Are we now a selling club?

[england_away]

Arabs where seen looking at Madejski Stadium today at around 10 O'clock this morning, could be a possible take over?

[bigmike]

So we DID replace Sidwell, just not successfully ?

It was hardly a 'slight' attempt given that we had previous offers rejected and ended up paying a lot of money for him.

No we did not replace Sidwell. Lets put it this way one of your tyres on you car gets punctured you remove the wheel and put a pork pie in its place you have not replaced the wheel.

I assume that by introducing an utterly irrelevant analogy you are con the point ?

Fae is a good enough player that another club was prepared to pay a large sum of money for him.

It didn't work for Fae here. No one bought him expecting him to fail, he didn't come here expecting to fail but it happens. We didn't simply ignore Sidwell going, through bad luck, bad research or other factors the options we chsoe didn;t deliver as we would have expected.

No I am not conceding the point. Reading did not replace Sidwell. Taking in a player who is not the same style of player is not a replacement. I do understand that Sidwell is difficult to replace but we should at least have tried to replace sidwell with a player of a similar style

[Bacon Double Cheese]

If I went out for a Skoda I'd want one for the best price I could get. If I wanted a BMW I'd also be looking for the best price. If I went out for a Skoda and got persuaded to part company with money for a BMW I didn't need or want I'd be wasting money.

Mind you, the truth is that plenty of people do simply buy BMW because they think they are getting an image rather than a decent car - and that is where the analogy really does take off. What so many football fans want is the image that goes with signing a 'big name' at a ridiculous cost; what many car owners want is the image that goes with owing a 'prestige' car, even if it is beyond their means, useless for their real needs and beyond its useful life - (and so the analogy really does get stronger)!

To date we have been reasonably good at picking up a good quality Skoda at an affordable price and doing some maintenance/modification on it to produce something closer to a BMW. We have also made a couple of errors where we have paid BMW prices to get a Skoda that was not ready for modification but those are well documented.

Now, when it comes to buying a Ferrari we are scuppered. We can't afford the purchase cost, the maintenance costs or the routine running costs and we just have to accept that.

Are we allowed to submit any players to the Government's scrappage scheme and get money for them?

And I'm glad you didn't mention Audis

[Forbury Lion]

Reading have always been a selling club, it's just that we haven't had anyone we could sell since we sold Shaka to Newcastle.

[Cookie]

Yet again RFC (Madejski) have made a fortune on selling one of their best players in Doyler, Only this week Swinedon have accepted a £2.5 M offer form the Baggies for Cox, apparently we have a 70% sell on clause. What concerns me is that Brendan Rodgers is being used for his knowledge of youth football to unearth some more talents who will be moved on again for more money, Granted its a good way to keep a club afloat but do we really want to be a nursery club for lower tier Prem Clubs? I would like to see the current crop of Academy stars as mainstays of the Reading team of the future not just a way of making cash.

In the final analysis all clubs are selling clubs.

But there are two sorts of sellers.

1. Sell to survive like Crewe, Saints and Swindon.

2. Sell because we are evolving like Manchester Utd, Chelsea and Reading.

[Ian Royal]

As I said, either we aren't a selling club or it's such a catch all and useless phrase as to have absolutely no worthwhile meaning at all.