SIGNED - Hope Akpan

[Barry the bird boggler]

[
Or, that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?

If that was our business, we’d have paid that £1m extra for Zaha. That same Zaha who just 5 months later is a rumoured transfer target of Manchester United.

We weren't to know that he'd be such a success this season. Yes in hindsight we should have raised our offer, but at the time the club had a value in mind and didn't want to pay above that.

Their valuation was wrong, but not the strategy.

Yes but isn't it about time this bloody club started taking a risk on players like Zaha by paying the money rather than always looking at players who are the level under that i.e. a whole lot cheaper as they need a lot of time and patience still. Here we apparently have failed to take a real worthwhile punt and instead it looks like we'll go for Crawley's stand out player from Division 4 last season -

[winchester_royal]

I assume we considered £6m to be too much of a risk. The club have to have some sort of ceiling which they won't break when they go into negotiations otherwise we'll end up overpaying the majority of the time.

We had a valuation, they asked for considerably more than the valuation, we walked away. That is how it works in every other sector of business. Why should it be any different here?

[cmonurz]

I assume we considered £6m to be too much of a risk. The club have to have some sort of ceiling which they won't break when they go into negotiations otherwise we'll end up overpaying the majority of the time.

We had a valuation, they asked for considerably more than the valuation, we walked away. That is how it works in every other sector of business. Why should it be any different here?

It's very difficult to couple that with "that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?"

If that's your approach you're only left with the talent no-one knows about or no-one wants.

[Z175]

Surely this the coup of the window? The one thing you need when you're adrift in 19th. Hope!

[winchester_royal]

I assume we considered £6m to be too much of a risk. The club have to have some sort of ceiling which they won't break when they go into negotiations otherwise we'll end up overpaying the majority of the time.

We had a valuation, they asked for considerably more than the valuation, we walked away. That is how it works in every other sector of business. Why should it be any different here?

It's very difficult to couple that with "that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?"

If that's your approach you're only left with the talent no-one knows about or no-one wants.

How?

There was little reason to believe that Zaha would be worth considerably more than £6m in the future before the season started. Hence why NOBODY took a punt on this summer at that price despite being scouted by a lot of clubs.

It was a risk we deemed a step too far. Mistake in hindsight? Yeah sure. Mistake in philosophy at the time? Not in my opinion.

I don't see how the approach of not paying more than we believe a player to be worth, and looking for players who have the potential to be worth a lot more than they are now are mutually exclusive I'm afraid.

Yeah, ultimately a club in our position has to be a little more savvy in the signings we make as players who look likely to be worth £20m in the future are going to attract lots of suitors,

[Barry the bird boggler]

On the Chronic website...

Akpan poised to sign for Reading FC
Sportsdesk • Published 8 Jan 2013 15:00

CRAWLEY Town midfielder Hope Akpan is on the verge of a move to Reading.

Rumours suggest the 21-year-old is having a medical at Reading's Hogwood Park training ground today and will pen a three-and-a-half year deal.

The transfer would come only days after Akpan played for the Reds in their 3-1 FA Cup defeat by Royals on Saturday.

The ex-Everton trainee has been a regular for League One Crawley this season with six goals in 27 appearances. But he has also picked up six yellow cards and two reds.

Nevertheless, Royals boss Brian McDermott appears to have struck a deal with former Reading manager Steve Coppell, now director of football at Crawley.

It is thought Crawley will demand a substantial transfer fee for Akpan, who would become the club's first ever player to sign for a Premier League side.

Reds boss Richie Barker told the Crawley Observer: "If Hope were to leave it would be a big miss. But at the same time, to sell someone to a Premier League club speaks volumes about what this club has done.

"If a big club comes in and pays a big fee, that will improve the football club and bring finances back in."

Akpan would be Reading's third January signing after the capture of Sporting Lisbon's captain Daniel Carrico, 20, for around £650,000.

Midfielder Tomas Rogic is also poised to join Royals after a £400,000 bid was accepted by Australian side Central Coast Mariners, subject to getting a work permit.

[cmonurz]

I assume we considered £6m to be too much of a risk. The club have to have some sort of ceiling which they won't break when they go into negotiations otherwise we'll end up overpaying the majority of the time.

We had a valuation, they asked for considerably more than the valuation, we walked away. That is how it works in every other sector of business. Why should it be any different here?

It's very difficult to couple that with "that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?"

If that's your approach you're only left with the talent no-one knows about or no-one wants.

How?

There was little reason to believe that Zaha would be worth considerably more than £6m in the future before the season started.

I disagree, and the multi-page thread he got suggests I wasn't alone. He was one of the best players in our league last season.

Bigger clubs like United can afford not to take the plunge early on players like this. If Zaha had been shit at the start of this season - money saved. He hasn't, he has been excellent, and now they have the resource to buy him at a slightly higher price, and the status to attract him over other potential bidders.

[winchester_royal]

He wasn't regarded by most as one of the best players in the league last season. He scored 6 from 41, which given he spent most of the time in a forward role isn't massively impressive. He was widely seen as inconsistent, and didn't stand out at all when they played at the Mad Stad (despite scoring a goal). He clearly had potential, and that is what contributed to most of his value. Potential represents risk however, and I'm not sure at £6m the risk was worth it at the time. It's not just Man Utd who chose to avoid him this summer, it was teams like Southampton and Norwich as tell (clubs that now have no chance of getting him just like us)

[SouthDownsRoyal]

LOL at our 3 signings so far

just LOL

[bennno]

LOL at our 3 signings so far

just LOL

three signings, i think its 2 the Carrico and Akpan who is the third?

[Barry the bird boggler]

The Rogic deal is still on apparently.

[MouldyRoyal]

According to the Chronic...

They may be right but they don't exactly have the strongest of track records.

[melonhead]

half* the team that got us 106 points and 8th place in the prem were free transfers from brentford you morons



*slight exaggeration

[Alexander Litvinenko]

half* the team that got us 106 points and 8th place in the prem were free transfers from brentford you morons



*slight exaggeration

Don't forget that team also included Harper & Sidwell, who'd been apprentices with a PL team but weren't considered good enough for the first team, so they had the hunger and determination to be successful elsewhere (and to point a lot...)

[melonhead]

agreed

[SouthDownsRoyal]

LOL at our 3 signings so far

just LOL

three signings, i think its 2 the Carrico and Akpan who is the third?

dunno m8

Akpan would be Reading's third January signing after the capture of Sporting Lisbon's captain Daniel Carrico, 20, for around £650,000.

[Colin Cheeselog]

I understand your point, and if this is a speculative low risk signing for the future, then great. My point is that Brian has said we need some established players with Prem experience to come in, and Hope Akpan is certainly not that. I agreed we do not want washed up has beens who are only here for the money, but we do need some more established players to come in if we are at least to stand a remote chance of staying up. I am 99.9% sure we are going down, however I do not want us to give up fighting with plenty of games still to play. If these are the signings we are going to make, it appears we have given up already and that will make many supporters lose heart.

Signing young players for the future does not categorically mean we won't be signing anybody else. I'm sure signings like this have no bearing on what players Brain wants for the 1st team between now and the end of the season.

Did people have similar hissy fits when we signed Morrison? It's essentially the same idea; get a prosing young player now, hopefully to come into the 1st team in the future.

Did Man Utd fans have girly rants when they signed Nick Powell from Crewe because he's not Messi?

Signing young prospects and established players are entirely seperate and signing a young player doesn't impact on plans to sign established players.

Perhaps we should have signed established players instead of signing up Pearce, Karacan, HRK etc when they signed as children?

[melonhead]

LOL at our 3 signings so far

just LOL

three signings, i think its 2 the Carrico and Akpan who is the third?

dunno m8

Akpan would be Reading's third January signing after the capture of Sporting Lisbon's captain Daniel Carrico, 20, for around £650,000.

eh?

[Simon's Church]

three signings, i think its 2 the Carrico and Akpan who is the third?

dunno m8

Akpan would be Reading's third January signing after the capture of Sporting Lisbon's captain Daniel Carrico, 20, for around £650,000.

eh?

It's an impressive quote from the chronicle.

[Jay o/]

[
Or, that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?

If that was our business, we’d have paid that £1m extra for Zaha. That same Zaha who just 5 months later is a rumoured transfer target of Manchester United.

Zaha didn´t want to come to Reading. That is why we did not continue the negotiations. No point agreeing a fee if there was no prospect of him signing.

No it isn't. Palace upped the fee at the last minute.