The Gylfi thread.

[royalsteve]

I think people don't understand that we are (hopefully) still going to operate in the Reading way - and the Reading way would dictate that we aren't going to spend £7 million plus wages and agents fees on a player - who is extremely good may i add, as for all we know we could be back down in a years time. We need to plan more carefully, and ill be far happier to see 4 or 5 hungry and lower priced players come through the door who will improve our squad as a whole, instead of just boosting one position which would mean a different style of play to what we have now and which would leave us with little funds to strengthen in vulnerable areas.
What would we do if we blew the budget on gylfi, and then a week into the season Cummings got injured - we couldn't have the cover or the depth in the squad to improve adequately.
Reading football club, no matter what many people think or whether they agree or disagree with the intentions, are brilliant at planning for the long term. Long term we need to establish ourselves in this league, and for now that will probably leave us without luxury players for a while and we wil have to be like swansea and norwhich did last summer and take smaller steps. Albeit swansea got very lucky in the january window to get Gylfi on a cheap and relatively risk free loan - the work that they did OVER A WHOLE SEASON, and many would add previous seasons, has put themselves in a position where they can spend £7m on a player and be comfortable.
Gylfi is a great player, he was a great Reading player 2 years ago - but unfortunately its time to let go, and realise that every few seasons teams find players like Gylfi, and maybe next season if we finish high/mid table in the league we can buy theirs off them for £7m.
No lack of ambition - just an abundance of sense

You miss the point. Players of his quality cost 20M plus - not 7M. This is/was a one off once in a lifetime opportunity. I doubt we will ever buy a player of his quality in the future at any price.

I think Gylfi is a more effective player than Bale and he is being touted at 30-40M+ and given the choice I would have Gylfi over Bale anytime.

agreed, i said during his first season with us before he went to hoff that Glyfi would one day play for a top club - maybe even Barca though Real Madrid or Man City would be more likely

[JordCot]

My opinion is that Reading Football Club are about to engage in their 3rd season as a Premier League club, have won the Championship twice in the last decade, Have their own training ground and are about to get backing from a billionaire Russian family. All of which results in a package that is easily a match for the likes of Swansea City and their one, mid-table, PL season.
.

I don't think past glories are that much more important than current stature for a player, otherwise they would all be playing for teams like Sheffield United right? Obviously the whole having our own training ground is a point in our favour but having been on loan he obviously doesn't have complaints about Swansea's state of affairs. I'm optimistic about TSI deal but in reality it hasn't gone through yet. I like how you use finishing mid-table in the PL as derogatory term so well done with that one. So I don't think we are easily a match for them. Hopefully with backing we can be an established PL side, something which may be out of the reach of Swansea with their poor history and bad facilities, but we aren't there yet.

I've said my opinion of Glyfi in this thread before and been shot down very quickly but I honestly feel he is more of type of signing a team makes in their second season rather there first so regardless of playing style I think he is more suited to a club like swansea

This isn't a situation of past glories as the accomplishments mentioned were not 50 years ago they were in the last 10 years and have been achieved consistently. I reiterate, over the last decade RFC are easily a match for Swansea City and are more established at the top two levels of English football. They have one good season, we have a track record.

Is mid-table in the PL a big achievement in your first season? Yes and no. Martinez successfully implemented a passing style at Swansea that Rodgers leached off. That style was something PL teams weren't used to so it caught them by surprise and Swansea got extremely lucky. They'll be ready for it next year and with Swansea possessing a manager who is incapable of achieving anything on his own merit it will be even harder for them. However, with a player of Gylfi's quality they might just stay up whereas we will go down because we bought more "hungry" players rather than realising that we already had those and needed to add quality.

TSI are coming in and have been for a while despite what certain elements of this board will have you believe. What is holding them back is the old regime with their overly cautious approach and you people, the negative fans, who present yourselves as RTG's but are keeping the club down by encouraging the outdated approach.

Reading are more established at the top-two levels but in terms of PL experience they are much the same, all we have extra is a season where we got relagated and that doesn't add much to a CV. Two promotions (and other nearly successful seasons) are not that much in reality we are not exactly a yo-yo team pushing to become established.

In terms of Swansea's style it remains to be seen whether they will be caught out next year and I am not going to get into how good a manger Rodger's is as you obviously have your mind made up about him. I personally have nothing against the guy and think that if he was coasting along 'leaching' off Martinez (who in fairness did lay a lot of groundwork) he would have been figured out by now and would not have achieved a promotion and as good a debut season in the PL.

In terms of our own transfer policy you are making presumptions of what we will do based on one signing and a number of rumours although it may end up that we do not get any big names. It seems to have worked fine for last seasons promoted clubs (ignoring QPR).

TSI hopefully will go through but you have to admit, until it does go through, it cannot be used a definitive reason to join reading as we all know how quickly situations can change. One of the first things TSI said was that they would continue to run the club in the same prudent manner and Brian has said that it is not so much about buying players but keeping our best. Obviously the situation has changed with the somewhat unexpected promotion but i assume the mentality is the same. Having said what they have i am not surprised with the type of player we are being 'seriously' linked with.

The fans aren't holding the club back, we can shout and scream as much as we like but I can't imagine its going to change any thing at the club.

As many people have said on here already I believe that if the money to buy Gylfi is spent on two players that improve the team (obviously not as much as Gyfli would) then we will get a greater benefit from it as a whole.

[royalsteve]

you have to remember that Swansea have their money from theie 1st season in the prem - at least £40 million, whereas we would have to borrow or be loaned the money - if we are both in the prem after next season then we will be in better position than swansea

[Snowball]

The thing is, if Gylfi has a whole season, for Swansea (most likely) Reading, Liverpool or Wigan
and plays as well for 38 games as he did for Swansea in this half-season, then he is that
rare rare thing, a match-winner, and I'd expect him to be worth 12 Million to 20 Million
after 40 more games.

He might noticeably IMPROVE, and be topping the twenty.

So barring a serious injury, unless there is something in the closet, he looks an investment
and one very, very likely to pay off, and that's IGNORING the benefit he brings to the
Swansea/Reading/Liverpool team from playing him

On "is there something?" I do find it odd that there appears to be little concrete interest in
a lad with masses of talent, a killer free-kick, who has Bundesliga and Premiership experience
and seems (at today's whacky prices) a bargain

[Snowball]

Gylfi obviously fits Swansea, but IMO he'd fit beautifully into the RFC side too
simply playing advanced midfield off the striker, making chances, scoring
some and having a devastating free kick.

We'd be 4-4-1-1 more than 4-4-2 but when Gylfi plays presumably
there'd be less reason to play Harte who would be in for his free kicks

IMO Gylfi, a solid CB and a Prem LB would be enough to keep us up
and if we looked headed for safety, could strengthen in January


That's not to say I'm specifically advocating "buy Gylfi" but I think we must
get at least one out and out game-winner, a magic striker or a brilliant
goal-scoring midfielder.

Sides go up and do OK for a while on energy, novelty and hunger but they get
found out in the second half of the season if they lack true class.

IMO Swansea were going that way but Gylfi was their "new" and they thus did OK

[Mr Angry]

If Gylfi has as good a season as he had a half season, then the big boys will come in for him next Summer.

[Royal Rother]

Rodgers leaching off Martinez... Bit of a classic there Mr Sandman!!

[Hoop Blah]

It's not Gylfi's fault we didn't bid for him.

It's so sad that Swansea have more ambition than us. Maybe he's better off with them.

Swansea could be about to spend £7m on one player. We on the other hand have an ambitious budget, are planning to expand to 38,000, build a new top of the range training ground, and upgrade the academy to cat 1 status? I would argue we are showing more ambition currently.

And there we have it.

People who accuse the club of lacking ambition are beyond dim.

Really? I'm not sure there's anything more in that than intent and so far hollow words.

An ambitious budget?
- We might well have, but what does that mean? As yet we're not seeing that are we? Have we seen any evidence of an ambitious budget by swooping for a free transfer? Have we been able to compete for the signiture of an excellent player who one of our main rivals next season have now agreed a fee for? One school of thought on here is that we haven't gone for him because it will blow too high a chunk of our budget, if that's the case I wouldn't say it's an overly ambitious budget.

Planning to expand to 38k
- Are we? Again, we've been told they'll be cracking on with it once the takeover has gone through, but I'm pretty sure that means they'll be looking at doing the first phase to get us to 28k or whatever it is first and then see how that's worked out. Madejski or Zingarivich made some ambigious statement about starting work on the expansion to 38k straight away, but I don't believe that means all at once, it means starting the long term project.

New Training ground
- Apparently yes we are looking at doing this. It's a great long term investment but I'm not sure that shows more ambition than signing better players. An ambitious club manages to do both, unlike the last time we went about major captial investments and ended up getting relegated.

Cat 1 status
- We were getting the application ready when the new rules were launched so this is something that was always going on at RFC irrespective of promotion to the Premier League so I don't see how that can be compared to the ambition needed to help us stay in the League. Yes it's a worthy thing to do, and should be for the long term benefit of the club, but I don't think it shows a level of ambition to better ourselves on the pitch as much as a sensbile and commendable ambition to prop up the squad with good young and homegrown talent.

Long term things are thankfully being put into place, but as we've seen before, the media centre and new kitchens at the training ground didn't keep us in the Premier League or help us keep the decent players we had.

[Hoop Blah]

On "is there something?" I do find it odd that there appears to be little concrete interest in
a lad with masses of talent, a killer free-kick, who has Bundesliga and Premiership experience
and seems (at today's whacky prices) a bargain

It's still very early in the summer and a major international tournament always impacts on transfer dealings, so I think it's just a case of this happening a bit quickly. Things tend to all trickle down after a couple of big moves so perhaps others might come in for him shortly.

Fair play to Swansea, they've been aggressive and gone out to get their man before others seem to have woken up to the idea. Liverpool not having a manager has probably helped their cause at the moment as I see them as being an obvious potential buyer able to snatch him from under their noses.

[bigmike]

Been informed that the deal that is on the table for Sig may not be on the table much longer being that its almost a done deal at Swansea and its not the Reading way to step in and Hijack deals at the last minute... Not sure Bradford city would agree with that after we signed Stephen Hunt when he was on his way to Bradford.

Either way they still plan to announce the Take over along with a Big signing.. Its all very cloak and dagger at the moment.

[Bring Back The SB]

Been informed that the deal that is on the table for Sig may not be on the table much longer being that its almost a done deal at Swansea and its not the Reading way to step in and Hijack deals at the last minute... Not sure Bradford city would agree with that after we signed Stephen Hunt when he was on his way to Bradford.

Either way they still plan to announce the Take over along with a Big signing.. Its all very cloak and dagger at the moment.

Well done so far mate - you certainly seem credible with your information.

[Maguire]

Much as I think we should be bending over backwards to get Sigurdsson, he is but one player and there are many hundreds of others out there who could a job for us in the PL.

There'll be some major moves in the transfer market by RFC this summer all being well so there's little point in getting hung up on one man. After all, it's only because he played for us before that we're so obsessed by him. If he'd been at Ipswich or somewhere then this thread would only be two pages long.

[Hoop Blah]

Probably true, but I can't think of any player who looked so classy and effective in the Premier last season who would be available for £7m.

How much would the likes of Clint Dempsey, Cabeye or Ben Arfa go for (the latter being great examples of cheaper talent available if you can identify them of course)?

[ZacNaloen]

Expensive maybe

A signing that will get the fans really excited is of course Gylfi, but I'm not sure how I feel about the club making such a budget busting signing this early on.

[Snowball]

If Gylfi has as good a season as he had a half season, then the big boys will come in for him next Summer.

Agreed, which is why I think 7-8-9 Million now is a fairly safe bet.

[JordCot]

If Gylfi has as good a season as he had a half season, then the big boys will come in for him next Summer.

Agreed, which is why I think 7-8-9 Million now is a fairly safe bet.

But lets just say we buy Gylfi now but that stops us buying some other players we were potentially looking at. This time next year we might be getting a big transfer sum from our good investment but going back down. As good as he is, he wont plug a hole if we lose a full back or get injuries to other, poorly covered, areas of the team

[TBM]

Been informed that the deal that is on the table for Sig may not be on the table much longer being that its almost a done deal at Swansea and its not the Reading way to step in and Hijack deals at the last minute... Not sure Bradford city would agree with that after we signed Stephen Hunt when he was on his way to Bradford.

Either way they still plan to announce the Take over along with a Big signing.. Its all very cloak and dagger at the moment.

Who is your money on for the BIG signing? I can't see it being Defoe as his wages are so high and there are bigger clubs then us interested. I wouldn't count Rhodes as a BIG signing.

Its Mariappa

[Snowball]

If Gylfi has as good a season as he had a half season, then the big boys will come in for him next Summer.

Agreed, which is why I think 7-8-9 Million now is a fairly safe bet.

But lets just say we buy Gylfi now but that stops us buying some other players we were potentially looking at. This time next year we might be getting a big transfer sum from our good investment but going back down. As good as he is, he wont plug a hole if we lose a full back or get injuries to other, poorly covered, areas of the team

True but Gylfi plus Connolly at LB

A midfield of Karacan-Elwood-Gylfi wouldn't be too shabby.

[Geekins]

Definitely won't be Siggy as he hasn't even spoken with us

[ZacNaloen]

Thing about Gylfi is, what is it that football fans see in him that the big clubs obviously don't?

Man U fans had a banner up saying buy sigurdsson when he played at OT, commentators were wetting themselves over him... but no big clubs want to take the risk at 7 mill?

Strikes me as a bit odd, especially considering the money they've spent on very average english players recently. Gylfi is better than most of them and counts as home grown. Brucey bonus.