The Strength of Our Squad

[Arch]

Last season, 3rd from bottom finished on..........wait for it...............34pts

With 15 games left we have..................wait for it...................34pts

So, just to be sure, because we wouldn't want to get sucked into a relegation battle and risk losing £35m, we need to strengthen, just incase..............not that anyones panicking.....................good thinking.

Hate to burst your bubble Woodcote, but there are in fact only 14 games left... which of course utterly defeats your case.

[International Royal]

I think we should only strengthen if it's for the long term. This is particularly the case as we are more or less safe on 34 points with a reasonable run in and some very winnable home games to come (starting with Wigan next up).

No short term panic buys are required. January is not the time for purchasing unless the right player becomes available at the right price. The market is so inflated anyway. That said a central defender would be a very welcome addition.

I agree too with some of the posters who are criticising people going overboard with the apparent strength of our current stand ins. Sheff U were horrendous yesterday so not a bad game to be involved with.

[The 17 Bus]

cant see the point in buying unless for the first team, and what will that say to the guys that have come in and done ok, IMHO it says you are not good enough, and might be bad for the spirit of the club, we are all but safe now, so unless for next season leave well alone, no one is going to want to sign to be cover or sit on bench, hence they would be no better than what we have and long tewrm not needed.

I thought Hayes and a couple of others were almost ready anyway?

Stick with what we have is my view, though I hate to agree with Woodcote.

[Royal Lady]

I have to completely disagree with Woodcote I'm afraid. Just because we're on 34 points now, doesn't mean we can sit back. Surely the whole point is that we try and amass as many points as possible? We ARE short of cover and we've been so unlucky with injuries, that we cannot just hope that we won't get anymore. We need to sign a couple of players as COVER and that includes a striker imho.

[Royal Rother]

How many mid-season buys work in that season? Very few. They (perhaps unintentionally) disrupt the dressing room, particularly that of a club like ours with low-ish wages, and whilst we still have sufficient cover (just about) in all positions, I don't think it is worth considering.

Who would we want to buy anyway? Someone for a couple of million plus? Why bother? Buying someone who is only as good as what we've got, but with a fee of double anything we've got (when there is no real indication we need them) would be unwise.

When the season is over, then make some moves in the market for sure, (whilst also renegotiating existing contracts) but at this stage don't disrupt the whole ethic of the club with bigger fee / bigger name signings. As well as being unwise, it's just unnecessary.

And yes, Sheffield Utd were poor, but (for much of the match) we were without the players who would finish 1, 2 and 3 in a mid-season player of the year vote I suspect. The squad is proving itself unexpectedly strong and I can't wait to see how many more poor teams we outplay with our second string.

[Royalee]

Last season, 3rd from bottom finished on..........wait for it...............34pts

With 15 games left we have..................wait for it...................34pts

So, just to be sure, because we wouldn't want to get sucked into a relegation battle and risk losing £35m, we need to strengthen, just incase..............not that anyones panicking.....................good thinking.

Previous season point totals are no guarantee whatsoever, I thought even you wouldn't be that stupid.

[Huntley & Palmer]

West Ham went down with 42 points in one season, comparing to previous one's is utterly irrelevant

[Royal Rother]

It's dangerous but it's not utterly irrelevant.

[Victor Meldrew]

I thought the team did brilliantly after the first 35 minutes or so when there was no single shot on target and it looked like a mid-table Championship game.
Does this now mean that the ambition is to survive with the least outlay possible or do we speculate (don't forget we are constantly told that there are specific targets in this transfer window-no panic buys but those that we have tracked for a long time)?
Regardless of today's injuries I would have thought that we would speculate to finish as high as possible and bring in even more dosh to add to next year's £30 million,i.e it's £500,000 or so for every finishing position up the table.
And what about the FA Cup?
The better we do in that competition plus the higher we finish in the Premiership leads to more exposure and we raise the bar for the quality of players that we bring in-Mensah and the like would then see us as their first choice rather than somewhere further down.

[Royal Rother]

Do you acknowledge the danger that bringing in known new faces mid-season might disrupt that delicate harmony in the dressing room that Coppell seems to be a master at building?

I fear that if we spend £4m on a couple of players it could result in a drop of a few places, ending up lose / lose. (Ferdinand and Keown is the obvious, if somewhat exaggerated case in point.)

Maybe we will drop a few places anyway (when the effect of our crappy pitch hits our style of play) but personally I'd rather we kept our powder dry and made moves for some new faces in early summer and give Coppell a chance to bed them into the club's psyche before pitching them into the first team.

Of course if we lose badly against Wigan and pick up a couple more injuries I might just change my opinion....

[Woodcote Royal]

Last season, 3rd from bottom finished on..........wait for it...............34pts

With 15 games left we have..................wait for it...................34pts

So, just to be sure, because we wouldn't want to get sucked into a relegation battle and risk losing £35m, we need to strengthen, just incase..............not that anyones panicking.....................good thinking.

Previous season point totals are no guarantee whatsoever, I thought even you wouldn't be that stupid.

And your ridicilous observations never cease to amuse....................................have you mentioned the pitch this weekend

[Woodcote Royal]

I hate to agree with Woodcote.

And I love it that you failed your last MOT in 1982.

[brendywendy]

cant beieve some of you are still saying stuff like this

theres no such thing as squad players at reading anymore, this season proves that over and over, everyone who comes in has improved game by game, and thats all we can ask, and now those that were looking shakey are rewarding the managers faith

well done to DLC, hunt, long(so chuffed he got his first goal), bikey etc

[readingbedding]

Listen to what Hammond and Coppell are saying

We're not going to over-spend.
They are looking.
January always inflates prices.
We only want players who'll fit in and want to play for Reading for the right reasons.
Morale in the squad is 100%, everyone is pulling in the right direction.
If we get the right player/s in now, that would be great, if we don't - we don't.

These are the facts, it's their template, their way of doing things.

Seriously.