Smirking_Saint

Yeah, apparantly he has been open to offers at Reading for a while. He has also recently pumped some cash into some housing somewhere or buildings contracts or something. From what i have heard he is not going to cut and run from the royals but if someone came in with a serious offer he will take it and has said he has not the cash to fund any real player signings. It must be worth a look, Reading is not far from us, we are arguably a bigger side and on the up (alledgedly lol), we have the cash. They have a lot of players that i would consider. Mills, Mcanuff, Karacan, Church, Howard. I don't know about Long as i have never rated him but he would probably do well in this league.

I agree, i don't think our current position is good enough at all and have said all season that anything other than automatic will be a major major let down and not getting promotion will be catastrophic. AP's failure to achieve promotion last season was exactly that a failure however if NA fails it will be a disaster. I think we are moving the right way IMO but have been helped immensely by the fact that nobody bar Brighton have looked like finding any real consistancy this year. And NA knows how shocking the game was last week and i don't doubt that the players do either, it was farking terrible. I don't think it is psychological, once again we have had another disasterous start to the season, we have had deaths, unfit players, staff sackings, arrests !! Its like something out of Skys dream team ffs. But before last week everyone was optimistic and it looked like we were closing the gap, indeed we WERE closing the gap. Poor performances happen, i know we have had a few but we seem to have been still picking up the points, which is what the good sides do. All we are missing is someone clinical, and with that we will easily fire up the league, the fact we are were we are without having anyone upfront in any real form is pretty admirable IMO. I still think we will be ok, and yes we need signings in January, but it won't be easy getting the players we need.

Bit of both. We could be footie friends and ps3 friends

Well, i can't remember where i heard it but i did read somewhere that AOC's father has no intention of making the same mistakes that Surman made and believes ATM his sons best option is to continue his development at a side who is playing him and that has a good set up....us. Now, this may be all about getting him a better deal, he is probably on next to nothing ATM as most youngsters are, especially compared to what last year we regarded as our definate 11 players. If it was me, considering he is now looking like big part of the plans for one reason or another, i would be looking for more parity in my pay packet. And in all honesty i think that is what it is all about. AOC won't be going anywhere, but he may get a better deal in the near future. Arsenal is the only real option for him IMO, Liverpool have no real pedigree in progressing players but then even looking at the level in which Arsenal spend on youth i don't think they are the youth development machine everyone makes them out to be. They just buy buy buy. At the moment we are the best bet in his career. If arsenal or liverpool come calling, i know it won't be 10mil as that is madness for a league 1 player, but i fully expect us to chuck bolt ons after bolt ons on the deal. IF

Its not a money thing Alps, it is pretty obvious what he was saying and TBH it isn't hard to understand it. The players we need to improve the squad may not be available in January as they will be embroiled in their teams seasons already, in the same reason that for us it is easier to lose a player in the summer than mid season. Why just spend willy nilly on players that probably won't improve the squad and no doubt, if they do not perform, the same mongs that will slam the club for not spending will slam the club for buying dross ? I think we will make some signings in January but don't wait for any major shakeup. TBF aswell we are hardly in a bad position, crap performance the other day aside we have been unbeatable at home and are 5 points from 2nd with a game in hand. Some people really need to get a grip.

That is a good point, and one that yeah, will always have to be taken into consideration. But has he not recently signed a deal for 5 years or something ?? Also, i don't think NC is a fool, he is not going to write into AOC's contract, who is looking like he has a future, a buy out clause for a paultry amount. I suppose it also all depends on the level of interest, if for instance it is only Arsenal that make an offer than we have no negotiation room really, especially if AOC digs in his heels and demands a move. I would still be hopeful that we get a decent deal for him, as we could also say to him that we will let him rot if push comes to shove (to an extent as players can always go to court to get their contract torn up). However if there is a high level of interest we would be in a better position. I wouldn't worry about it, it is all paper talk and blog writting. There is probably very little basis of it. Perhaps he has been scouted, of which i have no doubt that he is. If we were a big side then i would be a bit concerend if we didn't have a look at players like AOC. And that has caused some speculation and someone wants their blog read, thats about it. I fully expect there will be a few enquiries, as i expect there will be for lallana and fonte, but honestly i don't think anything will happen in jan.

If we don't need the cash, which i don't really think we do then i would hold out for silly money (and 10mil is silly money for him IMO) plus add ons. If teams really really think he is worth it then they will pay. I know we are still a lowly league 1 side but are positioned to actually fight interest away to an extent. Obviously if AOC wants to go then i have no doubt that he will do but i think gone are the days when we will just roll over and accept it (albeit that Lowe always seemed to get decent deals TBF). Any cash that we do make however i fully expect to be pumped straight back into the side. FWIW I don't think we will lose any of our bigger stars in January and also don't think, if we get promoted, we will lose any in the summer. I do think that if we fail in promotion we will be decimated and will have to start over again.

You might as well buy one even if you don't use it as a gaming machine, it is practically the best blu ray player out there, is reletively the same price i think (don't quote me as i havn't checked) and has so many other functionality functions. (lovefilm, internet, 4od, Iplayer etc)

Ps3

What about Church or Long, i am hearing that Reading may be in financial trouble.

[video=youtube;-mb7_wIZg94]

Nope Manflu And yes i have managed to aquire it. It arrived this morning after valiantly avoiding it for the past 2 weeks in the office and taking my colleague to work even though he was dying of it. Nice of it to turn up now even though tommorrow is my last day at work until January. I am currently attempting to beat the sh*t out of it with Vit C, lemsips and Echinechea before it really takes hold.

We can only hope it snows from now til january

Said it at the end of last season. Alas, we didn't replace him. Also mentioned we could do with a stand in for Rickie, but nope. Now we are knackered until January and i reckon we will have a sh*t December

Before ?

His movement was sh*te against Plymouth.

Beattie ?? Really ? I don't like him, never had, always thought he was over rated but even i can't argue against the fact he should score in league 1 (as long as we play his way, loads of crosses etc) And yeah, Le Fondre, Austin, Fryatt would be awesome. I think that Connelly is well past it aswell TBF, and considering that we seem a little light on the ground atm we should see if we can keep Guly, if nothing more than to be on the bench.

Lol

I f*cking hate this though. Dogs are not inherantly evil, nor do they go out to attack kids etc etc They are however animals, and such have to be treated with respect. And unfortunately kids don't understand that fact. In fact animals will generally warn you if they are p*ssed off and it is said that most children attribute a dog bearing its teeth as the fact it is smiling. At the end of the day, if you put young children alongside dogs you are asking for it. You wouldn't let them poke around with your mains. Now i am not saying the dogs shouldn't be put down in these situations, its just harsh on the dog that a stupid decision to allow young kids with animals generally results in the destruction of an animal.

Exactly, Problem is i have never been one to say players should be garanteed a place, if you are not playing well you should be dropped and Lambert is woeful. Spiderman also seems completely off colour, we need new blood in the team to show them they can be replaced.

TBF Guly puts a shift in. For the first half he was the only one doing any sort of closing down. He then seemed to realise no one else was helping out. That said, i think he has struggled to adapt and so yeah, he probably isn't good enough. But then who have we got ?? A player held together with ducktape, a bloke just off the operating table, an untried youngster or an overweight and out of confidence.

He is not contributing anything to the team at the moment, nothing, nada. IMO he is dropping deep as he is being dominated by defences ATM, he is unfit and out of confidence and i think that continually playing him is damaging him even more. When you have it in your head that you can't compete and so feel you can't score it stays there until you have time out of the side to get your head and any other issues sorted. A big problem may be that he has gone from being a very big fish in a small pond to the talisman of a team that has been made favourites, before he could play with little pressure on top of him and now he has bucketfulls. Either way he is not good enough right now, i am not a fan of instant choices to the teamsheet, nor do i think that fan favourites should necerssarily be first name on the team sheet. Lambert is not playing well enough, he doesn't seem to want the ball and when he has it attempts to offload to quickly. He doesn't seem to WANT to get into scoring positions and when he is he doesn't want the ball, this to me says he is out of confidence completely. We need replacements in January that let him know he is not irreplaceable.

I can't see anyone willing to pay decent cash, or basically an offer we can't refuse for a striker so woefully out of form or performance. He is not even competing for me ATM.

Yup we need a striker I am pretty amazed by those statistics though, if that is genuinely in the echo it is the worst paper report since i read in the Daily Mail back in 2003 that we had lost a game 2-0 when in fact we had won 1-0. Even had a complete write up.