Mcdonut (sorry Brian) out Di Canio in......please

[mr_number]

Apparently being the operative word. We could say we bid £80 million for Ronaldo, doesn't mean a) we had the money or b) we ever had a chance of him coming here.

I strongly believe it was all lip service.

WHY do you think McD didn't buy 2 or 3 £3 million pound players? Do you HONESTLY believe he thought what he already had was good enough?

Could have been
a) Felt that signing one £10m player with real quality would make the difference, and committed everything to that
b) Could not afford the wages of 3 £3m players, which at an aggregate level would likely be materially more than the £10m player
c) He did try to buy some players around this level, but these deals didn't work
etc

[Barry the bird boggler]

Apparently being the operative word. We could say we bid £80 million for Ronaldo, doesn't mean a) we had the money or b) we ever had a chance of him coming here.

I strongly believe it was all lip service.

WHY do you think McD didn't buy 2 or 3 £3 million pound players? Do you HONESTLY believe he thought what he already had was good enough?

Yes. This mess can be laid at Brian's door this season. TSI appear to have been backing the manager in what he wants to do, there have been no complaints or indications he is being thwarted or held back from purchases. Sigurdsson was not lip service, the media reported three bids made up to around 12million as I recall.

[maffff]

Spurs / AVB himself confirmed the bids.

[Royal Lady]

Well, they might confirm the bids, but it doesn't mean we offered what they were looking for or, indeed, that Gylfi was interested in coming back...

[mr_number]

Well, they might confirm the bids, but it doesn't mean we offered what they were looking for or, indeed, that Gylfi was interested in coming back...

So what do you want him to do? Hypnotise players in wanting to come back? Bribe clubs to accept our bids?

[Royal Lady]

NO - I'm saying that these talks of big money being offered are all lip service to the fans imo.

[maffff]

NO - I'm saying that these talks of big money being offered are all lip service to the fans imo.

Ugh. How long until you kick the bucket? Can't be far off.

[Royal With Cheese]

Spurs / AVB himself confirmed the bids.

I once put in a bid of nearly half a million on a house a few years ago. I couldn't afford it and spent a few sleepless nights until someone else came in with a higher offer. I loved the house but am really glad we didn't buy it.

The issue we now have is that, even if they were not "proper" bids, Reading Fan's expectations have been hugely raised for the next transfer window if we somehow manage to stay up.

Perhaps that was the thinking. The board understand that there is a good chance of getting relegated. In this instance, Reading Fan's expectations will be naturally lowered as it will be argued we will not be able to bring this quality of signings to a Championship team.

[Royal With Cheese]

NO - I'm saying that these talks of big money being offered are all lip service to the fans imo.

Ugh. How long until you kick the bucket? Can't be far off.

You stay classy maffff.

Save for the Pog, we've shown no appetite for high profile signings. If we do get relegated I'm sure he'll be off and we'll not lose money on the deal.

Look at the evidence, Championship players for a million plus, division 3 midfielder/striker. That's the Reading way. They made sense to me. 10 million for Tom Ince? Don't make me laugh. Trying to get Gulfi back? Even less likely. It just doesn't sit right with me.

[mr_number]

NO - I'm saying that these talks of big money being offered are all lip service to the fans imo.

Ugh. How long until you kick the bucket? Can't be far off.

You stay classy maffff.

Save for the Pog, we've shown no appetite for high profile signings. If we do get relegated I'm sure he'll be off and we'll not lose money on the deal.

Look at the evidence, Championship players for a million plus, division 3 midfielder/striker. That's the Reading way. They made sense to me. 10 million for Tom Ince? Don't make me laugh. Trying to get Gulfi back? Even less likely. It just doesn't sit right with me.

For fvck's sake. "We've shown no appetite for high profile signings... 10 million for Tom Ince.. .Trying to get Gylfi back." Try not to at least contradict yourself within the same post.

[Royal With Cheese]

Save for the Pog, we've shown no appetite for high profile signings. If we do get relegated I'm sure he'll be off and we'll not lose money on the deal.

Look at the evidence, Championship players for a million plus, division 3 midfielder/striker. That's the Reading way. They made sense to me. 10 million for Tom Ince? Don't make me laugh. Trying to get Gulfi back? Even less likely. It just doesn't sit right with me.

For fvck's sake. "We've shown no appetite for high profile signings... 10 million for Tom Ince.. .Trying to get Gylfi back." Try not to at least contradict yourself within the same post.

I'm confused you've managed to come to that conclusion from what I actually wrote as that's clearly not the point I was making.

Why don't you re-read the sentence in full, rather than just cutting and pasting random bits from it?

[mr_number]

You've said that we've shown no appetite for big money signings, and then highlighted two cases where tried to make big money signings.

[reading_fan]

Have read most of the thread so far, and a few comments on various suggestions in it:

1. To those calling Brian "McDonut"
Have some bloody respect. Yes, the season may not be going as well as we'd hoped, and you may not agree with the style of football we've played, but the job that Brian has done in his time in charge as manager, plus his preceding 10 years involvement with the club means he deserves more respect than childish name calling to make you sound like you've got a valid point.

2. To those saying they don't want Di Canio because he has no experience higher than League One
As true as that statement is, Brian even hadn't managed in the football league before he took over the manager's job, so it doesn't necessarily follow that Di Canio won't be able to do a good job higher up because of no previous experience at that level. I don't want him in charge either, but I thought it was a point worth making.

3. It's not over yet
Yes, it's not looking great right now, and I'll admit, I'm not convinced we'll get out of it. However, we still have a chance, and we need to keep supporting the boys right up to the end of the season and who knows what may happen. Pog misses the next two, away to Arsenal and United (which in all likelihood we'll lose anyway), but is back for the Southampton game after that, so we could resort to the 451 that brought us a little bit of success in January for the remainder of the season and we may be able to scramble enough points from somewhere to stay up. Until it's mathematically certain we'll go down, we have to stay behind the boys. Have the full post mortem in the summer, when we can truly look back at what's gone right and wrong, but that's not to say we shouldn't be learning from our mistakes now.

[Royal Lady]

Don't think there's any reason to be rude to someone just because they hold differing opinions to your own Maff. Do you think it's just a coincidence that Coppell also "didn't spend all the money he was given"? Do you really think mcD would make the same mistake? I don't. I never believed Coppell had that much to spend and I don't believe McD did either. Have a nice day.

[sandman]

Seriously, get a grip lads - how much do you think some of these managers would want? And anyway, they wouldn't come once they found out the budget available to them. The blame lies with TSI fair and square in my book - they clearly didn't give McD enough money - so McD has had to make do and mend basically. As I said on another thread, maybe this one, they're all blending into one at the moment - you can't make a silk purse with a sow's ear and if you think anyone else could have done much better with the players and their limited abilities then you're not living in the real world.

And Tina from Tilehurst needs to fook right off - she has no idea what she's talking about. Why do BBCRB give her air time!

Funnily enough when she was on the radio she reminded me of you.

[Royal Lady]

If you read my posts from after the game on Saturday - I think you'll find I was talking a lot of sense actually.

It's not the players' faults and I don't believe it's Brian's fault 100% - sure some of his player choices are questionable, but he's not totally to blame here.

[HoneyRoastHoax]

You've said that we've shown no appetite for big money signings, and then highlighted two cases where tried to make big money signings.

I think he was saying he doesn't believe those stories/bids had intent.

[Royal With Cheese]

You've said that we've shown no appetite for big money signings, and then highlighted two cases where tried to make big money signings.

I think he was saying he doesn't believe those stories/bids had intent.

Based on "The Reading Way" the most innocent interpretation could be that the size and proximity to the end of the transfer window they looked completely out of character with this seasons previous dealings.

[mr_number]

You've said that we've shown no appetite for big money signings, and then highlighted two cases where tried to make big money signings.

I think he was saying he doesn't believe those stories/bids had intent.

Based on "The Reading Way" the most innocent interpretation could be that the size and proximity to the end of the transfer window they looked completely out of character with this seasons previous dealings.

I think you have to be realistic here. There aren't a whole load of £10m players who are going to move to a relegation-threatened team. It seems that you wouldn't be satisfied unless we had actually managed to sign one. Fair enough, in some ways, but that would have represented a major achievement IMO. If you're not going to believe what the club says and make up your own narrative, then that just seems that you were never going to be happy with what the club says/does.

[mr_number]

Also, sure they were out of character with previous dealings, but isn't that what you/we all wanted?