CONFIMRED - Leandro Bacuna

[genome]

Brian T telling fans to be patient on Twitter

[Muskrat]

"And the way Reading play football at the moment, teams are frightened. .." Yeah OK Leandro, if that's what they told you it must be true mate

[LoyalRoyal22]

Our approx spend on new players currently around £8m. If we sign a forward for £5m+ maybe safe to assume summer transfer budget was £15m.

[Longhorn1970]

Fair enough, probably taking a pay cut too ...

[MeMeMe]

Has to be a step up from Swift & Evans. Both of them seem to lack the appetite and ability to step up and make a solid controlling midfield for us together from what I have seen.
Kelly - Van Den Berg - Barcuna - Mc Cleary - Berens..... all much better

[NewCorkSeth]

Yay.

Another.Sodding.Midfielder

Can you explain this?

We play three midfielders. We currently have five, maybe six senior midfielders, one of whom has spent an entire season injured last year. We lost one of our senior first team regular midfielders in the summer.

Surely a midfielder should be on the shopping list?

Yes we want a striker more desperately, but we're very clearly chasing several. It would be a pretty shit DoF who just worked down his list of priorities only trying to sign one at a time. Multi-tasking is a thing you know?

Agree

People seem to get an idea in their head and just blank out reality

We have loads of wingers but urgently need another central mid to replace Williams. Can't rely on swift, Evans, joey, Quinn and Kelly to fill 3 spots all season

I think I said it earlier on this but he was a CM before moving to Villa. I wouldnt be surprised if he played there.

[Ascotexgunner]

Uninspired to say the least.
Oh for a predator in the box or a pacey striker....a Chris Wood or a Tammy Abraham.
Not another bloody midfield winger...

[windermereROYAL]

Uninspired to say the least.
Oh for a predator in the box or a pacey striker....a Chris Wood or a Tammy Abraham.
Not another bloody midfield winger...

Calm down you drama queen, he can play CM too, and we still have two and half weeks to get a striker in, and I`m confident we will. the Chris woods and Tammy Abrahams don`t grow on trees these days.

[Royal_jimmy]

Good signing. Lots of prem experience and hopefully his confidence will return with us.

A striker who can bang 15-20 goals and left back to cover Obita are just needed

[Lower West]

Has to be a step up from Swift & Evans.

Seeing that these lads are still only 22. Just the sort of experienced pro that's required in the squad.

[Longhorn1970]

Mr Stam probably the last to find out about who he's signing !

Uninspired to say the least.
Oh for a predator in the box or a pacey striker....a Chris Wood or a Tammy Abraham.
Not another bloody midfield winger...

[MeMeMe]

Has to be a step up from Swift & Evans.

Seeing that these lads are still only 22. Just the sort of experienced pro that's required in the squad.

True.... but Kelly is only 21 and shows much more in terms of presence, effort and overall ability.

[NewCorkSeth]

Has to be a step up from Swift & Evans.

Seeing that these lads are still only 22. Just the sort of experienced pro that's required in the squad.

True.... but Kelly is only 21 and shows much more in terms of presence, effort and overall ability.

Yeah.... and oranges are more orange than apples.

[Lower West]

Has to be a step up from Swift & Evans.

Seeing that these lads are still only 22. Just the sort of experienced pro that's required in the squad.

True.... but Kelly is only 21 and shows much more in terms of presence, effort and overall ability.

Plenty of games last year that Kelly was ineffective. All 3 are terrific prospects for the future. Just need to be patient.

[alfie9]

He took Yakou's number

[CountryRoyal]

Villa fans think he is shit but they also think Tshibola is shit and he was good for us, so who knows.

That should be enough for our fans to dismiss him before he`s kicked a ball for us.

In fairness though, Villa fans are probably perfect judges of how shit a player is, let's be honest they have enough experience in it.

With regards to Tish they liked him at the Start but Bruce refused to play him and then somewhere down the line (I think after an injury) he lost his form and never really regained it.

Anyway, just like Bod, and Clement and Barrow regardless of how utterly underwhelmed I am, I welcome them to the club with open arms and trust in Stam's vision that he sees something many others don't.

[Stranded]

So to people underwhelmed by signing a 25 yo with nearly 200 games of top flight experience in Holland and the UK who made his name as a very decent CM what is the criteria you need to be whelmed?

Any striker - a specific striker? Will only signing Olivera whelm you now?

[Royal Ginger]

That's a very aggressive t-shirt he's got there.

[LWJ]

True.... but Kelly is only 21 and shows much more in terms of presence, effort and overall ability.

Don't let the fact Kelly is 'one of our own' cloud your judgement. All 3 midfielders have shown that they have great potential, but to suggest Kelly is miles ahead of them is laughable.

To put it in perspective for you, Kelly has now equalled his goal tally in 21(9) Championship games last year. Or a goal every 1812 minutes. His presence contributed 5 assists in that time as well. He averaged a rating of 6.71 across the season. https://www.whoscored.com/Players/26947 ... Liam-Kelly

Swift played a total of 34(5) games last year, averaging a goal every 356 minutes, and contributing 4 assists. With an average rating of 6.84. Now I appreciate that this was his second season, and he is 5 months older than Kelly so here's his first full seasons stats from his time at Brentford; 23(4) appearances. A goal every 273 minutes, 4 assists and an average of 6.94. https://www.whoscored.com/Players/14910 ... John-Swift

Evans on paper performs the worst, but then he isn't an attacking midfielder so it would be expected he doesn't contribute as much going forward. Last year was his first full season, making 27(11) appearances, averaging a goal every 1284 minutes and contributing 2 assists. His rating over the season was 6.55. https://www.whoscored.com/Players/12129 ... orge-Evans

Kelly is 21, he turns 22 in November. Swift is 22 he turned 22 in June this year. Evans is 22 and turns 23 in December. There is less than a year separating the lads in age, yet Evans and Swift get so much stick and are expected to carry the team....

[winchester_royal]

Swansea and Leeds fans couldn't wait to tell us how shit Barrow was, but everything we've seen from him has been very positive so far, therefore I'm not going to place too much reliance on the Villa fans' opinions.

He's always looked a very tidy player to me. Not outstanding in any particular area, but will add plenty of quality depth to the squad in a number of positions.

I think we're doing some very smart business in the window. To have picked up the number of quality players that we have for the amount we have in a market where even bang average footballers are going for >£10m is a very good effort from our new leadership. Just need to bring in a genuine goalscorer, and get the likes of McCleary and Beerens back fit, and we'll be looking in good shape.