Kitson signs for Stoke for £5.5 million

[Dawn]

Being reported as a done deal, with quotes from Pulis, in the Stoke Sentinel:

STOKE City were poised to unveil record signing Dave Kitson today after striking a deal of around £4.5m with Reading.
The 28-year-old striker is unlikely to be included in this evening's friendly at Newcastle Town, but is pencilled in to travel with his new club to Austria tomorrow.
Manager Tony Pulis will be delighted to land a player claiming a creditable 10 goals in 34 appearances during Reading's relegation from the Premier League last season.
“I think he's a natural goalscorer with great ability, while he's one that will work his socks off for the team,” said Pulis.
“I've seen a lot of him over the years and been impressed with his attitude from afar, particularly his ability to adapt to the challenge of moving into higher divisions throughout his career at Cambridge and Reading.
“His Premier League experience over the past two seasons with Reading is also an important asset for us because we need players who've been there.
“And I don't believe the size of any fee will trouble him. He'll take all that in his stride.”

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/stokecity/Stoke-City-4-5m-Kitson/article-226128-detail/article.html

[Royal Rother]

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....

[Royal Lady]

I think supporting us for nearly 30 years allows me to have the odd whinge when things go wrong, particularly as we all know one way to start putting things right would be to spend some serious money.

[cmonurz]

Championship winning side less Little, Sidwell and Kitson, plus Bikey and Matejovsky = current side. Get that chequebook out Madejski!

[Schards#2]

If it's 2 + 2 and Cambridge have a 20% selling on fee, we will get £1.6 million

What a load of b0llocks

[Royal Rother]

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.

[TheMaraudingDog]

Championship winning side less Little, Sidwell and Kitson, plus Bikey and Matejovsky = current side. Get that chequebook out Madejski!

I'd probably tip on 1 or 2 more players leaving also.

I can't see Hunt, Doyle, Shorey and Harper all being at Reading next year.

[Alan Partridge]

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....

Chortle.

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.

[largetrousers]

not sure if anyone has posted it but the bbc are claiming he's agreed personal terms
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/stoke_city/7511777.stm
gutted if he goes. Would rather him ahead of any of our forwards, any day.

[Fat Leather Jacket]

If it's 2 + 2 and Cambridge have a 20% selling on fee, we will get £1.6 million

What a load of b0llocks

And to have an official site ignoring this news in favour of hawking more overpriced season tickets is oxf*rd disrespectful.

[TheMaraudingDog]

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.

At Reading's level I'd agree, all the players you have can be replaced.

if you look at the top sides though there are players who are impossible to replace. Kaka, Ronaldo etc. No matter who you bring in they won't be as good.

[cmonurz]

True TMD, but the £60m or so that you get in transfer fees can buy 3 or 4 excellent (but lesser) players that can improve the team as a whole.

[Friday's Child]

I'd be very surprised if we'd settled for £2m + £2m or anything like that. The daily rags that got hold of this before it happened are now talking £5 - 5.5m and no mention of up-front and thereafter fees. I would imagine that Cambridge would benefit, though - they must have put in a sell-on clause.

Anyway, what I would like to see now is us bring in Clinton Morrison before Coventry snap him up while he is there training with their squad. Hopefully he won't get too comfortable there. Then the net figure should see us in credit (as he is on a free) and provide us with the funds from Kitson's sale in order to buy well in midfield where we are desperate. If we then let Harper go (for a price a little less than that which we originally commanded), then we can swing the balance in our favour somewhat on the players-in-before-players-out hypothesis.

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? Horses for courses, and all that.

[cmonurz]

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.

[Maguire]

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

[Alan Partridge]

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

just because of his skin colour you type that

[howser]

Well those of mightier knowledge, where is the replacement coming from I guess it will be a Cheap "one for the future" Olympics soon what a better time to pick up a gem !!

[TheMaraudingDog]

True TMD, but the £60m or so that you get in transfer fees can buy 3 or 4 excellent (but lesser) players that can improve the team as a whole.

See where you're coming from, but I think the £60m would only boost United's squad and not the starting 11. In fact I'm certain that if you were to pick an 11 then United with Ronaldo > United without Ronaldo but £60m worth of players available to buy.

You can have the cash but that does not mean you can just cherry pick the players to buy.

[Friday's Child]

Don't agree with those against Morrison. With the squad we have, and a player up front down, I think for free he would offer us something different, and has a proven record at this level. Other than fairly similar wages to Kitson - one would have thought - he's low risk, and this is Reading FC we are talking about.

[Friday's Child]

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.