Is it time to consider selling Kebé?

[Denver Royal]

He's surprisingly hard-working, but for any other Premiership team he'd be an occasional.

Maybe so...and not sure anyone else in our side would even be that. Which kinda explains why we're where we are.

[Big Ern]

Kebe is probably our best player so I would like him to stay next year. We will need all his skill and magic to challenge for Promotion next season and it will be difficult to replace him whith a player similar in ability.

[marcusopp]

To be honest, Rex, he's not as good as people say he is. We always inflate our favourites way beyond what they really are - Kebe, Long, ALF, etc. He has good feet and he's quick, but he doesn't really have the head of good Premiership players. Give him the ball for more than two or three seconds and you just know you'll end up with either a run down a blind alley or a hit-and-hope cross. We really have no one who has enough sense of what's going on around them to be consistently relied on to put the ball in a dangerous place in the box.

That works for lennon and walcott though. Kebe's also 6' plus, so is useful at set pieces (sunderland)

[percyisfreeman]

Time for the new manager to his sort this squad out for next season, big changes mass clear-out, always sorry to see players go, but that is the nature of the game.
Not sure if any of our current players would be able to handle Cardiff or the like. So the answer to your point, look where any out going Reading players will move onto, Kebe Karacan Legs Harte, look at our so called best players, Sidwell Kitson Lita Doyle etc Where are they now. There won't be many who will hit a big time club and sustain a first team place. Le Fondre Feds maybe.. Sad times, but new beginnings.

[grey_squirrel]

The 'problem' with Kebe is that we have relied on him solely as almost our only creative option for years and he is knackered out.

[loyalroyal4life]

If we go down then Mcleary will serve us better in Championship

[BraisingsteakRoyal]

If we go down then Mcleary will serve us better in Championship

Based on what?

Jimmy's torn the Championship a new one for the last few years. McCleary's had one good season at Forest.

Perhaps we just need new fitness coaches to prevent his chronic injuries?

[Jimmyshark]

Is it time to sell Kebe. Is this a sh#t joke. How about total dogs#*t like legs and Jobi. I swear a lot of reading fans really don't understand football. It's not all about running around trying hard.

[Jimmyshark]

We don't need the money. Why would we sell our only creative player? Not a good thread

[royal67]

It might seem a strange moment to suggest this, but I think Jimmy's recent lay off has played a part in unsettling the team. It seems to me he has such regular injuries that he is only as valuable as his best replacement. It's been the same story every season: he has often been out just when we need him, and that is starting to get on my nerves. It's not so much that he is injury prone, maybe, as that he is injury sensitive--the sort of player who is physically right only when mentally right. (I think if he feels less than 100%, he's in the wrong frame of mind to play at his lacerating best.) It always seems to take him longer than expected to recover; so as long as he is number one on that wing, we seem fated to be under-strength for a significant number of games each season, with the manager too often hanging on his selection till the last minute.

I'm a massive fan of Jimmy's--he's a legend, a character, and a finer player than Robson-Kanu or McCleary. But maybe it is better for team consistency to play someone 80% as good for 100% of the time than someone 100% good for 80% (or less) of the time and keep having to rejig the starting lineup. Finally, might this close season be a good juncture to consider whether our rigid wing-at-all-costs strategy has now become a straitjacket?

No. HTH.

[HoneyRoastHoax]

Worst fishing trip ever.

Obvious and blunt.

[westongeezer]

Selling Kebe would cause the world to end, foolish to discuss such matters, i hope you realise as we speak he's hunting you down......

[melonhead]

It might seem a strange moment to suggest this, but I think Jimmy's recent lay off has played a part in unsettling the team. It seems to me he has such regular injuries that he is only as valuable as his best replacement. It's been the same story every season: he has often been out just when we need him, and that is starting to get on my nerves. It's not so much that he is injury prone, maybe, as that he is injury sensitive--the sort of player who is physically right only when mentally right. (I think if he feels less than 100%, he's in the wrong frame of mind to play at his lacerating best.) It always seems to take him longer than expected to recover; so as long as he is number one on that wing, we seem fated to be under-strength for a significant number of games each season, with the manager too often hanging on his selection till the last minute.

I'm a massive fan of Jimmy's--he's a legend, a character, and a finer player than Robson-Kanu or McCleary. But maybe it is better for team consistency to play someone 80% as good for 100% of the time than someone 100% good for 80% (or less) of the time and keep having to rejig the starting lineup. Finally, might this close season be a good juncture to consider whether our rigid wing-at-all-costs strategy has now become a straitjacket?

no.

[melonhead]

Yeah Bryn's gone, Brian's been taken out the back and put out of his misery, Di Canio is goosestepping his way into the vacancy, might as well sell Kebe just to complete the journey into hell.

If your view of Hell is us getting a Manager of real ability, a squad destined to return to the Prem - and football that a lot of us did'nt ever expect to see, you may be right! We have been doing things half-successfully for so long that a lot of fans do'nt know what real success is. The 'Reading Way' was a blueprint for RFC to never be a real Premiership team. Although any change can go two ways, for a long time, lack of change has brought RFC to a glass ceiling. Only very real change will push us up to where we belong to be!

[melonhead]

To be honest, Rex, he's not as good as people say he is. We always inflate our favourites way beyond what they really are - Kebe, Long, ALF, etc. He has good feet and he's quick, but he doesn't really have the head of good Premiership players. Give him the ball for more than two or three seconds and you just know you'll end up with either a run down a blind alley or a hit-and-hope cross. We really have no one who has enough sense of what's going on around them to be consistently relied on to put the ball in a dangerous place in the box.

get out

[facaldaqui]

Worst fishing trip ever.

Obvious and blunt.

No, I am genuinely deflated that Kebe is not here just when we need him. This has happened again and again. Good though he is, if you measure his contribution to each season, it is diluted by his absences. Our Plan A remains based on him, and we are often left operating it without him. Building our creativity around a player whose fitness cannot be relied upon seems to me a faulty strategy. What's worse is that, unlike those of players who have longer periods of injury and fitness, Jimmy's injuries come and go sporadically, meaning they disrupt team consistency.

[BKRoyale]

Worst fishing trip ever.

Obvious and blunt.

No, I am genuinely deflated that Kebe is not here just when we need him. This has happened again and again. Good though he is, if you measure his contribution to each season, it is diluted by his absences. Our Plan A remains based on him, and we are often left operating it without him. Building our creativity around a player whose fitness cannot be relied upon seems to me a faulty strategy. What's worse is that, unlike those of players who have longer periods of injury and fitness, Jimmy's injuries come and go sporadically, meaning they disrupt team consistency.

So because you/the team miss him when he's not playing, you don't want him to play for us ever again? I do get your point re tactics including him but think i'd still rather have him when we can.

[loyalroyal4life]

If we go down then Mcleary will serve us better in Championship

Based on what?

Jimmy's torn the Championship a new one for the last few years. McCleary's had one good season at Forest.

Perhaps we just need new fitness coaches to prevent his chronic injuries?

I am basing this on when Kebe leaves, he wont hang about in the championship

[facaldaqui]

Worst fishing trip ever.

Obvious and blunt.

No, I am genuinely deflated that Kebe is not here just when we need him. This has happened again and again. Good though he is, if you measure his contribution to each season, it is diluted by his absences. Our Plan A remains based on him, and we are often left operating it without him. Building our creativity around a player whose fitness cannot be relied upon seems to me a faulty strategy. What's worse is that, unlike those of players who have longer periods of injury and fitness, Jimmy's injuries come and go sporadically, meaning they disrupt team consistency.

So because you/the team miss him when he's not playing, you don't want him to play for us ever again? I do get your point re tactics including him but think i'd still rather have him when we can.

Well, I would go along with what someone suggested yesterday, which is that ideally we should sign someone better, so that he would then become a bit player, luxury player, call it what you will. This may actually be possible if we stay in this league; but if we go down, will our tactics just revert to the "same old"? God bless Cummings for standing in for Jimmy in the Play Off Semi against Cardiff, but we are left gambling like that too often in crucial games, in my opinion. And I did not feel comfortable with Jimmy during that spell last season where he refused to sign a contract and ended up being a bit primadonnaish. Is he likely to do the same again if we go down?

[facaldaqui]

Yet again a Reading fan wants to sell a non-white player. Surprise, surprise. Sometimes I'm ashamed to support this club.

That woman at work still bossing you about?