We had a chance

[LoyalRoyalFan]

People canned McDermott when he didn't spend enough money in January, and guess what.... Adkins hasn't done it either. Wonder whether he will get the same hostile reception?

And the owner also fuelled that fire in the Adkins Press Conference. I wonder who Anton is going to shift the blame to this time.

Indeed he did. Secondly, why did Adkins have to spout out that the club was working on three signings? It just adds expectation that these deals must happen, when they clearly struggled to do any.

[melonhead]

Amazing how they can continually let people down like this every transfer window and yet still some defend them on it. Even the rumoured signings like Sissoko, as good as his pedigree suggests he is, are not really what the squad needs.

defending nothing.
i am disappointed we let hunt go, havent shifted pog, and bought two proper strikers.
very disappointed.
i think this will seriously impact our ability to gain promotion first time out.


but do i think its any one persons fault? no

we have a certain amount of money. we try to spend that. we are decent payers at this level.
we are in a certain league, which only attracts a certain player
all of those players will ultimately prefer a move higher.
we identify players who we think may want to come here, and who would be what we need, and good enough to improve on what we have

the situation is what it is.

if we had mental super rich owners, and a big name manager like arry, then maybe we would go out and spend spend spend. but even then i wouldnt be that happy about it

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

All the moaning, yet lets be fair no one has really come up with a decent goalscorer that we could sensibly have signed.

Pre season we signed three, no one complained then, yes there was talk we needed more, and that we were after three.

Then we had a skiddy patch, and sudenly we got hammered 6-0 by Peterborough, then fans started to panic, suggesting the players we had as back up were rubbish.

Without really understanding that at least three of them wanted to leave and had no interest in RFC, one even decided he was not fit to play.

So we played Peterborough with the equivalent of nine players, all reports here say Pog and Marriappa were totally disinterested.

It would have been acceptable if they were bad, but to not play is criminal.

Now Adkins has to get those same players to be a part of the squad and this club, lets hope they can.

[melonhead]

Other clubs.

If transfers are so difficult, I would expect other clubs that find themselves in our position to face equal struggles – those clubs recently promoted to the Premier League or relegated to the Championship. But they don’t seem to struggle so much. Why is that?

im asking you which clubs at our level- ie in the championship, who are seriously trying to get back into the premiere league, have done business that we would like to have done?

and can you think of any reason for them outperforming us in the transfer market. other than its all hammonds fault, that this could possibly be?




personally if we had kept nhunt, kebe and marriappa id be ecstatic at this window,
bringing in the real quality in bridge drenthe williams that we have.

its just the striker position we have failed in, which is a bit rubbish. but theres still frees and loans, and im hopeful we will get something in.

if kebe and mapps wanted out, then it would be daft to keep them.

the only one im really annoyed about is shipping nhunty out - that could be a huge mistake, but they wage bill needed trimming, and nhunt was our worst passer of the ball and didnt fit the "new style" and would have been a pretty high earner. we clearly also thought that some of our other striker targets would come off.
so even this cock up is understandable.


why do people demand blame, why cant they look at the whole picture, and just try to understand the issues and problems inherrant in the system.
tut

[LoyalRoyal22]

Pretty much sums up Melonhead when the only thing he is dissapointed in is the release of Noel Hunt

[melonhead]

Pretty much sums up Melonhead when the only thing he is dissapointed in is the release of Noel Hunt

i said annoyed actually.

already said im very disappointed in not getting at least one striker in, and that this would seriously impact our ability to go up this season.


you massive spaz

[LoyalRoyal22]

[sandman]

Amazing how they can continually let people down like this every transfer window and yet still some defend them on it. Even the rumoured signings like Sissoko, as good as his pedigree suggests he is, are not really what the squad needs.

defending nothing.
i am disappointed we let hunt go, havent shifted pog, and bought two proper strikers.
very disappointed.
i think this will seriously impact our ability to gain promotion first time out.


but do i think its any one persons fault? no

we have a certain amount of money. we try to spend that. we are decent payers at this level.
we are in a certain league, which only attracts a certain player
all of those players will ultimately prefer a move higher.
we identify players who we think may want to come here, and who would be what we need, and good enough to improve on what we have

the situation is what it is.

if we had mental super rich owners, and a big name manager like arry, then maybe we would go out and spend spend spend. but even then i wouldnt be that happy about it

I've never said one person was at fault and I think everyone has a hand in these things going wrong that's why when someone posted a picture of McD when everyone was solely blaming him for last season's relegation/lack of transfer spend/break out of WWII I replied with pictures of the Owner, DoF, etc.

I also don't want us to spend bucket loads and would like us to keep "the Reading way" as much as we possibly can but it's not always possible to do that all the time nowadays, especially when purchasing strikers. What I don't like and can't stand is when we have obvious deficiencies in the squad and those are not addressed despite having months to do so.

[melonhead]

we obviously tried to though, its just that for us, at this level, at the level of players we need it just wasnt possible.




yes we could have spent more. or targetted worse players and probably brought in a couple.
am i happy we didnt do so? yes

[sandman]

Trying isn't good enough I'm afraid. It just comes over as what it is and that's an excuse.

[RoyalBlue]

All the moaning, yet lets be fair no one has really come up with a decent goalscorer that we could sensibly have signed.

Pre season we signed three, no one complained then, yes there was talk we needed more, and that we were after three.

Then we had a skiddy patch, and sudenly we got hammered 6-0 by Peterborough, then fans started to panic, suggesting the players we had as back up were rubbish.

Without really understanding that at least three of them wanted to leave and had no interest in RFC, one even decided he was not fit to play.

So we played Peterborough with the equivalent of nine players, all reports here say Pog and Marriappa were totally disinterested.

It would have been acceptable if they were bad, but to not play is criminal.

Now Adkins has to get those same players to be a part of the squad and this club, lets hope they can.

But a lot of what you say is just not true. It was bleeding obvious to most (and stated by many) long before the Peterborough game that we did not have enough proven goalscorers at this level. What's more many names were bandied around which could have (should have) sensibly been signed by a club claiming that they want to win the title/get promoted from the Championship this season.

Our central defence was also highlighted as being pretty weak and in need of strengthening and that was before they decided to cash in on Mariappa.

we obviously tried to though, its just that for us, at this level, at the level of players we need it just wasnt possible.




yes we could have spent more. or targetted worse players and probably brought in a couple.
am i happy we didnt do so? yes

I'm glad that you are happy that the club didn't spend more money and that, as a consequence, we are left with an unbalanced squad that stands very little chance of being able to compete with the best teams in this division. I wonder how chuffed Adkins is feeling today.

Fact is that loads of other clubs that we claim to want to compete on a proper footing with repeatedly succeed in the transfer market when we repeatedly fail. IMO, and that of many others, it is quite clear that we either don't try hard enough or the people trying just aren't fit for purpose. Alternatively they aren't receive proper backing from owner/Chairman/MD.

[melonhead]

Trying isn't good enough I'm afraid. It just comes over as what it is and that's an excuse.

it is an excuse by definition.

all explanations for failure are.

but that doesnt nullify the truth of it.

[sandman]

And that's great and all but unfortunately it's continued over and over again with no significant lessons seemingly being learnt. "900 players scouted" and "we know about every player in Europe". Were all bar 3 maybe four of them, assuming Sissoko signs, worse than the primary targets? Did every single one of the others really not want to come and play at this level?

I realise your answer will be that that is an over exaggeration with a bit of Hyperbole and "We obviously weren't going to sign all of those players" and I agree with that but unfortunately if they are going to say these things and build everyone up then they have to accept the stick that comes when they don't completely deliver.

[melonhead]

thats an exageration with a bit of hyperbole.




& lol at them being at all bothered by 'stick' you dish out on here

[Royal Lady]

There were players out there - Jamie Mackie springs to mind - he wasn't too high a price - but, as far as I am aware, we didn't even put in a bid for him.

It's been oft said, but I'll repeat it again for the likes for Bendy - if you're told something by the club, such as we want to bring in 7 players this window, our aim is to go straight back up, we want to be playing Champions League football in the next few years - or whatever, then fans aren't exactly deluding themselves if they expect something along those lines, in the timescales quoted by the club.
IF, however, the club had said from the very beginning of the Adkins era - this is a work in progress, we urge fans to be patient, we want to get ourselves in a position where we can go back to the Premier League and not only stay there, but push for European football - but this will take time and can't all happen within a couple of years - and we still have to prudent with our money - then I think fans would have been accepting of this.

All this hype and no action just makes the whole RFC board look like chumps. Which they are. I'm not going to blame Hammond - because it hasn't been Hammond who has been mouthing off. What's happened, btw, to the other directors - Samuelson and his son in particular - they're awfully quiet .... they are ALL answerable to the fans - whether they think they are or not - without us, there is no RFC - with lower gate receipts there is much less money to spend, without paying for merchandising, there is much less money to spend - then they'll never be able to do what they want to do, and we'll find it impossible to attract any players of any substance.

We don't want us to spend tens of million of pounds each transfer window, or ANY transfer window, come to that - we just want them to put their money where their mouths are - or stop talking up the club like they have been.

[melonhead]

There were players out there - Jamie Mackie springs to mind - he wasn't too high a price - but, as far as I am aware, we didn't even put in a bid for him.

It's been oft said, but I'll repeat it again for the likes for Bendy - if you're told something by the club, such as we want to bring in 7 players this window, our aim is to go straight back up, we want to be playing Champions League football in the next few years - or whatever, then fans aren't exactly deluding themselves if they expect something along those lines, in the timescales quoted by the club.
IF, however, the club had said from the very beginning of the Adkins era - this is a work in progress, we urge fans to be patient, we want to get ourselves in a position where we can go back to the Premier League and not only stay there, but push for European football - but this will take time and can't all happen within a couple of years - and we still have to prudent with our money - then I think fans would have been accepting of this.

All this hype and no action just makes the whole RFC board look like chumps. Which they are. I'm not going to blame Hammond - because it hasn't been Hammond who has been mouthing off. What's happened, btw, to the other directors - Samuelson and his son in particular - they're awfully quiet .... they are ALL answerable to the fans - whether they think they are or not - without us, there is no RFC - with lower gate receipts there is much less money to spend, without paying for merchandising, there is much less money to spend - then they'll never be able to do what they want to do, and we'll find it impossible to attract any players of any substance.

We don't want us to spend tens of million of pounds each transfer window, or ANY transfer window, come to that - we just want them to put their money where their mouths are - or stop talking up the club like they have been.

oh feck off you mad old bat. Already said I wanted a striker. That not getting one will impact our ability to go up,and that making daft statements about transfers before they're done is idiotic.

The difference is that I acknowledge that the ammount if money available is what it is, and its hard to get good players to play at thus level without paying more than we can afford

[Royal Lady]

But you don't know, any more than we do, HOW MUCH money is or isn't available? So why use that as an excuse for us not competing properly in the transfer market?

EDIT: AND if there isn't much money available, why did Adkins think he could buy 3 more players and why has Anton been spouting forth about buying more than that? And as many have already said, he can hardly have a go at NA for not buying in the transfer window if there is no money - so what excuse is AZ going to come up with - he blamed Brian last time and prior to that Coppell got the blame - either we have enough money to compete at this level or we don't. If we don't - maybe AZ needs to tell us instead of leading us on....

[ddetisi]

Where were all the critics when Hammond brought Drenthe to Reading? That is an unreal signing as would sissoko be for us.

When I read this board now it reminds me of Leeds fans in the years after they were relegated.

It stinks of a sense of entitlement because you were told one thing would happen and it hasn't.

Anyone moaning because they haven't met your personal transfer expectations needs to let the people that have jobs in football do the thinking.

I haven no doubt that people at the club would have worked tirelessly to do the business and some of the headless chicken ranting and abuse at the club is embarrassing.

[Royal Lady]

Where were all the critics when Hammond brought Drenthe to Reading? That is an unreal signing as would sissoko be for us.

When I read this board now it reminds me of Leeds fans in the years after they were relegated.

It stinks of a sense of entitlement because you were told one thing would happen and it hasn't.

Anyone moaning because they haven't met your personal transfer expectations needs to let the people that have jobs in football do the thinking.

I haven no doubt that people at the club would have worked tirelessly to do the business and some of the headless chicken ranting and abuse at the club is embarrassing.

Do you not see how wrong it is for a club to say one thing would happen and then it doesn't. Can you not understand how fans would feel frustrated - particularly when it happens time and again?

Either, we're not an attractive prospect for other players or we can't afford them - I could work tirelessly trying to bring Messi in, but it ain't ever going to happen.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Well we got Akpan and Blackman last time and look how that is now panning out. And Pog in the summer after promotion.

Still no names other than Mackie, who is not prolific at this level at all, and no reason to suspect we could make him. Only scored 56 league goals in total.