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

[Platypuss]

Doobs is exactly the kind of level-headed committed professional we need. He's certainly still got what it takes for the CCC.

[The 17 Bus]

Typical HNA style thread, as PP says Doobs is exactly the sort of player to help at CCC level, I would add Harper, Hahnemann, Inga, Murty, Kitson, Rosenior, Convey, Gunnar.

Bikey and Matejovski, Cisse and Kebe may find things a tad different, but hopefully at least 2 of them will find their feet in the Championship.

Sadly Hunt, Doyle, Shorey and Sonko all had their heads turned in the Prem, and the drop down may make them feel they are at too low a level.

The rest of the squad I have no real opinions as to how it will affect them.

[RoyalBlue]

What do I read into it?

Well JM continues to 'answer' the questions like a true politician! In truth, there is little of real substance in the answers given.

What do I expect to happen? We will sell some of our star players and I suspect, for all of the talk about the club not being taken advantage of, supporters will be disappointed in the amount that we get for them (if, indeed, that is even disclosed).

Steve Coppell will be allowed to reinvest some of the money raised by the sale of players in buying replacements.

Wage bill be be cut by significantly reducing the number of senior professionals on the books. Steve Coppell will be allowed to use some of the money on covering the wages of any new signings.

In short, Steve Coppell will be expected to perform another footballing economic miracle.

Will he be able to do that at all, let alone in a year?

[Royal Rother]

If it comes to pass in the way you suggest then there have been very few managers in the last 30 years with a better record at dealing with it.

[howser]

It is quite astonishing that we still would seem to have to "sell" players to raise money to get new ones in, we have just completed 2 years in the premiership the "silver spoon", the "golden challice" of football the wealthiest league with the highest prize money in the world and we are still threading the "we aint broke, but we aint that well off either" tag, No transfers of any signifcance, salaries that, though obscene, were poor by premiership standards. I had said on a previous thread on here that my concern with relegation was that it would turn into another money making venture, in that we sell Shorey, Hunt, Doyle and Marek make £12m-£15m on those sales and invest it completely in the spirit and enthusiasm of the academy players who were out on loan this past season, and nothing that has been said has changed my opinion. I always thought that after our first season success in the top league that we completely missed the chance to progress any further, only enhancing the name of "little Reading" and I was also bemused by SSC's comments this last week when he said that in September when we got duffed by West Ham that he thought we were too week and were going to struggle this year, so what happened in the January window, were the club in winter hibernation, or was it a case that they had been made to cough up the £25,000 per week to some players and were getting scared that a trend for salries had been set and it was time that we got out of this crazy premiership world !!

We were never "grown up" to live in the big boys league and I am not convinced under the present stewardship that they are whole hearted in getting there again.

[Zammo]

It is quite astonishing that we still would seem to have to "sell" players to raise money to get new ones in, we have just completed 2 years in the premiership the "silver spoon", the "golden challice" of football the wealthiest league with the highest prize money in the world and we are still threading the "we aint broke, but we aint that well off either" tag, No transfers of any signifcance, salaries that, though obscene, were poor by premiership standards. I had said on a previous thread on here that my concern with relegation was that it would turn into another money making venture, in that we sell Shorey, Hunt, Doyle and Marek make £12m-£15m on those sales and invest it completely in the spirit and enthusiasm of the academy players who were out on loan this past season, and nothing that has been said has changed my opinion. I always thought that after our first season success in the top league that we completely missed the chance to progress any further, only enhancing the name of "little Reading" and I was also bemused by SSC's comments this last week when he said that in September when we got duffed by West Ham that he thought we were too week and were going to struggle this year, so what happened in the January window, were the club in winter hibernation, or was it a case that they had been made to cough up the £25,000 per week to some players and were getting scared that a trend for salries had been set and it was time that we got out of this crazy premiership world !!

We were never "grown up" to live in the big boys league and I am not convinced under the present stewardship that they are whole hearted in getting there again.

Well said that man. The 'transfer policy' is splashed all over the back page of the EP today and my first thought was 'pathetic Reading'. Less than 24 hours after Coppell stays; Mr Mad says we have to sell to buy. Anyone thinking about a swift return to the Prem should think again. Under this regime we will never return to the big time. To be honest, we don't deserve too. We are a small club who has had their 15 minutes of fame.

[Vision]

The problem is of course that when people talk about being wholehearted in their ambition for Premiership football this can only be demonstrated in financial terms. IE someone having to foot the bill to demonstrate this "ambition". That someone for the last 15 years has been JM but his ideal all along has been to get the ramshackle old football club that he took over all those years ago to be a viable business in its own right. I don't see that anything he has said or done in the intervening years has really veered away from this.

Another season in the Premiership and then the financially significant input into stadium development would have been viable. Relegation means it isn't. Equally the substantial loss of TV revenue will obviously lead to the cutting back in certain areas. Neither of these things really go against what he has said ad nauseam from day 1. Equally he will certainly hope that the significant yearly investment into the Academy will eventually bare fruit but equally this is really the decision of the manager and not the Chairman himself thankfully.

We will sell certain players of that i'm certain (Shorey i believe was a gonner regardless of Premiership survival) but apart from '95 no manager has ever been forced to "cash in" on their prized assets at this club as they have been at virtually every other club outside of the top echelons of the Premiership in the same period. People always tend to overlook this when they berate JM for a supposed lack of ambition.

The difference now of course is that we have players who have 2 years of Premiership experience under their belt and will attract attention from clubs with significantly more financial muscle than ourselves. Even if we were of a mind to hold onto everyone, it would be unlikely that we would get the best out of a player that knew he was the subject of a Premiership bid. Coppell's own sense of integrity would indicate he's unlikely to stand in anyones way in those circumstances provided a reasonable bid is offered.

In many ways i see relegation as a good opportunity to prepare for life without JM. The obsession with remaining in the Premiership can be all consuming and its very difficult to believe that it is possible to exist and be happy outside of the "big show". Perhaps now is the opportunity to take the plunge of integrating the youth players into the match day squad. Rather than taking punts on the likes of Bennet, Sodje, Halls etc to boost our squad it should now be automatic that our own young players , whom we have already invested money in, take up those places as a matter of course. If we can sustain this then it will still remain possible to add the odd (relatively) top quality signing without making too much of a dent into our financial budget.

[Royal Rother]

I am perfectly relaxed with the continuing prudency shown in the sell to buy policy personally - it is greatly preferable to Derby and Birmingham who qute possibly will have to sell to avoid administration in the next 2 or 3 years, such was the size of the gamble they took. Whatever the mistakes made and admitted, JM and SC did not put the club in a position where that was even a remote possibility.

I'd rather have to sell to buy than sell to survive personally.

[Y25]

getting out the dead wood is all fine and dandy

but I do not agree with squad size being to big

I expect at least 4-7 new quality signings

[brendywendy]

If we get rid of all of Robson Kanu, Pearce, Henry and Karacan, I will cry. Do you seriously want our Academy prospects to leave? And how is dumping four youth players going to have much effect on our wage bill, when they probably don't earn Stephen Hunt's salary between them?

theyll be the cheapest in terms of wages etc, and also with the most potential for improvement and financial gain, so id worry hugely if we decided to sell those boys

id say getting some of the higher earners,shorey and hunt perhaps, who may attract multimillion pound bids would be a priority over any of them

[Elm Park]

It is quite astonishing that we still would seem to have to "sell" players to raise money to get new ones in......

Who said we had to sell to raise money to buy new players.

I read it that, if we want to bring in new players then we need to make room in the squad as SSC believes that it is too large at the moment. Whether you agree with that is a different question.

[Fezza]

getting out the dead wood is all fine and dandy

but I do not agree with squad size being to big

I expect at least 4-7 new quality signings

Expect away.

[Wycombe Royal]

Isn't wat Madejski said what all teams do on relegation? They get rid of the dead wood (some of that is already done), sell on some of the high earners (not sure we really have any of those), lose a couple of stars (that will happen in the next 2 or 3 months) and then bring in some new faces to refresh the squad.

Nothing earth shattering there.

[Kevin Doyles Right Foot]

Mikkel Anderson is awesome on the FM update...

[Southbank Old Boy]

We will sell certain players of that i'm certain (Shorey i believe was a gonner regardless of Premiership survival) but apart from '95 no manager has ever been forced to "cash in" on their prized assets at this club as they have been at virtually every other club outside of the top echelons of the Premiership in the same period. People always tend to overlook this when they berate JM for a supposed lack of ambition.

'greed with all the rest Vision, but have we ever had significant bids or interest in our players post-95 to really test that resolve?

I think our lack of selling is more down to a lack of interest as opposed to a stedfast policy not to sell anyone of any value.

It could be that the lack of interest is down to a general thinking in the gamet that our players aren't available, and I'd agree that we've never been in the position where we've had to make it known our players are available because we need the cash. Maybe that's more where you're coming from.

I'll be amazed if we don't see some more significant comings and goings in the next few months, but I shocked and very disappointed if any of our better youngsters (Pearce, Karacan, Henry, Robson-Kanu and Church) are among those moving on.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

The Chairman couldn't say the right things if his life deepened on it!!

I don't think he's saying that we need to sell to buy, just that things are stale and that Coppell has to make big changes to the playing staff.

I'm sure part of the conversations between JM and Coppell have been havings has been along the lines of JM wanting assurances that there would be no repeat of last seasons transfer policy and that things would be freshened up. There are clearly people in the squad who attitudes have had a negative effect on the side and there are a few, who just are not good enough.

We need substantial changes this summer, Coppell will simply have to get over his issues of signing people and get on with the job.

Hopefully with Coppell away on holiday, we can sneak a few new faces in before he gets back.

[chilipepper91]

Mikkel Anderson is awesome on the FM update...

Fae was a first choice midfielder on the FM update

[Vision]

We will sell certain players of that i'm certain (Shorey i believe was a gonner regardless of Premiership survival) but apart from '95 no manager has ever been forced to "cash in" on their prized assets at this club as they have been at virtually every other club outside of the top echelons of the Premiership in the same period. People always tend to overlook this when they berate JM for a supposed lack of ambition.

'greed with all the rest Vision, but have we ever had significant bids or interest in our players post-95 to really test that resolve?

I think our lack of selling is more down to a lack of interest as opposed to a stedfast policy not to sell anyone of any value.

It could be that the lack of interest is down to a general thinking in the gamet that our players aren't available, and I'd agree that we've never been in the position where we've had to make it known our players are available because we need the cash. Maybe that's more where you're coming from.

I'll be amazed if we don't see some more significant comings and goings in the next few months, but I shocked and very disappointed if any of our better youngsters (Pearce, Karacan, Henry, Robson-Kanu and Church) are among those moving on.

We'll never know for sure of course but given that as a club we progressed pretty much every season from around 2000 onward i don't think its much of a leap to think that there would have been interest in some of our key players during that period. Certainly we could have cashed in on Sidwell before we even reached the Premiership and i recall the same for Harper as well whilst Shorey, Doyle and Hunt could all have been cashed in on in the last 12 months if we wanted. Indeed some would argue not selling those players was a mistake.

Also if clubs weren't bidding for players because they are under the impression we are not a selling club its because we are not a "selling club" which underlines my point as far as i'm concerned. Football is pretty incestuous and word soon gets around when its not worth wasting time trying to prise players away from certain clubs. Unless you're Roy Keane obviously.

Agree totally about the youngsters. They should be part and parcel of the tight close-knit squad which Coppell prefers and in my opinion relegation affords us the perfect opportunity to do just that. As i said if we can do this on a consistent basis then it will give us the opportunity to really pursue quality signings without damaging our overall finances and wage bill. I tend to look at Middlesboro in recent seasons as a possible model for us. Obviously there market muscle is a fair bit in advance of ours but the principle itself is something that could work for us.

Having said that i doubt Coppell or JM see it in the same way.

[howser]

[quote="Elm PArk"][quote="howser"]It is quite astonishing that we still would seem to have to "sell" players to raise money to get new ones in......[/quote]

Who said we had to sell to raise money to buy new players

I read it that, if we want to bring in new players then we need to make room in the squad as SSC believes that it is too large at the moment. Whether you agree with that is a different question.[/quote]

Chief executive Nigel Howe told the Evening Post: “What we have said to Steve is that if he trades well it should release enough funds to go forward. But he won’t have money unless he sells. At the moment we are just trying to balance the budget.

NIGEL HOWE did !!

[Chuckle Brother]

The way I read the comments coming out of the club (or from the manager in particular) is he wants to trim the squad to a more manageable level by getting rid of those who have made or will make little or no impact, and replacing them with a smaller number of quality players.
That way, the numbers are reduced but the standard is increased.
Could anyone argue with that plan ?