Emerse Fae

[moo]

Fae and Halford were not awful signings. They were bad signings *for us*.

We sold Halford for a profit. We're selling Fae for a profit. (wages are irrelevant as we'd be paying anyone else we got instead wages too - that's just a given for having an extra player in the squad).

Both of these players are therefore not bad players. Just not good *for us*.

So we can't blame our scouts too much. Or at least it seems that scouts from other clubs are making the same mistakes.

Having never been a football manager or a scout I can't criticise as I'm sure it's all very difficult. In the case of Halford many people were after his signing and it was a case of winning the battle. And in the case of Fae we needed cover for Sidwell and were struggling as not many wanted to come to Reading. It's easy to criticise scouts etc but when you're battling against the clock, battling against other bigger teams for signatures, when no-one wants to come to your club, and when fans are crying out incessantly for big money signings, it must be very difficult to get someone who slots in perfectly straight away. We're not one of the big four so will always have this problem.

Both signings made sense at the time too, no way we can blame the scouts and good post.

Halford was meant to be the brightest young prospect at right back outside the Prem, and seemed like the ideal prodigy for the ageing Murty and he was versatile and had a big throw on him.

Fae by all accounts is actually doing a good job in the French league (I think the price tag confirms that) and he just isn't cut out for English footy and that combined with being a total prick didn't do him any favours in adapting.

Now they are both gone and Madejski has his proof that getting his chequebook out certainley isn't always the solution!

[Ian Royal]

Sometimes decent players just don't work out at a club.

Signings don't always go right, we've been spoilt since Pardew left, very few significant money signings have failed. Even most of the cheaper signings have been at least partial successes in that they played a limited part to the best of their ability.

Fae, Halford, Bennett, Sodje & Brooker are the only failures that spring instantly to mind for me.

Many others may not have contributed as much as we'd like or been less successful than they should, but that doesn't make them a failure. In this category I'd put players like:

Lita, Long, Cisse, Kebe, Owusu, Ferdinand, Morgan & Convey for example.*

Some can still make it, some contributed a lot in small patches.

*Interesting - almost exclusively attacking players.

[moo]

Sometimes decent players just don't work out at a club.

Signings don't always go right, we've been spoilt since Pardew left, very few significant money signings have failed. Even most of the cheaper signings have been at least partial successes in that they played a limited part to the best of their ability.

Fae, Halford, Bennett, Sodje & Brooker are the only failures that spring instantly to mind for me.

Many others may not have contributed as much as we'd like or been less successful than they should, but that doesn't make them a failure. In this category I'd put players like:

Lita, Long, Cisse, Kebe, Owusu, Ferdinand, Morgan & Convey for example.*

Some can still make it, some contributed a lot in small patches.

*Interesting - almost exclusively attacking players.

ALOL

Worst

Post

Ever

[Row Z Royal]

Good player, wrong club.

Good luck to him.

[hughsies no.1]

Sometimes decent players just don't work out at a club.

Signings don't always go right, we've been spoilt since Pardew left, very few significant money signings have failed. Even most of the cheaper signings have been at least partial successes in that they played a limited part to the best of their ability.

Fae, Halford, Bennett, Sodje & Brooker are the only failures that spring instantly to mind for me.

Many others may not have contributed as much as we'd like or been less successful than they should, but that doesn't make them a failure. In this category I'd put players like:

Lita, Long, Cisse, Kebe, Owusu, Ferdinand, Morgan & Convey for example.*

Some can still make it, some contributed a lot in small patches.

*Interesting - almost exclusively attacking players.

ALOL

Worst

Post

Ever

how is that the worst post ever? if anything your post is the worst post ever. even if a player does a few things for a club it doesnt make them a total disaster of a signing and for me the players quoted have done enough not to be deemed as a shocking signing( well apart from ferdinand).

lita- done more then enough to not be a crap signing
Long- equalizer at derby on new years eve? and still has plenty to offer (i hope!)
Cisse- doing great at the moment
kebe- same as above
owusu- palace away a few years back got a couple as well as scoring other crucial goals
ferdinand- not to sure about that one
morgan- cardiff away, 3-2. one of the most celebrated goals and put in a great performance in pards return
convey- done more than enough

[moo]

Sometimes decent players just don't work out at a club.

Signings don't always go right, we've been spoilt since Pardew left, very few significant money signings have failed. Even most of the cheaper signings have been at least partial successes in that they played a limited part to the best of their ability.

Fae, Halford, Bennett, Sodje & Brooker are the only failures that spring instantly to mind for me.

Many others may not have contributed as much as we'd like or been less successful than they should, but that doesn't make them a failure. In this category I'd put players like:

Lita, Long, Cisse, Kebe, Owusu, Ferdinand, Morgan & Convey for example.*

Some can still make it, some contributed a lot in small patches.

*Interesting - almost exclusively attacking players.

ALOL

Worst

Post

Ever

how is that the worst post ever? if anything your post is the worst post ever. even if a player does a few things for a club it doesnt make them a total disaster of a signing and for me the players quoted have done enough not to be deemed as a shocking signing( well apart from ferdinand).

lita- done more then enough to not be a crap signing
Long- equalizer at derby on new years eve? and still has plenty to offer (i hope!)
Cisse- doing great at the moment
kebe- same as above
owusu- palace away a few years back got a couple as well as scoring other crucial goals
ferdinand- not to sure about that one
morgan- cardiff away, 3-2. one of the most celebrated goals and put in a great performance in pards return
convey- done more than enough

Ok, first of all Bennett, Sodje & Brooker are not exactly the best examples of failiures to go along side Fae and Halford. Firstly, they cost pennies - hardly on the grand scale of Fae and Halfords fees. Brooker wasn't a failiure - he has his purpose and then we got rid of him and Bennett and Sodje were not signed as 'big name' players to set the world alight, Bennett was highly rated for Cork and was hoped to be the next Doyle and Sodje was a bit of cover.

If you truly want another failiure then try Halls.

Then the post gets worse....these players not being what we hoped..

Lita was far more successful than we could have ever hoped - before falling out with the club he was a goal machine and for £1mill a snip and got us promoted and did a decent enough job almost getting us into europe.

Long - Signed for almost nothing and has been a decent part of the squad for what four seasons now, he hasn't moaned and has just got on with it and could certainly have a future at this club at his age.

Cisse is doing great - much better than most of us expected when we signed him.

Kebe - Exceeding all expectations. Bargain signing.

Owusu - This guy scored 6 goals in 14 starts and did a decent job for the time.

[andrew1957]

For every poor signing over the last 5 years RFC have made 3 good ones and we have also made a considerable profit on transfer dealings - nearly £10M according to my memory. Plus we have many other players we could also sell at a profit.

How any true fan can be critical of the club in this regard astounds me so I assume those that are critical are just WUM's.

[hughsies no.1]

For every poor signing over the last 5 years RFC have made 3 good ones and we have also made a considerable profit on transfer dealings - nearly £10M according to my memory. Plus we have many other players we could also sell at a profit.

How any true fan can be critical of the club in this regard astounds me so I assume those that are critical are just WUM's.

hit the nail on the head!!

+1

[strap]

For every poor signing over the last 5 years RFC have made 3 good ones and we have also made a considerable profit on transfer dealings - nearly £10M according to my memory. Plus we have many other players we could also sell at a profit.

How any true fan can be critical of the club in this regard astounds me so I assume those that are critical are just WUM's.

Agreed. Sir Steve has proven himself a total genius when it comes to an overall view of his tranfer dealings whilst with us. I mean, making a profit out of both Fae and HaLoLford is simply unbelievable. Then there's the vast profit made on both Sonks and Kitson. Seriously, could anyone have ever thought we'd get £7.5Mill for the pair of them??

Shorey went for a probably fair £3.5M, which leaves the likes of Brooker, Owusu etc who perhaps didn't make it, (although I'm not sure Brooker came on a free anyway).

Add into that mix SHunt on a free now touted at £5M, HNunt a bargain at 600k, the Jewel in the crown KDoyle, cost £78k, if he continues this season as he is doing now, he'll be off for the £8M currently being touted. To be frank, this alone makes the £550k wasted on Kebe, £250k on Bennett etc of no consequence.

I imagine Mr Ego must wake up every morning laughing his head off and pinching himself to make sure this is all real! AND we've had the most successful period in RFC's history during this time.

Whatever he's paying Sir Steve, it isn't enough.

I think it's time for another spreadsheet ....

[Ian Royal]

Ok, first of all Bennett, Sodje & Brooker are not exactly the best examples of failiures to go along side Fae and Halford. Firstly, they cost pennies - hardly on the grand scale of Fae and Halfords fees. Brooker wasn't a failiure - he has his purpose and then we got rid of him and Bennett and Sodje were not signed as 'big name' players to set the world alight, Bennett was highly rated for Cork and was hoped to be the next Doyle and Sodje was a bit of cover.

If you truly want another failiure then try Halls.

Then the post gets worse....these players not being what we hoped..

Lita was far more successful than we could have ever hoped - before falling out with the club he was a goal machine and for £1mill a snip and got us promoted and did a decent enough job almost getting us into europe.

Long - Signed for almost nothing and has been a decent part of the squad for what four seasons now, he hasn't moaned and has just got on with it and could certainly have a future at this club at his age.

Cisse is doing great - much better than most of us expected when we signed him.

Kebe - Exceeding all expectations. Bargain signing.

Owusu - This guy scored 6 goals in 14 starts and did a decent job for the time.

Notice how at the top of my post I talk about big money signings, when I start naming players I'm not saying anything about big money. I accept it could have been a lot clearer though. I'll try harder.

You have a point about Halls, clearly I'd blocked him out.

Lita was a goal machine for two brief periods. That is all. Overall those periods made his first two seasons with us seem like ok - good seasons. But he was always very hot and cold and since our first prem seasons has simply been cold. He should have been a lot more successful than that. He has the talent and has briefly shown it. I accept you may not agree with this, many seem not to, but many also do.

Long has played a couple of decent cameo seasons, but has never actually gone anywhere and unless he makes a big improvement soon will never be a regular starter anywhere above League 1.

Cisse was awful in midfield up until part way through this season and only had a couple of defensive performances. which tended to be good.

Kebe Doing very well now, very far from proven. Bought to help solve our right winger problem in the prem. Failed to do that for a start.

Owusu did nothing more than an ok job. He was not up to what was needed, and wasn't very good but did alright for a limited player.

May I draw your attention to this comment from my original post which you appear to have ignored:

Some can still make it, some contributed a lot in small patches.

Oh and I'd thoroughly agree with Andrew1957 that generally our transfer policy and success rate is pretty good.

[Sun Tzu]

Presumably this deal isn't actually done yet. How would it work with the transfer window ?

Can he 'officially' be a Nice player yet ? There may be a deal done with a date of Jan 1st on it but I can't see that we will have had any money, or handed his registration papers over yet.

If the deal is as described it either means we have done really well to make money on a flop, or really badly to have not managed to coax a decent performance out of a very good player.... we'll never know which.

[Ian Royal]

Presumably this deal isn't actually done yet. How would it work with the transfer window ?

Can he 'officially' be a Nice player yet ? There may be a deal done with a date of Jan 1st on it but I can't see that we will have had any money, or handed his registration papers over yet.

If the deal is as described it either means we have done really well to make money on a flop, or really badly to have not managed to coax a decent performance out of a very good player.... we'll never know which.

Neither. The player didn't work out, but was good enough to command a decent fee for a club where he could work out.

[rabidbee]

I think loans can be made permanent transfers outside of the transfer window.

[Platypuss]

I think loans can be made permanent transfers outside of the transfer window.

Like Bikey, for example.

[rabidbee]

I think loans can be made permanent transfers outside of the transfer window.

Like Bikey, for example.

Good point.

[SteveRoyal]

Fae and Halford were not awful signings. They were bad signings *for us*.

We sold Halford for a profit. We're selling Fae for a profit. (wages are irrelevant as we'd be paying anyone else we got instead wages too - that's just a given for having an extra player in the squad).

Both of these players are therefore not bad players. Just not good *for us*.

So we can't blame our scouts too much. Or at least it seems that scouts from other clubs are making the same mistakes.

Having never been a football manager or a scout I can't criticise as I'm sure it's all very difficult. In the case of Halford many people were after his signing and it was a case of winning the battle. And in the case of Fae we needed cover for Sidwell and were struggling as not many wanted to come to Reading. It's easy to criticise scouts etc but when you're battling against the clock, battling against other bigger teams for signatures, when no-one wants to come to your club, and when fans are crying out incessantly for big money signings, it must be very difficult to get someone who slots in perfectly straight away. We're not one of the big four so will always have this problem.

I need say no more, +1.

[RG30]

You need a bit of luck in football. It was only the first day in March this year Fae was due to be on the bench for us at Middlesbrough, then he's contracted with malaria following his African Nations stint. Fae's not a bad player, he'll do a job in Ligue 1 and maybe under a different manager he could have flourished. If the deal does go ahead as expected, then it represents a good couple of months trading from the club. We took in nearly £10million in transfer fees and the squad looks refreshed and ready for new challenges, let's hope we can get promotion this season otherwise we'll have to look beyond what we've got replacing the likes of Doyle and S.Hunt.

[winchester_royal]

Hopefully this 3 mil will go into signing a couple of players in Jan.

[papereyes]

Presumably this deal isn't actually done yet. How would it work with the transfer window ?

Can he 'officially' be a Nice player yet ? There may be a deal done with a date of Jan 1st on it but I can't see that we will have had any money, or handed his registration papers over yet.

If the deal is as described it either means we have done really well to make money on a flop, or really badly to have not managed to coax a decent performance out of a very good player.... we'll never know which.

Or both. Given that we tend not to spend all the money we bring in from transfers back on the squad, I would rather we got a higher proportion of our bigger signings right, but looking at this board, I think that might be just me.

[Mr Angry]

I'm amazed that no-one in this thread has given any credit to Nick Hammond; it is he who has negotiated the transfer away of a disruptive player for a profit - the second time in a Year.

There has clearly been a pattern here; if you look at the players who have been shipped out, they are the ones who, it is not unreasonable to assume, didn't add a huge amount to dressing room harmony (and I don not include Glen Little in this as we wanted him to stay). Kitson, Sonko, Shorey, now Fae and probably Lita in Jan........and the results are clear to see with where we are in the Division.

And this will be down to Sir Steve, as it would be him saying to Nick Hammond "If we get a bid for any of these players, accept it" which is why we allowed Shorey to go for much less than we would have got for him in August 2007.

Squad harmony and unity is going to be vital for our chances in the 2nd half of the season.