Sean Morrison and Brett Williams - Confirmed

[Arch]

Since Leicester, Seol, Bikey, Duberry, Halford, Cisse, Fae, Rosenior, Matejovsky, Kebe, Hunt, Armstrong,Tabb, Mills, McAnuff, Rasiak, Howard, and Griffin at least have all been more ambitious signings than any of Brown, Sodje, Bennett and Mooney. The list may not meet with your standard of ambition, but nobody's ambition fell as low as the latter four, even though the strong implication of your original post is that that was the height of ambition for someone and presumably the club. Misleading.

[RoyalBlue]

Strange the emphasis on the word "buy" in the OS article. Usually they just say signed.

A bit of attempted spin too far IMHO.

Both 'buy' in the headline and 'purchased' in the article itself read really strangely and are not the terminology usually used. Perhaps some at the club have been stung into reacting by the criticism about failing to (re)invest sufficiently in the squad.

The counter-attack is slightly undermined later though by reference to Williams being signed for a 'small fee'.

[under the tin]

Well, I'd comment by saying our chances for promotion this season are slim and we'd be better off trying to build towards a strong push next season or the one after, than trying to desperately hit it this season. We've largely got a young side and a lot of promise in the wings.

Whilst that does risk losing a couple of players at the end of the season - Kebe, McAnuff, Long, Federici as possible examples. I don't that's worth taking a risk on a player like Austin for example, who will cost us at least £1m, probably more if we don't have the room in the finances to do it.
Well it's all about opinions, Ian, but those two paragraphs indicate a contradiction to me. If we cash in on the four players you have mentioned, seems to me that we have ripped all the creative firepower out of the side. Without them, we have a distinctly average team, which I wouldn't expect to be anywhere near a serious promotion push.
I agree there are some prospects, but HRK and Antonio are being kept out of the starting line up for a reason. Kebe and Jobi are better.
I also agree that incoming transfers always represent a bit of a gamble. We've spent big and got duds, spent small and had a result. It's not an exact science that Snowball can work out on his slide rule.

Besides, we've no idea how well these two, or the other possibility(ies) we're looking at will actually do on the pitch. Maybe they'll be enough.

You need to accept that we're not going to spend big to get promoted, certainly whilst Madj is suffering heavily from the recession still,hasn't he lost about £100m off his wealth?
How much JM's worth is irrelevant. He's not funding anything to do with the club personally any more. Brian has to generate his own transfer budget by horse trading.Yet again, despite all the nay and doomsayers we'll most likely finish top 10. Keep doing that, I see no reason to doubt we can barring major injury or form crisis, and sooner or later things will click or that perfect signing we're willing to spend big money on will turn up.
With the current playing assets, in their current form, yes, we are at least a top ten side. How we do in future seasons will hinge on how adequately the inevitably cheaper replacements perform. Everyone's raving about Leighterwood. It will be interesting to see the club's reaction if Colin uses his strong bargaining position, and says we can have him permanently, for £2M. Sure, the club has ambition but that ambition will be tempered by the realities of a budget that is set in stone.

[brendywendy]

Good luck lads. Not sure how much we'll get to see of them this season, but good opportunity for both of them.

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/NewsDet ... 94,00.html



1,2

God, they even look non-league.

BOOOO to that.

swindonm isnt non league

booo to you sir

[brendywendy]

Good old Reading, 7 million in for one player and 350k out on 3 others.... here's to Manset following for a similar budget fee

Personally I LOVE IT.

Well done the board and manager.

+1


^^^^^ths

i concur

[brendywendy]

These signings are fine for the long run - particularly if we fail to get promotion BUT surely we should be pushing that extra bit and buying a striker who will help us get to the PL.

However, if we get to the PL it is very unlikely that these new players will feature until after we get relegated again so they have little value to us at the moment apart from being cheap punts.

except all of that is just made up. and in reality you have no idea how theyll improve or impose themselves on th eteam- tommorrow, next week, next month, or next year

[brendywendy]

Yes we always make a signing, but if the likes of Brown, Sodje, Bennett and Mooney are the height of your ambitions for inbound transfers then we're never going to see eye to eye.

This is very misleading. Sodje was signed in the same window as Seol, De La Cruz and Stack; Mooney was signed in the same window as Matejovsky and Kebe; Brown and Bennett were signed in the same window as Golbourne and Halls. Admittedly, the last four were all duds, but that was in January 2006 and it didn't seem that important to strengthen the team at the time. The point is, the four you name have never been the height of anyone's ambitions - certainly not the club's.

this^^^6


if wed brought in those 4 over two successive windows, and only the, id be as peeved as anyone. but we never did. they were punts, alongside decent aquisitions.

and i have no idea why morrison is being lumped into the nonleague cheap punt comments- has a regular, very good league 1 defender ready to make the step up, for a decent fee.

[Archie's penalty]

Look like good signings, worth a punt etc etc +1 +1 inshallah.

[brendywendy]

Jeez, the same point applies. Mooney was signed with Hunt and Armstrong then. None of HB's famous four were the height of our ambition at the time.

So Arch, without wanting this thread to go off on a massive tangent, tell me who was the height of our ambition since that day at Leicester?

Fae, Mateojvsky and then Mills, McAnuff were about the only players we signed to improve the team until McDermott took over and has signed Harte and Griffin (and arguably M.Williams at the time).

fae and matejovski were big signings,with international pegigrees - didnt work out, but thats go nowt to do with the ambition involved.
seol and bikey were internationals, and very good players
also multi million pound bids for mensah and scott brown scotland turned down.
hunt and armstrong both improved the team that year
tabb was an improvement to the team imo too
& from the start of 05/06 till we came down i think we broke our transfer record every window didnt we?
that certainly shows some ambition

[Hoop Blah]

Morrison sounds like a reasonable investment. I still think he's a bit similar to Peace and Mills (as is Ingimarsson) but that doesn't mean he isn't going to be a good purchase. Good luck to him, it's a good step up for him and although I think he'd probably be better served by staying put and playing week-in week-out for another season, these guys probably need to make the step up when they get the chance.

As for him being classed as the same as our cheap punts. Well he's a very young defender who's only play a season worth or games at League 1 level and below (a very similar pedigree, but younger in age, to Sodje as it happens). That's a bit of a gamble buying a player with such little proven pedigree but that's how we do things, and realistically how we have to do things on the whole.

It's unlikely he's been signed to come straight into the team so it seems a sound buy to me. By definition that's a long term investment signing though, which is what our 'cheap gambles' have been. I can see why he is being mentioned in the same way.

As for my posts above, they aren't meant to be a misleading selection of players, but if that's how some will take it then fine, it's misleading. My point is, and always has been, that these signings are fine but if we want to progress we need to make more signings who we believe are coming in to strengthen the team by improving it there and then. Those types of signings have been few and far between.

[brendywendy]

imo weve brought players in to improve the 1st team every season, if not every window

[Hoop Blah]

fae and matejovski were big signings,with international pegigrees - didnt work out, but thats go nowt to do with the ambition involved.

Yes, that's why I mentioned them as the type of signings we needed to be making, those that we thought would improve the side even if they ultimately failed.

seol and bikey were internationals, and very good players

But brought to the club as squad players (which was needed at the time, no disputing that).

also multi million pound bids for mensah and scott brown scotland turned down.
hunt and armstrong both improved the team that year

Bids are one thing, turning them into signings is the key bit. Armstrong yes, he was a good replacement for Shorey. Hunt was basically a squad player though. I'm pretty sure Doyle and Lita were the players Coppell was looking to start upfront and provide the firepower, with Hunt and then Long as the backup. That didn't work out either.

tabb was an improvement to the team imo too

Yet, he hardly started for long periods of his time under Coppell.

& from the start of 05/06 till we came down i think we broke our transfer record every window didnt we?
that certainly shows some ambition

Not sure if that's true or not, but we I think the other week I showed we'd signed about 1 player per window who you'd expect/hope to come in and strengthen the side there and then. For me that's not enough to maintain your strength or, as I always hope we are looking to do, improve on or current side.

This isn't the time or place for the debate, and it's clear that there isn't a lot more to be said, so I don't want to be dragged into it all again on here...it's too boring and been done to death many times!

[brendywendy]

excellent reply.

but

seol and bikey were internationals, and very good players

But brought to the club as squad players (which was needed at the time, no disputing that).

seol stepped straight into the team didnt he?
and pretty much stayed there till he randomly lost the ability to play football

[Colin Cheeselog]

This is very misleading. Sodje was signed in the same window as Seol, De La Cruz and Stack; Mooney was signed in the same window as Matejovsky and Kebe; Brown and Bennett were signed in the same window as Golbourne and Halls. Admittedly, the last four were all duds, but that was in January 2006 and it didn't seem that important to strengthen the team at the time. The point is, the four you name have never been the height of anyone's ambitions - certainly not the club's.

Wrong sadly mate. Stack was signed the start of the CHampionship season

Wrong. Stack was permanently signed in January.

[Ian Royal]

Well, I'd comment by saying our chances for promotion this season are slim and we'd be better off trying to build towards a strong push next season or the one after, than trying to desperately hit it this season. We've largely got a young side and a lot of promise in the wings.

Whilst that does risk losing a couple of players at the end of the season - Kebe, McAnuff, Long, Federici as possible examples. I don't that's worth taking a risk on a player like Austin for example, who will cost us at least £1m, probably more if we don't have the room in the finances to do it.
Well it's all about opinions, Ian, but those two paragraphs indicate a contradiction to me. If we cash in on the four players you have mentioned, seems to me that we have ripped all the creative firepower out of the side. Without them, we have a distinctly average team, which I wouldn't expect to be anywhere near a serious promotion push.
I agree there are some prospects, but HRK and Antonio are being kept out of the starting line up for a reason. Kebe and Jobi are better.
I also agree that incoming transfers always represent a bit of a gamble. We've spent big and got duds, spent small and had a result. It's not an exact science that Snowball can work out on his slide rule.
Except I wasn't saying that we cash in on all of those players, I was giving examples of the sort of players we might lose. I find it extremely unlikely we'd lose all of them in the summer, if we're lucky, none.
Besides, we've no idea how well these two, or the other possibility(ies) we're looking at will actually do on the pitch. Maybe they'll be enough.

You need to accept that we're not going to spend big to get promoted, certainly whilst Madj is suffering heavily from the recession still,hasn't he lost about £100m off his wealth?
How much JM's worth is irrelevant. He's not funding anything to do with the club personally any more. Brian has to generate his own transfer budget by horse trading.
That's my point. We can't throw money around, because JM doesn't have the money (or inclination) to inject new money into the club from his fortune. So it is extremely relevant in whether we spend big or not.
Yet again, despite all the nay and doomsayers we'll most likely finish top 10. Keep doing that, I see no reason to doubt we can barring major injury or form crisis, and sooner or later things will click or that perfect signing we're willing to spend big money on will turn up.
With the current playing assets, in their current form, yes, we are at least a top ten side. How we do in future seasons will hinge on how adequately the inevitably cheaper replacements perform. Everyone's raving about Leighterwood. It will be interesting to see the club's reaction if Colin uses his strong bargaining position, and says we can have him permanently, for £2M. Sure, the club has ambition but that ambition will be tempered by the realities of a budget that is set in stone. The point is, three years of doom saying and alleged squandering of money and lack of "investment" has not seen out finishing position significantly hamred. There is no great reason to believe that we cannot continue the current trend of hovering around the dges of the play offs until the right time to push

[westongeezer]

Good luck lads. Not sure how much we'll get to see of them this season, but good opportunity for both of them.

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/NewsDet ... 94,00.html



1,2

God, they even look non-league.

BOOOO to that.

swindonm isnt non league

booo to you sir

Swindon will always be non league to me.....i find it hard to say the word!

[Wax Jacket]

I still think he's a bit similar to Peace and Mills (as is Ingimarsson)

well they are all centre backs

[Snowball]

Morrison is quite like Tabb, I think
apart from the hair and face and the fact he's twice the height

[Mr Angry]

Welcome to the club guys, and all the best for your careers here.

[Snowball]

Welcome to the club guys, and all the best for your careers here.

This