Summer Rebuild

[linkenholtroyal]

GetReading suggesting that SC will look at players who he knows well for a rebuild. Some quite fanciful no chance names in their list obviously, but there are a couple who might be realistic...

Scott Sinclair
Petr Cech
Gareth McAuley
Tal Ben Haim
Scott Parker
Carlton Cole
Robert Green
Jay Spearing
Jerome Thomas
Steven Reid
Matej Vydra
Liam Ridgewell

HahahaCechhahahahahah

[Sutekh]

Mr Watts has now completed scouring leagues 1 and 2 for useful players and he suggests 5 names

Ben Gladwin - good call, was impressed with him in their thriller with Sheff Utd on Monday. If they don't go up then surely worth a shot
Sam Clucas - currently with Chesterfield, left winger
Jed Wallace - Portsmouth midfielder
Massimo Luongo - Swindon midfielder
Matt Done - Sheff Utd striker, also looked good on Monday

See http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/reading-fc-transfers-5-players-9248815 for more info

[Pepe the Horseman]

Wouldn't be surprised if we sign Clucas. Were looking at him a lot last season.

[Elm Park Kid]

I think people may need to readjust their expectations a little:

Our current wage bill is probably unsustainable for club of Reading's means. So unless players like pog, mccleary, HRK, Gunter, williams go there will be very little to play with. It will just be a case of picking up lower league players looking for an opportunity or aging players hoping to get one or two last seasons at a 15-20k salary level before the retire. If Clarke can use his connections to get decent prospects on loan cheap I say do it. Ok, you're not building for the future but at least we'll stay in the championship and it'll give him a chance to bring in new players the following season once pog and co are out of contract.

I doubt the club are stretched over Gunter and McCleary's wages or we wouldn't have extended their contracts, Williams is debatable but HRK and Pog are definitely on high figures.

The issue is that we all need to recalibrate our idea of what a 'high wage' is. Once the parachute payments stop we're just a club with an average gate of 16 odd thousand (many of which are concession season tickets) and relatively few additional income streams. If we're only paying Gunter and McCleary £15k a week it's still probably too much.

[NewCorkSeth]

I think people may need to readjust their expectations a little:

Our current wage bill is probably unsustainable for club of Reading's means. So unless players like pog, mccleary, HRK, Gunter, williams go there will be very little to play with. It will just be a case of picking up lower league players looking for an opportunity or aging players hoping to get one or two last seasons at a 15-20k salary level before the retire. If Clarke can use his connections to get decent prospects on loan cheap I say do it. Ok, you're not building for the future but at least we'll stay in the championship and it'll give him a chance to bring in new players the following season once pog and co are out of contract.

I doubt the club are stretched over Gunter and McCleary's wages or we wouldn't have extended their contracts, Williams is debatable but HRK and Pog are definitely on high figures.

The issue is that we all need to recalibrate our idea of what a 'high wage' is. Once the parachute payments stop we're just a club with an average gate of 16 odd thousand (many of which are concession season tickets) and relatively few additional income streams. If we're only paying Gunter and McCleary £15k a week it's still probably too much.

I doubt it.. Didn't we give kebe a 16k a week contract in January before we got promoted? How much was Roberts on at the same time? And jobi..

[Nameless]

The issue is that we all need to recalibrate our idea of what a 'high wage' is. Once the parachute payments stop we're just a club with an average gate of 16 odd thousand (many of which are concession season tickets) and relatively few additional income streams. If we're only paying Gunter and McCleary £15k a week it's still probably too much.

I agree that we will gradually be reducing the over all wage bill, luckily parachute payments means that is staged not done in one hit. And many of the other clubs in the division are in exactly the same position.
It's odd to say we will rely just on gate money. We'll earn more from league payments/ TV money than gate money, we have a rugby club paying rent, we have sponsorship deals, we have a hotel and conference centre. Not all clubs have as many other revenue streams as we do !

[melonhead]

I think people may need to readjust their expectations a little:

Our current wage bill is probably unsustainable for club of Reading's means. .

lol

[melonhead]

We'll earn more from league payments/ TV money than gate money

really?

[Woodley-RFC]

Scott Sinclair....... yes
Gareth McAuley yes
Jay Spearing yes
Liam Ridgewell yes

[SCIAG]

The issue is that we all need to recalibrate our idea of what a 'high wage' is. Once the parachute payments stop we're just a club with an average gate of 16 odd thousand (many of which are concession season tickets) and relatively few additional income streams. If we're only paying Gunter and McCleary £15k a week it's still probably too much.

I doubt it.. Didn't we give kebe a 16k a week contract in January before we got promoted? How much was Roberts on at the same time? And jobi..

Nobody has a clue what any of our players are on, at best we have a rough idea for one or two.

Roberts' contract was being paid by Zingarevich before FFP was a concern. We can't do that any more.

[Ian Royal]

The issue is that we all need to recalibrate our idea of what a 'high wage' is. Once the parachute payments stop we're just a club with an average gate of 16 odd thousand (many of which are concession season tickets) and relatively few additional income streams. If we're only paying Gunter and McCleary £15k a week it's still probably too much.

I doubt it.. Didn't we give kebe a 16k a week contract in January before we got promoted? How much was Roberts on at the same time? And jobi..

Nobody has a clue what any of our players are on, at best we have a rough idea for one or two.

Roberts' contract was being paid by Zingarevich before FFP was a concern. We can't do that any more.

This would be the season we made a loss of about £12m right? Not a great comparison for what we can afford to pay players now from NCS.

[NewCorkSeth]

We only have to keep our losses below 3 million.. Their 15k a week contract only add up to 1.5 million! Plenty of breathing space

[Ian Royal]

We only have to keep our losses below 3 million.. Their 15k a week contract only add up to 1.5 million! Plenty of breathing space

And the rest of the squad, staff, academy etc.

Parachute payments are dropping by about £8m. That's a lot of cuts potentially. Last we knew our wage budget was about £30m. It's bound to be a lot less now, but it'll certainly still need cutting.

[Royal Rother]

I think people may need to readjust their expectations a little:

Our current wage bill is probably unsustainable for club of Reading's means. So unless players like pog, mccleary, HRK, Gunter, williams go there will be very little to play with. It will just be a case of picking up lower league players looking for an opportunity or aging players hoping to get one or two last seasons at a 15-20k salary level before the retire. If Clarke can use his connections to get decent prospects on loan cheap I say do it. Ok, you're not building for the future but at least we'll stay in the championship and it'll give him a chance to bring in new players the following season once pog and co are out of contract.

Just play our own youngsters for goodness sake.

Some of them have stood out playing in the lower leagues, e.g. Tshibola and Samuel - others have done ok.

Why on Earth would we want to sign other team's lower league players when our own Academy graduates, who have not yet been given a chance at Reading, have stood out in those leagues?

Ageing players looking for a couple of seasons on £15-£20k....? I really really hope not.

[Hoop Blah]

Because the managers future and reputation, and that of the club, are dependant on results and those other clubs kids are quite probably better than ours.

I'd love to see those players you mention prove themselves at this level, but blooding them all together is a big gamble.

[Ian Royal]

Because the managers future and reputation, and that of the club, are dependant on results and those other clubs kids are quite probably better than ours.

I'd love to see those players you mention prove themselves at this level, but blooding them all together is a big gamble.

Less than blooding lots of youngsters that we don't know, are likely to care about us less and haven't played together. Unless they're a lot better.

[PeterReadingborn59]

It is true in that in the English Leagues the teams and Managers have more money than other Leagues to take on "proven" and "experienced" players who are meant to be less of a risk than the Academy players. Hence other Leagues younger players get more chances such as in Scotland and the Netherlands aas their proven and experienced players join the likes of Chelsea or United. Reading does utilise the Academy as the start of last season proved when six or more players were starting, Hector, Pearce, Obita, Taylor, Edwards, HRK, Khul. However, the Academy has yet to supply someone who might prove to be a goal scorer that all teams seek, let's hope next season sees a new "Shane Long" break through.

[Hoop Blah]

Because the managers future and reputation, and that of the club, are dependant on results and those other clubs kids are quite probably better than ours.

I'd love to see those players you mention prove themselves at this level, but blooding them all together is a big gamble.

Less than blooding lots of youngsters that we don't know, are likely to care about us less and haven't played together. Unless they're a lot better.

Well the last bit is kind of key though isn't it?

That, and if we take someone like Chalobah, Ake or Baker, we're likely to be getting a player that has already performed at the kind of level we're looking to play them at, or at least more so than the likes of Tishbola.

I'm all for using players like Kuhl, Stacey, Fosu and the rest but I just don't think you can expect the manager, who will pay with his job if things don't go well, to turn down the chance to use players that are presumably better than ours just for the long term interest and value.

[Royal Rother]

I think people may need to readjust their expectations a little:

Our current wage bill is probably unsustainable for club of Reading's means. So unless players like pog, mccleary, HRK, Gunter, williams go there will be very little to play with. It will just be a case of picking up lower league players looking for an opportunity or aging players hoping to get one or two last seasons at a 15-20k salary level before the retire. If Clarke can use his connections to get decent prospects on loan cheap I say do it. Ok, you're not building for the future but at least we'll stay in the championship and it'll give him a chance to bring in new players the following season once pog and co are out of contract.

Just play our own youngsters for goodness sake.

Some of them have stood out playing in the lower leagues, e.g. Tshibola and Samuel - others have done ok.

Why on Earth would we want to sign other team's lower league players when our own Academy graduates, who have not yet been given a chance at Reading, have stood out in those leagues?

Ageing players looking for a couple of seasons on £15-£20k....? I really really hope not.

Because the managers future and reputation, and that of the club, are dependant on results and those other clubs kids are quite probably better than ours.

I'd love to see those players you mention prove themselves at this level, but blooding them all together is a big gamble.

But our kids seem to have shone in the lower leagues whilst out on loan so I see no reason to think that other club's lower league players would be "quite probably better than ours". (Edit: I suspect there's a cross purpose discussion evolving here - I am clearly talking about our kids v lower league players generally - I think you've shifted to the likes of Chelsea's kids coming in on loan being better than our kids who have done well in the lower leagues...)

If the manager is given very little money, which will surely be the case, then his best course of action is to focus on getting the best out of what we have, not looking outside.

Yes, if Chelsea want to get Loftus-Cheek or Solanki some good experience in a good environment under a coach Mourinho trusts then I'm sure we would be very pleased to help them out but I just don't think ageing players on £15k - £20k pw or other club's lower league players should be of any real interest to us.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Which of our kids would you say have shone out on loan in the lower leagues, other than Tshibola maybe?