You Call The Shots...........

[The Insider]

All,

I have been reading with interest a number of posts criticising the Club for the lack of recent transfer activity. I too am a little frustrated, but that is not to blame the Club, but more the marketplace that we are operating in. Value for money and sustainable business no longer appears to exist thanks to Abramavich and co.

It begs the question though, what would YOU do if you are behind the scenes ??

you have 3 choices, assuming that you have around £8m at your disposal for the Summer, have a squad that broke all time Championship records last season, and are making the step up from the Premiership.

Do you:

A) Spend your £8m filling out your squad with a number of half decent Championship quality players , including some that never made the grade at Premiership level. These players are overpriced based upon the selling clubs knowledge of your £8m. These players are simple to acquire, and in plentiful supply.

e.g. Hulse £2.2 rising to £3m . Claude Davis £2.5m , Shittu £1.5 rising to £3m.


B) Acknowledge that , in order to improve, you need players of Premier quality that can take your club to the next level. These players can also be acquired but request spiralling wages that would smash your current structure, and risk upsetting the squad spirit that proved so vital in our success last year.


c) Acknowledge that, in order to improve, you need to find players of Premier quality , yet within the constraints of your salary bandings. Also these players have to demonstrate a desire to play for the Club.

Accept though, that this market for players is extremely limited, patience is required in abundance, and you run the real risk of frustration and not being able to acquire many , or any.... (you just don't know)


To date we've signed Seol for £1m, which I think will prove to fall within category (C), as he has international pedigree and desire to play for Reading. Sodje is a definite category (A) player, but hardly one that is causing the Accountants any concern.

The Club are evidently very active, making bids for Mensah, Whitehead, Emerse Fae etc. It hasn't happened yet, and Hob Nobbers are beginning to panic .

So should the message to the Club be " we're getting nervous, please go sign 5 championship players" or " keep plugging away with your targets ?"

Awaiting your thoughts.

[HighburyRoyale]

Keep plugging away - total faith in Coppell's ability to pick the right player for his squad.

Having said that, please could they just go out and buy 3/4 rubbish players to fill out the squad.

Still my favourite moment of the summer was when someone else signed Heskey!

[Seal]

Obviously in an ideal world every club would go for players in the c) catergory...hardly rocket science.

However if the market does not contain these players that that leaves you with 2 options:

1. Buy players in the other 2 categories you have described
2. Start the season with a very small squad

I think everyone is just concerned that the club are being a little too stubborn (naive maybe?), and we may end up with option 2 and subsequently struggle.

[Gordons Cumming]

It's a delicate balance, but I trust the management to navigate us successfully through our coming campaign.

Nice thoughts The Insider. Nice to read a well thought out post......or do you really have insider information?

[martin fife]

I think we have to accept that many of the good players which we want the club to sign are not willing to commit to Reading FC until we have shown that we won't go straight back down to the Championship.

The Club are doing the best they can on a limited budget, I would rather see us with a squad of up and coming hungry players than a few worn out old mercenaries.

Wait until the January 'window', if we are not in danger, the good 'uns will think again.

[Drew_3]

obviously its difficult to get the balance and sign the right players ie mostly category c, because if it was easy teams in the prem would not struggle so badly, yes there would still be relegations from the prem but you wouldn't get the strugglers ala sunderland west brom and birmingham who were very poor last year.

[Drew_3]

I think we have to accept that many of the good players which we want the club to sign are not willing to commit to Reading FC until we have shown that we won't go straight back down to the Championship.

The Club are doing the best they can on a limited budget, I would rather see us with a squad of up and coming hungry players than a few worn out old mercenaries.

Wait until the January 'window', if we are not in danger, the good 'uns will think again.

very true we have all seen many a team do this, and i think its fiar to say we want players that are good or have the potential to be good, not players who "were good"and a on high wages because of their reputations and therfore crippling the club!!

[The Insider]

I just think at the moment, whilst we are a little threadbare in terms of numbers, at least we have cash in the bank in the event that one or many of these premier-quality players come available in the next 3 weeks, we can take advantage.

I look at Warnock at Sheff Utd and he's played his hand early. He's committed his funds , got his players in, but question marks remain as to whether they are any better than what he currently had. Will they really take Sheff Utd to the next level ? I doubt it. He certainly has sufficient bodies for cover, but Hulse has tried and failed at Premier level, and Davis was found wanting for Jamaica against Owen etc. £5.5m on these two is a lot of cash.

West Ham are a good template. They bought a class act in Bennayoun and he provided the spark that made the difference. They also bought solid players in Collins , Konchesky, and Gabbidon.

I don't see Sheff Utd or Watford having bought a Bennayoun equivalent, and I think that's what we are after. A leader , someone with a little bit extra, that can lift the whole team to the next level.

[Platypuss]

Wait until the January 'window', if we are not in danger, the good 'uns will think again.

And if we are in danger because we didn't strengthen/deepen the squad enough before the end of August.....?

[Bowman's Quiver]

Value for money and sustainable business no longer appears to exist thanks to Abramavich and co.

Awaiting your thoughts.

I'm not sure the Abramovich effect can explain away how the likes of Lescott can suddenly become a £5-million player, or Claude Davis £3 million plus but never mind.

Rightly or wrongly football was never a business that offered value for money except for perhaps the very top clubs in this country. It never ceases to amaze me that JM can be so naive to believe differently, or maybe it's a convienent ruse behind which to hide.

Your question strikes me as being rather loaded. However, I wouldn't disagree for one moment with your general synopsis although I would feel a tad more comfortable with option C being a viable approach if only we could acquire just one of the big-money targets we seem to be targetting.

[Humanistic]

I'm not sure you can say that Hulse has tried and failed at Premiership level- he only made five substitute appearances with West Brom in the top flight!

A better example may be someone like Akinbiyi, who manifestly was not up to the job when given the opportunity in the Premier League.

[Stranded]

I'm not sure you can say that Hulse has tried and failed at Premiership level- he only made five substitute appearances with West Brom in the top flight!

A better example may be someone like Akinbiyi, who manifestly was not up to the job when given the opportunity in the Premier League.

Yes he did only make five sub appearances in a struggling team before being offloaded. His manager at the time clearly felt he wouldn't make an impact so yes that was a failure. Doesn't mean he will be again though.

[Hoop Blah]

I just think at the moment, whilst we are a little threadbare in terms of numbers, at least we have cash in the bank in the event that one or many of these premier-quality players come available in the next 3 weeks, we can take advantage.

I look at Warnock at Sheff Utd and he's played his hand early. He's committed his funds , got his players in, but question marks remain as to whether they are any better than what he currently had. Will they really take Sheff Utd to the next level ? I doubt it. He certainly has sufficient bodies for cover, but Hulse has tried and failed at Premier level, and Davis was found wanting for Jamaica against Owen etc. £5.5m on these two is a lot of cash.

West Ham are a good template. They bought a class act in Bennayoun and he provided the spark that made the difference. They also bought solid players in Collins , Konchesky, and Gabbidon.

I don't see Sheff Utd or Watford having bought a Bennayoun equivalent, and I think that's what we are after. A leader , someone with a little bit extra, that can lift the whole team to the next level.

Some good points raised.

It's certainly not easy to build a Premiership squad, however I thought we'd be a little quicker in the market considering we had such a head start after last seasons early promotion etc.

The West Ham comparison is interesting. I don't think the likes of Etherington, Reo-Corker, Zamora and Mullins are any better than our players and the only thing that Harewood has over our forwards is that extra pace and power. The difference that West Ham had was they already had good Premiership experience in the the squad before bringing in the likes of Konchesky, Carrol, Gabbidon etc in the summer.

[Hoop Blah]

I'm not sure the Abramovich effect can explain away how the likes of Lescott can suddenly become a £5-million player, or Claude Davis £3 million plus but never mind.

Perhaps the prices are indicative of a stagnant market. There aren't that many players about willing or able to move and so those that are have again gone for inflated prices.

If we'd not gone up but had the best defensive record in the division how much do you think we'd have demanded for Sonko? I think Preston did well getting £3m for Davis but I'm sure we'd have held out for a similar fee for Sonks.

[Lower West]

If Coppell hasn't found the players to sign then I trust his judgement. He is looking for individuals with particular qualities. Too often players are bought in acts of desperation eg Murray and Goater. With hindsight you could say that this set the club back a year, with better use of the money we could have bought younger upcoming players.

[79Royal]

I agree with the way that Reading are playing this. We are the best side that ever palyed in the second tier of English football, bar none. We outplayed West Brom and Birmingham. If we hadn't gone up, a lot of our players would have been courted by Premiership clubs.

With that in mind, I believe that we are good enough to, at the very least, make a good fist of it in the Premiership. The signing of Sodje, who looks half decent, is a squad signing. Seol could well be in line for the first team and I would liken him to Benayoun for West Ham, is the sense that he could make a real impact, though I accept that they are different players.

It's far better to go for our preferred targets now, with three weeks of the transfer window left. I'd wager that if nothing happens in the next two weeks, then Hammond will be on the phone to clubs he probably spoke to early in May, about bringing in cover. I'd imagine that these players have been picked by Coppell as 'last resort' players. Lads, who Coppell believes, can do a job in the Prem, but wouldn't be his first choice.

Seems pretty sensible to me. No need to panic yet.

[SpaceCruiser]

Too often players are bought in acts of desperation eg Murray and Goater.

Murray and Goater weren't bought in desperation. Surely you can think of a better example. Such as the magnificent seven.

[bassavage]

We'll be fine don't worry - I have full faith in Coppell and the squad we have now and I believe we WILL stay up this year and quite comfortably.

[Hoop Blah]

If Coppell hasn't found the players to sign then I trust his judgement. He is looking for individuals with particular qualities. Too often players are bought in acts of desperation eg Murray and Goater. With hindsight you could say that this set the club back a year, with better use of the money we could have bought younger upcoming players.

Murray and Goater where by no means desperation signings, we'd been after them for quite some time!

At some point we are going to have to buy in players to plug the gaps we can't fill with our preferred signings. They might not be of the quality we wanted to bring in 3 months ago but we might not have a choice.

We can't gamble on players not getting injuries or relying on players like Brown or Osano stepping up from non-league/youth football and playing 5 or 6 games.

Every point will be valuable this season and we can't afford not to have cover in any positions. Look at Birmingham last season. They had some very good players in their squad but a bad run of injuries and a lack of form in front of goal saw them relegated.

[Im Spartacus]

Too often players are bought in acts of desperation eg Murray and Goater.

Murray and Goater weren't bought in desperation. Surely you can think of a better example. Such as the magnificent seven.

I disagree, I think it was desperation as were Keown and Ferdinand.