Summer Rebuild

[From Despair To Where?]

I think Blackman and Akpan were on a hiding to nothing when they signed. We were in desparate need of some Premiership quality and we made 2 bewildering signings from League 1 and League 2. That they then didn't both hit the ground running made them easy scapegoats for the fans' frustration with the management of the team and the club.

I'm not saying he's a world beater butBlackman was always talked up as a very skillful player and he took a lot of stick for not being the sort of player we wanted. His career at Reading now seems to be taking the same trajectory as Kebe's.

[Royal Ginger]

He's likely to have a great season and then not want to sign a new contract. He doesn't like us very much, for understandable reasons.

[Ian Royal]

I think Blackman and Akpan were on a hiding to nothing when they signed. We were in desparate need of some Premiership quality and we made 2 bewildering signings from League 1 and League 2. That they then didn't both hit the ground running made them easy scapegoats for the fans' frustration with the management of the team and the club.

I'm not saying he's a world beater butBlackman was always talked up as a very skillful player and he took a lot of stick for not being the sort of player we wanted. His career at Reading now seems to be taking the same trajectory as Kebe's.

Behave. Whilst Kebe took a while to hit his best, he was still contributing and playing most matches beforehand. He also showed some small threat in the PL, and cost about half as much.

[Royal Rother]

Same trajectory does not mean identical path.

[Platypuss]

Same trajectory does not mean identical path.

[From Despair To Where?]

Ok, I'll rephrase it. There are parallels between Kebe's and Blackman's careers at Reading

However, I remember Kebe being quite heavily slated as shit in the Premiership and a waste of space in our first season back in the Championship. It was only under McDermott that he really started to show any form and there were a number of defiant goal celebrations of his where he ran to the home fans with his hand cupped to his ear.

[WoodleyRoyal]

Ok, I'll rephrase it. There are parallels between Kebe's and Blackman's careers at Reading

However, I remember Kebe being quite heavily slated as shit in the Premiership and a waste of space in our first season back in the Championship. It was only under McDermott that he really started to show any form and there were a number of defiant goal celebrations of his where he ran to the home fans with his hand cupped to his ear.

exactly this, kebe was bang average for at least two years

[Extended-Phenotype]

Same trajectory does not mean identical path.

[Bandini]

Ok, I'll rephrase it. There are parallels between Kebe's and Blackman's careers at Reading

racist

[Royalwaster]

It's weird how players who leave us thinking they are going on to better things - often end up doing worse. From those who left last season - Feds, Pearce, Karacan - none of them seem to be getting any game time at their new clubs. Maybe they all thought they were better than they were .... ?

[Extended-Phenotype]

It's weird how players who leave us thinking they are going on to better things - often end up doing worse. From those who left last season - Feds, Pearce, Karacan - none of them seem to be getting any game time at their new clubs. Maybe they all thought they were better than they were .... ?

I think it goes to show how much of a team-orientated club we are. Seems common enough to dismiss coincidence that over the years so many of our 'best' players have been snapped up by other clubs only to look rather lame once in a different shirt.

Credit to the club, really. We just seem to get the best out of distinctly average players.

[Hoop Blah]

That^^ and for those that have done well and are moving on at the right age they're generally moving up to supposedly bigger and better things (ie more money!).

Both Karacan and Federici moved on knowing their playing opportunities would be limited but they'll no doubt see the new challenge, the higher division and the bigger pay packet as doing pretty well for themselves after here.

[Ian Royal]

It's weird how players who leave us thinking they are going on to better things - often end up doing worse. From those who left last season - Feds, Pearce, Karacan - none of them seem to be getting any game time at their new clubs. Maybe they all thought they were better than they were .... ?

I think it goes to show how much of a team-orientated club we are. Seems common enough to dismiss coincidence that over the years so many of our 'best' players have been snapped up by other clubs only to look rather lame once in a different shirt.

Credit to the club, really. We just seem to get the best out of distinctly average players.

It's not just getting the best out of distinctly average players. Some of those who've moved on upwards have been extremely good players. But we are very good at holding on to most players for their best years, until age or injury start to take their toll.

There's no way Little, Kitson, Shorey, Sonko or Kebe were distinctly average.

We do also do very well at getting players to play to the top of their ability and make teams which are greater than the sum of their parts. Kinda like a reverse QPR.

[Nameless]

That's why QPR have white hoops on blue shirts while we have blue hoops on white shirts I guess....

[From Despair To Where?]

It's been a 4 weeks since the transfer window closed and in light of our recent upturn in form, I keep reading from fans of other clubs about how we've had loads of money to spend.

Can I just re-itterate 2 things for any non Reading fans who may be reading this:

We spent somewhere in the region of £4.5m in the transfer window, including the much talked about £2.5m loan fee for Vydra. We sold Hector for £4m. Therefore, our net spend was about £500,000. Hardly breaking the bank.

The departures of Drenthe, Guthrie, Pearce, Karacan, Federici and Pogrebnyak wiped something in the region of £170,000 a week off our wage bill. Our wage bill is lower than this time last year.

Whilst our budget is undoubtedly big for this division, we are hardly throwing around stupid sums of money or spending beyond our means. Been there, done that, learnt our lesson and got out of it the right way.

[Ian Royal]

It's been a 4 weeks since the transfer window closed and in light of our recent upturn in form, I keep reading from fans of other clubs about how we've had loads of money to spend.

Can I just re-itterate 2 things for any non Reading fans who may be reading this:

We spent somewhere in the region of £4.5m in the transfer window, including the much talked about £2.5m loan fee for Vydra. We sold Hector for £4m. Therefore, our net spend was about £500,000. Hardly breaking the bank.

The departures of Drenthe, Guthrie, Pearce, Karacan, Federici and Pogrebnyak wiped something in the region of £170,000 a week off our wage bill. Our wage bill is lower than this time last year.

Whilst our budget is undoubtedly big for this division, we are hardly throwing around stupid sums of money or spending beyond our means. Been there, done that, learnt our lesson and got out of it the right way.

Possibly or probably, but it's a big leap to say that as a fact.

[From Despair To Where?]

I didn't include Kelly or the portion of Chalobah (or Murray's for the first half of the season) and Makie's wages that we were paying which in all probability would add another £40,000 to that weekly figure, plus the likes of Yakubu, Knight and the other squad players we released which would could add another £10-15,000 a week.

Yes, it's all guesswork but whilst Sa, Quinn and McShane may be on £15-20,000 a week, I doubt the other permenant signings are on big money. Likewise, we may be paying a big slice of Vydra, John and Piazon's wages, Taylor and Fernandez are nowhere near the same ballpark.

[RoyallyFcuked]

It's been a 4 weeks since the transfer window closed and in light of our recent upturn in form, I keep reading from fans of other clubs about how we've had loads of money to spend.

Can I just re-itterate 2 things for any non Reading fans who may be reading this:

We spent somewhere in the region of £4.5m in the transfer window, including the much talked about £2.5m loan fee for Vydra. We sold Hector for £4m. Therefore, our net spend was about £500,000. Hardly breaking the bank.

The departures of Drenthe, Guthrie, Pearce, Karacan, Federici and Pogrebnyak wiped something in the region of £170,000 a week off our wage bill. Our wage bill is lower than this time last year.

Whilst our budget is undoubtedly big for this division, we are hardly throwing around stupid sums of money or spending beyond our means. Been there, done that, learnt our lesson and got out of it the right way.

Agree with everything you said there, except that our budget is big for this division, I'd say its fairly average. For a start remember there are Championship teams paying £8m+ plus for players (for example McCormack to Fulham for £12m and Gray to Burnley for £9m), that's not in our league, but I guess its true that a lot of our budget had been taken up by big wages.

We are still doing it the Reading way if you like, or rather we are doing it the Reading way again. Just as a result of our last trip to the Prem and AZ's influence meant we hadn't spent our money wisely and had a few players who were earning a lot more than your average Reading player does, and some of whom were extremely lucky to be doing so. Though to our pleasant surprise we have managed to move on not just some, but all of them.

So yeah this means the wage bill is lower and with the help of the Thais it freed up a lot of our budget to be used for bringing players in, which as you say only around £4.5m was spent and most of that ending up being covered by the sale of Hector. This is why many of us, including us both, said the club did such a good job in the transfer window and I couldn't understand why there were a few people basically saying the opposite.

And I know I said this on another thread but credit to the manager for the transfer window we had and his new squad and system. I think all the players now know they are there because Clarke wants them there and believes they are good enough to part of the squad to take us back to the Premier League, and that in itself has been a massive boost.

[DaddyKuhl]

We spent somewhere in the region of £4.5m in the transfer window, including the much talked about £2.5m loan fee for Vydra. We sold Hector for £4m. Therefore, our net spend was about £500,000. Hardly breaking the bank.

I am not arguing that you were incorrect about the net spend here but wanted to quantify where we are in terms of the division and how much we had spent net compared to the rest of the division but could not find a list for the transfer window just gone. I did, however, find the list in the link below showing net transfer spend of the last 5 years to 2014/15 which shows -16million and 22nd in the league. Quite incredible that we have been had a promotion, play off appearance and a year in the prem in that time! http://www.transferleague.co.uk/champio ... ive-season

[Ian Royal]

that's because transfer spend has a terrible correlation to success whereas wage spend has a very close correlation. And on wages we've been consistently right up there.