GONE - Michail Antonio to Sheffield Wednesday

[paultheroyal]

Funny thing is if he was not our player and is tearing up league 1 like he is now most of you buggers will be creaming yourself over him and want him signed up aka Jordan Rhodes

[rhroyal]

I think loan him to Sheff Wed for a year. If he continues his development there, worth a shot. Still relatively young at 22, making rapid progress from Tooting and Mitcham and has never had a proper run of games at Reading as yet.

If we were happy to persevere with Long for such a long time, Antonio definitely deserves longer.

[Snowball]

I think we should loan him to Sheff Weds up to January and see how he gets on in the championship. If he sets the division alight and we're struggling a bit in the Prem, we have him back. Quite simple really.

Why would they agree to a six month loan? They're building a team for the Championship and he's one of the players that got them there. They aren't going to want to have to replace him in 6 or even 12 months.

As good a job as he's done for them, he still showed very little at our level and he's frighteningly raw for the PL. The best move for him, them and us, is to sell him to them for decent money and bring in someone like Jarvis to really challenge Kebe and McAnuff. HRK for emergencies. If we hadn't gone up and TSI weren't in, then he's looking like he'd be a decent bet to replace Kebe for the Championship now. But we've moved on.

We have only allowed him bit parts

690 minutes in 3 seasons = 230 minutes per season = 2.5 games per season

But as soon as he gets a run with other sides he does OK

[Snowball]

I think loan him to Sheff Wed for a year. If he continues his development there, worth a shot. Still relatively young at 22, making rapid progress from Tooting and Mitcham and has never had a proper run of games at Reading as yet.

If we were happy to persevere with Long for such a long time, Antonio definitely deserves longer.

Get a contract that allows us to get good money of he leaves and/or an option
to bring him back to RFC, then loan him for a season


We also need to cover for the possibility of relegation.

Imagine we go down and lose Kebe and McAnuff, say.

[Mike Hunt]

We would be crazy to sell him.

Loan him out for the season.

[TBM]

Sadly Antonio has no future at RFC if Antons vision is a top 10 Premiership club.

Antonio would struggle in the Premier so really there is no point us holding on to him.

[Friday's Legacy]

Also we have Jordan Obita hoping to force his way into the 25 man squad, and the rumours of Garath McCleary coming in; in which case there would be no room for Antonio as well.

[TBM]

Also we have Jordan Obita hoping to force his way into the 25 man squad, and the rumours of Garath McCleary coming in; in which case there would be no room for Antonio as well.

Obita is under 21 do doesn't count towards the 25 but yes if we get McCleary then it's another spot

[Ian Royal]

If you're asking me would I build an entire team at a new level around a single player who'll only be there six months, the answer is no, I wouldn't.

It's just not very clever to build a team that will be guaranteed to need signings just to replace someone, let alone improve it further, in six months time.

Where does it say anywhere that they are building the team around Antonio? I don't see why they wouldn't want to loan him as it frees up some of their funds and they can test the player at that level and if his he isn't up to it then they haven't lost anything on him.

I think it would be a difficult task to build a team around a winger. A midfielder or centre forward yes, a winger no. So what you are saying, IR, is that you wouldn't have Messi for 6 months, but would rather completely ignore him, because you would have to spen money to replace him? Surely by having him there you would gain more points than you otherwise would, and you can worry about replacing him once the time comes... I think Wednesday would jump at the chance of a 6 month loan for Antonio just as any club would with Messi.

I'd ignore Messi because he's a thoroughly unrealistic example and so not worth giving a second thought.

Feel free to come back and tell me I'm wrong if Antonio signs a 6/12 month loan deal with Wednesday. I rather suspect that'll be never.

[blueroyals]

The fact that his loan spells have been for 10 or so games (excluding Soton) doesn't help. It will take you 4 or 5 games to settle into the team, then he usually has a 4 or 5 game cameo where is earns rave reviews, then he is back with us playing in the reserves. It's a bit harsh to cast him out of our club without seeing how he performs over a season. If any of you remember when he was on loan with Southampton they were really impressed and wanted to do all they could to sign him permanently, but this was around about the time when they were facing administration IIRC.

[pea]

Understand Palace have been watching him too but if Wednesday are offering that sort of money then they won't be able to compete.

[TBM]

Understand Palace have been watching him too but if Wednesday are offering that sort of money then they won't be able to compete.

Swap deal with Zaha

[RockheadRumple]

Understand Palace have been watching him too but if Wednesday are offering that sort of money then they won't be able to compete.

Swap deal with Zaha

I'd rather have Antonio to be honest.

[winchester_royal]

Understand Palace have been watching him too but if Wednesday are offering that sort of money then they won't be able to compete.

Swap deal with Zaha

I'd rather have Antonio to be honest.

[dogzbollox]

I think we should loan him to Sheff Weds up to January and see how he gets on in the championship. If he sets the division alight and we're struggling a bit in the Prem, we have him back. Quite simple really.

+1

[paultheroyal]

Understand Palace have been watching him too but if Wednesday are offering that sort of money then they won't be able to compete.

Swap deal with Zaha

I'd rather have Antonio to be honest.

I am a big fan of Antonio but even I will struggle to defend that comment Rockhead Rumple.

[RockheadRumple]

From what I've seen Antonio's cross is better than Zaha's, a player whose end product is almost always pretty crappy. Zaha is a selfish player and is all skill and nothing to show for it afterwards. Antonio is strong, whereas Zaha isn't, and can get past players just as easily. I was very impressed during his short spell [Antonio], particularly buy how confident he was at taking on his man and how precise his crossing was.

Like someone alluded to earlier; if Antonio wasn't ours and you saw how he was tearing up League 1 you'd all be begging for him.

[dogzbollox]

Funny thing is if he was not our player and is tearing up league 1 like he is now most of you buggers will be creaming yourself over him and want him signed up aka Jordan Rhodes

'greed..ALF...??

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

Funny thing is if he was not our player and is tearing up league 1 like he is now most of you buggers will be creaming yourself over him and want him signed up aka Jordan Rhodes

'greed..ALF...??

Manset ??

[winchester_royal]

From what I've seen Antonio's cross is better than Zaha's, a player whose end product is almost always pretty crappy. Zaha is a selfish player and is all skill and nothing to show for it afterwards. Antonio is strong, whereas Zaha isn't, and can get past players just as easily. I was very impressed during his short spell [Antonio], particularly buy how confident he was at taking on his man and how precise his crossing was.

Like someone alluded to earlier; if Antonio wasn't ours and you saw how he was tearing up League 1 you'd all be begging for him.

I don't even know were to start

Antonio's cross is better than Zaha's? How often have you seen Antonio's cross? Because we don't see much of it at Reading. Have we scored a goal from one of his crosses? Zaha isn't a conventional winger, he looks to create and score goals himself. And the fact that he's scored 7 goals this season, from the wing, being only 19, in a poor Palace side seems to suggest he's pretty good at what he does.

Zaha's end product is crappy? 7 goals this season suggests otherwise.

Antonio is strong? Great, if only he had some skill to go with it. Sadly just being a battering ram doesn't work at the highest level otherwise we could give Gibbo some playing time.

You were very impressed with Antonio during his short spell? A guy who's made 33 appearances for us and scored 1 goal? Fair enough, each to their own.

And your last point is completely mute. He is ours, we've seen him compete at a higher level, and he hasn't been successful. Brian sees him in training with a higher quality of player than you get in League 1, and has did not think he would be useful to keep in the run-in, despite Kebe and Kanu's injury problems, and a lack of depth on the wing.

Personally I'd rather have a guy who has impressed at a higher level, who is 3 years younger, is rated as one of the best prospects in English football, has a number of top clubs looking at him, and has represented England at every youth level.