NH on Radio Berkshire

[floyd__streete]

^ I don't care what they 'tried' to do, they get no credit for that whatsoever. Almost isn't good enough.

We might just as well add to the club's honours list 'Almost won the FA Cup, 1926/27'.

[Platypuss]

Or as that great philosopher once said:

"Do, or do not. There is no try".

[MouldyRoyal]

Ah good old Spock.

[Millsy]

Oh come on cypry. It's bad enough that the club lie to us without having a hobnob propaganda campaign too!

You were harping on that the reason we didn't splash cash in January was that we were saving up for a cat1 academy. Then allegedly we hear there WAS money so that was nothing to do with it. Now you're saying ok there is money but this time it's just that we actually couldn't get anyone.

The excuses keep changing in a rather boring and pathetic manner. Other teams managed to bring who they needed in. Yes they might have recycled money that they'd already spent but at least they spent it to begin with! Even if we forget the money the fact is they were able to find and attract players.

Adkins, as a newbie nobody manager managed to attract a whole Premier League team to a league 1 side who were a laughing stock.

To say we just couldn't get players is yet another excuse which is always the case from our resident RFC/TSI apologists.

Surely we knew that its relatively difficult for champ clubs to get players, it's not exactly hit us out the blue FFS. We knew we would be a champ club this season did we not? Yet we harped on about how we'd strengthen but were arguably with a weaker squad having spent less than we got in transfers.

The excuses keep chopping and changing and contradicting each other and are wearing thin. The elephant in the room is that we are still really operating a tried and failed Reading Way with strict wage structures and transfer policies that make progress difficult for us. And/or we have an incredibly inept chairman/DOF and/or our scouting network is just not up to scratch.

Still lets hope we get someone in on loan with a view to a permanent move.

The club can still salvage this.

[paddy20]

Or as that great philosopher once said:

"Do, or do not. There is no try".

They are still working on the basis that we will pay for a player what he is worth. Unfortunately nowadays you have to pay more than they are worth generally and take an element of risk.

I'm sure some players didn't come as the prem was a better option. If they are younger its down to getting themselves noticed. If they are older its usually about the money. Taking that risk is all about getting that extra edge and that may be stopping or scoring goals. Those extra 5 goals or those games when we don't concede can be the difference between the perm and the Champ. I don't think as a club we want to take that risk. We have shown that in the seasons we have been in the perm. We are a steady club with a bit of ambition but thats about it

[RoyalBlue]

Did I hear him right?

Did Hammond actually claim that the other two relegated teams were behaving in a similar financial manner to us?

If so, who the f*ck does he think he is trying to kid? All the transfer dealings going on at QPR and they are acting in a similar financial way to us?!! Absolute bullshit!

Also, and Williams let him off the hook on this, how the f*ck can he claim we have a strong squad when the whole world can see that we are desperately lacking in effective fire power and, following his window activity are now short of cover at centre back?!

By Hammond's warped logic, we could have a squad merely comprising 30 really good keepers and that would count as a strong squad!

[winchester_royal]

Of course splashing the cash isn't simple. We've got to readjust to being back in the Championship but I think this is the combined frustrations of three transfer windows of over promise and under delivery from those at the top.

A bit of honesty is all Reading fans want from those at the top. If you know we're only realistically negotiating with one player on deadline day. Just come out and say at 9am, 'we've worked hard throughout the window to get targets but haven't been able to do deals due to financial constraints. Today we're talking with one player but that's probably the only target we'll get today' That way you don't have fans waiting with baited breath for 24 hours only to see diddly squat materialise. Again that's the club's business but just manage expectations a lot better rather than dish out the constant patronising spin.

All we really got on deadline day was 24 hours of silence and then a couple of paragraphs at 2pm the next day.

Yes fans are generally impatient and maybe spoilt but you still have to make an effort to treat them like adults. You can't just allow weeks of press interviews and soundbites strongly suggesting we'll make signings and then meekly hide behind a wall of silence and then puto ut drivel about Sissoko.

As TSW said, it's a bit of a PR nightmare really but as we don't know why transfers have fallen through we can't know if it's Adkins, Hammond, Anton, TSI, or just pure bad luck.

But this is exactly what I'm saying, there's every chance that "financial constraints" weren't the factor that meant we didn't get the players we were chasing.
Remind me, where did Cameron Jerome end up? Oh, yeah - at Palace in the Premier League - I think we were in with a shout at getting him, and could afford it, but he simply got (what he saw as) a better offer elsewhere - money doesn't have to come into it....

I'm sure that we did intend to sign up to 7 players, I'm sure we did hope to get 3 in as late as last week, but for whatever reason (and it doesn't have to simply be a case of we wouldn't pay the going rate), the players concerned chose to go elsewhere...

Quite, and as I posted on another thread if you actually look at the money we've spent (in net terms) in comparison to last time we were relegated the criticism of Anton and Nicky seems massively harsh.

The worst thing they did was raise expectations by being ambitious in their targets. It's quite astonishing the amount of abuse they've got from doing this.

We've got a striker on the books who won the golden boot in a European competition not so long ago, and another who's scored goals at every level he's played. To improve on those 2 would have been a very difficult task which there is no shame in failing in. The challenge now for Nigel is to get the best out of the likes of Pog who'll have to buck up their ideas now the window is shut.

[winchester_royal]

Did I hear him right?

Did Hammond actually claim that the other two relegated teams were behaving in a similar financial manner to us?

If so, who the f*ck does he think he is trying to kid? All the transfer dealings going on at QPR and they are acting in a similar financial way to us?!! Absolute bullshit!

Also, and Williams let him off the hook on this, how the f*ck can he claim we have a strong squad when the whole world can see that we are desperately lacking in effective fire power and, following his window activity are now short of cover at centre back?!

By Hammond's warped logic, we could have a squad merely comprising 30 really good keepers and that would count as a strong squad!

QPR made a net gain of £3.4m this window.
Wigan made a net gain of £16.5m this window.
We made a net gain of £1.5m this window.

[TBM]

We made a net gain of £1.5m this window.

How?

£5m in from Palace and we splash out £700k on Williams, £0 on Drenthe and £0 on Bridge

[andrew1957]

Firstly I for one will never knock NH. He has done a superb job over the years buying cheap and selling high. He can only work within the constraints that he is given by the owner (first Sir John and now Anton).

I think hat has upsets fans is the following.

1/ why did the club talk about signing 7 players and then only sign 3. Pearce and HRK simply don't count as they were already our players.

2/ Why did NA harp on all summer about strengthening the squad and competition for places if we had no intention of doing so. Why did he imply that we had 3 more lined up as he needed to strengthen 3 positions.

3/ Why allow Kebe and Mariappa to go if we had no replacements lined up.

It is not that most of expected a lot. I would have been happy with an up and coming younger player at left back to supplement Bridge. For example the chap from Barcelona B (Lombato) looked a great option and would surely have been quite cheap on a year's contract.

If we knew Maraippa was going then why let Hector out on loan - if he is any good he could be in the squad now. However to be fair to the club "if" we have a recall un case of injury then this might actually solve our shortage at CB.

But the big issue is the lack of strikers. Why let Hunt go if we had no one lined up. I would be a lot happier now if he was still here as he is good at this level. We look very weak in this department and I am truly astounded that we did not bring in a proven player at this level. Yes Ugwu and Samuel might come good and if the aim is survival rather than promotion that is fine but NA has talked about 21 clean sheets, 100 goals and winning the division - which have set high expectations amongst the fans.

I think it just feels to many of us that the cluib has talked the talk but not so far walked the walk.

[winchester_royal]

We made a net gain of £1.5m this window.

How?

£5m in from Palace and we splash out £700k on Williams, £0 on Drenthe and £0 on Bridge

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/reading-fc/transferbilanz/verein_1032.html

And even a gain of £4.3m (no way is it this high) would be competitive with the other 2.

[Royal Lady]

We made a net gain of £1.5m this window.

How?

£5m in from Palace and we splash out £700k on Williams, £0 on Drenthe and £0 on Bridge

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/reading-fc/transferbilanz/verein_1032.html

And even a gain of £4.3m (no way is it this high) would be competitive with the other 2.

So basically, we can only spend what we get in and even then, we don't spend it? So AZ has no money whatsoever to give to the manager to strengthen the team and realise his and the manager's ambitions of promotion?

[Fox Talbot]

Did I hear him right?

Did Hammond actually claim that the other two relegated teams were behaving in a similar financial manner to us?

If so, who the f*ck does he think he is trying to kid? All the transfer dealings going on at QPR and they are acting in a similar financial way to us?!! Absolute bullshit!

Also, and Williams let him off the hook on this, how the f*ck can he claim we have a strong squad when the whole world can see that we are desperately lacking in effective fire power and, following his window activity are now short of cover at centre back?!

By Hammond's warped logic, we could have a squad merely comprising 30 really good keepers and that would count as a strong squad!

QPR made a net gain of £3.4m this window.
Wigan made a net gain of £16.5m this window.
We made a net gain of £1.5m this window.

QPR and Wigan were (in theory) better resourced as PL than us so they had more to sell.

I think QPR are now certain to go up. Good start and momentum, dirty Harry has got in loads of gnarled old pros who know the course and a bit of young talent too. Same strategy that worked for Big Fat Sam at West Ham 2 years ago. I thought we were going to compete with them more strongly.

Wigan have a difficult season with Europe and loads of derbies and not having recent experience of this league.

[andrew1957]

Did I hear him right?

Did Hammond actually claim that the other two relegated teams were behaving in a similar financial manner to us?

If so, who the f*ck does he think he is trying to kid? All the transfer dealings going on at QPR and they are acting in a similar financial way to us?!! Absolute bullshit!

Also, and Williams let him off the hook on this, how the f*ck can he claim we have a strong squad when the whole world can see that we are desperately lacking in effective fire power and, following his window activity are now short of cover at centre back?!

By Hammond's warped logic, we could have a squad merely comprising 30 really good keepers and that would count as a strong squad!

QPR made a net gain of £3.4m this window.
Wigan made a net gain of £16.5m this window.
We made a net gain of £1.5m this window.

But there is a huge difference. Both QPR and Wigan have accumulated massive debts in the PL (admittedly to their rich owners) and had to cut their cloth whereas we are supposedly debt free as we have run such a tight ship and never paid over the odds for players etc. So you would expect us to be in a far better position this season.

And frankly it looks to me like both QPR ands Wigan have done really well in the transfer market on both exits and entrances and we can only look in envy at QPR's squad in particular - as it looks incredibly strong compared to ours. Obviously that is not the whole story as we proved in 2011/12 when Southampton had a squad much better than ours and yet RFC ended up as Champions.

[Magic Hat]

We made a net gain of £1.5m this window.

How?

£5m in from Palace and we splash out £700k on Williams, £0 on Drenthe and £0 on Bridge

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/reading-fc/transferbilanz/verein_1032.html

And even a gain of £4.3m (no way is it this high) would be competitive with the other 2.

No Kebe on there, however I agree that we have made less than QPR and Wigan, but they came down with better players they couldn't keep.

[Millsy]

Finally the clubs apologists are being found out with ever changing excuses ignoring the bleeding obvious truth.

It's an insult to our intelligence and is quite frankly pretty f**king irritating.

Watch how the "we have a good squad" excuse is forgotten if we get a striker on loan to disprove it.

Watch how the "we have no money" excuse gets forgotten if we finally spend some cash on someone.

Just like previous excuses evaporated.

Most of us are not thick as sh*t. Most of us can see that some people are hell bent on defending the club either because they're paid to do so or it makes them look big and clever and will do so with contradicting excuses every 5 minutes, reacting to whatever the case is at the time. Plastering the cracks as they arise to hide the failings of RFC.

I've had enough of battling this over the years because this time it's clear as daylight and yet still some people continue the 'fight' to convince us otherwise.

We have a weaker squad now than last season.

[Ian Royal]

Of course splashing the cash isn't simple. We've got to readjust to being back in the Championship but I think this is the combined frustrations of three transfer windows of over promise and under delivery from those at the top.

A bit of honesty is all Reading fans want from those at the top. If you know we're only realistically negotiating with one player on deadline day. Just come out and say at 9am, 'we've worked hard throughout the window to get targets but haven't been able to do deals due to financial

Since when has that ever actually made people happy.

All they'd get is lack of ambition. Not doing enough. How do you know we were only talking to one player? Frankly, it's far more important for the club to focus on the job of dealing with transfers than keeping the fans informed.

We were told what we were trying to do over the window. It hasn't come off. That's the nature of transfers and unlike some clubs, we won't be held to ransom and we won't just go down the list until we find someone we can sign, just so we can appease fans by making a signing.

[madstadblues]

Whilst I agree it's wrong to mis-set expecation, some folk do need a reality check - this isn't Football Manager

I guess being able to compete for new players is based on our ability to pay wages more than the initial fee. A player on 20k per week costs the club 1Mill plus per year of contract (maybe more if this is net rather than gross). If we offered CJ 20k per week and Crystal Palace offered him 30k thats a difference of 1.5Mill plus over the contract life time which can be a go/nogo decision from the club and player. I don't know what the squad wage profile is but if we have 20 players on 15k per week on 3 Year contracts thats at least 15Million wage bill per year If its' net before Tax its' 22.5 Mill (nearly 70Million over 3 years.)

In my opinion the Transfer Deadline is more about Premier League clubs as they can't loan players and need to name their 25 man squads - it's a bit of a circus that Sky use to their advantage that I got sucked into. In hindisght if we have to wait 3/4 weeks for some loan players that's only 2/3 league games and as far as loan players being a crap option you just need to look at Lukaka, Moses, Bertrand, Upson, Kzishnavil, Griffin etc.

Whilst Hammond etc. have obviously not made a good job of PR I am not really bothered as their job is to manage the ins/outs of players which our track record suggests is pretty good. I would rather spend 2/3 seasons in the Championship if it meant establishing an proper Cat 1 infrastructure and having a strong club / team in the future.

[thefruits]

I agree with those who feel that against heightened expecations created by the club, this summer's transfer window (esp the last day or two) was something of a let down

However one thing when comparing us to QPR. I have no idea how rich or not AZ and his father Boris really are and how much liquidity they really have to put into the club. But with Tony Fernandes at QPR, he is really minted. Not only that, his father in law, is Mr Mittal who I gather is in the top 5 richest blokes in the world. Although the plan with QPR didn't work last year, I feel that they will go up this season and next year under Harry's control, they can actually make a bid for top 10 finish.

TF is actually an astute businessman who set up AirAsia which is a large highly profitable business. There's no chance that TF will run out of money given that he could always ask his wife for a bit of dosh from her dad. They have real wealth, possibly only shaded in the Prem by Chelski and ManCity. I think next year, QPR won't make the same mistakes as last year. As for this year, as someone said above, they're following WestHam's lead, and I think their additions are rather good. Buying 3 players from Tottenham, all who Harry knows and who know each other. You could say its rather inspired.

I'm just a tad jealous.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

We have a weaker squad now than last season.

Perhaps the reason for that is because we got relegated?

Anyone who sees Nicky Hammond as the problem here is a bit of pcunt.