CONFIMRED - Nelson Oliveira

[CountryRoyal]

Look, I love the "football manager" style, pipe dream signing as much as the next person but there is not a hope in hell we will get Martinez.

Yeah sure but people were saying who they would prefer to sign on a permanent. I mean I’d quite like to sign that Aguero chap too.

[NewCorkSeth]

just a guess really Seth. Sounds like we'll need to sell some players to help balance the books and to bring in Oli and co if we do stay up.

We might be able to scrape enough together from wage savings and offloading McNulty, Kelly, Bod/Baldock, Gunter and a couple of U23s, but reckon if someone put in an acceptable bid for Barrow or Swift, it'd probably be accepted

Yeah that's fine I guess. I do think the owner will have a different opinion to us as to what constitutes an acceptable bid.

Novakovich might be one of our most sellable assets...

[NewCorkSeth]

Look, I love the "football manager" style, pipe dream signing as much as the next person but there is not a hope in hell we will get Martinez.

Yeah sure but people were saying who they would prefer to sign on a permanent. I mean I’d quite like to sign that Aguero chap too.

Nah. Too injury prone. Should have been been hitting 30 goals a season 4 years running rather than just 20.

[CountryRoyal]

Look, I love the "football manager" style, pipe dream signing as much as the next person but there is not a hope in hell we will get Martinez.

Yeah sure but people were saying who they would prefer to sign on a permanent. I mean I’d quite like to sign that Aguero chap too.

Nah. Too injury prone. Should have been been hitting 30 goals a season 4 years running rather than just 20.

Yeh good point. Plus he’s really small so doubt he’d cope with the physicality of the championship etc etc etc

[Forbury Lion]

Look, I love the "football manager" style, pipe dream signing as much as the next person but there is not a hope in hell we will get Martinez.

There's no chance if we don't at least look into the possibility.

[NewCorkSeth]

Look, I love the "football manager" style, pipe dream signing as much as the next person but there is not a hope in hell we will get Martinez.

There's no chance if we don't at least look into the possibility.

Sure. But we have to admit it's a slim chance. Very slim. I think looking for good, cheap alternatives now would be the wise thing for our scouting department to do.

Also (and I know we tend to get over excited about our young keepers here) but Southwood seems to be having a very successful loan. He needs to be considered. Obviously there are posters on here who have watched a lot more of him than me so I'm happy to hear any critique of him from them.

[Sutekh]

He didn’t have a particularly successful loan abroad before he joined us. There’s definitely scope to sign him, just how closely other teams inc Chelsea have been paying attention

Would love to sign him. Would be huge

Miazga on loan for a season with a permanent deal in January or June 2020 might be a reasonable shout while minimising expenditure.

Obviously depends though what league Reading are in next season and whether Miazga gets other offers from higher divisioned clubs for a loan deal.

Martinez. No chance really, imo. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try though

Of the other loans Eza is probably the type we most need as he is able to play more of the defensive role which is what Reading desperately need so I'd try to do something there but not sure if JG feels the same way although if he was totally out of his plans I would have expected him to have returned to his parent club in January.

I prefer Ejaria to Baker and there maybe scope there as I can't see him being consistently near Liverpool's matchday PL squad next season.

Baker I'm just not convinced on but then he's that sort of subtle midfielder that I always struggle to notice in games and I don't know if that's good or bad.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

From a team perspective, Miazga plays is the position that we need to address immediately over the summer, once he goes, we are left with Moore partnering with either a youth player or a old clogger.
So for me Miazga would be my choice. A solid defence that gets you clean sheets gets you guaranteed points.
With Bod (if he stays or keeps fit) and Meite, Nova and a few youth can fill the gap that Nelson leaves.

But realistically, if we get any of the loanees I would be pretty happy whether its on loan again or on a perm deal as i think they all will be assets to the team.

[Nameless]

We wouldn’t partner Moore with a youth player. Neither Osho nor McIntyre are ‘youth’ players, both are 20+ and while they are inexperienced they are also no longer kids. They are a year younger the Ejaria ....
Bar Novacovic there are no players coming through the Academy who are anything like Oliviera whereas we have a decent set of young centre backs who we need to be getting into the first team set up. We need to buy a centre forward, we have young centre backs who COULD be regulars next season

[Hound]

would very much expect 2 of Holmes, McIntyre and Osho to be our back up CBs next yea, play the cups etc. McIntyre prob front of the queue

[Nameless]

would very much expect 2 of Holmes, McIntyre and Osho to be our back up CBs next yea, play the cups etc. McIntyre prob front of the queue

Would be happy with McIntyre or Osho, not much to choose between them. Both good footballing centre backs, both perhaps an inch or 2 shorter than ideal alongside Moore. Holmes has the height but also can use another year to perhaps go on loan and develop. I worry if they don’t see the opportunities next season they will look elsewhere. Likewise Novacovic, after playing a lot in theNetherlands he won’t be happy to come back and be third choice striker.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

We wouldn’t partner Moore with a youth player. Neither Osho nor McIntyre are ‘youth’ players, both are 20+ and while they are inexperienced they are also no longer kids. They are a year younger the Ejaria ....
Bar Novacovic there are no players coming through the Academy who are anything like Oliviera whereas we have a decent set of young centre backs who we need to be getting into the first team set up. We need to buy a centre forward, we have young centre backs who COULD be regulars next season

Agree, my use of the word youth was incorrect.

We have plenty of options already as striker in Baldock, Bod, Meite, McNulty, Loader and Nova. 3 of those have proven to score goals at this level and would hope Nova proves he can too.
At CB we have Moore as an established and proven, where as the academy players have had decent outings but are they ready to be starters for 46 games? If they were Miazga would not have been brought in. They will be 3/4 choice next season.
I am not dismissing the academy players, just out of the loanees we have atm i would chose Miazga as the most vital IMO.

[Nameless]

You can’t consider most of those ‘strikers’ as options instead of a genuine centre forward any more than you can count Yiadom and Obita as central defensive options ! There isn't really a similar player on the list to Oliviera. Certainly Loader, McNulty, Baldockare utterly different players and unless Novacovic has changed his style so is he. Bod seems to have a really serious injury issue, he may never be the same player he was and Gomes doesn’t see Meite as a centre foreword.
Are McIntyre and Osho ready to play 30 games each ? Do you wrap them in cotton wool and not put them in there ? Half the England team are similar in age, what is it about a player that decides they are ready ? I guarantee McIntyre and Osho think they are ready and at 20/21 lots of other players are playing games in the Championahip, Prem and internationally.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

You can’t consider most of those ‘strikers’ as options instead of a genuine centre forward any more than you can count Yiadom and Obita as central defensive options ! There isn't really a similar player on the list to Oliviera. Certainly Loader, McNulty, Baldockare utterly different players and unless Novacovic has changed his style so is he. Bod seems to have a really serious injury issue, he may never be the same player he was and Gomes doesn’t see Meite as a centre foreword.
Are McIntyre and Osho ready to play 30 games each ? Do you wrap them in cotton wool and not put them in there ? Half the England team are similar in age, what is it about a player that decides they are ready ? I guarantee McIntyre and Osho think they are ready and at 20/21 lots of other players are playing games in the Championahip, Prem and internationally.

I would say the manager decide if they are ready, McShane, O'shea and Miazga have all played ahead of them. That would tell me that they are not ready. Therefore I chose Miazga to be the best loan to try and keep.
We are still scoring and looking dangerous with out Nelson.

[Hound]

McIntyre has been injured though. Think there is a fair chance he'll be back above McShane in the pecking order. Osho is out on loan.

[Nameless]

McIntyre has been injured though. Think there is a fair chance he'll be back above McShane in the pecking order. Osho is out on loan.

Indeed, McIntyre fractured his eye socket on his debut and has only started playing again quite recently. Obviously he wasn’t ready, but more due to major surgery than anything else !

[Denver Royal]

Yeah, given what the loanees have shown, hope we now don't 'downgrade' too much when they leave.
.

We have to admit it's a slim chance with Martinez.. Very slim. I think looking for good, cheap alternatives now would be the wise thing for our scouting department to do.

Hope the scouts do a good job, cos Martinez has clearly shown the gulf that exists between him and Jak/Walker. If Martinez doesn't return, then one way or another we need a much better keeper - and we may have to spend a fair bit to do it.

Would be happy with McIntyre or Osho, not much to choose between them. Both good footballing centre backs, both perhaps an inch or 2 shorter than ideal alongside Moore.

Been beating the drum for years, but in general short-ish CB's don't work well (for me) in the Champ (esp next to Moore). Miazga has shown what height can do week in week out in the Champ, and to me it would be folly to now go back to being shorter again. If it's not to be Miazga, then someone else like him please.
Btw, anyone think three's a possibility of Moore going, like he wanted to? ? He's played well recently, which may put himself in the window again.

[NewCorkSeth]

Isn't that French guy at Brentfords contract up at the end of the season? He's huge. And a shithouse.

[NewCorkSeth]

It's a really good topic actually and one that probably deserves it's own thread. We have 4 gaping holes in the squad that the loanee will leave behind. 5 if theres a clear out.

GK, DC, MC, ST. And all could reasonably be argued to be the most important.

[Denver Royal]

Yep, navigating thru the damage control waters could make for a busy Summer depending on how many of the loanees truly are 'out of our reach'.
And that's even assuming we keep all of Nova, Moore, Swift, Barrow, etc. As Lower West said, pretty much everyone is for sale. Just replacing Swift alone would be no small feat, imo.