Summer Rebuild

[RoyallyFcuked]

To be honest there's not a single player who has departed the club this summer that I would have kept. All of them needed to be moved with the possible exception of Feds who I like and rate but he is also replacable. I think giving him the POTS award ended up looking like a bit of a sympathy vote after the Cup Semi Final but I'd say he deserved it for his service to the club, (and no one else deserved to win it.)

I wouldnt say his mistake spoilt that Wembley day out completely as I still enjoyed it more than the Swansea play off game, Pog was the weak link and only one who failed to up his game. The fact that the rest of them did shows they had not been putting the effort in and had clearly given up on the league campaign a long time before that game despite trying to convince everyone otherwise.

[Woodcote Royal]

I think we've all been very patient with The Club and this patience is starting to wear very thin.

The Club need to be very careful here - they are relying heavily on the loyalty of the fans to "stick with us" yet we have never really heard or seen anything about the Thai owners themselves. Loyalty has to be earned and as of yet we have seen or heard very little (if anything) of the Thai owners to give us confidence that things are heading in the right direction. Their silence is deafening.

Because communication is so poor we are having to rely on what we can actually see rather than what we are being told - so as Lloyd Grossman used to say "lets look at the evidence"

1) We've seen a haemorrhaging of playing and non-playing staff and zero replacements. The only voice we hear is that of Steve Clark (who to be fair is trying his best) buts its so obvious that he carries very little weight in terms of new additions to The Club and he cant physically do anything until he hears from the Thai owners (lets remember they don't like to communicate). Where are the owners? Why haven't they ever been introduced properly to the fans? Why haven't they provided some club expectations to the fans? where is the value in remaining silent and hidden away?

2) How and when are budgets set? I would have thought that the budgets for next season would have been completed at the end of last season - that's what most clubs and businesses do! Since then our financial position must have improved with people leaving so if anything we should have had initial budgets in place weeks ago WHICH have now been improved because we have lost players? I personally think the budgets were set some time ago at zero, no one has told Steve Clark and the improving of our financial position over the last few weeks has still probably not put us back in the black?

3) Kem Karacan - how can his contract still be unresolved? Is he staying or going?

4) Steve Clark looks and sounds to me like a man who is trying his hardest to hide his true annoyance. In Adkins and McDermott I believe we had two ideal scape goats for the under investment in The Club. I would love to have an open and honest chat with both of them to find out what really happens behind the scenes as I would expect them to say they were given "certain reassurances about budgets that ultimately failed to materialise". I think Clark could well be the third victim to suffer the same fate. I heard that when we initially approached Adkins about the vacancy he turned us down as he was in Holland on his own personal scouting mission - he was still being paid by Southampton and he had no intention of joining us - the story goes that he was promised a "war chest" of cash with which to improve the side which changed his mind - the rest as they say is history.

My conclusion then is that we should all just accept that there is no money for new players - the expansive black hole that has engulfed RFC finances over the last decade is taking its toll YET AGAIN. The team will be padded out with loan players and youngsters and we will struggle to do as well as last season - which is saying something! relegation is an absolute possibility.

I predict Steve Clark will walk away and in some ways I hope he does and sticks his fingers up at our non-existent board. One of our coaches will step up as interim manager.

Harbringer of Doom

Mr C

[From Despair To Where?]

So Madejski's on the tv and he's on an ego trip, the Thais aren't and they're secretive. I'd rather they just quietly got on with running the club, which they appear to be doing. I don't expect every boardroom decision to be announced with a fanfare and I certainly don't expect any business to publicly announce budget discussions.

[Nameless]

Woodcote you could reproduce many recent posts with a string of LOLs after them !

Football fans love to be negative, love to think wild supposition is fact and love to think they have the inside take (not pointing the finger at individuals, we're all guilty !)

While we're not the finished article by any means things are starting to happen at the club and those predicting meltdown are perhaps rethinking. And it's still June.

If, as looks possible, we hit the first week in July with 5 new players of first team pedigree and a new backroom team I wonder if anyone will be big enough to say ' I got that wrong'.

If we start the season with no keeper, no defensive cover, a hole in midfield and no attack I'll post naked for a week....

[Sutekh]

The Mighty Quinn is expected to be announced as our next signing today or tomorrow....

[Nameless]

The Mighty Quinn is expected to be announced as our next signing today or tomorrow....

Any ideas for a song for him ?

[tidus_mi2]

The Mighty Quinn is expected to be announced as our next signing today or tomorrow....

Any ideas for a song for him ?

It would be nice if we came up with something creative but it'll probably be something like Stephen Hunt's song but with Hunt replaced by Quinn.

[WoodleyRoyal]

As Sutekh quite rightly said on the rumours and gossip thread for him

"Oh come all without, come all within
You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn
Come all without, come all within
You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn"

and for the youngster among us it's what we used to sing for jimmy

[SCIAG]

The Mighty Quinn is expected to be announced as our next signing today or tomorrow....

Any ideas for a song for him ?

It would be nice if we came up with something creative but it'll probably be something like Stephen Hunt's song but with Hunt replaced by Quinn.

WHOOOOOOOOOSH

[maffff]

To paraphrase Charlie Sheen. #QUINNING

[winchester_royal]

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/stephen-quinn-reading-football-club-2513333.aspx

A few things stand out here, but mostly it's the 'ambition to get back to the premier league' comment that really interests me. I know this is usually just a bit of cliched spew that footballers come out with, but Quinn wasn't short of offers, and if he actually has been won over by our supposed ambition then perhaps the Thais are more committed to investing in the club than we previously thought.

Either way, the news coming out of the club in the past few days has been hugely positive, and so refreshing to see after a miserable past couple of years.

[Norfolk Royal]

Hull don't like losing him.

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Exit-Ste ... story.html

And get a load at the last comment at the end of the piece. Lol, like Hull isn't exactly Las Vegas either.

[SCIAG]

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/stephen-quinn-reading-football-club-2513333.aspx

A few things stand out here, but mostly it's the 'ambition to get back to the premier league' comment that really interests me. I know this is usually just a bit of cliched spew that footballers come out with, but Quinn wasn't short of offers, and if he actually has been won over by our supposed ambition then perhaps the Thais are more committed to investing in the club than we previously thought.

Either way, the news coming out of the club in the past few days has been hugely positive, and so refreshing to see after a miserable past couple of years.

Don't want to be a downer but the last three summer transfer windows were probably the highlights of their seasons, with multiple seemingly-excellent acquisitions arriving in each. Hopefully this year we finally live up to or better the promise of the window.

[winchester_royal]

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/stephen-quinn-reading-football-club-2513333.aspx

A few things stand out here, but mostly it's the 'ambition to get back to the premier league' comment that really interests me. I know this is usually just a bit of cliched spew that footballers come out with, but Quinn wasn't short of offers, and if he actually has been won over by our supposed ambition then perhaps the Thais are more committed to investing in the club than we previously thought.

Either way, the news coming out of the club in the past few days has been hugely positive, and so refreshing to see after a miserable past couple of years.

Don't want to be a downer but the last three summer transfer windows were probably the highlights of their seasons, with multiple seemingly-excellent acquisitions arriving in each. Hopefully this year we finally live up to or better the promise of the window.

Possibly, although I'd contest that with last summer, and in the previous summer the recruitment drive appeared to be much less logical.

You are right of course in saying that only time will tell, but from the position we looked like being in just a couple of weeks ago the transformation in mood around the club has been quite remarkable.

[Ian Royal]

As Sutekh quite rightly said on the rumours and gossip thread for him

"Oh come all without, come all within
You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn
Come all without, come all within
You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn"

and for the youngster among us it's what we used to sing for jimmy

I always thought it was:
'he's got no hair but we don't care' from his last few seasons anyway.

[Nameless]

There were multiple songs for JQ.

I'm assuming most people aren't aware that you can have more than one song for a player.....

[Ian Royal]

There were multiple songs for JQ.

I'm assuming most people aren't aware that you can have more than one song for a player.....

We can't manage one normally. Just dont recall ever hearing the mighty quinn one.

[melonhead]

very pleased with business so far.
get me a keeper, an experienced central defender, and a specialist LB and im happy.
add another striker to that and im ecstatic.

plus the welcome addition of some irish, some ginger, and some beard.
all we need now is some icelandic

[Woodcote Royal]

Woodcote you could reproduce many recent posts with a string of LOLs after them !

Football fans love to be negative, love to think wild supposition is fact and love to think they have the inside take (not pointing the finger at individuals, we're all guilty !)

While we're not the finished article by any means things are starting to happen at the club and those predicting meltdown are perhaps rethinking. And it's still June.

If, as looks possible, we hit the first week in July with 5 new players of first team pedigree and a new backroom team I wonder if anyone will be big enough to say ' I got that wrong'.

If we start the season with no keeper, no defensive cover, a hole in midfield and no attack I'll post naked for a week....

It would be less sad if the same people didn't post the same garbage that some of us have been reading for 15 years and more

No one from within the club, despite the way it was stitched up to the brink of administration by the Russians, gave the slightest inclination that there would be no transfer budget this summer but YET AGAIN this thread has been hijacked by the same idiots posting the same unsubstantiated shite for the umpteenth time

Do some supporters never get tired of being spectacularly wrong?

[From Despair To Where?]

...and as for these much talked about budget talks between Clarke and the owners, I don't believe for one moment that Clarke didn't already have a ballpark idea of what was available and what terms he could offer and, if any such talks actually happened, it was just a question of the owners rubber stamping it.

If we can get McShane and a keeper in then anyone else would be icing on the cake of a pretty constructive window.