SIGNED - Hope Akpan

[scratchgrey]

Any idea on cost?

[Bowman's Quiver]

Sorry guys i'm an everton fan but i cant believe you have actually bought akpan.He's the worst player ive ever seen wear an everton shirt.He won't get in your first team so i dont see the point in signing him,you should be signing much better players than this.Your manager and board should be ashamed.

You didn't see Brett Angell play for your mob then?

[ddetisi]

Any idea on cost?

I've seen 300k being floated around as the fee.

[Jay o/]

He's 6ft. Another big boy. Useful for set-pieces, especially with Morrison being a handful.

[Lacoste]

Surely the question on everyones lips though, has Ian Royal warmed to him?

[Millsy]

Actually quite pleased with this signing. Strong, hungry, on the up. Doesn't cost the earth.

I would've hoped we could get some big hitters to keep us up but hey, no probs if that's not our game plan, this sort of signing might be good.

homophobia? Hardly. He's only a kid and some stupid things went up on his twitter account. Apologised. Nothing to do with us.

Broken a guys leg? Yeah that's not nice but it happens in football and remember this is a strong tough tackler- exactly what soft reading need. Do we hate Shunt because of his heavy slide breaking a skull? Of course not, these things happen.

My only concern might be a bit of discipline but I'm sure he'll learn that.

Well done RFC, more like this please, but don't feel shy to make some bigger name signings if you can lure them in!

But the one Crawley poster on this thread says he can't tackle.

Oh ok fair enough. I must've missed that. Not that one Crawley poster is the final word on it! If nothing else he's big and strong. Definitely something we need! Plus I read that he can pass well? I'm sure he does have some qualities about him or we wouldn't sign him. If it ain't tackling well then it must be strength and passing.. And God knows we need that too.

I just don't get all the pessimism.

Dear pessimists, take it from one of the kings of anti-RFC-board pessimism in the last few years - this is a positive signing. If you want to retain some credibility, keep toys in pram till the end of the window please!!!!

[rhroyal]

The thing is, McD rightly pointed out that players with proven Premier League pedigree would not want to come here, because of our league position.

I don't doubt for a moment we've been trying and enquiring, but if you're good enough for this division, why come to Reading at the moment? This is why we can only really get the proven track record we want through loan deals in my view.

In the mean time, we're sticking to the formula of young, hungry players that has served us well. And these youngsters are more proven then they were pre-AZ. Rogic and Akpan > Williams and Sheppard; more comparable to the opportunities we gave Lita and Convey back in the glory days.

We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.

[SPARTA]

The thing is, McD rightly pointed out that players with proven Premier League pedigree would not want to come here, because of our league position.

I don't doubt for a moment we've been trying and enquiring, but if you're good enough for this division, why come to Reading at the moment? This is why we can only really get the proven track record we want through loan deals in my view.

In the mean time, we're sticking to the formula of young, hungry players that has served us well. And these youngsters are more proven then they were pre-AZ. Rogic and Akpan > Williams and Sheppard; more comparable to the opportunities we gave Lita and Convey back in the glory days.

We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.

Excellent post and many positives for next season if we do go down. It'll be a very strong squad, and we'll add to it again in the summer.

[Maguire]

I guess you can either adopt the Ian Royal attitude (worry about the next two games only and complain we haven't brought anyone in who can win us those) or people who think the lifespan of a football club perhaps lasts a little bit longer than the end of the month or indeed the season.

What's wrong with planning for next season anyway? We're probably going down. It's not like we're signing Hope instead of someone else.

That's not my position. I just think it's unfair to label anyone who voices anything but exclusive positivity about a signing as attacking the way the club is run and doom mongering. Generally, I'm perfectly happy to play the long game and I think the club is probably doing the right thing because we'll go down anyway.

I'd say this window is actually probably one of the very few where I'd support us trying and playing a much shorter and immediate impact approach with our signing policy.

Looking at the players who've signed in isolation they look pretty decent bets for giving us a strong footing in the Championship next year. But in the context of teh squad as a whole and playing style, I don't think they really show a strong sign that McDermott's gotten any better at planning a coherant squad and approach, rather than just signing individual decent players that fit his naturally preferred qualities. And I think it's that weakness which is the cause of us struggling at the start of all three seasons he's managed us. And possibly the difference between him turning it around and not doing so is the season starting with less of the transfer window left than in the Championship and the lack of a loan window between August and January.

It's only January 8th m8.

[Ian Royal]

Yes I know, which is why I said we could sign someone superb tomorrow which would change things. But that our signings so far seem to signal our intent fairly clearly. And once again, we've got limited games left enough as it is to do what we'd need to do stay up and three of them are either during January or very shortly after, so if we are going to sign people ready to play and designed to keep us up, it has to be earlier in the window, rather than later.

['lista]

The thing is, McD rightly pointed out that players with proven Premier League pedigree would not want to come here, because of our league position.

I don't doubt for a moment we've been trying and enquiring, but if you're good enough for this division, why come to Reading at the moment? This is why we can only really get the proven track record we want through loan deals in my view.

In the mean time, we're sticking to the formula of young, hungry players that has served us well. And these youngsters are more proven then they were pre-AZ. Rogic and Akpan > Williams and Sheppard; more comparable to the opportunities we gave Lita and Convey back in the glory days.

We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.

Ban this positive madman! He's upsetting the status quo.

[Maguire]

Yes I know, which is why I said we could sign someone superb tomorrow which would change things. But that our signings so far seem to signal our intent fairly clearly. And once again, we've got limited games left enough as it is to do what we'd need to do stay up and three of them are either during January or very shortly after, so if we are going to sign people ready to play and designed to keep us up, it has to be earlier in the window, rather than later.

You can't choose when to buy someone though. It might be that players become available only once their parent club signs someone else. It might be that negotiations go on for several weeks - signing a new employee isn't the same as popping to the shops for your dinner.

[Ian Royal]

Yes I know, which is why I said we could sign someone superb tomorrow which would change things. But that our signings so far seem to signal our intent fairly clearly. And once again, we've got limited games left enough as it is to do what we'd need to do stay up and three of them are either during January or very shortly after, so if we are going to sign people ready to play and designed to keep us up, it has to be earlier in the window, rather than later.

You can't choose when to buy someone though. It might be that players become available only once their parent club signs someone else. It might be that negotiations go on for several weeks - signing a new employee isn't the same as popping to the shops for your dinner.

Yes thanks for posting this and other blindingly obvious things Mags.

The point is, this is a decent signing with plenty of promise for the future. Nothing more, nothing less right now. And nothing I've said on here about the signing has been reactionary, too judgemental or unreasonable.

[Mike Hunt]

The thing is, McD rightly pointed out that players with proven Premier League pedigree would not want to come here, because of our league position.

I don't doubt for a moment we've been trying and enquiring, but if you're good enough for this division, why come to Reading at the moment? This is why we can only really get the proven track record we want through loan deals in my view.

In the mean time, we're sticking to the formula of young, hungry players that has served us well. And these youngsters are more proven then they were pre-AZ. Rogic and Akpan > Williams and Sheppard; more comparable to the opportunities we gave Lita and Convey back in the glory days.

We can moan all we like, but signing good players in our position is hard. We're using our PL status and resources to ensure that if the worst does happen, which it probably will, we'll have an excellent squad with which to bounce back up.

The likes of Leigertwood, Gunter, McAnuff, Gorkss, Hunt and Federici will be useful players next season, I expect Alf to be truly prolific after his experiences this year. HRK, Pearce (if we keep him), Morrisson, McCarthy, McCleary, Kebe and Karacan will have all gained a lot from this season and will be better players than the ones who went up. And we have the resources to keep all or sell at high prices and replace. And we'll have bright youngsters to challenge them.

Even if we lose Pog, Guthrie and Carrico (which may not happen after 6 months), I expect us to be a fearsome team in the Championship for 13/14 and come back up a side capable of holding our own at this level more, without breaking the bank. We're potentially only 5/6 years behind West Brom; keep looking at the big picture and don't lose sight of that.

The last relegation was with a team being broken up and on decline. I honestly think this squad is still young, hungry and being built and I don't see a relegation stopping that as there are no stand out candidates for the PL vultures to ensnare away from us.

Fucking top post.

You don't need to be an optimist to see the sense in this.

[Royal91]

Premier league experience is not essential, but better players are.

Michu is a great example.


Get some carrico's in that are motivated by the thought of the premier league not by the money.

[The Rouge]

Yes I know, which is why I said we could sign someone superb tomorrow which would change things. But that our signings so far seem to signal our intent fairly clearly. And once again, we've got limited games left enough as it is to do what we'd need to do stay up and three of them are either during January or very shortly after, so if we are going to sign people ready to play and designed to keep us up, it has to be earlier in the window, rather than later.

You can't choose when to buy someone though. It might be that players become available only once their parent club signs someone else. It might be that negotiations go on for several weeks - signing a new employee isn't the same as popping to the shops for your dinner.

The point is, this is a decent signing with plenty of promise for the future. Nothing more, nothing less right now.

Ian, how many times have you seen Hope play live? This is a ridiculous thing to say. Yes, it is not the finished article but we have no way of knowing how McDermott plans to use him this season. The fact he was so keen to get him playing 45 mins centre mid straight away (when not playing would be easier) suggests he might be used this season.

[Ian Royal]

I'm not saying he won't be used, but I can't see him making a big impact in our relegation fight.

I've said I've seen 45 minutes on Reading Player (which is more than all except 2000 of our fans). I've said it's not enough to properly judge a player and obviously we wait to see him play (although I don't expect him to start much). But what I did see, wasn't encouraging that he'll be better than someone to work on in training and drip feed a little experience to and then see if he can force his way into the first team next season in the Championship. Which as I've also said, doesn't mean he'll be a failure or its a bad signing. But that it's not what we NEED right now. And I've acknowledged that we probably can't get what we need.

If he does come straight into the side, or end up starting 10 games and performing. AWESOME.

[Whitleyhoop]

This deal lokos set to go ahead, and as much as its not a player with great experience we should try to be positive, BMC's transfer record is pretty good and i would say any player he has signed for the first team as been succesful, so we have no reason to doubt that this wont also be a success

Twat!

[Whitleyhoop]

Awful awful uninspiring signing!! But let's be fair McDermott went from slough town to us.. Don't be upset by signing "slough town dream players! Did McDermott honest think the fans would warm to this??? WOEFUL WOEFUL

[The Rouge]

Surely this signing is only terrible if we got him instead of getting someone else. If we got him as well as someone else, what's the fukking problem? Should we stop signing 21 year olds we think have a good future in the game?