RUMOUR - Rasmus Thelander

[CountryRoyal]

Danish CB playing in the Greek league with Panathinaikos. Hasn't played a lot of football recently but if fit could be an inspired signing.

http://www.gazzetta.gr/football/article ... o-telanter

[The Informant]

What does it say?

[Hound]

something like this:

Tollander is very close to the departure
Rasmussen Toltender is a ... breath of being a past from Panathinaikos, which Reading is expected to take advantage of.

Rasmussen Toltender is in the focus of Reading, with the English waiting for the Dane to leave Panathinaikos to bring him to the Island.

According to the Greek press, the "greens" have met with the side of the central defender and as it all seems to be a matter of a few days the player will be a past from Greece and from the clover.

not sure why we'd want another CB to be honest. Looks ok from the youtube vid etc but still

[The Informant]

One more quality CB wouldn't be a bad thing.

Not sure if he is quality though.

[Nameless]

Impressive that in just 3 posts his name is spelt 3 different ways !
If he does come you suspect that would see Cooper go...

[NewCorkSeth]

Impressive that in just 3 posts his name is spelt 3 different ways !
If he does come you suspect that would see Cooper go...

Think the ball was in Coopers court considering it was reported a fee was agreed. Jaap apparently told him he has a place here (it's just behind McShane, Moore, Ilori and Blackett)

[CountryRoyal]

Impressive that in just 3 posts his name is spelt 3 different ways !
If he does come you suspect that would see Cooper go...

Wiki has him as Rasmus Thelander, and as we all know Wikipedia is never ever wrong, ever.

[CountryRoyal]

Jaap apparently told him he has a place here (it's just behind McShane, Moore, Ilori and Blackett)

And VDB, Gunter and Evans deputising at CB too.

[Nameless]

Impressive that in just 3 posts his name is spelt 3 different ways !
If he does come you suspect that would see Cooper go...

Think the ball was in Coopers court considering it was reported a fee was agreed. Jaap apparently told him he has a place here (it's just behind McShane, Moore, Ilori and Blackett)

So Jaap signs another Cb and tells Cooper he's now surplus to requirements ?

[NewCorkSeth]

Jaap apparently told him he has a place here (it's just behind McShane, Moore, Ilori and Blackett)

And VDB, Gunter and Evans deputising at CB too.

I doubt he's behind our only fit RB and 2 of our 5 CMs but if he is the fact that the deal hasn't gone through tells me he doesn't want to move to Millwall.
If he's our 8th choice CB according to you and a fee has been reportedly agreed then why is he still here and why was he taken to the training camp?
Dom wasn't taken despite us having few fit strikers and a move to sort out. It just doesn't add up.

[NewCorkSeth]

Impressive that in just 3 posts his name is spelt 3 different ways !
If he does come you suspect that would see Cooper go...

Think the ball was in Coopers court considering it was reported a fee was agreed. Jaap apparently told him he has a place here (it's just behind McShane, Moore, Ilori and Blackett)

So Jaap signs another Cb and tells Cooper he's now surplus to requirements ?

Then why not do the same with Samuel? Doesn't seem like a consistent transfer policy.

[Hound]

it does feel a bit that if he is coming in, its a case of a decent player being cheap and available and us snapping him up, rather than filling a specific need

I'm not mad on those kind of deals to be honest, being as I think CB is our strongest suite in the whole squad, but we'll see.

[Snowflake Royal]

I can think of a few differences between Cooper and Samuel potentially.

Samuel is competing for one slot and isn't rated at all, with us actively looking for replacements and deals on the go.

Cooper is seen as having a future and is competing for one of three slots (no way he's behind Gunter and Evans) and this is a recent and opportunistic move given Cooper has an alternate option.

[urz13]

If we're going to play 3-5-2/5-3-2 as we did in the back end of last season, that requires 3 fit CB's at all times - McShane, Moore and Ilori would start you'd expect.

Assuming Cooper leaves, as he looks likely to, that only leaves players who are not natural CB's - Gunter, Blackett, Evans, JVDB. Personally I'd rather have a dedicated CB as cover rather than any of those, especially as whoever the 4th choice CB is you'd expect them to play a lot next season anyway - McShane seems a little injury prone and Ilori and Moore are bound to get a knock or suspension at some point.

He's bound to be cheap, appears to have some quality about him and he's a good age too. Absolute no brainier for me. Looks like an easy way to upgrade our CB cover (or perhaps he's even good enough to start) which can only be a good thing.

[urz13]

Not to mention that despite our defence looking solid on paper, we still conceded 60+ goals last season. So I think we should welcome the opportunity to strengthen the defence.

[Nameless]

Think the ball was in Coopers court considering it was reported a fee was agreed. Jaap apparently told him he has a place here (it's just behind McShane, Moore, Ilori and Blackett)

So Jaap signs another Cb and tells Cooper he's now surplus to requirements ?

Then why not do the same with Samuel? Doesn't seem like a consistent transfer policy.

Probably because there is no such thing as a 'consistent transfer policy', whatever that might mean !
I would have thought the essence of managing players is you treat them as individuals, you don't have a 'policy' as to how you deal with them just as commodities. why would how Samuel is dealt with have any relevance to how a different player, in a differ not situation, is dealt with ?

[Hound]

Not to mention that despite our defence looking solid on paper, we still conceded 60+ goals last season. So I think we should welcome the opportunity to strengthen the defence.

Not dismissing either of your posts and both have valid points

On the 60+ goals - yes we did have issues - but towards the end of the season we were pretty much rock solid - as proved against Fulham and Huddersfield where we conceded one goal in almost 3.5 games

If we play 3-5-2, and lose Cooper, I think then yes, we could probably have another CB - though you are still telling 2 of McShane, Ilori, Moore, Blackett or this chap they are not playing each week. They are too good to be on the bench

If we play 4-3-3, we are likely not playing 3 of those each week

Maybe this shows that Stam does see Blackett more as a LB which would be a mistake imo.

[NewCorkSeth]

So Jaap signs another Cb and tells Cooper he's now surplus to requirements ?

Then why not do the same with Samuel? Doesn't seem like a consistent transfer policy.

Probably because there is no such thing as a 'consistent transfer policy', whatever that might mean !
I would have thought the essence of managing players is you treat them as individuals, you don't have a 'policy' as to how you deal with them just as commodities. why would how Samuel is dealt with have any relevance to how a different player, in a differ not situation, is dealt with ?

I shall clarify.

We brought a training squad with many defenders and very few strikers to Holland.

We didn't bring Samuel as he was sorting out his move to Blackburn despite needed strikers for our training squad.

Why would we bring Cooper, who is apparently on his way out, to a training squad when we clearly didn't need extra defenders?

That is where I am suggesting the consistency in the argument is lacking. We are apparently both a) bringing players we don't want on training trips despite plenty of options in that position and b) not bringing players we don't want on training trips despite a lack of options in that position.

It's illogical at best.

[Nameless]

I'd suggest the issue is that neither of us have a clue about how the club handles it's transfers so we just guess then argue about each other's guesses !

My scenarios

Jaap - Dom, to be honest we're not able to offer you a future here and it's best for us all if you can find yourself a new club. You are welcome to train at the club until you do, but your priority is to find a new deal and we won't be using you in preseason.

Jaap- Jake, if I' m honest there are players ahead of you, and you have a lot of work to do to get into my plans. We know other clubs are interested and if an offer comes in that you want to take up then if it's right for us we'll let you move. But there is still an opportunity here if you are prepared to fight. You'll be included in preseason and we can see how it goes.

Different handling, probably similar outcome. There was no point Dom going to preseason, he was already out of the running. Jake may be going but there's a chance we'll keep him if he does we'll,preseason.

[Hound]

Wikipedia has been updated to say he plays for us

Again hardly a beacon of accuracy, and a prompt for the confirmed, but somebody has decided to change it for some reason.