Mikele Leigertwood

[Broxroyal]

Was strongly linked with us a few years ago but he went elsewhere instead. I am sure Brian would have been the one to scout him around that time, and he obviously rated him then.
My concern is that Brian might be working on that memory rather than any sort of current form.
Still, a loan period will soon show whether he can recapture the form that impressed Brian a few years ago.

[Ian Royal]

Interesting. I think a defensive midfielder was about the last thing I expected given we have Karacan & Tabb. Plus Gunnarsson.

Of course he can also play at centreback I believe, so if he has a bit of pace then maybe we've bought him for there. I suspect he's going to play midfield though. Which I suspect also means we're sticking with one upfront.

This has got to be bad news for Karacan, Tabb & Howard, as none of them are really up to playing in the hole regularly and that leaves one other space for the three of them to fight over.

He's quite tall though iirc which wouldn't go amiss in the middle of the park for us.

Not what I'd hoped, but not what I'd call a bad signing. Look forward to seeing how this one plays out.

[brendywendy]

i just dont think they are DMs,
Tabb and karacan are both just midfielders in the old sense of the word. theyre just at the effort and attitude end of the scale rather than skillz and trickz.

[brendywendy]

Interesting. I think a defensive midfielder was about the last thing I expected given we have Karacan & Tabb. Plus Gunnarsson.

Of course he can also play at centreback I believe, so if he has a bit of pace then maybe we've bought him for there. I suspect he's going to play midfield though. Which I suspect also means we're sticking with one upfront.

This has got to be bad news for Karacan, Tabb & Howard, as none of them are really up to playing in the hole regularly and that leaves one other space for the three of them to fight over.

He's quite tall though iirc which wouldn't go amiss in the middle of the park for us.

Not what I'd hoped, but not what I'd call a bad signing. Look forward to seeing how this one plays out.

if we plan on playing without a hole player, with 1 sitting DM, two hardworking bustlers in front of him. and the three strikers/wingers in front of them it will be fine

[loyalroyalsam]

generally quite happy with the signing, will help bulk up the midfield abit
although McD where's the striker?

[Isaac Hunt]

Not saying he's parky quality

Do you mean Parky quality as in 'likes a tackle' or Parky quality as a footballer?

I always thought he looked a decent player when he's played against us over the years. Ought to bring a bit of physical presence to our midfield.

[peterroyal76]

On the whole i hate the loan system and having loan Players at the club.

any self respecting football club should be buying or creating its own talent, not scrounging other clubs cast offs.

Couldn't agree more, I regard it as a form of cheating.

[Ian Royal]

Interesting. I think a defensive midfielder was about the last thing I expected given we have Karacan & Tabb. Plus Gunnarsson.

Of course he can also play at centreback I believe, so if he has a bit of pace then maybe we've bought him for there. I suspect he's going to play midfield though. Which I suspect also means we're sticking with one upfront.

This has got to be bad news for Karacan, Tabb & Howard, as none of them are really up to playing in the hole regularly and that leaves one other space for the three of them to fight over.

He's quite tall though iirc which wouldn't go amiss in the middle of the park for us.

Not what I'd hoped, but not what I'd call a bad signing. Look forward to seeing how this one plays out.

if we plan on playing without a hole player, with 1 sitting DM, two hardworking bustlers in front of him. and the three strikers/wingers in front of them it will be fine

Not sure it has enough close passing quality. Agree Tabb & Jem are old school midfielders of the more defensive type, rather than actual holding midfielders, or would be the two hustle players in a Rodgers style 4-2-3-1.

Your suggest forces everything down the wings... which was quite often our problem with Coppell. Shut off the wings and we had nothing left.

I'm not complaining. And I'm certainly not saying it's a crap signing. I just don't think it's exactly what we need.

[Victor Meldrew]

On the whole i hate the loan system and having loan Players at the club.

any self respecting football club should be buying or creating its own talent, not scrounging other clubs cast offs.

Couldn't agree more, I regard it as a form of cheating.

I agree as a general approach but if this is a trial with the opportunity to buy that is different from what a lot of clubs do where there is no hope of signing the player.

[Royals-lad14]

Decent signing, we needed some height in the centre of midfield and i guess he and mills could be used as weapons for set pieces.
I think we need to see how he does before we start moaning and groaning about him.

[peterroyal76]

On the whole i hate the loan system and having loan Players at the club.

any self respecting football club should be buying or creating its own talent, not scrounging other clubs cast offs.

Couldn't agree more, I regard it as a form of cheating.

I agree as a general approach but if this is a trial with the opportunity to buy that is different from what a lot of clubs do where there is no hope of signing the player.

Fair point, it is probably a kind of trial as Brian said he only wanted players on loan who he has a chance of signing full time.
Perhaps we might play him at CB and use Khiz in midfield.

[Ian Royal]

I'd have thought we wouldn't be likely to move them about like that when Khiz seems to be more of a centreback and woody more a defensive midfielder, IMO anyway. Strikes me as teh wrong way round.

['lista]

So I'm supposed to recall the names of every player to have played against RFC in the last 2-3-4 years am I? Especially the average ones?

Exactly why? Why should I give a sh!t?

What percentage of this list could name the 11 players who played for Watford on Saturday.

There was a fringe-England keeper, Loach; the bloke what scored, and a massive CB. Why should I care about their names?

I can probably still name the Don Revie Leeds team, and I MIGHT remember the odd Reading player
and if you want a nice long chat about len Hill, Alf Sherwood, Chris Balderstone, I'm your man,
but average players from mid-table sides a season ago? Re-arrange the following phrase or saying

Gives a oxf*rd who?

Your overly vehement defence indicates that you quite clearly “give a oxf*rd”, though this is probably because you’re embarrassed that you’ve made yourself look like an ill-informed bell-end. Again.

Anyone with even a passing interest in championship football in the last 5 years will have at least heard the name Mikele Leigertwood.

[Ian Royal]

Even I, who know sweet FA about football outside of Reading FC (or inside hur hur hur), have heard of him and knew he was a Defensive Midfielder come centreback.

[Billy The Fish]

Can do a job in midfield but not many of our fans are sad to see him go. Can be slow thus the "legsofwood" nickname and doesn't read the game as well as our better Def Midfielders. His career at Rangers is pretty much over so no surprise he's been loaned out.

Some thoughts from our boards:

Yeah, we give them Leigertwood and also £500,000 to make sure that he doesn't come back!

Strange timing to loan out Ledge. Just before the very congested Christmas season!

Not if NW has decided he just can't afford to play him in midfield and doesn't need him elsewhere now.
And that it's Reading is no surprise since they seem to be OK going forward but have problems in defence and Legs' best performance for us in recent times was at RB against Reading so maybe that's where they will use him.

I think Leigertwood will do a pretty decent job for Reading, although it's not a surprise to see that he has been loaned out.

I would have preferred to see him loaned to Preston though, as Reading will be a bigger threat to us. Saying that, perhaps Leigertwood didn't want to move up North…"

[Kitson12]

Must admit I'd never heard or noticed the name before today.

Shows how little you know about football.

[andrew1957]

On reflection I think this indicates that Brain has given up all hope of finding a Siggy replacement (within the squad or elsewhere) in a 4-2-3-1 and now intends to revert to 4-4-2 - with either Hunt or Church playing off Long.

I don't think there would be any point signing Leigertwood if we were not going to play him, so it looks like he will be the DCM, allowing Karacan in a slightly more offensive role. Will be interesting to see if this improves us.

As I have said many times before I feel sorry for Brian. He built the team around Siggy and I have no doubt that if he had stayed we would have been pressing for promotion this year. Instead Brian has been left with a hotchpot of players and has been experimenting all year to find some system which he can make work. I think the signing of Leigertwood probably indicates that he is not convinced that either Tabb or Howard are the solution at the moment.

Howard's performances are very erratic. I feel sorry for Tabb but he and Karacan are too similar and as Karacan is on excellent form, we need a bit more size and power in CM - so on reflection if Leigertwood is any good this makes sense.

[Snowball]

Your overly vehement defence indicates that you quite clearly “give a oxf*rd”, though this is probably because you’re embarrassed that you’ve made yourself look like an ill-informed bell-end. Again.
Anyone with even a passing interest in championship football in the last 5 years will have at least heard the name Mikele Leigertwood.

Not even slightly. Name the Barnsley side, the Leeds side, Sheffield United. Any Nobber who COULD needs treatment.

[roadrunner]

We were linked to him early on during Steve Coppell's reign. Happy with this singing.

Wiki lists him as a defensive midfielder. One of those players who seems to have been around for ages without really doing much.

Only winning promotion to the Premiership with Crystal Palace, playing in the Premiership with Crystal Palace, playing for what was a promotion challenging Sheffield United and then going on to captain QPR. Not really doing much indeed.

[RoyalBlue]

According to my QPR supporting mate, Leigertwood is a player who very much divides supporters' opinion.

Great! McDermott seems keen to build up a team full of players who divide supporters' opinion!

So we take on a defensive midfielder and continue to ignore the fact that it is missed goalscoring opportunities which is costing us so many points!