Kitson signs for Stoke for £5.5 million

[Stranded]

EP says the deal will net us at least £4m with add ons.

[Stranded]

Just think about things another way, who's to say that we can't go out and buy a £5.5m player with 50% up front and 50% next year, anyway?

Because there is no way management would agree to a deal that saw them spend £xm next year. Look at the lengths we went to to avoid paying a few grand in appearance fees for Goater.

...and it worked in the club's favour, didn't it? I can't see a problem, personally. Although I am mindful that sell-on fees to Cambridge/Arsenal for Kitson/Harper would take that figure down a bit.

A very large amount of transfer deals have the fee spread over a couple of years. Installment payments are very common.

[londinium]

Clinton Morrison is SHIT. Loads of attitude but he's no footballer.

Greed...... please please please do not buy this non trying piece of shite

[LoyalRoyal22]

Oh well. i dont think we would of been able to keep all four strikers happy anyway. lets just hope we can keep the other three

[The whole year inn]

Assuming Coppell stayed on for another year in order to get us straight back up, I sincerely doubt someone of his intelligence will expect our current three strikers to fire us to promotion.

Someone will come in for Kitson. Surely.

[Hoop Blah]

it doesn't soften the blow of losing an absolute gem of a player who will be almost impossible to replace.

Nobody is impossible to replace.

Players come and players go - new opportunities pop up for those left behind. People step up when given vacancies arise, new players come in, styles change etc. etc.

It's a shame as it has always been when one of the major contributors to a successful team leaves, but "impossible to replace" is just nonsense.

Just in case you missed it i said ALMOST impossible to replace.

I totally stand by that too. We can get in other centre forward yes, but as Victor said earlier, Kitson's style of play makes him a rarity these days and that's why replacing him with a player of similar abilities will be almost impossible.

[Alan Partridge]

it doesn't soften the blow of losing an absolute gem of a player who will be almost impossible to replace.

Nobody is impossible to replace.

Players come and players go - new opportunities pop up for those left behind. People step up when given vacancies arise, new players come in, styles change etc. etc.

It's a shame as it has always been when one of the major contributors to a successful team leaves, but "impossible to replace" is just nonsense.

Just in case you missed it i said ALMOST impossible to replace.

I totally stand by that too. We can get in other centre forward yes, but as Victor said earlier, Kitson's style of play makes him a rarity these days and that's why replacing him with a player of similar abilities will be almost impossible.

One similar and younger version of a 'Kitson style' of centre forward has just joined Wolves. Sam Vokes from Bournemouth. They are out there, just have to look for them!

[Friday's Child]

it doesn't soften the blow of losing an absolute gem of a player who will be almost impossible to replace.

Nobody is impossible to replace.

Players come and players go - new opportunities pop up for those left behind. People step up when given vacancies arise, new players come in, styles change etc. etc.

It's a shame as it has always been when one of the major contributors to a successful team leaves, but "impossible to replace" is just nonsense.

Just in case you missed it i said ALMOST impossible to replace.

I totally stand by that too. We can get in other centre forward yes, but as Victor said earlier, Kitson's style of play makes him a rarity these days and that's why replacing him with a player of similar abilities will be almost impossible.

Is that the case with every player that has ever been sold, though? No player is the same - granted, Kitson is very good and has some attributes that make him different to most "traditional" centre-forwards, but we are never going to get another player of Kitson's exact attributes unless we buy....Kitson. A replacement will have some aspects better and some worse, I would have thought...

[Royal Rother]

Indeed.

[cmonurz]

Imho, available on a free, and relatively local, if he wants to join, then Clinton Morrisson is an absolute no-brainer.

[Hoop Blah]

Why are we bothering with this 2+ 2 million shite? If Stoke stay up in the Prem this season, I'll eat my many hats.

Oh shite! It isn't going to be £2m + £2m after all is it?

I thought we were talking £5m + now....

EP says the deal will net us at least £4m with add ons.

As with a lot of Reading's transfer activity we'll probably not be told the financial details of the move.

I'd guess that the £2m+£2m, the net£ 4, the £5m or £5.m figures are all probably close to the mark but are just different twists on the same ballpark figures.

As good or bad a financial deal as it may turn out to be, and as highly as I rate Kitson as our most irreplaceable centre forward, if his heart is not in it and he wants another crack to prove himself in the Premiership then it's better than we send him on his way.

It's a shame we can't convince our players that sticking around is actually a good thing for their careers, and the bank balances. Unfortunately the players are the same as a lot of fans, realists who can see the direction the clubs been taking for the last 12-18 months and so why would they stick around?

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Assuming Coppell stayed on for another year in order to get us straight back up, I sincerely doubt someone of his intelligence will expect our current three strikers to fire us to promotion.

Someone will come in for Kitson. Surely.

We will get a replacement, but they are the same 3 strikers that fired us to 8th in the Prem basically given Kitsons injury.

[Hoop Blah]

Is that the case with every player that has ever been sold, though? No player is the same - granted, Kitson is very good and has some attributes that make him different to most "traditional" centre-forwards, but we are never going to get another player of Kitson's exact attributes unless we buy....Kitson. A replacement will have some aspects better and some worse, I would have thought...

Yes, but in a more realistic and less pedantic time and place a team, or a more accurately a squad, is made up of different types of players to do different type of roles, and finding a player SIMILAR to Kitson is going to more difficult than a lot of the other types of players in our squad.

All squads/teams evolve over time and ours is no different, but when you have important key roles that have been significant parts of your success you try and replace them like for like, or as close as possible. If you don't you have to change the way the team plays.

We did have successful spells without Kitson in the side, but we looked a better team with Kitson playing and Coppell frequently talked about Kitson being the central player to the way he wanted to the team to play.

Bringing in a Clinton Morrison for Kitson totally changes the way the team operates.

Unfortunately, the second most difficult player to replace in our squad was probably Glen Little....

[The whole year inn]

Assuming Coppell stayed on for another year in order to get us straight back up, I sincerely doubt someone of his intelligence will expect our current three strikers to fire us to promotion.

Someone will come in for Kitson. Surely.

We will get a replacement, but they are the same 3 strikers that fired us to 8th in the Prem basically given Kitsons injury.

That was with a functioning midfield.

[RoyalBlue]

Oh well. i dont think we would of been able to keep all four strikers happy anyway. lets just hope we can keep the other three

I'm sure that in the past Coppell has said that every club needs four good strikers if they want to mount a serious campaign for honours (regardless of league they are in).

[Hoop Blah]

One similar and younger version of a 'Kitson style' of centre forward has just joined Wolves. Sam Vokes from Bournemouth. They are out there, just have to look for them!

Very true, they are out there, they're just not as common in todays game as the likes of Ltia or Doyle. Both are very good at what they do, it's just a bit different from the role Kitson plays.

[Royal Fleet]

Given that our best crosser of the ball has also left, maybe we need to try something different!

Coppell may go for someone with out and out pace.

[Seal]

Schards - I can't be bothered to go back a couple of pages and quote your run down of the money in, but it makes an interesting point. Where has it all gone? Media CentROFLe, training ground improvements and pay rises for John Madejski, John Madejski's daughters, their servants and their pet tortoise Alan.

For years we've been told the club runs a tight ship, yes it made a loss but not that much compared to a hell of a lot of clubs. The last 2 years income would have been absolutely enormous, and now thy will recieve another £16million in parachute money.

Maybe JM has locked it all away and is playing a version of the old ITV quiz show 'The Vault' where Steve, Wally et al have to try and guess the password to get in to it. They should just hire Terry Venables, he'll crack it in 5 minutes.

That for me is THE issue of this summer. Where is all the money? If we are going to sell key players like Kitson, then will NOT go up without spending some serious cash. Our team is now categorically weaker than the one that won the Championship. No question. Surely the club know that?

I can think of only three possible scenarios in terms of the cash:-

1) We were in a lot more financial trouble then anyone let on when we went up, and now we've repaid debts
2) Mr Mad is pocketing it as payback on his 'loans'
3) We are just sitting on it and for some unknown reason are just scared to spend it.

The club's PR is a walking disaster. They actually lied to us about Kitson being ill. Who the fcuk do they think they are? They need to start giving us some answers and less of this bullsh1t rhetoric.

[readingbedding]

Kitson deal can be statement of City ambition

There's nothing worse than saddling players with unrealistic expectations - so let's not tell Dave Kitson he is Stoke City's biggest statement of intent since Tony Waddington convinced Alan Hudson and a collection of 1970s stars to head for the Potteries.


That's not to suggest Kitson should be judged by the sky-high standard Huddy set. But the Hertfordshire-born striker will surely capture the imagination of City fans who have been growing increasingly desperate for signs of activity at the Britannia Stadium this summer.

City's ambition was always going to be judged by their summer targets, so Tony Pulis has proved the club means business by going after England keeper Scott Carson and Reading striker Kitson.

City have given up on Carson, but Pulis is close to landing Kitson in a club-record deal of around £4.5m.

The fee will not so much smash as explode the £1m-plus records Pulis set for defenders Leon Cort and Ryan Shawcross last season.

However, the famously canny Pulis could still have struck a bargain for a player who scored 10 goals in 34 league appearances in the Premier League last season.

Some reports have suggested City could initially pay only £2m for the 28-year-old, with the rest based on his and the club's success in the top flight.

That's surely decent business in a climate in which Fulham have just spend £6.3m on West Ham fringe players Bobby Zamora and John Pantsill.

Kitson was playing for Cambridge United in League Two five years ago, having been picked up from non-league Arlesey Town.

A former shelf-stacker in Sainsbury's, he played for his local youth side at Hitchin Town and the Arena Tavern pub team before breaking into the Football League.

After making his debut as a Cambridge sub in 3-2 defeat at Stoke in March 2001, he went on to score 40 goals in 102 appearances for United.

He moved to Reading for £300,000 in December 2003 as Steve Coppell began to build a side to reach the Premier.

Kitson was prolific in the Championship, scoring 19 in 37 appearances in the 2004/2005 campaign and 18 in 34 games the following season as Reading ran away with the title.

Injury restricted him to two goals in 13 games in Reading's first appearance in the Premier League, but his efforts last season proved his quality in a struggling side.

His form had him widely tipped to be included in Fabio Capello's first England squad, in January. Kitson missed out, but not before receiving a glowing reference from Coppell, who felt the player could succeed for his country.

Coppell said: "Kits would give any team something that other combinations wouldn't.

"He is good in the air, can use his left and right foot and has decent pace and knowledge of the game. He has a spark - he is different. He is a target man, yet he is subtle.

"The bigger men now have skills on the floor. It is not just being about a head on a stick. From a skill point of view, he could play at any level."

No doubt Kitson would bang in goals in the Championship next year, but he wants to remain in the Premier League.

He is less likely to be enthused by the prospect of the FA Cup, having made clear last season that the competition came a poor second to Premier League survival.

The Spurs fan scored twice in Reading's 6-4 defeat at White Hart Lane last December, but then revealed he wasn't bothered about a second trip in a week there, this time for an FA Cup third-round tie.

He said: "We're not going to win the FA Cup and I don't care about it, to be honest.

"Our Premier League status isn't protected by winning the FA Cup - it's as simple as that.

"It's a fantastic competition and perhaps one day we'll be in a position where we can compete for it, but not now."

That's largely common sense stuff, but was also manna from heaven for journalists indulging in the annual debate about the relevance of the world's oldest cup competition.

Kitson was back in the papers last January when he received an 18-month driving ban for failing to provide a breath sample, or co-operate in providing a sample.

The story no doubt received more attention because of Kitson's Premier League status, but also because the striker had achieved fleeting fame beyond the sports pages in 2005.

Kitson complained at the abuse he receives from opposing fans because of his ginger hair, saying: "If a black guy goes out there and 25,000 chant at him 'you black this' or 'you black that', I don't see what the difference is if you replace it with a colour of hair or anything else.

"I don't think being paid thousands of pounds a week has any bearing on whether someone can call you a 'black this' or a 'ginger that' or anything else.

"This is not how human beings behave - certainly not the way I was brought up. I am a sensitive guy, maybe over sensitive. I make no bones about that, but I genuinely believe I was brought up the right way."

Kitson can be assured hair colour will be of no consequence to Stoke fans eagerly awaiting the club's first star signing of the summer.

[Agent Balti]

The burning question still remains...is Dave OK after his cold? Maybe Spacey can enlighten us. Tool.

Morrisson is surely a no, no...Lita is clearly 'disruptive' and I can imagine Clinton O'Morrisson would only add fuel to that fire.