NO LONGER A RUMOUR - Karl Sheppard

[melonhead]

Sidwell was proven as he had a season on loan at brentford/brighton,

lol

the end

[FiNeRaIn]

Are you really that stupid?

He was a star for both of those when there and we were playing at the same level as them.

I assume when you guys are talking about proven big names you aren't meaning figo, zidane, del piero, van nistelrooy

[Extended-Phenotype]

No, but more often than not a player has earned that price tag. Just because Reading are oxf*rd in the transfer market, doesn't mean the entire economical composition of football and capitalism comes grinding to a halt.

"Ah, but what about Doyle?"

WHAT ABOUT Doyle? SEVEN YEARS AGO.

For the Madejski ball-lickers, their argument only holds up if they insist anyone wishing the club invested in a proven player must want Messi for 40 billion.

[Simon's Church]

So shit in the transfer market that we haven't dropped below about 9th in the championship in the last 10 years?

[floyd__streete]

For the Madejski ball-lickers, their argument only holds up if they insist anyone wishing the club invested in a proven player must want Messi for 40 billion.

Well said. End of argument.

[Hoop Blah]

We wont keep on getting lucky ala Doyle/Long.

Still laughing at the notion we "keep getting lucky". Like I said, Doyle/Long were signed 7 years ago.

Gylfi and Kebe both also spring to mind.

Kebe was bought in Jan '08 with a view to being a cheap gamble for the Premier League. He's struggled to perform consistently for us in the Championship let alone the Premier League so I wouldn't say he's been a massive success, certainly not an immediate impact which was where the conversation really started. I'd argue that as a long term gamble we've probably just about broken even on Kebe.

Sigurdsson was taken in as a 15/16 year old. If you want to include all the young lads we bring in at that age and don't make it then the success rate is even lower. As a specific example he still took a season+ of league football to come through at this level (not that Sheppard hasn't got a similar level of experience of course).

[melonhead]

Are you really that stupid?

He was a star for both of those when there and we were playing at the same level as them.

I assume when you guys are talking about proven big names you aren't meaning figo, zidane, del piero, van nistelrooy

go roll youre eyes somewhere else

a loan spell at a rubbish club?
id hardly call loan spells at brighton and brentford proven, regardless of the level
if hed "proven" himself i doubt wed have got him


no

[roadrunner]

Sidwell was proven as he had a season on loan at brentford/brighton, both were highly sought after and cost a substantial amount to buy in those days.

£250,000 was not a lot for a Championship club then. It was an absolute bargain and we knew it.

[Hoop Blah]

Thats an awful lise, for a start cisse was bought as an unknown quantity and did actually do alright for us... certainly doesn't tick either box. Marek had poor players with bad movement/awareness around him so was unable to fit in. Kitson is a silly addition as is ferdinand and keown who were about 38 when signed. Other than that Fae/Halford both agreed.

Harper/Sidwell/convey/butler/cureton/salako/forster/little,etc were all biggish/proven names when signed who turned out to be successful for the club.

RE last bit, of course...no one was suggesting anyone was crap.

Harper & Sidwell certainly weren't "proven" - they had no virtually no experience and had failed at their bigger club. All of the others had been a round a bit and never quite set the world alight - so "proven" but none were the sort of "instant impact" player many people are calling for now.

That bigger club being a breeding ground for good technical players.

Both Harper but certainly more Sidwell were known quantities in English football and had some pedigree. Harper dropped two levels and came straight into the team as an excellent player and came with a relatively high price tag which, to an extent, reflects his worth at the time. Sidwell had been outstanding out on loan and we'd played against him as well. They weren't low cost gambles in the same way.

I've always said that every transfer is a gamble because you never now how a player is going to settle at a new club and how they'll perform in a new side. When you buy a player with a bit of pedigree and experience at the kind of level you're playing at that gamble is reduced. That was certainly the case with Harper and Sidwell IMO.

The promotion winning side wasn't a collection of lower league gambles thrown together. Yes some were cheap gambles, but they were cheap gambles over a period of time and had since proven their ability at Championship level. They were integrated into a team over a long period of time and alongside other experienced purchases like Makin, Oster and Gunnarsson.

[Hoop Blah]

Sidwell was proven as he had a season on loan at brentford/brighton, both were highly sought after and cost a substantial amount to buy in those days.

£250,000 was not a lot for a Championship club then. It was an absolute bargain and we knew it.

Not surprising it wasn't a lot for a Championship club, seeing as we bought him as a leading player in League 1 as a League 1 club. He'd been very good the season before in League 2 and Pardew knew all about him because of his connection with Coppell.

Sidwell wasn't a cheap gamble at the time. A cheap gamble at that time would've been snapping up a Ryman League player.

Edit: Just realised what I did there, League 1 was obviously tier 2 back then! Fact remains, he'd shown he was good enough the first half of the season with Brighton before we signed him.

[Barry the bird boggler]

The full article in the EP says...

Reading FC close to signing Shamrock Rovers' Sheppard
By Jonny Fordham
January 11, 2012

Reading are on the brink of signing Shamrock Rovers and Republic of Ireland Under-21 striker Karl Sheppard on a free transfer.

The Reading Post can reveal that the 20-year-old had a medical on Monday after turning down the advances of Royals’ Championship rivals Blackpool, Cardiff City, Watford and Peterborough United.

Sheppard, who scored 10 goals in 24 appearances as Shamrock won the League of Ireland this season, tweeted this week that there were an “Exciting few days coming up . . .”

The former Everton trainee has yet to discuss personal terms, but Reading manager Brian McDermott and director of football Nick Hammond will have few problems in convincing the youngster that he should swap the green and white hoops for blue and white.

Reading have a track record of nurturing Republic of Ireland strikers Kevin Doyle and Shane Long into multi-million-pound internationals, and Sheppard is keen to follow in the footsteps of his countrymen at Madejski Stadium.

A source told the Post: “If Reading really want to sign Karl then they will get him, it’s that simple. From a football point of view, Reading is the perfect club for him and he knows that.”

Follow Royals reporter Jonny Fordham on Twitter here

Sheppard scored for Shamrock against Greek side PAOK in the Europa League earlier this season.

He made a total of five appearances in the competition, including 74 minutes in last month’s 4-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at the Tallaght Stadium.

McDermott and Hammond have been to Dublin to watch Sheppard in action a number of times and Royals assistant manager Nigel Gibbs confirmed the club’s interest in the player.

He said: “He has been watched by us and other clubs as well. I haven’t heard anything confirmed as of yet, though.

“He is one of several players we could possibly move for.”

Royals, who visit Watford in the Championship on Saturday (live on Sky Sports 2, 5.20pm kick-off) are still hoping that star winger Jimmy Kebe will commit his future to the club and put pen to paper on a two-and-half-year deal.

Stoke City, Bolton and Blackburn are the latest clubs to show an interest in the 27-year-old, who will be a free agent in the summer.

Gibbs added: “If your players have been playing well you’re going to have interest. But we want to keep all of our top players and kick on in the league

[winchester_royal]

This is the same standard of Europa teams that Tottenham couldn't get through against?

Which teams did he score against?

Earned the last minute penalty at Partizan that got them through to the group stage.

And scored against PAOK who topped the group.

[melonhead]

tbf i think our policy of paying peanuts for low cost gambles tht no ones heard of- doyle, long,hunt
combined with paying decent, but not silly money in fees and wages for proven players at this level-ledge, gorkss, mcanuff,
and giving yoof players first team time when ready- karacan, pearce, sig, has/is working quite well.
and certainly fits within our business constraints while keeping us competetive at this level

some people are just never happy


every club and manager gets some wrong- its hard to 100% accurately assess a player just by watching the odd game
even alex ferguson has bough plenty of total shitebags you know

[winchester_royal]

Oh, and he was playing on the right for most of their Europa ties.

[Hoop Blah]

I agree there's a place for both. Just pointing out that the success of those gambles is pretty low and that we can't expect these guys to come into the side and have an impact straight away.

Will he do that? Possibly yes, but it's quite unlikely.

Do we probably need to invest in some more proven players for the level we're at? Yes, in my opinion we do because I don't think the current side is quite there yet (despite our league position).

[melonhead]

id guess the success of the high cost players is just as low
but they cost more


i agree though, if we spent 4 million on jordan rhodes wed "probably" go up

[Extended-Phenotype]

So shit in the transfer market that we haven't dropped below about 9th in the championship in the last 10 years?

Maybe understand the argument before you run your mouth, smartarse. I was responding to the notion that when we spend big, we buy sh/t.


And loving the example "Gylfi" as the example of rough-to-smooth investment post-Doyle/Long. Start again, and try not to include children joining us on a f//ing scholarship.

Anti-investment arguments seem to require the following to be true:

 No footballer who has been bought in excess of 1-2m has ever played well.
 Every club which invests in players goes bankrupt.
 Investing in players has never earned a club success.

Wakey, wakey. They aren't.

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

Agree with Winchester...

we've given Le Fondre plenty of benefit so far, as well as Church ....cut the lad some slack and if in 6 months time he turns out to be a Mooney ..blame the scouts and not the player

[FiNeRaIn]

 No footballer who has been bought in excess of 1-2m has ever played well.
 Every club which invests in players goes bankrupt.
 Investing in players has never earned a club success.

lmao you are a cock to be honest but I agreed with this. Don't forget to add the leeds/bradford comparison in the bankrupt part.

[Hoop Blah]

I disagree that the success rate would be much the same. I think that as long as you take the success to be relative to the expectations then the success rate is massively higher.

eg Stack, Makin and De la Cruz were successes even though they didn't win a place in the starting 11, players like Golbourne, Mooney, Bennett and Brown never even made it as squad players and so I'd say were failures.

There's some middle ground on players like Cisse, Bikey, Sodje, Soel, Duberry where there's an argument to say they did what we asked of them but perhaps not as well or for as long as some may like.