Relief as the window closes and the clouds clear

[Seaside Royal]

Great smokescreen from the club officials again. Create a big storm about everyone coming in for our players to take the spotlight off the fact we've signed no one other than a striker from scotland, a sheffield united reserve player and a youngster from cork. Great tactics once again.

But we don't need to sign anyone, the squad we have is strong enough to get us promoted. The only position we needed was a left back and we've signed Armstrong. More than happy with what we've got.

totally agree with the standard of our squad and more than happy with Armstrong filling the LB position re (price for price Shorey/Armstrong) and now that the transfer window is shut I'm looking forward to the focus being placed on playing football and maintaining consistent performances.

Also happy with the club sticking to its guns in not accepting mega money for HUNT

[Denver Royal]

So glad Doyle has remained with the club. It's an often cliched phrase but its good to see a certain amount of loyalty by RFC being repaid by the likes of Doyle. Interesting that the price turned down for Hunt was 3.5 mil. Coppell and Hammond must rate him far higher.

how has Doyle done anything loyal?? nobody came in for him lol depsite a number of come and get me style comments.....


dont get me wrong im not knocking him, but the guy didnt exactly come out and say "im not going anywhere" not many do these days

LOL @ Doyle's loyalty. What did he get, three new contracts in 18 months? If the right offer had come in, he'd have been off.

[The 17 Bus]

But we must assume the offer did not come in, so now he can get back to scoring goals for us, also a good job that Everton did not rate Hunt at £5m triggering the release clause.

[Royal Soupanoodle]

I think anyone that still suggests we are selling club and Madejski is taking what he's owed can go take a walk.

Three players were sold - each one had expressed a wish to leave.

Offers were received for other players and they were turned down because Coppell wanted to keep them.

FACT

If Mr Mad really did want to recoup more money, he could have by demanding offers were accepted and would have circa £10,000,000 in his pocket today ( Harper, Doyle and Hunt that I know of).

FACT


I like using the word FACT in capitals

FACT

[The 17 Bus]

Good morning Soupanoodle.

[Royal Soupanoodle]

Top of the morning to you too

[Agent Balti]

*wipes eyes* We didn't re-sign Bas Savage? Bollicks... *goes back to sleep*

[Streets]

I think anyone that still suggests we are selling club and Madejski is taking what he's owed can go take a walk.

Three players were sold - each one had expressed a wish to leave.

Offers were received for other players and they were turned down because Coppell wanted to keep them.

FACT

If Mr Mad really did want to recoup more money, he could have by demanding offers were accepted and would have circa £10,000,000 in his pocket today ( Harper, Doyle and Hunt that I know of).

FACT


I like using the word FACT in capitals

FACT

[T.R.O.L.I.]

*wipes eyes* We didn't re-sign Bas Savage? Bollicks... *goes back to sleep*

I share your pain, AB

[Barry the bird boggler]

*wipes eyes* We didn't re-sign Bas Savage? Bollicks... *goes back to sleep*

He's the main man at Tranmere now and they didn't want to lose him - he scored on Saturday as well.

When does the loan window open?

[T.R.O.L.I.]

Clubs in the Football League can sign players on loan outside of the transfer windows, following a seven-day period after the transfer window closes.

[Barry the bird boggler]

YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Happy with keeping Hunt and Doyle. Promotion is a real possibility.
Come on Reading!

Until the next game.....

[papereyes]

Great smokescreen from the club officials again. Create a big storm about everyone coming in for our players to take the spotlight off the fact we've signed no one other than a striker from scotland, a sheffield united reserve player and a youngster from cork. Great tactics once again.

But we don't need to sign anyone, the squad we have is strong enough to get us promoted. The only position we needed was a left back and we've signed Armstrong. More than happy with what we've got.

I'd argue we still need that central midfielder we needed last summer.

But I'm confident Karacan will be more than able to do well in a decent number of games.

[RoyalBlue]

How well our expectations have been managed downwards so that this morning we are celebrating the fact that, rather than adding some quality signings to our squad, we haven't sold off any more of our star players! Even I fell for it last night!!!

Still, no doubt those who this time last year were categorically stating that our squad was good enough to keep us up in the PL will now be equally certain that our watered down squad is good enough to take us straight back up! How reassuring!

Thought I'd retrieve this posting from UR&G as, far from being UR&G this is a statement attributed to Nigel Howe in 'A Decade of Dreams':

"Relegation (from PL) might turn out to be not too much of a bad thing because sometimes you need a bit of checking of your speed to make sure you're not taking too many chances or growing too fast. Perhaps our ambitions have got ahead of us a bit. This will give us a chance to examine ourselves and go forward again in the future........"

So how keen do you think the likes of JM & NH really are for an immediate return to the PL?!

[Streets]

How well our expectations have been managed downwards so that this morning we are celebrating the fact that, rather than adding some quality signings to our squad, we haven't sold off any more of our star players! Even I fell for it last night!!!

Still, no doubt those who this time last year were categorically stating that our squad was good enough to keep us up in the PL will now be equally certain that our watered down squad is good enough to take us straight back up! How reassuring!

Well that's ruined my fooking day then.

[rg6royal]

Good news...

Roll on the season!

[Scarface]

I'm a bit disappointed we didn't manage to offload Lita yesterday, but it wouldn't surprise me if he isn't loaned out.

Now the speculation has gone I'd also like to see James Harper start playing, so far this year apart from a goal he's contributed nothing during the games.

[Streets]

I'm a bit disappointed we didn't manage to offload Lita yesterday, but it wouldn't surprise me if he isn't loaned out.

Now the speculation has gone I'd also like to see James Harper start playing, so far this year apart from a goal he's contributed nothing during the games.

I assume you were either not there or slept through the Plymouth game because was everywhere and was even throwing himself into tackles.

Your post - little harsh. He does need to do it more often though!

[Royalwaster]

I'm a bit disappointed we didn't manage to offload Lita yesterday, but it wouldn't surprise me if he isn't loaned out.

Now the speculation has gone I'd also like to see James Harper start playing, so far this year apart from a goal he's contributed nothing during the games.

I'd rather keep Lita and loan out Long - the problem is if we're thinking of keeping Lita, we need him to sign a new contract.

[Hampshire Royal]

Maybe the fact that we didn't accept a good offer for SHunt goes against what some people on here are saying in that JM only wants what money he can get. OK, we've sold three players:

Shorey - didn't want to play for us, which he demonstrated last season;
Kitson - apparently he was disruptive and caused unrest in the squad;
Sonko - didn't want to play for us, and was past his best.

We kept SHunt, Harper and Doyle who will become very important players for us (not that they're not already) and surely if JM only wanted the money he could have sold all of these players. We have bought a number of players who may or may not turn out to be successful with us. More importantly, we are starting to bring in good youth players who will become the nucleus of our side in the next few years, and the fact that they are playing in a team containing good experienced players will help that development. After all, when Man U did it a few years ago it seemed to work. If we need a model of how not to challenge for promotion after relegation we only need to look at Derby. I don't know how many players they bought, or at what cost, but they seem to have done just what some on here wanted us to do. OK, they may well improve as the season goes on, but there are no signs of it yet.

I am by nature an optimistic person, and what I've seen of how we're doing business doesn't reduce that optimism one bit.