The "be realistic" transfer discussion thread

[strap]

Strap, are you going to start your "Only Vinnie can save us" posts?

Do you know Spacey I'd quite forgotten those! Blimey, that was a few years ago now!

IIRC it was in the days of Bullivant, when Red Rock was still brewed. (It wasn't red and there were no rocks in it).

Sadly I am reduced to Scrumpy Jack, which even at this time of the morning doesn't quite induce the same effect.

To be fair, in those days I was berating the manager as a total idiot. SC is in a different Universe to TB1, however, the lessons of the past mustn;t be forgotten. From our own bitter experience, we have sen first hand what happens when you don't strengthen a promoted side. I suggest we have been extremely lucky in having 2 years of Prem football with no significant 1st XI additions. I fear 2 years is well over the top in terms of what could reasonably be expected.

[SpaceCruiser]

Strap, are you going to start your "Only Vinnie can save us" posts?

Do you know Spacey I'd quite forgotten those! Blimey, that was a few years ago now!

IIRC it was in the days of Bullivant, when Red Rock was still brewed. (It wasn't red and there were no rocks in it).

Sadly I am reduced to Scrumpy Jack, which even at this time of the morning doesn't quite induce the same effect.

To be fair, in those days I was berating the manager as a total idiot. SC is in a different Universe to TB1, however, the lessons of the past mustn;t be forgotten. From our own bitter experience, we have sen first hand what happens when you don't strengthen a promoted side. I suggest we have been extremely lucky in having 2 years of Prem football with no significant 1st XI additions. I fear 2 years is well over the top in terms of what could reasonably be expected.

To be fair, I don't think failing to strengthen the team was our downfall in those days, it was letting our best players (Hislop, Osborn, Williams, Taylor and Gilkes) go and failing to replace them.

So far, we haven't let our best players (apart from Sidwell) go. If we can keep those to the end of this season, we'll be alright and then in the summer we can hopefully strengthen for the new Premiership season.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Sean Davies.

Can't even get on the Pompey bench with half their team of at AON.

So must be availiable, within a price we can afford.

Unless are budget a total joke, surley we'd have a chance of getting him.

But I said all the same things about Gary O'Neill in the summer and Coppell said he was a happy with what he had. Even though weeks after the window shut he was admitting what a massive mistake he had made.

Why if he realised his mistakes in the summer are we seeing them again?

[West Stand Flash]

Sean Davies.

Can't even get on the Pompey bench with half their team of at AON.

.

He was injured

[Gordons Cumming]

As HNA is pretty much the only voice of the fans it would be really good for a club representative to post on here and give us a little insight (unbiased) on the reality of the situation at the club.

It won't happen and probably not practical.







...........back to the world of dreams.

[Royal Rother]

A while ago papereyes unearthed what I found to be an extremely interesting series of articles.

If you have the time it is well worth reading... (in the context of can we successfully buck the trend by not getting involved in the massive money-go-round that buggers up smaller clubs' finances...)

Righty-O chaps

My scouring of soccernet has unearthed a very interesting story, and I'm gonna post it up here. If you have the time, read it. Its very interesting.

Very.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... pe&cc=5739

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... pe&cc=5739

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... 25&cc=5739

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Sean Davies.

Can't even get on the Pompey bench with half their team of at AON.

.

He was injured

Well he's certainly not involved when they have full squad. Pompey will bring in more players this month.

They'll look to move players out.

This is the sort of player we should be getting.

[Hahnemann's Hairdresser]

i am asking who specifically would make you happy

routlege for right side

whos the CB you want?

Cahill, realistically, although I think Stephen Taylor at Newcastle is obtainable if we suddenly decide to spend a bit bigger.

no one but a fool though that he meant this season

its a long term project to establish us, and wont happen over night
despite our great 1st season

I don't see why it couldn't have happened this season. We could have spent a bit more money a bit more sensibly and quite easily have been solidly in the 9th-12th group that has opened up, thus continueing the steady upward trend. As it is we have spent £6m on 2 players for zero return and could well be in a relegation dogfight in a few weeks.

it was certainly possible, though not probable
but no one was on here in the summer saying we could do the same as last year.
why start now
spending that money is no guarantee it would have happened,
it could have happened if oster hadnt got injured and little come back quicker
it could have happened if cisse or fae had bedded in quicker
it could have happened if scott brown had come here
but it didnt

we arent going to turn from perennial play off losers/challengers to premiere league top halfers in 3 seasons

Had Brown come here we'd have had some genuine quality on the right, he would have gone straight into the 1st team and been an improvement on what we already have, that is the sort of signing I'm talking about that should have been made. A little more cash, more sensibly spent and we would have improved the first team squad. I know that he chose not to join and that is not RFC's fault, but our other signings (with hindsight) smack of desperation. We managed to track a player for over a year, spent £3m+ on him (which for RFC is a large amount of money) and he is nowhere near the 1st team at present. You cannot justify that, if the club had done their homework properly they would have known he wasn't ready to play Premiership football and found someone else who was. Sean Davis or Richard Hughes have not been regulars at Portsmouth (although Hughes has had a run in thier team of late) and given we were willing to spend £4.4m on Brown would both have been attainable, yet we made no offer for them, or anyone of thier ilk, to replace Sidwell.

There was no reason that we could not have spent sensibly on proven players in the summer, instead we have bought unproven players and blindly had faith in an ageing squad who were not even our best side in the Championship, that to me is not following the trend of progression synonimous with RFC during the Madejski years.

[brendywendy]

you cant tell just by seeing someone play in another league
ou can guess

but even the greatest managers in the prem wenger and sir alex have made some horrendous errors in this area, for multiple millions, and have ended up selling for much less than they payed

the lists are quite long, and contain very high profile/cost players
if they do it with their cash, profile, ambition
its unrealistic to think we wont either

[Stranded]

Sean Davies.

Can't even get on the Pompey bench with half their team of at AON.

.

He was injured

And has been virtually all season.

[strap]

A while ago papereyes unearthed what I found to be an extremely interesting series of articles.

If you have the time it is well worth reading... (in the context of can we successfully buck the trend by not getting involved in the massive money-go-round that buggers up smaller clubs' finances...)

Righty-O chaps

My scouring of soccernet has unearthed a very interesting story, and I'm gonna post it up here. If you have the time, read it. Its very interesting.

Very.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... pe&cc=5739

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... pe&cc=5739

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... 25&cc=5739

A very intersting read. Funnily enough it brought back memories of Jack Mansell in 69-70. I wonder what would have happened had he been allowed to to continue after the drop in 70-71.

I suppose in many respects Coppell is a little like Finke, as was Mansell. In terms of playing style Mansell simply tore up the accpeted way of doing things in old Div 3, and Coppell has produced a team without stars. Once some of team members start to think of themselves as stars, things start to go a bit awry.

Intersting, cerebral stuff for a cold, wet, windy Tuesday morning ... when I should really be working my arese off ... but can't be bothered as I'm leaving for the Spurs replay shortly ... when just a few days ago I was having none of it .... boycotting the game due to RFC's cup team policy (and work committments) .... bollucks RFC is worse than cocaine .... (allegedly!)

[papereyes]

Strap, are you going to start your "Only Vinnie can save us" posts?

Do you know Spacey I'd quite forgotten those! Blimey, that was a few years ago now!

IIRC it was in the days of Bullivant, when Red Rock was still brewed. (It wasn't red and there were no rocks in it).

Sadly I am reduced to Scrumpy Jack, which even at this time of the morning doesn't quite induce the same effect.

To be fair, in those days I was berating the manager as a total idiot. SC is in a different Universe to TB1, however, the lessons of the past mustn;t be forgotten. From our own bitter experience, we have sen first hand what happens when you don't strengthen a promoted side. I suggest we have been extremely lucky in having 2 years of Prem football with no significant 1st XI additions. I fear 2 years is well over the top in terms of what could reasonably be expected.

To be fair, I don't think failing to strengthen the team was our downfall in those days, it was letting our best players (Hislop, Osborn, Williams, Taylor and Gilkes) go and failing to replace them.

So far, we haven't let our best players (apart from Sidwell) go. If we can keep those to the end of this season, we'll be alright and then in the summer we can hopefully strengthen for the new Premiership season.

I'd also include Little as a player lost without replacing and would include Lita if he does go.

So you'd agree that those three players should be replaced? So far, I don't think we have replaced the two that have gone and that is where a lot of our weaknesses this season come from.

I don't think we should be spending millions but I do think that we should have brought in players over the last few seasons who are now filling in the gaps in the squad. That one injury in a key position means that we chose between a PL debutant or a player out of position just should not be how things are done. That one suspension means that we have to play a player with only a handful of appearances under his belt is also something that just beggars belief.

[Tinrib]

Its interesting reading some of this thread, with the usual ' we should be buying more players' type comment.

Maybe some of you weren't around, or didn't support Reading back then, and maybe some of you have forgotton, but I remember the panic buy of the 'Magnificent Seven' , in the vain attempt to keep us up, and I also remember the dire football, and the length of time it took us to get rid of that tat we acquired, & worse still how long it took us to recover back to a semblance of a decnt squad.

There is no way Mr Mad et al will allow that to happen again.

And if you want a prime example of that happening now, just take a look at who Derby's signed in the past week.

I'm more than happy for the club to buy (or not) for the short to mid term future, and if that means having to go down, to get back up, then so be it.

[papereyes]

I remember the panic buy of the 'Magnificent Seven' , in the vain attempt to keep us up, and I also remember the dire football, and the length of time it took us to get rid of that tat we acquired, & worse still how long it took us to recover back to a semblance of a decnt squad.

It wasn't just the Magnificent 7 but a good years worth of tat that followed.

Memory failing me - we signed Fleck then? I can never get over how odd it was that he got Norwich's player of the season award presented at that last game.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

I remember the panic buy of the 'Magnificent Seven' , in the vain attempt to keep us up, and I also remember the dire football, and the length of time it took us to get rid of that tat we acquired, & worse still how long it took us to recover back to a semblance of a decnt squad.

It wasn't just the Magnificent 7 but a good years worth of tat that followed.

Memory failing me - we signed Fleck then? I can never get over how odd it was that he got Norwich's player of the season award presented at that last game.

So the lessons don't buy shit players?

WHy do we have to assume anyone we sign will be crap.

If Coppell went out and bought 7 players better than what we have it would be great. If he just bought one player better than what we have it would be great.

[Hoop Blah]

Its interesting reading some of this thread, with the usual ' we should be buying more players' type comment.

Maybe some of you weren't around, or didn't support Reading back then, and maybe some of you have forgotton, but I remember the panic buy of the 'Magnificent Seven' , in the vain attempt to keep us up, and I also remember the dire football, and the length of time it took us to get rid of that tat we acquired, & worse still how long it took us to recover back to a semblance of a decnt squad.

There is no way Mr Mad et al will allow that to happen again.

And if you want a prime example of that happening now, just take a look at who Derby's signed in the past week.

I'm more than happy for the club to buy (or not) for the short to mid term future, and if that means having to go down, to get back up, then so be it.

Has anyone suggested getting a new manager in to panic and bring in 7 new players?

I didn't think so.

What some people are suggesting is signing 2 or 3, maybe even 4 at a push credible options to cover the glaring weaknesses that exist in our squad.

It's a totally different situation, starting with the fact that Coppell has been involved in this squad for years not days, and he's been looking for players to add for years too. I'm pretty sure you'll find that Burns came in just days before the window closed and didn't have a lot of time to hand pick and scout the players to fill the holes he'd identified over months and years of working with the squad.

[Platypuss]

Coppell himself being one of the "we must sign more players" brigade, of course. Well, sometimes.

[West Stand Flash]

Coppell's new interview on Reading World - Same old boring rubbish.

Change your tone Steve FFS..

[papereyes]

I remember the panic buy of the 'Magnificent Seven' , in the vain attempt to keep us up, and I also remember the dire football, and the length of time it took us to get rid of that tat we acquired, & worse still how long it took us to recover back to a semblance of a decnt squad.

It wasn't just the Magnificent 7 but a good years worth of tat that followed.

Memory failing me - we signed Fleck then? I can never get over how odd it was that he got Norwich's player of the season award presented at that last game.

So the lessons don't buy shit players?

And don't have a shit manager.

[Tinrib]

Its interesting reading some of this thread, with the usual ' we should be buying more players' type comment.

Maybe some of you weren't around, or didn't support Reading back then, and maybe some of you have forgotton, but I remember the panic buy of the 'Magnificent Seven' , in the vain attempt to keep us up, and I also remember the dire football, and the length of time it took us to get rid of that tat we acquired, & worse still how long it took us to recover back to a semblance of a decnt squad.

There is no way Mr Mad et al will allow that to happen again.

And if you want a prime example of that happening now, just take a look at who Derby's signed in the past week.

I'm more than happy for the club to buy (or not) for the short to mid term future, and if that means having to go down, to get back up, then so be it.

Has anyone suggested getting a new manager in to panic and bring in 7 new players?

I didn't think so.

What some people are suggesting is signing 2 or 3, maybe even 4 at a push credible options to cover the glaring weaknesses that exist in our squad.

It's a totally different situation, starting with the fact that Coppell has been involved in this squad for years not days, and he's been looking for players to add for years too. I'm pretty sure you'll find that Burns came in just days before the window closed and didn't have a lot of time to hand pick and scout the players to fill the holes he'd identified over months and years of working with the squad.

The point being that many posts on here smack of panic, when in fact we have no requirement to do so.

And Burns had been scouting the players he bought in for some time. The clue would be that they were mostly Scottish, and I wouldn't mind betting that he used his ' knowledge of the Scottish game' to convince Mr Mad to give him a contract.

But that aside, credible options to come to the Madstad are probably few and far between right now.