Hob Nob Anyone?

Hound wrote:

Snowflake Royal wrote:I'll stick my neck out and say I'll see how the first month or two goes before deciding which hill to plant my flag on and die over him.

I will say that if he significantly blocks opportunity for McIntyre, Holmes or Richards and isn't here next season I'm likely to be pissed.

boring fence sitting

If McIntyre, Holmes or Richards are better than him then they'll play instead. Or they should do anyway.

Well quite and to just re-iterate my point from earlier

In the 73 days between the Boro game on the 17th October and Swansea away on 29th December there are 18 games - or one game every 4 days - that time includes an international break.

Just in the 2 weeks between the 17th October and the 31st October there are 5 games - November is a bit quieter as there only 5 games in total that month before we hit December's run of 8 games.

There are 8 midweek games before the new year. I

Not signing another defender *this season* would be crazy as it all it takes is 2 CBs to get knocks pretty quickly and you are left with just 2 fit CBs, so a loan makes sense in the context of now - in a normal season, I would perhaps lean towards it not being needed - this year it is.

yeah been saying much the same for a while. And i dont rate the Morrison/Moore partnership based on last season - though they've started pretty well this

Norfolk Royal wrote:

Hound wrote:Oh yeah and can’t beat the ‘thumbs up’ pose from Pauno

Yes hopefully we'll see more of this. It's a decent rule for life that people should have their thumbs up in photos.

Wearing RDG Scarf?



(Asking for a friend...)

Stranded wrote:

Hound wrote:

Snowflake Royal wrote:I'll stick my neck out and say I'll see how the first month or two goes before deciding which hill to plant my flag on and die over him.

I will say that if he significantly blocks opportunity for McIntyre, Holmes or Richards and isn't here next season I'm likely to be pissed.

boring fence sitting

If McIntyre, Holmes or Richards are better than him then they'll play instead. Or they should do anyway.

Well quite and to just re-iterate my point from earlier

In the 73 days between the Boro game on the 17th October and Swansea away on 29th December there are 18 games - or one game every 4 days - that time includes an international break.

Just in the 2 weeks between the 17th October and the 31st October there are 5 games - November is a bit quieter as there only 5 games in total that month before we hit December's run of 8 games.

There are 8 midweek games before the new year. I

Not signing another defender *this season* would be crazy as it all it takes is 2 CBs to get knocks pretty quickly and you are left with just 2 fit CBs, so a loan makes sense in the context of now - in a normal season, I would perhaps lean towards it not being needed - this year it is.

Don't disagree. However, it's madness that clubs feel the need to do this at a time when their finances must be taking an absolute hammering. Mr Dai must be pouring money into the club just to keep it afloat, let alone finance new signings, for which we should all be thankful. I fear there will be numerous clubs going bust in the coming year.

The vast majority of us are probably guilty of hunting down free streams of games from time to time but until some form of normality is resumed we should probably just cough up our tenner for iFollow if we can afford it. That includes away games, even if Reading may not get much/any revenue from them, as there's no point having a club with no opposition to play!

Main thing with McIntyre and Richards is to sign them up. Their deals expire in 2021. I'm happy with Gibson; he provides competition and is probably more developed than Holmes.

WestYorksRoyal wrote:Main thing with McIntyre and Richards is to sign them up. Their deals expire in 2021. I'm happy with Gibson; he provides competition and is probably more developed than Holmes.

Not sure in what way he might be ‘more developed’ than Holmes.
They are almost exactly the same age and have both played around a dozen ‘senior’ games, Gibson’s all being in div 2 with Holmes being a mix of Championship and Belgium 2nd tier.
Holmes has the advantage of being the only one of our centre backs with a bit of extra height. Having said that the stats suggest all our defenders are 1.85m tall but having met Holmes he is most certainly several,inches taller than that !
Of course Gibson might just be better, as others have mentioned.

The more I read up on this guy the better this signing sounds, according to reports Ancelotti reluctantly let him go, he wanted him to be in or around the first team this year. He's very highly rated and ready for first-team football now. His loan to Fleetwood last season was extremely successful apparently - the fans loved him. In the 11 games he played for them they went on a 9 game unbeaten run, all of which have been attributed to his performances. Seeing all that, I don't think this guy is coming to sit on the bench, I think there is a very real chance he's going to be in the starting XI. If true that Ancelotti thinks he's ready for first-team football at Everton now then there is no comparison to Holmes. I guess we wait and see.

Nameless wrote:

WestYorksRoyal wrote:Main thing with McIntyre and Richards is to sign them up. Their deals expire in 2021. I'm happy with Gibson; he provides competition and is probably more developed than Holmes.

Not sure in what way he might be ‘more developed’ than Holmes.
They are almost exactly the same age and have both played around a dozen ‘senior’ games, Gibson’s all being in div 2 with Holmes being a mix of Championship and Belgium 2nd tier.
Holmes has the advantage of being the only one of our centre backs with a bit of extra height. Having said that the stats suggest all our defenders are 1.85m tall but having met Holmes he is most certainly several,inches taller than that !
Of course Gibson might just be better, as others have mentioned.

Fair. I probably just mean "better". Highly rated at Everton with a good L1 loan under his belt is better than fringe Reading prospect with 2nd tier Belgian experience.

For Gibson this loan could be a step on the way to a PL career.

Having 5 CBs gives us more flexibility in formation, allows for rotation because of the heavy schedule and obviously gives us more injury cover.

Gibson is highly rated at Everton and can cover at FB. I think it's a very good, low risk, low cost signing.

WoodleyRoyal wrote:The more I read up on this guy the better this signing sounds, according to reports Ancelotti reluctantly let him go, he wanted him to be in or around the first team this year. He's very highly rated and ready for first-team football now. His loan to Fleetwood last season was extremely successful apparently - the fans loved him. In the 11 games he played for them they went on a 9 game unbeaten run, all of which have been attributed to his performances. Seeing all that, I don't think this guy is coming to sit on the bench, I think there is a very real chance he's going to be in the starting XI. If true that Ancelotti thinks he's ready for first-team football at Everton now then there is no comparison to Holmes. I guess we wait and see.

The one thing I'm not always keen on is making a loan player you have little chance of keeping a key player. Better to build for the future.

Exceptions should be made where you're getting a higher calibre player than you could ever wish to sign permanently (e.g. Upson, Martinez), as who wouldn't want to improve their team like that? But they were a class apart. If he's only marginally better than McIntyre, I'd rather see us maximising McIntyre's playing time.

Nameless wrote:

WestYorksRoyal wrote:Main thing with McIntyre and Richards is to sign them up. Their deals expire in 2021. I'm happy with Gibson; he provides competition and is probably more developed than Holmes.

Not sure in what way he might be ‘more developed’ than Holmes.
They are almost exactly the same age and have both played around a dozen ‘senior’ games, Gibson’s all being in div 2 with Holmes being a mix of Championship and Belgium 2nd tier.
Holmes has the advantage of being the only one of our centre backs with a bit of extra height. Having said that the stats suggest all our defenders are 1.85m tall but having met Holmes he is most certainly several,inches taller than that !
Of course Gibson might just be better, as others have mentioned.

If you are who I think you are then everybody will look tall.

South Coast Royal wrote:

Nameless wrote:

WestYorksRoyal wrote:Main thing with McIntyre and Richards is to sign them up. Their deals expire in 2021. I'm happy with Gibson; he provides competition and is probably more developed than Holmes.

Not sure in what way he might be ‘more developed’ than Holmes.
They are almost exactly the same age and have both played around a dozen ‘senior’ games, Gibson’s all being in div 2 with Holmes being a mix of Championship and Belgium 2nd tier.
Holmes has the advantage of being the only one of our centre backs with a bit of extra height. Having said that the stats suggest all our defenders are 1.85m tall but having met Holmes he is most certainly several,inches taller than that !
Of course Gibson might just be better, as others have mentioned.

If you are who I think you are then everybody will look tall.

Nameless is Warwick Davis ? welcome to the board. I loved your work in willow...

Stranded wrote:

Hound wrote:

Snowflake Royal wrote:I'll stick my neck out and say I'll see how the first month or two goes before deciding which hill to plant my flag on and die over him.

I will say that if he significantly blocks opportunity for McIntyre, Holmes or Richards and isn't here next season I'm likely to be pissed.

boring fence sitting

If McIntyre, Holmes or Richards are better than him then they'll play instead. Or they should do anyway.

Well quite and to just re-iterate my point from earlier

In the 73 days between the Boro game on the 17th October and Swansea away on 29th December there are 18 games - or one game every 4 days - that time includes an international break.

Just in the 2 weeks between the 17th October and the 31st October there are 5 games - November is a bit quieter as there only 5 games in total that month before we hit December's run of 8 games.

There are 8 midweek games before the new year. I

Not signing another defender *this season* would be crazy as it all it takes is 2 CBs to get knocks pretty quickly and you are left with just 2 fit CBs, so a loan makes sense in the context of now - in a normal season, I would perhaps lean towards it not being needed - this year it is.

Agree we need a defender.

Don't think we need someone else's hot prospect with limited experience.

I've been impressed by what I've seen of both Holmes and McIntyre. Your couple of injuries and we're left with three young and inexperienced centrebacks. Not a great deal better than two young inexperienced centrebacks.

I'd be looking for a more experienced solid back up player personally.

Holmes and McIntyre could save us a lot of money in the future, and they're not going to get better being superseded by young PL loanees.

Only if both Moore and Morrison are the two injured

Can see Holmes being loaned out. Potential there I think but would do well out of 6 months down a division or 2

Hound wrote:Only if both Moore and Morrison are the two injured

Can see Holmes being loaned out. Potential there I think but would do well out of 6 months down a division or 2

If he does go on loan that's fine, progress not blocked. Though still don't want McIntyre blocked.

According to ITK Eddie on Twitter we are looking to ship Tom McIntyre out on loan. Baffling that. Cant see how the new manager has seen enough of him to decide that given he was away on international duty for a good bit.

NewCorkSeth wrote:According to ITK Eddie on Twitter we are looking to ship Tom McIntyre out on loan. Baffling that. Cant see how the new manager has seen enough of him to decide that given he was away on international duty for a good bit.

A loan could be perfect for him, I do not see that as a negative at all - season playing week in/week out for say Oxford would be better than waiting for a chance here. Would think it leaves us short at the back as per my earlier points though.

Stranded wrote:

NewCorkSeth wrote:According to ITK Eddie on Twitter we are looking to ship Tom McIntyre out on loan. Baffling that. Cant see how the new manager has seen enough of him to decide that given he was away on international duty for a good bit.

A loan could be perfect for him, I do not see that as a negative at all - season playing week in/week out for say Oxford would be better than waiting for a chance here. Would think it leaves us short at the back as per my earlier points though.

He isnt exactly waiting for a chance though is he? Being 3rd choice CB. Thats a fantastic position for a young CB looking to add minutes to his game. Loaning another clubs talented CB so we can send our own talented CB away is a nonsense.

Stranded wrote:

NewCorkSeth wrote:According to ITK Eddie on Twitter we are looking to ship Tom McIntyre out on loan. Baffling that. Cant see how the new manager has seen enough of him to decide that given he was away on international duty for a good bit.

A loan could be perfect for him, I do not see that as a negative at all - season playing week in/week out for say Oxford would be better than waiting for a chance here. Would think it leaves us short at the back as per my earlier points though.

Not baffling, I bet McIntyre will have been waiting outside the manager’s door !
It could be the loan is actually designed to let McIntyre get a season playing every week somewhere else. Needs to be at a decent club, maybe a year in Germany would be good for him ?
Would also allow Holmes to be closer to the first team having done hisloan spell last season

yeah happy enough with it. He'd be 4th choice so limited opportunities.