""We were on standby."

[Thaumagurist*]

We could and should of bought Tom Soares.

Could and should HAVE. It doesn't matter anyway, the Premiership was always going to be the bigger lure than us.

[Ian Royal]

We could and should of bought Tom Soares.

I think we could and should have given me £5M, but it doesn't mean I'm right or I have a clue what I'm talking about.

[Dirk Gently]

We could and should of bought Tom Soares.

Who would you have dropped to make way for him? Marek (when fit) or Harps?

[Royal Rother]

Once again - clubs in the Championship who have established players, being paid established players' wages, as cover for all positions are likely to find themselves disadvantaged financially.

What would be the point of any club having Matejovski, Harper, Karacan, Hunt, Kebe, Bikey, Henry, Convey, (+ Gunnarsson and Cisse & maybe Armstrong) as midfielders, and then sign Soares on top. Someone would just be a waste of a salary.

Sure you need a squad all competing but the lure of getting an occasional chance in the Cup or when someone else gets injured isn't quite as attractive in the Championship as the Premier League. Lots of surplus experienced players in the CCC means a slowly festering sore developing that does no-one any good.

Cover is there in all areas of the team, even if some are round pegs in oval holes like Hunt as left back, Bikey as central midfield, Doyle or N Hunt as wide right / left, but such versatility must be encouraged and developed in a small and competitive squad.

Clubs with supposedly better cover than us will not only be forking out significantly higher wages, but also be far more susceptible to unrest in the squads as opportunities for 1st team action will be less regular.

[Ian Royal]

The only place we look light IMO is upfront, and thats because we don't know if Doyle will refind his form properly. Lita will find his form at all, or Long, Mooney & Hunt really have what it takes.

Equally Doyle could have a fantastic season, Lita could find his scoring boots and Hunt, Long & Mooney prove themselves to be excellent players.

[PEARCEY]

Once again - clubs in the Championship who have established players, being paid established players' wages, as cover for all positions are likely to find themselves disadvantaged financially.

What would be the point of any club having Matejovski, Harper, Karacan, Hunt, Kebe, Bikey, Henry, Convey, (+ Gunnarsson and Cisse & maybe Armstrong) as midfielders, and then sign Soares on top. Someone would just be a waste of a salary.

Sure you need a squad all competing but the lure of getting an occasional chance in the Cup or when someone else gets injured isn't quite as attractive in the Championship as the Premier League. Lots of surplus experienced players in the CCC means a slowly festering sore developing that does no-one any good.

Cover is there in all areas of the team, even if some are round pegs in oval holes like Hunt as left back, Bikey as central midfield, Doyle or N Hunt as wide right / left, but such versatility must be encouraged and developed in a small and competitive squad.

Clubs with supposedly better cover than us will not only be forking out significantly higher wages, but also be far more susceptible to unrest in the squads as opportunities for 1st team action will be less regular.

Good post RR.
Its also fair to say there was a real lack of significant transfer activity in the Championship during the summer. Which teams spent big? None really.
By and large this squad should be good enough to maintain a promotion challenge this season...take a look at the squads in this division. You wouldn't want to swap ours for many others.

[PEARCEY]

The only place we look light IMO is upfront, and thats because we don't know if Doyle will refind his form properly. Lita will find his form at all, or Long, Mooney & Hunt really have what it takes.

Equally Doyle could have a fantastic season, Lita could find his scoring boots and Hunt, Long & Mooney prove themselves to be excellent players.

We have five strikers most of whom I reckon can do a job at this level. We will score stacks of goals this season. Just you wait and see.

[Ian Royal]

The only place we look light IMO is upfront, and thats because we don't know if Doyle will refind his form properly. Lita will find his form at all, or Long, Mooney & Hunt really have what it takes.

Equally Doyle could have a fantastic season, Lita could find his scoring boots and Hunt, Long & Mooney prove themselves to be excellent players.

We have five strikers most of whom I reckon can do a job at this level. We will score stacks of goals this season. Just you wait and see.

I think we'll be fine upfront. We just look a little light, or maybe lacking in reliable goal scorers.

[FiNeRaIn]

We were on standby. We had a couple of deals lined up in case we lost a player. I'm not stupid, I knew some clubs would make panic buys based on poor results. If we lost key players, we had ones we could bring in.

lol, sure steve. You honestly expect anyone to beleive that?

[brendywendy]

The only place we look light IMO is upfront, and thats because we don't know if Doyle will refind his form properly. Lita will find his form at all, or Long, Mooney & Hunt really have what it takes.

Equally Doyle could have a fantastic season, Lita could find his scoring boots and Hunt, Long & Mooney prove themselves to be excellent players.

i think that coppell agress with you there , and this has influenced him into getting a 5th striker
so we perhaps dont have the quality of a kitson yet, but there are options if things arent firing, and great competition between the lads, on top of huge desire to get in the team and prove themselves by the new boys in competition with long for the 2nd/3rd main striker birth

its not as perfect as having the extra quality, but its a good way of dealing with the deficiency, on a budget

[CMRoyal]

Once again - clubs in the Championship who have established players, being paid established players' wages, as cover for all positions are likely to find themselves disadvantaged financially.

What would be the point of any club having Matejovski, Harper, Karacan, Hunt, Kebe, Bikey, Henry, Convey, (+ Gunnarsson and Cisse & maybe Armstrong) as midfielders, and then sign Soares on top. Someone would just be a waste of a salary.

Sure you need a squad all competing but the lure of getting an occasional chance in the Cup or when someone else gets injured isn't quite as attractive in the Championship as the Premier League. Lots of surplus experienced players in the CCC means a slowly festering sore developing that does no-one any good.

Cover is there in all areas of the team, even if some are round pegs in oval holes like Hunt as left back, Bikey as central midfield, Doyle or N Hunt as wide right / left, but such versatility must be encouraged and developed in a small and competitive squad.

Clubs with supposedly better cover than us will not only be forking out significantly higher wages, but also be far more susceptible to unrest in the squads as opportunities for 1st team action will be less regular.

It's the Mourinho Super-23 principle isn't it? Only in our case it's more of a Satisfactory-23, natch. Two decent players for each position, plus one extra goalie. Any more than that (and we do have more in some positions, ie 5 strikers instead of 4, 5 central midfielders when Bryn returns, Kelly fast becoming a 5th full-back) and you start to dilute the quality and/or have dissatisfied players. I think we are light on cover in certain positions (Golbourne, Henry), at risk in others (Ingi's slow demise and Doobs' injury concerns especially), but generally look to have retained a well-balanced squad.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Once again - clubs in the Championship who have established players, being paid established players' wages, as cover for all positions are likely to find themselves disadvantaged financially.

What would be the point of any club having Matejovski, Harper, Karacan, Hunt, Kebe, Bikey, Henry, Convey, (+ Gunnarsson and Cisse & maybe Armstrong) as midfielders, and then sign Soares on top. Someone would just be a waste of a salary.

Sure you need a squad all competing but the lure of getting an occasional chance in the Cup or when someone else gets injured isn't quite as attractive in the Championship as the Premier League. Lots of surplus experienced players in the CCC means a slowly festering sore developing that does no-one any good.

Cover is there in all areas of the team, even if some are round pegs in oval holes like Hunt as left back, Bikey as central midfield, Doyle or N Hunt as wide right / left, but such versatility must be encouraged and developed in a small and competitive squad.

Clubs with supposedly better cover than us will not only be forking out significantly higher wages, but also be far more susceptible to unrest in the squads as opportunities for 1st team action will be less regular.

I guess the point would be to strengthen the side and the squad

A long term view would also be that in Soares we'd have a long term first team player capable of playing week in week out instead of carrying Gunnarsson who looks like he'll be injured for the majority of his remaining days at RFC

Financially we probably would've needed to get of someone, but thats the problem we face. We can't realistically ship out Gunnarsson and Cisse, so we stuck paying them their wages whilst they contribute very little to the squad

[brendywendy]

We were on standby. We had a couple of deals lined up in case we lost a player. I'm not stupid, I knew some clubs would make panic buys based on poor results. If we lost key players, we had ones we could bring in.

lol, sure steve. You honestly expect anyone to beleive that?

i certainly dont think he said it just to placate people like you mr rain

[cmonurz]

You've lost me...

My only point is that if, for example (this is all hypothetical), Nugent was available, why are we not looking to bring him, and not Hunt/Mooney/both? Or are all our transfer fees in really just going in Madejski's pocket?

Bleurgh, don't want to get into this argument again!

[Stranded]

You've lost me...

My only point is that if, for example (this is all hypothetical), Nugent was available, why are we not looking to bring him, and not Hunt/Mooney/both? Or are all our transfer fees in really just going in Madejski's pocket?

Bleurgh, don't want to get into this argument again!

Well and this is equally hypothetical and based on potential availability, there could be a number of reasons:

a) The management not feeling Nugent would fit
b) Nugent not wanting to drop a division (which he has said)
c) His wage demands being too high
d) The management not rating Nugent more than Hunt

And Mooney is just a punt that may come off - he is after all currently the 5th choice striker.

[Arch]

You've lost me...

My only point is that if, for example (this is all hypothetical), Nugent was available, why are we not looking to bring him, and not Hunt/Mooney/both? Or are all our transfer fees in really just going in Madejski's pocket?

Bleurgh, don't want to get into this argument again!

Good thing you don't. None of it is going into Madejski's back pocket. As long as the team is in the Championship they have to create a financial strategy for balancing the books. Currently, regular income like gate receipts and commercial income is less than wages even before you consider other operating costs. Two years of parachute payments plus this summer's transfer fees are windfalls that have to be used to secure the future of the club. To spend the excess now is the ultimate gamble because if we don't go up there is no way to balance the books.

[Southbank Old Boy]

The whole idea of the parachute payments is to soften the financial burden of being relegated, ie to help pay the wages you committed to in the higher league

[Maguire]

We could and should of bought Tom Soares.

Who would you have dropped to make way for him? Marek (when fit) or Harps?

Harper, obviously. He's gash.

[brendywendy]

The whole idea of the parachute payments is to soften the financial burden of being relegated, ie to help pay the wages you committed to in the higher league

which it does to a point
but its a third of the money we were getting in the prem, so clearly it softens but doesnt fully stop the burden altogether

we get a third back in parachute payment, save 40% by reducing the wages,
then its just the remaining 23.3333 percent we have to worry about making up

[Ian Royal]

I fully expect Gunnar to be nursed back to fitness and then released or told surplus to requirements shortly after.

He won't get a move whilst he's injured and so RFC will "look after" him until he is able to secure a move.