Hob Nob Anyone?

Stranded wrote:

3points wrote:

SCIAG wrote: I just think that with six months left on his contract we’re going to struggle to get a meaningful fee. £2m might let us sign a replacement (it’s about what we paid for Blackett) but it’s unlikely to let us “fill other holes”.

Don’t think a swap for Gibson is likely to be viable. Everton want Gibson.

get Leighton Baines in for the rest of season (assuming he’s now fit of course). Could be an Ian Harte type moment

Baines has retired.

didn’t know that. Cheers

ITK Eddie on Twitter says:

Omar Richards’s fate is very much in his agent’s hands (he has very little involvement in any negotiation). Mr Dai really wants to keep him at #ReadingFC with a serious wage hike and lengthy contract. It’s set to be an interesting month with many clubs interested.


Wonder if he has the same agent as Osho? He could be at Yeovil soon

morganb wrote:ITK Eddie on Twitter says:

Omar Richards’s fate is very much in his agent’s hands (he has very little involvement in any negotiation). Mr Dai really wants to keep him at #ReadingFC with a serious wage hike and lengthy contract. It’s set to be an interesting month with many clubs interested.


Wonder if he has the same agent as Osho? He could be at Yeovil soon

Interesting that Richards seems to have the same agent(or at least the same agency) as Jack Grealish. Grealish could have moved clubs and probably earned more but has opted to stick with Villa for other reasons. This might suggest Richards might get better advice than some of our other young players who have jumped at the chance to join a big name on a bigger salary and found it was probably not the smartest option.

Nameless wrote:

morganb wrote:ITK Eddie on Twitter says:

Omar Richards’s fate is very much in his agent’s hands (he has very little involvement in any negotiation). Mr Dai really wants to keep him at #ReadingFC with a serious wage hike and lengthy contract. It’s set to be an interesting month with many clubs interested.


Wonder if he has the same agent as Osho? He could be at Yeovil soon

Interesting that Richards seems to have the same agent(or at least the same agency) as Jack Grealish. Grealish could have moved clubs and probably earned more but has opted to stick with Villa for other reasons. This might suggest Richards might get better advice than some of our other young players who have jumped at the chance to join a big name on a bigger salary and found it was probably not the smartest option.

Think there are many good agents out there who don’t just recommend a move for the sake of it. Presume Omar will be advised that staying at Reading is a good option for him at his age (he’ll be 23 in February) as he will have a lot of game time and the club itself at last looks to be getting its house in order on the playing side so another 2/3 year deal would see him at the top of his game and the world would be his oyster if he fulfilled the potential. Negotiate in a decent release clause as well and the player could, in a sense, have the best of both worlds.

Of course if there is an established PL club showing interest and promising to see him as their first choice left back within 18 months or so, then given the monetary values likely to be involved I would imagine a move would be recommended - and of course every player will want to play at the highest level they can so if the Everton interest is correct and they were to offer something along those lines then I don’t think Reading would have a chance, however much they offered.

All we can do is wait and see. Wouldn’t surprise me if this went on to the summer before being settled.

We also have no idea how Richards feels about the club. He’s not a local lad who has come right through the ranks like Holmes and McIntyre. He’s been here 7 years and has the chance to be part of a first team half of which he played with on his way through the Academy. But is that important to him or are we just a step on the career ladder (I wouldn’t criticise him if we were, it’s absolutely valid to want to go as high and far in the game as you can)

Agents usually get a cut of any deal, so in the vast majority of cases they'll go for the money, because if it doesn't work out, they've got plenty of other clients and can find others.

Having the same agent as Grealish who stayed (but presumably got bumper contracts given Villa were throwing money around) is potentially a positive, but we don't know if he's different to many, Grealish just ignored him, or the money was broadly similar with plenty more cash cow opportunity in the future for even more.

As always, wait and see I guess.

Bayern Munich in fir him on a free in the summer if twitter is to be believed.

Source being The Daily Torygraph. If true we are screwed.

Zip wrote:Source being The Daily Torygraph. If true we are screwed.

Not really. Means he is with us for the season, giving us plenty of time to look at a successor.

Would imagine he will only go there f guaranteed to be around the first team squad as if he ends up at Bayern II initially, he will swapping Championship or possible PL for 3rd division German football (or poss even Regional leagues as BMII are struggling this season)

Stranded wrote:

Zip wrote:Source being The Daily Torygraph. If true we are screwed.

Not really. Means he is with us for the season, giving us plenty of time to look at a successor.

We then lose him for zilch. We are heavily in debt and can ill afford to lose our prized assets for nothing

Zip wrote:

Stranded wrote:

Zip wrote:Source being The Daily Torygraph. If true we are screwed.

Not really. Means he is with us for the season, giving us plenty of time to look at a successor.

We then lose him for zilch. We are heavily in debt and can ill afford to lose our prized assets for nothing

Bayern will only want him as he costs zilch. Occasionally these deals happen, if it does we move on. FFP made it very difficult to offer new deals last summer and this is unfortunately a possible impact of that.

Zip wrote:

Stranded wrote:

Zip wrote:Source being The Daily Torygraph. If true we are screwed.

Not really. Means he is with us for the season, giving us plenty of time to look at a successor.

We then lose him for zilch. We are heavily in debt and can ill afford to lose our prized assets for nothing

Not if he helps us get promoted

Hound wrote:

Zip wrote:

Stranded wrote:
Not really. Means he is with us for the season, giving us plenty of time to look at a successor.

We then lose him for zilch. We are heavily in debt and can ill afford to lose our prized assets for nothing

Not if he helps us get promoted

That’s a very, very big if.

Zip wrote:

Stranded wrote:

Zip wrote:Source being The Daily Torygraph. If true we are screwed.

Not really. Means he is with us for the season, giving us plenty of time to look at a successor.

We then lose him for zilch. We are heavily in debt and can ill afford to lose our prized assets for nothing

We've got a lot of them right now. I'd rather lose Richards for nothing in the summer than for a few million, if that, now, when a replacement will be hard to find and expensive.

I'm struggling to see an obvious route to regular 1st team football with Bayern. Not sure what Bayern would pay a 4th choice LB either but he could get similar and regular football elsewhere.

From Despair To Where? wrote:I'm struggling to see an obvious route to regular 1st team football with Bayern. Not sure what Bayern would pay a 4th choice LB either but he could get similar and regular football elsewhere.

TBF Bayern have taken to playing Alphonso Davies at LB of late as they don't have a fit one & they have a 17yo English player on the bench. It would be tough for him but even a year struggling to get minutes at Bayern will likely lead to a decent move in 2022 to either a PL or top European team.

It also says something about how far Richards has come in his development. We have some highly talented players and it’s inevitable they are being noticed.

Lol well we don’t have a chance of keeping him if Bayern want him

Another screw up from Dai...the list is growing

Notts Royal wrote:Lol well we don’t have a chance of keeping him if Bayern want him

Another screw up from Dai...the list is growing

You missed off an emoji there I think

Notts Royal wrote:Lol well we don’t have a chance of keeping him if Bayern want him

Another screw up from Dai...the list is growing

Because Bayern had no chance of getting him if he was in contract?