Snowflake Royal It's not just long contracts, it's foolish contracts.
McCleary getting that length of contract with his injury record at that point, which has only got worse, was stupid.
Kermorgant getting an extension before he'd returned fully from injury was stupid.
Moore getting a big new contract is questionable depending on how it affects his wages.
Even Yiadom's is foolish... he just got relegated with Barnsley, he could easily have failed here and we'd be stuck with him.
I don't think we should hand out contracts for four years to anyone on average or above wages, or over the age of 25. Or give anyone options to get an automatic year extension. We should have learnt our lessons with the likes of Roberts, Pogrebnyak, and Drenthe.
How much did McClearly, Harriott, Quinn and Kermorgant cost us last season? And for what? The square root of oxf*rd all.
Really? Think you are deciding "foolish" by what we know now, rather than what we knew at the time. And even then....
E.g., McCleary "with his injury record". At that point in time he'd never played less than 30 games a season for us. He was a critical player that season (played 47 games), and would have gone for nothing if he hadn't signed a new contract. It's extremely likely he would not have signed anything less than 3 years - because he certainly could have got 3 years elsewhere. There was very little reason *not* to offer him 3 years.
Kermorgant - Which extension? He extended in February 2017 for another year. Again, like McCleary , treating him right then was a good plan - he had everything invested in Reading going up, which might not have been the case if he knew he himself would be leaving, regardless. He played 25 times last season, yes, not as productive - but then, who was? He was always there for backup, not as the main striker. The extension early in that season for another year got mutually cancelled anyway, so it's unlikely to have cost much.
Moore gets a long contract in return for a fat release clause, obviously. This was what was required to keep him. Most people at the club want that. You don't think it's worth it, but that's very much a minority opinion. I certainly don't think it's a foolish contract.
Quinn and Harriott. Players get injured. Happens everywhere. So?
I don't know what you actually expect, honestly. Who do you think will want to come and play for us if they're only going to get 2 year contracts, when there are 4 year contracts on offer elsewhere? How can we retain players we want to keep, let alone attract new ones, if we're not offering them stuff that is at least comparable?
Do you think every other club miraculously only signs players that are never injured? That all their transfers just magically work out?
As for overpaying, Reading used to be one of the higher payers in the division. Not any more. Last I saw I think we were about average. When you then consider the cost of living down here, as opposed to, say Bolton, we're probably considerably below average. It's a very Northern league now.
One of the things that
is expensive though, is sacking your manager regularly. We should stop doing that. Not just because of the expense of breaking contracts, but because every manager "wants to bring in their own players". Which leads to squad bloat.
If you think footballers get paid too much for doing too little, I'm not going to disagree.
If you think
only Reading is paying its footballers too much for too little - that's just not true.