Today's back from the game over-reaction thread.

[Hampshire Royal]

If ony we'd sung 'Sweet Caroline' things could have been so different.................

[Royal Rother]

And some of them will still go down and then be financially fcuked after their gamble fails.

Do you actually believe that? Fed up with hearing it to be honest. No-one is suggesting we 'do a Leeds', but signing a handful of players on £30-40k per week is not going to 'financially fcuk' us.

People are suggesting that if we go down we'll be back to 15k support - if we are carrying a squad of £30-40k pw players who have just got relegated then yes, we would, to all intents and purposes, be fcuked financially for a while if we don't get straight back up or if JM's billionaire doesn't come riding into town.

If we bring in some players on £30-40k pw and then Doyle, Kitson, Harper etc. are not going to be happy unless they get the same one would imagine, which is not going to do much for the team spirit that is going to be essential in the coming months.

A difficult situation for sure, but, with a money squeeze being felt all over the country, and likely to get worse in the next 2 or 3 years, now is definitely not a time to gamble with future financial stability.

In times of financial strife it is the most efficiently and most prudently run companies who come out of it best. I believe we are one of those at the moment and it would be folly to break from that path now.

New blood? Yes, in midfield for sure, but only someone who wants to come for the right reasons.

Panic buying the wrong sort of players who are over-priced and being hawked around by their agents to all the relegation threatened clubs? No thanks.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

Cheer up guys - whatever happens this season will be at worst the second highest league finish Reading have ever had!

[cmonurz]

Cheer up guys - whatever happens this season will be at worst the second highest league finish Reading have ever had!

Oh, that's great that is.

[winchester_royal]

Cheer up guys - whatever happens this season will be at worst the second highest league finish Reading have ever had!

go shove your head down a toilet

[catzbod]

hot off the press, in the rfc shop as from tuesday you can get "sonko spank the yank" Tshirts

[RoyalBlue]

hot off the press, in the rfc shop as from tuesday you can get "sonko spank the yank" Tshirts

No a chance but it wouldn't surprise me if Shades has an excellent design in progress!

[RoyalBlue]

1st half truly awful from both sides, no bite to anything thought boro shaded it, neitherside deserved to be in front
crowd were terrible, flat as a pancake from before the whistle, cant blame the flat performance we couldnt even be arsed to cheer the start of the game

As I'm sure Mick Gooding would say, it was up to one of the highly (OK maybe not PL level!) paid professionals to take the game by the scruff of the neck and give the crowd something to get them going.

As I mentioned in another thread, at the moment they all look as flat as a pancake and that starts with their warmup led by Mr Charisma Bypass who comes out looking as miserable as sin himself. Where is the sparkle and fire in him, geeing up the players and getting them on a high before the game starts?

[Huntley & Palmer]

And some of them will still go down and then be financially fcuked after their gamble fails.

Do you actually believe that? Fed up with hearing it to be honest. No-one is suggesting we 'do a Leeds', but signing a handful of players on £30-40k per week is not going to 'financially fcuk' us.

People are suggesting that if we go down we'll be back to 15k support - if we are carrying a squad of £30-40k pw players who have just got relegated then yes, we would, to all intents and purposes, be fcuked financially for a while if we don't get straight back up or if JM's billionaire doesn't come riding into town.

If we bring in some players on £30-40k pw and then Doyle, Kitson, Harper etc. are not going to be happy unless they get the same one would imagine, which is not going to do much for the team spirit that is going to be essential in the coming months.

A difficult situation for sure, but, with a money squeeze being felt all over the country, and likely to get worse in the next 2 or 3 years, now is definitely not a time to gamble with future financial stability.

In times of financial strife it is the most efficiently and most prudently run companies who come out of it best. I believe we are one of those at the moment and it would be folly to break from that path now.

New blood? Yes, in midfield for sure, but only someone who wants to come for the right reasons.

Panic buying the wrong sort of players who are over-priced and being hawked around by their agents to all the relegation threatened clubs? No thanks.

Our crowds if we are relegated will be dictated by how much ticket prices come down and if the club promise similar deals like Charlton did (buy before X date and get a free renewal if the club is promoted straight back).

I can't see as other players will have a problem if the player is an improvement on someone that is already at the club. I'd probably hedge my bets on someone like Rosenior having signed a contract with us where he was earning more than Murty, possibly the same with Fae over Gunnarsson. I don't think it creates a problem if the players appreciate that technically, they were brought in to replace/compete with them while here and therefore justify being paid more. We as a club need to keep up with those around us, only then can we consider any progression.

The club probably needs more flexibility in it's wage structure, we already know that they have been willing to meet the transfer fee requirements of players that we are interested in (Fae, Lescott, Seol etc). If managed correctly against the revenue we receive then there is room for extra money, especially as the profit made last season should be reinvested on more than just infrastructure. Fully agree that panic buying in January is the reason clubs of our size struggle going forwards, that's why I'm not overly confident that anyone we have targetted will be availble in thay period, though I would hope that any right winger of half decent ability would be brought in if only to supplement our squad after losing Seol and probably Blakey.

[Tilehurst Mike]

If Coppell is saying that the players who played yesterday are the best we've got it's all rather worrying. I'd play Lita ahead of Long, even on the bench - WHY have we tracked Fae for so long and then don't play him? If Gunnarrsson is one of our best midfielders we're in real trouble. I still don't believe that we will attract anyone of any note in January - who, worth their salt, will want to join a team that could quite easily be relegated and whose manager has already publicly stated, apparently, that he thinks it might be time to move on? Again, I will repeat, if he thinks that the spat between Marcus and Sonko was a good thing, it is he who is now wearing RTGs.

I really think Coppell and Madjeski are losing the plot. If that was a 'Premiership' quality game on SaturdayI am living on another planet.
Laughable watching see Hunt trying to play on the right wing, and then a poor tactical substitution by Coppell.

I predict both Shorey and Lita will go in January and we will be moaning about not being able to sign our target transfers for the same old excuses we have heard before.

Time for a change all round me thinks as something is clearly not right at the moment and just can't see where the next three pomts are coming from at the moment!

['lista]

As harps said in todays program (based on a lot I've read here lately, I'm guessing not many people bother reading the player interviews anymore), playing alongside someone who can't communicate is a nightmare.

A possible solution to Reading's midfield problem.

Teach James Harper to speak French.

[BR2]

I feel quite depressed after reading 6 pages of doom and gloom,most of which unfortunately is justified.
To add a bit more gloom-I know that football fans are naturally optimistic but what makes everybody think that WE will sign the players that we need but all the fellow strugglers won't.

Reading fans always think that being near London is somehow an attraction for potential new players but apart from attracting Brentford players I don't see it as any great advantage unless we are in for leading International players which we won't be.
Clubs like 'Boro,Bolton,Spurs and Newcastle have some European pedigree and Wigan,Sunderland and possibly Birmingham have deep pockets so apart from Derby we will be in competition with these clubs for the same players who are going to keep us up.
Will we get them?
I doubt it whilst we remain apparently about the poorest payers in the League.

So even with a new keeper (the Barnsley one perhaps?)
A new left-back (We have had enough notice so presumably somebody is ready to sign)
A new centre-back(Spanish or Italian who can read a game?)
3 or 4 new midfielders with one at least possessing pace and one at least being a tackler (Song or Carsley maybe as a quick fix?)
A new striker to replace Lita.
We might stay up and will at least have had a go.
Income from Shorey and Lita could (in this desperate market) bring in £10 million so the whole package might end up costing £10 million net and if contracts were based on survival with reduced earnings for relegation the club could still make a profit for the year because of the massive Sky TV input.

Looking back to the days of signing Caskey,then Forster,Butler,Murty etc we were big spenders at that level so it's not as if we haven't pushed the boat out in the past.
Not every signing is a Fae where about 2 years are needed before they settle in so for once we just might get a few immediate impact players.
For the moment I feel that this lot,apart from Doyle and Kitson,need to have it made clear to them that they are on borrowed time and this month is the last chance to prove that they are up to the task.
At least we might pick up the few points to keep us away from the dreaded bottom 3.

[SpaceCruiser]

As harps said in todays program (based on a lot I've read here lately, I'm guessing not many people bother reading the player interviews anymore), playing alongside someone who can't communicate is a nightmare.

A possible solution to Reading's midfield problem.

Teach James Harper to speak French.

What an idiot.

['lista]

As harps said in todays program (based on a lot I've read here lately, I'm guessing not many people bother reading the player interviews anymore), playing alongside someone who can't communicate is a nightmare.

A possible solution to Reading's midfield problem.

Teach James Harper to speak French.

What an idiot.

Yeah, you're right. He probably wouldn't grasp it.

[Vision]

I'm a "glass half full" kind of a bloke in general, unfortunately though at the moment that glass is half full with a concoction i really don't want to drink.

Leaving aside the individuals involved( those arguments have been done to death) what we really lack is 2 of the main fundamentals of any successful team, chiefly leadership and creativity. Without those 2 elements what we're left with is an awful lot of honest endeavour but very little else.

It's not terminal and despite the wrist slitting on here we're just about keeping our heads above the relegation parapit which i still maintain still constitutes success. However in order for that to remain the case Coppell may need to change the habit of a lifetime and take a bit of a gamble. Not just in terms of actual spending but in better utilising some of the resources which are available to him at present.

[Row Z Royal]

But they're let down by not being named after Ketchup and rice pudding.

[Old Biscuitman]

Calm down, you guys. I find this is a lot more exciting than just bobbling around in the comfort and nonentity land of mid-table. As spectators, we are not the ones under pressure like SC, his staff and the players. Relax and enjoy every point we can dig out. I believe some of you must have got a bit out of touch with reality because of the previous two seasons.

[RoyalBlue]

Calm down, you guys. I find this is a lot more exciting than just bobbling around in the comfort and nonentity land of mid-table. As spectators, we are not the ones under pressure like SC, his staff and the players. Relax and enjoy every point we can dig out. I believe some of you must have got a bit out of touch with reality because of the previous two seasons.

For God's sake - it wasn't even possible to enjoy the point we dug out on Saturday. 'Football' resembling that played in the dark days of Burns, Bullivant and Branfoot!

I'm reporting the club to Advertising Standards as a consequence of the PA guy telling us 'We've had an exciting first half'!

[BR2]

a new keeper (the Barnsley one perhaps?)

Heinz Müller?! Please, no.
Until recently he was playing in Norway, and he wasn't even among the best in Norway. His personality is about as charming as that of Jens Lehmann.
I can only shake my head at people who think he should be "that good" after three months in England... He is in fact Graham Stack with a different name.

If we are going to look at goalkeepers who have been playing in Norway, I'd rather we looked at:

Lars Hirschfeld (30 y.o. Canada)


or

Sead Ramovic (29 y.o. Bosnia)


Both are lightyears ahead of Heinz Müller.

I only mentioned him because of the write-up in yesterday's paper and because Premier clubs are supposed to be watching him.
Thanks anyway for the stuff about these other keepers.
Personally I don't think it is the big problem area that other posters feel but if we are out shopping in January we might as well pick one up while we are there.

[Old Biscuitman]

Calm down, you guys. I find this is a lot more exciting than just bobbling around in the comfort and nonentity land of mid-table. As spectators, we are not the ones under pressure like SC, his staff and the players. Relax and enjoy every point we can dig out. I believe some of you must have got a bit out of touch with reality because of the previous two seasons.

For God's sake - it wasn't even possible to enjoy the point we dug out on Saturday. 'Football' resembling that played in the dark days of Burns, Bullivant and Branfoot!

I'm reporting the club to Advertising Standards as a consequence of the PA guy telling us 'We've had an exciting first half'!

But with the three jolly "B"'s you knew there was no hope. At least with SC and these players you know that it can be done. We've had a few bad days at the office, but the new photocopier will be delivered soon and there will be light.