Transfer Policy and Squad Size - what do you read into it?

[Wycombe Royal]

Yes but that is the current situation including the highest paid players who the club intends to sell. After that we will be middle range at best.

You would be surprised at how little some Championship clubs pay.

[I was there at Elm Park]

Yes but that is the current situation including the highest paid players who the club intends to sell. After that we will be middle range at best.

You would be surprised at how little some Championship clubs pay.

You say that but I read that Barnsley are paying Luke Steele £5000 a week. To me that seems a hell of a lot of money for a small club like Barnsley.

[Wycombe Royal]

Yes but that is the current situation including the highest paid players who the club intends to sell. After that we will be middle range at best.

You would be surprised at how little some Championship clubs pay.

You say that but I read that Barnsley are paying Luke Steele £5000 a week. To me that seems a hell of a lot of money for a small club like Barnsley.

We were paying wages like that to the likes of Nicky Forster when we were in League 1. £5k is not a lot for a club in the Championship.

[brendywendy]

not sure it made any difference when newcastle, west ham and the like are all talking top nickys agent about him wanting a move anyway-his contract is up, so its either another year of perhaps substandardperformances, and lose him for free, or get around 5 million quid for the 3/4 best left back in the country
id be upset if we didnt sell him to be fair

and from now on can people just stop with the where has the money gone stuff
its not even that hard, just need to engage the old brain

and as for blaming mr mad? for what? for running us as a business ? for ensuring that no matter what happens we will be financially viable.

and yes we were low payers in the prem, but in case no one had noticed we have just been relegated to the championship where we will now be one of the higher payers

Not according to our Chairman.............................

Even though we get the £11million parachute, we have still got very highly paid players – even with the reduction in wages, so I think we will have to budget for a small loss.
“Salaries have to be at the middle range and some in the upper range for the Championship.”

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... ut_selling

so in response to me saying we are now one of the higher payers in the championship-youve posted a quote saying we have some in the middle, and some in the higher range?
doesnt that make us one of the highest payers in the championship?

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Seriously, someone lock Nigel Howe in a cupboard and never let him speak again.

Why is he talking about transfers anyway? He's got nothing to do with them.

[FiNeRaIn]

Madejski cannot be serious with his comments about selling to buy, I don't believe he thinks we are all that stupid.
We've spent two years in the top flight, spent nothing and received millions and we have to sell to buy? LOL. I can only think he's trying this approach so soften the asking prices of possible players.
590 for a season ticket last year under the promise we'd " compete" in the transfer market, we sign FA and then have to make " cutbacks" this year, again, big LOL.

[brendywendy]

[Vision]

There's a lot of dead wood floating around our club and some of it handsomely paid. What the hell were we doing with twelve players out on loan this Spring. That suggests too much squad inflation. I think the policy is run a tighter ship, smaller more unified squad, use some of our talented youngsters more readily for back-up, and then we can afford to pay competetive wages for the kinds of players we need. To be honest, I can't see how anyone can argue with that.

Thank f*ck for that. 4 lines to explain what i couldn't in 4 paragraphs.

I'm not convinced at the wisdom of Howe's public firesale outburst mind, but the reality is that we need to significantly cut the size of the playing squad and the responsibility for who goes and stays still appears to be with Coppell.

Surtely the reason the squad got so large (for no real benefit) was because of the salary structure? While money has always been avaible for transfer fees, the apparent cap on individuals' wages means that we could recruit oodles of mediocre palyters on "average" wages, but not offer enough to recruit the few quality individuals that would have made a genuine difference. That is why SC cannot take sole blame for last season's relagation.

Never has the quality >>> quantity adage been more amply demonstrated than Reading FC 07/08.

I hope we have truly learned the lesson.

I think the keypoint Arch makes is " we can afford to pay competetive wages for the kinds of players we need."

If instead of forking out for the likes of Sodje, Halls and Bennett who were basically little more than hopeful punts, those places will hopefully be taken by youngsters from the academy. Saving on transfer fees and certainly initial wages. A tighter peripheral squad would free up resourses for higher calibre targets. You're right of course in that we need to be more flexible in our approach for these types although equally we also need to ensure that our hit rate for the higher calibre signings is better. I shudder to think if we'd broken our supposed wage structure for Fae and Halford!!

[Skyline]

As for Shorey, we've said we want a decent price and by the sounds of things there will be a few bidding for him. If you've ever player Football Manager you'll know that when a few parties are involved you can continuously stall bids and negotiate until you get the price you want, and with JM being a businessman he'll be a pro at this.

This has got to be the HNA? equivalent of Godwin's Law, surely? Invoking FM or CM to prove a point is just, well, pointless.

[Hoop Blah]

Players all over the country have to accept that better players get paid more than their team mates.

I know we got where we did with this team ethos and a supposedly pretty flat wage structure but the reality is that better players can demand better wages. If the lesser players can't handly it then thats their problem, they're a lot easier to replace at the end of the day. Keeping the wage structure was supposed to keep the squad happy. I think the last few months have shown that it doesn't really work like that and it's a false economy.

If Coppell felt the wage structure was preventing him signing the two or three players that would've 'taken us to the next level' then he should've been kicking the Chairmans door down to let him do it. It seems that he didn't want to break the structure either, and so for me he still shoulders the blame with Madejski on that front.

I remember Pardew saying how at Palace they all knew Ian Wright was on massive wages compared to the rest of them. They didn't really care about it though because he could win them games almost on his own. We needed players better than the ones we've got. Unfortunately you've got to pay them to get them.

[Hoop Blah]

Yes but that is the current situation including the highest paid players who the club intends to sell. After that we will be middle range at best.

You would be surprised at how little some Championship clubs pay.

These are some 2006 wage bills from the figures I have access to (for the same year our wage bill was £12.5m):

Coventry - 7.1
Leeds - 15.7
PNE - 6.7
Sheff U - 15.2
Ipswich - 9.9
Norwich - 15.4
Cardiff - 8.1
Palace - 18.1
Watford - 9.4
Leicester - 11.6
QPR - 6.3

For the same year a few Prem sides

'Boro - 28.7
Portsmouth - 24.8
Spurs - 39.7
Fulham - 30.1
Newcastle - 52.2
Liverpool - 68.9

[North Somerset Royal]

Brendy Wendy wrote...so in response to me saying we are now one of the higher payers in the championship-youve posted a quote saying we have some in the middle, and some in the higher range?
doesnt that make us one of the highest payers in the championship?

No B/W. Please see my response to thie same point from Royal Rother. JM said that CURRENTLY we have some highly paid players and our wages must be generally mid range with the elite at the top end. If we retained those players we would incur a loss hence the club are trying to move on the highly paid which will leave us firmly mid range. Personally I regard us as a Championship club and as long as we can maintain that status I am happy. Its the pretence by JM and others that we are aiming for an early return to and then consolidation in the Prem that gets me. Clearly that would require us to retain our best players and pay top end Championship wages which we are not prepared to do {rightly in my view)

[Royal Rother]

Yes but that is the current situation including the highest paid players who the club intends to sell. After that we will be middle range at best.

Without reading the whole article, just seeing the quote you extracted, I thought JM was talking about what is has to be for the coming season (is that not the case?) - so it seemed reasonable to assume that whoever gets sold, he intends us to still have players in the higher range.

[brendywendy]

i too thought that this referred to the coming season, once changes have been made

[rhroyal]

As for Shorey, we've said we want a decent price and by the sounds of things there will be a few bidding for him. If you've ever player Football Manager you'll know that when a few parties are involved you can continuously stall bids and negotiate until you get the price you want, and with JM being a businessman he'll be a pro at this.

This has got to be the HNA? equivalent of Godwin's Law, surely? Invoking FM or CM to prove a point is just, well, pointless.

It may be a game, but it's really well researched. The idea that a slight tinker of a formation can turn the game around or some bizarre tactic can win you titles lacks realism. Likewise I'm guessing if your team talk every match was "For the fans!" I'd question how effective that would be. However the scouting of the players and the insight into the transfer system are both pretty good.

[Ian Royal]

Yes but that is the current situation including the highest paid players who the club intends to sell. After that we will be middle range at best.

You would be surprised at how little some Championship clubs pay.

These are some 2006 wage bills from the figures I have access to (for the same year our wage bill was £12.5m):

Coventry - 7.1
Leeds - 15.7
PNE - 6.7
Sheff U - 15.2
Ipswich - 9.9
Norwich - 15.4
Cardiff - 8.1
Palace - 18.1
Watford - 9.4
Leicester - 11.6
QPR - 6.3

For the same year a few Prem sides

'Boro - 28.7
Portsmouth - 24.8
Spurs - 39.7
Fulham - 30.1
Newcastle - 52.2
Liverpool - 68.9

Given our Prem wage bills was something around the £20m mark maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more. That shows how much we need to cut it by. I'd say by at least £5m. Bare in mind Hunt alone costs us about £1.5m

[Huntley & Palmer]

As for Shorey, we've said we want a decent price and by the sounds of things there will be a few bidding for him. If you've ever player Football Manager you'll know that when a few parties are involved you can continuously stall bids and negotiate until you get the price you want, and with JM being a businessman he'll be a pro at this.

This has got to be the HNA? equivalent of Godwin's Law, surely? Invoking FM or CM to prove a point is just, well, pointless.

It's what Hitler would have wanted

[North Somerset Royal]

i too thought that this referred to the coming season, once changes have been made

Yes but that is the current situation including the highest paid players who the club intends to sell. After that we will be middle range at best.

Without reading the whole article, just seeing the quote you extracted, I thought JM was talking about what is has to be for the coming season (is that not the case?) - so it seemed reasonable to assume that whoever gets sold, he intends us to still have players in the higher range.

You may be right but I do not think so. The players contracts provide for a 40% reduction in wages on relegation. However even taking account of that the budget projection shows a loss. Nigel Howe has said that SC could keep existing squad but if he wants funds to bring in new people he will have to to sell. Several top earners are being targeted by Prem clubs and have indicated (some by lack of effort) that they want out. All of this tends to point to my interpretation being correct and that current high earners will go to be replaced by Champoinship players on average pay. Admittedly there has been talk of reducing the squad size but in reality is there much scope for that beyond youngsters who most teams do not include in published squads in any event? In the Prem next year teams have to field 7 subs but I am not sure if this also applies in Championship.

[rhroyal]

As for Shorey, we've said we want a decent price and by the sounds of things there will be a few bidding for him. If you've ever player Football Manager you'll know that when a few parties are involved you can continuously stall bids and negotiate until you get the price you want, and with JM being a businessman he'll be a pro at this.

This has got to be the HNA? equivalent of Godwin's Law, surely? Invoking FM or CM to prove a point is just, well, pointless.

It's what Hitler would have wanted

I don't quite understand how you jump to that conclusion, unless you're comparing my logic to the logic in Aryans being the master race. I like to think what I said was created from a little more than just thin air.

[Platypuss]

This has got to be the HNA? equivalent of Godwin's Law, surely? Invoking FM or CM to prove a point is just, well, pointless.

It's what Hitler would have wanted

I don't quite understand how you jump to that conclusion, unless you're comparing my logic to the logic in Aryans being the master race. I like to think what I said was created from a little more than just thin air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwins_law

HTH, HAND, FOAD.