Summer Rebuild

[genome]

Stupendously clueless ill-advised gheyface

[Woodcote Royal]

(or just Irishmen from Hull)

Racist.

Can Irish men even be born in Hull?

A handicap from which some will never recover

[SCIAG]

Just for the record, what does SCIAG stand for exactly ? Anything ?

Sol Campbell's Igloo Allegory Game

[John Smith]

Just for the record, what does SCIAG stand for exactly ? Anything ?

He told me it means Simon Cox Is A Good-shout-for-the-captains-armband

[linkenholtroyal]

So 54 pages in and still not signed anyone?? Thoughts??

[WoodleyRoyal]

So 54 pages in and still not signed anyone?? Thoughts??

i wonder if clouds ever look down on us and say "hey look. That one is shaped like an idiot"

[bracksroyal10]

So 54 pages in and still not signed anyone?? Thoughts??

Slightly concerned, thought we would of certainly have found at least a replacement for Feds by now. Also concerned that the club hasn't replaced outgoing backroom staff as of yet.

Hopefully this is just as a result of waiting on owners confirmation of the budget for this season. If that is the case, should see 2-3 signings announced within days of each other

[John Smith]

Judging by the Ascot interview it looks like we're taking what we've got in terms of playing staff to Thailand, with the addition of a GK coach.

I'll start to worry if we haven't got a full squad ready for the season by the Swansea friendly.

[tee peg]

Maybe there is no money for new players.

[ParkRoyal]

Hello HobNobs - I'm new to this forum and have been attracted by news of all the interest in Irish players at Reading - McShane, Quinn etc and wondeed why there is little mention of two very talented Irishmen in the academy - Liam Kelly and Conor Shaughnessy - both of whom have put in very impressive displays in u21 games towords end of last season - wins v Middlesbro, Arsenal and Villa.
Will they be given a chance this season?

[Mr Controversial]

I think we've all been very patient with The Club and this patience is starting to wear very thin.

The Club need to be very careful here - they are relying heavily on the loyalty of the fans to "stick with us" yet we have never really heard or seen anything about the Thai owners themselves. Loyalty has to be earned and as of yet we have seen or heard very little (if anything) of the Thai owners to give us confidence that things are heading in the right direction. Their silence is deafening.

Because communication is so poor we are having to rely on what we can actually see rather than what we are being told - so as Lloyd Grossman used to say "lets look at the evidence"

1) We've seen a haemorrhaging of playing and non-playing staff and zero replacements. The only voice we hear is that of Steve Clark (who to be fair is trying his best) buts its so obvious that he carries very little weight in terms of new additions to The Club and he cant physically do anything until he hears from the Thai owners (lets remember they don't like to communicate). Where are the owners? Why haven't they ever been introduced properly to the fans? Why haven't they provided some club expectations to the fans? where is the value in remaining silent and hidden away?

2) How and when are budgets set? I would have thought that the budgets for next season would have been completed at the end of last season - that's what most clubs and businesses do! Since then our financial position must have improved with people leaving so if anything we should have had initial budgets in place weeks ago WHICH have now been improved because we have lost players? I personally think the budgets were set some time ago at zero, no one has told Steve Clark and the improving of our financial position over the last few weeks has still probably not put us back in the black?

3) Kem Karacan - how can his contract still be unresolved? Is he staying or going?

4) Steve Clark looks and sounds to me like a man who is trying his hardest to hide his true annoyance. In Adkins and McDermott I believe we had two ideal scape goats for the under investment in The Club. I would love to have an open and honest chat with both of them to find out what really happens behind the scenes as I would expect them to say they were given "certain reassurances about budgets that ultimately failed to materialise". I think Clark could well be the third victim to suffer the same fate. I heard that when we initially approached Adkins about the vacancy he turned us down as he was in Holland on his own personal scouting mission - he was still being paid by Southampton and he had no intention of joining us - the story goes that he was promised a "war chest" of cash with which to improve the side which changed his mind - the rest as they say is history.

My conclusion then is that we should all just accept that there is no money for new players - the expansive black hole that has engulfed RFC finances over the last decade is taking its toll YET AGAIN. The team will be padded out with loan players and youngsters and we will struggle to do as well as last season - which is saying something! relegation is an absolute possibility.

I predict Steve Clark will walk away and in some ways I hope he does and sticks his fingers up at our non-existent board. One of our coaches will step up as interim manager.

Harbringer of Doom

Mr C

[ParkRoyal]

I find it very hard to believe that either Adkins or Clarke would have agreed to accept the job without a contractual agreement in place re funds available for players etc?
But why the owners are so anonymous is amazingly poor PR on their behalf.

[Ian Royal]

Hello HobNobs - I'm new to this forum and have been attracted by news of all the interest in Irish players at Reading - McShane, Quinn etc and wondeed why there is little mention of two very talented Irishmen in the academy - Liam Kelly and Conor Shaughnessy - both of whom have put in very impressive displays in u21 games towords end of last season - wins v Middlesbro, Arsenal and Villa.
Will they be given a chance this season?

Firstly let me just say "Fcuk off newbie".

Now that's out of the way, Kelly's done very well in our Academy, but he's still really quite small for big boy football and he's a year or so younger than Craig Tanner, who plays in a similar position, off the front man. Tanner's scored on his debut in the League Cup and gone out for a passable loan in the League, I forget where exactly. Wherever it was that beast Akinfenwa was playing.

Shaugnessy has passed me by rather. I don't think I've ever seen him play, but those who do actually get out to watch the Unders regularly (rather than rely on Youtube streams and highlights of them seem to rate him. The likes of SCIAG, Hoop Blah and winchester_royal are all pretty good for views on the Academy, amongst others.

So I think it's just that we've had a couple of very strong years and neither have been particularly close to the first team compared to many, perhaps slightly older, others.

[Ian Royal]

I find it very hard to believe that either Adkins or Clarke would have agreed to accept the job without a contractual agreement in place re funds available for players etc?
But why the owners are so anonymous is amazingly poor PR on their behalf.

They're not actually anywhere near as anonymous as is made out. Some people just expect a statement for every rumour and a bi-weekly update with financial breakdown. Given they're based in Thailand, they've not got a bad record for showing faces at games and there've been at least a couple of interviews in the last few months.

You also have to bear in mind that when they bought us we had large debts to some not great groups and were on the verge of administration. They've covered the debts and are playing it for sustainable investment and development. Focusing on the Academy and a new training ground. We squeezed just through the FFP rules (which may or may not be enforced or worth anything, but we've chosen to abide by them and I'm certainly not going to criticise that). And our income takes a big dip in the form of reduced parachute payments this coming season. We've cleared a lot of wages, but we still have the highest earner in our history on the books.

Within a month or so of their take over, we'd gone from desperately selling players to bringing in Cox, Mackie, Murray, Ferdinand and Norwood. Whilst January wasn't great, we still got Chalobah, Ake, Appiah, Yakubu, Travner and Knight.

We still clearly had a wage bill that was far too big last season and there was plenty of deadwood. It's not helped that the players most fans would like to see the back of are the ones still in contract who aren't worth their wage so have no interest in them. So we need to make cuts somewhere. Clarke clearly thinks there was a culture of losing and comfortableness at the club and it's hard to argue. I'm not convinced his clear out of staff was the right move, but now he's actually explained it, there is at least some sense.

Personally, I have no problem with a summer of low spending. The key for me is whether Clarke makes signings that are any good. I've seen not much that suggests he knows his way around the transfer market which has me worried. We have a threadbare squad, but I'd find it acceptable to make two or three relatively cheap but reliable senior signings and then rely on Academy graduates. What I desperately don't want to see is a bunch of journeymen and fading stars clogging up the team with mediocre performances when we could be getting them from promising youngsters who could develop and really make a difference the next season with some experience under their belt. Even if it's in League One.

There's simply no point spending money you don't have. It just leads to bigger disaster down the road than not spending at all.

[Hoop Blah]

I do not know much about various team's academies and U21 football, but surely if Reading's academy players were good enough for the Premier League then they would have already been snapped up, much like Sterling and Ibe were by Liverpool?

I don't think anyone's seriously suggesting any of our Academy players, bar perhaps Obita and Hector if you count them, are already good enough for the Premier League.

If you mean in terms of potential, there are plenty of examples of Premier League players who came through at Football League clubs. Theo Walcott, Ashley Young, Adam Lallana, Gareth Bale, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Joe Allen, Aaron Lennon, Fabian Delph, Ashley Westwood, Nick Powell, Victor Moses, Wilfried Zaha, Nathaniel Clyne, Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines, Joleon Lescott.

Several of our young players have already been courted by Premier League sides, but have stuck with us - probably because they think they'll have a better chance of displace Hal Robson-Kanu and Oliver Norwood than Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey.

Obviously some players bloom later than others and some take different routes to the top, but just to pick up on a few of those examples from SCIAG as a comparison to out (very good and promising) youngsters.

Theo Walcott - was at Southampton as a kid when they were a Premier League side (with a very well respected Academy I might add) and was playing for their first team, in the Championship, at 16, playing 20-odd games and scoring 5 goals. Arsenal snapped him up for 312m as a 17 year old after that one season, so kind of proving the point.

Ashley Young - Scored 3 in 5 as an 18 year old for Watford in his debut season, then played 34 games the next year, 39 the next, all in the Championship before Villa paid £10m for him as a 21/22 year old. He possibly joined them when they were in the Premier League too, although they were never a 'Premier League' club as such.

Gareth Bale - Another one who would've joined Southampton's Academy when they were a Premier League club (as some of ours would've done too of course) and made his debut at 16 in the Championship then played the full season the next season before Spurs signed him as a 17 year old for £5-10m

Aaron Lennon - Made his debut for Leeds at 16 in the Premier League (so not sure he really counts anyway SCIAG) during the season they got relegated. Played the next season in the Championship before Spurs bought him as an 18 year old

Fabian Delph - A Premier League Academy product before Leeds plummeted down to League One where he made his debut, played one season at that level before Villa took him into the Premier League at 19

Joleon Lescott - Came into the side at 17, very young for a centre half, and played in the side whilst they won promotion a couple of years later before injury nearly finished his career. Was taken back to the Premier League by Everton after he'd got back to his best at Wolves.

Those players were the prodigious talents who gate crashed first team football at ridiculously young ages before being snapped up by the big clubs pretty quickly.

The likes of Baines and Allen slightly less so but they made their way up to the big time by playing their way up there though and hopefully the likes of Kuhl and his buddies might be able to do the same for us.

[Ian Royal]

But equally, lots of Premier League Academy players don't play at even Championship level in the end.

[ParkRoyal]

I'm not quite sure what brought about such an aggressive reply to my post re: Kelly and Shaughnessy - but thanks for the warm welcome!!

I have seen both players play in the games mentioned and for Ireland and believe they both have potential - just a matter of time.

[Ian Royal]

I'm not quite sure what brought about such an aggressive reply to my post re: Kelly and Shaughnessy - but thanks for the warm welcome!!

I have seen both players play in the games mentioned and for Ireland and believe they both have potential - just a matter of time.

It's the traditional HNA? warm welcome. It roughly translates into English as "Thank you for joining us, we're really pleased to have you here and are looking forward to some robust discussion and witty banter. oxox"

But you can't explain that until it's been dished out. It's tradition.

[maffff]

Oxf*rd off IanRoyal you pcunt

it's also a good reminder occasionally.

[Ian Royal]

Oxf*rd off IanRoyal you pcunt

it's also a good reminder occasionally.

You know, I never got one when I joined. That's making me tear up... thankyouthankyouthankyou!