Ake confirmed on loan

[genome]

Delightful. We're now officially Chelsea's feeder club.

#ClarkeOut

If the players are better than what we've currently got, then why not? You complain about our own youngsters anyway.

[SPARTA]

Complaining about getting a couple of good loanees from the top club in the Prem... Guess some people are never happy.

Adds much needed depth and options to help us see out the rest of the season and potentially prevent key players from being overworked leading up to the Semi Final.

Ake's a good player, can player a number of positions and gives us a chance to maybe look at him on loan for next season.

Chalobah has been a bit hit and miss at times but is starting to show consistency, he's the best option we have for the type of role we play him in at this moment.

This!

[KDRF]

Great signing in itself, worries me this could be a replacement for an injured Chalobah though, could really do with Chalobah against Arsenal and with Ake being cup tied...

[3points]

remember that if Chalobah is injured, Williams is also suspended for the next game. That would mean a midfield consisting of Norwood, Karacan, Akpan and Kuhl, now that Taylor and Guthrie have both gone on loan. I guess we could play Hector or Obita there (but there aren't too many on here who'd support either of those options)

Decent short term signing. Hope he adapts to the Championship quickly. Welcome Nathan

[SCIAG]

remember that if Chalobah is injured, Williams is also suspended for the next game. That would mean a midfield consisting of Norwood, Karacan, Akpan and Kuhl,

So, for one match, our options would be two proven Championship midfielders (one recovering from long term injury), one Hope Akpan who has shown he can fill in on occasion, and a very promising but inexperienced youngster who will captain the club one day if he gets a chance.

Instead, we have two proven Championship midfielders (one recovering from long term injury), one Hope Akpan who has shown he can fill in on occasion, and a very promising but inexperienced youngster from Chelsea.

It's a high risk loan with little prospect of long term benefit, unless you count an increased chance of signing Lewis Baker or Reuben Loftus-Cheek in a similar deal next season. He's no more likely to help us steer clear of relegation than Kuhl is. Honestly, this is a no-win deal. But I guess if Obita gets injured, we won't have to play the guy we signed to make sure we don't have to play Griffin.

[seanboyd_2]

Delightful. We're now officially Chelsea's feeder club.

#ClarkeOut

If the players are better than what we've currently got, then why not? You complain about our own youngsters anyway.

To be fair he complains about oxf*rd everything lol

[3points]

remember that if Chalobah is injured, Williams is also suspended for the next game. That would mean a midfield consisting of Norwood, Karacan, Akpan and Kuhl,

So, for one match, our options would be two proven Championship midfielders (one recovering from long term injury), one Hope Akpan who has shown he can fill in on occasion, and a very promising but inexperienced youngster who will captain the club one day if he gets a chance.

Instead, we have two proven Championship midfielders (one recovering from long term injury), one Hope Akpan who has shown he can fill in on occasion, and a very promising but inexperienced youngster from Chelsea.

It's a high risk loan with little prospect of long term benefit, unless you count an increased chance of signing Lewis Baker or Reuben Loftus-Cheek in a similar deal next season. He's no more likely to help us steer clear of relegation than Kuhl is. Honestly, this is a no-win deal. But I guess if Obita gets injured, we won't have to play the guy we signed to make sure we don't have to play Griffin.

It's just a direct replacement for Chalobah, playing a certain role which SC clearly feels none of our current squad players can fill. He obviously doesn't rate Norwood that highly and doesn't feel Karacan or Kuhl can do the job he needs. Akpan is probably feeling a little hard done by as he could do a job alongside Williams. But I expect Ake is a better player than Akpan ever will be. The fact that Kuhl has hardly featured in an SC squad, let alone play tells you everything you need to know whereas Ake has been a regular in the Chelsea squad. Kuhl's future as an RFC legend has taken a downward turn imo with SC's appointment as manager. He is very much an Adkins type of player, but i feel SC wants someone more physical. Fully expect Kuhl to go out on loan next season.

[SCIAG]

Kuhl's future as an RFC legend has taken a downward turn imo with SC's appointment as manager. He is very much an Adkins type of player, but i feel SC wants someone more physical.

And some people thought we should fire Adkins?

[sandman]

The people of importance also thought we should fire him and their opinion is what matters. If these youngsters are as good as a lot of people say they are then they will succeed whoever the manager is.

[3points]

i personally don't think Kuhl will be a RFC stalwart. He'll either go onto bigger and better things or just won't cut it in the Chump

[SCIAG]

If these youngsters are as good as a lot of people say they are then they will succeed whoever the manager is.

a) Blatant bollox, lots of very good players have "failed" because a manager didn't have faith in them (John Bostock and Josh McEachran being prominent recent examples)
b) It would be better for us if they succeeded like Gylfi and McCarthy, rather than like Austin and Antonio.

[sandman]

You can shout about "blatant bollox" all you like but Bostock and McEachran stagnated because they didn't have the will and desire to keep improving, Bostock in particular made the wrong choices and that is on him, no one else. That's the key, to keep improving and not rest on your laurels.

I'll give you an example, In Spain right now they are raving about Isco, he's probably the most popular player over there. Isco has the talent, he always has, but this season he has added work rate, he tracks back and he chases players down. He could have sat back at 20 or 21 and said "I've made it" but he hasn't, he's improved parts of his game and is a regular for club and is increasingly important for Country at 22. In England young players seem to burn bright and fade fast, there are too many people like yourself who are lining up excuses for these kids when they fail and blaming everyone but the them if they don't suceed.

Personally I'm a big fan of Kuhl and think he will do well for Reading, but it is on him.

[winchester_royal]

You can shout about "blatant bollox" all you like but Bostock and McEachran stagnated because they didn't have the will and desire to keep improving, Bostock in particular made the wrong choices and that is on him, no one else. That's the key, to keep improving and not rest on your laurels.

I'll give you an example, In Spain right now they are raving about Isco, he's probably the most popular player over there. Isco has the talent, he always has, but this season he has added work rate, he tracks back and he chases players down. He could have sat back and said "I've made it" but he hasn't, he's improved parts of his game and is a regular for club and is increasingly important for Country. In England young players seem to burn bright and fade fast, there are too many people like yourself who are lining up excuses for these kids when they fail and blaming everyone but the them if they don't suceed.

Personally I'm a big fan of Kuhl and think he will do well for Reading, but it is on him.

Spot on

[paultheroyal]

i personally don't think Kuhl will be a RFC stalwart. He'll either go onto bigger and better things or just won't cut it in the Chump

Nothing like covering all bases.

[Cletus Van Damme]

If this is the same kid I remember playing center mid for the Dutch U21's on tv a few times then he's absolutely class. Better than any midfielder we have.

[SCIAG]

You can shout about "blatant bollox" all you like but Bostock and McEachran stagnated because they didn't have the will and desire to keep improving, Bostock in particular made the wrong choices and that is on him, no one else. That's the key, to keep improving and not rest on your laurels.

So you know them personally, do you?

In McEachran's case, it's obvious to anyone watching that every Chelsea manager since Ancelotti has avoided playing him, and Bertrand for that matter, and Matic before them, because they'd rather fill gaps in the squad with £20m squad players. Bertrand's gone to Southampton and shown that he's good enough, Matic went to Benfica and showed that he was good enough

We were talking about managers being unwilling to take risks on young players because they don't fit with their style or because they don't use young players outright, not because they aren't trying hard enough or constantly improving, so take up thy red herrings and walk. You were obviously wrong when you said "if they're good enough then they'll make it here", defend that statement rather than accusing other people of making excuses.

[3points]

i personally don't think Kuhl will be a RFC stalwart. He'll either go onto bigger and better things or just won't cut it in the Chump

Nothing like covering all bases.

Not really. What I was trying to say is I don't think he'll have an "average" career in the Championship. I haven't seen enough of him to decide whether he will be the next Gylfi or Lawson D'Ath.

[Rollerbob]

i personally don't think Kuhl will be a RFC stalwart. He'll either go onto bigger and better things or just won't cut it in the Chump

Nothing like covering all bases.

Not really. What I was trying to say is I don't think he'll have an "average" career in the Championship. I haven't seen enough of him to decide whether he will be the next Gylfi or Lawson D'Ath.

"I haven't seen enough of him to decide whether he will be the next Gylfi or Lawson D'Ath." - Based on what? Why won't he be an "average" championship player? You just said you hadn't seen enough of him, so why the feeling that he'll either be great or poor at this level? It's strange that you are writing off him being "okay", and marking "great" or "not good enough" as a possibility.

[ZacNaloen]

Kuhl is not the kind of player who jumps up and yells look at me, look at me, with his ability and so it is difficult to judge how far he will go.
He's not flashy with tricks and skills, but sometimes see's things no one else can, even from the stands he's played passes I couldn't see.

He may be short (not that short, was quite surprised when I met him) but he has steel, on his best day no one can get near him to tackle him because he recycles the ball so quickly when put under pressure and off the ball he tackles bigger guys and wins it. When not on his day, he gets knocked off the ball, miss times his tackles and gets sent off and because he's the lynch pin if he makes a mistake it's a bit of an issue.

If he can be the first sentence more than the second sentence he has a massive role to play in any team championship or lower prem level. If he REALLY wants it, he could do a Lampard, and work his socks off and get further.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Not really. What I was trying to say is I don't think he'll have an "average" career in the Championship. I haven't seen enough of him to decide whether he will be the next Gylfi or Lawson D'Ath.

"He'll either be brilliant or suck".

Loving the pointless confidence in writing off the vast everything in between.