RUMOUR - Simon Church

[Dare to Dr£am]

I can't see Hameed doing business with Hudds unless they want to do a deal for Rhodes.

[LightwaterRoyal]

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11673/7985973/Clubs-consider-Church-loan

''Sky Sports understands a number of clubs are eyeing a move for Reading striker Simon Church.

Championship trio Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town are all thought to be keen on signing the Wales international.

The three clubs are all thought to have made an enquiry to Reading about signing Church on a season-long loan deal.

Church struggled to hold down a regular place in the Reading team last season and the summer arrival of Pavel Pogrebnyak could see Church pushed further down the pecking order.

The highly-rated forward could be tempted to leave Reading this summer in search of regular first-team football and Reading could consider loaning him out so that he can get some action under his belt.

The 23-year-old, who made 19 starts in the Championship last season, netted seven goals last term to help Reading win promotion to the Premier League.''

[howser]

Good luck to him if any of these opportunities come to him, so the other question will be with Manset gone and Church on loan am i right to presume we have another striker coming in ? Rhodes, Zaha or Zamora ??

[Dare to Dr£am]

I can't see Hameed doing business with Hudds unless they want to do a deal for Rhodes.

YES, YES, YES! YES! AFFIRMATIVE. I suppose it would be too much to ask for £2m plus Rhodes for Church? We could then buy Zaha as well!

Is this really Snowball? It's like he's had a breakdown or something.

[West Stand Man]

Have heard that half-a-dozen clubs are keeping tabs on Church including the three named in a previous reply. As the clock ticks down on the transfer window, I think we will get an offer and, for the lad himself, I think that an opportunity to get guaranteed games will swing it. We will then need another striker and the names that have been current for the whole season will again come the forefront. Notably Rhodes, Zaha and 100/1 shot Carroll.

Can someone please explain why we would be releasing a striker 'because we have a surplus and he isn't going to get enough games' and yet we 'need another new striker'?

We have a sufficiency of strike force at the moment and I think it would take some persuading to get another one in to queue up behind Pogrebnyak and Roberts, given that Hunt and ALF are already there. Some people may not like either of the 2 smaller strikers but they are there and one has to assume that they are seen as having a role to play. For that reason I would be a touch surprised to see us recruiting another striker unless we offload 2 (ie more than just Simon Church - assuming even he goes, of course).

[Cobi]

we've been after a second striker all summer. brian knows better than anyone that hunt and church will struggle at this level. hunt has never been a consistent goalscorer, and nor has church. it's a massive step up for them, and one at least needs to go this window, either on loan or permanently. the other will be gone jan or next summer.

[Royal Rother]

Hunt, at Dundee Utd and Reading = 71 goals from 162 + 45 subs - that's pretty consistent goalscoring in my book.

I agree with the sentiment that BM knows best, but players do improve and both Church and Hunt could have a part to play in the PL.

When we went up last time there were many posters on here ridiculing the idea of playing Murty, Hunt, Ingimarsson and several others in the PL, but they all contributed massively.

Fans can never know for sure who's going to step up.

[Norfolk Royal]

Agree with RR that unexpected players can step up to the plate, there's plenty of examples of that, Grant Holt for instance at Norwich who had been kicking around the lower leagues for years.

The most similar example with us at the moment is ALF who I think might step up. But surely we've seen enough of Church by now to make a reasoned judgement. My judgement is that he would struggle at Premier level.

Should he be given a chance? Well maybe. But if he has a couple of shockers in a row he should go out on loan.

[urz13]

Have heard that half-a-dozen clubs are keeping tabs on Church including the three named in a previous reply. As the clock ticks down on the transfer window, I think we will get an offer and, for the lad himself, I think that an opportunity to get guaranteed games will swing it. We will then need another striker and the names that have been current for the whole season will again come the forefront. Notably Rhodes, Zaha and 100/1 shot Carroll.

Can someone please explain why we would be releasing a striker 'because we have a surplus and he isn't going to get enough games' and yet we 'need another new striker'?

We have a sufficiency of strike force at the moment and I think it would take some persuading to get another one in to queue up behind Pogrebnyak and Roberts, given that Hunt and ALF are already there. Some people may not like either of the 2 smaller strikers but they are there and one has to assume that they are seen as having a role to play. For that reason I would be a touch surprised to see us recruiting another striker unless we offload 2 (ie more than just Simon Church - assuming even he goes, of course).

YES! Church needs a season-long loan to give him a chance of games. We need a better striker than The Pog to score the goals that we need. Simples!

That's a shame, because the ones you mentioned, Rhodes and Zaha, are not better than Pog. And Carroll, well, it's just laughable you think we'd consider going for him.

[JordCot]

Have heard that half-a-dozen clubs are keeping tabs on Church including the three named in a previous reply. As the clock ticks down on the transfer window, I think we will get an offer and, for the lad himself, I think that an opportunity to get guaranteed games will swing it. We will then need another striker and the names that have been current for the whole season will again come the forefront. Notably Rhodes, Zaha and 100/1 shot Carroll.

Can someone please explain why we would be releasing a striker 'because we have a surplus and he isn't going to get enough games' and yet we 'need another new striker'?

We have a sufficiency of strike force at the moment and I think it would take some persuading to get another one in to queue up behind Pogrebnyak and Roberts, given that Hunt and ALF are already there. Some people may not like either of the 2 smaller strikers but they are there and one has to assume that they are seen as having a role to play. For that reason I would be a touch surprised to see us recruiting another striker unless we offload 2 (ie more than just Simon Church - assuming even he goes, of course).

YES! Church needs a season-long loan to give him a chance of games. We need a better striker than The Pog to score the goals that we need. Simples!

I can't be the only one that was surprised that we were able to get the calibre of player such as the Pog in our first transfer window and that was mainly due to the connection with the owner. The guy has been playing at a high level for years now and we still need better? I just can't see it happening. He certainly isn't an out an out goalscorer but he is the best striker we will have this year.

[UpNorth]

Off to Huddersfield on loan according to two of the national papers today.

So, does this mean we are bringing another player in?

[loyalroyal4life]

Off to Huddersfield on loan according to two of the national papers today.

So, does this mean we are bringing another player in?

Yeah in Daily Mail and Sun.

Hope this is true would be good to let him go and see if he really can get 15+ goals in the championship

[Friday's Legacy]

Off to Huddersfield on loan according to two of the national papers today.

So, does this mean we are bringing another player in?

Yeah in Daily Mail and Sun.

Hope this is true would be good to let him go and see if he really can get 15+ goals in the championship

Couldn't agree more. He needs to play every week, not be a bit part player. I cannot see this going ahead unless we are bringing someone else in though. It would be a surprise if it did go that way.

[Norfolk Royal]

What chances of a late transfer window Morrison to Hudds with Rhodes coming to us for another £2-million?

Surely that's the logical conclusion to all this with Church as the 'sweetener' added value in the deal.

[Dare to Dr£am]

What chances of a late transfer window Morrison to Hudds with Rhodes coming to us for another £2-million?

Surely that's the logical conclusion to all this.

That was the deal originally put forward, but they didn't agree with our evaluation of Morrison and so it still wasn't good enough. If that did go-ahead, we would need a late replacement for centre-back cover. So a striker and defender to come in.

[Norfolk Royal]

What chances of a late transfer window Morrison to Hudds with Rhodes coming to us for another £2-million?

Surely that's the logical conclusion to all this.

That was the deal originally put forward, but they didn't agree with our evaluation of Morrison and so it still wasn't good enough. If that did go-ahead, we would need a late replacement for centre-back cover. So a striker and defender to come in.

Doesn't seem beyond the bounds of possibility to be fair. Morrison is going to be bit part for us and may not even be on the bench.

Seems odd that Church would go there if there wasn't some sort of Rhodes deal in the pipeline.

Hudds might think that good business, possibly.

[Ian Royal]

we've been after a second striker all summer. brian knows better than anyone that hunt and church will struggle at this level. hunt has never been a consistent goalscorer, and nor has church. it's a massive step up for them, and one at least needs to go this window, either on loan or permanently. the other will be gone jan or next summer.

Hunt has almost always been a consistent goalscorer if you look at his goals to appearances. It's good for a second striker. He just has fitness and injury problems and needs a good partner to work off. We know he has that in Roberts and is likely to have it in Pog. Yes, he's not technically brilliant. But he will be fine as a back up striker at very least.

I don't see any evidence we're actively pursuing a second striker. We've made some enquiries about Long and Rhodes for sure, but almost everything else has just been agent talk, media speculation or daft rumours on here.

I'm sure we're keeping an eye out for well priced quality strikers. But if nothing comes up, we won't be desperately scrabbling around for one.

I think you'll probably see a more effective Church to last season with a player of Guthrie's quality playing in midfield. And the guy's 5th choice anyway. Name me the 5th choice strikers at Norwich, Swansea, Wigan, Saints, Stoke etc and we'll compare them to Church and see how bad he is then.

[Norfolk Royal]

Norwich fifth choice would be Simeon Jackson I would think, who is better than Church imho.

[pea]

McDermott won't sell Morrison, Huddersfield won't sell Rhodes unless they get stupid money

HTH

[Extended-Phenotype]

McDermott won't sell Morrison, Huddersfield won't sell Rhodes unless they get stupid money

HTH

There is the slight possibility that Rhodes may want a transfer and it would be in the clubs interest to take 'good money' rather than 'silly money', though obviously the latter currency can buy sh/t like a giant stilton otter and time shoes.