Hob Nob Anyone?

Which has often been part of the argument of if we made a mistake there by not identifying that he would make a better Right back and pushing him back like we did with Murty.

Great to see Gomes swallowing his pride and accepting Virginia is not cut out for Championship football. Send that young man packing, thank you

Sutekh wrote:

Hendo wrote:

Sutekh wrote:
Joey joined NEC (the Dutch football club not the Japanese IT company)

Was that the team he was on loan to as well last season?

Yes, so it probably doesn’t count as much as Jaakkola

Surprising that Harriott and McShane haven’t got a deal. Not surprised that Gravenberch and Meyler are struggling. Were there any others released from the senior side?

Meyler has announced his retirement

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1yKa6Mhrmk ... djkpt6rkjb

think that figures. I'm guessing it vastly affected his performances here. Shame for him to retire so young really

Noticed Tennai Watson looks like he is going on loan to Coventry and Nova' has agreed terms (but no fee agreed) with Zwolle

Watson on loan to Coventry for the year. He'll be 23 when he gets back, and is behind Howe in the pecking order. Is his time at Reading likely to end soon?

WestYorksRoyal wrote:Watson on loan to Coventry for the year. He'll be 23 when he gets back, and is behind Howe in the pecking order. Is his time at Reading likely to end soon?

I think this will very much depend on how he gets on during this loan.

muirinho wrote:

Sutekh wrote:

Hendo wrote:
Was that the team he was on loan to as well last season?

Yes, so it probably doesn’t count as much as Jaakkola

Surprising that Harriott and McShane haven’t got a deal. Not surprised that Gravenberch and Meyler are struggling. Were there any others released from the senior side?

Meyler has announced his retirement

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1yKa6Mhrmk ... djkpt6rkjb

Well that at least explains his problems last season such a shame we never saw the player he was. Really hope the future works out well for him.

Looks like McCleary has been saying his goodbyes at the training ground today - so either off somewhere, maybe Oxford is back on?, or had his contract paid up.

Stranded wrote:Looks like McCleary has been saying his goodbyes at the training ground today - so either off somewhere, maybe Oxford is back on?, or had his contract paid up.

You would think it this point it would make sense for Gunter and McLeary to take a payoff, become free agents and be able to negotiate deals elsewhere. I guess it depends on how their contracts are structured, they won’t want to lose out on possible bonuses but I can’t see we’d be keen to give them anything above their standard salary.

Stranded wrote:Looks like McCleary has been saying his goodbyes at the training ground today - so either off somewhere, maybe Oxford is back on?, or had his contract paid up.

I do hope he goes to play somewhere else - seems such as waste rotting in the U23 (if he even plays there). Both good lads, find yourself a club and get playing.Not like they have loads of time left in their careers

From Despair To Where? wrote:But he played in midfield when with us.

And defence.

And Bacuna is playing for his new team at RB too.

And neither Watson nor Howe have made it at Championship level.

But a few weeks ago you were arguing against players who can play a bit in different positions in favour of specialists in a position. Pretty sure you also made a post on the Cardiff match thread about Bacuna and where he should be playing. Make your mind up.

We now have specialist options at full/wing back. Obita and Richards on the left, Yiadom and Gunter on the right. Then we have academy players and players who can do a job as further options. I appreciate that Obita started out as a midfielder but he has played the majority of his games and full back and was only tried there because we were so short of options. Kind of re-enforces my point. I also remember early on people criticising his lack of defensive awareness.

That Gomes prefers Howe to Gunter does not detract from the fact Gunter is still an option. I am sure that's if Gunter was on £10,000p/w less or had more than 1 year on his contract, he would still be an active 1st team squad member. He has no future at the club which is why Gomes is giving a chance to an academy player as backup. I remember when we signed Anton Ferdinand, we only had 5 senior defenders.

I still maintain that Gomes has had more options in defence and at full back than a number of his immediate predecessors.

From Despair To Where? wrote:But a few weeks ago you were arguing against players who can play a bit in different positions in favour of specialists in a position. Pretty sure you also made a post on the Cardiff match thread about Bacuna and where he should be playing. Make your mind up.

We now have specialist options at full/wing back. Obita and Richards on the left, Yiadom and Gunter on the right. Then we have academy players and players who can do a job as further options. I appreciate that Obita started out as a midfielder but he has played the majority of his games and full back and was only tried there because we were so short of options. Kind of re-enforces my point. I also remember early on people criticising his lack of defensive awareness.

That Gomes prefers Howe to Gunter does not detract from the fact Gunter is still an option. I am sure that's if Gunter was on £10,000p/w less or had more than 1 year on his contract, he would still be an active 1st team squad member. He has no future at the club which is why Gomes is giving a chance to an academy player as backup. I remember when we signed Anton Ferdinand, we only had 5 senior defenders.

I still maintain that Gomes has had more options in defence and at full back than a number of his immediate predecessors.

You can't really count Gunter, he's not even close to the squad. If he's simply never going to play, he's not really an option.

I argued against using players 'who can play there' as your main plan. Players can sometimes specialise in more than one highly related position. Players can be converted to specialise in different positions. Young players in particular haven't really found their position yet necessarily.

I had thought of Bacuna as primarily a midfielder, but it does seem to be increasingly the case he's actually a defender. And whilst I dislike the daft experimentation of trying players outside their position, Bacuna was actually pretty decent at RB... better than Gunter IMO.

I don't disagree that Gomes has better options than some of his predecessors. I disagree he has better options than all of them. And I maintain that for those he does have better options than, that was largely a case of choice by those managers rather than anything else.

You've been reading to much DD, who just makes up what I say and is too thick to understand it.

WestYorksRoyal wrote:Watson on loan to Coventry for the year. He'll be 23 when he gets back, and is behind Howe in the pecking order. Is his time at Reading likely to end soon?

If he develops whilst on loan he might jump ahead of Howe in the pecking order.

I somehow expect Howe will be given every chance at the club to succeed, but I don't expect him to get picked for the first team in a league game if he isn't good enough and won't keep the shirt if he does if he isn't the best player for that position

Sorry, I haven't kept up with all this news. Does this mean that we have only Gunter, Mcleary and Baldock left of those Gomes wanted to clear out?

Don't worry, the Chinese Transfer window opens in November (1st maybe), so we'll probably send them there and get Aluko back.

Won't that please everybody.

Harriott has joined Col U

About as interesting as football gets this week

Hound wrote:Harriott has joined Col U

About as interesting as football gets this week

And Tiny Dancer, aka Danzell Gravenberch, has joined Dutch 2nd division side Top Oss

https://twitter.com/TalkReading/status/ ... 5257072640