Sean Morrison and Brett Williams - Confirmed

[brendywendy]

Picking up on the Hoop Blah - Brendy debate, why do we need players who will be first team players now?

To improve the side.

If you accept standing still you just move backwards. You need to be constantly improving. We didn't look to do that in 2006/07 and it cost us our place in the Premiership and ever since we've pretty much made do with what we already had in the squad replacing the players we lost or those who's form/prowess waned.

It's not so much a comment on what we need right now, as a review of how we got here in the first place.

agree we need to move forward- disagree that we arent. for instance we now have 4 strikers instead of 3,
a genuinely good DM in legs to compliment karacan
+ a young CD to replace ivar/kish
thats already moved the 1st team forward.
and the window isnt closed yet!

i also disagree we didnt look to do it in 06/07, cos we definitely did.
we looked to bring in mensah and scott brown with club record bids- who probably would have steadied us and kept us up when the bums started squeaking.
and we brought in fae, halford etc, big money ambitious signings, ahead of other clubs looking to buy them. it just happened they ended up a bit shit.

[facaldaqui]

Picking up on the Hoop Blah - Brendy debate, why do we need players who will be first team players now?

To improve the side.

If you accept standing still you just move backwards. You need to be constantly improving. We didn't look to do that in 2006/07 and it cost us our place in the Premiership and ever since we've pretty much made do with what we already had in the squad replacing the players we lost or those who's form/prowess waned.

It's not so much a comment on what we need right now, as a review of how we got here in the first place.

agree we need to move forward- disagree that we arent. for instance we now have 4 strikers instead of 3,
a genuinely good DM in legs to compliment karacan
+ a young CD to replace ivar/kish
thats already moved the 1st team forward.
and the window isnt closed yet!

i also disagree we didnt look to do it in 06/07, cos we definitely did.
we looked to bring in mensah and scott brown with club record bids- who probably would have steadied us and kept us up when the bums started squeaking.
and we brought in fae, halford etc, big money ambitious signings, ahead of other clubs looking to buy them. it just happened they ended up a bit shit.

Weren't we interested in Lescott at some point?

[Hoop Blah]

Coppell himself admitted he didn't do enough to move things on. He turned down genuine opportunities to strengthen the starting eleven, not just fanciful dead-end bids, because he felt we could make do with what we had.

We may have tried in a couple of places, so perhaps I should rephrase to actaully suceeding at bringing in re-enforcements.

Halford was a good purchase, but even he wasn't one to strenthen the side. He was heir apparent to Murty at right back or another attempt at replacing Sidwell according to some. Whichever is your preferred view, he wasn't a ready made first team player.

[brendywendy]

To improve the side.

If you accept standing still you just move backwards. You need to be constantly improving. We didn't look to do that in 2006/07 and it cost us our place in the Premiership and ever since we've pretty much made do with what we already had in the squad replacing the players we lost or those who's form/prowess waned.

It's not so much a comment on what we need right now, as a review of how we got here in the first place.

agree we need to move forward- disagree that we arent. for instance we now have 4 strikers instead of 3,
a genuinely good DM in legs to compliment karacan
+ a young CD to replace ivar/kish
thats already moved the 1st team forward.
and the window isnt closed yet!

i also disagree we didnt look to do it in 06/07, cos we definitely did.
we looked to bring in mensah and scott brown with club record bids- who probably would have steadied us and kept us up when the bums started squeaking.
and we brought in fae, halford etc, big money ambitious signings, ahead of other clubs looking to buy them. it just happened they ended up a bit shit.

Weren't we interested in Lescott at some point?

yes- confirmed by coppell at fans forum i think

also think his experience with those three, plus fae and halford is what put him off the money signings for ever. and who can blame him tbf

[brendywendy]

Coppell himself admitted he didn't do enough to move things on. He turned down genuine opportunities to strengthen the starting eleven, not just fanciful dead-end bids, because he felt we could make do with what we had.

We may have tried in a couple of places, so perhaps I should rephrase to actaully suceeding at bringing in re-enforcements.

Halford was a good purchase, but even he wasn't one to strenthen the side. He was heir apparent to Murty at right back or another attempt at replacing Sidwell according to some. Whichever is your preferred view, he wasn't a ready made first team player.

dont think they were fanciful or dead ends, celtic accepted the brown bid didnt they?
the players didnt want to come as they feared relegation in 2nd season.

it was all about bringing in quality imo. when they fell through coppell was left with punts like fae and halford, and when they didnt work-he took the decision that going for even bigger punts, who werent going to be much better than the players we already had, who had achieved everything he'd asked, would have been daft.
in those circumstances you can totaly see why he did it, even if it turned out to be the wrong decision with hindsight(although there was still no guarantee of staying up had we spent-bringing in other players on high wages may have destabilised the squad and morale even further-who knows)

[loyalroyal4life]

Royals new boy reveals late offer

Sean Morrison has revealed that he turned down a last-minute offer from another Championship side to sign for Reading from Swindon.

The centre-back has moved from Swindon on a three-and-a-half year deal but was in demand and could have joined one of the Royals' promotion rivals.

He said: "I was 100% about coming here.

"It was an easy decision in every way and it didn't even cross my mind to change my decision after I received that call late on.

"It's a club looking upward toward the Premier League and with the squad we have there is no stopping us."



Any idea who that promotion rival is?

[NR_Royal]

I want to guess Boro seeing as they've just sold a CB, but they're a bit shit to be our rivals...maybe Burnley?

[Ferris]

I was told it was Pompey

[VOR]

like any one actually knows how good they are, how good theyll be, or how quickly theyll improve

Good point. Important to plan for the future; you win some you lose some. No doubt this has been raised here and elsewhere several times already but to anyone who hasn't done already I recommend the book 'Why England Lose' especially the chapter on the rise of Olympique Lyon and even more especially the part on buying and selling players.

[Royal With Cheese]

Royals new boy reveals late offer

Sean Morrison has revealed that he turned down a last-minute offer from another Championship side to sign for Reading from Swindon.

The centre-back has moved from Swindon on a three-and-a-half year deal but was in demand and could have joined one of the Royals' promotion rivals.

He said: "I was 100% about coming here.

"It was an easy decision in every way and it didn't even cross my mind to change my decision after I received that call late on.

"It's a club looking upward toward the Premier League and with the squad we have there is no stopping us."



Any idea who that promotion rival is?

It'll either be Doncaster or Scunthorpe.

[loyalroyal4life]

Royals new boy reveals late offer

Sean Morrison has revealed that he turned down a last-minute offer from another Championship side to sign for Reading from Swindon.

The centre-back has moved from Swindon on a three-and-a-half year deal but was in demand and could have joined one of the Royals' promotion rivals.

He said: "I was 100% about coming here.

"It was an easy decision in every way and it didn't even cross my mind to change my decision after I received that call late on.

"It's a club looking upward toward the Premier League and with the squad we have there is no stopping us."



Any idea who that promotion rival is?

It'll either be Doncaster or Scunthorpe.

I was thinking moreso Preston

[Wizard]

Sure I read the promotion chasing rival was "recently Premier league". So Portsmouth or Burnley then.

[readingboy]

Williams has signed on a permanent basis from Eastleigh this week but was working as a taxi driver until Monday, so is not yet match fit.

where's terry lol

[Salford Royal]

[ankeny]

Williams has signed on a permanent basis from Eastleigh this week but was working as a taxi driver until Monday, so is not yet match fit.

where's terry lol

ZZZZZZZZ Yawn

[AndyRFC]

Hall of fame material