Prima donnas - Fae & Sonko suspended by club

[brendywendy]

I'm willing to bet SC's take on this is somewhat different to that being reported by Fae.

as it keeps with their view of RFC being nothing more than a bunch of liars and incompetents.

Coppell never saw Fae play live (Coppell's admission) and according to the Fae's account, met him only for the first time to sign the contract.

Do you think our manager (with 20+ years experience ) is still making fundamental mistakes and is entirely devoid of blame for this ridiculous situation?

no

clearly he should have found space for these two incompetents in the 1st team somewhere

what was he thinking!

others in the squad seem to deal with his appalling man management pretty well

rosenior displayed the exact attitude we want when he wasnt in the team

[Hoop Blah]

Premiership managers have longer memories than Reading fans and they'll remember the athletic powerhouse that was outstanding, if not a bit clumsy and niave at times, during our first few months in the Premiership and our Championship winning side.

They'll have some idea as to why he's performed the way he was through the old boys network and the rumour mill.

Like Shorey, they'll see him as an investment on a player they can improve and turn his form around. Especially by getting him through a preseason and putting him in a side that just needs a dominant centre half to play on a more competant side.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him go to a Villa, Blackburn, Newcastle etc etc. How much we'd get for him is up for debate, it certainly won't be as much as we might've done 12 months ago, or even 12 days ago!

i would be very surpirsed to see him anywhere higher than relegation strugglers

Maybe not as a first choice player, but I could see someone like Blackburn, Everton or Villa taking him on as a squad player to replace the likes of Stubbs, Gardner or Laursen who they won't have next season.

His potential and performances against those sides in the past will be more in their minds than sloppy play since coming back from injury.

[The whole year inn]

Rosenoir was signed from a team down the road starting regularly in the same divison as Reading.

Not really comparable brendy, daft response.

Coppell is having trouble with a player he signed despite never seeing play live. Hardly rocket science, is it?

[Vision]

I'm willing to bet SC's take on this is somewhat different to that being reported by Fae.

as it keeps with their view of RFC being nothing more than a bunch of liars and incompetents.

Coppell never saw Fae play live (Coppell's admission) and according to the Fae's account, met him only for the first time to sign the contract.

Do you think our manager (with 20+ years experience ) is still making fundamental mistakes and is entirely devoid of blame for this ridiculous situation?

For Fae not making an impact on the 1st team of course as he signed him he takes responsibility ( not sure blame is really the right word).

For a player refusing to play for the reserves and then publicly calling the manager "stupid", i think the "blame" lies squarely with the player and just as likely his agent.

[Vision]

Rosenoir was signed from a team down the road starting regularly in the same divison as Reading.

Not really comparable brendy, daft response.

Coppell is having trouble with a player he signed despite never seeing play live. Hardly rocket science, is it?

Sonko was signed from just down the road .He's having trouble with him as well. I'm not sure that whether you've seen the player play or not before you've signed them is likely to be able to help you draw a conclusion as to whether they'll chuck their toys out of the pram and behave totally unprofessionally when they don't get their way.

[The Surgeon of Crowthorne]

To be fair to Fae, i probably would have done the same in his situation.

He had to sit on the bench during the first part of the season and watch Bryn put in shite performances over and over again, he has a decent ACoN for IC, comes back, looks very sharp according to KD and WD, plays well in the limited time he gets as a sub, then gets axed from the squad completely

The way he has been treated by Coppell is typical of the way SSC treats people who are not in his 'untouchables' (eg Lita, and BK during start of season) which is unacceptable for a modern day manager.

There are always going to be players with big ego's in football, and if we stay up, and start spending bigger money on better players, then that is something both the manager, and the fans, will have to get accustomed to.

Sonko, however, has been crap this season, has wasted his chances (which fae did not get), and deserved to be in the reserves.......therefore i have no sympathy for him

Doing what precisely, carrying in the tray of oranges at half time? One game plus one sub appearance does not sound like "a decent ACoN" to me.

[Gordons Cumming]

Sometimes it's not possible for a manager to see a foreign player live before signing. That is why they rely on scouts, advisers and assistants.

That is where the problem lies.

[brendywendy]

Rosenoir was signed from a team down the road starting regularly in the same divison as Reading.

Not really comparable brendy, daft response.

Coppell is having trouble with a player he signed despite never seeing play live. Hardly rocket science, is it?

no its not

i challenge you to find me any manager in this league who has seen every signing play previous to his arrival at his club.

go on

please

[Hoop Blah]

Rosenoir was signed from a team down the road starting regularly in the same divison as Reading.

Not really comparable brendy, daft response.

Coppell is having trouble with a player he signed despite never seeing play live. Hardly rocket science, is it?

Sonko was signed from just down the road .He's having trouble with him as well. I'm not sure that whether you've seen the player play or not before you've signed them is likely to be able to help you draw a conclusion as to whether they'll chuck their toys out of the pram and behave totally unprofessionally when they don't get their way.

Meeting them and making a judgement call on their personality and temprament might just be an idea though.

IF that is left soley McDermmott and Hammond then it's a mistake on the part of the club. Coppell picks the team and he needs to be the one comfortable with his players. He should have the final say, and I'm pretty sure he does.

[Hoop Blah]

Sometimes it's not possible for a manager to see a foreign player live before signing. That is why they rely on scouts, advisers and assistants.

That is where the problem lies.

Considering we were tracking Fae for over 12 months, and he was only playing in France I don't think there is any real excuse for not doing enough research on the player.

[Hoop Blah]

Rosenoir was signed from a team down the road starting regularly in the same divison as Reading.

Not really comparable brendy, daft response.

Coppell is having trouble with a player he signed despite never seeing play live. Hardly rocket science, is it?

no its not

i challenge you to find me any manager in this league who has seen every signing play previous to his arrival at his club.

go on

please

I'd imagine most watch their records signing at least once before taking the plunge.

When funds are so tight as they appear to be, or at least our willingness/ability to spend those funds, then paying 2.5m for a player and not seeing him live is not the most professional approach I could imagine.

[The whole year inn]

Rosenoir was signed from a team down the road starting regularly in the same divison as Reading.

Not really comparable brendy, daft response.

Coppell is having trouble with a player he signed despite never seeing play live. Hardly rocket science, is it?

no its not

i challenge you to find me any manager in this league who has seen every signing play previous to his arrival at his club.

go on

please

Impossible to prove. You want me to go through 19 clubs transfers for the past 1 year, 2 years?

There is a certain amount of common sense that comes with managing a football club. Watching a player and meeting him in person before signing him is pretty basic, surely?

[Vision]

In an ideal World of course its better for a manager to have several meetings with a player and watch them on numerous occasions but its just not possible. Managers/coaches signing players from abroad that they've never met is a lot more prevalent than you seem to think.

Regardless though, watching, meeting and talking to a player who is regularly playing for his current club and who desperately wants a move to a money laden Premier League is not going to give any indication whatsoever of how he will react 6 months down the line if he's not in the team. The bloke contracted malaria when he was in the squad at Boro, i'm not sure any prior meeting would have foreseen that outcome either.

Its one of those unforeseeable things that happens with signings unfortunately. We watched and met with Halford on several occasions but it didn't stop him being a blow out either.

EDIT. Equally Sonko's been a model professional really for us in terms of his attitude and committment to RFC in the last couple of seasons yet now he's left out in the cold for the 1st time he's suddenly shown a completely different side to him.

[Uke]

In an ideal World of course its better for a manager to have several meetings with a player and watch them on numerous occasions but its just not possible. Managers/coaches signing players from abroad that they've never met is a lot more prevalent than you seem to think.

Though of course if a manager was to do just that he'd be accused of raiding his old clubs and not being ambitious enough.

Coppell can't win can he? (pun intended at the moemnt)

[andrew1957]

I cannot believe that any fan who has watched the last few seaosn can criticise SC and transfer policies. The vast majority of our buys have been successful. It is just now that we are in the PL it is much harder for players to make the step up.

I actually think that Fae may well have been good enough if he had plugged away in the reserves, then he may have forced his way into the team next season - if not this one. Convey was poor in his first season and Hunt only started 3 games in the Championship winning seaosn. It takes time to adjust.

BUT Fae has ruined any chance of playing in the RFC first team and we can only hope someone does buy him this Summer or else as he still has two years left on his contract he may be playing in the reserves all next season!!

[Rawlie19]

Emerse Fcuk All Experience.

Do one. And where you going to go? Surely he has more than a 1 year contract? So leave, and we will sue for breach of contract, getting most of our £2.5m back from you. Thanks very much.

[Vision]

I cannot believe that any fan who has watched the last few seaosn can criticise SC and transfer policies. The vast majority of our buys have been successful. It is just now that we are in the PL it is much harder for players to make the step up.

To be fair though some of the criticism is justified in the sense that we simply haven't made the signings necessary to immediately improve our 1st 11. Fae was high profile for us and looks sadly as though he will be a failure ( i say sadly because from a technical point of view i thought he looked a decent player).

The simple truth is that generally we don't/won't/can't buy players that will have an immediate impact and galvanise the 1st team and unless we approach things differently then thats likely to continue to be the case. Thats not to say that the likes of Bikey, ,Matejovsky Cisse are bad signings, in fact in time i think theres every chance they'll prove to be good ones. Its just that the way we approach things we're looking to slowly intigrate them into our team which means we're noy likely to see the best of them until a while after they've joined.

[Royalee]

I cannot believe that any fan who has watched the last few seaosn can criticise SC and transfer policies. The vast majority of our buys have been successful.

Name the successes since January 2006 and I'll name the failures and point out precisely why you are wrong.

[Muskrat]

This is the best outcome for Reading. Fae breaches club rules, asks for transfer, we say yes, off he goes back to France and we recoup some of our initial outlay.

Let's face it he was never good enough for the Premier League and if we do go down I can't see him exactly shining in the Championship.

Good riddance and put it down to experience...

[readingbedding]

Reading's record signing Emerse Fae has vowed never to play for the club again after branding manager Steve Coppell "stupid". Fae refused to play in a reserve game on Monday evening and was punished with a two-week suspension, a two weeks' wages fine, and ordered to stay away from the club for that period. (Daily Mail)