You're Reading manager for the Jan transfer window

[Double T]

hows about David McGoldrick from forest on loan?

[TedBundy89]

In: ZURAB on a permanent if possible,Eidur on a rolling monthly coaching/player contract (Optimistic), LeggyWood on a permanent and lastly a big black striker...

Loan: Most of the youngsters apart from Mc'Carthy or Hamer, Antonio, Bignall and possibly Taylor.

Out: Williams, Mooney and Kelly (Bryn & Gunnar given rolling monthly's also)

You want to loan out Antonio even though he is on the bench every week and can change a game when he comes on??

You want to give Gunnarsson and Gunnarsson monthly contracts??

[leww_rfc]

Read his post again, it says

Loan: Most of the youngsters apart from Mc'Carthy or Hamer, Antonio, Bignall and possibly Taylor.

[TedBundy89]

Read his post again, it says

Loan: Most of the youngsters apart from Mc'Carthy or Hamer, Antonio, Bignall and possibly Taylor.

Ahh, i see. My point still counts with Gunnar and Bryn though!

[leww_rfc]

oh but of course, what a pleb

[sandman]

I like Long, but I don't think he's the right sort of player to be our main poacher. I think he's almost ideal as a link-up player in the championship, and with a bit of quality to play alongside him, I think we'd bag a lot of goals. It's ambitious, but I'd love to see us make a bid of a couple of million for a nicky maynard type of player. Just someone who can put the ball in the back of the net and get himself 15 goals a season.

Other than that, I'd like to Khizhinishvili made permanent (I rate him far more than Mills or Pearce) and maybe a loan swoop for Victor Moses from Wigan. Supreme talent that boy has, and not getting in their side at the moment.

Probably because he's injured for the next two months.

[Royalee]

Probably one of the idiots that guns for your every word Royalee. Although I do personally have reservations with regards the opinion expressed:

Shane Long and Simon Church - I'm not a massive fan of either but I see that they bring something to the side that each of our other strikers doesn't. Long provides oodles of pace with raw strength, as well as a quite incredible aerial ability for someone of his height. One thing I've noticed with him is his touch improves with confidence, his ability and manoeverability improves also. And his goalscoring threat improves massively. As for Church, his movement is excellent, his strength as improved dramatically this season compared to last, and if he could only improve his finishing then with the number of chances he gets he would easily be a 20-goal a season striker. Finishing is something that can be worked on.

Mooney can go, although I do wish he had been given a chance here. Again he offers something that the others don't - a great touch and an uncanny ability to pick a sliderule pass, and a pretty decent finisher as well from the little I've seen of him. He is also pretty damn skilful, one of his touches from an aerial ball against Staines in pre-season was one that would have had commentators purring had it been Berbatov and the like. Admittedly, it was against Staines but not even a Championship defender can have predicted what he tried, and succeeded in doing.

William - yep, end his nightmare.

Gunnarsson and Ingimarsson - I think they have played their last games for Reading, as much as it saddens me to say it. Too old, too slow, maybe Ingimarsson could stay as back up but would he want to do that? Probably not.

I agree with the positive sides to Church and Long's game, but Noel Hunt's arguably just as good in the air and he's got intelligent movement, plus he'll stick more away than the other two. I'd like to think Church's finishing will improve, but I think it's just instinct with him and I don't think he's got it, he's not ruthless enough, same with Long to some degree. Pair Hunt up with a couple of good finishers and we'd be flying - if we got rid of all the dross in our squad, we should be able to afford two decent forwards, particularly given the money from Sigurdsson and the wages we'd be freeing up.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

How can you put a player that is contracted to the summer, on a month by month deal? (Ingi and gunnar), I think I will stick with folk who know at least a bit of what they are talking about, and for the mo that is McD

[RoyalBlue]

LOL at Sky referring to Cotterill's limited budget at Pompey!

Limited it may be but he is still able to have the players we couldn't afford e.g. Kitson, Nugent, Sonko in his squad!

[It Is What It Is]

How can you put a player that is contracted to the summer, on a month by month deal? (Ingi and gunnar), I think I will stick with folk who know at least a bit of what they are talking about, and for the mo that is McD

Ok ok ok, once their contract's are up, i didn't know when their contracts finished but imo they need to be put on monthly's after the summer as if they're not playing, why pay'em? But on the other hand if they are playing then surely they would be near enough the first 15 so we can't let them go as off yet?

[Pseud O'Nym]

LOL at Sky referring to Cotterill's limited budget at Pompey!

Limited it may be but he is still able to have the players we couldn't afford e.g. Kitson, Nugent, Sonko in his squad!

Yeah, what an enviable position to be in, only being able to put 4 substitutes on the bench because you can't afford to pay the appearance money!

[Barry the bird boggler]

Out:

Church
The Duck

In:

Leigertwood
A Striker

[LoyalRoyal22]

I think if we can get one really good striker e.g Charlie Austin for say 1.25m, thats pretty much all we are missing. No point buying a mediocre striker, as we already have 3 of them who are all pretty much the same(average/quite good Championship forwards).

Dont think we should sign Mikele, not much better than we got already, would be a sideways move, just abit of a journeyman. If we lacking a Defensive Midfielder, why not go into the lower leagues and pluck out a up-and-comer for a couple of hundered k. Its not a hard position to fill, and we already starting to fill up with journeyman...e.g Harte, Griffin, Zurab.

No way i would rush to sign up Zurab on a perm deal. Zurab, Pearce, Mills are all pretty much on the same level, but the future ovb lies with Mills/Pearce, early 20s/ english, on there day dominant defenders, sticking a on loan/perm zurab in there is just short sighted.

My main point though, just a striker that is blatently better than we got already.

[Snowball]

IMO the real problem is we don't have a dominant midfield.

Karacan is in yer face, energetic, brave, but rarely constructs a move
(though he has occasionally made brilliant passes and may be THE man
by the end of next season)... Howard, IMO is a spent force, fails too often
with his passing and gives away too many free-kicks and pens.

He gave away the pen at QPR, first with his error in MF and then a terrible challenge on Taraabt that could have got him sent off.

He gave away space and then the free against Norwich for their third goal, and then I think he was the one who conveniently fell off the end of the wall

He gave away (I thought unluckily but still gave it away) the free-kick for Doncaster's first goal.

Yesterday he managed it again for the losing goal versus Swansea.

That's just off the top of my head. (Are there more?) I think he's now a liability being lightweight defensively too.



Tabb is almost as good as Karacan at breaking down opposition moves (but he's not yet back to his best) and he's better going forward, and can find his man. Elwood looks OK and I think we are better when playing him, but I'm not sure if he'll be relatively expensive for what we'd get from him.


IMO we need an up-to-million-pound midfielder in the Sidwell mould, tough, can find a pass, will score 5-9 a season

[Royalee]

IMO the real problem is we don't have a dominant midfield.

Take it you haven't seen Church's miss then?

[Snowball]

IMO the real problem is we don't have a dominant midfield.

Take it you haven't seen Church's miss then?

Yeah I saw it live and it was appalling. The headed miss was poor, also. But we lost the game in midfield really

[Snowball]

Doesn't mean we couldn't do with a top striker to play with Shane.

Hunt as No 3 and Church as 4 is probably all right

[facaldaqui]

IMO the real problem is we don't have a dominant midfield.

Take it you haven't seen Church's miss then?

Yeah I saw it live and it was appalling. The headed miss was poor, also. But we lost the game in midfield really

Upside: how exquisite was Kebe's cross?

[facaldaqui]

IMO the real problem is we don't have a dominant midfield.

Totally agree. I would like us to get some better forwards, but that's not the crux of it. We saw last season that the team can go on a successful run with everyone chipping in with goals. Then we had Siggy, with Tabb on form as well--and, of course, the much underestimated Gunnarsson chipping in. We do need a commanding advanced midfielder or two: we have defensive midfield covered by Karacan and Leigertwood. Howard has some silky skills and leadership qualities, but he doesn't tackle hard enough (he can do it if he puts his mind to it) and his passing is too often loose: with his ability, I'd be expecting regular goals, but it's just not happening.

[Negative_Jeff]

We have yet to see the best from many of these players, so I would look at my own shortcomings and bring in an additional coach, someone who could help get the team playing the "right way" and "get the ball down". The latest punditry wizard spouting this type of crap was the Mad Dog on New Years Eve. Apparantly Rodger`s Swansea play the right way, but McDermott has merely done a good job at Reading. As it happens I broadly agree with the Mad Dog but as I am neither a pundit nor an out of work manager let me buck the trend and say Brian`s methods are the "wrong way".
So what is the "wrong way"? I would say any combination of; long balls to a big striker, long balls down the channels, pressing the opposition relentlessly in their own half, and no link up play involving midfielders and defenders. I was an admirer of Swansea and Martinez methods long before Ian Holloway cottoned on to the idea, and have to own up to being a bit of a purist myself. However RFC passed up the opportunity a year ago to play the"right way" with a pragmatic decision to try to turn results around. From my point of view I could have accepted relegation last year if it meant we could have returned with the enterprising football such as under Mark McGhee in 1994. Anyone else agree?