Chris Makin

[Woodcote Royal]

Chris Makin - Many thanks for your service to the club. You will be missed, all the best at Southampton.

Not Enough Players With Prem Experience - Who have been our top players over the past few years in the CCC?:

Leroy Lita - No Previous CCC Experience
Dave Kitson - No Previous CCC Experience
Kevin Doyle - No Previous CCC Experience
Bobby Convey - No Previous CCC Experience
Glen Little - Never really shone before
Sonko too I believe - No Previous CCC Experience

So to say that those players would never have cut it in a record breaking CCC side would have been, in hindsight, slightly foolish. While I know the step up to the top flight is a big one, to say that these players and the squad in general will fail due to lack of Prem experience is somewhat foolish and disrespectful to the team.

Spot on, well said, Sir.

[Jaques Francais]

Chris Makin - Many thanks for your service to the club. You will be missed, all the best at Southampton.

Not Enough Players With Prem Experience - Who have been our top players over the past few years in the CCC?:

Leroy Lita - No Previous CCC Experience
Dave Kitson - No Previous CCC Experience
Kevin Doyle - No Previous CCC Experience
Bobby Convey - No Previous CCC Experience
Glen Little - Never really shone before
Sonko too I believe - No Previous CCC Experience

So to say that those players would never have cut it in a record breaking CCC side would have been, in hindsight, slightly foolish. While I know the step up to the top flight is a big one, to say that these players and the squad in general will fail due to lack of Prem experience is somewhat foolish and disrespectful to the team.

Firstly, Sonko and Convey took a season to settle into the standard and win a place in the side.

Little had been one of the better wingers in the division for years. When he first got into the Burnley side he was touted as the next Chris Waddle and was watched by many Premiership sides. I think he might've made an England training squad at some point too.

Kitson adjusted pretty well in this first season after an injury but it was his second season that he really looked the part. Doyle and Lita both had excellent first seasons at Championship level but it certainly helped that the side around them was settled at that level and not entering the unknown en-mass. There is no hiding place in the Premiership.

I don't think anybody is saying we'll fail due to a lack of Premiership experience, just that it will help us if we had some!

Generally we need more players in the squad. In an ideal world they would add some experience of the level we're playing at as all good sides need a balance of youth and experience.

Good points I had not considered, HB. I think if you blend my comments and yours, you get a realistic appraisal of the situation, rather than the typical doomsayer approach so common with some on this board. It is the fanatical "we must buy!" cries, even if it means buying crap, that annoy me. As Spacey quite rightyl points out, it is not like we haven't tried.

On one hand, some fans expect us to be able to sign a top class defender, yet on the other moan that we don't have enough quality to succeed, which, to the untrained observer, such as a foreign new signing, may be the perceived case, hence preventing them from moving to us!

[Gordons Cumming]

[quote="Jaques Francais
Good points I had not considered, HB. I think if you blend my comments and yours, you get a realistic appraisal of the situation, rather than the typical doomsayer approach so common with some on this board.!

You'd be Jacques Blah............

or Hoop Francias then

[Old Biscuitman]

IMO we are putting too much emphasis on this "Premiership experience" factor, almost as if it's some crucial quality which immediately makes a player different, suggesting that the Prem is a world apart from any other league. I put more faith in SC's skill in spotting talent - and there's plenty of proven evidence that he can do that. Anyone who can count is able to measure experience. It does not correlate with ability. Give me a Doyle or a Sonko any day rather than a Ferdinand or a Keown.

[Mr Angry]

Lets say 2 Centre Backs with bags of Premiership experience have just become available; clearly there are some on here who would say "Lets take them - they have bags of Premiership experience!!"

True???

Even if those two Centre backs were Boumsong and Bramble??

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

IMO we are putting too much emphasis on this "Premiership experience" factor, almost as if it's some crucial quality which immediately makes a player different, suggesting that the Prem is a world apart from any other league. I put more faith in SC's skill in spotting talent - and there's plenty of proven evidence that he can do that. Anyone who can count is able to measure experience. It does not correlate with ability. Give me a Doyle or a Sonko any day rather than a Ferdinand or a Keown.

why oh why do we revert back to the 'Keown and Ferdinand' factor- if anything that is becoming simply tiresome. Yes Keown and Ferdinand didnt work out but why should we hang these two up as a case study to make people believe that players over 30 are too old, knackered, on too much money etc etc. What about a certain Teddy Sheringham at Portsmouth and West Ham- he's really proved a crappy buy hasnt he . I think mixing up the squad with a couple, not an abundance of players with a bit of experience and over 30 cant hurt reading's chances. If a certain player comes available over 30 and is in our wage structure it should never be discounted- like any player. Not every player Coppell signs and turns out great will be a 80k buy from Cork or a free transfer from Brentford- I think Wally Downes has indeed even admitted this in prior interviews.

[RoyalBlue]

The infantile obsession with "Prem experience" grows more wearing by the day.

Thanks for last season, Chris, you gave us good service whenever it was needed whilst being unfortunate not to have played more often.

I guess if we'd spent £5m on Emile Heskey there wouild be a few less soiled under pants in these parts....................

Reading fans showing a complete lack of faith in their own team, whatever next............

So you don't trust Coppell's judgement then when he said we needed 5-6 new players?

But what can he do about it when other clubs refuse to sell their players, eh, Schards????

But is that the only reason we can't sign players? Whilst away on holiday I saw some reports in the media that Mr M had stated that he was not prepared to be held to ransome by agents and/or pay them large fees to sign players.

If this is true then he would do well to talk to Simon Jordan at Crystal Palace. He tried to make a stand on agents' fees and has subsequently gone on record stating that this was a mistake on his part, which he now regretted and which played a significant part in Palace's relegation from the Premiership.

Mr M refused to apologise for the very significant increase in season ticket prices stating that they would help give us a real chance of competing effectively in the Premiership. Well like it or not, the way Premiership football and transfer dealings are currently structured means that in order to compete effectively you have to deal will agents, and you do end up paying them significant sums of money. Making a unilateral stand against them could cost us dear should/when injuries hit our paper thin squad.

[Forbury Lion]

If Premiership experience is so vital, Why not get a recently retired Prem player along to share his experiences with the team in training?

It may work out just as well as having experience in the match squad and they may be prepared to offer that experience to gain some coaching experience.