""We were on standby."

[SteveRoyal]

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 76,00.html

We were on standby. We had a couple of deals lined up in case we lost a player. I'm not stupid, I knew some clubs would make panic buys based on poor results. If we lost key players, we had ones we could bring in.

Is anyone else a bit upset that we didn't try to sign these 'standby' players anyway? The could have proved to help the squad.

[Southbank Old Boy]

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10306~1382476,00.html

We were on standby. We had a couple of deals lined up in case we lost a player. I'm not stupid, I knew some clubs would make panic buys based on poor results. If we lost key players, we had ones we could bring in.

Is anyone else a bit upset that we didn't try to sign these 'standby' players anyway? The could have proved to help the squad.

It depends who they were, how much they would've cost and which positions they were lined up to fill in for

[Thaumagurist*]

What a rubbish thread and a rubbish poll.

[Streets]

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10306~1382476,00.html

We were on standby. We had a couple of deals lined up in case we lost a player. I'm not stupid, I knew some clubs would make panic buys based on poor results. If we lost key players, we had ones we could bring in.

Is anyone else a bit upset that we didn't try to sign these 'standby' players anyway? The could have proved to help the squad.

Coppell must be happy with the strength in depth available to him, or maybe money wasn't 'really' there unless anyone else did leave.

[Streets]

What a rubbish thread and a rubbish poll.

That you had to post on.

Hack his account!!!

[SteveRoyal]

What a rubbish thread and a rubbish poll.

[papereyes]

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10306~1382476,00.html

We were on standby. We had a couple of deals lined up in case we lost a player. I'm not stupid, I knew some clubs would make panic buys based on poor results. If we lost key players, we had ones we could bring in.

Is anyone else a bit upset that we didn't try to sign these 'standby' players anyway? The could have proved to help the squad.

It depends who they were, how much they would've cost and which positions they were lined up to fill in for

LOL

I just said exactly that to myself.

[Rex]

Well as we lost no-one, why sign players just for the sake of it. That's just pure Chelsea srategy!

[SteveRoyal]

Well as we lost no-one, why sign players just for the sake of it. That's just pure Chelsea srategy!

Another LB, CM and RW would have been handy, though. Just to have in case of injury.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

Regarding the "on standby part" - I heard a rumor yesterday that went along the lines of if Doyle left then we would buy David Nugent from Pompey.

Makes complete sense to have a player ligned up just in case one of your current squad is sold - especially when last season's August transfer window (for us and Nicky Shorey) shut when we couldn't get a replacement left back sorted - look at the Benjani / Defoe saga in January.

[Thaumagurist*]

It depends who they were, how much they would've cost and which positions they were lined up to fill in for

LOL

I just said exactly that to myself.

Yeah, thus rendering this thread a bit pointless. We don't know who they were and anyway, I'm thinking that they would have been considered "replacements", not "improvements", so there's not much point in wondering whether we should have gone for them anyway.

[Dirk Gently]

What's the difference between "Nope, we can manage without." and "Nope, we're perfectly fine."?

[brendywendy]

not alot, just on emphasis though
"manage" has connotations of making do, and scraping by
and perfectly fine says everythings brilliant

[Ian Royal]

Well as we lost no-one, why sign players just for the sake of it. That's just pure Chelsea srategy!

Another LB, CM and RW would have been handy, though. Just to have in case of injury.

The whole message this season has been to trim the squad and cut the wage budget.

We can get loans throughout much of the season in case of injury. Why bring in players to not even sit on the bench and claim lots of wages and be unhappy, as well as displacing the youth players who are finally breaking through. Just in case.

[Woodcote Royal]

Some people keep banging on about the strength of this squad but I'm sure we had less strength in depth in 2005-6.

Indeed, I remember endless threads about how lucky we were with injuries and how few centre backs we had.

As I see it, we have now at least 2 options in very position and a lot more in some.

Whilst the much maligned Kebe has been one of our best players, Henry, as his back up, is still somewhat untested and might be potential weakness. On the olther hand, all of Hunt, Doyle and Rosenoir have played in that position before.

Without departures additions would have been surplus to requirement and most of the Championship would swap our squad for theirs.

I'm delighted, but not surprised in the slightest, that contingency plans were in place should we have been forced to sell a player or two but things now look quite rosy until January at least.

PS.

Perhaps the time has come for Leroy's fans to consider the possibility that he was dropped from Saturdays 16 purely for footballing reasons.

[brendywendy]

sure its more to do with having had a couple of starts and not scored, and coppell wanting to rotate till he finds his best combo up front.
his attitudes been brilliant so far this season anyway IMO

[SteveRoyal]

Okay, well I see I looked at what was said in a different way than was supposed to.

[RoyalBlue]

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 76,00.html

We were on standby. We had a couple of deals lined up in case we lost a player. I'm not stupid, I knew some clubs would make panic buys based on poor results. If we lost key players, we had ones we could bring in.

In some ways, our last minute buys in response to other clubs making last minute panic buys from us would also have been panic buys! Coppell also referred to last minute panic buys as being the result of poor/mismanagement!

sure its more to do with having had a couple of starts and not scored, and coppell wanting to rotate till he finds his best combo up front.
his attitudes been brilliant so far this season anyway IMO

When it comes to football itself, brendywendy and I can actually agree on some things. I certainly agree with his assessment of Lita's attitude this season.

[Woodcote Royal]

I certainly agree that Lita's attitude looks a lot better but his contrbution has still been minimal and much worse than Long's, who himself has been disappointing for much of the time.

[Millsy]

Is anyone else a bit upset that we didn't try to sign these 'standby' players anyway? The could have proved to help the squad.

No.

The could prove to disrupt the squad.

We seem at the moment to have a good core of people here except for a slight weakness right wing in terms of backup.

Madman wantd a smaller squad and Coppell says a smaller squad is more manageable. Getting extra people in would be of little benefit unless they were the likes of Ronaldo. My guess is they'd be unknowns who would take more time to settle and find their form than it would take our current players to gel.

Having held onto Hunt and Lita I think we've done the best of a bad job.