STAR AGM on Thursday

[ZacNaloen]

We were given a sneak preview of the positions where we're still looking to strengthen. I say sneak preview because Brendan's blabbed anyway http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/NewsDet ... 50,00.html

All I can take from that is that he wants another defender.

[BR2]

Just under two years ago I sat next to Steve Coppell at a dinner (lucky Steve) and during the 3 hours he spoke openly to me and a couple of others about all things football and a lot about RFC.
I was really surprised about how open he was and how prepared he was to talk about individual players and his relationship with them and the chairman.
When I was driving home I thought about what I should or shouldn't post on here and on balance felt that I shouldn't post anything-I did however tell my brother everything and one poster on here who I thought was trustworthy and although he never had the courtesy to acknowledge my pm I felt that he wouldn't reveal anything and that proved to be the case.

The Star forum strikes me as being a bit different as the format is not as individual exclusive conversation but an open forum and as with previous forums I would have thought that we might have got a summary from one of the attendants.
A pity that so far nobody has posted especially as a lot of us just can't get to any of these forums.

[Barry the bird boggler]

In a nutshell...

Brendan and Nicky arrived

Brendan told us he loved the club

Nicky said we have limited funds (chairman likely to release statement telling us where all the money has gone, when the window closes)

Brendan said looking to sign more

We all applauded and went home

[Royal Lady]

To be fair, the answers to my questions weren't exactly a big secret - but until Dirk says I can tell people, I'd better not.

[susieroyal]

The Star forum strikes me as being a bit different as the format is not as individual exclusive conversation but an open forum and as with previous forums I would have thought that we might have got a summary from one of the attendants.
A pity that so far nobody has posted especially as a lot of us just can't get to any of these forums.

Exactly.
I'm not a member of STAR anymore because living up north I have yet to find a reason why to join, especially as it seems STAR members dont seem to find out what happens at these forums unless they can attend.

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

Just under two years ago I sat next to Steve Coppell at a dinner (lucky Steve) and during the 3 hours he spoke openly to me and a couple of others about all things football and a lot about RFC.
I was really surprised about how open he was and how prepared he was to talk about individual players and his relationship with them and the chairman.
When I was driving home I thought about what I should or shouldn't post on here and on balance felt that I shouldn't post anything-I did however tell my brother everything and one poster on here who I thought was trustworthy and although he never had the courtesy to acknowledge my pm I felt that he wouldn't reveal anything and that proved to be the case.

The Star forum strikes me as being a bit different as the format is not as individual exclusive conversation but an open forum and as with previous forums I would have thought that we might have got a summary from one of the attendants.
A pity that so far nobody has posted especially as a lot of us just can't get to any of these forums.

+1 to this.

It's all a bit secret squirrel isn't it?

[Arch]

re: SHunt being asked to stay another season etc. There is something here that doesn't make sense.

Why on Earth did they give him a new (and presumably) improved contract in Feb? Unless it was on the same money but lowering (or removing) the £5M bid clause?

RL is spot on with regard to how he played after Jan - now we know that he had been told he could go this Summer, it puts his performances (or lack of) in sharp contrast with Doyle's. Pretty disgraceful to be honest.

Very rare I disagree with you but I do on this one. I don't think Hunt's effort on the pitch altered at all. If it had he'd be even thicker than i thought he was, The better he played the better his options in terms of which Premiership club he could join. His form dipped for sure but then so did pretty much everyone elses. I just don't buy the "got new contact, couldn't be arsed" argument. It would actually be counter-productive.

Unless of course it was his plan all along to join Hull.

Yep. Somewhere in that 12 months his value crashed from 5m of Everton's money to $3m of Hull's.

[Hoop Blah]

re: SHunt being asked to stay another season etc. There is something here that doesn't make sense.

Why on Earth did they give him a new (and presumably) improved contract in Feb? Unless it was on the same money but lowering (or removing) the £5M bid clause?

RL is spot on with regard to how he played after Jan - now we know that he had been told he could go this Summer, it puts his performances (or lack of) in sharp contrast with Doyle's. Pretty disgraceful to be honest.

Very rare I disagree with you but I do on this one. I don't think Hunt's effort on the pitch altered at all. If it had he'd be even thicker than i thought he was, The better he played the better his options in terms of which Premiership club he could join. His form dipped for sure but then so did pretty much everyone elses. I just don't buy the "got new contact, couldn't be arsed" argument. It would actually be counter-productive.

Unless of course it was his plan all along to join Hull.

Yep. Somewhere in that 12 months his value crashed from 5m of Everton's money to $3m of Hull's.

What £5m of Evertons money? That was just a bit of paper talk inspired by his agent wasn't it?

Giving him, and Doyle for that matter, a new contract was a daft move by the powers that be and I think it summed up the way the club, and specifically Coppell, just couldn't look outside of the squad for the quality and inspiration we needed for 18 months.

All in the past now though.

[BR2]

re: SHunt being asked to stay another season etc. There is something here that doesn't make sense.

Why on Earth did they give him a new (and presumably) improved contract in Feb? Unless it was on the same money but lowering (or removing) the £5M bid clause?

RL is spot on with regard to how he played after Jan - now we know that he had been told he could go this Summer, it puts his performances (or lack of) in sharp contrast with Doyle's. Pretty disgraceful to be honest.

Very rare I disagree with you but I do on this one. I don't think Hunt's effort on the pitch altered at all. If it had he'd be even thicker than i thought he was, The better he played the better his options in terms of which Premiership club he could join. His form dipped for sure but then so did pretty much everyone elses. I just don't buy the "got new contact, couldn't be arsed" argument. It would actually be counter-productive.

Unless of course it was his plan all along to join Hull.

I agree with MrA on this-nice idea in theory Vision that the better you play,the better the club you join.
Time and again players' form drops off and they then get transferred.
The purchaser remembers what the player used to be like and is daft or clever enough or even vain enough to think that he can make the player what he used to be.
Look at Bent and Bentley last season-when they got their chance they didn't do enough in the manager's eyes.
One has already gone for a lot of money,the other will go for quite a lot of money and both of them have (like Hunt) wanted to get away.
Nicky Shorey the same in his last season with us?
Oh ,and a lot of players are thick.

[Arch]

Yep. Somewhere in that 12 months his value crashed from 5m of Everton's money to $3m of Hull's.

What £5m of Evertons money? That was just a bit of paper talk inspired by his agent wasn't it?

Of course, but not in Hunt's mind. The point Vision was making was that even Hunt wasn't dumb enough to slack off because he knew he'd be in the Premiership regardless. His poor form lost him value by his own valuation.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Hunt was however a enegy player, and likely to get injured, any injury could well have scuppered a move away in the summer, so perhaps he took less risks than he was before.

[Platypuss]

re: SHunt being asked to stay another season etc. There is something here that doesn't make sense.

Why on Earth did they give him a new (and presumably) improved contract in Feb? Unless it was on the same money but lowering (or removing) the £5M bid clause?

RL is spot on with regard to how he played after Jan - now we know that he had been told he could go this Summer, it puts his performances (or lack of) in sharp contrast with Doyle's. Pretty disgraceful to be honest.

Indeed. Lucky for us Doyle kept up the good performances through to the end of the season. It was an important goal though.

[Mr Angry]

re: SHunt being asked to stay another season etc. There is something here that doesn't make sense.

Why on Earth did they give him a new (and presumably) improved contract in Feb? Unless it was on the same money but lowering (or removing) the £5M bid clause?

RL is spot on with regard to how he played after Jan - now we know that he had been told he could go this Summer, it puts his performances (or lack of) in sharp contrast with Doyle's. Pretty disgraceful to be honest.

Indeed. Lucky for us Doyle kept up the good performances through to the end of the season. It was an important goal though.

My view was that at least Doyle was giving it 100% - blips in form can happen at any time obviously.

My view with SHunt was that at times I felt he wasn't giving it 100%, and as a fan I think thats unforgiveable. When he signed his new contract, I thought "great - he will give everything he can now, because if we go up, he plays in the Prem, and if he plays well, he will get a transfer". Of course i didn't realise that even playing poorly and with no genuine hunger he was still going to get a transfer back to the Prem.

Hey ho.

[STAR Liaison]

The Star forum strikes me as being a bit different as the format is not as individual exclusive conversation but an open forum and as with previous forums I would have thought that we might have got a summary from one of the attendants.
A pity that so far nobody has posted especially as a lot of us just can't get to any of these forums.

You are right to a degree.

STAR actually has never allowed press in and agreed readily to the club's request not to publish such verbatim notes, not because we want to do everything to please the club (even though you should remember that the guests would not be there without the club's blessing) but because (as has been said on this thread) that we found numbers attending was dropping as people felt they could get all the gen without the effort of attending. If we want them to continue the manager has to believe there are enough interested supporters to make it worth his while. Also don;t forget it is a benefit of joining STAR not HNA?, we don't want to exclude any supporter but we do get complaints that we should look after our members more so there is a whole raft of reasons to explain how we organise the forum.

Also as the note taker on numerous occasions I did find it irksome that I was supposed to drop everything to write the notes up for those who could not be arsed to come along, so we also now take our time rather than rush them out. STAR members who cannot make it will still get the notes as they will be in the next Reading Matter (due out in a month I think but not up to me so not sure of the timing).

I also think those that don't come miss out in other ways as the body language and funny asides add to the evening - it is interesting to read on here that Brendan has won round a few doubters as there is no doubt that his enthusiasm shines through much more in person than in notes or even if press interviews. I know those of the STAR Board that went to the meeting with him were fired up with his enthusiasm after the meeting.

[The Quiet Man]

As one of the sceptics that went along I certainly feel a lot happier over the general direction of the club than I did at the start of the season. A few ghosts were laid to rest regarding finances and BR fully aware of the pitfalls surrounding the rebuild and the need for experience to gell the team, boy is he desperate to succeed - I hope he does.

[RG30]

If there was a "no media ban" then why were the club's head of communications and his assistant present?

[Forbury Lion]

If there was a "no media ban" then why were the club's head of communications and his assistant present?

The club can moderated their own media, they can't moderate outside agencies.

[Pseud O'Nym]

If there was a "no media ban" then why were the club's head of communications and his assistant present?

The club can moderated their own media, they can't moderate outside agencies.

The double negative followed by the shifted tense does make this a tad difficult to follow.

[Southbank Old Boy]

If there was a "no media ban" then why were the club's head of communications and his assistant present?

They arnt the media, they work for the club

HTH

[1871royals]

My view was that at least Doyle was giving it 100% - blips in form can happen at any time obviously.

My view with SHunt was that at times I felt he wasn't giving it 100%, and as a fan I think thats unforgiveable. When he signed his new contract, I thought "great - he will give everything he can now, because if we go up, he plays in the Prem, and if he plays well, he will get a transfer". Of course i didn't realise that even playing poorly and with no genuine hunger he was still going to get a transfer back to the Prem.

Hey ho.

I know slightly off topic, but I think Doyle is given too easy a ride.

No one moans that after he received his new deal he scored 1 goal.

Doyles and Hunts performances were very similar after they both received new deals. I personally believe S Hunt tried harder than Doyle post contract but because he was a player of limited ability when he had other things to worry about (trying to secure a move), his performances dropped dramatically.

Everyone on here appreciated what Doyle did for the club but for a senior player he didn't take enough responsibility (he would run the channels and not take shots on). 2nd prem season 4 goals (I think) and didn't score consistently last season, he scored in bursts.