SIGNED - Hope Akpan

[Ian Royal]

I'm slightly perplexed by this as we have a number of midfielders who are proven at a higher level.

Hopefully he is more of a Long than a Baseya...

Proven? Tabb and Leigertwood aren't up to it at this level, so that rules them out. Karacan maybe, and Guthrie. We clearly need a lot of work in this area.

I actually think Tabb's been our best midfielder and is unlucky to have been dropped. He doesn't score admittedly, but he covers the same sort of ground as Karacan (maybe a bit slower), is strong, calm and keeps his passing simple and tidy. He does also get forward occasionally and could easily have won us three penalties this season.

I'd really like to see him work with Guthrie and either Legs or preferably someone new and better - maybe that could be Akpan or Carrico...

Harsh on Jem, who I'd say is probably more a prem player than Legs, but his passing is the worst of the four in general and I don't think we can get away with central midfield of hobbits.

[SPARTA]

Sorry guys i'm an everton fan but i cant believe you have actually bought akpan.He's the worst player ive ever seen wear an everton shirt.He won't get in your first team so i dont see the point in signing him,you should be signing much better players than this.Your manager and board should be ashamed.

He left you 18 months ago and has clearly developed a lot since then. You're opinion is somewhat out of date to be fair.

[yappy]

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, Akpan!

[winchester_royal]

Sorry guys i'm an everton fan but i cant believe you have actually bought akpan.He's the worst player ive ever seen wear an everton shirt.He won't get in your first team so i dont see the point in signing him,you should be signing much better players than this.Your manager and board should be ashamed.

Nah it's alright m8 we don't go around attacking our chairman's car like you lot. Cheers though.

p.s. what he did for you 2 years ago in a solitary game isn't of that much interest to us.

[From Despair To Where?]

Actually quite pleased with this signing. Strong, hungry, on the up. Doesn't cost the earth.

I would've hoped we could get some big hitters to keep us up but hey, no probs if that's not our game plan, this sort of signing might be good.

homophobia? Hardly. He's only a kid and some stupid things went up on his twitter account. Apologised. Nothing to do with us.

Broken a guys leg? Yeah that's not nice but it happens in football and remember this is a strong tough tackler- exactly what soft reading need. Do we hate Shunt because of his heavy slide breaking a skull? Of course not, these things happen.

My only concern might be a bit of discipline but I'm sure he'll learn that.

Well done RFC, more like this please, but don't feel shy to make some bigger name signings if you can lure them in!

But the one Crawley poster on this thread says he can't tackle.

[Ian Royal]

Actually quite pleased with this signing. Strong, hungry, on the up. Doesn't cost the earth.

I would've hoped we could get some big hitters to keep us up but hey, no probs if that's not our game plan, this sort of signing might be good.

homophobia? Hardly. He's only a kid and some stupid things went up on his twitter account. Apologised. Nothing to do with us.

Broken a guys leg? Yeah that's not nice but it happens in football and remember this is a strong tough tackler- exactly what soft reading need. Do we hate Shunt because of his heavy slide breaking a skull? Of course not, these things happen.

My only concern might be a bit of discipline but I'm sure he'll learn that.

Well done RFC, more like this please, but don't feel shy to make some bigger name signings if you can lure them in!

But the one Crawley poster on this thread says he can't tackle.

Nowhere does 2ww1wc say "good" though!

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Sorry guys i'm an everton fan but i cant believe you have actually bought akpan.He's the worst player ive ever seen wear an everton shirt.He won't get in your first team so i dont see the point in signing him,you should be signing much better players than this.Your manager and board should be ashamed.

Thanks for posting this shite.

[PieEater]

Sorry pieEater, if you look at the official pictures on the website you will see that he has stubble/a beard!
That is your man from earlier. They were at the hotel for long enough you could have come and checked yourself.

Yeah just looked at the pics of him playing and confirmed my eyesight is failing me

[Mr.T10]

Don't need premier league experince, need quality. "He's 21 and is a player we feel can play at this level." In Brian we trust. He is the manager and all.

Also I don't mind us preparing for the championship next season (Not the end of the world if we go down) but we are still adding quality to help us stay up. If we don't stay up we are in a far better position if we went down with players demanding 50k and wanting to be playing in the premiership. Our squad could look a lot bare if we had players like that *cough* QPR *cough*.

Can't wait to see him also hoping this puts Legs down the pecking order even more. Silver linnings!

[soggy biscuit]

Broke AFC Wimbledon players leg

[Royal Lady]

LOL @ one for the championship next season. He's not even played Championship level football yet has he?

Still, I expect he was cheap. If he turns out to be the new Siggy or something, I'll happily eat humble pie.

[Scutterbucketz]

I understand your point, and if this is a speculative low risk signing for the future, then great. My point is that Brian has said we need some established players with Prem experience to come in, and Hope Akpan is certainly not that. I agreed we do not want washed up has beens who are only here for the money, but we do need some more established players to come in if we are at least to stand a remote chance of staying up. I am 99.9% sure we are going down, however I do not want us to give up fighting with plenty of games still to play. If these are the signings we are going to make, it appears we have given up already and that will make many supporters lose heart.

Signing young players for the future does not categorically mean we won't be signing anybody else. I'm sure signings like this have no bearing on what players Brain wants for the 1st team between now and the end of the season.

Did people have similar hissy fits when we signed Morrison? It's essentially the same idea; get a prosing young player now, hopefully to come into the 1st team in the future.

Did Man Utd fans have girly rants when they signed Nick Powell from Crewe because he's not Messi?

Signing young prospects and established players are entirely seperate and signing a young player doesn't impact on plans to sign established players.

Perhaps we should have signed established players instead of signing up Pearce, Karacan, HRK etc when they signed as children?

We need players NOW!!! We didn't throw Morrison straight into the first team! He's been here a year and benefitted from the coaching that came with it. All your points are bollox! Especially the one about Man Utd, who are top of the table and can afford to take a punt on someone nobody's ever heard of every once in a while because they've still got signings like RVP when the gambles don't come off, so not one gives a fukk.

[Albert Spangler]

We don't need Hope, we need a bloody miracle!

[blueboy1878]

Sorry guys i'm an everton fan but i cant believe you have actually bought akpan.He's the worst player ive ever seen wear an everton shirt.He won't get in your first team so i dont see the point in signing him,you should be signing much better players than this.Your manager and board should be ashamed.

Thanks for posting this shite.

He may be good for you next season in the championship

[shaka's shorts]

I was initially underwhelmed, but as he is u21 and doesn't take up a squad place it seems like a sensible long term signing who can provide back up to Karacan, Tabb etc and he may just be a good signing for the future

[Scutterbucketz]

Sorry guys i'm an everton fan but i cant believe you have actually bought akpan.He's the worst player ive ever seen wear an everton shirt.He won't get in your first team so i dont see the point in signing him,you should be signing much better players than this.Your manager and board should be ashamed.

How dare you come on here and shit on our only Hope of staying up! Fukk you!

[_royal]

Apparently Anton misunderstood when Brian said "We need hope if we want to stay up"


I'll get my coat.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Sorry guys i'm an everton fan but i cant believe you have actually bought akpan.He's the worst player ive ever seen wear an everton shirt.He won't get in your first team so i dont see the point in signing him,you should be signing much better players than this.Your manager and board should be ashamed.

Thanks for posting this shite.

He may be good for you next season in the championship

Yes, he will be. Having seen Everton this season, who were absolute gash, I think he was right to leave.

[Ian Royal]

LOL @ one for the championship next season. He's not even played Championship level football yet has he?

Still, I expect he was cheap. If he turns out to be the new Siggy or something, I'll happily eat humble pie.

ALF was one for the Championship last year and he was playing in League Two the year before. Rhodes was playing in League One last year, he's doing alright in the Championship. Current level != ability level.

[Big Ern]

I understand your point, and if this is a speculative low risk signing for the future, then great. My point is that Brian has said we need some established players with Prem experience to come in, and Hope Akpan is certainly not that. I agreed we do not want washed up has beens who are only here for the money, but we do need some more established players to come in if we are at least to stand a remote chance of staying up. I am 99.9% sure we are going down, however I do not want us to give up fighting with plenty of games still to play. If these are the signings we are going to make, it appears we have given up already and that will make many supporters lose heart.

Signing young players for the future does not categorically mean we won't be signing anybody else. I'm sure signings like this have no bearing on what players Brain wants for the 1st team between now and the end of the season.

Did people have similar hissy fits when we signed Morrison? It's essentially the same idea; get a prosing young player now, hopefully to come into the 1st team in the future.

Did Man Utd fans have girly rants when they signed Nick Powell from Crewe because he's not Messi?

Signing young prospects and established players are entirely seperate and signing a young player doesn't impact on plans to sign established players.

Perhaps we should have signed established players instead of signing up Pearce, Karacan, HRK etc when they signed as children?

Dear God..I am agreeing with you over signing young an up and coming players for small fees that are low risk.

My point is that it will take an awful lot more to give us a fighting chance and having supported the club for 25 years, I have seen them say one thing and do another. Most fans want to see us at least try this season. Yes there is still time, but if this guy is one of the 2 or 3 more, that also included Rogic, then that leaves us with 1 more player to come in at most when the reality is need more established players.