Closed Season, Coming Our Way On Trial

[AthleticoSpizz]

First off, we have Bognor Regis's central midfielder and captain Kane Wills coming our way.

Despite being rejected by Crawley Town last season, he has also been attracting the interest of the likes of Brentford, Oldham, Wycombe, Northampton, newly promoted Luton and Wrexham recently....apparently he has a "great attitude" especially during training....and would no-doubt be on-the-cheap.

[blueroyals]

What's the point? Would rather see players from the U21s

[poohs pure]

If we are seriously in the market for this standard of footballer against these kind of clubs, then god fùcking help us in the coming years. Regardless of who is to blame, this is a giant leap backwards to the days of Keith Scott, John Mackie, Barry Hunter, Byron Glasgow etc....Christ I feel sick at the thought.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Give the bloke a chance! he hasn't even got here yet.

we are where we are...its where we may be going that may be the issue

[Nameless]

Heaven help us if he's another Nicky Shorey, or Dave Kitson, or Shane Long. He may not be anywhere close but he's coming for a trial and all clubs will be giving players brief run outs in closed door games over the summer. Not many players will get contracts as a result

[poohs pure]

Give the bloke a chance! he hasn't even got here yet.

we are where we are...its where we may be going that may be the issue

^my point exactly

[sandman]

Hope he brings his mask.

[harry]

Heaven help us if he's another Nicky Shorey, or Dave Kitson, or Shane Long. He may not be anywhere close but he's coming for a trial and all clubs will be giving players brief run outs in closed door games over the summer. Not many players will get contracts as a result

or Kevin Doyle ... or Robin Friday .... etc

Everyone's got to come from somewhere. They can't all come from Real Madrid (via Everton & Anzhi) or Monaco (via Hadjuk Split)

[poohs pure]

Heaven help us if he's another Nicky Shorey, or Dave Kitson, or Shane Long. He may not be anywhere close but he's coming for a trial and all clubs will be giving players brief run outs in closed door games over the summer. Not many players will get contracts as a result

or Kevin Doyle ... or Robin Friday .... etc

Everyone's got to come from somewhere. They can't all come from Real Madrid (via Everton & Anzhi) or Monaco (via Hadjuk Split)

I absolutely love your brand of eternal optimism, I really do. The simple fact is, that we are taking huge backward steps, twice promoted to the top flight in a reasonably short space of time, attracting a higher calibre of player, things looking OK, then a terrible takeover and into a smoking tail spin trying to see the positives of trialing some fella from Bognor Regis FFS. Yes I get the whole Kitson and Doyle argument, of course I do, but the point is that the club really should have continued to move forwards and build on recent successes on and off the pitch. Instead I see us as being set back to div 3, in old money that is, and having been overtaken once again by the likes of Bournemouth.

[winchester_royal]

There's nothing wrong with bringing in this lad on trial and having a look.

Don't forget - just before this 'failed takeover' we signed Brett Williams from Eastleigh. Nothing new about us looking around for a bargain. It would be foolish not to.

[Ian Royal]

There's nothing wrong with bringing in this lad on trial and having a look.

Don't forget - just before this 'failed takeover' we signed Brett Williams from Eastleigh. Nothing new about us looking around for a bargain. It would be foolish not to.

I'd rather we didn't repeat the likes of Brett Williams and Cedric Baseya when it was clear they'd never compete at our level. Even the likes of Karl Sheppard, David Mooney, Sam Sodje and Alan Bennett were poor choices, although at least they had a cat in hell's chance of making it.

No idea what this guy's like though, so as a trialist there's no problem. But if we sign him, he'd better not be a waste of space like Baseya and Williams.

[winchester_royal]

There's nothing wrong with bringing in this lad on trial and having a look.

Don't forget - just before this 'failed takeover' we signed Brett Williams from Eastleigh. Nothing new about us looking around for a bargain. It would be foolish not to.

I'd rather we didn't repeat the likes of Brett Williams and Cedric Baseya when it was clear they'd never compete at our level. Even the likes of Karl Sheppard, David Mooney, Sam Sodje and Alan Bennett were poor choices, although at least they had a cat in hell's chance of making it.

No idea what this guy's like though, so as a trialist there's no problem. But if we sign him, he'd better not be a waste of space like Baseya and Williams.

Indeed, I was just refuting the suggestion that this is somehow new territory for us.

Like you say, hopefully he's not another Brett Williams, but if he's another Charlie Austin or the like then it will be well worth it.

[harry]

Heaven help us if he's another Nicky Shorey, or Dave Kitson, or Shane Long. He may not be anywhere close but he's coming for a trial and all clubs will be giving players brief run outs in closed door games over the summer. Not many players will get contracts as a result

or Kevin Doyle ... or Robin Friday .... etc

Everyone's got to come from somewhere. They can't all come from Real Madrid (via Everton & Anzhi) or Monaco (via Hadjuk Split)

I absolutely love your brand of eternal optimism, I really do. The simple fact is, that we are taking huge backward steps, twice promoted to the top flight in a reasonably short space of time, attracting a higher calibre of player, things looking OK, then a terrible takeover and into a smoking tail spin trying to see the positives of trialing some fella from Bognor Regis FFS. Yes I get the whole Kitson and Doyle argument, of course I do, but the point is that the club really should have continued to move forwards and build on recent successes on and off the pitch. Instead I see us as being set back to div 3, in old money that is, and having been overtaken once again by the likes of Bournemouth.

We have no idea what the guy is like hence the trial. The trial and, if he's worth signing, time will tell whether he is any good. Like the examples quoted previously some work, some don't. Generally these sorts of signings are lower risk than big name (and money) ones - strangely for whatever reason I don't recall us making many name signings that have worked out. Far more haven't.

Fair to say the overall situation does feel like a step backwards from a couple of years ago. We should have moved forwards but we haven't (with the first team). We are where we are. It is could be a difficult next few months. Hopefully within a couple of years we'll see a plethora of academy players come through to the first team and replace the one but in the meantime ....

[maffff]

We have links with Bognor Regis - Shepp Murombedzi (pre-release...) went there on loan from us and we had scouts keeping an eye on his progress. It's possible this lad caught our eye then.

He's 24, so we must see something in him that could make an impression on the first team. Been linked to the likes of Crawley before....

http://www.bognor.co.uk/sport/local-foo ... -1-6045337

I like these sort of signings. Exciting we're trying things 'the Reading way' even if it's necessitated by the situation.

[akranes]

The finances involved in deals like this surely make them worth it. Even if only 1 in 5, heck maybe even if only 1 in 10 are successes.

Worked with Doyle/Long, though age was on their side.

[P!ssed Off]

There's nothing wrong with bringing in this lad on trial and having a look.

Don't forget - just before this 'failed takeover' we signed Brett Williams from Eastleigh. Nothing new about us looking around for a bargain. It would be foolish not to.

LOL at Brett Williams.
You've just reminded me of Eastleigh vs Reading XI, July 2011.
A poor loss for the Royals, in which Marcus Williams and Brett Williams battled it out for the award of 'Worst Williams on the pitch'.

I'm quite looking forward to pre-season now.

[PieEater]

Another one for the non league list - Gareth McCleary who moved from Bromley to Forest, sometimes it's worth a punt.

[stealthpapes]

There's nothing wrong with bringing in this lad on trial and having a look.

Don't forget - just before this 'failed takeover' we signed Brett Williams from Eastleigh. Nothing new about us looking around for a bargain. It would be foolish not to.

I'd rather we didn't repeat the likes of Brett Williams and Cedric Baseya when it was clear they'd never compete at our level. Even the likes of Karl Sheppard, David Mooney, Sam Sodje and Alan Bennett were poor choices, although at least they had a cat in hell's chance of making it.

No idea what this guy's like though, so as a trialist there's no problem. But if we sign him, he'd better not be a waste of space like Baseya and Williams.

I swore that any time someone said Cedric baseya, I would post this

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcs4kk ... baseya_fun

[SPARTA]

We have links with Bognor Regis - Shepp Murombedzi (pre-release...) went there on loan from us and we had scouts keeping an eye on his progress. It's possible this lad caught our eye then.

He's 24, so we must see something in him that could make an impression on the first team. Been linked to the likes of Crawley before....

http://www.bognor.co.uk/sport/local-foo ... -1-6045337

I like these sort of signings. Exciting we're trying things 'the Reading way' even if it's necessitated by the situation.

Bognor to Reading's first-team at 24 years old isn't really the Reading Way though. Younger, then out on loan a bit, is more the Reading Way. This is more the Desperate Way - but I do like the lower league hungry type players. Much more refreshing than an ego from a higher league that comes in and struts around.

[winchester_royal]

Not sure what's desperate about bringing a local non league lad in on trial tbh.