Pearce to Derby - CONFIMRED

[Royal Rother]

Ummm...

[floyd__streete]

The 'we've got a gr8 bunch of kids' argument falls down somewhat when you consider that our most successful Academy products of the last decade or so - Pearce, Karacan, Sigurdsson, Hector, Obita - all had lengthy loan spells in the lower divisions before being eased into the Championship. The likes of Kuhl, Cooper, Tarique Fosu have - for whatever reason - not had the opportunities to learn their trade lower down the ladder as yet.

[Hoop Blah]

Perhaps we should also bring back Simon Church to boost the academy graduate numbers?

He's another free agent now that Charlton have let him go.

[sandman]

This is a bit like when Coppell let Forster and Williams both leave. Everyone was a bit sceptical at the time. But he replaced them with Doyle, Long and Sonko and the rest is history.

Surely the success of this analogy is signing the equivalent of Doyle, Sonko and Long - and we've havent looked like doing that for quite some time.

We didn't look like signing them before they came on the scene. And let's not forget the hiatus on this board when we did sign Doyle and Long. Apparently we were 'mad to think that untried young Irish kids can cut it in England'. After the Plymouth game, when Doyle made his debut, this board was full of doom and gloom about how useless he was. A few weeks later ........

And don't forget that Long took quite a while to break into the team. He was, effectively, an academy / reserve team player for quite a while.

So, who knows when the next great acquisition will come, could already be there in the Academy for all we know.

Only a lurker back then but seem to remember the signing of Doyle being well received with many pointing to his record with the Irish under-21 team.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Yeh, also remember being pretty encouraged by his debut.

[maffff]

The 'we've got a gr8 bunch of kids' argument falls down somewhat when you consider that our most successful Academy products of the last decade or so - Pearce, Karacan, Sigurdsson, Hector, Obita - all had lengthy loan spells in the lower divisions before being eased into the Championship. The likes of Kuhl, Cooper, Tarique Fosu have - for whatever reason - not had the opportunities to learn their trade lower down the ladder as yet.

Different strategies for different scenarios and different players I guess. I'm sure Dolan knows them pretty well and he'll be advising on what is best for their futures.

but as I'm sure Floyd will soon say "you can't win anything with kids"

[andrew1957]

Perhaps we should also bring back Simon Church to boost the academy graduate numbers?

He's another free agent now that Charlton have let him go.

It is sad to say but adding Church would massively improve our striking options. Not saying he is any good but I think he scored 8 in his last season with us and that would have made him top scorer last season!

[SCIAG]

Few points:

Doyle and Long were actually signed before Lita. Personally I was quite encouraged by the Doyle signing because he sounded like a young Nicky Forster, but I wasn't on HNA? at the time

Young players don't need to go on loan below the Championship to be successful footballers. Long is one example (no career to speak of at Cork either), and I'd also point to Teddy Bishop at Ipswich as an example for our youngsters to follow. I imagine most British-raised Premier League players never spent three months on loan in League One.

We've had a few promising players go out on loan and kick their shins, and I think the club are trying to avoid that. Better to have Kuhl working on his game in the U21s than being made to run box-to-box for Doncaster.

[moonwalklikebas]

Perhaps we should also bring back Simon Church to boost the academy graduate numbers?

He's another free agent now that Charlton have let him go.

It is sad to say but adding Church would massively improve our striking options. Not saying he is any good but I think he scored 8 in his last season with us and that would have made him top scorer last season!

As it stands right now, I would quite happily take Church back on a free.

[maffff]

To get this back onto Pearce, he always speaks well but I thought the Chronicle article was pretty decent

http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/sport ... reshuffle/?

ALEX Pearce believes his exit could signal a new dawn at Reading FC – with long-serving Adam Federici having already departed and Jem Karacan likely to follow.

The 26-year-old put pen-to-paper on a three-year deal at Derby County on Monday, bringing his 14-year association with the Royals to an end.

The centre-back had been offered a new contract to stay at the Madejski Stadium, but he admits the chance of a fresh start and Derby’s Premier League ambition swayed him.

It leaves a big gap in the spine of Reading’s team with Federici and Pearce having left, but the ex-Royals skipper believes the time was right to move on and says a fresh start for Steve Clarke’s side could do them good.

A gracious Pearce said: “I’ve moved on, Feds has moved on and if Jem moves on then that’s three home-grown players who would’ve left, so maybe it’s time for Reading to move on themselves, have a real reshuffle and get some players in over the summer, which I hope they can.

“They need to improve the squad in certain areas but there’s a good nucleus, some good players and a really good manager in Steve Clarke.

"He’ll be looking to do as well as possible with the players he’s got and hopefully they’ll do well.

“I think with everything in life there is a time to move on and that time has come with me.

“I’ve got nothing but fond memories of Reading as a football club and I’ll always thank them for giving me my chance before I went on to play over 200 games for such a great club.

“I just want to thank the fans, the players, the managers and coaches that I’ve played with and I wish them all the best for the future.

“I felt the time was right to move on. I’m 26 and ready for this change. I am joining a club with ambition to go to the next level and stay there. It’s a perfect fit and hopefully it’ll go well.”

Pearce will be eagerly awaiting next season’s fixture list which is released next Wednesday, admitting his return to the Madejski Stadium will be the first game he looks for.

“Football is crazy,” he laughed. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the fixture list threw up something silly like Reading v Derby on the first day of the season which would be a strange feeling.

“I’m looking forward to the fixtures being out, I’m always excited ahead of a new season but this one probably even more so as I’m joining a new club and a new manager.

“It will be a strange feeling to play against Reading but I’ve still got a lot of good friends at the club so I wish them all the best for the future.

“Reading and Derby finishing in the automatic places would be great.”

[Dr_Hfuhruhurr]

This is a bit like when Coppell let Forster and Williams both leave. Everyone was a bit sceptical at the time. But he replaced them with Doyle, Long and Sonko and the rest is history.

Surely the success of this analogy is signing the equivalent of Doyle, Sonko and Long - and we've havent looked like doing that for quite some time.

We didn't look like signing them before they came on the scene. And let's not forget the hiatus on this board when we did sign Doyle and Long. Apparently we were 'mad to think that untried young Irish kids can cut it in England'. After the Plymouth game, when Doyle made his debut, this board was full of doom and gloom about how useless he was. A few weeks later ........

And don't forget that Long took quite a while to break into the team. He was, effectively, an academy / reserve team player for quite a while.

So, who knows when the next great acquisition will come, could already be there in the Academy for all we know.

Fair point, well made.
Although I concur with a few respondees that Doyle was a bit bigger than you are making out. Long was an absolute nobody - so fair play to him for working himself up to the position that he has done. I lost confidence in our scouting and DOF team with the shambles of the Official Site releasing a statement saying that we 'nearly bought' Sissoko (It was him, wasnt it?) on one of the deadline days. That was a low. And since then, we've been a bit odd, speculative and cheap in the transfer market. Ive heard and seen nothing to suggest that this window will be any different. Id LOVE to be proven wrong, but we just seem to be heading in the wrong direction and selling your POTS and your captain within a few weeks of each other isnt going to help that...

And when I say 'selling'. I mean 'giving away for nothing'

[CountryRoyal]

I think it's telling that players, which would otherwise command a decent fee, are being allowed to leave for nothing. Losing our POTS shouldn't be news to us, we did it two years in a row with gylf and long respectively. With those, everyone knew they'd be off and we got them to extend their contracts. Our wage bill was also one of the highest despite being repeatedly and monotonously fed the "we are a well run club" dribble.

I don't blame Feds and Pearce for jumping ship. We are a very different club to the one five years ago.

[Hoop Blah]

They're not being allowed to leave for nothing, we don't really have a choice if the player doesn't want to sign a new contract (either now or previously).

[CountryRoyal]

They're not being allowed to leave for nothing, we don't really have a choice if the player doesn't want to sign a new contract (either now or previously).

I know. I'm sure when Sig and Long extended their contracts it was with the belief that they would still go, it just meant Reading (the club they owed a lot to) received a higher transfer fee. I may be being naive here. Let's be realistic Feds would have gone whenever he had the chance and wouldn't risk extending his contract, Pearce too - he didn't leave at the end of the the last prem season because no one genuinely wanted him enough.

Ftr I honestly don't expect Karacan to go.

[Royal Rother]

Yes, you are being naive. You simply do not extend a contract you won't be able to afford just because it will give you a chance of commanding a fee if / when you sell them.

That would be a high risk game and a likely road to ruin.

[Froomes]

I think everyone knew Gylfi and Long would eventually get sold, we extended their contracts (at a rate we could afford at the time) to, in part, ensure we could command a fee for them. You would need to be extremely naive to think otherwise.

The issue with Feds and Pearce is, despite them trying to talk up their worth and engineer moves away publicly, no one valued them enough to actually pay a fee for them! (hence there was no bun fight for them when they became free agents.)

The club knew this and offered them both modest contracts with the knowledge that neither would have any future sale value. You'd be naive to think the 'moneyball' principle doesn't exist below the elite level of football.

[Royalwaster]

Well he's not made a huge impact at Derby yet - not selected for first game; played in cup defeat and then not even in squad for second match ..... where did it all go wrong Pearce?

[RG30]

Could have been injured

[TBM]

Well he's not made a huge impact at Derby yet - not selected for first game; played in cup defeat and then not even in squad for second match ..... where did it all go wrong Pearce?

He wasn't signed by their manager - that never helps

[Royalwaster]

Could have been injured

Don't think so ...