more popular is to not pick him - or in this case, let him go. Coxy seems to have an unjustifiably high stock amongst Reading fans purely because - like all those youngsters who are not yet up to the mark like Henry, Davies, Robson-Kanu - SC knew better than to promote him to the first team.

[Hoop Blah]

Tbf, I think he gets mentioned because he showed some brilliance during the half a game of the Spurs cup game that Coppell allowed him to play - people could see he could do a job for a us - he was playing on the wing then as well.

Then we let him go for £200k. We could have just let him go on loan for a full season and then taken stock at the end of that, see where we were, see how well or not Cox had performed. That is my only real criticism of Coppell - I don't believe he gave Cox a good enough chance to prove himself here.

Anyhoo, he finds out today if he's playing tomorrow. And, this is purely conjecture, but he was really sticking up for the players here when I spoke to him - I wonder whether he has actually been approached with a view to a loan move to us. That, or he's just a really nice bloke who still has great regard for RFC and whoever plays for them. Which is nice.

I agree that Coppell didn't give him the chance he probably deserved and had earnt, that's been done to a death on here. Players pretty much always stick up for each other, even in private from my experience, because they all know how quickly confidence and form can go and how little the average fan really appreciates how thin the line between success and failure is. He also knows most of them very well and I'd be surprised if he would join in kicking them when they're down.

As for being a one season wonder (so far), I think that's a little harsh Sun Tzu. He'd performed very well wherever he went on loan and done ok in the main for us whenever he got a fleeting opportunity so I'd say he's done well in all his professional seasons. Yes he's footballs been played in the lower divisions and last season was the one that he really excelled in, but for a player who's only played 3 professional seasons he's done more than enough in each of them to show good promise.

I doubt there has been any thought of him leaving West Brom though. It seems the impatience of Reading fans extends to other clubs players as well as ours!!!

[Alan Partridge]

Some of the goals Cox scored last year were ridiculous. Which would say to me he's more than just a guy that had a lucky season or a 'one season wonder'. It's a step up for him and he's joined a proper club with proper Premiership ambitions, a big squad that's just come down from the Prem and have a lot of strikers. Needs to bide his time, naturally probably score against Reading and get his season going. In terms of playing regularly he might have been better off joining a team like Doncaster or Reading, teams with shit strikers where it would be easier for him to get a start.

I would seriously dispute he's a one season wonder, still only 22 isn't he? So it's hardly last chance saloon for him.

[Ferris]

Some of the goals Cox scored last year were ridiculous. Which would say to me he's more than just a guy that had a lucky season or a 'one season wonder'. It's a step up for him and he's joined a proper club with proper Premiership ambitions, a big squad that's just come down from the Prem and have a lot of strikers. Needs to bide his time, naturally probably score against Reading and get his season going. In terms of playing regularly he might have been better off joining a team like Doncaster or Reading, teams with shit strikers where it would be easier for him to get a start.

I would seriously dispute he's a one season wonder, still only 22 isn't he? So it's hardly last chance saloon for him.

Agreed. Those goals against Galatasaray and Walsall(?) were top notch. Fantastic technique, regardless of what league he was playing in.

[Alan Partridge]

Some of the goals Cox scored last year were ridiculous. Which would say to me he's more than just a guy that had a lucky season or a 'one season wonder'. It's a step up for him and he's joined a proper club with proper Premiership ambitions, a big squad that's just come down from the Prem and have a lot of strikers. Needs to bide his time, naturally probably score against Reading and get his season going. In terms of playing regularly he might have been better off joining a team like Doncaster or Reading, teams with shit strikers where it would be easier for him to get a start.

I would seriously dispute he's a one season wonder, still only 22 isn't he? So it's hardly last chance saloon for him.

Agreed. Those goals against Galatasaray and Walsall(?) were top notch. Fantastic technique, regardless of what league he was playing in.

Indeed, also on the ''one season wonder' he got 11 goals in 22 apps in 06/07, then 30 odd in 60 apps last season according to wiki.

So that's two seasons already.

I'd be sur[rised if he got 30-35 again, especially at this level, although who knows in time, Curo did when he was about 32 at Colchester so Cox may do the same one day. He's a good enough player to play regularly in this league and score some goals. No secret, I wish he was still at Reading to do it for us.

[Hoop Blah]

You also have to remember that hitting 'just' 20 league goals in a season is actually quite a big achievement that very few players actually manage to hit.

There were 6 in Cox's league last season, and only 2 the season before that.

[Sun Tzu]

he's more than just a guy that had a lucky season or a 'one season wonder'.

I would seriously dispute he's a one season wonder,

Indeed, we don't know whether he will develop.

But in terms of his profile beyond a sub section of the Reading support he IS a one season wonder SO FAR !!

At 22 he can;t be too much more than that. It's not a criticism of him, simply a statement that if what we need is someone to GUARANTEE us 20 goals there's not a huge amount to go on with Cox YET.

Would we be better off looking at an older player with half a dozen seasons behind him than someone who was born locally and has had one good season ?

[Alan Partridge]

he's more than just a guy that had a lucky season or a 'one season wonder'.

I would seriously dispute he's a one season wonder,

Indeed, we don't know whether he will develop.

But in terms of his profile beyond a sub section of the Reading support he IS a one season wonder SO FAR !!

At 22 he can;t be too much more than that. It's not a criticism of him, simply a statement that if what we need is someone to GUARANTEE us 20 goals there's not a huge amount to go on with Cox YET.

Would we be better off looking at an older player with half a dozen seasons behind him than someone who was born locally and has had one good season ?

Depends how long term you are looking. That one season proves Cox can score goals, ok it's in a division below, but rasiak wasn't playing in that division at the start of the season, he was sub for Saints, he started one game at Huddersfield where they got caned.

A straight choice between the two it's a no contest Cox win for me but he'd cost money and also a tail between the legs moment of please come back rather than the cheaper Rasiak option.

I hink the only relevance for the 'local' bit is he may have that extra spring in his step to do well for Reading but that's it, from a buying clubs perspective it shouldn't have any bearing. What should have the bearing is his record of 1 in 2 for the last 2 seasons with some truly outrageous goals as well.

[Hoop Blah]

I'm with AP here.

As an potential forward for Reading Cox fits the bill in every aspect apart from the cost. He compares well to Lita when we paid a million for him. I think Sun Tzu is right that he gets a lot of attention on here because he's local though, and because we let him go and then our lack of goals saw us relegated.

Should we have looked at him? I don't think we could really have afforded him and I think he'd probably have had much better offers than going back to the club that said we can do without you.

[Ian Royal]

I'm with AP too.

Anyone saying they want a striker to guarantee you 20 goals a season is an idiot. That very very rarely happens. How many times have we had a striker who scored 20 goals in a season in the last 20 years? 5 maybe? And that's with 3 promotions and plenty of other promotion challenges.

Kitson and Doyle, arguably our two greatest strikers ever, both failed to get 20 goals in a season for us despite playing for about 9 or 10 seasons in total.

15 goals is a good return for a striker in a season. 20 is outstanding and 30 is exceptional.