Has everyone calmed down now?

[Top Flight]

We need Glenda back fully fit fully fast!

[Behindu]

We need Glenda back fully fit fully fast!

No chance he'll come back fast - he'll be as slow as a tortoise like he always was...

[Barry the bird boggler]

We need Glenda back fully fit fully fast!

No chance he'll come back fast - he'll be as slow as a tortoise like he always was...

& it'll be mid October probably before he's approaching match fitness

[Behindu]

I'm not sure match fitness is so important.
Make sure the injury is healed properly and you can start using him from the bench straight away. Not as if he needs to do much chasing back !

Key thing is to not let him play until they are sure he won;t break down - better to be without him another 2 weeks than for ever....

[loyalroyal4life]

we need superman back at back with ivar!! and blakey on the right would be nice!!

[The Colonel]

We need to sort out midfield.

Bryn is a handy squad player but not good enough to start week-in/week-out in the premiership. Fae shows promise and looks comfortable on the ball. I would like to see him given a run of games in the centre.

As for the right...who knows? A fit Blakey would be perfect but will he ever be fit? We need Oster back in the meantime.

I don't share your excitement about the return of Sonko. He has a great nickname and has served us well in the CCC, but he is too clumsy for the premiership. I know many will disagree, but I think Doobs is our best option there at the moment.

[PEARCEY]

The Colonel...you are right..many of us will disgree. I would put a fully fit Sonko as first choice followed by Bikey. Then as John Lennon once said I would "Give Pearce a chance"...Doobs "for me loike" would be fourth choice.
However you feel Doobs is the best option and my view is no more valid than yours....

[The Colonel]

For me Sonks does give us more of a physical presence but I think that Doobs is a consistent all round performer. I think Pearce and Bikey have potential too and I hope that they get more chances in the future.

As I said though, I think that midfield is real area of concern and needs to be sorted out soon.

[Victor Meldrew]

That depends entirely on how highly you rate Kitson though surely.

Contrary to most on here no doubt , i happen to think given an injury free run ( yeah i know!) he's actually the best forward we have. I also think that Kitson & Lita is the best strike combination as well.

Not contrary to me Vision,I also think that Kitson is our best all-round striker and the best defender by far of our strikers bringing more protection for our defence at set-pieces.
Last season a lot of talk was about how a fit Ashton would have been an England frontman and I'll go further than Vision to suggest that a fully fit Kitson is a more likely candidate for an England place than Leroy.

As for the squad as a whole I feel that Sidwell is a big miss and one of these imports has to really step up to provide the drive through the middle that Sidwell provided.
So far Fae looks as though he can offer the going forward option and Cisse the tracking and defending part but we need one of them to progress and do both otherwise we are currently half a player short and it's very difficult in the Premiership to play with 10 1/2 players.

[Cookie]

Against West Ham, because Fae a CM was played as an RM we lacked balance and shape against the Irons.

Well what the hell am I worrying about then?

[Gus the teenage cow]

I think this is a bloody marvellous thread full of beautiful opinions

ok 2 points

1. I won't make any absolute judgements on players form or suitability for Reading until at least 10 games into the season

2. kitson needs a run....and so does ...Oster in central midfield, in my opinion he is our most underrated and underused player, he ran the show in that position against Man Ure last season, he's a quality ball player so get him and Kitson in there boss

[RoyalBlue]

OS does have reports of Oster's injury and pleasing news on Little and Sonko

Oster is reported as having had a slight injury, Sonko is improving and moving to full training 'over the next few weeks' and Little:

'He's made great improvements over the last week or two, and is doing preparation work to get himself running over the next few weeks.'

So realistically Sonko is probably 4-6 weeks away from a return to first team football and Little at least a couple of months! Not particularly good news, particularly the latter. Makes me wonder even more why Sir Steve etc. didn't really push the boat out to sign a quality right winger (either permanently or on loan) before the transfer window closed.

RFC's version of Sods Law means Oster with his 'slight injury' will probably be the last to return but even if he's back quickly, I'm amongst those who believe his strengths really lie in a more central position.

[Stranded]

OS does have reports of Oster's injury and pleasing news on Little and Sonko

Oster is reported as having had a slight injury, Sonko is improving and moving to full training 'over the next few weeks' and Little:

'He's made great improvements over the last week or two, and is doing preparation work to get himself running over the next few weeks.'

So realistically Sonko is probably 4-6 weeks away from a return to first team football and Little at least a couple of months! Not particularly good news, particularly the latter. Makes me wonder even more why Sir Steve etc. didn't really push the boat out to sign a quality right winger (either permanently or on loan) before the transfer window closed.

RFC's version of Sods Law means Oster with his 'slight injury' will probably be the last to return but even if he's back quickly, I'm amongst those who believe his strengths really lie in a more central position.

EP today says that Sonko is targetting the Liverpool Carling Cup game and could well make it.

[Behindu]

I can never see the point of seeing the 'blackest' option. Sonks has always had the end of September as his return target, the 'official'
updates have pretty consistently supported that and so has unoffical news. There is no reason to claim that 'realistically' it's 4-6 weeks away, any more than it's 'realistic' to say Little is a couple of months away.

I know we've seen situations before where recovery has taken longer than expected and players have set backs but why claim wild guesses are 'realistic' when they quite clearly aren't !

I'd be a little worried if Sonks did return against Liverpool - woul dmuch rather he had a reserve game first !

People will be picking figures out of the air to prove the club is making a huge profit / loss next !!!

[papereyes]

I can never see the point of seeing the 'blackest' option.

From Bourne

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst"

[Behindu]

I can never see the point of seeing the 'blackest' option.

From Bourne

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst"

Was glad no one tied that comment into Sonko to be honest !

I think it's one thing to 'plan' for the worst, quite another to seek the worst out and portray it as the 'truth'. I can believe either Sonks or Little may have a relapse and not be back as soon as hoped or planned, I wouldn;t describe it as 'realistic' to assume they both will though.

To quote a much more authorative philosopher

From Python

'Always look on the bright side of life'

[Stranded]

I can never see the point of seeing the 'blackest' option. Sonks has always had the end of September as his return target, the 'official'
updates have pretty consistently supported that and so has unoffical news. There is no reason to claim that 'realistically' it's 4-6 weeks away, any more than it's 'realistic' to say Little is a couple of months away.

I know we've seen situations before where recovery has taken longer than expected and players have set backs but why claim wild guesses are 'realistic' when they quite clearly aren't !

I'd be a little worried if Sonks did return against Liverpool - woul dmuch rather he had a reserve game first !

People will be picking figures out of the air to prove the club is making a huge profit / loss next !!!

First team return, reserve game v Fulham on 19th will give him a run-out prior to that.

[Behindu]

First team return, reserve game v Fulham on 19th will give him a run-out prior to that.

That makes sense !

Glad someone knows the reserve fixtures !!

Would be a very welcome return and presumaby 'best case'. Would be nice to have 4 strong contenders for centre back - possibly give Bikey the chance to play midfield ?

[Royal Rother]

Yep, I'd still like to see Bikey given a chance to dominate in midfield, but have kind of given up on that little fantasy now as he would surely have been given a chance there by now if Coppell thought he could do it.

[The whole year inn]

I dreamt we signed Wayne Routledge last night