Have Reading done enough this transfer window?

[Hoop Blah]

cannot agree


hes scored at league 1 level
and has scored, but failed to nail down a regular place at championship level
thats this year.
i have no idea why you think he therefore would have made a difference 2 years ago at premiere league level

Because we were shit.

I've said many times, you don't have to be the right player to make a difference, and he might not be good enough for the Premiership as a consistent performer, but he was full of confidence and something a bit different to what we had in the side at the time. The lower leagues are litteres with players who made an impact in the Premiership only to then slowly slip down the leagues because they weren't quite good enough.

We were crying out for someone to give us a spark at the time, especially with our total lack of a right midfielder capable of doing anything remotely positive. His half against Spurs in the cup was the perfect launch pad for him to be given a short run in the side and he could've been the catalyst (in terms of pure energy and workrate as well as technical strengths and weaknesses) to kick start our form.

[Hoop Blah]

every one of those strikers was dropped on more than one occasion by coppell
& it was more to do with the supply that we went down

They were only really dropped for each other though, and nobody new came in to freshen things up.

Agreed the supply was drying up, because we lost Sidwell, Little and Convey...but at least we signed Kebe eh?!?

As I said above, Cox could've been a short term answer and catalyst for us if he was actually given a chance. Instead we went with what we knew didn't work in the likes of Oster.

[howser]

All in all the players w have got in have improved the squad, or should have !! we, in reality, could have done with a front man but I have faith, misguided maybe, that Long has the ability to come good, the lad can score goals at this level, as he has proved in the past.

[facaldaqui]

Not very often.

[Royal Lady]

cannot agree


hes scored at league 1 level
and has scored, but failed to nail down a regular place at championship level
thats this year.
i have no idea why you think he therefore would have made a difference 2 years ago at premiere league level

Because we were shit.

I've said many times, you don't have to be the right player to make a difference, and he might not be good enough for the Premiership as a consistent performer, but he was full of confidence and something a bit different to what we had in the side at the time. The lower leagues are litteres with players who made an impact in the Premiership only to then slowly slip down the leagues because they weren't quite good enough.

We were crying out for someone to give us a spark at the time, especially with our total lack of a right midfielder capable of doing anything remotely positive. His half against Spurs in the cup was the perfect launch pad for him to be given a short run in the side and he could've been the catalyst (in terms of pure energy and workrate as well as technical strengths and weaknesses) to kick start our form.

^^ This. Even the fact that he was Reading born and bred and determined to do well for us, could have seen that extra little spark that could have kept us up.

[RoyalBlue]

He could, but Coppell was too fair and decent to his players to do that.

Effectively, he said to Cox "You have a choice - I can't see you playing in the first team for at least a couple of seasons - you can stay and fight for a place here with no guarantees, or you can try your luck elsewhere."

I think anyone in that situation would have done what Cox did.

Maybe Coppell should have said: 'I'm going to give you a good contract with us and then arrange for you to go out on loan with a decent club who will help develop you into a strong candidate for a first team place with us.'

How could he? Cox had to compete with Kitson, Doyle, Lita and Long. And Premiership wasn't his level yet. Cox wasn't prepared to wait and probably at the time didn't think Reading would be relegated.

He could have made sure Cox stayed contracted to us and then lent him out on a season long loans at a decent level to continue his development, prior to making it in our first team. It's what other PL teams do.

Cox himself said he did not want to go back out on loan again. We could of course have forced him to see out his contract but I'm not sure that would have helped anyone.

What he said and what he might have ended up doing could well have been different things, particularly if he was on a decent contract with us and loaned out to a good club with the intent of developing him ready for a first team place with us, sooner rather than later.

[brendywendy]

cannot agree


hes scored at league 1 level
and has scored, but failed to nail down a regular place at championship level
thats this year.
i have no idea why you think he therefore would have made a difference 2 years ago at premiere league level

Because we were shit.

I've said many times, you don't have to be the right player to make a difference, and he might not be good enough for the Premiership as a consistent performer, but he was full of confidence and something a bit different to what we had in the side at the time. The lower leagues are litteres with players who made an impact in the Premiership only to then slowly slip down the leagues because they weren't quite good enough.

We were crying out for someone to give us a spark at the time, especially with our total lack of a right midfielder capable of doing anything remotely positive. His half against Spurs in the cup was the perfect launch pad for him to be given a short run in the side and he could've been the catalyst (in terms of pure energy and workrate as well as technical strengths and weaknesses) to kick start our form.

ah, ok , i understand a bit more now
didnt think he looked that good in that spurs game

still, have to agree to disagree

[brendywendy]

^^ This. Even the fact that he was Reading born and bred and determined to do well for us, could have seen that extra little spark that could have kept us up.

'snot enough for me.
looking at him since IMO we made the right decision for that season

[Royal Lady]

^^ This. Even the fact that he was Reading born and bred and determined to do well for us, could have seen that extra little spark that could have kept us up.

'snot enough for me.
looking at him since IMO we made the right decision for that season

eh?? He was top scorer at Swindon and he's scored a fair few for WBA. AND he was bloody magnificent on the wing against Spurs in the cup.

[Yellowcoat]

Agree with BW I also thought he was nothing special in the Spurs match. Many seem to have viewed his performance through glasses that were not only rose tinted but also provided the benefit of hindsight.

[brendywendy]

no.
he was ok in the cup.
and like i said scored well at 3rd tier level
scored ok at championship level, yet failed to nail a starting place.
and thats now, and last year
i still fail to see what makes anyone so fervent that he was the answer for us, in the prem, two years ago.

but i doubt i ever will, so dont worry about a reply!

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Can someone remind me how much Kitson was sold for after relegation, and Doyle after last season, and can they then tell me how much Cox was sold for????

In all honesty we did very well out of all three, try to remember that it is a business.

[PEARCEY]

We needed a first-choice striker. I assumed Thor would be that, but Long and even Bignall have got on ahead of him, which doesn't bode well. If we don't stay up, Madejski may regret not putting his hand further into his pocket. Goalscorers are out there for loan: Sheff Wed picked up Luke Varney, for instance.

Football is really a simple game: the more goals, the more wins. I don't know about signing Thorvaldsson full time, and surely Church and Long have to go in the summer. Neither are regular goalscorers, nor ever likely to be; so lets get people in who can poke the ball in the net.

long can go, but give Church a chance ffs. It's his first full season in the CCC and he's in a pretty poor team. his movement is second to none in our side, goals will come.

Patrick Sayzee and Michael Jackson were good movers but neither of them were recognised goalscorers.
I don't like this "We have until March" way of thinking.
Knowing how long it takes players to bed in at our club the season will be over and our fate decided before new loanees make an impression.
I hate all this loan stuff at all levels of football and the idea of Premiership clubs taking players on loan is just crazy.
If clubs can't afford to buy players they should not be playing in a professional league and the sooner Divs 1 and 2 go part-time the better.
No other country in the world has so many professional clubs and nowadays some 5th division teams are fully professional which is ludicrous.
Rant over-yes I wish we had bought a new big striker and dynamic central midfielder because we could do with them NOW and not when the season is almost over.

Its still Church's first full season at this level. Give him a chance.

[Ian Royal]

Ian, Cox has since shown that he could score exceptional goals and create for others.

Yes it was at a lower level, but at the time he left we were struggling to score or create and we were crying out for something a bit different. At the time (because that's all that matters not what he's done before) he looked much more likely to add something to the first team than Oster, Kebe or any of the other 6 or 7 (or however many it was) players we tried on the right wing.

That's where the mistake was from RFCs point of view.

cannot agree


hes scored at league 1 level
and has scored, but failed to nail down a regular place at championship level
thats this year.
i have no idea why you think he therefore would have made a difference 2 years ago at premiere league level

Agreed, unsually stupid post from HB there.

[Hoop Blah]

It's not stupid at!

Try and go back and remember how bad we were at the time and the side had gone completely stale, not to mention was crying out for some invention and hard graft on the right. Then consider the impact Cox had in that Spurs game and his freshness to the first team.

We only needed someone to take the mantle for a short while, and he was so full of confidence and vigour that he really could've been a useful asset. He might not've been of course but not trying him was fool hardy in my opinion and it also lost us the services of a decent player.

What he has or hasn't achieved since then is pretty irrelevant as it's a matter timing. Look at the likes of John Mackie, Osborn, Nogan or even Covey at Reading, or people like Beardsmore, Martin, Sharp at Utd or Michael Rickets. They all had short bursts of quality and major positive impacts that the rest of their careers failed to match.

If you can't understand the potential we missed out on then you get it even less than I thought.

[Royal With Cheese]

Why the bickering about cox again? surely it's been done to death by now?

As far as I'm aware Cox isn't on the transfer list, we didn't make a bid, the tranfer window is now closed so we couldn't put a bid in even if we wanted to and he's not coming back.

[andrew1957]

In answer to the original question. I am happy as I was most worried we might lose players. It was obvious we were not going to buy any. The new loans all look good to me.

[Royalee]

No. Again.

Would you care to expand on your thoughts?

Personally I would have liked to see another striker come in on loan until the end of the season. Someone experienced like Kevin Phillips for example.

Griffin is proving a great find and the K Man is, as yet, unproven.

We need a winger and a striker, have done all season and still haven't brought one in. In fact, we've needed a winger to replace Little for 3 years now, I'm not counting McAnuff as a replacement as we also lost Hunt and Convey. Our forward line obviously speaks for itself and it is seemingly obvious to all but the chairman that it is not good enough.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

I guess it was not obvious enough to BR, or BM.

JM is not going to just allow the signing of loads of new players, never was and never will.

Looks like no one wnted what we haveso we will have to wait. We signed players, we have to see how they do I guess.

[Royal Lady]

Why the bickering about cox again? surely it's been done to death by now?

As far as I'm aware Cox isn't on the transfer list, we didn't make a bid, the tranfer window is now closed so we couldn't put a bid in even if we wanted to and he's not coming back.

We could quite easily sign him on loan.