CONFIMRED - Paolo Hurtado to Vitória de Guimarães

[LoyalRoyal22]

Seems like he is heading back to Portugal. The clear out continues.

[paddy20]

Seems a shame as he didn't get much opportunity. Along with Sa sad to see them go, based on Brian's gut reaction rather than their actual qualities I think. Sa is a lot better than Kanu up front thats for sure. John also seems a 15 min player so I think Hurtado should at least have played a full game before judging him.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Do you think the fact that Hurtado didn't getting a chance under Clarke, the man that signed him, there might be more to this than 'Brian's gut reaction'?

[Nameless]

Never understood the idea that players should be 'given a chance'. Players need to earn their chance and if they aren't doing anything to make a manager pick them ahead of his other options then that's their failing.
And on the one hand some posters slag Brian off for not improving thinks quickly enough and on the other have a go at him for taking fairly swift action to move on players who for whatever reason aren't contributing.
It's a shame when a player fails to make it, but it happens and better to deal with it now the have an unhappy player wasting his career and costing us wages.

[Sutekh]

Rumour is a loan to Vitoria Guimares for the rest of the season. It may then become permanent in the summer.

Can understand his point of view, week after week of not being involved and struggling to speak the language must be very disheartening to say the least. But then I guess much of that is down to how much he wants to learn and put effort into it.

Still should have had more game time though, I mean Williams on the right

[Nameless]

Two managers have decided he's not good/ fit/strong/intelligent/motivated enough though. So why throw in a player who isn't up to it just to 'give him a chance'. It must say a lot about Hurtado that two managers opted to play people out of position rather than pick him. As I said, players have to earn a chance, not expect to be handed one on a plate.

[Royal Ginger]

He looked completely at odds with the rest of the team when he did play. No great loss.

[TBM]

Another winger departing

So next season we could be left with just McCleary as our only first team winger

I reckon we need to get that Fossell bloke back and finishing the season, he looked good at Derby last season

[Brum Royal]

*Fosu

How many games has Hurtado actually played overall? I'd guess maybe a couple of starts and maybe half a dozen sub appearances?

[tidus_mi2]

We still have Stacey too who, last season at least was seen above Fosu on the pecking order, do remember he started the Derby game and Fosu came on when he got injured. I don't know if it's still the case.

[Norfolk Royal]

Seems to be a bit of a pattern developing with the foreign player signings we make, ie that rarely seem to work very well.

It seems the rule is, is that if there is rumours before signing that the player has some sort of 'attitude' or 'issues,' then those things don't get better, they tend to get worse when they land up at a club like Reading.

In other words, if there are these rumours then we shouldn't sign the player.

[Nameless]

We still have Stacey too who, last season at least was seen above Fosu on the pecking order, do remember he started the Derby game and Fosu came on when he got injured. I don't know if it's still the case.

They generally play on opposite sides so not really competing directly.

[Schards#2]

You would think the club/manager would put some work in on assessing what a player is like off the pitch and whether he's likely to settle and be an active participant in the squad. Doesn't matter how good you are on the pitch if your performance is adversely affected by off pitch things/failing to settle/terrible attitude etc.

I'm sure Brian does this assiduously, it would appear Clarke, less so.

God knows how much our net expense on Sa and Hurtado has been, a cost that could probably have been avoided with some due diligence

[bracksroyal10]

Getting rid and yet we allow HRK to put in poor performance after poor performance every week.

Talk about players getting too comfortable due to lack of competition.

[Lenny The Tramp]

I'm guessing we didn't spend too much on English lessons for Hurtado.

[Nameless]

You would think the club/manager would put some work in on assessing what a player is like off the pitch and whether he's likely to settle and be an active participant in the squad. Doesn't matter how good you are on the pitch if your performance is adversely affected by off pitch things/failing to settle/terrible attitude etc.

I'm sure Brian does this assiduously, it would appear Clarke, less so.

God knows how much our net expense on Sa and Hurtado has been, a cost that could probably have been avoided with some due diligence

Indeed, and I had hoped we had spent the first 6 months of Clarke's tenure intensively scouting and lining up deals, so the influx in the summer was a carefully thought through squad revamp of players we knew all about.
My assumption was that was Clarke's brief, he was given the season with no pressure on league results so he could really kick on this season.
In hindsight it looks like most of his signings were not so carefully vetted. He can't bear the whole blame for that and in this case I would expect Hammond to have been overseeing the suitability of players a bit more. Maybe the Clarke-Hammond relationship was not as good as with other managers.
Kermagot and Evans look more reliable characters, although no point signing decent blokes with stable wives if they can't play !

[Royal Ginger]

Getting rid and yet we allow HRK to put in poor performance after poor performance every week.

Talk about players getting too comfortable due to lack of competition.

MOTM performance on Saturday.

[TBM]

Getting rid and yet we allow HRK to put in poor performance after poor performance every week.

Talk about players getting too comfortable due to lack of competition.

HRK has been one of our better players these past few weeks.....

[genome]

Brian really is making a point about our summer business

[Haag Royal]

Getting rid and yet we allow HRK to put in poor performance after poor performance every week.

Talk about players getting too comfortable due to lack of competition.

HRK has been one of our better players these past few weeks.....

Yes you are right. And there is a clear pattern emerging with him. Sign a 3 year contract, play as if you don't care for 2 seasons then when the contract is up for renewal put a shift in.