Summer Rebuild

[Royalwaster]

Have to observe that a strange thing this summer is that there are hardly any rumours - normally we have several every day ... including many fantasy ones. But it's been strangely quiet this time around. Anyone got an explanation for this? Have several of the real loony posters left, or have the school holidays not started yet ... or?

[YateleyRoyal]

Have to observe that a strange thing this summer is that there are hardly any rumours - normally we have several every day ... including many fantasy ones. But it's been strangely quiet this time around. Anyone got an explanation for this? Have several of the real loony posters left, or have the school holidays not started yet ... or?

Or this is the team board, and theres quite a few in UR&G?

[CountryRoyal]

Apparently forest have rejected a £5m bid from west brom for Antonio. I'd be dissapponted if we let Gmac go for anything remotely around or less than that.

[Royal Rother]

If HRK lacked the promise he has, people wouldn't be so disappointed and run him down all the time.

If he lacked the promise he has he'd be another Nick Blackman or Hope Akpan. So I'm not sure I agree.

back at ya
I'm not disappointed by Akpan or Blackman. As far as I'm concerned they play as well as they are capable of, I.e. a bit better than shit.

Which, if HRK didn't have the promise he has, is exactly what he'd be capable of. (Which is exactly the point Mafff was making.)

Another

[Nameless]

Apparently forest have rejected a £5m bid from west brom for Antonio. I'd be dissapponted if we let Gmac go for anything remotely around or less than that.

I think us allegedly rating HRK (in the last year of his contract) at £4 million tells you where we'd suggest bidders start if they wanted to talk about GMac ( new deal signed end of last year and 3 years to run).

[Royalwaster]

Have to observe that a strange thing this summer is that there are hardly any rumours - normally we have several every day ... including many fantasy ones. But it's been strangely quiet this time around. Anyone got an explanation for this? Have several of the real loony posters left, or have the school holidays not started yet ... or?

Or this is the team board, and theres quite a few in UR&G?

Nope ... none at all ... the only ones are real ones that have been confirmed elsewhere like the Beric one.

[Pepe the Horseman]

The guy that usually makes the rumours up has been busy with his motivational blog.

http://craigbeazley.co.uk/motivation-th ... -my-favour

[ZacNaloen]

What the actual?!

[SCIAG]

Its highly unlikely that anyone achieves what they have set out to achieve completely in the first time of asking

What if it's easy?

[floyd__streete]

Kuhn did enough when he played to show he's going to be very good.

You were proudly declaring that you weren't going to matches any more at the time so I don't know what qualifies you to make that ridiculous statement.....we paid a lot of money for Norwood and couldn't use them both.

I saw him in 3 games. He failed to dominate League 1 nobodies Scunthorpe in the League Cup. He gave the ball away like it was going out of fashion at Forest and was so anonymous at Brentford that they might just as well have put a tannoy announcement out for him.

The point I was making and which Nameless and SCIAG have in some ways backed up is that HRK has done an adequate (and sometimes better than adequate) job for us in the Championship and gets absolute pelters on here, absolutely rubbished on every other thread.....whilst someone like Kuhl who hasn't taken his chance as yet seems to be placed into the 'promising and untouchable' box. SCIAG, did it ever occur that we perhaps paid a lot of money for Norwood because the likes of Kuhl failed to slot in? Kuhl came in and performed poorly because he wasn't ready, the age thing is a bit of a crock because young players have come into sides better and worse than ours and performed well. Looking outstanding in the Under 21s does not automatically equate to a successful career in the Championship.

I realise there is an age differential at play in this comparison and I am not comparing HRK and Kuhl per se (they don't even play a remotely similar role for starters), rather more it is more a critique of the ridiculously pre-conceived opinions some (many?) of our fanbase have about players

[CountryRoyal]

Apparently forest have rejected a £5m bid from west brom for Antonio. I'd be dissapponted if we let Gmac go for anything remotely around or less than that.

I think us allegedly rating HRK (in the last year of his contract) at £4 million tells you where we'd suggest bidders start if they wanted to talk about GMac ( new deal signed end of last year and 3 years to run).

If we're going by that logic I think McLeary could overtake bale as the worlds most expensive player

[SCIAG]

SCIAG, did it ever occur that we perhaps paid a lot of money for Norwood because the likes of Kuhl failed to slot in?

Given that we were in the process of signing Norwood when Kuhl made his debut, no.

You didn't see Huddersfield, when he was outstanding. At Forest, he was voted man of the match and picked out for praise by the media. Yes, Scunthorpe and Brentford were "not great" and "shit" respectively, but ruling out an extremely talented player who has shown he can perform at this level because of one shit performance doesn't seem like a course of action likely to lead to consistent accuracy.

Think the big difference in perception here (other than you not seeing him play at youth level) is that you didn't see him against Huddersfield. When he came on there were groans all around the ground, within five minutes he'd won the crowd over completely, although he misjudged a couple of headers.

I think it is both natural and fair that people will have different views on a very promising 19 year old and a player who was quite a promising 19 year old seven years ago.

[Ian Royal]

Floyd is basically the only one who thinks he bombed and is un his sulky everything is shit phase still.

File under roll eyes and ignore.

[Nameless]

Elsewhere I hope I had given a reasonably considered view of HRK. I'm not an anti HRK person, but I do think he may need to move to make the most of his talent.
I've seen Kuhl quite a lot for the u18 and u21 sides and he has huge talent. He has not yet shown that regularly at first team level, but it would be rare for any club to put an 18/19 year old into the key position in their side, especially a struggling side.
Time will tell and he may never fulfil the promise. But HRK has not made himself a key member of a rather poor team and may well never do so. Kuhl has barely started on his career and therefore it's not surprising people are optimistic about what he may do.
I'd rather look forward to our young players succeeding than expect them to fail, but then I can never see why some people take a perpetually negative view of things. If I ever became cynical about the game I would find another hobby, and I'd certainly stop visiting message boards and wittering on about why everything was terrible.

[Big Ern]

If we sell GMac for north of 7million it would represent good business for the club and a decent chuck of the money could be used to replace and bolster other areas of the team.

As this is Reading FC, when I say decent chunk I mean about 30% of what we receive at best

[RoyallyFcuked]

I see that " The Pogrebnyak delusion" is still going on strong

It would be shame if Cox goes just because we can't shift Pog. Someone said that Pog and Cox can't play together because they are too similar - no they aren't, Pog is just a really difficult strike partner to have. How many partners has he had here already and who can say he has really done well with any of them?

If Orlando is anything like Glenn Murray then he could play with Cox because Cox does well next to a big player who uses his strength, puts himself about, wins headers and holds the ball up. This is what Pog should be able to do but just doesnt, despite what many of you say, believe or hope. All he has proved in his time here is that he's just not very good at anything.

We could have beaten Arsenal in the cup semi if we had a better player upfront. Pog was the weak link in the team and still is and I'm guessing (and hoping) Clarke knows this which means that he won't be first choice come August. We are going to have to pay his stupid wages for another year no matter what so don't have him taking up a valuable starting spot just because of it. The less he is in the first team, the better off we will be.

[Royal Rother]

Oh come on, he's VERY good at falling over with that fcuking annoying twist / lunge where he looks a broken doll.

[Esteban]

Oh come on, he's VERY good at falling over with that fcuking annoying twist / lunge where he looks a broken doll.

I can't defend his goal scoring record, but we have rarely played to Pog's strength. He's not a target man and never will be. He's more like Kitson and if we played him off someone like Shane Long, he'd score a lot more.

However, we don't have Shane Long and he isn't as good as Kitson, so we'll have to make do for another season. I don't see the point of writing him off though, far better to keep him involved and motivated, if we're stuck with his wages.

[floyd__streete]

It would be shame if Cox goes just because we can't shift Pog.

So Cox is better than Pog is he?

Right-o.

[floyd__streete]

Floyd is basically the only one who thinks he bombed

Played half a dozen games and wasn't trusted to feature again. So, Floyd, Adkins and Clarke.

But HRK has not made himself a key member of a rather poor team and may well never do so.

He played in 29 of our 46 league matches last season and all 6 matches in the memorable cup run. The season before he played 36 of our 46 league matches.

I'd say that someone who features in more than 70% of our matches is very much a 'key member' of the team.