Well done McDermott and Hammond - Positive transfer window

[Esteban]

Well, I am surprised. I logged on here this morning expecting to find anger, negativity and loads of "we're going down, cos' we ain't spent NUFFINK!" (Jellytot mode off).

What I've found is some sensible posts and reasoned, well thought out debate. What the hell happened?!

I have to agree with the thoughts of the majority. Overall the transfer window has been underwhelming, it was disappointing to miss out on the marquee signing yesterday and time will tell if our transfer policy is right or wrong. But for a club that was in our position on Christmas day, we've done alright.

[royalZILLAAA]

Make a fools bid for Ince and appease the fans in the short term.

Fans get annoyed and realise we still haven't actually spent any money

Sign someone sh*t from Sheff to make the fans thankful we acted quickly to get someone at the last minute after our failed "£7m bid".

Release statement about how we signed four exciting players and lots of activity occurred, we're planning for the future and have a sustainable model.

Realise fans are seeing through our feeble attempts at matching our talk of ambition with lack of signings.

Release statement saying we tried to sign Sigurdsson and pull on the heart strings of fans deflecting attention from our lack of investment and ambition.

Just sign Ince FFS...

And Sigurddson...

[TommyF]

To be honest, I was disappointed until I found out that we had bid £10m for Gylfi and failed. Now I'm gutted.

He is exactly the player we are craving and I really think he is the missing piece. With him I am confident we would have stayed up. Without him I feel (don't know though!) that we simply don't have the creativity or ability to be 'in a game' for long enough, especially after how poorly we played against Chelsea (ignore 8 minutes of magic).

That said, that was Chelsea and the real litmus test comes against Sunderland. Win or draw, if we are competitive throughout the match and look even marginally the better side at home against them then that will give me the confidence that we might do this. And pray that QPR's gamble was a dreadful mistake.

EDIT: Note for BM : Please, please, please get in their faces. If we sit off teams like Sunderland we really are in trouble

[melonhead]

We have tried to bring in Tom Ince, but ultimately failed, but that quietens down anyone who might question McDermott's transfer policy.

Does it fuck.

Words are empty, actions are everything. We may have talked about signing Tom Ince but we didn't. To use such a failure as some sort of evidence of ambition is ludicrous.

All those people who declared "we will strengthen in January" we're wrong. We'd best just hope that the "play shit for 85 mins then score 2 goals" tactic works every week.........

but we have strengthened

[melonhead]

I just think they purposely tried to whip the fans into a frenzy over the Ince deal by making it public that we'd made a bid (even if the bid was derisory & Blackpool had told us to fcuk off).

would be ill advised and daftly self defeating if we had no real intention of trying to get him
we started with a 6.5 million bid, and increased it


you dont do that as a joke. what if theyd said yes?
"errr....sorry blackpool, we were only kidding"

BM also talked about him on SSN which isn't the way we do things normally.

cos we are allowed to talk about him due to his contract situation

[Cypry]

BM also talked about him on SSN which isn't the way we do things normally.

cos we are allowed to talk about him due to his contract situation

....and he was asked a direct question....

All he said was, yes, there's interest, we've put in an offer and we're waiting to hear back. He's a great player, but he's Blackpools player...

He said almost the same with Blackman in the same interview....

[Extended-Phenotype]

If we go down, the blame can fall firmly on McD, Hammond and Anton.

They knew we needed a creative midfielder and failed to get one. What did we get? Two players from league 1 teams that we smashed in the FA cup without breaking a sweat, and a gameless Portuguese reject who couldn't even get on the bench for one of those.

The best thing we did was a minor upgrade of summer transfer failure Gunter. Spent the window underbidding for players we need and pretty much sealed our relegation.

Nice one. What a f/cking joke.

[Royalclapper]

Ince will probably end up at Liverpool in the summer. Couldn't seriously ever see us getting him tbh, Karl Oyston is a pain to deal with. There's also the cut Liverpool would get from his transfer fee to be factored in (about 15%?).

[Scutterbucketz]

If anyone is appeased by a bid for Siggy then more fool you!

Brian admitted in the summer that Siggy was too big for us now and wanted bigger things. I know it his move to Tottenham hasn't been completely successful but has the situation really changed that much that we were now in with a decent chance of getting him? I think not!

So it seems we put all the eggs in the Siggy basket and it didn't come off. Thats pathetic! I know that things go down to the wire but they should have insisted upon an answer by midday and then moved onto another attacking target if that answer wasn't forthcoming.

The "Reading Mould" needs to have wide criteria these days.

[Maguire]

Why do they need to "appease the fans"? Fans are idiots, fck em.

[Wimb]

Give the business done a B- to be honest.

We got an experienced Premier League defender, two midfield prospects and a utility player that might be able to make an impact. All four signings are good for whatever happens in the summer and Kelly and Akpan have already positively contributed to us earning four points in the last two games.

How close we came to Ince/Sigurdsson we'll never know but I doubt they'd make such claims if they were utter bs because the relevant players/clubs/agents could quickly come out and rubbish them, which so far they haven't.

Sympathise with EP's view somewhat in that despite months of knowing we needed a bit more Premier League quality, we only signed one experienced player but look at the fees that had to be splashed out in order to add that experience/quality. if Samba is a £12m player than Pearce must be worth at least £10m Graham would have been nice but again is he a significant upgrade on Pog/Alfie?

We've got 4 more options than we had through December so to me it's only various of shades of good, rather than any negatives.

[Scutterbucketz]

Why do they need to "appease the fans"? Fans are idiots, fck em.

They are the ones who won't be there next year if we are relegated.

[royal_ross]

What is with everyone's criticism of Carrico? Like I said in a earlier post, he's played 6 MINUTES of football at Lisbon this season and then has to get used to our pace in this league. He'll come good when he gets used to the Premier League. Same with Akpan & Blackman, typical just knock them before they've hardly played (not even played in Blackman's case). Just because they are lower league signings well of course they are automatically shite aren't they, aka Le Fondre. Look at QPR for waisting loads of money, I'd rather be in our situation where we've got 4 decent players and went for it with Siggy.

[melonhead]

Give the business done a B- to be honest.

We got an experienced Premier League defender, two midfield prospects and a utility player that might be able to make an impact. All four signings are good for whatever happens in the summer and Kelly and Akpan have already positively contributed to us earning four points in the last two games.

How close we came to Ince/Sigurdsson we'll never know but I doubt they'd make such claims if they were utter bs because the relevant players/clubs/agents could quickly come out and rubbish them, which so far they haven't.

Sympathise with EP's view somewhat in that despite months of knowing we needed a bit more Premier League quality, we only signed one experienced player but look at the fees that had to be splashed out in order to add that experience/quality. if Samba is a £12m player than Pearce must be worth at least £10m Graham would have been nice but again is he a significant upgrade on Pog/Alfie?

We've got 4 more options than we had through December so to me it's only various of shades of good, rather than any negatives.

good summary of situation imo


as happy as i expected to be, glad we werent scared to offer big money if we though it worth it, shame they couldnt come off, but we adressed the areas of concern in the squad, and brought in some quality, and some young hungry types.
given ourselevs a chance of staying up, while at the same time ensuring we'll be in a good position of we go down.


sensible is dull, but it is also sensible

[West Stand Man]

Added 4 players to the squad, all of varying qualities and one or two of them have already proved their worth.

We haven't lost any big players. Another window where our best players haven't been sold because nobody wanted them.

We have failed miserably to bring in Tom Ince, but ultimately failed, but that leaves questions about the clubs transfer policies..

Onwards and downwards!

Corrected for you.

Don't get a job as a full time editor, your corrections stink.

[Extended-Phenotype]

What is with everyone's criticism of Carrico? Like I said in a earlier post, he's played 6 MINUTES of football at Lisbon this season

...and in we swoop, drooling at the mouth at those attractive stats. Who needs players who can play?

I'd rather be in our situation where we've got 4 decent players and went for it with Siggy.

You mean we decided he wasn't worth the price. Well, I guess we will never know because quelle surprise we didn't bother.

[Maguire]

Why do they need to "appease the fans"? Fans are idiots, fck em.

They are the ones who won't be there next year if we are relegated.

That's not about making up stories about bids though, is it?

That's a reason the club doesn't want to get relegated. Why would they sit around thinking "oh, those fukkwits on HNA will notch a 12 page moan if we don't look like we've done something. I know, let's say we bid on Thomas Ince"

[melonhead]

What is with everyone's criticism of Carrico? Like I said in a earlier post, he's played 6 MINUTES of football at Lisbon this season

...and in we swoop, drooling at the mouth at those attractive stats. Who needs players who can play?

I'd rather be in our situation where we've got 4 decent players and went for it with Siggy.

You mean we decided he wasn't worth the price. Well, I guess we will never know because quelle surprise we didn't bother.

you have become a terrible poster

im ashamed to have laughed at your stuff in the past

[royalZILLAAA]

Why do they need to "appease the fans"? Fans are idiots, fck em.

They are the ones who won't be there next year if we are relegated.

That's not about making up stories about bids though, is it?

That's a reason the club doesn't want to get relegated. Why would they sit around thinking "oh, those fukkwits on HNA will notch a 12 page moan if we don't look like we've done something. I know, let's say we bid on Thomas Ince"

You mean the world doesn't revolve around us?

[cmonurz]

you have become a terrible poster

im ashamed to have laughed at your stuff in the past

Your transformation into an RFC propaganda machine has brought you down in my estimations brendy. I don't think I could possibly man-hug you any more, but would probably still accept you as my commune leader.