Loanees

[JC]

I see Simon Cox has repeated today that he would like to go on loan to a Championship club

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

McDermott and Nicky were apparently at the Chelsea game last night. Could have been looking at Ranger.

Probably there to reminisce, and chew the cud, on what it WAS like to go to a premiership ground ...hardly likely they were going to look at a player...god forbid!

[Hoop Blah]

Watson would be a good addition, but at the same time I still think we need a bit of a midfield general than another pretty boy.

Ben Watson is ten, if not twenty, times the player Brian Howard is. He is an excellent player at this level with decent technical ability and will also get stuck in if needed.

I agree he's a much more accomplished player than those currently in our squad. I don't think he offers much of a physical presence though (he doesn't mind a tackle admittedly but it's nto quite what I mean) and with the way we play with 2 pretty much out and out wingers I think we still need that.

Perhaps Hammond and McDermott were at the Chelsea game to take a look at Gael Kakuta who I think we were linked with last season. He'd be a direct replacement for Sigurdsson...

[Thomas L'Heureux]

Perhaps Hammond and McDermott were at the Chelsea game to take a look at Gael Kakuta who I think we were linked with last season. He'd be a direct replacement for Sigurdsson...

I think the only reason we were linked with Kakuta last season was because of Rogers. Any Championship club that signs that boy will be seriously laughing. He has a big future from what I've seen and heard.

[shaka's shorts]

Players will be released for loan for clubs out of League Cup (hence Livermore going to Ipswich from Spurs today). Shame WBA won as that makes it harder to get Simon Cox. If McD and Hammond were at Chelsea (who lost) and they are saying in the Chronic that he wouldn't rule out someone by this weekend, maybe we have someone lined up from Chelsea? Hope so..... Kakuta would be awesome.

[Hoop Blah]

Perhaps Hammond and McDermott were at the Chelsea game to take a look at Gael Kakuta who I think we were linked with last season. He'd be a direct replacement for Sigurdsson...

I think the only reason we were linked with Kakuta last season was because of Rogers. Any Championship club that signs that boy will be seriously laughing. He has a big future from what I've seen and heard.

We probably have a decent relationship with them these days though. I'm sure they were reasonably pleased with the way we looked after Bertrand last season, even if Rodgers was the driving force getting him here in the first place.

[Hoop Blah]

If we're shopping at the £1 shop end of the market then perhaps we should be taking a look at Barnsley's bench tomorrow. SSN was reporting earlier that they've made Liam Dickenson available for loan.

He's by no means the best in the world, but he is a pretty mobile big lad with an ok scoring record (albeit in the league below). Probably not better than what we have, but certainly a different option to have.

[Duke the Dog]

I don't think the loan route is as simple as plucking someone from a Premier club who's missed their 25 (or however many it is).

1) They have to better than we already have (ok, that's probably fairly easy to fulfill).

2) They have to offer something that we don't already have (for me at least that rules out Cox, but I'm always prepared to be persuaded otherwise).

3) Wages may be too steep (we are after all, tight wads).

4) The player may not want to come to the area/club (northern come south, London better than Reading, club too small, etc etc).

5) Someone else may nip and take him first.

6) It can be a bit of gamble, esp with the younger untried players (but the Defoe's, Bertrand's, Johnson's etc, show there are gems to be had on loan).

7) Heston may not feel he has to hurry into anything at the moment (but don't leave it too late will you!).

[Hoop Blah]

None of those reasons prevent us from finding additions though really, they just reduce the number of options.

Other clubs can do, and we have in the past, so it really shouldn't be that difficult.

In regards to points 1 & 2 though, the if the player adds something different to the squad, something that we need, then they don't have to be better than what we already have (unless you count, for example, the U16s big lump of a centre forward when looking at our options for 'plan b').

In regards to Simon Cox, he is certainly different to what we already have. For starters he's a confident and pretty consistent goalscorer. Secondly he played a decent amount as a kid in midfield and is well capable of playing in the hole in a way our other forwards aren't.