Kitson signs for Stoke for £5.5 million

[floyd__streete]

We had money to spend anyway so why does this fee excite people? some people have the blinkers on if they think we will spend anywhere near this figure.

What worries me is that the one player i thought was dedicated to Reading has flown the nest to team who on paper are crap compared to ours. Stoke to be fair to them are showing good ambition by splashing out and offering him a hell of a big pay packet with signing on fees etc.

This transfer shows to me that any of our players could be snapped up by Stoke, Hull and WBA etc, where before i thought it would only be mid table clubs. Stoke will probably come in for 2nds now and nab another one.

We have had FUNDS it has been mentioned on numerous occasions. We have signed absolutely no one and Coppell is waiting for the vultures to sign rather than entering the market. If anyone hasn't realised we have 3 weeks till kick off! YES 3 Weeks!! we got relegated on the 10th May of whenever it was, its now 18th July.

I really hope we spend this money, but to be fair we are showing absolutely no ambition and i would expect teams like Derby to sign players we were competing for due to them actually showing ambiton. Marlon King and Rob Hulse to join them aswell, who are we going to sign? Craig Beattie and Dickson Etuhu or some one in that mold. To be fair though neither have played for Brentford.

Im patient and have stood by Coppell, but i just can't see how this transfer in anyway is beneficial to us seeing as we already had the money in the kitty anyway

Best reaction yet to today's news and the whole summer of inactivity thus far. Well said.

Come on RFC - surprise us. I dare you.

[Southbank Old Boy]

lets hope john doesnt keep all the money again,we need some more players

Soon we will. If we could find clubs for Bennett and Sodje, get Pompey to take Shorey and Sunderland to take Hunt, we could then start a suitable rebuild.

What we need is more quality players, not just whoever McDermott and Hammond find those two jokers have proved their worth on the transfer front in the last couple of years. Absolutely none.

IMO the amount of dross is a direct result of our salary cap rather than paybill cap.

In other words we're allowed to have 4 average players on £10K but not one top quality on £30k

Because the mantra is that if we have one player on £30k, they'd all demand parity.

Spot on.

We were scared to pay decent money to decent player and disrupt the balance of pay with the squad, and then the irony of it is we make Stephen Hunt our top earner

How other clubs manage it I don't know!

[Arch]

We had money to spend anyway so why does this fee excite people? some people have the blinkers on if they think we will spend anywhere near this figure.

What worries me is that the one player i thought was dedicated to Reading has flown the nest to team who on paper are crap compared to ours. Stoke to be fair to them are showing good ambition by splashing out and offering him a hell of a big pay packet with signing on fees etc.

This transfer shows to me that any of our players could be snapped up by Stoke, Hull and WBA etc, where before i thought it would only be mid table clubs. Stoke will probably come in for 2nds now and nab another one.

We have had FUNDS it has been mentioned on numerous occasions. We have signed absolutely no one and Coppell is waiting for the vultures to sign rather than entering the market. If anyone hasn't realised we have 3 weeks till kick off! YES 3 Weeks!! we got relegated on the 10th May of whenever it was, its now 18th July.

I really hope we spend this money, but to be fair we are showing absolutely no ambition and i would expect teams like Derby to sign players we were competing for due to them actually showing ambiton. Marlon King and Rob Hulse to join them aswell, who are we going to sign? Craig Beattie and Dickson Etuhu or some one in that mold. To be fair though neither have played for Brentford.

Im patient and have stood by Coppell, but i just can't see how this transfer in anyway is beneficial to us seeing as we already had the money in the kitty anyway

It's a decent point. Coppell himself (in an obviously unguarded moment) said we need a new RW, so you wonder why we haven't moved. On the other hand, it has also been said that we need to shrink the squad before we add. We may see a couple more departures, although it may also be that the club is holding out for money that the buyers won't pay. I can't recall us ever buying literally nobody, but as you say three weeks is not a long time.

[The Cube]

There is no sell-on clause to Kitson's former club Cambridge United

This could turn out to be interesting - quote from the Cambridge chairman written on 17/11/2004:
http://www.cambridge-united.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsFeatures/0,,10423~468426,00.html

Dave Kitson has had a very short professional career to date yet he finished last season scoring 25 goals in all competitions - the second highest achievement in our league history. Had the transfer market not collapsed, we could have been looking at a player who was destined to break our all time transfer record. Unfortunately the transfer market has collapsed and, despite significant interest from other professional clubs, we only received one offer for Dave's services in the summer of 2003. That offer, received from a fellow Third Division club, did not provide an attractive enough financial incentive for us to transfer his services.

Since it became public that we had a major loan to be repaid on 22nd December 2003 the enquiries for Dave increased dramatically but there were still only four firm offers. Dave had been unsettled by all the speculation and felt that the Club might stand in the way of his career progression. It was clear that we had to conclude a deal that was in the best interests of both Dave and the Club without any undue delay and a deal was concluded with Reading on Boxing Day.

The depressed nature of the transfer market suggested that we would be unlikely to receive comparable offers in the foreseeable future, and recognising that Dave is undoubtedly one of our prime financial assets, we had a responsibility to our shareholders and employees to consider not just the short term financial requirements of the Club, but also the Club's long term survival and development ambitions.

The exact terms of the deal are 'commercial in confidence' between the contracting parties but I can confirm that we have the potential in the contract to receive up to £360,000. As is usual in transfer deals, part of that sum is payable immediately and part is payable over time and based on specified events. Receipts of £250,000 can confidently be predicted. In addition we have a healthy sell on clause in the contract should Reading transfer Dave at any stage in the future for more than they had then paid to us.

[Jerry St Clair]

During his train journey north Kitosn seems to have morphed from feisty, footballing renegade into cliched, brainless footballer stereotype.

"the manager is a great lad...........the fans are footballing people.......intimidating place to come....."

Good riddance Dave,

[Arch]

And almost all of them have been abject failures.

I'm a Seol fan (da-da-duh da-da-duh) but even I couldn't honetly say that he was an absolute success. Lita has been patchy to be honest, Bikey looks decent but the jury is still out on Matejovsky (I have high hopes, but until he learms to tackle.....) and Rosenior was a swap deal so that is a bit of a red-herring really.

That's all a country mile from abject failure. I'd call the Seol purchase something of a flop. Lita has already earned his paltry one million in my view, patchy or not. I think the Rosenior deal was officially 1m each way, but I've never been quite certain.

[Southbank Old Boy]

In addition we have a healthy sell on clause in the contract should Reading transfer Dave at any stage in the future for more than they had then paid to us.

[/quote]

Wasn't there some talk earlier in the week that we'd bought our way out of those sell on fee's though?

It's quite plausible that, given their financial strife recently, we went back and paid a smaller fee to waive the sell on clause.

[TFF]

There is no sell-on clause to Kitson's former club Cambridge United

This could turn out to be interesting - quote from the Cambridge chairman written on 17/11/2004:
http://www.cambridge-united.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsFeatures/0,,10423~468426,00.html

EDITED...

The exact terms of the deal are 'commercial in confidence' between the contracting parties but I can confirm that we have the potential in the contract to receive up to £360,000. As is usual in transfer deals, part of that sum is payable immediately and part is payable over time and based on specified events. Receipts of £250,000 can confidently be predicted. In addition we have a healthy sell on clause in the contract should Reading transfer Dave at any stage in the future for more than they had then paid to us.

Didn't Cambridge Utd go into administration? Maybe we had a deal with a different legal entity.

Still, we wouldn't try and wriggle out of a deal.

Would we?

Oh.

[Knaresborough Royal]

GUTTED, Genuinely gutted, i don't feel i need to comment further!

[Dirk Gently]

There is no sell-on clause to Kitson's former club Cambridge United

This could turn out to be interesting - quote from the Cambridge chairman written on 17/11/2004:
http://www.cambridge-united.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsFeatures/0,,10423~468426,00.html

Dave Kitson has had a very short professional career to date yet he finished last season scoring 25 goals in all competitions - the second highest achievement in our league history. Had the transfer market not collapsed, we could have been looking at a player who was destined to break our all time transfer record. Unfortunately the transfer market has collapsed and, despite significant interest from other professional clubs, we only received one offer for Dave's services in the summer of 2003. That offer, received from a fellow Third Division club, did not provide an attractive enough financial incentive for us to transfer his services.

Since it became public that we had a major loan to be repaid on 22nd December 2003 the enquiries for Dave increased dramatically but there were still only four firm offers. Dave had been unsettled by all the speculation and felt that the Club might stand in the way of his career progression. It was clear that we had to conclude a deal that was in the best interests of both Dave and the Club without any undue delay and a deal was concluded with Reading on Boxing Day.

The depressed nature of the transfer market suggested that we would be unlikely to receive comparable offers in the foreseeable future, and recognising that Dave is undoubtedly one of our prime financial assets, we had a responsibility to our shareholders and employees to consider not just the short term financial requirements of the Club, but also the Club's long term survival and development ambitions.

The exact terms of the deal are 'commercial in confidence' between the contracting parties but I can confirm that we have the potential in the contract to receive up to £360,000. As is usual in transfer deals, part of that sum is payable immediately and part is payable over time and based on specified events. Receipts of £250,000 can confidently be predicted. In addition we have a healthy sell on clause in the contract should Reading transfer Dave at any stage in the future for more than they had then paid to us.

I thought these sell-on clauses only last for the duration of the initial contract the player signs - if he then signs another contract after that first one has expired then the sell-on clauses no longer apply. I'm not certain on this one, but ISTR that was what the get-out was with another player in similar circumstances.

[Mr Loyal Royal]

Gutted he's gone but over the moon with how much we've got for him, lets find a suitable replacement though...

[mahoj002]

Gutted he's gone but over the moon with how much we've got for him, lets find a suitable replacement though...

Paul Brooker.......................................... anyone???????

[Southbank Old Boy]

I thought these sell-on clauses only last for the duration of the initial contract the player signs - if he then signs another contract after that first one has expired then the sell-on clauses no longer apply. I'm not certain on this one, but ISTR that was what the get-out was with another player in similar circumstances.

I know you like to be supportive of everything the club does Dirk, but thats taking it to the extreme!

[Thou Voice]

Thou Voice remembered (as he does), was it not Dave Kitson kicking off at NS one time ranting and raving that "he" as in NS didn't want to be at the club anyway!?!?

Ironic how things have turned.

[Rawlie19]

I thought these sell-on clauses only last for the duration of the initial contract the player signs - if he then signs another contract after that first one has expired then the sell-on clauses no longer apply. I'm not certain on this one, but ISTR that was what the get-out was with another player in similar circumstances.

If you seriously thought that then you are not as clued in to football as you think you are. You have lost points for that statement.

[Wycombe Royal]

£5.5m is a fantastic deal for us. On average he missed 1 in 3 matches through injury and we got relegated in a season when he appeared in 90% of matches.

The key to this transfer is who his replacement will be. He is replaceable, and he is replaceable with someone who could cost a lot less than we have just received.

I am fairly happy with this deal at the moment.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Hmm, 5.5 million. Although some are saying thats amazing, I think it is the highest we should of reasonably expected, nothing more. A good bit of business when external factors aren't considered.

I think getting about as much as we could have realistically expected is decent business. If we'd been in the premier league I think we'd have expected a bit more from a player for our £5.5 million.

The ten million dollar question (almost literally at today's exchange rates) is what will we do with that transfer fee? What I don't want to hear are comments suggesting that RFC don't feel it's necessary to use the cash to buy better players. A couple of good signings would really be a statement of intent that we mean business, and with the division not looking over-stocked with excellent teams, would give us a very good chance of going straight back up.

Suggesting that we'll be fine if we "make do" with the squad that's left sends out the message that we really don't care if we go back up or not.

[Tamworth_Royal]

Excellent price for Kitson I must admit, but............... who benefits from it. Coppell won't spend a third of that on new players so if Harper, Hunt and Shorey go, JM should have around £20m in his pension pot.

[rg6royal]

We now have 5.5 million to spend...So lets spend it!

[Dirk Gently]

I thought these sell-on clauses only last for the duration of the initial contract the player signs - if he then signs another contract after that first one has expired then the sell-on clauses no longer apply. I'm not certain on this one, but ISTR that was what the get-out was with another player in similar circumstances.

I know you like to be supportive of everything the club does Dirk, but thats taking it to the extreme!

Why can that statement possibly be construed as supporting the club in any shape or form?

It's just stating a possible way that that we may be trying to wriggle out of one if it was there - we have previous form in this (It was a promotion payment payment to York for Murts - see post in a minute or two.....)

For the record, I think it's outrageous that we do everything we can to try and stop paying money to smaller clubs when it's rightfully owed - yes it's good financial management but IMHO it's immoral, unethical and not in the spirit of being part of the "football family". Have we forgotten that we were a small, lower league, club not so long ago?