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Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 08:31
by Orion1871
Sutekh wrote:Brogue wrote:The Swansea independent is reporting the fee is around £300k
I hope the club are correct in their evaluation of him and have done their due diligence, not just looked at him in a video from 2 years ago and acted based on that.
They don't look through video anymore, they ask Chat GPT.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 09:01
by MR. CYNICAL
Clyde1998 wrote:Snowflake Royal wrote:Well that seems a lot for a recently injured 30 year old centreback who has barely played in a year and is being moved on inside 6 months at a club.
It does. Swansea probably can't believe their luck at getting £300k for a player they signed for a free in the summer, who's barely played and they wanted to get rid of.
Can't believe we would be so stupid to pay any kind of fee for this player for exactly these reasons, unless it's appearance based.
Hopefully any fee will not be paid upfront but maybe after he's proven his fitness, even then it would be a gamble as it would be a wasted signing of it all turns out badly.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 09:53
by Royalwaster
It's 100% not an upfront payment.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 11:21
by Hound
Brogue wrote:WestYorksRoyal wrote:traff wrote:Bolton and Swansea fans really don't appear to have a very high opinion of him.
However, the Pompey lot seemed to really rate Paddy Lame so.............
Bolton fans said he had 4 great years, then a mixture of illness and injury in his final year which meant he didn't feature much and looked awful when he did. He has since made 1 Swansea appearance where he looked awful.
Seems like a risky signing, even if a couple of years ago he was one of L1's best CBs.
if its a loan I'm ok with this. the comments from the Bolton fans are very worrying. say his legs have gone, lost all his pace and not been the same player since he got pneumonia
With the pneumonia, had a look at that and he had it Dec ‘22
He was in the PFA team that year and the following year so on paper wouldn’t suggest it had any lingering term effects
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 16:37
by From Despair To Where?
Clyde1998 wrote:LightwaterRoyal wrote:Greatwesternline wrote:
I used Harte as an example as even though he was from lower league, because we were still big time our transfers were still for famous players who were good.
I maybe an outlier but I've literally never heard of any Reading transfer targets these days. I don't pay anywhere near enough attention to know the players if other teams in league 1 is struggling in championship.
Matt Richie was different as he had played lots of PL.
signing players like Duberry, Soul, McAnuff, Pogrebnyak Guthrie,. You always instantly knew who they were. It was all just a bit more fun.
I've always preferred the lower league players that have a point to prove over established players.
At least when the likes of Karl Sheppard, Dave Mooney, Rowan Liburd, Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson, Brett Williams disappoint we never expected anhything of them.
Instead we're let down by David Meyler, David Edwards, Danny Guthrie, George Puscas and Sone Aluko who I think we all expected to at least be steady eddies.
I prefer that too - we need players who have a point to prove. Even older players like Jason Roberts still felt they had something to prove. Additionally, if you don't spend a lot of money - your failures don't matter too much.
As an aside, I thought Edwards did fine out of that list. The rest were poor when compared to expectations for various reasons.
We've had this discussion before. Aluko absolutely met expectations. The expectation was that he was a show pony with zero end product.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 19:00
by Snowflake Royal
From Despair To Where? wrote:Clyde1998 wrote:LightwaterRoyal wrote:
I've always preferred the lower league players that have a point to prove over established players.
At least when the likes of Karl Sheppard, Dave Mooney, Rowan Liburd, Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson, Brett Williams disappoint we never expected anhything of them.
Instead we're let down by David Meyler, David Edwards, Danny Guthrie, George Puscas and Sone Aluko who I think we all expected to at least be steady eddies.
I prefer that too - we need players who have a point to prove. Even older players like Jason Roberts still felt they had something to prove. Additionally, if you don't spend a lot of money - your failures don't matter too much.
As an aside, I thought Edwards did fine out of that list. The rest were poor when compared to expectations for various reasons.
We've had this discussion before. Aluko absolutely met expectations. The expectation was that he was a show pony with zero end product.
I'm sure his thread is still readable.
With a lot of people questioning why we'd spent ages trying to sign a striker, and then rather than finding another one or upping our offer, we just spent the whole lot on an inconsistent AM we'd just had in our pocket when he played against us.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 19:03
by WestYorksRoyal
Snowflake Royal wrote:From Despair To Where? wrote:Clyde1998 wrote:
I prefer that too - we need players who have a point to prove. Even older players like Jason Roberts still felt they had something to prove. Additionally, if you don't spend a lot of money - your failures don't matter too much.
As an aside, I thought Edwards did fine out of that list. The rest were poor when compared to expectations for various reasons.
We've had this discussion before. Aluko absolutely met expectations. The expectation was that he was a show pony with zero end product.
I'm sure his thread is still readable.
With a lot of people questioning why we'd spent ages trying to sign a striker, and then rather than finding another one or upping our offer, we just spent the whole lot on an inconsistent AM we'd just had in our pocket when he played against us.
Agree with a lot of that, but we certainly didn't have him in our pocket when he faced us. He tore us a new one in the game where they beat us 5-0 and had a few good games against us.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 14 Jan 2026 20:39
by Brogue
Just been told this is now off. Not sure though, trying to find out details and trying to find out why. Possibly failed his medical. Also told Bradford may have guzumped us with a late bid
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 15 Jan 2026 00:21
by Clyde1998
Brogue wrote:Just been told this is now off. Not sure though, trying to find out details and trying to find out why. Possibly failed his medical. Also told Bradford may have guzumped us with a late bid
Wouldn't be too disappointed if it falls through. Bradford coming in may be viable, after their termination of McIntyre's loan.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 15 Jan 2026 08:06
by Stranded
Brogue wrote:Just been told this is now off. Not sure though, trying to find out details and trying to find out why. Possibly failed his medical. Also told Bradford may have guzumped us with a late bid
If Bradford have come in and offered more, then happy that the club are being sensible and not being prepared to offer more in terms of fee or wages that they had previously agreed.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 15 Jan 2026 11:59
by Snowflake Royal
Stranded wrote:Brogue wrote:Just been told this is now off. Not sure though, trying to find out details and trying to find out why. Possibly failed his medical. Also told Bradford may have guzumped us with a late bid
If Bradford have come in and offered more, then happy that the club are being sensible and not being prepared to offer more in terms of fee or wages that they had previously agreed.
Yep. Already seemed a risky signing, so being held to ransom is definitely a no.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 15 Jan 2026 12:47
by From Despair To Where?
Not one I'm disappointed at missing out on. Too many questions marks. To be honest, none of the centre backs we've been linked to have stood out particularly.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 15 Jan 2026 12:52
by Sutekh
From Despair To Where? wrote:Not one I'm disappointed at missing out on. Too many questions marks. To be honest, none of the centre backs we've been linked to have stood out particularly.
Benn Wright sounded the best of those linked.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 15 Jan 2026 16:31
by morganb
Ricardo Santos’ will not be joining Reading due to failing a medical.
https://x.com/i/status/2011828284732895661
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 15 Jan 2026 18:04
by Snowflake Royal
So concerns about his fitness were born out.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 16 Jan 2026 08:19
by Stranded
Small point but I remember listening to a podcast with the Arsenal physio and he said nobody fails a medical as that isn't want the process is about - he is simply an input into the risk analysis that forms part of any signing. As we were due to pay a fee for Santos, then the medical must have shown something that we decided was too much of a risk for the fee/wages/contract length we were about to enter into and either we or Santos/Swansea were not prepared to renegotiate.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 16 Jan 2026 09:19
by Snowflake Royal
Stranded wrote:
Small point but I remember listening to a podcast with the Arsenal physio and he said nobody fails a medical as that isn't want the process is about - he is simply an input into the risk analysis that forms part of any signing. As we were due to pay a fee for Santos, then the medical must have shown something that we decided was too much of a risk for the fee/wages/contract length we were about to enter into and either we or Santos/Swansea were not prepared to renegotiate.
It basically amounts to the same thing... his medical showed an issue we weren't prepared to gamble on... sounds like failing to me.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 16 Jan 2026 09:35
by Hound
And fairly encouraging the medical is doing the job it’s meant to do
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 16 Jan 2026 09:43
by Royalwaster
Stranded wrote:
Small point but I remember listening to a podcast with the Arsenal physio and he said nobody fails a medical as that isn't want the process is about - he is simply an input into the risk analysis that forms part of any signing. As we were due to pay a fee for Santos, then the medical must have shown something that we decided was too much of a risk for the fee/wages/contract length we were about to enter into and either we or Santos/Swansea were not prepared to renegotiate.
Doesn't sound right - it allows you to assess their real level fitness (getting them to run and checking VO2 max rate) and also levels of recovery from an injury. As anyone who has had any knee injury will know you can be 'recovered' but there can be reduced flexibility etc.
Re: Ricardo Santos
Posted: 16 Jan 2026 12:47
by PieEater
Royalwaster wrote:Stranded wrote:
Small point but I remember listening to a podcast with the Arsenal physio and he said nobody fails a medical as that isn't want the process is about - he is simply an input into the risk analysis that forms part of any signing. As we were due to pay a fee for Santos, then the medical must have shown something that we decided was too much of a risk for the fee/wages/contract length we were about to enter into and either we or Santos/Swansea were not prepared to renegotiate.
Doesn't sound right - it allows you to assess their real level fitness (getting them to run and checking VO2 max rate) and also levels of recovery from an injury. As anyone who has had any knee injury will know you can be 'recovered' but there can be reduced flexibility etc.
The other player I can recall failing our medical was Bradley Wright-Phillips, who then went elsewhere and scored loads of goals.