The Repercussions

[Top Flight]

we gave shane the get out clause to make him stay here last year, so its got chuff all to do with JM at all if he goes.
its down to shane long, and hammond who negotiated that clause.

and fair play, he wants to prove himself, and has worked his nuts off in every game hes ever played for us, so will go with my blessing

I'm sure that get out clause won't apply to Hoffenheim. Hopefully it doesn't apply to Celtic either.

[Svlad Cjelli]

we gave shane the get out clause to make him stay here last year, so its got chuff all to do with JM at all if he goes.
its down to shane long, and hammond who negotiated that clause.

and fair play, he wants to prove himself, and has worked his nuts off in every game hes ever played for us, so will go with my blessing

I'm sure that get out clause won't apply to Hoffenheim. Hopefully it doesn't apply to Celtic either.

What? The clause is in the player's contract, so it applies to every single club which makes an offer over the required amount.

[Jobbo no.11]

A mate of mine at uni works on the scouting team for Southampton, the amount of time he spends at reading is silly and most of the time APPARENTLY watching Jem Karacan, and after speaking to him he believes Southampton will make a move this summer. Really cant understand why either he would want to go or why we would have a need to sell him. Stay strong Madejski!!!!

[brendywendy]

A mate of mine at uni works on the scouting team for Southampton, the amount of time he spends at reading is silly and most of the time APPARENTLY watching Jem Karacan, and after speaking to him he believes Southampton will make a move this summer. Really cant understand why either he would want to go or why we would have a need to sell him. Stay strong Madejski!!!!

massive massive LOL at karacan wanting to move to saints

[Svlad Cjelli]

That post belong in UR&G - I can't see Jem moving sideways, even if Southampton could afford to compete with PL clubs.

Surely the guy was watching Howard - it's a fairly open secret they want him?

[Top Flight]

we gave shane the get out clause to make him stay here last year, so its got chuff all to do with JM at all if he goes.
its down to shane long, and hammond who negotiated that clause.

and fair play, he wants to prove himself, and has worked his nuts off in every game hes ever played for us, so will go with my blessing

I'm sure that get out clause won't apply to Hoffenheim. Hopefully it doesn't apply to Celtic either.

What? The clause is in the player's contract, so it applies to every single club which makes an offer over the required amount.

Well you know more about it than I do..... Gylfi's contract was slightly different though because his get out clause was only when an English Premier League club came in for him. They could have had him for about £3.5 mill I think. Hoffenheim on the other hand couldn't have him for that price and by then our valuation of Gylfi had accelerated to £7mill, so they had to pay full whack.

[Hoop Blah]

I fully expect to lose the 3 supposedly 'in-demand' star players we have, Long, Kebe and Federici.

Not too fussed about any of them going in many ways.

Federici is easily replaced as long as we don't also lose McCarthy (I'm expecting him to be on the bench for Pearces U21s so not too worried about that at the moment) and I think he's massively over-rated anyway.

Long has been a hell of a player for us over the last 6 months and now is the time to cash in on him, especially as he has eyes and ideas elsewhere now we've not gone up. I still think he'll struggle to recapture his goalscoring form of the last 6 months here or elsewhere but more importantly his all round game has improved no end. He'll be a miss from this squad because he's carried our attack at times but his stock is high now and it's time for him to move on I guess.

Kebe is a different kettle of fish. Personally I'm still not a big fan. He's been great to watch when he's in full flight and it's entertaining to wonder whats going to happen next and there's no doubt he scares the life out of opposition defences. His threat is so much more than his output though and I can't see us playing a more considered and flexible type of football whilst he's a key part of the team. I'm sure teams with bigger budgets will be interested in his potential and his threat so I'm sure he'll be off.

To be honest though I'm not too bothered about losing these 3 as long as we start to build a team that isn't as limited to playing the percentages and relying on a Kebe'esque one-trick pony for something a little bit different.

I really don't think this summer will be anything like the post-95 season as we're in a much better position these days both financially and in terms of the talent we're bringing through the Academy.

I think it's interesting times.

[Svlad Cjelli]

In a lot of ways I do wonder if we're better off without Kebe.

When he plays we are so predictable and one-dimensional because we play everything through him - when he plays well we do well, but when he doesn't, or when he's marked out of the game, then we tend not to have any more ideas. Plus he is very inconsistent at times.

Don't get me wrong, there's no finer sight than Kebe beating someone through sheer pace, but for all that the end result is infuriatingly rare.

At Cardiff we were forced to play without him and we looked a whole lot better balanced and inventive - maybe it's for the best than to pin all our hopes on him as we did on Monday.

[brendywendy]

if we replaced him with giggs id agree- but since it will probably be antonio, i just cannot agree

[Svlad Cjelli]

What about with HRK - who seems to have improved massively over the past few months and can only get better the more games he plays?

[Snowball]

we gave shane the get out clause to make him stay here last year, so its got chuff all to do with JM at all if he goes.
its down to shane long, and hammond who negotiated that clause.

and fair play, he wants to prove himself, and has worked his nuts off in every game hes ever played for us, so will go with my blessing

So BEFORE his 25-goal season he was a likely transfer target?



I don't think so. More likely McDermot could see he was about to become a better player
and signed him for the extra year without risking 3 years if he didn't come good.

[The Prisoner]

if we replaced him with giggs id agree- but since it will probably be antonio, i just cannot agree

We'll be replacing in with HRK. Antonio is just awful - league 1 or 2 player at best.

[Wycombe Royal]

What about with HRK - who seems to have improved massively over the past few months and can only get better the more games he plays?

Surely you would be replacing Kebe with McAnuff? With HRK replacing McAnuff on the left?

I would rather have seen that lineup on Monday.

[brendywendy]

we gave shane the get out clause to make him stay here last year, so its got chuff all to do with JM at all if he goes.
its down to shane long, and hammond who negotiated that clause.

and fair play, he wants to prove himself, and has worked his nuts off in every game hes ever played for us, so will go with my blessing

So BEFORE his 25-goal season he was a likely transfer target?



I don't think so. More likely McDermot could see he was about to become a better player
and signed him for the extra year without risking 3 years if he didn't come good.

thanks for your insight.
but the get out clause was put in there before he scored 25 goals, yes.

[Hoop Blah]

What worries me is that McDermott see's the likes of Robson-Kanu and Antonio (to a lesser extent) as suitable replacements.

What I'd prefer to see is players more like McAnuff or James Henry, with greater technique and less reliant on pace and power, coming in to help us play a bit more football.

[brendywendy]

Mcanuff/HRK on the wings next year is fine. but we need more back up than antonio, and preferably someone who can actually challenge either of them for a 1st team spot

[The Surgeon of Crowthorne]

FWIW my opinion is that Jobi is by far the more coveted of our wingers amongst other clubs, as witnessed by QPR's bid last summer. I doubt that Jimmy will move to another British club unless it's silly money or there's a good friend if his already there. Far more likely for him to move to a French club, if at all.

[Scarface]

But the thing always to remember is that players never move on and think they'll be on the bench. If they have the drive and determination to succeed as a professional footballer they believe that they're good enough to force their way into the first team and succeed wherever they go.

So the idea of just bench-warming never enters into their thinking.

Exactly, does anyone believe Dave Mooney signed for us assuming he'd be a reserve player and farmed out on loan. I don't know why anyone thinks Shane Long is different to any greedy footballer out there, if a Premiership club wants him he'll want to go. We won't stand in his way, but we shouldn't sell for anything under our evaluation, that's all we can realistically do in this situation.

I still don't see the concerns, Long had half a good season and let us down in the final bigtime, so is easily replaced. Kebe is hit and miss so we'd do well to sell him whilst we can still get money for him and McCarthy is a better keeper than Ferderic anyway.

The future is bright, trust Brian to re-invest wisely.

[Norfolk Royal]

If Shane does to to Celtic the add ons will be hilarious to work out.

Extra 500k if they win the league, extra 500k if they win the cup, extra 500k if they qualify for Europe, I could go on...

[Royal Lady]

Bit unfair to say Long let us down on Monday. He didn't exactly get much service and he was still running around all over the shop trying to win us the ball. I wish him good luck wherever he goes.