NO LONGER A RUMOUR - Karl Sheppard

[Svlad Cjelli]

You are surprisingly mute on the earlier debate. I also forgot to add fae, henry and cox transfer deals in there. I'll accept your revoking of the made up 25 million you posted and accept the apology of accusing me of doing just that.

Your completely imaging any apology - because you aint getting one from me. I still disute your figures.

[FiNeRaIn]

You are surprisingly mute on the earlier debate. I also forgot to add fae, henry and cox transfer deals in there. I'll accept your revoking of the made up 25 million you posted and accept the apology of accusing me of doing just that.

Your completely imaging any apology - because you aint getting one from me. I still disute your figures.

Dispute all you want, you're been proven wrong.

[Ian Royal]

Jesus Christ. Why is it so fricking hard for some of you to see the difference between an idiot who wants us to spend the earth all the time, or dismisses anyone who doesn't come from a big club or for a big fee as shit and people who are a bit concerned that we are overly reliant on trying for cheap-gambles to come good.

We have an overabundence of strikers who aren't really making a proper impact or are ones for a year or two down the line. It's brilliant when it pays off, and yes, sometimes, like Doyle they make an instant impact. But the vast majority who succeed take time and the majority (of cheap gambles) fail.

I'm well aware every signing is a gamble. When I use that phrase its specifically for those players who are almost totally unknown quantities.

Sheppard may be an excellent signing, straight away, or in a year or so. I hope he is. I'd be delighted. But that doesn't change the fact that for success this season, we're currently banking on a striker showing significantly better form over the rest of the season than they've shown for us, or at this level before.

Sheppard would be a good signing, just like Doyle was, if we had a Kitson and a Lita already. But we don't. At best we've got a Lita in Hunt.

He has a lot going for him, goalscoring record, age, European experience.... but anyone who thinks the chances of him having much impact this season are anything other than slim is deluding themselves. Especially given his fitness.

That's why there's a fair few questioning this. It's not a case of saying don't look for the buried gems. Or we shouldn't have signed him. It's more that we've signed several we shouldn't have bothered with already and we need to lose some of the obssession we're developing with hunting out these gems.

If we hadn't wasted time and money on the likes of Baseya and Brett Williams, players who were never going to make it here, and who I believe are either older, or have far worse scoring records... or both, there would be a lot less concern.

[1871royals]

I hope Sheppard could be a good signing but I feel we could have signed players that were less of a risk and could make an impact this season.

For example C Woods, already been on loan this season in this division and shown he can score at this level, he would be that big striker we are missing,

Sheppard could be the next Doyle, but I feel hes looks very similar to our other strikers (my opinion been based on a few you tube videos so could be wrong.)

I dont think our current strikers are that bad, its just the midfielders are not creating enough behind them, I think a winger or creative centre midfielder is more important to sign.

[West Stand Man]

Can someone remind me how much we 'wasted' on Brett Williams and Baseya?

[Ian Royal]

Can someone remind me how much we 'wasted' on Brett Williams and Baseya?

>£0

[cmonurz]

You are surprisingly mute on the earlier debate. I also forgot to add fae, henry and cox transfer deals in there. I'll accept your revoking of the made up 25 million you posted and accept the apology of accusing me of doing just that.

Your completely imaging any apology - because you aint getting one from me. I still disute your figures.

Given Finerain has listed £40m worth of transfers, what exactly are you disputing?

[ZacNaloen]

Considering the figures behind most of our transfers aren't public, i'm not sure how FineRain got those figures beyond the medias own speculation.

However, regardless of the fee's we recieve you can see from the clubs accounts how much is spent. And every penny is accounted for. We still spend more than we earn in fact. That others can still yet spend more comes down to the simple fact their owners are either loaded or not in the least bit concerned about the future of the club.

Ours is slightly loaded, but more concerned about the long term future than short term success. You can debate the rest merits of the approaches to your hearts content, but it seems to me that we are competing just fine by our method.

[Friday's Legacy]

Can someone remind me how much we 'wasted' on Brett Williams and Baseya?

>£0

whilst i disagree these two haven't worked out (they both need time), you have to bare in mind signing on fees and wages, ian. neither should be judged yet.

[FiNeRaIn]

Considering the figures behind most of our transfers aren't public, i'm not sure how FineRain got those figures beyond the medias own speculation.

Umm, not " beyond" the media own speculation at all. I didn't even add in Fae's transfee fee or Seols as I didn't know...despite the speculation fae was in 3 million. So revoke that nonsense please.

Your point also works in terms of fee's paid then, so when you all claim mills was 2 mill, gorks 900k,etc we'll just take some of that off as its media nonsense.

[ZacNaloen]

Considering the figures behind most of our transfers aren't public, i'm not sure how FineRain got those figures beyond the medias own speculation.

Umm, not " beyond" the media own speculation at all. I didn't even add in Fae's transfee fee or Seols as I didn't know...despite the speculation fae was in 3 million. So revoke that nonsense please.

Your point also works in terms of fee's paid then, so when you all claim mills was 2 mill, gorks 900k,etc we'll just take some of that off as its media nonsense.

So all those fee's come from official club sources and aren't gleaned from newspapers?

You seem to think I give a crap how much the club pays for players. The club can pay whatever it wants and charge whatever it wants. The comments from those of your opinion always boil down to "where has the money gone", in that context the only thing that matters is the net values on the clubs accounts. Which quite clearly show where all the money went. Wages.

You could then argue that we only buy cheap players so why are we paying so much in wage?

The answer is that we look for players capable of more, sign them on and if they prove themselves they quite promptly get a renegotiated contract on a higher wage. Those players that don't make it stay on the bargain contract.

I've seen the pattern often enough to spot it.

I also don't think the logic follows that bargain = rubbish. Sometimes players just end up at the wrong club with the wrong manager.

With the case of this signing, it's a free because he's at the end of his contract not because he's rubbish. So why transfer fee's are even being discussed here I don't know.

[Snowball]

Moneyball


How many clubs do better than Reading FC in the transfer market?

[RG30]

Reading continually punch above their weight when it comes to the selling of players. No other club at this level could match the transfer fees we have raked in for players. Recruitment wise we have done well under McDermott with players who come straight into the side to do a job (Harte, Griffin, Gorkss) but haven't achieved as much in recent seasons with the young and upcoming talent who we deem worthy of a punt on. The problem is we have a chairman who is unwilling to bankroll any new signings which makes it harder for McDermott and we still remain among the top 6 clubs in the Championship for wages (dependant on who you believe) to remain competitive.

[Mr Angry]

Welcome to Reading Karl Sheppard, and I hope you have a long and succesful career here.

[royal67]

Welcome to Reading Karl Sheppard, and I hope you have a long and succesful career here.

Well said that man......

[ZacNaloen]

Hear Hear

[melonhead]

didnt we sign a czech and malian intl in 2008 jan?

Kebe, as a £400k gamble from the French second division was another cheap gamble. To call him a Malian international is a bit of a laugh too, he couldn't even get in their side then or still now.

I know we were short on right wingers but he was very unlikely to be a strengthening signing at the time. An opinion that was proven absolutely correct.

i was kind of joking about kebe tbf

but coppell obviously thought marek would improve the side and help us play a little more football

[melonhead]

or we will ruin his potential by having no creative cm to give him anything to feed off

nonsense, we have xavi and iniesta in the middle some would have you believe!

i cant think of a single person whos said anything close to that

[melonhead]

You are surprisingly mute on the earlier debate. I also forgot to add fae, henry and cox transfer deals in there. I'll accept your revoking of the made up 25 million you posted and accept the apology of accusing me of doing just that.

Your completely imaging any apology - because you aint getting one from me. I still disute your figures.

Dispute all you want, you're been proven wrong.

Still debating the 40 million, or are you going to claim that the media were all wrong regarding the transfer fee's hmm?

i love you guys

[floyd__streete]

That's why there's a fair few questioning this. It's not a case of saying don't look for the buried gems. Or we shouldn't have signed him. It's more that we've signed several we shouldn't have bothered with already and we need to lose some of the obssession we're developing with hunting out these gems.

If we hadn't wasted time and money on the likes of Baseya and Brett Williams, players who were never going to make it here, and who I believe are either older, or have far worse scoring records... or both, there would be a lot less concern.

Bloody hell - I agree with every single word of a post written by my gr8 m8 Ian Royal. Bring the end of the world forward by a few hundred days, the apocalypse cometh.