Steve Sidwell

[E. Andrew]

The key was:

Reading boss Steve Sidwell is fearing that a big Premiership club such as Arsenal, Chelsea or Man Utd would come in for star striker Kevin Doyle.

The 23-year-old has been in impressive form for Reading so far this season, firing in goals from all angles to help the club sit in a comfortable Premiership position.

However, the strikers good form has not gone unnoticed and bigger clubs will now be itching to get their hands on the proven goalscorer.

What a master stroke from Reading! In a bizarre attempt to keep him at the Madejski they've gtone and made him Boss. Utter Genius!

great plan!

[biscuitsrus]

The key was:

Reading boss Steve Sidwell is fearing that a big Premiership club such as Arsenal, Chelsea or Man Utd would come in for star striker Kevin Doyle.

The 23-year-old has been in impressive form for Reading so far this season, firing in goals from all angles to help the club sit in a comfortable Premiership position.

However, the strikers good form has not gone unnoticed and bigger clubs will now be itching to get their hands on the proven goalscorer.

What a master stroke from Reading! In a bizarre attempt to keep him at the Madejski they've gtone and made him Boss. Utter Genius!

great plan!

Oh and seemingly play him as striker!

[G'La]

Hammond talks about Steve Sidwells contact negotiations taken from both the OS and Skysports...

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 52,00.html

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hli ... ce+Sidwell

[Royal Fleet]

Reading between the lines, on that I don't think that Hammond is hopeful that we will sign now.

To be honest if I was Sidwell, I wouldn't sign now. Come the summer I can look at all my options, knowing that the team I play for now want me to stay. If the likes of Arsenal or Liverpool come knocking then great, otherwise I will have a stick to beat my own club up with.

I still hope that he will stay but I would be surprised if he signed now.

[Stranded]

Very interesting read. Thanks.

Hammond gets a lot of stick on here but he always comes across as an intelligent man who knows the game and I for one think he is a very valuable member of the management team.

[G'La]

Hammond ... always comes across as an intelligent man who knows the game and I for one think he is a very valuable member of the management team.

He does alright for a man who looks like Alice The Goon from Popeye![/img]

[G'La]

Reading between the lines, on that I don't think that Hammond is hopeful that we will sign now.

To be honest if I was Sidwell, I wouldn't sign now. Come the summer I can look at all my options, knowing that the team I play for now want me to stay. If the likes of Arsenal or Liverpool come knocking then great, otherwise I will have a stick to beat my own club up with.

I still hope that he will stay but I would be surprised if he signed now.

I agree with you that he will probably wait until the summer before weighing up his options. I dont think the likes of Liverpool or Arsenal will come knocking but if they do then he'd only warm the bench.

Maybe Im blinkered but I feel we're a far better prospect than we think we are. As Hammond said, we have ambition, we're well run, we have a stadium expansion taking us just short of 40,000 in the next two years. Certainly in the short term we're here to stay in the premiership

[jetsetwilly]

Nearly every comment Siddy and the club have made, have pretty much outright implied it was purely down to money. Coppell has said he knows what it will take to keep him here, and Sidwell stated that if we matched Charlton's offer in the summer that he would sign. Consequently if we reach a compromise he should sign.... If we can't then he will wait until the summer and way up his options.

[Don Finch]

Sidwell is bigger than the club - give him a contract.

[cmonurz]

Sidwell is bigger than the club - give him a contract.

No he isn't.

[Richi Royal]

This is the latest from Sidwell him self as written in his diary on icons.com

It was nice to have a bit of a rest this week and spend time with my family after such a hectic time over Christmas, but the lads who played in the Cup game against Burnley really did us proud.

I went to the game and I thought they got a fantastic result. It was a good opportunity to give some of the younger lads and guys who would normally be on the bench a chance to play, and they stepped up to it very well. It has put confidence into the squad even more.

They've got us a good tie for the next round, it hasn’t been decided yet – but it will be either Birmingham or Newcastle away. It's going to be tough no matter who it is, but they are all winnable. We'll be looking to progress, especially as the final is at Wembley this year, there are big incentives there.

Dave Kitson came back for the Burnley game after a terrible run of injuries, which was great to see. Kits is back to full fitness now and he came through fine. He'll want to get some more games under his belt now and try to force his way back into the starting eleven.

I wouldn’t have thought he'll be rushed back; Leroy Lita is doing so well and everyone knows how well Doyley (Kevin Doyle) is doing. We have got the firepower there already, but you never know the manager might want to bring him back as quick as possible. He might even be on the bench or something on Sunday. It is good for Doyley and Leroy to have a bit of competition, it will drive them on even more.

Kits seems fine but he has to speak up if he doesn’t feel right, because we don’t want him to be out again. The manager has said he needs to train more and I can see where he's coming from with that comment. He does do more on the pitch than he does in training but I think that’s the same as everyone. It's down to the whole staff to look after him and make sure he takes it easy.

We face Everton on Sunday and we know it's going to be hard. We played them not long ago and they beat us 2-0 at the Madejski, convincingly as well. We will be able to get a bit of revenge on them hopefully, it will be a great place to go and play football and we aren’t expecting it to be easy.

I played at Goodison in an England Under-21 game a few years back, I'm lucky enough to have experienced that stadium. It's fantastic and has a lot of history. It's going to be quite intimidating but if we go there in the right frame of mind, thinking professionally, we can take something back to Reading points-wise.

Everton have got obvious dangers upfront, AJ did very well last time we played them, but we'll have to watch out for some of their unsung players too, like Joleon Lescott. He is a hero for them but doesn’t get a massive amount of credit. He's a strong defender and a good ballplayer too. But the whole squad is capable of doing a lot better – definitely a top six side in my opinion.

But we have had some very good results since we last played them, and scored ten goals in our last three league games, which is a very tidy return. We have been playing well and getting the results but we have to forget those games because this is going to be a completely different challenge.

Actually, this is our first league game since our 6-0 victory over West Ham but we know that game was just a one-off. Those games don’t come around that often and even though we enjoyed it, it already feels like it was a long time ago.

Kevin Doyle has just signed a new deal at Reading, which is fantastic news for the club. Fair play to them for getting him to sign, there will have been big clubs waiting to pounce, Aston Villa being one of them. Reading did really well there, I'm sure they are tying down players now to keep the club in the Premiership.

It's brilliant that they signed Stephen Hunt at the same time. All credit to Hunty, he had the opportunity over the summer to go somewhere else and get a bigger, longer term deal, but he stuck it out at Reading and has signed a new contract which is only credit to him.

There haven’t been any major developments with my contract situation as yet. We sat down the other day and had talks and I feel we are close to getting there, but there is no major rush at the moment. We are still just taking our time, because it has to be the right decision.

[Banjax]

Sidwell is bigger than the club - give him a contract.

there is no point in getting skint for one player regardless of his worth

[When Hicks went up...]

This is the latest from Sidwell him self as written in his diary on icons.com

I wouldn’t have thought he'll be rushed back; Leroy Lita is doing so well and everyone knows how well Doyley (Kevin Doyle) is doing. We have got the firepower there already, but you never know the manager might want to bring him back as quick as possible. He might even be on the bench or something on Sunday. It is good for Doyley and Leroy to have a bit of competition, it will drive them on even more.

I hope Sidwell is as consistant in his contract negotiations as he is in this paragraph.

We could probably sign him up for 5 grand a week...

[Yorkshire Royal]

He is a footballer and therefore stupid. It wouldn't suprise me if his 'journal' was ghost written either!

Still think he will sign though, although probably only a short contract..

[Basingstoke Royal]

Email Sidders:

sidwell@icons.com

[Big Ern]

For what it's worth I think he will sign the new contract, although his comments are also a good way of deflecting any critism the fans have of him for not signing thus far. This contract situation could still drag until the end of the season so the occassional quote like that will certainly keeps a lot of supporters tempers under control for now anyway.

[biscuitsrus]

Just leave the man to do whatever he thinks best for him and his family.
I hope he stays and if he does thereafter i will give him my full support, meantime, what has he done wrong?

[Amsterdam Royal]

Sorry to say this but i think Sidwell may be gone inside the next 10 days I fear.
Expect him not to be playing on Sunday.......just hope that we get enough cash for him .
Good luck to him I say...he has been great for us.

[zac naloen]

Sorry to say this but i think Sidwell may be gone inside the next 10 days I fear.
Expect him not to be playing on Sunday.......just hope that we get enough cash for him .
Good luck to him I say...he has been great for us.

And why exactly do you fear this?

Got a source for this scaremongering?

[Millsy]

Can someone remind me of our record WITHOUT Sidwell last season and this?

IIRC not having him made little difference - but I could be wrong.

If our greatness is down to only one man it's STEVE COPPELL and no-one else. This guy can make a bunch of Sunday League players look good. Sidwell is doing well in a team playing well, yes, but if we lose him, I'm sure anyone half decent who takes his place will do jsut as well and shine under the guidance of God Coppell and his amazing team.

Sidders is not THAT good.