Transfer Deadline Day - August '16

[Royal_jimmy]

Samuel, Mendes, Meite as well.

Can't see those 3 getting 5 goals between them

[Lower West]

Let's wait and see.

[WestRoyal]

Samuel, Mendes, Meite as well.

Can't see those 3 getting 5 goals between them

I got a feeling one of them will be shoving them words back down your throat twice over.

[TBM]

Silly silly money for very average players........

Rhodes doesn't even get a game now.

It's not silly if these players keep you in the league to get another £90m the following season

It is if it costs you £100m to do it.

£80m profit, how is that bad?

[CountryRoyal]

Assuming there is ANY truth in it, very dissapointed to see that we tried to move for the strikers linked after the rhetoric we wouldn't 'panic buy'.

Not sure how Washington, Agbonlahor, Lafferty and Bojinov would have solved our striking woes. Just as well there wasn't much truth in any of them I imagine.

[CountryRoyal]

Samuel, Mendes, Meite as well.

Can't see those 3 getting 5 goals between them

Bet you £1000 they do.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Assuming there is ANY truth in it, very dissapointed to see that we tried to move for the strikers linked after the rhetoric we wouldn't 'panic buy'.

Not sure how Washington, Agbonlahor, Lafferty and Bojinov would have solved our striking woes. Just as well there wasn't much truth in any of them I imagine.

Charles Watts said Gabby and Bojinov links were bollocks.

[Hendo]

Assuming there is ANY truth in it, very dissapointed to see that we tried to move for the strikers linked after the rhetoric we wouldn't 'panic buy'.

Not sure how Washington, Agbonlahor, Lafferty and Bojinov would have solved our striking woes. Just as well there wasn't much truth in any of them I imagine.

Charles Watts said Gabby and Bojinov links were bollocks.

Lafferty would've been a good signing I think. Good record at international level just never seems to play club football. People were also getting their panties in a twist 8 months ago when we lost out to QPR on Washington but now he has hardly scored at championship level - people are aghast that we were in for him.

[Sutekh]

Club obviously didn't see a striker as being a priority otherwise they would not have left it until the last moment (unless they're wholly stupid)

Therefore weren't desperate enough to go out and pay stupid cash for someone

Samuel, Kermorgant & Mendes, etc. have 4-5 months now to prove themselves or goals are going to have to equally come from elsewhere in the team to avoid a continuing struggle.

[RoyalBlue]

Club obviously didn't see a striker as being a priority otherwise they would not have left it until the last moment (unless they're wholly stupid)

Or did they put all of their eggs into one very overweight basket? Surely they should have had some idea regarding Gyan's level of fitness before they brought him over for his medical? Did they not have any discussions with him re AFCON before then?

[Pepe the Horseman]

Club obviously didn't see a striker as being a priority otherwise they would not have left it until the last moment (unless they're wholly stupid)

Therefore weren't desperate enough to go out and pay stupid cash for someone

Samuel, Kermorgant & Mendes, etc. have 4-5 months now to prove themselves or goals are going to have to equally come from elsewhere in the team to avoid a continuing struggle.

Could've been that we wanted someone for a while - Lafferty, perhaps - but his club wouldn't sell him till they got their target, etc.

[mikey0406]

Even if Gyan was fit/right frame of mind ( whatever the reason he didn't arrive) he would of been a luxury player at this level. Glad Samuel is going to get a chance now along with Kerm, meite and mendes.

Like last year showed, you can spend lots to get a player in but does not always guarantee goals, happy with what we have, there can be no argument that we will not create chances this year, just need to finish them

[Elm Park Kid]

I'm starting to think I should cash out on the bet I put on us winning the league when gyan looked like he was going to sign.

You might get some of your money back but I'm afraid your dignity is non-refundable.

[Stranded]

Club obviously didn't see a striker as being a priority otherwise they would not have left it until the last moment (unless they're wholly stupid)

Or did they put all of their eggs into one very overweight basket? Surely they should have had some idea regarding Gyan's level of fitness before they brought him over for his medical? Did they not have any discussions with him re AFCON before then?

The Gyan deal feels, to me at least, like it was an opportunity that arose fairly late that we thought was worth pursuing - i.e. we were aware he was being made available so quickly agreed a deal with his cluib and got him in to see if he was fit enough. He wasn't so we moved on to see if any of our other targets were available.

[Snowball]

So our record is

W2
D1
L2

in the league. 7 points from 5 = 64/65 point season

We have played away to Newcastle, Wolves, Cardiff home to Brighton, four games most pundits here thought we'd lose

W2 in League Cup, so overall W4 D1 L2

Not sure what the problems is.

Looks to me like we have a squad that should comfortably finish top half and a reasonable chance of finishing 5th-10th with steady improvement

[genome]

Club obviously didn't see a striker as being a priority otherwise they would not have left it until the last moment (unless they're wholly stupid)

Therefore weren't desperate enough to go out and pay stupid cash for someone

Samuel, Kermorgant & Mendes, etc. have 4-5 months now to prove themselves or goals are going to have to equally come from elsewhere in the team to avoid a continuing struggle.

Swift is scoring goals, Samuel has a chance to prove himself finally, and Kermorgant will hopefully kick on after his goal at the weekend. It's not as bad as people think it is.

[Elm Park Kid]

Club obviously didn't see a striker as being a priority otherwise they would not have left it until the last moment (unless they're wholly stupid)

Therefore weren't desperate enough to go out and pay stupid cash for someone

Samuel, Kermorgant & Mendes, etc. have 4-5 months now to prove themselves or goals are going to have to equally come from elsewhere in the team to avoid a continuing struggle.

Swift is scoring goals, Samuel has a chance to prove himself finally, and Kermorgant will hopefully kick on after his goal at the weekend. It's not as bad as people think it is.

I think it's just a case accepting RFC new reality. Last year we were arguably one of most ambitious Championship clubs in the transfer market, this season we're behaving like a mid-table side. There's now a good 5-6 teams in the league that are operating at a completely different level to Reading. It's a very different environment to when McDermott was able to take a collection of unspectacular players and mold them into a team that could grind out wins against a league of mediocre clubs.

[genome]

I think it's just a case accepting RFC new reality. Last year we were arguably one of most ambitious Championship clubs in the transfer market, this season we're behaving like a mid-table side. There's now a good 5-6 teams in the league that are operating at a completely different level to Reading. It's a very different environment to when McDermott was able to take a collection of unspectacular players and mold them into a team that could grind out wins against a league of mediocre clubs.

Agreed, you can't really expect us to compete with those top clubs. £14m is the going rate for a good Championship striker? It's ridiculous.

To be fair, Reading are still doing what we've always done, finding young players at a good price and seeing how it works. We've just done a lot of it this window, and we've had a decent start. What puzzles me is that Leicester proved last season that you don't need to spend a shit ton of money, if you build a team over time they will be right up there.

[Elm Park Kid]

I think it's just a case accepting RFC new reality. Last year we were arguably one of most ambitious Championship clubs in the transfer market, this season we're behaving like a mid-table side. There's now a good 5-6 teams in the league that are operating at a completely different level to Reading. It's a very different environment to when McDermott was able to take a collection of unspectacular players and mold them into a team that could grind out wins against a league of mediocre clubs.

Agreed, you can't really expect us to compete with those top clubs. £14m is the going rate for a good Championship striker? It's ridiculous.

To be fair, Reading are still doing what we've always done, finding young players at a good price and seeing how it works. We've just done a lot of it this window, and we've had a decent start. What puzzles me is that Leicester proved last season that you don't need to spend a shit ton of money, if you build a team over time they will be right up there.

Leicester spent over £100m in the space of a few seasons? They had at least 3 seasons of throwing money at a Championship team with zero results.

[TBM]

In fairness we did well this window

11 players in
shifted out the deadwood
kept hold of Gunter/Williams/McCleary

All we need to do now is offer those ^ players a new contract to keep them at the club for another 3 years