Q: Is having only two centre backs enough?

[Hoop Blah]

IR, your list is a little generous in my opinion.

Bertrand was replaced by Williams, ie, we got it wrong and had to re-replace him. Thankfully we did it in double quick time by bringing in Harte.

Rosenior was basically a failure and yet we still struggled to replace him, Cummings, Tabb and Gunarsson all had a go before we only then got Griffin in.

I can understand the mistakes and the time it took. That's how difficult it is to smoothly transition from one piece of the jigsaw to another. That's why the concerns of losing 3 or your 4 top centre halfs are valid.

It is too early to worry about not having the replacement for Mills bedded in but it's not too early to have concerns over how we'll fair at doing so.

[Ian Royal]

How we'll fare? Certainly.

It's just people throwing a hissy fit because we haven't signed someone instantly, just crying doom or writing off the club doing anything approaching enough, that pisses me off.

Give it even another couple of weeks and it would be far more reasonable to start getting concerned. I have to say Morrison is a bit of a concern. I'd been hoping he'd be ready to step up, but that's starting to look less likely after the comments from the Eastleigh friendly.



Personally I think there's a good argument that Zurab was Ingimarsson's short term replacement because of his injury problems and Morrison was Ingimarsson's long term replacement. Which means (barring injury problems for Morrison or Pearce) we only need a replacement for Mills as a body in, given we've got Harte and Gunnarsson for emergency cover.

We certainly shouldn't be bringing in anyone who's got injury problems, or who is past his prime so with reasonable luck we ought to cope with 3 specialists and 2 as cover.

[Hoop Blah]

I think the only hissy fits are from those being dismissive of any concern or discussion around our defensive situation and our ability to address it.

[brendywendy]

Goes to show the value of HNA? If this thread hadn't started BmcD would have never known. What is alarming though is that first statement. That indicates to me that the budget that BMcD was given for bringing players in permanently was a big fat zero. What I don't get is the value of bringing someone in on loan. We have them for a few months or even a season then they piss off (Griff and legs excepted). I would have thought that by having a player on a permanent contract would give an option to cash in and get some return for the investment. Loanees just pick up the money with no mid term benefit to the borrowing club. I just don't understand this approach at all. Certainly not at this stage of the season anyway.

i guess the club sees it that we have two fit CBs, plus two back up options.plus the opportunity to have another look in january, so a loan, which isnt a long term drain on our finances probably is the best way to go.
i find that quite worrying, but not at all surprising

Reading between the lines of what McD says in that article, I suspect he's waiting to see what happens regarding any other outgoing players to be honest - the current situation is he's signed Leigertwood possibly using up a fair chunk of any transfer budget he had for this Summer (lots of people seem to forget about that signing), and we've sold Mills at a level which should allow us to make up any short fall between predicted income and outgoings this season (last season the gap was around £4M - I suspect that's little changed this year).
So our "books are balanced" - any other signings other than loans are likely to be triggered by more outgoing players. I reckon the club will do everything they can to hold on to the likes of Long and Kebe (and I'd be happy with that) whether the players themselves want to stay's a different matter. So I wonder if the preferred option is to offload one of our many keepers, thereby funding the purchase of a new CB or LB - is it any coincidence that Feds appeared to put himself in the shop window on SSN the other day? Could it be that this was actually sanctioned by the club?

If we could get a couple of £M for Feds, this would then allow us to strengthen defensively, with an easy replacement for Feds in McCarthy - perhaps this is why McD talks about at the moment it looks like a loan? I strongly suspect that a loan player is his contingency just in case no other club comes in for Feds / McCarthy - I for one would be very surprised if we saw any other players leave for good money and McD still doesn't get a fund to strengthen at CB/LB....[/quote]

think thats probably fair.

[brendywendy]

How we'll fare? Certainly.

It's just people throwing a hissy fit because we haven't signed someone instantly, just crying doom or writing off the club doing anything approaching enough, that pisses me off.

Give it even another couple of weeks and it would be far more reasonable to start getting concerned. I have to say Morrison is a bit of a concern. I'd been hoping he'd be ready to step up, but that's starting to look less likely after the comments from the Eastleigh friendly.



Personally I think there's a good argument that Zurab was Ingimarsson's short term replacement because of his injury problems and Morrison was Ingimarsson's long term replacement. Which means (barring injury problems for Morrison or Pearce) we only need a replacement for Mills as a body in, given we've got Harte and Gunnarsson for emergency cover.

.

i think anyone writing off morrison after the first preseason fitness game is probably guilty of the same chicken licken style rantings as all the doom mongers

[brendywendy]

I think the only hissy fits are from those being dismissive of any concern or discussion around our defensive situation and our ability to address it.

think the same can be said of both sides.
at least we on our side can admit that

[Hoop Blah]

True bendy, it's just admitting that you're wrong you seem to be struggling with this time

I still can't see a hissy fit from anyone suggesting there's cause for concern though.

[andrew1957]

Reading between the lines of what McD says in that article, I suspect he's waiting to see what happens regarding any other outgoing players to be honest - the current situation is he's signed Leigertwood possibly using up a fair chunk of any transfer budget he had for this Summer (lots of people seem to forget about that signing), and we've sold Mills at a level which should allow us to make up any short fall between predicted income and outgoings this season (last season the gap was around £4M - I suspect that's little changed this year).
So our "books are balanced" - any other signings other than loans are likely to be triggered by more outgoing players. I reckon the club will do everything they can to hold on to the likes of Long and Kebe (and I'd be happy with that) whether the players themselves want to stay's a different matter. So I wonder if the preferred option is to offload one of our many keepers, thereby funding the purchase of a new CB or LB - is it any coincidence that Feds appeared to put himself in the shop window on SSN the other day? Could it be that this was actually sanctioned by the club?

If we could get a couple of £M for Feds, this would then allow us to strengthen defensively, with an easy replacement for Feds in McCarthy - perhaps this is why McD talks about at the moment it looks like a loan? I strongly suspect that a loan player is his contingency just in case no other club comes in for Feds / McCarthy - I for one would be very surprised if we saw any other players leave for good money and McD still doesn't get a fund to strengthen at CB/LB....

Don't think you are far off the mark with that.

I don't think the club expected Mills to go, but I am sure we will have cover at CB for the first half of the season and if we have not done so in this window we might well "buy" a replacement in January depending on results etc.

I am still hoping this all means that Long and Kebe are going to sign extensions. I think it could be a good business call for both Long and the club if he did so. If he carries on scoring like last season his value in January would sky rocket. If we are not in contention and he wants to leave, he would be in demand.

[brendywendy]

True bendy, it's just admitting that you're wrong you seem to be struggling with this time

.

Damn Yoooouuuuu!!!!!

[Ian Royal]

True bendy, it's just admitting that you're wrong you seem to be struggling with this time

I still can't see a hissy fit from anyone suggesting there's cause for concern though.

Perhaps not on this thread, but the multiple threads on the same topic and some of the comments on others have wound me up enough to feel like they have been. Maybe I'm oversensitive.

Can I persuade you to reclassify me as an exasperated outburst instead of a hissy fit?

[rob9182]

NO two centre backs are not enough but we do have plenty of cover from players that normally play in different positions so i would like to see us bring in someone with a bit of experience and then we can breathe easy.

[The Prisoner]

Much ado about nothing.


Can't believe this ran to five pages TBF*




* though I did just add to that

[rfc2001]

Obviously it isn't you F***ucking idiot. Don't care if this is a rhetorical question; your a f***cking idiot for posting it.

[brendywendy]

easy fella.swallow that rage.

[Z175]

I have to say that I do find the Fordham article surprising.

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... oan_market

In one way it might be positive. Perhaps the club are expecting no more players to go. If Long and Kebe have both agreed new contracts then that would be great news and I can live with a loan replacement at CB.

If, however, we do intend to cash in on either Kebe or Long then not signing a permanent replacement for Mills now would seem short sighted in the extreme.

The latest from McDermott doesn't make me optimistic about Long staying. "if Long were to leave then it would just be him and Mills who had left"....

I fear its risk aversion. No one is anywhere near our asking price right now so we could be stuck with paying for a centre back over 3 years and Long leaving on a free in Summer 2012 with no sizeable transfer fees coming in for anyone in our squad.

Last summer we signed Harte and Zurab on deadline day for presumably the same reason.

But I don't know what I'd do without Reading, so play it safe SJM!

[Svlad Cjelli]

Last summer we signed Harte and Zurab on deadline day for presumably the same reason.

No - the reason we signed them on deadline day was that until Gylfi had been bought (the day before) we didn't have the money to buy/pay them with.

[Cypry]

I have to say that I do find the Fordham article surprising.

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... oan_market

In one way it might be positive. Perhaps the club are expecting no more players to go. If Long and Kebe have both agreed new contracts then that would be great news and I can live with a loan replacement at CB.

If, however, we do intend to cash in on either Kebe or Long then not signing a permanent replacement for Mills now would seem short sighted in the extreme.

The latest from McDermott doesn't make me optimistic about Long staying. "if Long were to leave then it would just be him and Mills who had left"....

I fear its risk aversion. No one is anywhere near our asking price right now so we could be stuck with paying for a centre back over 3 years and Long leaving on a free in Summer 2012 with no sizeable transfer fees coming in for anyone in our squad.

Last summer we signed Harte and Zurab on deadline day for presumably the same reason.

But I don't know what I'd do without Reading, so play it safe SJM!

I'd be very surprised if Long doesn't sign a contract extension if he doesn't leave

The interview with McD by Dellor is worth a listen http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14184281.stm

Some important points to take from it...

1) He's going to be signing a centre back either on loan or permanently - good news as far as I'm concerned
2) Long might go; he'll do right by the player, if an offer that's good for both Long and the club comes in, then it'll be put to Long - nothing surprising here, move along....
3) If Long does go, then we'll be hanging on to everyone else - I guess if someone came in and offered silly money for someone who is easily replaced (Feds?) that might change....
4) He is almost laughing when Dellor suggests that Long plus Mills will be needed to balance the books - this is good news to me, suggests that if Long does indeed go, then he'll get some budget to strengthen as needed...

So all-in-all I reckon that's a pretty positive interview....we're going to get someone in to replace Mills, and if he goes, we should get a replacement for Long....given Brians track record so far with signings, I'm fairly satisfied with that...

[RoyalBlue]

Reading between the lines of what McD says in that article, I suspect he's waiting to see what happens regarding any other outgoing players to be honest - the current situation is he's signed Leigertwood possibly using up a fair chunk of any transfer budget he had for this Summer (lots of people seem to forget about that signing), and we've sold Mills at a level which should allow us to make up any short fall between predicted income and outgoings this season (last season the gap was around £4M - I suspect that's little changed this year).
So our "books are balanced" - any other signings other than loans are likely to be triggered by more outgoing players. I reckon the club will do everything they can to hold on to the likes of Long and Kebe (and I'd be happy with that) whether the players themselves want to stay's a different matter. So I wonder if the preferred option is to offload one of our many keepers, thereby funding the purchase of a new CB or LB - is it any coincidence that Feds appeared to put himself in the shop window on SSN the other day? Could it be that this was actually sanctioned by the club?

If we could get a couple of £M for Feds, this would then allow us to strengthen defensively, with an easy replacement for Feds in McCarthy - perhaps this is why McD talks about at the moment it looks like a loan? I strongly suspect that a loan player is his contingency just in case no other club comes in for Feds / McCarthy - I for one would be very surprised if we saw any other players leave for good money and McD still doesn't get a fund to strengthen at CB/LB....

Don't think you are far off the mark with that.

I don't think the club expected Mills to go, but I am sure we will have cover at CB for the first half of the season and if we have not done so in this window we might well "buy" a replacement in January depending on results etc.

But why keep making life difficult for ourselves by allowing other clubs to pull away at the start of the season whilst we try to repair damage caused by last minute sales and wait for the next transfer window to sign replacements!

[Svlad Cjelli]

But why keep making life difficult for ourselves by allowing other clubs to pull away at the start of the season whilst we try to repair damage caused by last minute sales and wait for the next transfer window to sign replacements!

Beacuse they then get criticised for "touting players out" for sale. We can only sell when someone wants to buy.

We don't want or need to sell anyone now MM has gone, so all we can do is wait and see if buyers come along. Also if we want to sell the price we'll get will inevitably go down.

[RoyalBlue]

But why keep making life difficult for ourselves by allowing other clubs to pull away at the start of the season whilst we try to repair damage caused by last minute sales and wait for the next transfer window to sign replacements!

Beacuse they then get criticised for "touting players out" for sale. We can only sell when someone wants to buy.

We don't want or need to sell anyone now MM has gone, so all we can do is wait and see if buyers come along. Also if we want to sell the price we'll get will inevitably go down.

But, as I've asked before, what is to stop the club introducing their own transfer window which closes earlier than the official one?

So, for example, no one can deny that there has been interest in Long, without the club touting him. So why not let all parties, including Long and his agent, know that if a deal isn't concluded by the third week in July, he will not be sold in this transfer window regardless of price. As you say, we don't have to sell so why not take a harder line with all those concerned. If then he is sold by the RFC deadline, there is still some time to sort things out in terms of an incoming player(s) before the official window closes.