The squad in July

[Royals and Racers]

Think Dorsett and Senga could be two who could breakthrough this year

Dorsett must be rated or we would have let go. Senga seems to be getting rave reviews

As part of the reset we definitely need the appropriate backroom staff to properly identify when the youth team players are ready to be integrated into the first team, feels like something that has been getting gradually worse.

That`s only because Ince didn`t fancy them. The new manager will integrate into the 1st team squad the players from the academy who he thinks are ready and can do a job. This will obviously involve the U 21 manager and the Academy manager.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Definitely needs more depth and quality in certain areas, but it's something to work from at least.

I do think the defence needs changing in some way. Whether it be personnel, shape, overall system etc. We went from being wide open with Pauno and leaking goals, to far more structured and defensive with Ince, and still leaking goals*.

So I don't know whether it is the system, whether either Ince's or Pauno's didn't suit our players in a defensive position, or whether we need different/better personnel to shore up our weaknesses. I know our defenders are slow, but pace isn't everything and not many CB's are lightning quick, maybe we need somebody who can read the game well and is generally good with their positioning and body shape.

I don't think any of our CB's are poor individually (even at lower end Championship level let alone League One), but maybe we do need to move one or two on and replace them with players who can shore up weak points somewhere. I thought this is what Ince and the team did in the summer, bringing in big, experienced CB's in Hutchinson and Sarr which, on paper, you'd have hoped would have helped with us defending crosses (even though it ultimately didn't effect us that much).

* I know we were only losing by the odd goal towards the back end of the season, but overall we ended up with the 3rd worst defence in the league.

I don't think all the blame can be placed on the defence for the amount of goals conceded, we've just had a piss poor midfield for the past couple seasons, naturally you'll concede more when you're defending most of the match.

Yeah true, the poor defensive record is a collective more so than just the defence, I just wonder if it's something we will consider. Holmes and/or McIntyre should have a decent resale value to both of them, I wouldn't be too disappointed if either moved on if it meant we could bring in players who can improve our weaknesses.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Think Dorsett and Senga could be two who could breakthrough this year

Dorsett must be rated or we would have let go. Senga seems to be getting rave reviews

Definitely feel as if there is something in Dorsett. It was a crucial time to renew after a sticky spell at Kilmarnock (that could be attributed to a number of factors), so the club must believe something is there with him.

Senga has been getting a lot of good reviews, I just wonder if we might see him as the season progresses, I'm not sure (from the little we've seen) if he shown enough to get in to the team properly yet, although I suppose there isn't much harm in being part of the 18 and working his way in.

Agree below that we need someone with technical quality who can dictate in the middle of the park as well. A Norwood/Swift type of figure, a joy to watch on their day.

[Snowflake Royal]

CBC ahead of Bouz.

Add some good loans and we'll shape up ok.

He looked ropey and in need of lower division loan in his appearance. No way is CBC even close to first choice.

[Orion1871]

Well at least now CBC plays for a lower division team then.

If he accepts the contract of course.

[Sutekh]

Well at least now CBC plays for a lower division team then.

If he accepts the contract of course.

I think Reading have put themselves into a position where they need to bring in a goalkeeper as none of the ones now on their books are convincing enough to be able to bring that level of belief and comfort required to the outfield players in a side looking for promotion. I cannot see Bouzanis being the #1 and the club aren't going to give the role to CBC or Andresson so they'll be on the lookout for an out of contract keeper from somewhere. What's the betting Lumley is back in July?

[Snowflake Royal]

GK does look weak, and Bouzanis increasingly looks like the pointless signing he seemed he might be when he was announced.

If Andresson doesn't get a chance now, I'm not sure what the point of still having him on the books is.

CBC needs more U23, NL or L2 games before he's ready to play a big part in L1 based on his debut. He's got a lot to learn about decision making with distribution and when to come out and when to stay at home. I don't think we can afford him to do that learning with us as our first choice keeper in L1.

Although good coaching and management would really help him there.

It's a real shame we scapegoated Southwood and pushed him out, because he'd be pretty perfect to take over as No 1 next season right now.

[Loafer]

Delbridge so close to a goal just now, wonder save by the Gwanju keeper

I'm tweeting the club daily from today to buy him

[YorkshireRoyal99]

CBC needs a loan, Bouzanis should remain as back up and Andresson I'm not sure about, depends how the club sees him. If the club feel like he can take over as number 1, I'd say it's a risk but if they believe he's good enough then he can step in for me.

Not sure why people are that disappointed we've released a goalkeeper that did ok for the team who finished 16th in League One. If we want to be battling at the top end of the table, we don't want players of that quality. At the moment, he probably belongs at mid table L1 which isn't where we should be. It's not even as if he particularly stood out either, he just did ok in the main. We should probably be fishing for players who are just better than average at this level.

I wouldn't be too bothered if we were to loan a goalkeeper for another season, have both CBC and Andresson move out on loan and get a full seasons experience under their belts and then reassess next summer. James Trafford has been a good signing for Bolton this season, so it's definitely possible to recruit a good goalkeeper on loan for a season.

[SCIAG]

Not sure we should be loaning out our young keepers in order to develop someone else's. If there's an exceptional talent available then OK, but Jokull and CBC have full international call-ups. Unlikely there are going to be many better options.

While I'm not a particular fan of Bouzanis I don't think he's significantly worse than Lumley.

[Hound]

I’m fine with the GK options. Bouzanis can start. He had a good season in L2 before he joined us I believe so should be ok for L1

Rather spend the money on strong CM options, which is where I do think we need to prioritise. Get as good as we can afford in there

[Clyde1998]

Not sure we should be loaning out our young keepers in order to develop someone else's. If there's an exceptional talent available then OK, but Jokull and CBC have full international call-ups. Unlikely there are going to be many better options.

While I'm not a particular fan of Bouzanis I don't think he's significantly worse than Lumley.

I certainly think CBC should be loaned out as that game against Huddersfield was his professional debut and will need more experience before we should be considering him to be a first choice option.

I think the question on whether we should loan Andresson out depends on how much game time we'd expect him to get if we didn't loan him out. If he's not expected to be first choice, it becomes a question of whether playing regularly in League Two or at lower League One side (or even a loan to the Scottish Premiership) will help his development more than being on the bench for us whilst training with better coaches at better facilities and playing in the odd cup match. Part of the question comes down to whether Andresson is a better keeper than Bouzanis.

I think Bouzanis will be fine at this level, but if the club has the ability to get in a better keeper and sending Andresson out on loan again would aid his development then I think we should take that opportunity.

[blythspartan]

Not sure we should be loaning out our young keepers in order to develop someone else's. If there's an exceptional talent available then OK, but Jokull and CBC have full international call-ups. Unlikely there are going to be many better options.

While I'm not a particular fan of Bouzanis I don't think he's significantly worse than Lumley.

I certainly think CBC should be loaned out as that game against Huddersfield was his professional debut and will need more experience before we should be considering him to be a first choice option.

I think the question on whether we should loan Andresson out depends on how much game time we'd expect him to get if we didn't loan him out. If he's not expected to be first choice, it becomes a question of whether playing regularly in League Two or at lower League One side (or even a loan to the Scottish Premiership) will help his development more than being on the bench for us whilst training with better coaches at better facilities and playing in the odd cup match. Part of the question comes down to whether Andresson is a better keeper than Bouzanis.

I think Bouzanis will be fine at this level, but if the club has the ability to get in a better keeper and sending Andresson out on loan again would aid his development then I think we should take that opportunity.

I have a feeling Lumley will be back.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Not sure we should be loaning out our young keepers in order to develop someone else's. If there's an exceptional talent available then OK, but Jokull and CBC have full international call-ups. Unlikely there are going to be many better options.

While I'm not a particular fan of Bouzanis I don't think he's significantly worse than Lumley.

I certainly think CBC should be loaned out as that game against Huddersfield was his professional debut and will need more experience before we should be considering him to be a first choice option.

I think the question on whether we should loan Andresson out depends on how much game time we'd expect him to get if we didn't loan him out. If he's not expected to be first choice, it becomes a question of whether playing regularly in League Two or at lower League One side (or even a loan to the Scottish Premiership) will help his development more than being on the bench for us whilst training with better coaches at better facilities and playing in the odd cup match. Part of the question comes down to whether Andresson is a better keeper than Bouzanis.

I think Bouzanis will be fine at this level, but if the club has the ability to get in a better keeper and sending Andresson out on loan again would aid his development then I think we should take that opportunity.

I have a feeling Lumley will be back.

I get that feeling as well to be honest.

I think, in the longer-term anyway, our GK situation this summer should ultimately depend on how close the staff feel both/either CBC in Andresson are to the first team. If they feel they still need another season, then I'd rather us loan someone for 12 months and reassess then. If they feel they might be a couple of seasons away, then it might be worth signing somebody, like Lumley, on a 2 year deal. If it's anything other than that, then we should probably be considering their futures at the club although I very much doubt the club think either don't have a future here.

It's a bigger time for Andresson though as he's 21 now, so it's getting to the stage (either this summer or next) where decisions have to be made on whether we feel he will make it or not, the player will probably be thinking that as well.

[Royal_jimmy]

Lumley is fairly local. I wouldn't be upset if he returns but we really shouldn't be going into a league one campaign concerned about shot stoppers. We should be worried about stopping those shots in the first place which is why we got relegated. If we don't solve that issue then we'll just see similar issues in league one away from home.

Have to sign players who can keep it tight and graft if necessary. None of our midfielders could do that last season. Need a Leigertwood style of player in there to break up play.

Prefer to see us invest in midfield personally and then up front. Then if there's spare cash and Lumley is available then let's bring him in.

[blythspartan]

Lumley is fairly local. I wouldn't be upset if he returns but we really shouldn't be going into a league one campaign concerned about shot stoppers. We should be worried about stopping those shots in the first place which is why we got relegated. If we don't solve that issue then we'll just see similar issues in league one away from home.

Prefer to see us invest in midfield personally and then up front. Then if there's spare cash and Lumley is available then let's bring him in.

We definitely need 2 new CMs and 1 or 2 wingers with pace. With regards to strikers do you think Carroll, Clarke, Ehib plus another should be good enough for League One?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

We probably need 4 midfielders of quality for League One to fill out our squad, we don't even have a natural one in the squad at the moment. McIntyre and Hutchinson are very much make-shift midfielders, unless someone (the manager) decides that's where McIntyre is best and can find a position for him there.

I would definitely want another striker of quality for League One. I like Carroll, I'm just not sure he's going to be hitting 15-20 goals next season, so we could definitely use another quality option there.

Certainly agree on a winger with pace. Azeez is pretty quick, but we need someone else as well, we've missed it since Barrow and we know how lethal he could be to defenders on his day. The goalkeeper isn't a priority position, but one that needs clarifying for sure.

[Snowflake Royal]

Lumley is fairly local. I wouldn't be upset if he returns but we really shouldn't be going into a league one campaign concerned about shot stoppers. We should be worried about stopping those shots in the first place which is why we got relegated. If we don't solve that issue then we'll just see similar issues in league one away from home.

Prefer to see us invest in midfield personally and then up front. Then if there's spare cash and Lumley is available then let's bring him in.

We definitely need 2 new CMs and 1 or 2 wingers with pace. With regards to strikers do you think Carroll, Clarke, Ehib plus another should be good enough for League One?

2 CMs is seriously under cutting it. 4 is more realistic.

As an example, this year we used Loum, Hendrick, Fornah, Casadei, Hutchinson, McIntyre, Senga, Ince, Craig and Ejaria.

[Hound]

Lumley is fairly local. I wouldn't be upset if he returns but we really shouldn't be going into a league one campaign concerned about shot stoppers. We should be worried about stopping those shots in the first place which is why we got relegated. If we don't solve that issue then we'll just see similar issues in league one away from home.

Prefer to see us invest in midfield personally and then up front. Then if there's spare cash and Lumley is available then let's bring him in.

We definitely need 2 new CMs and 1 or 2 wingers with pace. With regards to strikers do you think Carroll, Clarke, Ehib plus another should be good enough for League One?

2 CMs is seriously under cutting it. 4 is more realistic.

As an example, this year we used Loum, Hendrick, Fornah, Casadei, Hutchinson, McIntyre, Senga, Ince, Craig and Ejaria.

6 of those are still here tbf

But yeah 2 CMs - maybe 3-4 depending on where Craig and Senga are is the absolute priority

[From Despair To Where?]

We definitely need another forward IMO. Whilst Carroll is more than good enough, I'm not convinced he can last the season and there's just not enough experience behind him. Azeez is possibly in the same boat. Potentially more than good enough but fitness is an issue. Obviously, if Meite renewed, that would be awesome but we all know its not going to happen.

As others have said though, we're desparately short of bodies in CM.

I'm not overly worried about the defence if Mbengue renews. I think we have enough there to start the season.