How long have our players been at Reading?

[SCIAG]

There's a few mistakes. Jem Karacan was a free agent as Wimbledon were defunct. I had thought we signed him aged 16 (2005) but I may well be wrong.

No Date - Simon Church - Wycombe Wanderers Youth - £10,000

Hard to believe I know, and in that time we have let Charlie Austin and Simon cox leave and also passed up the chance to sign Gary hooper for peanuts

I'll update that.

Who was the youth team coach when we let Austin and Cox go for Church - Mr McDermott?

Erm, you should check that things happened before you blame people for them.

Simon Cox was a senior player demanding regular first team football when SSC let him leave. We didn't let him go because we thought Church was a better bet, we sold him for a considerable sum of money.
Charlie Austin was released by the Academy Director of the time, one Mr B. Rodgers. He was third choice striker behind Church and Bignall.

[Clyde1998]

There's a few mistakes. Jem Karacan was a free agent as Wimbledon were defunct. I had thought we signed him aged 16 (2005) but I may well be wrong.

I'll update that.

Who was the youth team coach when we let Austin and Cox go for Church - Mr McDermott?

Erm, you should check that things happened before you blame people for them.

Simon Cox was a senior player demanding regular first team football when SSC let him leave. We didn't let him go because we thought Church was a better bet, we sold him for a considerable sum of money.
Charlie Austin was released by the Academy Director of the time, one Mr B. Rodgers. He was third choice striker behind Church and Bignall.

A) I've got conflicting data on Jem. I've got some that says he joined Reading in 2005, from Galatasaray, but I've got a quote from Karacan saying "I couldn't go out there [Galatasaray] at only 14 [2003], not speaking the language and so on." So I went with the quote - it might be wrong. Wimbledon "became" (if that's the right word) MK Dons in 2004.

B) McDermott worked with the reserve and youth teams from 2000 to mid-2009, doing scouting work at the same time, but I agree (now) that he didn't have a say in those players. Surely McDermott could've seen that Church wasn't good enough though and made recommendations about him.
Ba) Cox could've been involved more during the 2008-09 season if we kept him. We sold him to Swindon for £200,000 and they sold him to West Brom for £1,500,000. We could've held on for more money, but we make these mistakes...
Bb) Brendan Rodgers did release Austin, but he was "released for being too small". Is that really a good enough reason?

[72 bus]

Charlie Austin was released by the Academy Director of the time, one Mr B. Rodgers. He was third choice striker behind Church and Bignall.

How stupid does that decision look now, if you were third choice behind Bignall you would just give up and get a job in Tesco.
Instead he his probably the best striker in the championship now.

[St. Brynjar]

Charlie Austin was released by the Academy Director of the time, one Mr B. Rodgers. He was third choice striker behind Church and Bignall.

How stupid does that decision look now, if you were third choice behind Bignall you would just give up and get a job in Tesco.
Instead he his probably the best striker in the championship now.

A certain Connor Wickham left the academy too, albeit for family reasons. But still, had Cox, Austin & Wickham all progressed to the first team we'd have quite a lot to boast about.

[maffff]

Pearce joined from Oxford age 12.
Taylor was 8 when he came into the youth team.

Jem didn't go to Galatasary. He was with Wimbledon's youth team. Once 'Wimbledon' were no more and moved outside of London he went on trial at a few places, we picked him up from Man U after he played against one of our youth teams when on trial with them.

Your info is confusing. Are you referring to when they first joined Reading or when they signed their first professional contract? A lot of the youngsters in 2012/13 joined us many years ago so that information is misleading and I don't think 'signed as free agent' is really right when several of these are local lads that we didn't sign from anywhere, maybe 'joined academy' if Reading were their first club (and if it's when they joined, which is what I think you're after), simply say not known if you don't know!

Also of our professionals you're missing Charlie Lossaso (hardly surprising) and Nick Arnold.

Hope that helps.

[melonhead]

the letting go of henry, cox, austin werent mistakes for either us teh club or the player themselves

when he left reading he played for AFC Newbury, Thatcham Town, Kintbury Rangers and his hometown side Hungerford Town, before[3] Moving with his family to Bournemouth, he then switched to nearby semi-professional Wessex League Premier Division team Poole Town while also working as a bricklayer.[4] In the season of 2008–09, Austin scored 46 goals in 48 appearances for Poole in all competitions.[5]

Austin spent the pre-season of the 2009–10 season on trial with League Two club Bournemouth. Although Bournemouth's manager, Eddie Howe, was keen to sign the striker on a permanent deal, Bournemouth were unable to make a move for the striker due to a transfer embargo imposed on the club by the Football League.[6] Austin continued to play for Poole Town, scoring 18 goals in 11 games at the beginning of the season.[7]

austin in particular has gone through a pretty long and low road to get to where he has since leaving reading

[maffff]

And with Cox / Austin, what says if we kept one of them and let Church go that Church would not have developed further at the expense of one of them?

Church possibly not, I wonder if he would have the motivation to force himself up the leagues, but Cox / Austin left longer behind other more senior players may have taken longer to flourish, if their development didn't end up being critically hindered. Cox I guess was further developed than Austin when we let him go.

[ZacNaloen]

Church in a more technical side at a younger age would have continued to develop.

I think we've basically ruined him with long ball tactics. Maybe he has time to find himself again, but not here.

[Clyde1998]

Pearce joined from Oxford age 12.
Taylor was 8 when he came into the youth team.

Jem didn't go to Galatasary. He was with Wimbledon's youth team. Once 'Wimbledon' were no more and moved outside of London he went on trial at a few places, we picked him up from Man U after he played against one of our youth teams when on trial with them.

Your info is confusing. Are you referring to when they first joined Reading or when they signed their first professional contract? A lot of the youngsters in 2012/13 joined us many years ago so that information is misleading and I don't think 'signed as free agent' is really right when several of these are local lads that we didn't sign from anywhere, maybe 'joined academy' if Reading were their first club (and if it's when they joined, which is what I think you're after), simply say not known if you don't know!

Also of our professionals you're missing Charlie Lossaso (hardly surprising) and Nick Arnold.

Hope that helps.

I'll update the information you've given me and change "signed as a free" to "joined academy".

Players that are on processional contracts are listed (maybe a couple that aren't) with the year that they either joined Reading's Academy or the first team (if they didn't go through the academy.

[Clyde1998]

It won't let me edit the OP anymore

Updated.

Orignally posted, with correct formatting on Royals Rendezvous: http://royalsrendezvous.co.uk/topic/9868396/1/

1999/00
No Date - Jake Taylor - joined academy - £0
2001/02
No Date - Alex Pearce - Oxford United Youth - £0
2003/04
No Date - Jem Karacan - Wimbledon Youth - £0 - was on trail before joining Reading at Manchester United.
No Date - Simon Church - Wycombe Wanderers Youth - £10,000
2004/05
No Date - Hal Robson-Kanu - Arsenal Youth - £0
No Date - Adam Federici - joined academy - £0
2005/06
No Date - Alex McCarthy - Wycombe Wanderers Youth - £0
2006/07
No Date - Nicholas Bignall - joined academy - £0
No Date - Gozie Ugwu - joined academy - £0
No Date - Lawson D'Ath - joined academy - £0
26 January 2007 - Mikkel Andersen - Akademisk Boldklub - £150,000
2007/08
No Date - Angus MacDonald - joined academy - £0
28th January 2008 - Jimmy Kebe - Lens - £500,000
2008/09
23rd July 2008 - Noel Hunt - Dundee United - £600,000
19th January 2009 - Jay Tabb - Coventry City - £500,000
2009/10
No Date - Charlie Losasso - joined academy - £0
No Date - Nick Arnold - joined academy - £0
No Date - Michael Hector - Thurrock - £0
No Date - Jordan Obita - joined academy - £0
27th August 2009 - Jobi McAnuff - Watford - £500,000
2nd September 2009 - Shaun Cummings - Chelsea - £250,000
2010/11
No Date - Jon Henly - joined academy - £0
No Date - Matt Partridge - joined academy - £0
No Date - Josh Webb - joined academy - £0
31st August 2010 - Ian Harte - Carlisle United - £100,000
18th January 2011 - Sean Morrison - Swindon Town - £250,000
18th January 2011 - Brett Williams - Eastleigh - £50,000
2011/12
No Date - Uche Ikpeazu - joined academy - £0
3rd May 2011 - Ryan Edwards - Australian Institute of Sport - £0
1st June 2011 - Mikele Leigertwood - Queens Park Rangers - £1,000,000
22nd August 2011 - Joseph Mills - Southampton - £0
24th August 2011 - Kaspars Gorkss - Queens Park Rangers - £900,000
27th August 2011 - Adam Le Fondre - Rotherham United - £350,000
12th January 2012 - Karl Sheppard - Shamrock Rovers - £0
26th January 2012 - Jason Roberts - Blackburn Rovers - £500,000
2012/13
2nd May 2012 - Dominic Samuel - joined academy - £0
16th May 2012 - Garath McCleary - Nottingham Forest - £0
29th June 2012 - Danny Guthrie - Newcastle United - £0
5th July 2012 - Pavel Pogrebnyak - Stuttgart - £0
6th July 2012 - Pierce Sweeney - Bray Wanderers - £60,000
10th July 2012 - Nicky Shorey - West Bromwich Albion - £0
17th July 2012 - Adrian Mariappa - Watford - £2,500,000
17th July 2012 - Chris Gunter - Nottingham Forest - £2,500,000
20th August 2012 - Stuart Taylor - Manchester City - £0
1st January 2013 - Daniel Carrico - Sporting Lisbon - £600,000
8th January 2013 - Hope Akpan - Crawley Town - £300,000
11th January 2013 - Stephen Kelly - Fulham - £1,000,000
30th January 2013 - Nick Blackman - Sheffield United - £1,200,000

Any player I've missed out please say

This squad, of forty-eight, was put together with £13,320,000 - £287,917 per player.

[The Beardy Man]

Church in a more technical side at a younger age would have continued to develop.

I think we've basically ruined him with long ball tactics. Maybe he has time to find himself again, but not here.

I agree with this, easy to forget Liverpool were keeping tabs on him as a promising youngster at one stage. Also clearly remember him being the best player on the pitch in a 2 legged U21 tie against England U21's.

Not every player goes on to fulfill their potential, often pretty hard to say who will (the absolute standouts aside).

EDIT: Arguable as a regular championship player that our coaches made the right call re church at the time. He ended up as a regular player at the level we were operating at.

[sandman]

Orignally posted, with correct formatting on Royals Rendezvous: http://royalsrendezvous.co.uk/topic/9868396/1/

"Don't need some of that lot on here". Stick to holding hands with opposition supporters you hippy cnuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNC2bofEetE

[SCIAG]

B) McDermott worked with the reserve and youth teams from 2000 to mid-2009, doing scouting work at the same time, but I agree (now) that he didn't have a say in those players. Surely McDermott could've seen that Church wasn't good enough though and made recommendations about him.
Ba) Cox could've been involved more during the 2008-09 season if we kept him. We sold him to Swindon for £200,000 and they sold him to West Brom for £1,500,000. We could've held on for more money, but we make these mistakes...

B) Church was good enough. His levels of performance further down in the system were only slightly below those of HRK, Sigurdsson, Golbourne and Karacan and comparable to someone like Julian Kelly, who would probably be the player Cummings is if he hadn't had his injury problems. He was a very good finisher and was rated by other clubs, even being linked to Liverpool for quite a while. He also put in a storming performance for Wales u21s against England where Ramsey set him up for two excellent goals.

Ba) Cox wanted to go there and then. If we had played hard ball, he would still have been behind Doyle, Hunt, Long and Lita (and maybe Mooney, and eventually Kitson) after our relegation. Let's say he managed to displace Lita and Long and we never signed Kitson- he'd quite possibly not have suited that side as well as Long did, and he'd still not have been in the first team every week! We'd also probably have missed out on this last promotion if Cox had displaced Long, because Long wouldn't have been as valuable, we wouldn't have made the playoff final, and we would have had to sell other players like Kebe and Leigertwood to balance the books.

[Clyde1998]

B) McDermott worked with the reserve and youth teams from 2000 to mid-2009, doing scouting work at the same time, but I agree (now) that he didn't have a say in those players. Surely McDermott could've seen that Church wasn't good enough though and made recommendations about him.
Ba) Cox could've been involved more during the 2008-09 season if we kept him. We sold him to Swindon for £200,000 and they sold him to West Brom for £1,500,000. We could've held on for more money, but we make these mistakes...

B) Church was good enough. His levels of performance further down in the system were only slightly below those of HRK, Sigurdsson, Golbourne and Karacan and comparable to someone like Julian Kelly, who would probably be the player Cummings is if he hadn't had his injury problems. He was a very good finisher and was rated by other clubs, even being linked to Liverpool for quite a while. He also put in a storming performance for Wales u21s against England where Ramsey set him up for two excellent goals.

Ba) Cox wanted to go there and then. If we had played hard ball, he would still have been behind Doyle, Hunt, Long and Lita (and maybe Mooney, and eventually Kitson) after our relegation. Let's say he managed to displace Lita and Long and we never signed Kitson- he'd quite possibly not have suited that side as well as Long did, and he'd still not have been in the first team every week! We'd also probably have missed out on this last promotion if Cox had displaced Long, because Long wouldn't have been as valuable, we wouldn't have made the playoff final, and we would have had to sell other players like Kebe and Leigertwood to balance the books.

I'm not going to argue with that.

Didn't Cox go on loan to Swindon the year before signing for them?

[SCIAG]

Yeah.

On the fee, we sacrificed the initial amount to an extent in exchange for the sell on fee (off the top of my head I think it was 25% but it might have been 10%)- I think that turned out quite nicely for us

[melonhead]

B) McDermott worked with the reserve and youth teams from 2000 to mid-2009, doing scouting work at the same time, but I agree (now) that he didn't have a say in those players. Surely McDermott could've seen that Church wasn't good enough though and made recommendations about him.
Ba) Cox could've been involved more during the 2008-09 season if we kept him. We sold him to Swindon for £200,000 and they sold him to West Brom for £1,500,000. We could've held on for more money, but we make these mistakes...

B) Church was good enough. His levels of performance further down in the system were only slightly below those of HRK, Sigurdsson, Golbourne and Karacan and comparable to someone like Julian Kelly, who would probably be the player Cummings is if he hadn't had his injury problems. He was a very good finisher and was rated by other clubs, even being linked to Liverpool for quite a while. He also put in a storming performance for Wales u21s against England where Ramsey set him up for two excellent goals.

Ba) Cox wanted to go there and then. If we had played hard ball, he would still have been behind Doyle, Hunt, Long and Lita (and maybe Mooney, and eventually Kitson) after our relegation. Let's say he managed to displace Lita and Long and we never signed Kitson- he'd quite possibly not have suited that side as well as Long did, and he'd still not have been in the first team every week! We'd also probably have missed out on this last promotion if Cox had displaced Long, because Long wouldn't have been as valuable, we wouldn't have made the playoff final, and we would have had to sell other players like Kebe and Leigertwood to balance the books.

plus cox has done the square root of fookall at the level he thought he deserved to play at since he left, so.....

[72 bus]

plus cox has done the square root of fookall at the level he thought he deserved to play at since he left, so.....

Except be part of the WBA team that won promotion, play and score in the premiership and represent his country 22 times
Plus trouser three nice signing on fees, I doubt he has any regrets

[JayRoyal]

Someone fancy whipping up QPR's, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than 100m

[YateleyRoyal]

Someone fancy whipping up QPR's, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than 100m

Do it yourself you lazy oxf*rd

[Clyde1998]

Someone fancy whipping up QPR's, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than 100m

I'll have a go