CONFIMRED - Blackman to Derby

[Platypuss]

This deal will also allow us the chance to potentially re-invest in the first team this month, helping the manager to bolster his squad should the right opportunities arise during the transfer window.”

Holy tautologous caveats batman!

Keep up Lux.

[LWJ]

Players progress.

And then go on a run of 3 goals in 14 appearances.

Playing mostly wide of 4

Where did he play before then?

[Snowball136]

It looks like 2M + 1M if Derby go up, or 2.5M + 500,000

That's not good money.

That is BRILLIANT money.

Forget Blackman's goals for a minute, there is absolutely no arguing with the fact he was awkward to accommodate, that lately he's been crowded out, losing ball etc. Personally I also think he's been bad for the team in that he rarely flicks on, keeps a move going, tends to carry the ball a bit too much and is me-me.

if you add the apparent and alleged attitude, selfishness and Billy Big-Bollocks, he must have been lowering morale, so we might well do better even if we don't bring a striker in

His bad passes to Gunter last game and then his sulking were very poor.

I have a strong feeling we will look a much better team, whoever is the replacement, and if all 11 players are just 1% or 2% better that should more than make up for the fact that we have lost him.

i genuinely think we will finish higher without him than we would have with him,

When Long went I was gutted. I'll forget Blackman after next Tuesday.

And the money is amazing considering he's almost out of contract.

[CountryRoyal]

Incase anyone was wondering where we'd be without Blackman:

Blackman scored 11 league goals for us against 9 teams in 10 games (Bristol X 2) for a gain of 9 points.

- 2 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Bristol (H) - 1 W + 1 D
- 0 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Hull
- 1 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Rotherham - 1 D + 1 L
- 2 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Charlton - 1 W + 1 D
- 0 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Middlesbrough
- 2 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Burnley - 1 W + 1 D
- 0 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Bristol (A)
- 0 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Ipswich
- 2 points - 2 goals us + 2 goals Brentford - 1 W + 1 D(A)
- 0 points - 1 goal us + 1 goal Birmingham


# Team Pl W D L Pts +/-
1 Middlesbrough 24 16 4 4 52 25
2 Derby County 25 13 9 3 48 20
3 Hull City 25 14 5 6 47 19
4 Brighton and Hove Albion 25 11 11 3 44 6
5 Burnley 25 11 10 4 43 12
6 Ipswich Town 25 11 8 6 41 5
7 Sheffield Wednesday 25 10 9 6 39 8
8 Birmingham City 25 11 6 8 39 4
9 Cardiff City 25 9 10 6 37 4
10 Brentford 25 10 7 8 37 4
11 Wolverhampton 25 9 7 9 34 0
12 Leeds United 25 7 11 7 32 -2
13 Nottingham Forest 25 7 10 8 31 1
14 Preston North End 25 7 10 8 31 -1
15 Queens Park Rangers 25 7 9 9 30 -3
16 Blackburn Rovers 24 6 10 8 28 1
17 Huddersfield Town 25 7 7 11 28 -6
18 Fulham 25 6 9 10 27 -3
19 Reading 25 5 9 11 24 -9
20 Rotherham United 25 7 2 16 24 -13
21 Milton Keynes Dons 25 6 5 14 23 -12
22 Bristol City 25 4 10 11 23 -21
23 Charlton Athletic 25 4 9 12 21 -20
24 Bolton Wanderers 25 2 11 12 17 -20

Of course it doesn't take into account his assists (we're there any? ) or that someone else could have scored the penalty...etc but it's just a basic demonstration of his influence on the season.

Correct me if I got anything wrong!

[Hoop Blah]

Players progress.

And then go on a run of 3 goals in 14 appearances.

Playing mostly wide of 4

Only for the last 4 of those games were on the right of a midfield 4.

I just took a quick look at his games and I make it (league games only)

6 goals from 11 games as a right sided forward.
3 from 8 as a centre forward
1 from 1 from left mid
1 from 4 at right mid (admittedly that 1 was after being pushed upfront against City)
0 from 1 from as a left sided forward

His best form (playing wise as statistically) has come from that right sided forward position where he didn't need to defend and had the freedom to pick the ball up in a bit of space on the right then drive at the centre back before getting a shot off. Even during that time I don't really remember him getting much in the way of crosses into the box and, Ipswhich apart, we never really scored enough goals for my liking.

[handbags_harris]

Absolutely not fussed by this news in the slightest. It opens so many doors to the positive. Yes he is our top scorer this season having hit the form of a lifetime for six weeks in September and October, but what else did he do in the other 34 and a half months he was with us? Gave us the ear at Derby when scoring the clincher, gave us the "I've got nothing to prove" line in the summer (actually mate, you had lots to prove), didn't score many goals, didn't create many goals, was totally ineffective for 90% of his games with us and we've managed to ship him on to some mugs who have paid 2 and a half times the amount we forked out for him when he has just six months left on his contract and based on six weeks of form. £2 - 3 million for a player under those circumstances? I would bite anyone's hand off for that.

Not only that, it opens the door to play a player in a position we know he can play in. With Blackman it was always is he a wide man? Is he a central man? Can he play in a 4-4-2? We don't have to worry about the red herring now, we can play the central strikers up front and the wide players out wide. Sa and Vydra up front in a 4-4-2, or Vydra dropping deeper in a 4-2-3-1, with McCleary and one of HRK/Quinn/John out wide. And reinvest where we need to.

[Vision]

It does make sense from a financial point of view but a part of my soul dies whenever I hear the phrase "good bit of business"

With regard to this supposed bad attitude thing. He's just been signed for 2m + by a man who knows all about him having coached him at Blackburn. If he was that much of a Billy Big Bollocks I'm not convinced Clement would be that keen to back him as athe final jigsaw piece in their promotion puzzle.

[BR2]

As with all of our ex-players I will follow their progress with interest.
Derby are continuing to build a squad capable of getting promotion and good luck to them.
I don't think that Blackman will be an automatic starter unless they decide to go with 2 up front where Blackman could benefit from Martin's hold-up play and out wide they already have options with Ince and Russell plus Weimann as a winger/striker.
The only thing I hope is that we don't end up getting palmed off with Darren Bent in the same way that QPR stitched us up over the Osborn move by reducing the fee so that we got the useless Meaker.

[Platypuss]

What would be Reading's league position this season if you took Blackman's goals away?

No idea, but we'd still have more points than Chelsea.

[No Fixed Abode]

I don't think there is any explainable logic and you're kidding yourself it's a good move for Reading.

Your top scorer has gone. He's done very well this season. Now you've got to fill a big void and you better hope Vydra or Sa come good or perhaps bring back Samuel from Gillingham (if you can) or buy another striker/wide man that needs to hit the ground running straight away.....

It's like Leicester selling Vardy in this transfer window. I'm sure there would be some of their fans kidding themselves too. But you take those potential goals out of the team you will suffer imo.

[Hoop Blah]

It does make sense from a financial point of view but a part of my soul dies whenever I hear the phrase "good bit of business"

With regard to this supposed bad attitude thing. He's just been signed for 2m + by a man who knows all about him having coached him at Blackburn. If he was that much of a Billy Big Bollocks I'm not convinced Clement would be that keen to back him as athe final jigsaw piece in their promotion puzzle.

Horses for courses Vision.

McDermott may well have a different opinion on what makes for a good team and perhaps Blackman has developed his alleged attitude since he and Clement worked together briefly at Blackburn.

[Maguire]

Let's face it, start of the season everyone on this board would have snatched Derby's hand off if they'd offered that money for him.

Well yeah. He wasn't our top goal scorer and didn't look like a 3m player at the start of the season

He doesn't look like a 3M player now.

It's daft to say we're throwing in the towel on the season for multiple reasons eg. the club doesn't have absolute control over the decision (ie. he wouldn't sign an extension), we don't know who we're going to sign this month, and we might even do alright without him.

2 goals in the last what, 13 games? Yeah I'll take 2.5M and try my luck elsewhere. Cheers, Nick.

[Sutekh]

I don't think there is any explainable logic and you're kidding yourself it's a good move for Reading.

Your top scorer has gone. He's done very well this season. Now you've got to fill a big void and you better hope Vydra or Sa come good or perhaps bring back Samuel from Gillingham (if you can) or buy another striker/wide man that needs to hit the ground running straight away.....

It's like Leicester selling Vardy in this transfer window. I'm sure there would be some of their fans kidding themselves too. But you take those potential goals out of the team you will suffer imo.

Yeah, like he's been banging them in left right and centre for the last 2.5 months, we're really going to miss that contribution in the coming months - believe Vydra has scored just as many as Blackman did in that time.

[BR2]

Apart from my earlier fear that we would sign Darren Bent my further fear is that Kanu will get even more game time now and we end up giving him yet another 3-year contract.

[The Royal Forester]

It seems as though he has not signed a contract after five months of talks. It therefore appears, to me, that his mind has been elsewhere for the last few months. Could being preoccupied with more money at another club, be why he went on a barren run, that is until the transfer window opened? As he could leave on a free at the end of the season I think the club were right to get money for him now. The only fault with the club, in my view, is they leave it too long in most cases to offer new contracts to out of contract players.

[sandman]

Reading chief executive Nigel Howe said the the move was "the right thing for all parties concerned" having failed to reach a new contract with the player after five months of negotiations.

"This deal will also allow us the chance to potentially re-invest in the first team this month, helping the manager to bolster his squad should the right opportunities arise during the transfer window," Howe said.


the "potentially re-invest" and "should the right opportunities arise" do not inspire optimism

Do the Thais actually have any money of their own? Both in the summer and now if you take this statement at face value suggests we need to sell before we can bring people in.

[The Royal Forester]

It seems as though he has not signed a contract after five months of talks. It therefore appears, to me, that his mind has been elsewhere for the last few months. Could being preoccupied with more money at another club, be why he went on a barren run, that is until the transfer window opened? As he could leave on a free at the end of the season I think the club were right to get money for him now. The only fault with the club, in my view, is they leave it too long in most cases to offer new contracts to out of contract players.

[Maguire]

We don't have to worry about the red herring now, we can play the central strikers up front and the wide players out wide. Sa and Vydra up front in a 4-4-2, or Vydra dropping deeper in a 4-2-3-1, with McCleary and one of HRK/Quinn/John out wide. And reinvest where we need to.

Yeah this.

[Hoop Blah]

There's no way we would've wanted to extend Blackman's contract back in August, so I don't think you can criticise the club for that.

[CountryRoyal]

There's no way we would've wanted to extend Blackman's contract back in August, so I don't think you can criticise the club for that.

This