by Elm Park Pasty »
30 Aug 2013 12:15
paddy20 +1 I don't always agree with you on some issues, but on this you are spot on. There are far too many Reading FC 'fans' who think the real world of football is like Football Manager. You agree a fee with a club and then terms with the player, and that's it job done. If we don't agree fee/terms then it is down to a 'lack of ambition', 'penny pinching' or 'Anton is a fraud with no money'. In an ideal world we could sign whoever we wanted at whatever weekly wage, but you can't even do that on FM without a cheat. Numerous voices on here wanted us to bid £4/5/6M over the summer on various players, we had no ambition because we didn't, not withstanding a 3 year contract on say £20k a week would mean an additional £3M the club would have to find. Then there's the issue of how does paying this new player £40k a week affect the rest of the squad on £20k a week, oh that's the manager's job you say. We have signed a few duffers in the time I have followed Reading but all in all I think Hammond has done a very good job.
Yes you are right but on occasions you do have to sometimes pay over the odds if that is what the market is asking. Its always a case of weighing benefits against risk. I would have said paying over the odds last year was worth as it could have kept us in the premiership. I would have said going over the odds for a striker when 2 good ones were available was worth it to give us a realistic chance of promotion. We are now faced with panic buying when few decent players are available. Clearly it seems we were after both those strikers and at £4m it was not that unreasonable. The major problem is that we have a very expensive striker on £50-60k pw whom we cant move on. But because you have made a mistake in the past can you afford to let that taint the future? A business man may say no an accountant would say yes?[/quote]
I just have a feeling in my bones that one/other/both of the strikers we are all thinking of maybe amonng the ones that got away (I am going to proceed on this basis, rather than entertain the we don't bid for anybody blah blah argument). You are right Paddy, and what we see at Arsenal now is probably a blind application of the 'I'm only paying my price' principle. I wouldn't be surprised though if we were prepared to pay market rate, only to find market rate went out of our reach when other bidders threw their hat into the ring. As far as the Pog goes, I'm not that sure he is on £50-60k a week, I am sure it's not peanuts but I am presuming a relegation clause would have been inserted into his deal. Pog, for me, will be interesting. If he doesn't get a move (and likely he won't, there I said it!
) then it will be interesting to see if his mood and demeanour change when he knows he is stuck here until Jan. I'm not all that sure that his minimal involvement so far is more reflective of the club's need to keep him fit, in case they can get shot, rather his training attitude. Although, of course, after Tuesday night who knows? Could have looked around at the shower of shite around him and thought 'Who gives a flying f***?'