Rival Watch

[Pepe the Horseman]

Posh have changed manager. McCann is in. Hope that doesn't give them the boost, but their players are shite unlike us so I doubt it.

Yeh, think it's very much planning for next year. Didn't do great in his first spell there, but is a club legend and has done ok since.

Yeah could be.

They were down to 10 men the other day apparently.

Not sure what that's got to do with anything. It's also categorically untrue.

[NathStPaul]

Posh have changed manager. McCann is in. Hope that doesn't give them the boost, but their players are shite unlike us so I doubt it.

Yeh, think it's very much planning for next year. Didn't do great in his first spell there, but is a club legend and has done ok since.

Yeah could be.

They were down to 10 men the other day apparently.

Sauce?

[blythspartan]

It’s amazing I was all doom and gloom last week but now I feel that we have a realistic chance of moving up the table a place or 2.

Paul Ince who I admired as a player had completely gone off my radar. I wanted Warnock or Ainsworth as our next manager. Now I think him, Rae and Gilkes etc. can take us forward but time will tell.

I have found with supporting Reading over the years that the players/managers I have wanted have turned out to be disappointing and it’s the Ian Harte’s, Brian McDermott’s and Kevin Doyle’s of this world who have surprised me and proved to be a great success.

[Millsy]

Yeh, think it's very much planning for next year. Didn't do great in his first spell there, but is a club legend and has done ok since.

Yeah could be.

They were down to 10 men the other day apparently.

Sauce?

I think Huang Kad on twitter said something about a sending off for Posh, not sure.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

It’s amazing I was all doom and gloom last week but now I feel that we have a realistic chance of moving up the table a place or 2.

Paul Ince who I admired as a player had completely gone off my radar. I wanted Warnock or Ainsworth as our next manager. Now I think him, Rae and Gilkes etc. can take us forward but time will tell.

I have found with supporting Reading over the years that the players/managers I have wanted have turned out to be disappointing and it’s the Ian Harte’s, Brian McDermott’s and Kevin Doyle’s of this world who have surprised me and proved to be a great success.

My initial reaction was that I wasn't too impressed, but now I've thought it about it more, even before Tuesday's win, I thought he might be a good fit for us.

Before Pauno was gone, I was thinking of who a new manager in League One could be and I was leaning more towards an ex-player or maybe an academy coach who can come, look to build a young, entertaining side and just excel at getting on the grass, coaching these players, coaching a methodology and obviously achieving results. Similar to that of Critchley at Blackpool.

[Snowflake Royal]

We will be trimming our wage bill by a good 30-40% this summer I imagine. If we are to sell Moore and Puscas, lose Swift and then others released such as Araruna who won't have his contract renewed I don't think either, we should be in a good place to give players new deals.

There will be plenty of free agents out there and if we can use the loan market well to bring in 5-6 players there and hopefully get some young talent in willing to prove themselves at this level, then we should be fine.

Could easily be more given how few senior players are definitely staying and several of those are trying to be moved on or attractive to other teams.

Moore's something ludicrous like close to 10% of the wage bill on his own.

[Snowflake Royal]

If we stay up I reckon we’d

Sell Joao (wouldn’t want to but someone will fancy him)
Get stuck with Moore but loan him out again paying majority of wages
Sell Puscas

Re-sign Rino, Holmes, Hoilett, Laurent, Yiadom, Morrison, Dann

Not bother with Halilovic. TDB will go back, Swift will obviously move on. Drinkwater and Baba will go somewhere else

And so start with a squad something like

Southwood, Yiadom, Dann, Morrison, Holmes, McIntyre, Rino, Laurent, Hoilett, Ejaria, Meite, Tetek, Azeez and youth Teamers

Big ask would be replacing Joao and Swift obviously. And getting full back cover

Should only re-sign one of Dann and Morro. Both getting on. Both slow. Holmes and McIntyre also slow. We need a CB with some pace.

I'd pick Morro every time personally.

[Zip]

If we stay up I reckon we’d

Sell Joao (wouldn’t want to but someone will fancy him)
Get stuck with Moore but loan him out again paying majority of wages
Sell Puscas

Re-sign Rino, Holmes, Hoilett, Laurent, Yiadom, Morrison, Dann

Not bother with Halilovic. TDB will go back, Swift will obviously move on. Drinkwater and Baba will go somewhere else

And so start with a squad something like

Southwood, Yiadom, Dann, Morrison, Holmes, McIntyre, Rino, Laurent, Hoilett, Ejaria, Meite, Tetek, Azeez and youth Teamers

Big ask would be replacing Joao and Swift obviously. And getting full back cover

Should only re-sign one of Dann and Morro. Both getting on. Both slow. Holmes and McIntyre also slow. We need a CB with some pace.

I'd pick Morro every time personally.

Without Joao and Swift there is going to be a serious lack of goals and creativity.

[Snowflake Royal]

If we stay up I reckon we’d

Sell Joao (wouldn’t want to but someone will fancy him)
Get stuck with Moore but loan him out again paying majority of wages
Sell Puscas

Re-sign Rino, Holmes, Hoilett, Laurent, Yiadom, Morrison, Dann

Not bother with Halilovic. TDB will go back, Swift will obviously move on. Drinkwater and Baba will go somewhere else

And so start with a squad something like

Southwood, Yiadom, Dann, Morrison, Holmes, McIntyre, Rino, Laurent, Hoilett, Ejaria, Meite, Tetek, Azeez and youth Teamers

Big ask would be replacing Joao and Swift obviously. And getting full back cover

Should only re-sign one of Dann and Morro. Both getting on. Both slow. Holmes and McIntyre also slow. We need a CB with some pace.

I'd pick Morro every time personally.

Without Joao and Swift there is going to be a serious lack of goals and creativity.

But what about Ejaria?

[Zip]

Should only re-sign one of Dann and Morro. Both getting on. Both slow. Holmes and McIntyre also slow. We need a CB with some pace.

I'd pick Morro every time personally.

Without Joao and Swift there is going to be a serious lack of goals and creativity.

But what about Ejaria?

Well he would certainly have to step up. I would play him central behind our strikers in the hope he could achieve what Swift has managed.

[Snowflake Royal]

Meite has goals and Azeez has promise. As does Clarke to a lesser extent.

And you'd think we'd make a signing or two.

I don't think it's the end of the world. Big boots to fill.

[NathStPaul]

You guys really see Ejaria being here next season? Reckon he'll almost certainly be sold.

[Zip]

You guys really see Ejaria being here next season? Reckon he'll almost certainly be sold.

We have so few players under contract as it is. Moore and Puscas may be on the way out already. If Joao were to go too it would only leave TMac, Meite, Southwood, Tetek and Ejaria under contract. We can’t sell all our in contract players!

[Snowflake Royal]

You guys really see Ejaria being here next season? Reckon he'll almost certainly be sold.

We have so few players under contract as it is. Moore and Puscas may be on the way out already. If Joao were to go too it would only leave TMac, Meite, Southwood, Tetek and Ejaria under contract. We can’t sell all our in contract players!

We could really do with a reset though. Stop spending loads on mediocre performers who flatter to deceive.

Get in a raft of solid players, for a particular play style, on affordable contracts.

[Zip]

You guys really see Ejaria being here next season? Reckon he'll almost certainly be sold.

We have so few players under contract as it is. Moore and Puscas may be on the way out already. If Joao were to go too it would only leave TMac, Meite, Southwood, Tetek and Ejaria under contract. We can’t sell all our in contract players!

We could really do with a reset though. Stop spending loads on mediocre performers who flatter to deceive.

Get in a raft of solid players, for a particular play style, on affordable contracts.

No problem with that but it would be a huge task to start right from scratch and bring in an entirely new squad in the summer.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

We will be trimming our wage bill by a good 30-40% this summer I imagine. If we are to sell Moore and Puscas, lose Swift and then others released such as Araruna who won't have his contract renewed I don't think either, we should be in a good place to give players new deals.

There will be plenty of free agents out there and if we can use the loan market well to bring in 5-6 players there and hopefully get some young talent in willing to prove themselves at this level, then we should be fine.

Could easily be more given how few senior players are definitely staying and several of those are trying to be moved on or attractive to other teams.

Moore's something ludicrous like close to 10% of the wage bill on his own.

Yes that's true there is potential for that to be much greater, although I've assumed that the likes of Holmes and Rino for example could be likely to stay at the club given they've come through our academy and, even though they might have offers elsewhere, they may feel better placed to stick around with us. That's certainly no guarantee though.

Moore does take up a fair chunk of our wage bill. To be fair, it's not necessarily an arduous task to reduce our wage bill, because a large percentage of our wage bill is likely taken up by Rafael (left), Moore, Swift (leaving), Ejaria, Puscas (potentially leaving) and maybe a couple of others.

[Hound]

Getting rid of Moore is obviously a huge key to reducing our bill substantially. Sadly I can't see someone taking him on half of what he is on now. Expect we'll still end up subsidising next season

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Even if we were subsiding 50% for the next 12 months, that's still around £15k off our wage bill which is a start. Of course it isn't great to be paying someone £15k to play somewhere else, but it's still better than nothing. Thankfully he'd only have 12 months left to run on his contract anyway.

Hopefully he will take a wage cut and go to Stoke on £20k a week so that we don't have to pay anything, although it's a fair chunk for him to take off his wage.

[Hound]

Stoke would also be insane to pay him 20k a week. Esp if their own financials issues are to be believed

I think we'll prob end up loaning him out and paying 2/3 of the wage or so sadly. Or maybe just pay him off at the end of the year at a similar sort of level

[NathStPaul]

I'd love him to go to Stoke, mainly so he would come back to play against us next season. I am sure he will receive a very warm welcome.