Ex Players

[Jerry St Clair]

Was at Stevenage v Cheltenham yesterday.

Luke Southwood, ever present for two years, caught the ball down at the near post, clashed fairly innocuously with a Stevenage player, and collapsed screaming. Right in front of us and pretty horrible to see. Was eventually stretchered off and confirmed this morning that he has broken his leg.

It was always likely to be his last game for Cheltenham regardless, but rubbish to see him depart on a stretcher. He’s incredibly popular. So, a shit day all round really.

[Hound]

Was at Stevenage v Cheltenham yesterday.

Luke Southwood, ever present for two years, caught the ball down at the near post, clashed fairly innocuously with a Stevenage player, and collapsed screaming. Right in front of us and pretty horrible to see. Was eventually stretchered off and confirmed this morning that he has broken his leg.

It was always likely to be his last game for Cheltenham regardless, but rubbish to see him depart on a stretcher. He’s incredibly popular. So, a shit day all round really.

That really sucks

[From Despair To Where?]

Congrats to Parky with back to back promotions, who was the Banker (Despair) who said he cant man manage!

Reportage, you thick goon, it was half his squad at Bradford who said it; great when things are going well but clueless when things get a little bit tricky and too eager to try to please everyone.

I guess having a budget 2 to 3 times bigger than every other club in the league helps oil the wheels.

Again Fake News From Despair.

Exactly when did things get a bit tricky?

2011, won the League Two Manager of the Month award for December.
2011, Johnstones Paint Trophy semi-finals.
2012, Semi-Final of the League Cup following an historic victory over Premier League club Arsenal .
2013, League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, after defeating Aston Vila in the Semi Finals.
2013, Outstanding Managerial Achievement award.
2014, Promotion to League one.
2015, Quarter-Finals of the FA Cup. after a 4–2 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge. Bradford City
were 2–0 down in the first half, but fought back in stunning fashion to record what Robbie Fowler called the "greatest FA Cup upset
of all time". Fans of Bradford City have gone on to call him the real "special one
2016, League one playoffs.

And I repeat, you thick cretin, it was his own players who said it. It's on the Undr The Cosh podcast featuring Steven Davis.

I mean, it's only people who've actually been mangaged by him saying it but you be you and take Robbie Fowlers word over their's.

[Franchise FC]

Reportage, you thick goon, it was half his squad at Bradford who said it; great when things are going well but clueless when things get a little bit tricky and too eager to try to please everyone.

I guess having a budget 2 to 3 times bigger than every other club in the league helps oil the wheels.

Again Fake News From Despair.

Exactly when did things get a bit tricky?

2011, won the League Two Manager of the Month award for December.
2011, Johnstones Paint Trophy semi-finals.
2012, Semi-Final of the League Cup following an historic victory over Premier League club Arsenal .
2013, League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, after defeating Aston Vila in the Semi Finals.
2013, Outstanding Managerial Achievement award.
2014, Promotion to League one.
2015, Quarter-Finals of the FA Cup. after a 4–2 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge. Bradford City
were 2–0 down in the first half, but fought back in stunning fashion to record what Robbie Fowler called the "greatest FA Cup upset
of all time". Fans of Bradford City have gone on to call him the real "special one
2016, League one playoffs.

And I repeat, you thick cretin, it was his own players who said it. It's on the Undr The Cosh podcast featuring Steven Davis.

I mean, it's only people who've actually been mangaged by him saying it but you be you and take Robbie Fowlers word over their's.

Perhaps sharing a line with Robbie

[Winston Biscuit]

Dave Kitson on The Price Of Football

https://youtu.be/ILddfkSBbLw?si=kfL872gacEmkopbm

[Loafer]

Aluko getting the last laugh with Ipswich

[Crusader Royal]

Aluko getting the last laugh with Ipswich

Although at 35, hardly playing and out of contract he may not be laughing much longer….

[Sutekh]

Aluko getting the last laugh with Ipswich

Aluko + a manager/coach who knows what he's doing rather than Aluko + a chain of complete failures without a clue between them.

[Orion1871]

Aluko getting the last laugh with Ipswich

Aluko + a manager/coach who knows what he's doing rather than Aluko + a chain of complete failures without a clue between them.

He knew what he was doing by giving Aluko one 88th minute appearance from the bench this season,

[morganb]

Aluko now officially retired

https://twitter.com/IpswichTown/status/ ... RuEcQ&s=19

[URZZZZ]

Aluko getting the last laugh with Ipswich

Aluko + a manager/coach who knows what he's doing rather than Aluko + a chain of complete failures without a clue between them.

He knew what he was doing by giving Aluko one 88th minute appearance from the bench this season,

Still - it dispels some of the nonsense you saw about his “bad attitude” given how complimentary McKenna and their owner have been about his overall contributions to the club since joining

A massive waste of money and time for us here, but a lot more down to failures in management rather than Aluko himself

[Sutekh]

Aluko + a manager/coach who knows what he's doing rather than Aluko + a chain of complete failures without a clue between them.

He knew what he was doing by giving Aluko one 88th minute appearance from the bench this season,

Still - it dispels some of the nonsense you saw about his “bad attitude” given how complimentary McKenna and their owner have been about his overall contributions to the club since joining

A massive waste of money and time for us here, but a lot more down to failures in management rather than Aluko himself

Would agree with this totally. Same story to a lesser degree with Puscas. One day Reading will get to co-ordinate a record signing with a decent manager.

For the record, Sone announced his retirement from the professional game yesterday, at the age of 35.

[From Despair To Where?]

Aluko + a manager/coach who knows what he's doing rather than Aluko + a chain of complete failures without a clue between them.

He knew what he was doing by giving Aluko one 88th minute appearance from the bench this season,

Still - it dispels some of the nonsense you saw about his “bad attitude” given how complimentary McKenna and their owner have been about his overall contributions to the club since joining

A massive waste of money and time for us here, but a lot more down to failures in management rather than Aluko himself

Don't really remember anyone saying he had a bad attitude, quite the opposite in fact, that his attitude was always excellent. It's just his performances weren't. He never came across as anything other than a decent bloke.

To be fair, he was mismanaged but when you sign a player you don't actually need and try to crowbar him somewhere into the team regardless in order to justify the ridiculous transfer fee, that's going to happen.

[Sutekh]

And talking of Reading record signings, only Steve "the greatest ever short goalkeeper the world has ever seen" Death (£20k in 1970, Terry Hurlock £92k in 1986, Keith Curle £150k in 1988 and Darren Caskey £750k in 1996) could be said to have been successful. The rest, Steve Moran, Craig Maskell, Carl Asaba, Leroy Lita, Greg Halford, Sone Aluko and George Puscas were hit and miss at best.

Bound to have missed a couple, think the record was broken twice within a week in 1978 or 1979 (£40k then £50k but can't remember the players (Bennett and Moreline?)) so anyone got a complete list of them all down the years?

[traff]

And talking of Reading record signings, only Steve "the greatest ever short goalkeeper the world has ever seen" Death (£20k in 1970, Terry Hurlock £92k in 1986, Keith Curle £150k in 1988 and Darren Caskey £750k in 1996) could be said to have been successful. The rest, Steve Moran, Craig Maskell, Carl Asaba, Leroy Lita, Greg Halford, Sone Aluko and George Puscas were hit and miss at best.

Bound to have missed a couple, think the record was broken twice within a week in 1978 or 1979 (£40k then £50k but can't remember the players (Bennett and Moreline?)) so anyone got a complete list of them all down the years?

Was Murty a record signing at the time?

[Ark Royal]

And talking of Reading record signings, only Steve "the greatest ever short goalkeeper the world has ever seen" Death (£20k in 1970, Terry Hurlock £92k in 1986, Keith Curle £150k in 1988 and Darren Caskey £750k in 1996) could be said to have been successful. The rest, Steve Moran, Craig Maskell, Carl Asaba, Leroy Lita, Greg Halford, Sone Aluko and George Puscas were hit and miss at best.

Bound to have missed a couple, think the record was broken twice within a week in 1978 or 1979 (£40k then £50k but can't remember the players (Bennett and Moreline?)) so anyone got a complete list of them all down the years?

Think Roger Joslyn cost the £40K in 1979.

[From Despair To Where?]

And talking of Reading record signings, only Steve "the greatest ever short goalkeeper the world has ever seen" Death (£20k in 1970, Terry Hurlock £92k in 1986, Keith Curle £150k in 1988 and Darren Caskey £750k in 1996) could be said to have been successful. The rest, Steve Moran, Craig Maskell, Carl Asaba, Leroy Lita, Greg Halford, Sone Aluko and George Puscas were hit and miss at best.

Bound to have missed a couple, think the record was broken twice within a week in 1978 or 1979 (£40k then £50k but can't remember the players (Bennett and Moreline?)) so anyone got a complete list of them all down the years?

Was Murty a record signing at the time?

IIRC, Murty cost £750k which would have equalled Caskey.

I also seem to remember Convey being touted as a record signing at the time. A qualified success. I monster season but also 1 injury disrupted season and 1 season where he was poor.

[Mr Angry]

And talking of Reading record signings, only Steve "the greatest ever short goalkeeper the world has ever seen" Death (£20k in 1970, Terry Hurlock £92k in 1986, Keith Curle £150k in 1988 and Darren Caskey £750k in 1996) could be said to have been successful. The rest, Steve Moran, Craig Maskell, Carl Asaba, Leroy Lita, Greg Halford, Sone Aluko and George Puscas were hit and miss at best.

Bound to have missed a couple, think the record was broken twice within a week in 1978 or 1979 (£40k then £50k but can't remember the players (Bennett and Moreline?)) so anyone got a complete list of them all down the years?

Personally I think Lita was a massive hit for us; he was part of that incredibly entertaining forward line between 2005 - 2007, and scored some fantastic goals (I recently watched the short highlights of the man City v Reading game in 2007 where he scored 2 superb goals and was only denied a hat-trick by a crappy linesman) and I for one wouldn't dream of mentioning him in the same context as someone like Greg Halford!!

[LUX]

Agreed re Lita, played a big part for us.

[Snowflake Royal]

Lita, Asaba and Convey are all a mixed bag.

Lita was quality in 106, and a small spurt in the first prem season, but he never really performed consistently and ended up failing.

Convey - FDTW has summed up perfectly.

Asaba actually did ok in a poor team, and was only here 1 season, but didn’t meet the heights his price tag really required.

Not outright failures, but also not complete and unequivical successes fully justifying their status as record signings.