Squad Changes This Summer

[Royal_jimmy]

Who would you like to leave the club? Where would you like us to strengthen?

Who would you like us to go for this summer?

This is a massive transfer window for the club with so many loan players leaving. If we don't bring in the creative players I can honestly see us going down next season.

I won't give names but I think we will need a left back, centre back, centre midfielder, left and right winger plus striker. I expect Samuel to break into our first team. I've watched Gillingham twice this season and he's a really promising talent.

[windermere_royal]

Break the bank to get in Nakhi Wells from Huddersfield

[K9hassel]

Hector- Back to Chelsea
Piazon-Back to Chelsea
John-Back to Benfica
Vydra-Back to Watford
Fernandez-Back to Espanol
Taylor-Back to Wigan
HRK-off to Swansea
Ferdinand-Released
McCleary-Sold
Cox-Released
Norwood-Sold if does well at Euros
McShane /Quinn -Open to offers if preform well at Euros .Will they buy in to Brians vision?
Kuhl-Arsenal/West Ham? What do they see Brian doesn't? Lazy press

Samuels -Back from Gillingham

Looks like a busy summer for Brian!!

[Longhorn1970]

Who would you like to leave the club? Where would you like us to strengthen?

Who would you like us to go for this summer?

This is a massive transfer window for the club with so many loan players leaving. If we don't bring in the creative players I can honestly see us going down next season.

I won't give names but I think we will need a left back, centre back, centre midfielder, left and right winger plus striker. I expect Samuel to break into our first team. I've watched Gillingham twice this season and he's a really promising talent.

We've just signed 2 strikers ! Agree Samuel deserves a chance although not prolific at the Gills

[quickwingerswife]

All loan players out and no more please. Keown in the 5 million bracket April 2017

[blueroyals]

HRK out, Gunter should have followed

Try to get rid of McCleary

Bring some good wingers in

1x decent striker (+ give Samuel a chance)

No more loans

[Ian Royal]

Loanees
Piazon - He's a luxury and not strong enough to force himself into a side.
Fernandez - surplus to requirements IMO, but if we were to lose Norwood, I'd look to retain him permanently.
Taylor - if we can sign him at a reasonable cost, we should - he's a decent left back.
Hector - I'd like to see him back, but clearly it'd have to be another loan and that seems a little unlikely.
John - I'd like to see him here permanently, I think Brian could get him grounded and see him effective, but cost may be prohibitive.
Vydra - I'd love him here permanently, but cost seems likely to make that unachievable.

Goalkeeper
I think we're good here. Stay as we are.

Full backs
I don't really rate Gunter, or Obita particularly highly, but they're clearly here to stay. We need back up though, Taylor would do that on the left, Keown may be up to it on the right, but I think we need to sign a new right back.

Centrebacks
McShane is good, Cooper I have my doubts about, but is fine as third choice. Ferdinand simply doesn't play enough for me and we're likely to lose Hector. I'd like to see Keown, Dickie or Hyam hit up fourth spot and a new centreback to replace Ferdinand

Midfield
We've got strength in depth here, it's just fitting the pieces together the right way. I like all our options, but I think Williams is the player we can get the best value for if he leaves. He could fund some of our business and is likely to be one of our more expensive players. If Norwood goes I think he'd need replacing and I now have my doubts Kuhl could do the job, Fernandez would be an ideal replacement if necessary.

Wide
HRK seems likely to go, John seems likely unaffordable, McCleary seems injury ravaged and not the player he was. Neither Fosu nor Stacey seem particularly ready to step in. We could use a lot of work here. I'd like HRK to stay, I could live with McCleary going for a decent wedge quite comfortably. There's too much uncertainty here to say what to do for me, but a total overhaul seems likely. One thing we must do, is decide on how we want to play and bring in the wide men to fit it. If we want a wing heavy 4-4-2, we must bring in players who can defend and cross. If we're going with a more fluid 4-3-3/4-2-3-1/4-1-4-1/4-5-1 type thingy we need players who cut in well and have a good eye for goal.

Upfront
One of our weak links for quite some time. Again we need to plan and recruit based on how we want to play. If we want two upfront, then Kermie, Cox, Samuel and Rakels give us a pretty good base. If we're likely to go with one main central attacker, we don't really have that player here. One good goalscorer should do the trick. I'd like it to be Vydra

As a starting point, I think this is a decent squad
GK: Al-Habsi, Bond
RB: Gunter, ?
LB: Obita, Taylor
CB: McShane, Cooper
CB: ?, Keown
PM: Norwood, Kuhl
CMR: Williams, Tshibola
CML: Quinn, Evans
RF: McCleary, ?
LF: ?, Fosu
ST: ?, Kermorgant

ST: Rakels, Cox, Samuel

[ROWY]

It's a bit of a cliche but BM needs to develop a spine to the team - then build around it, a really good spine in place and everything else will fall into place - assuming a reasonable level of capability

Who fits the bill ?

Al Habsi - possibly yes
McSane - yes
Tishbola - yes (immense talent)

The rest - no

We therefore need

A top class striker to lead the line, bully defenders, win headers and demand a service (a bit like Kevin Doyle)
A forward thinking, box to box midfielder (similar to Steve Sidwell)

That will win us the division

[Royal Ginger]

Why no loans?

Half decent loans in recent years:

Gorkss
Khizanishvili
Bertrand
Leigertwood
Griffin
John
Mackie
Chabolah
Marray

And there's plenty more debateably good ones after that.

Sure there's some bad ones and we have too many this year, but to write off the idea of a loan seems a little foolhardy to me. Perhaps a couple next year would be a better reaction that locking the doors and stamping our feet?

[The Prisoner]

Break the bank to get in Nakhi Wells from Huddersfield

Not going to happen. Huddersfield being given a budget to build around him over the summer. Klopp's former assistant at Dortmund (David Wagner) has gone there and they have money to buy.

[Sutekh]

We need

1. A right back
2. A left back
3. A central defender (maybe two depending on Ferdinand's situation)
4. Two left wingers (presuming that HRK does not renew his deal)
5. A right winger
6. A striker

You can also possibly add a goalkeeper into that mix depending on your perceptions of Al-Habsi and Bond.

That should leave 2 players challenging for every position

The above though may come from youngsters but given that very few have been anywhere near the squad in those positions chances are that they're still not ready - aside from Samuel, Tanner and Liburd (and I'm actually expecting Kuhl to move on).

I'm also not expecting any of the current loans to sign permanently.

Keepers

Al Habsi
Bond

Right Back

Gunter
ANO

Left Back

Obita
ANO

Central Defenders

McShane
Cooper
Ferdinand (assuming club and player will agree a new deal)
ANO

Left Wing

ANO
ANO

Right Wing

McLeary
ANO

Midfield

Tshibola
Evans
Williams
Norwood
Quinn

Not entirely convinced about the overall balance of what you'd call central midfielders, perhaps some wheeling and dealing to be done there?

Strikers

Kermorgant
Rakels
Samuel
ANO

[Maneki Neko]

send all the loans back. not having vyds at 10 million. john-depends on the price
Buy taylor
get rid of 2 from mcleary, Williams and kanu if we can
promote a few youths- Samuel, fosu and a defender/RB

Buy 2 wingers and a striker

AlHabsi/Bond
Taylor/Obita
Gunter/Yoof
Evans/Tish/Quinn/Norwood
New/New/Fosu/(Rakels)
New/Samuel/kermorgant/Rakels

[Slater1993]

4-4-2 next season.

Al-Habsi
Gunter - McShane - Cooper - Obita
McCleary/Stacey/Hurtado! - Norwood/Williams - Tshibola/Evans - Quinn/Fosu
Kermorgant - Samuel/Cox/Rakels/Liburd

Doesn't look like too bad a starting place. Bit light in defence.

[Hoop Blah]

We're going to need a lot of movement, in and out.

I'm not against bringing in loans, as long as there aren't too many of them, but it must depend a lot on the circumstances of the load and the character of the players. In this day and age even a lot of permanent signings only seem to see us as a temporary stop gap whilst looking for their next contract so I'm not sure it matters too much.

We'll need strengthening all over the pitch but I hope that McDermott gets to build the squad he wants and he gets the balance and personalities right, the quality will almost look after itself.

[Kuhl_Runnings]

Break the bank to get in Nakhi Wells from Huddersfield

Why do so many Reading fans plea to buy Wells? He's a decent striker and I can understand if he was cheap but "breaking the bank" is just silly.

[linkenholtroyal]

Hector- Back to Chelsea
Piazon-Back to Chelsea
John-Back to Benfica
Vydra-Back to Watford
Fernandez-Back to Espanol
Taylor-Back to Wigan
HRK-off to Swansea
Ferdinand-Released
McCleary-Sold
Cox-Released
Norwood-Sold if does well at Euros
McShane /Quinn -Open to offers if preform well at Euros .Will they buy in to Brians vision?
Kuhl-Arsenal/West Ham? What do they see Brian doesn't? Lazy press

Samuels -Back from Gillingham

Looks like a busy summer for Brian!!

I think we are likely to lose most of the loanees, I think our marquee signing may be ola John for around 2 million. and we will sign Alfie back to replace Vydra who we will be told we will not be able to afford. we may sign Andrew Taylor permanently as back up. I also believe Ferdinand will be given another season and HRK will not sign. every other empty position will be filled by whoever is on a free transfer. I wouldn't be surprised if Brian didn't make a speculative offer to Derby for Pearce back and a loan offer to get Jem back as well. my signings list looks like this.

Ola John 2 million
Alfie just shy of 1 million
Alex Pearce 500k doesn't fit in at derby
Jem Karacan season long loan
resign Anton Ferdinand
Andrew Taylor 300k
a RB free transfer or loan
a winger free transfer or loan

there may also be a speculative offer dependant on how flush the thais are feeling for Mccarthy or that style goalkeeper and Bond will be put out on loan.
overall my signings would add up to 3.8 million

[Hoop Blah]

If that's the kind of strategy McDermott adopts this summer then he shouldn't see it through until the autumn let alone winter.

The squad needs freshening up and revitalising, not taking down some bizarre kind of nostalgia trip.

[linkenholtroyal]

If that's the kind of strategy McDermott adopts this summer then he shouldn't see it through until the autumn let alone winter.

The squad needs freshening up and revitalising, not taking down some bizarre kind of nostalgia trip.

I didn't say that would get us promoted, we will be looking at midtable mediocrity but we will be filling gaps in the summer and McDermott will want some players he knows and trusts round him. Oh I forgot to mention we will have some random player from the polish leagues signed somewhere, because I think the owners scout is based there......

[Hoop Blah]

What I meant was bringing back the likes of Le Fondre, Pearce and Karacan would be such a backward and negative step it would mean McDermott was heading down the wrong path.

[Royal_jimmy]

Is there any chance we can get Samuel back from his loan from Gillingham or is there no recall?

I think he should be getting some game time with Kermorgant, Rakels + Vydra. We might as well get a head start and blood him now so he hits the ground running next season.