SIGNED - Hope Akpan

[Scutterbucketz]

Fukking hell! Why do people always have to mention QPR?!?

Why not mention any one of the other 5 or 6 clubs who have spent the same kind of money as QPR (not just this year but every year they've been in the PL) who will stay up comfortably?

Yes, spending money doesn't guarantee success, but spending none almost certainly guarantees relegation. I just know someone's going to mention 2006/7.

And why do people always assume that just because a player isn't well-known he's guaranteed to be shit, and that their signing represents a lack of ambition?

I don't think anyone is saying he's guaranteed to be shit. But he is certainly not the established, hit the ground running, Premier league player that we were told we would be trying to buy in January.

And if this chap does sign I doubt anyone at the club will have the audacity to suggest that he was bought as a player to keep us in th PL. So, yes, this either represents a complete lack of ambition or is a sign that none of our Premier league targets want to sign for us.

[winchester_royal]

Fukking hell! Why do people always have to mention QPR?!?

Why not mention any one of the other 5 or 6 clubs who have spent the same kind of money as QPR (not just this year but every year they've been in the PL) who will stay up comfortably?

Yes, spending money doesn't guarantee success, but spending none almost certainly guarantees relegation. I just know someone's going to mention 2006/7.

And why do people always assume that just because a player isn't well-known he's guaranteed to be shit, and that their signing represents a lack of ambition?

I don't think anyone is saying he's guaranteed to be shit. But he is certainly not the established, hit the ground running, Premier league player that we were told we would be trying to buy in January.

And if this chap does sign I doubt anyone at the club will have the audacity to suggest that he was bought as a player to keep us in th PL. So, yes, this either represents a complete lack of ambition or is a sign that none of our Premier league targets want to sign for us.

Or, that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?

It's not like we're at the end of the window and panic buying because nobody wants to come here.

[Scutterbucketz]

I don't give a shit about his resale value, tbh. It's not like it's ever reinvested. I want people who can do the business now.

I've watched this club go down before after minimal investment and i really thought, with TSI on board, that this time would be different. You're right though, it's only the 8th but I would have liked to have seen more action when we've got some crucial games coming up.

[winchester_royal]

I don't give a shit about his resale value, tbh. It's not like it's ever reinvested. I want people who can do the business now.

And hopefully you'll get them as the window progresses.

Doesn't mean we can't take advantage of an opportunity like this when it arises.

As mentioned earlier..the two approaches are not mutually exclusive.

[Scutterbucketz]

Let's hope they aren't.

[winchester_royal]

Anyone who has RFC player subscription can watch the full Crawley match here if they feel like doing a bit of scouting:

http://www.player.readingfc.co.uk/latest-news/article/3033643/date/20130107153300/page/0/name/Crawley-vs-Royals-First-Half

From the little I've watched (around 5 minutes) Akpan showed plenty of ability. Particularly in the passage of play between 4-5 mins.

[maffff]

I don't think anyone is saying he's guaranteed to be shit. But he is certainly not the established, hit the ground running, Premier league player that we were told we would be trying to buy in January.

And if this chap does sign I doubt anyone at the club will have the audacity to suggest that he was bought as a player to keep us in th PL.

Premier League experience? Pah. He has European experience after that game against BATE.

And, surely being on the books of a team in the Premier League for 5 years as both a youth and a senior he will have absorbed some of the experience of other players at the team. That's the Premier League experience we're after!

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Young and hungry, with something to prove having failed elsewhere? - Tick.

[cmonurz]

[
Or, that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?

If that was our business, we’d have paid that £1m extra for Zaha. That same Zaha who just 5 months later is a rumoured transfer target of Manchester United.

[winchester_royal]

[
Or, that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?

If that was our business, we’d have paid that £1m extra for Zaha. That same Zaha who just 5 months later is a rumoured transfer target of Manchester United.

We weren't to know that he'd be such a success this season. Yes in hindsight we should have raised our offer, but at the time the club had a value in mind and didn't want to pay above that.

Their valuation was wrong, but not the strategy.

[jellytot]

We will be signing players from oxford or swindon next... Opps done that!

[Big Ern]

[[b]quote="Colin Cheeselog"]

If this is one of the "2 or 3" players Brian said he was trying to sign, the this is absolutely pathetic from the club and confirms we are not even going to try to stay up.

You're right, absolutely disgraceful. How dare the club take the low risk strategy of signing a promising young player for the future for a small fee, on low wages.

Signing a young promising player and a more experienced one are mutually exclusive, the two things just can’t happen, that would be a physical impossibility. No football club has ever signed more than two players in one transfer window.

We should be throwing money at washed up has-beens instead, with no care paid to the future, that’s what we all want to see, following the Portsmouth model.[/quote]

I understand your point, and if this is a speculative low risk signing for the future, then great. My point is that Brian has said we need some established players with Prem experience to come in, and Hope Akpan is certainly not that. I agreed we do not want washed up has beens who are only here for the money, but we do need some more established players to come in if we are at least to stand a remote chance of staying up. I am 99.9% sure we are going down, however I do not want us to give up fighting with plenty of games still to play. If these are the signings we are going to make, it appears we have given up already and that will make many supporters lose heart.

[Big Ern]

[
Or, that we think he is a talented player who will be worth considerably more than we have paid for him in the future, and that he will be a useful player for us in the future?

If that was our business, we’d have paid that £1m extra for Zaha. That same Zaha who just 5 months later is a rumoured transfer target of Manchester United.

Zaha didn´t want to come to Reading. That is why we did not continue the negotiations. No point agreeing a fee if there was no prospect of him signing.

[melonhead]

It is Akpan. Fordham is all over this. So is he another water carrier or can he pass the ball?

Guess the promised experienced pl pros will come later?

need to work on definition of promise, an also stop being so selective in what you rememberfrom what brian says

[melonhead]

didnt they say they wanted x, we offered close to that and they just decided to raise it again?

or was that someone else....could have been rhodes i guess, cant remember


more stream of conciousness later

[winchester_royal]

It is Akpan. Fordham is all over this. So is he another water carrier or can he pass the ball?

Guess the promised experienced pl pros will come later?

Physical def.midfielder who likes to bomb forward and has a decent shot on him apparently. At 21 he's worth a punt.

Water Carrier then

He's not a water carrier, very decent passer of the ball apparently.

[melonhead]

anyway, surely a water carrier needs to be able to pass the water on to someone else at the end of it, or else theres not much point of him carrying the water

[Gordons Cumming]

It is Akpan. Fordham is all over this. So is he another water carrier or can he pass the ball?

Guess the promised experienced pl pros will come later?

Physical def.midfielder who likes to bomb forward and has a decent shot on him apparently. At 21 he's worth a punt.

Bit like Brett Williams.

[Barry the bird boggler]

[RobRoyal]

We will be signing players from oxford or swindon next... Opps done that!

Yep, one of our most capable players came from Swindon. And he's just turned 22. What was your point, exactly?