Tommy Smith - Gazumped by Pompey - Thread

[Terminal Boardom]

This post was made by Sir Dodger Royal who is currently on your ignore list. Display this post.

Life is good!

[Royalwaster]

Sheffield United's offer was full of add ons. It wasn't cash up front. Real Facts.

Sir Dodger Royal is an imbecile who doesn't have 2 brain cells Realllllllllll Factssssssssssssss

For once I agree with SDR - very unlikely Sheffield United's offer would have been a straight cash offer.

[Roy Alsup]

Reading some of those comments makes you realise just how much of a laughing stock this whole saga has made our club to the outsider. However good or bad our direct negotiations with Watford have been, our handling of the press has been terrible throughout. As a supporter also I'm ashamed to say our special band of knee jerk, keyboard warrior fans spewing forth their panic onto the web after 2 or 3 matches has only helped make the club as a whole look like some kind of spoilt idiot child.

[Terminal Boardom]

Reading some of those comments makes you realise just how much of a laughing stock this whole saga has made our club to the outsider. However good or bad our direct negotiations with Watford have been, our handling of the press has been terrible throughout. As a supporter also I'm ashamed to say our special band of knee jerk, keyboard warrior fans spewing forth their panic onto the web after 2 or 3 matches has only helped make the club as a whole look like some kind of spoilt idiot child.

Totally agree. And, feck off newbie

[Roy Alsup]

Totally agree. And, feck off newbie

I'm honoured. The 14th Apr 2004 is only the half of it though, I've been a mostly silent bystander on HNA since about 95. Can someone call Roy Castle to find out if 14 years to get my 'oxf*rd off newbie' is some kind of record?

Seriously everyone just get a grip. You cannot change an entire first 11 plus a style of play in 3 games. Get away from this I want everything now attitude that the premier league seems to have brought to our club, give BR a chance and sit tight for a season or two of reconstructive surgery. We'll be back stronger than ever. Just enjoy the process of watching something beautiful unfold....

[Focher]

Roy, the voice of reason.

Good post.

[John Peel]

Is this thread really still going?? I do agree though, sit tight for a bit... not sure I could wait two years though!

Yep, you're a newbie because you haven't posted at least 10 time a day for the past five years. Didn't you know that?!

[Doyler]

Totally agree. And, feck off newbie

I'm honoured. The 14th Apr 2004 is only the half of it though, I've been a mostly silent bystander on HNA since about 95. Can someone call Roy Castle to find out if 14 years to get my 'oxf*rd off newbie' is some kind of record?

Seriously everyone just get a grip. You cannot change an entire first 11 plus a style of play in 3 games. Get away from this I want everything now attitude that the premier league seems to have brought to our club, give BR a chance and sit tight for a season or two of reconstructive surgery. We'll be back stronger than ever. Just enjoy the process of watching something beautiful unfold....

I agree completely, such a young team is always going to have a few mishaps along the way. It's all part of these players learning their trade. They have shown glimpses of promise that given time they will become a successful team that plays a very attractive style of football.

[Terminal Boardom]

These things take time

[Muskrat]

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/4557636.Reading_Smith_bid_not_enough

I love Watford fans and their petty "Judas" taunts.

I read all of the Watford posters comments on that and my thoughts would be:

Don't blame them for calling BR Judas, we did the same to McGhee and Pardew but they have completely missed the factor of BR's emotional connection to Reading in him deciding to join us.

Watford are not a bigger club than Reading - we are and always have been about the same in terms of our league status (I recall Reading playing Waftord in all 4 divisions).

We are not a plastic club. We are the oldest club South of the Trent and built ourselves a new stadium eleven years ago, after over 100 years at our previous ground. It's called progress - get over it.

Attendances ebb and flow with success. Were the 33,000 who watched reading play Brentford at Elm Park in the '30's "plastics"? I don't think so.

We have not covered ourselves in glory over the TS saga - witness BR's early comments about TS wanting to be here.

Watford have not covered themselves in glory either - witness Russo disclosing the size or our original offer and calling it "derisory" when we clearly were keeping our dealings outside of the public domain, as we always do.

Yes we have wealthy Chairman, but not by todays standards and we are not a club which throws big money at the transfer market. A lot of our success of recent years has been built on players brought in on small fees and free transfers - Hanneman, Shorey, Ingamarsson, Sonko, Gunnarson, Hunt, Long, Doyle, Kitson, Little so the argument that we try to buy success just doesn't hold water. In fact our two record signings -Fae and Halford, were £2.5m flops who were quickly moved on.

So get over the penis envy. We are now in a rebuilding period and probably won't taste any measure of significant success for 2 - 3 years and as long as we stay in this division I'll accept that.

Personally I don't think we should be held to ransom over TS. Yes he's a decent player at this level but we should have had a plan B in case we couldn't get him for whatever reason. Does beg the question as to what our scouting network is like if we've put all our eggs in the one basket though..

[winchester_royal]

Totally agree. And, feck off newbie

I'm honoured. The 14th Apr 2004 is only the half of it though, I've been a mostly silent bystander on HNA since about 95. Can someone call Roy Castle to find out if 14 years to get my 'oxf*rd off newbie' is some kind of record?

Seriously everyone just get a grip. You cannot change an entire first 11 plus a style of play in 3 games. Get away from this I want everything now attitude that the premier league seems to have brought to our club, give BR a chance and sit tight for a season or two of reconstructive surgery. We'll be back stronger than ever. Just enjoy the process of watching something beautiful unfold....

Fantastic post. If only the majority of HNA had half your good reasoning.

Don't be a stranger Roy.

[Royal With Cheese]

Were the 33,000 who watched reading play Brentford at Elm Park in the '30's "plastics"? I don't think so.

You don't see them at the mad stad so that probably makes them fair weather supporters.

[The whole year inn]

Totally agree. And, feck off newbie

I'm honoured. The 14th Apr 2004 is only the half of it though, I've been a mostly silent bystander on HNA since about 95. Can someone call Roy Castle to find out if 14 years to get my 'oxf*rd off newbie' is some kind of record?

Seriously everyone just get a grip. You cannot change an entire first 11 plus a style of play in 3 games. Get away from this I want everything now attitude that the premier league seems to have brought to our club, give BR a chance and sit tight for a season or two of reconstructive surgery. We'll be back stronger than ever. Just enjoy the process of watching something beautiful unfold....

Fantastic post. If only the majority of HNA had half your good reasoning.

Don't be a stranger Roy.

I am more concerned at why the whole academy has been thrown in at once?

Surely introducing them gradually around a spine of seasoned/experinced pros, is the way to do things?

The difference in Coppell with his 1000 games as a manager and Brendan with 20 are blindingly, painfully obvious

[Super_horns]

No doubt if your manager wasn't B.Rodgers you'd have Smith by now.

Suspect our board are just being petty and trying to mess him around.

[The whole year inn]

No doubt if your manager wasn't B.Rodgers you'd have Smith by now.

Suspect our board are just being petty and trying to mess him around.

It is patently obvious Brendan is new to this game. I would have thought Hammond could have helped him though this but

[Roy Alsup]

I am more concerned at why the whole academy has been thrown in at once?

Surely introducing them gradually around a spine of seasoned/experinced pros, is the way to do things?

The difference in Coppell with his 1000 games as a manager and Brendan with 20 are blindingly, painfully obvious

I do think it is a very brave thing to do, and it does have obvious risks. In a year, maybe with a couple of outside buys to cover weaknesses that emerge, I think they could form the nucleus of a very good Reading team. If we accept we aren't going to be troubling the play offs this year then aim has got to be to stay up and get them to accumulate as much first team experience of playing together within the new system as possible. BR knows these youngsters better than anyone and to an extent I think for the time being we as fans just have to have faith that he sees enough in them to get us comfortably through this season. The very public press gaffes and arrogant bravado, particularly over TS only make his lack of real experience more obvious and make it harder to earn that trust from the supporters.

[fozziebear]

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/intera ... 09,00.html

Looks like we may just have got him......at last

[Kitson12]

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/interactiveEditorial/0,16398,3209,00.html

Looks like we may just have got him......at last

In the Daily Star...the most truthful and reliable of all the tabloids

[Stooper]

Granted, it's only the Mail, but Pompey put in a bid

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... l?ITO=1490

[Mike Hunt]

I know that they are a premier league team, but going to Pompey would be a terrible thing for him to do.

They are close to certainties to go down, and almost in administration, as well as being a oxf*rd shite club. (I hate them, how hard is it to score a goal against Fulham)

Is it a big commute from Watford to Portsmouth ? 2 hrs ?

I think he would pass on that. oxf*rd Pompey.