Zurab - I want to come back

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Pretty depressing really. There literally appears to be nothing in the coffers.

They told us last summer was so that wouldn't be the case.

You could easily see us going into the new season with Williams as the only signing.

No one expected anything silly, we should be looking to build on what we have.

Everyone agreed that 3 players in was min this summer after all the depatures. Still early days though, would be seriously tempted to try and cash in on Long/Fed, even though a few weeks ago I was keen to keep them.

did they?

i dont remember anyone saying we are selling these players so we have a big warchest next summer
we did it to reduce the wage bill so the club at least broke even. we continue to do so, and i imagine any incoming players will have to be payed for by anyone else we can offload from the fringes

That certainly was the arguement being made by many. Where did I mention a war chest? We can't keep going backward though and not getting Zurab or a player of better quality would be doing that.

I'll admit the post was a bit tongue in cheek, but you can't make cuts forever. The league will be even weaker next season and we saw how shite it was this year. Real chance of promotion with the right players.

[Sun Tzu]

Real chance of promotion with the right players.

Be careful what you wish for !!

[brendywendy]

not by the club. and i take warchest from the comments where you say we sold players last summer to ensure we would have money to buy more this year

[floyd__streete]

According to the EP Zurab is not likely to sign....

Reading look set to miss out on signing centre-back Zurab Khizanishvili after being priced out of the market by Blackburn Rovers.....any deal to bring the 28-year-old back to the club looks dead now Rovers have put a six-figure sum on his head.

The dastards, how dare they dash our hopes by expecting a reasonably large fee for a quality player . The success in the second half of the season was built on false foundations in so much as we borrowed quality players like Zurab and Griffin and the club are unwilling to shell out to keep that consistent quality. Still, no worries - we still have a well-past-his-sell-by-date Ivar and the plodder Pearce to 'get us by'.

[brendywendy]

According to the EP Zurab is not likely to sign....

Reading look set to miss out on signing centre-back Zurab Khizanishvili after being priced out of the market by Blackburn Rovers.....any deal to bring the 28-year-old back to the club looks dead now Rovers have put a six-figure sum on his head.

The dastards, how dare they dash our hopes by expecting a reasonably large fee for a quality player . The success in the second half of the season was built on false foundations in so much as we borrowed quality players like Zurab and Griffin and the club are unwilling to shell out to keep that consistent quality. Still, no worries - we still have a well-past-his-sell-by-date Ivar and the plodder Pearce to 'get us by'.

forgetting of course the possibility of loaning more quality players next season, including zurab

[Sun Tzu]

We're going to take our false foundations all the way to the Premier League !!

Alongside 99% of clubs with similarly shaky footings !

Was it Norwich who had so many loan players at one point they couldn;t actually play them all ?

Mind you they did get relegated....

[brendywendy]

im happy with two or three tbf.
and when you go up you can afford to buy them.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Real chance of promotion with the right players.

Be careful what you wish for !!

That's a very good point tbf. We're still getting over the last one!!

The key though is to cover all your bases so you can take the moral high ground whatever way this summer plays out....

[Sun Tzu]

Real chance of promotion with the right players.

Be careful what you wish for !!

That's a very good point tbf. We're still getting over the last one!!

The key though is to cover all your bases so you can take the moral high ground whatever way this summer plays out....

Always a good strategy, although one which i always manage to fall down on !!

[clauski]

I hope there's still a chance for this deal to happen - McDermott's quote in the article is what he'd always said about a year left on his contract, not really any response to a proposed fee. If a fee is all the issue is I do think we'd have been better saving a further year's wages for Ivar and spending it on Zurab though.

[knights_1990]

this is good news. he was a good bit of business!

[Kitson12]

this is good news. he was a good bit of business!

Sorry?

[UpNorth]

If BM's interivew on the BBC web site is anything to go by we are not recruiting another centre back as we don't have the money. We will be relying on Mills, Ivar, Pearce and Bryn as back up. No mention of Cisse.

Brian is clearly keen to get Griffin back and negotitations are on-going but he gave little away about how they were going.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Can we not sell Pearce and Cisse to sign Kish? Chuck Davies and Henry too, surely we're somewhere near the figures required.

Sudenly 3m for Long and 2m for Fed doesn't seem such a bad thing.

[NR_Royal]

Can we not sell Pearce and Cisse to sign Kish? Chuck Davies and Henry too, surely we're somewhere near the figures required.

Sudenly 3m for Long and 2m for Fed doesn't seem such a bad thing.

4 players > 1 player

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Tbh I think that at the very least 2 of the 3 mentioned won't be here regardless of who comes in. Antonio's return put Henry well down the list of right wingers, I think Davies is ok, but how much is he gonna play anyway.

For me it's not that far off a straight swap for Pearce plus we shift deadwood we need out regardless.

I bit harsh on the young uns, but we need to be realistic about where we are.

[RoyalBlue]

If BM's interivew on the BBC web site is anything to go by we are not recruiting another centre back as we don't have the money. We will be relying on Mills, Ivar, Pearce and Bryn as back up. No mention of Cisse.

An effing joke if this is true! How many times have we heard managers say that you need four specialist centre backs on your books to compete effectively at this level?

So we have two specialist centre backs of proven class (one of whom is getting long in the tooth and becoming more injury prone). A youngster for whom the jury is still out when it comes to his ability and an ageing utility player (even though I am a great fan of Bryn).

[Sun Tzu]

It's been a nice few days, there's a test match starting in 2 days and then a World Cup.

I'm amazed anyone can be even slightly bothered about the subtleties of the make up of our reserve centre back pairing at this point in time.

Let's enjoy the summer and worry about it towards the end of July. Until then it's really a bit of a waste of a heart attack isn't it ?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

It's been a nice few days, there's a test match starting in 2 days and then a World Cup.

I'm amazed anyone can be even slightly bothered about the subtleties of the make up of our reserve centre back pairing at this point in time.

Let's enjoy the summer and worry about it towards the end of July. Until then it's really a bit of a waste of a heart attack isn't it ?

Agreed, I prefer footy when we get a break, but as soon as the season ends ppl want pre seson fixtures, summer tours etc etc.

[Sun Tzu]

It's been a nice few days, there's a test match starting in 2 days and then a World Cup.

I'm amazed anyone can be even slightly bothered about the subtleties of the make up of our reserve centre back pairing at this point in time.

Let's enjoy the summer and worry about it towards the end of July. Until then it's really a bit of a waste of a heart attack isn't it ?

Agreed, I prefer footy when we get a break, but as soon as the season ends ppl want pre seson fixtures, summer tours etc etc.

And desperate for signings, second guessing what is meant in interviews etc etc etc. Wake me up when the first game is a week away and let me know who we've got. Until then, it's irrelevant - we have a summer to get on with !!!