How we stack up against the opposition in terms of signings

[Royal Rother]

Spot on.

[West Stand Flash]

Maybe, maybe not - But surely signing higher calibre player's will give us more chance of staying up than with with the current squad of players?

[Uke]

Maybe, maybe not - But surely signing a high calibre of player will give us more chance of staying up than what we have with the current squad of players?

I refer you to my earlier point about WHU last season

[Huntley & Palmer]

*Coppell signs Cisse and Fae from middling to poor teams in France and Portugal (IIRC).
*Coppell pledges not to repeat his mistakes (implied to be buying developing players from European leagues who need time to settle).
*Coppell signs Matejovsky, who hasn't featured yet, then some chap from the French 2nd division, and we are linked with a Malta international striker.

You can see why some people are more than 'fairly cautious' about Coppell and transfers.

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW ME SOME EVIDENCE WE HAVE ACTUALLY SIGNED KEBE!!!!! All I've seen is that we made an enquiry the rest is rumour. Being linked to someone means sweet FA.

There are very good reasons Marek hasn't featured yet.

1) Match Fitness - he has just come out of a winter break
2) He doesn't speak English yet

So why have we signed him in the January window rather than at the end of the season if he doesn't have time to settle in

[Hoop Blah]

There are too many comments on my earlier post to reply to them all individually so I'll just try and pick up a few points:

Craig Gordon is massively over-rated. This can only be because people are stupid enough to think that the transfer fee makes him good, or because they have accepted the media lies from journalists who are continually sucking up to Roy Keane. Making a couple of decent saves a game (and therefore appearing on the highlight reels) does not make a goalkeeper worth millions - every goalkeeper in the Premiership and most in the Championship are good shot-stoppers. Just try watching his performance in all the other areas of the game and you will see that he is nothing more than average. Don't forget that Keane dropped him for three games in favour of Ward! (true value £0, by the way). Gordon is of course still very young for a keeper and should improve but I said that I was ignoring that aspect so I stand by my valuation of £1m.

Kenwyne Jones was also massively overpriced but because he had an immediate impact everyone seems to assume that he's suddenly become a very good player. What has he done in the last couple of months to justify a value more than £2.5m? Platypuss's point about clubs wanting to pay more is of course completely irrelevant, because they are prepared to pay a premium for improvement (which will probably never happen, in my opinion) and for unavailablility.

Richardson - I accept that I may have been harsh. When he played for Manchester United he looked a reasonable player, but that was because he was surrounded by great players. When he played for England he looked hopeless. And to be fair, he hasn't yet had much of a chance at Sunderland.

The existing Reading squad - this is also irrelevant as I was trying to illustrate how money was being wasted by both clubs by comparing actual price with my perceived value. Apart from our recent signings, we don't know what current "actual price" is (although of course we know that we can add a couple of million if Sunderland come calling).

Gordon might have been expensive at £9m and that might've been a bit overpriced but that's just because there are a dirth of good British keepers out there. Gordon has been excellent for Hearts and Scotland and has earned Sunderland points this year. Yes it's his job to keep shots out, thats the easiest bit of being a goalkeeper, but I don't see all these weaknesses you seem to see. As for being dropped, that was on the back of the 7-1 drubbing they took off of Everton and Keane probably thought he needed to take him out of the firing line for a couple of weeks, even though I don't remember the goals being his fault.

Overpriced by a bit, but Keane went for the keeper he wanted and was happy to pay a premium for his man. I like that, but then it's not my money!

When you compare it to the £6m Liverpool spent each of Kirkland and Renia a few years ago it's not massively over the price.

Jones is like a lot of centre forwards, he'll have hot runs and cold spells. He might not have scored goals that frequently of late but as the man who leads their line you can bet he's been crucial in their general play. He didn't score against Pompey but he caused them all sorts of problems linking up with Richardson.

As for Richardson, I think thats a pretty good buy. If he'd been fit all season I doubt Sunderland would be where they are now. You say he's only looked good at Utd, but his best form was actually when he went to West Brom and dragged them out of the relegation zone with some very impressive performances.

[Tredder]

Maybe, maybe not - But surely signing higher calibre player's will give us more chance of staying up than with with the current squad of players?

Brick by Brick

[Uke]

*Coppell signs Cisse and Fae from middling to poor teams in France and Portugal (IIRC).
*Coppell pledges not to repeat his mistakes (implied to be buying developing players from European leagues who need time to settle).
*Coppell signs Matejovsky, who hasn't featured yet, then some chap from the French 2nd division, and we are linked with a Malta international striker.

You can see why some people are more than 'fairly cautious' about Coppell and transfers.

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW ME SOME EVIDENCE WE HAVE ACTUALLY SIGNED KEBE!!!!! All I've seen is that we made an enquiry the rest is rumour. Being linked to someone means sweet FA.

There are very good reasons Marek hasn't featured yet.

1) Match Fitness - he has just come out of a winter break
2) He doesn't speak English yet

So why have we signed him in the January window rather than at the end of the season if he doesn't have time to settle in

In stock and available

[Vision]

*Coppell signs Cisse and Fae from middling to poor teams in France and Portugal (IIRC).
*Coppell pledges not to repeat his mistakes (implied to be buying developing players from European leagues who need time to settle).
*Coppell signs Matejovsky, who hasn't featured yet, then some chap from the French 2nd division, and we are linked with a Malta international striker.

You can see why some people are more than 'fairly cautious' about Coppell and transfers.

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW ME SOME EVIDENCE WE HAVE ACTUALLY SIGNED KEBE!!!!! All I've seen is that we made an enquiry the rest is rumour. Being linked to someone means sweet FA.

There are very good reasons Marek hasn't featured yet.

1) Match Fitness - he has just come out of a winter break
2) He doesn't speak English yet

So why have we signed him in the January window rather than at the end of the season if he doesn't have time to settle in

In his case i genuinely believe its just the issue of the Czech winter break that prevents him coming straight into the match day squad. He just needs a couple of 90 minutes before we include him. He simply hasn't played for several weeks so with all the will in the world was never going to come straight in. Still think he'll figure regularly by the end of the season.

[Platypuss]

*Coppell signs Cisse and Fae from middling to poor teams in France and Portugal (IIRC).
*Coppell pledges not to repeat his mistakes (implied to be buying developing players from European leagues who need time to settle).
*Coppell signs Matejovsky, who hasn't featured yet, then some chap from the French 2nd division, and we are linked with a Malta international striker.

You can see why some people are more than 'fairly cautious' about Coppell and transfers.

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW ME SOME EVIDENCE WE HAVE ACTUALLY SIGNED KEBE!!!!! All I've seen is that we made an enquiry the rest is rumour. Being linked to someone means sweet FA.

There are very good reasons Marek hasn't featured yet.

1) Match Fitness - he has just come out of a winter break
2) He doesn't speak English yet

So why have we signed him in the January window rather than at the end of the season if he doesn't have time to settle in

There was a fear that he would then be out of our reach if he had a storming Euro Championship.

[Huntley & Palmer]

A fee of £3 million plus you mean

[Hoop Blah]

Now added OUTS as well as signings, for balance.

Loans are also included.

You've missed out Vasilev from our list of signings!!!

[Platypuss]

Deliberately.

[sheshnu]

Birmingham's loan of Palacios expired, so that's an 'out'.

[Hoop Blah]

I think we would seriously struggle if we got relegated.

That is why it is so frustrating to see it take us 135 years to get here & for it go go so quickly again because of Madejski's negativity (ie: Wages).

It's got nothing to do with negativety, and all to do with financial stability.

If we agree to pay players say £40k per week now and STILL get relegated where do you think that would leave us financially?

And many of those people on here who have been moaning about us not paying the higher wages would be some of the first to criticise the club for getting into financial problems on relegation (and yes I do include you in that).

Why do we have to pay £40k a week.

Wasn't the average Premiership basic wage something like £13k a week? I think you have to double that for all the bonus' or something but the myth that to bring in a decent player is going to cost 40-50 a week is just that, a bit of a myth.

[Uke]

I think we would seriously struggle if we got relegated.

That is why it is so frustrating to see it take us 135 years to get here & for it go go so quickly again because of Madejski's negativity (ie: Wages).

It's got nothing to do with negativety, and all to do with financial stability.

If we agree to pay players say £40k per week now and STILL get relegated where do you think that would leave us financially?

And many of those people on here who have been moaning about us not paying the higher wages would be some of the first to criticise the club for getting into financial problems on relegation (and yes I do include you in that).

Why do we have to pay £40k a week.

Wasn't the average Premiership basic wage something like £13k a week? I think you have to double that for all the bonus' or something but the myth that to bring in a decent player is going to cost 40-50 a week is just that, a bit of a myth.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/artic ... _page_id=2

Average is 1.1 million per year = 22k per week

That includes the whole squad remember - regular first teamers will get more

[Dirk Gently]

Our top wage is £25k a week (but let's call a spade a spade - that's £1.3 million a year!).

The basic for a new player with something to prove at a club like Chelsea is double that.

That's excluding bonusses, perks and the various costs of employment, of course.

[Hoop Blah]

I think we would seriously struggle if we got relegated.

That is why it is so frustrating to see it take us 135 years to get here & for it go go so quickly again because of Madejski's negativity (ie: Wages).

It's got nothing to do with negativety, and all to do with financial stability.

If we agree to pay players say £40k per week now and STILL get relegated where do you think that would leave us financially?

And many of those people on here who have been moaning about us not paying the higher wages would be some of the first to criticise the club for getting into financial problems on relegation (and yes I do include you in that).

Why do we have to pay £40k a week.

Wasn't the average Premiership basic wage something like £13k a week? I think you have to double that for all the bonus' or something but the myth that to bring in a decent player is going to cost 40-50 a week is just that, a bit of a myth.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/artic ... _page_id=2

Average is 1.1 million per year = 22k per week

That includes the whole squad remember - regular first teamers will get more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4898392.stm

I guess it's all a twist on the way you read it.

[Hoop Blah]

Our top wage is £25k a week (but let's call a spade a spade - that's £1.3 million a year!).

The basic for a new player with something to prove at a club like Chelsea is double that.

That's excluding bonusses, perks and the various costs of employment, of course.

Thats not who we're competing with though is it?

I'm sure there are a few players at our direct competitors like Sunderland, Birmingham, Boro, Bolton, Fulham ect that are on more than what we can pay, but I bet it's not more than a handful.

We're not going to be able to pay top 6, top 8 club wages and I don't expect us, or Madejski, to do that. But I do hope that we're not pricing ourselves out of the market totally.

[Uke]

I think we would seriously struggle if we got relegated.

That is why it is so frustrating to see it take us 135 years to get here & for it go go so quickly again because of Madejski's negativity (ie: Wages).

It's got nothing to do with negativety, and all to do with financial stability.

If we agree to pay players say £40k per week now and STILL get relegated where do you think that would leave us financially?

And many of those people on here who have been moaning about us not paying the higher wages would be some of the first to criticise the club for getting into financial problems on relegation (and yes I do include you in that).

Why do we have to pay £40k a week.

Wasn't the average Premiership basic wage something like £13k a week? I think you have to double that for all the bonus' or something but the myth that to bring in a decent player is going to cost 40-50 a week is just that, a bit of a myth.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/artic ... _page_id=2

Average is 1.1 million per year = 22k per week

That includes the whole squad remember - regular first teamers will get more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4898392.stm

I guess it's all a twist on the way you read it.

Or the year of the report!

Apprently a good percentage of the increase was down to WHU's panic buys and salaries!

[Old Biscuitman]

Maybe, maybe not - But surely signing higher calibre player's will give us more chance of staying up than with with the current squad of players?

Brick by Brick[/quote

...was yesterday's strategy. Worked brilliantly, but the environment and our needs have changed. Time to move on.