Hob Nob Anyone?

Agree with the general consensus. Club needs to get busy touting Smith / McNulty / Baldock to potential suitors if we do sign Mendes. Only a month to do so. Plus the fact they still need to get a wriggle on and sign a winger or two; and a back up for Richards.

João / Puscas / Mendes / Meite is a really powerful front line. The kind of strikers that do well in the championship a bit like how Mitrović had something about him.

Expect that Wolves will be sniffing round Joao and Mendes if they have a successful season. Puscas and Meite would attract some big suitors too if they build on their goal tally’s from last year. With young and exciting players behind them, We appear to have quite a valuable core set of midfielders and attackers. Show me the money!

royalp-we wrote:Agree with the general consensus. Club needs to get busy touting Smith / McNulty / Baldock to potential suitors if we do sign Mendes. Only a month to do so. Plus the fact they still need to get a wriggle on and sign a winger or two; and a back up for Richards.

João / Puscas / Mendes / Meite is a really powerful front line. The kind of strikers that do well in the championship a bit like how Mitrović had something about him.

Expect that Wolves will be sniffing round Joao and Mendes if they have a successful season. Puscas and Meite would attract some big suitors too if they build on their goal tally’s from last year. With young and exciting players behind them, We appear to have quite a valuable core set of midfielders and attackers. Show me the money!

Wrt Wolves, just because their Portuguese doesn’t mean that they’ll automatically look at them

But seriously, yes if Mendes has a good season they might take a look at him because of his age. But I think unless Joao gets a stupid amount of goals, I’m talking 30+, they won’t really consider him, they’d be able to buy better.

How can you possibly count McNulty, Smith and especially Melvin-Lambert in the too many strikers argument?

Of course it does

Crazy that Wolves now have 11 Portuguese players in their first team squad (and 1 out on loan!) and I thought AEK’s 4 Portuguese players was a lot to have from one nation!

Wouldn’t expect mendes to really hit the ground running. Will take a while. Joao dodgy fitness record, as has Baldock. Not sure Puscas shoulder was ever completely fixed either?

Taking into account the regularity of games this season suspect we could carry a striker or 2 more than might look normal on paper

Hound wrote:Wouldn’t expect mendes to really hit the ground running. Will take a while. Joao dodgy fitness record, as has Baldock. Not sure Puscas shoulder was ever completely fixed either?

Taking into account the regularity of games this season suspect we could carry a striker or 2 more than might look normal on paper

But we've got Mark McNulty, Sam Smith and James Melvin-Lambert for that. Why on earth would we want to strengthen our squad? Especially when you take into consideration how well we performed after Joao got injured last season.

Zip wrote:

Nameless wrote:

Notts Royal wrote:Not against the signing as long as we sell 2 out of Puscas, Baldock & McNulty.

Fenerbache have just sold a striker so would expect them to put a bid in for Puscas shortly.

Losing Puscas would be disappointing. With him we have potentially 3 really good options. Losing him leaves us with an either/or situation. It’s McNulty, Baldock and Smith we should be looking to sell or loan out.

Agreed. Sell Smith, McNulty and Baldock but not Puscas. The problem is how do you keep all of Joao, Meite, Puscas and Mendes (if he signs) happy? They will all want to start games but two or even three may not make the starting line up on a regular basis.

Much more likely to meet FFP by selling Puscas than Baldock seeing as he’s treble the value though. And rather sell now when his stock is high than if he spends a season not getting the minutes. Agree he’s a better player than the others though

Notts Royal wrote:

Zip wrote:

Nameless wrote:
Losing Puscas would be disappointing. With him we have potentially 3 really good options. Losing him leaves us with an either/or situation. It’s McNulty, Baldock and Smith we should be looking to sell or loan out.

Agreed. Sell Smith, McNulty and Baldock but not Puscas. The problem is how do you keep all of Joao, Meite, Puscas and Mendes (if he signs) happy? They will all want to start games but two or even three may not make the starting line up on a regular basis.

Much more likely to meet FFP by selling Puscas than Baldock seeing as he’s treble the value though. And rather sell now when his stock is high than if he spends a season not getting the minutes. Agree he’s a better player than the others though

Sure but I think Puscas could do really well for us this season.

Pepe the Horseman wrote:How can you possibly count McNulty, Smith and especially Melvin-Lambert in the too many strikers argument?

It's mainly because they're in the first team squad.

Snowflake Royal wrote:

Pepe the Horseman wrote:How can you possibly count McNulty, Smith and especially Melvin-Lambert in the too many strikers argument?

It's mainly because they're in the first team squad.

So are Ethan Bristow and Imari Samuels, but we still need another left back, don't we?

Stop it Pepe, it’s pretty obvious we have more senior strikers than we have senior LB’s.

Mendes looks like he will be a really good signing. But we clearly need reinforcements in other areas.

royalp-we wrote:Stop it Pepe, it’s pretty obvious we have more senior strikers than we have senior LB’s.

Mendes looks like he will be a really good signing. But we clearly need reinforcements in other areas.

Yep, agreed. Just making the point that McNulty, Smith and Melvin-Lambert shouldn't be considered as realistic striking options.

We obviously need to strengthen in other areas, but you'd hope they're not going to drop everything else just to sign Mendes.

Pepe the Horseman wrote:

royalp-we wrote:Stop it Pepe, it’s pretty obvious we have more senior strikers than we have senior LB’s.

Mendes looks like he will be a really good signing. But we clearly need reinforcements in other areas.

Yep, agreed. Just making the point that McNulty, Smith and Melvin-Lambert shouldn't be considered as realistic striking options.

We obviously need to strengthen in other areas, but you'd hope they're not going to drop everything else just to sign Mendes.

The statement that we’re looking at adding 5 or 6 players didn’t have a line that said ‘ unless we get Mendes, in which case we’d won’t bother with the rest’

Pepe the Horseman wrote:

Snowflake Royal wrote:

Pepe the Horseman wrote:How can you possibly count McNulty, Smith and especially Melvin-Lambert in the too many strikers argument?

It's mainly because they're in the first team squad.

So are Ethan Bristow and Imari Samuels, but we still need another left back, don't we?

Probably depends on how Bristow does tomorrow to an extent. Two good showings and it's much less urgent.

But we've got a squad full of strikers even without looking at M-L and co

Nahum Melvin-Lambert = NML = Neo-Marxist-Leninist

Suggest we sell just to be on the safe side.

Now reported as going to Almeria. What a shower

CountryRoyal wrote:Now reported as going to Almeria. What a shower

Apparantly he turned us down because we told him we were expecting him to be back up left back, not a striker.

At this point, it's just best to ignore any rumours on this guy until he turns up in either a Reading, Almeria (or another clubs) shirt.

Stranded wrote:At this point, it's just best to ignore any rumours on this guy until he turns up in either a Reading, Almeria (or another clubs) shirt.

It’s the scarf that is crucial, not the shirt....

Cannot say I am sorry this move has failed. I just don't think another striker is priority and think that was more an agent led deal than a player we need.

The priorities are another full back, a defensive midfielder (Semedo?) and at least one wide player (Riquelme?). Keep what we have and three or four additions and we should have a competitive squad.