Deadline Day

[loyalroyal4life]

tbh fryatt on loan will be better for us, why spend £1m odd when he may turn out to be shit and we can then send him back to the foxes.

Plus there will be plenty loan opportunities after tomorrows prem squad announcements

[Snowball]

We've lost Bertrand and replaced him with Harte and Williams. We'll see how this goes, but all but the most optimistic amongst us will consider the first 11 has been weakened at left-back.

WHY? I seem to remember Bertrand being rinsed more than once, in particular when the winger turned inside
And he scored, what, ONE goal?

Maybe Harte is slower, and MAYBE he'll get rinsed, but hell he's experienced and scored EIGHTEEN goals last year.

I figure he'll score more than he's responsible for conceding, and Williams will be back up. Plus he can play CB
and probably help the youngsters develop. A GOOD signing IMO.







LOL@ me for thinking we might have a tilt at promotion this season.

I looked at the odds at 6PM and they were the same as yesterday

[Dave Gale]

Plus, Harte was voted into the League 1 Team of the Season last year. He's still got something.

Totally agree. It's the same as signing Makin or De La Cruz. Very reliable and experience solid pro who can slot in at full back or centre half and do a job without much fuss. We don't want to be in a situation like at Leicester where we had to create a make shift back four. We also have Zurab who will surely push Pearce out. Suddenly the defence looks solid.

A fully fit Noel Hunt is like a new signing if you consider he was out for 99% of last season - and if we have to change to a 4-4-2 whats the issue? Hunt and Long/Church with a midfield behind them, when fit, of Jobi, Jimmy, Jay, and Howard/Karacan/Bryn/Taylor.... we will still compete in this league.

We may yet loan another attacker and its quite a healthy squad indeed.

[floyd__streete]

£6 million + worth of Gylfi shipped out so as we can borrow Blackburn's reserve centre-half (albeit a good'un) and Carlisle's 33 year old left back ? We've lost the 20 goals or so from midfield which would have kept us up this season with our strikers who are a mixture of the unfit, the unprolific and the untalented. And in comes two defenders .

[John Peel]

Whether we have signed an ageing left back isn't the point (he will surprise you and is better than Williams even at 33 plus is suited to the overlap style of football that we do so well at). Point is we have f*ck all up front for a 4-4-2 system we HAVE to play now Sig is gone (and no don't tell me Howard can play there).

Thanks for the fantastic support Sir John but it's time to go. Please.

[loyalroyal4life]

£6 million + worth of Gylfi shipped out so as we can borrow Blackburn's reserve centre-half (albeit a good'un) and Carlisle's 33 year old left back ? We've lost the 20 goals or so from midfield which would have kept us up this season with our strikers who are a mixture of the unfit, the unprolific and the untalented. And in comes two defenders .

dont worry am sure we will get a striker in before palace whether it be perm or loan question is..... who?

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Unless something magical happens as the window slams shut i doubt we will have a new striker on board. Its clear that McDermott is to continue with 1 up front, i just cant see how he can put two up with what we have and there is no chemistry between any of them, but at the same time i dont think we have the forward who can play the lone role consistently well- although Church should be given the chance IMO.Goals a big problem now,the only real threat is from Kebe now that Sig has gone.I dont really have an issue with Harte, he is experienced,solid and is a good set piece taker. The question is why did we plump for Williams to begin with,im pretty sure Harte was linked to us at some point last year anyway. One thing for certain its curtains for armstrong.Good to see Zurab back, but as i said we look like we will struggle to score goals with what we have left now - getting a forward in might just have appeased most fans.......

[Snowball]

£6 million + worth of Gylfi shipped out so as we can borrow Blackburn's reserve centre-half (albeit a good'un) and Carlisle's 33 year old left back ? We've lost the 20 goals or so from midfield which would have kept us up this season with our strikers who are a mixture of the unfit, the unprolific and the untalented. And in comes two defenders .

Haven't we just gained a seriously-good-at-scoring goals full-back who got 18 goals last year?

[Jeffers217]

We will spend in January.

We will flippin have too won't we! Like last season when we were in a relegation battle, Madeski will then FINALLY realise that we need to get players in. We are probably slightly worse off as well because now we've taken 20+ goals out of out team and I'm not gonna get excited about us signing a striker, as it will more than likely not happen. So glad I don't have a season ticket- poor fans!

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Plus, Harte was voted into the League 1 Team of the Season last year. He's still got something.

Totally agree. It's the same as signing Makin or De La Cruz. Very reliable and experience solid pro who can slot in at full back or centre half and do a job without much fuss. We don't want to be in a situation like at Leicester where we had to create a make shift back four. We also have Zurab who will surely push Pearce out. Suddenly the defence looks solid.

A fully fit Noel Hunt is like a new signing if you consider he was out for 99% of last season - and if we have to change to a 4-4-2 whats the issue? Hunt and Long/Church with a midfield behind them, when fit, of Jobi, Jimmy, Jay, and Howard/Karacan/Bryn/Taylor.... we will still compete in this league.

We may yet loan another attacker and its quite a healthy squad indeed.

That there clearly is no chemistry between any of the strikers we currently have??. I dont look at our current crop of strikers and think Cureton and Butler,Forster and Butler,Kitson and Doyle,Quinn and Lovell...........

[barmy_army008]

Well, on the plus side, at least deadline day has seen something happen and given everyone something to talk about....even if that something is losing our best player. Today has been a bit of a non-event in the recent past.

[Snowball]

Harte got 18 goals last year, say he manages just EIGHT this year

Either an extra striker (worth say 10 goals in a season)


That's 18 of the twenty replaced


or an attacking midfielder getting say six goals = 14 of the 20.


But surely with Kish and Harte we will keep a few more goals out. Say we stop just SIX goals more in the season?


Worst case then we've kept the GD the same... the 10-goal striker case we have IMPROVED our GD


And if Harte gets anywhere near last year's 18 goals we will do very well indeed



Seems very obvious to me that Reading FC were sniffing round Harte
partly for his experience but mainly for his free-kick expertise (ie to replace Gylfi's free-kick expertise)

[PEARCEY]

^Ok Snowball but Harte is a short-term signing at 33 years of age. Siggy was the future. I realise that if we didn't go up this season Siggy would leave...but FFS we could have kept him until May and then reviewed the matter depending upon where we finished. We seem to be bringing in a lot of solid,dependable players who will do a job at this level but where's the flair? If our two wingers get injured we are screwed.
Very unhappy about all of this.

[Blue Hooped Moose]

Long and Hunt - can't remember if they ever got a decent run out together so maybe they could be our next Curo/Buts partnership?

[URZZZZZZZZ]

To be fair I think today's has been satisfactory!

A back 4 of:

Griffin - zurab - mills - Harte

Will do a very competent job in this division!

[Tilehurst End]

I don't mind Ian Harte coming in. But we only have 3 strikers at the moment that you would consider starters and we will be back to 4-4-2 against Palace.

Surely if Khiz and Harte can play CB it frees Mills to go up front

[Schards#2]

To be fair I think today's has been satisfactory!

A back 4 of:

Griffin - zurab - mills - Harte

Will do a very competent job in this division!

Meanwhile opposing goalkeepers will be packing a good book for the game.

[RobRoyal]

We've lost Bertrand and replaced him with Harte and Williams. We'll see how this goes, but all but the most optimistic amongst us will consider the first 11 has been weakened at left-back.

WHY? I seem to remember Bertrand being rinsed more than once, in particular when the winger turned inside
And he scored, what, ONE goal?

Maybe Harte is slower, and MAYBE he'll get rinsed, but hell he's experienced and scored EIGHTEEN goals last year.

I figure he'll score more than he's responsible for conceding, and Williams will be back up. Plus he can play CB
and probably help the youngsters develop. A GOOD signing IMO.

LOL@ me for thinking we might have a tilt at promotion this season.

I looked at the odds at 6PM and they were the same as yesterday

Christ Snowball, what a load of crap.

Bertrand was voted 2nd in our player of the season poll. Harte could prove a brilliant signing and still fall some way short of that. It's hardly writing off the guy to suggest that this replacement probably weakens the first 11 - though with two left-backs in we're stronger in terms of depth.

As for the odds - come on, I know you're not as stupid as that. We lost the Championship's hot property. We needed to improve the squad in certain areas, and as a whole we've lost quality in our first 11. Just because the bookies aren't generous enough to give you a more lucrative punt doesn't really mean sh*t.

[Sir Dodger Royal]

SDR spot on again when he said the old oxf*rd would not spend any money. This season we have had £8million plus committed sales and spent £50K on Griffin. Please note it was not £250K and possibly another £50K on Tarte.

It is time the fans stormed the Hotel Pent House Suite and evicted the Nutter running RFC. He has ruined the fabric of the Football Club from a sporting point of view and frankly I hope all his businesses go bankrupt and I can s*it on him when he is outside MacDonalds with one of his works of art on a lead selling the Big Issue. What a tosser. There is only one place for the silly old sod:



Real Facts from the Main Mannnnnnnnnnn

[It Is What It Is]

Perspective:

We sold a 20 year old player who has one good season under his belt, looks a good prospect, might have had a long lucky spell or whatnot, his age could still turn sour against him and do some crazy sh!t and screw his career over (He'll shoot, he'll score, he'll nick your 4x4 ,Marlon King, Marlon King). And in return we got nearly 7,000,000! We sold Doyle for less than that and he had a lot more experience, a much bigger name etc etc etc. Good bit of money i say, fill the hole in Johns pocket for a while, shut him up, and hopefully few a few pennies for a few loaneeeeeeeees