Club must save £4 million

[readingbedding]

Yeah, as a fan we should have entered the Intertoto, and I was disappointed that we didn't go for it.

I still feel that Coppell tried his best for RFC and it is ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

[Hoop Blah]

Add in the fact that we basically gave up on trying to better ourselves by turning our back on playing in Europe and the players knew they'd all acheived all they could at the club.

I quite disagree with that statement. They didn't exactly "turn" their back on Europe, Coppell basically said that we weren't ready to compete in Europe and that we would need a bigger squad to cope with competing on different fronts. It became a moot point when we drew at Blackburn anyway.

I don't think Coppell did not want to be in Europe. He would have liked it, but as I say, he believed he didn't have the squad for it.

Didn't we turn down the Inter-toto in favour of a money spinning pre-season trip to the far east?

We didn't try our hardest to get into the UEFA/Europa Cup either, and that for me was enough, but not taking up the Inter-toto just topped it off (unless I've made that bit up of course).

[Royal Lady]

We still have £11 million to come in the next few weeks as our final parachute payment.

If the club were saying we needed to save £4million plus at the end of NEXT season, I could understand it better.

We'll be saving on Armstrong's wages if he is retiring or whatever, as has been reported.
We'll be saving on Matejovsky, assuming we can find someone to buy him from us
We won't be paying anything towards Bertrand, Zurab and Griffin

Plus there are bound to be others who we release either for a fee or on a free - so we save money there.

But, we need to replace the three mentioned above, plus one or two others. Now, if we sell Federici for £2 million (as is rumoured) and, god forbid, Gylfi - we still have to replace them. Say we get a total of £3 million for whoever we sell (assuming we hang on to Gylfi) how much do we reckon we are going to pay out for replacements? Certainly not £11 million plus £3 million, - we'll be lucky to spend out whatever we get back in from sales. Surely, even taking into account wages etc, we should have some left over to keep us in the black?? why would this season be any different money-wise to last season? That's what I can't understand.

[Hoop Blah]

Yeah, as a fan we should have entered the Intertoto, and I was disappointed that we didn't go for it.

I still feel that Coppell tried his best for RFC and it is ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

Who's said that he didn't try his best?

I'm sure all managers try their best but they all make mistakes. Some of those mistakes cost you, some don't.

Coppell made some that didn't really cost us but those two I mentioned earlier were, in my view, two mistakes that were major factors in our relegation and the position we're in trying to recover since.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

We need to cut £4m from the bill and that has to then be an ongoing cut, selling a player gives a one season boost, not a long term cut. RL the parachute payment was almost certainly in this seasons budget, regardless of when we actually got it.

[Dirk Gently]

So we didn't approach anyone?
You sure of that?

We all know that's bollocks.

Who ever said we didn't approach someone? I certainly didn't!

We had at least one established PL player all lined up, terms agreed and ready to sign, but at the last minute SC nixed it because he was worried about the impact it would have on his core players.

[readingbedding]

Yeah, as a fan we should have entered the Intertoto, and I was disappointed that we didn't go for it.

I still feel that Coppell tried his best for RFC and it is ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

Who's said that he didn't try his best?

I'm sure all managers try their best but they all make mistakes. Some of those mistakes cost you, some don't.

Coppell made some that didn't really cost us but those two I mentioned earlier were, in my view, two mistakes that were major factors in our relegation and the position we're in trying to recover since.

The people who said that he refused to spend when he had the money for a start.
Don't have to improve the team accusation.
Which is complete bollox by the way.

[No Fixed Abode]

relegation?

[readingbedding]

So we didn't approach anyone?
You sure of that?

We all know that's bollocks.

Who ever said we didn't approach someone? I certainly didn't!

We had at least one established PL player all lined up, terms agreed and ready to sign, but at the last minute SC nixed it because he was worried about the impact it would have on his core players.

You said that he refused to sign any players, now you agree that we approached players.
Spot the contradiction.

[Hoop Blah]

The people who said that he refused to spend when he had the money for a start.
Don't have to improve the team accusation.
Which is complete bollox by the way.

In his mind it was best for the team not to make the signings that some thought were required to strengthen.

He had his reasons, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake, and it certainly doesn't mean he wasn't trying his best.

[zummerset]

Too large a squad - too much wages. Trim it all down, rotate the first team and reduce the number of reserve team games -- isn't this exactly what they are doing?

I would be happy to take £2 million for Feds but selling Gylfi seems like a real lack of ambition next year.

[readingbedding]

The people who said that he refused to spend when he had the money for a start.
Don't have to improve the team accusation.
Which is complete bollox by the way.

In his mind it was best for the team not to make the signings that some thought were required to strengthen.

He had his reasons, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake, and it certainly doesn't mean he wasn't trying his best.

You don''t have to say that to me, believe me.

[Hoop Blah]

bedding, when you're saying that people who say Coppell made a mistake that cost us translates to him not trying his best it seems someone has to say it!

Are you having problems reading and comprehending today? You're 'contradiction comment to Dirk would suggest you are. Dirk doesn't contradict himself at all.

The point is that Coppell failed to stregthen the side through choice. He's said so himself!

[readingbedding]

Leave it out.

Say that he refused to sign players on one hand yet approaching them on another is a contradiction.

[fester_royal]

im predicting a painfull summer all the papers ive seen today have already picked up this story saying Reading are ready to cash in on players.... im not going to be able to rest till the end of august now

[Dirk Gently]

So we didn't approach anyone?
You sure of that?

We all know that's bollocks.

Who ever said we didn't approach someone? I certainly didn't!

We had at least one established PL player all lined up, terms agreed and ready to sign, but at the last minute SC nixed it because he was worried about the impact it would have on his core players.

You said that he refused to sign any players, now you agree that we approached players.
Spot the contradiction.

Errrrm, sorry - I've looked long and hard, but I can't see any contradiction whatsoever.

There's a world of difference between "approaching" and "signing."

And you also need not to be quite so sensitive and defensive - objective criticisms of where SC went wrong in his last couple of seasons here don't in any way detract from everything he achieved before that time. He certainly was our greatest ever manager - but he wasn't perfect .... live with it!

[fester_royal]

can people please stop banging on about where ssc went wrong or right.. it was 18 months ago now.. we've had two managers since! the fact is he is still the best manager the club has ever had!! end of.... now can we please start looking forward ?

[Dirk Gently]

Leave it out.

Say that he refused to sign players on one hand yet approaching them on another is a contradiction.

So you've never been in a shop, looked at the items on offer - even maybe asked the price - but then decided not to buy in the end?

[readingbedding]

Leave it out.

Say that he refused to sign players on one hand yet approaching them on another is a contradiction.

So you've never been in a shop, looked at the items on offer - even maybe asked the price - but then decided not to buy in the end?

Not if I refused to enter the shop, no...

And what relevance has this to Coppell's transfer dealings?

None perhaps?

[SpaceCruiser]

Approach =/= sign

Coppell most likely had a look around at the available players and decided that they weren't any better than what he already had. A decision that he has regretted, I'm sure.

Didn't we turn down the Inter-toto in favour of a money spinning pre-season trip to the far east?

I'm sure that the Inter-toto is widely viewed as an inferior competition and that it's played at the wrong time of the year. Probably why it was decided not to bother applying (as opposed to turning it down) for a place in the competition. And there was no guarantee that we would actually get through that into Europe proper. In the far east pre-season, there probably was no pressure to win games.