by Alan Partridge »
17 Jun 2009 09:10
Royalee Alan Partridge Alan Partridge Again though it's not really failure.
What did you expect from reading in their 2nd season of the Prem? Staying up would have been an achievement, they didn't quite manage it. It was hugely disappointing but a club like Reading sadly simply don't belong in the Premiership and it was always going to be immensely difficult to keep them there fora sustained period.
Not until Reading pay the going rate for players both in fees and salaries and under this current board Reading will never ever do that. Not a terrible thing but that's just the way it is, football has gone mad and while people don't think the Kieron Richardson's of this world are worth £6million and Gary Cahill at £5million that is simply the going rate for players even for teams at the bottom end of the table, whereas Reading might take a £800,000 or £1million 'gamble' on a player, in Premiership terms that is absolute chicken feed, a gamble might be £5million and you have to be able to take it if it doesn't pay off.
But wasn't it Coppell who said there was money to spend but he chose not to spend it? Certainly the fact that his most expensive signings were his worst doesn't help his case.
I think you are being a bit naieve if you think there was a spare wad of cash floating around for players and COppell simply didn't want to spend it. There probably was some money, but the wage structure is well documented and Reading wouldn't break that for anyone. So while there may have been some money around (certainly not a £40million like a Sunderland or a Portsmouth might have) it's going to be nigh on impossible to attract any semi decent established players.
Coppell said at a fans forum re Scott Brown that they bid £4million for him, Hibs accepted, his agent phoned straight away and asked for £x amount a week. Way outside of Reading's wage structure. They tried to get him down first and foremost just to have a look around and maybe negotiate, but he wouldn't even get on a plane unless he was guaranteed a certain amount.
That's a club policy, nothing to do with Coppell, some would say it's good some would say it's doing things on the cheap. But that's the way the Premiership works, you have to be a big payer to be a big player. There may well have been around £10million of a budget remaining for players but if even guys playing at Hibernian want more than Reading are prepared to pay then it leaves the manager's hands severely tied.
So while the arguement has always been Coppell chose not to spend it,technically that is true, but in practical terms Coppell couldn't spend it on anyone half decent. Hence why we ended up with a load of cheap foreign signings/a load of cack.
really? I think 99.9% of the footballing world would, it's why Doyle is linked with moves to the Premiership and Tommy Smith is a championship player linked with a move to another CCC club.
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). Churchy could do great foward along with Kelly at Right back if Rosenior's unavailable.