Joseph Mills

[FiNeRaIn]

A player discarded by a rival Championship club doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, although I hope to be proved wrong.

BMC has a good eye for a player, but this signing only looks like we could be preparing for life in League 1. Not the response the fans wanted Mr Mad.

I am only going to start panicking if this is our only signing before deadline. I don't think the clubs that stupid to think a 3rd choice saints defender for a nominal fee on a 12 month contract is going to appease fans and the managers need to strengthen considerably an awful defence and goalscoring problem.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Still wholly underwhelmed by this. Mills has hardly kicked a ball in competitive games for Saints, was not deemed good enough to be part of their promotion party last season and spent much of it at loan at Doncaster who, while a division higher, spent much of their time struggling.

Personally I can't see Heston playing him ahead of Harte this season - so why sign him on a 1 year deal only (therefore there must be doubts about some aspects of his game).

So while it helps out with numbers at the back I hardly think that it's going to suddenly make us cast iron solid in that department - and what does it say about Marcus Williams' future?

[Row Z Royal]

Still wholly underwhelmed by this. Mills has hardly kicked a ball in competitive games for Saints, was not deemed good enough to be part of their promotion party last season and spent much of it at loan at Doncaster who, while a division higher, spent much of their time struggling.

Personally I can't see Heston playing him ahead of Harte this season - so why sign him on a 1 year deal only (therefore there must be doubts about some aspects of his game).

So while it helps out with numbers at the back I hardly think that it's going to suddenly make us cast iron solid in that department - and what does it say about Marcus Williams' future?

I can't believe that you're even considering Marcus Williams as a viable option.


Just to confirm what I mean - he isn't very good.

[Ferris]

I'm pretty pleased with this signing. Will provide Harte with some competition, either give him the kick up the arse he seems to need, or replace him at left back and inject some much needed pace into the back four.

[Super Kevin Bremner!]

Expecting the ever box shaped / immobile Pearce to be dropped with Ian Harte going to Centre Back where his pace isn't as important if Um Bongo's quick and Mills going Left Back.

I called this Saturday. Reading's game of width only truly works if the full backs support the attack. Harte's major problem for me is that he isn't mobile enough to do so. Buzzing for him at Centre Back though.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

I called this Saturday. Reading's game of width only truly works if the full backs support the attack. Harte's major problem for me is that he isn't mobile enough to do so. Buzzing for him at Centre Back though.

A good shout IMO.

Barring last year, Reading's successful teams have always had attacking full backs, or at least we've always looked so much more dangerous with them.

I want Murts and Shorey back. I always got excited when they overlapped.

[winchester_royal]

Still wholly underwhelmed by this. Mills has hardly kicked a ball in competitive games for Saints, was not deemed good enough to be part of their promotion party last season and spent much of it at loan at Doncaster who, while a division higher, spent much of their time struggling.

Personally I can't see Heston playing him ahead of Harte this season - so why sign him on a 1 year deal only (therefore there must be doubts about some aspects of his game).

So while it helps out with numbers at the back I hardly think that it's going to suddenly make us cast iron solid in that department - and what does it say about Marcus Williams' future?

Don't forget he's only 21. By all accounts he did well at Doncaster last season, and Saints fans certainly didn't dislike him.

[Z175]

So the third best Southampton left back and the third best Paul Robinson...

Who's next? Ian Wright's third son Brett?

[Terminal Boardom]

Expecting the ever box shaped / immobile Pearce to be dropped with Ian Harte going to Centre Back where his pace isn't as important if Um Bongo's quick and Mills going Left Back.

I called this Saturday. Reading's game of width only truly works if the full backs support the attack. Harte's major problem for me is that he isn't mobile enough to do so. Buzzing for him at Centre Back though.

So many of us can see this which is why I am baffled by McD's insistence on playing Harte and Griffin wherever possible.

[Whore Jackie]

Expecting the ever box shaped / immobile Pearce to be dropped with Ian Harte going to Centre Back where his pace isn't as important if Um Bongo's quick and Mills going Left Back.

I called this Saturday. Reading's game of width only truly works if the full backs support the attack. Harte's major problem for me is that he isn't mobile enough to do so. Buzzing for him at Centre Back though.

So many of us can see this which is why I am baffled by McD's insistence on playing Harte and Griffin wherever possible.

TBF to Griffin, he's a pretty willing attacking full-back, and is certainly no-less mobile than Murty was for his latter years. He's also by far and away our biggest communicator in the back five, pretty essential when you consider a) how meek Federici is and b) the diagonally opposite position that the designated captain McAnuff plays in.

Do agree that, for Reading's formation to really flourish, you need one of the full-backs to be pacier/trickier, which is what we've lacked since Bertrand and Shorey left.

[Snowball]

Sounds like Mills may be playing tonight at Charlton

This suggest to me that McDermott is now worried by Ian Harte's slowness.
(IMO he looks even slower or "caring less" this season so far)

I think it would be "worth a try" to play Harte at CB. Sure he could get done for pace,
but presumably we'd change style slightly to accommodate this. Thing is he brings
experience, serious "nous" and ATM the centre-backs are seriously short of that.

Pearce is solid, but face it, he's still a kid (despite his size), Khumalo may be an athlete
but he doesn't seem to work well "in the unit".


I recognise that Harte at CB MAY BE a disaster. OTOH it might work well with faster FBs
overlapping, and an "old-head" running things from the centre of the back four

[Snowball]

My view is that Griffin and Harte were brought in for the short and medium
term to "steady the ship". We were a bit naive, a fair few youngsters, and
the Griffin-Harte critics can't argue with the fact that we came 5th last
season, despite their flaws.

You makes yer choice. In his first few matches Cummings was an all-at-sea kid. On his comebacks
he's done much better, but he's got a VERY long way to go before you could think of him as Mr Reliable.

I really believe McDermott is building for next season or even 2013-14

We have a lot of very promising players aged 22 or younger


. ......... . . .McCarthy 21

Cummings-22 . . Pearce-22 . . Morrison-20 . . Mills-21

Obita-17 . . Karacan-22 . . Taylor-19 . . Kanu-22

. ..... . . . Church-22 . . Manset-22


23 Brett Williams
19 Walcott
21 Antonio

and others

[Ian Royal]

Don't think we could play Pearce & Harte in the defence together as they are both desperately slow. I'm not sure Harte is a great deal of a better option than Pearce either, so for me we're currently looking at our options being:

One of Pearce or Harte or Morrison and Khumalo. Morrison is the unknown factor as we haven't really seen him play, so it's difficult to say what his attributes are for certain and how he'd work with the others. Him and Pearce or Khumalo would seem to be low on experience for what you'd want ideally. Not sure if him and Harte would work, depends on his pace. But that would essentially be playing 3rd and 4th choice defenders.

Pace becomes less of an issue if Mills and/or Cummings comes into the defence, but I think it should be very rare that you put two slow players right next to each other.

[brendywendy]

A player discarded by a rival Championship club doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, although I hope to be proved wrong.

BMC has a good eye for a player, but this signing only looks like we could be preparing for life in League 1. Not the response the fans wanted Mr Mad.

I am only going to start panicking if this is our only signing before deadline. I don't think the clubs that stupid to think a 3rd choice saints defender for a nominal fee on a 12 month contract is going to appease fans and the managers need to strengthen considerably an awful defence and goalscoring problem.

i dont think the club are stupid enough to make kneejerk reactions to any loudly expressed views of a few hundred of their more disaffected fans.

but agreed we do need to strengthen still. but theyd be aware of that before, and wont change their policy after a little sing song

[brendywendy]

Sounds like Mills may be playing tonight at Charlton

This suggest to me that McDermott is now worried by Ian Harte's slowness.
(IMO he looks even slower or "caring less" this season so far)

I think it would be "worth a try" to play Harte at CB. Sure he could get done for pace,
but presumably we'd change style slightly to accommodate this. Thing is he brings
experience, serious "nous" and ATM the centre-backs are seriously short of that.

Pearce is solid, but face it, he's still a kid (despite his size), Khumalo may be an athlete
but he doesn't seem to work well "in the unit".


I recognise that Harte at CB MAY BE a disaster. OTOH it might work well with faster FBs
overlapping, and an "old-head" running things from the centre of the back four

maybe Bm knows he only has teh money for 1 decent experienced player, and is thinking along the lines of , if i move Harte to CB,and replace with mills, i can afford a new striker.
not sure though.
if harte starts there tonight id be more convinced. and im willing to bet that if BMac makes that decision it will be in the best interests of teh club/team, and will probably work.

[Spud Gun]

I thought Mills played well against us at the Mad Stad last season so I'm pleased with this signing. A bit of pace at LB is desperately needed.

I'm not sure why there's a load of negativity towards signing a player down the pecking order at another club. IIRC, Shorey was second choice left back at Leyton Orient (behind the established Matt Lockwood) when we signed him and look what happened there. I'm in no way suggesting that Mills is as good as Shorey ... but bringing a player in, coaching him and giving him regular first team football may just improve his game so that he becomes a decent first team player for us.

[brendywendy]

sounded like he was a definite plus last night, must be in with a shout of a start, given hartes woeful game

[andrew1957]

EP just confirmed that Mills was a free transfer

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... _le_fondre