I 100% agree with you but we've been saying for this years - quite baffling there hasn't been some kind of review into how effective the medical team are as surely there's an opportunity to improve things there?
I have mixed views on this. I think he is a decent player, who has clearly annoyed some of our fan base, which would tend to mean that he has caused us problems. His age is an issue, but I still feel that he could still do a job for us and hopefully annoy the fan base of other championship team for the next number of years. He is also within our price range!
Be interesting to see where we play Ince and who is in his way, because at the moment we have Louza and Asprilla in a more advanced midfield role, and not much in terms of wide forwards who will definitely be here next season
Sorry mate? I said our starting line up last year looked strong on paper and that we need to improve our medical team. If you think that's wrong and you disagree, crack on. I don't think it's worth derailing a thread on an unrelated topic so couldn't be arsed to debate it.
Right, but you had to insert your sarcastic 'OK then.' I'm not Burnsy though so I don't give a **** what your opinions are, really. I just want to call it out occasionally when you're being smugly wrong.
M if you want to interpret that as sarcasm, fine. As for the rest of your post, have a read back and try to calm down. Whatever has put you in this mood, the feeling will pass I'm sure. It's a lovely sunny day and we've just signed a guaranteed 25 goal striker. Smile!
Gino’s negotiating the £50k release clause. I’ve been told he thinks that’s way too much and has offered a fee of £20k. £5k upfront with the other £15k in installments over his 3 year contract. Waiting on Reading to respond.
I never quite understand why clubs and players don't get these things done early on rather than stalling all summer. Doesn't help the player get ready for the season, the buying club or the selling club. He's obviously leaving them, get your offers in, pick a club, move.
Positives: - Homegrown - Cheap fee - Can play in a couple of positions - Knows the league Cons: - Doesn't really do much - Is a **** - Long deal for his age As others have said, 9 goals for a **** Reading side is a good return, however his 8 non-penalty goals was double his xG, so I'd say he got rather lucky in front of goal this season. Further weight can be added to this by checking his previous seasons tallies: 21/22 (Stoke + Reading): 3.19 xG (5 goals) 20/21 (Stoke + Luton): 0.42 xG (0 goals) 19/20 (Stoke): 4.67 xG (3 goals) 18/19 (Stoke): 5.8 xG (6 goals) Overall before last season he scored 14 goals from 14.08 xG, so pretty much an average finisher. Looking at the goals he scored in 22/23 there's definitely a couple of nice finishes, but also some absolute gifts from defences along with some hefty deflections that he got very lucky with. Will the positives outweigh the negatives? I personally don't think so but happy for him to try and prove me wrong!
Thanks for the info @reids. Did you see his assists? Apparently a couple from set pieces so hopefully can take a decent corner!
Not sure about this one. Hated him in opposition sides, ear cupping little c***. Didn't he get picked for England u21's many moons ago and then wouldn't turn up as he thought he should have been in the senior squad? Actually, it's a no from me but if he signs I hope he does well.
Maybe our owners think that signing a player who hates us will go better than when we signed a manager who hates us?
Don’t know why people are getting so irate about this. A promotion winning team will have a balance of young talent and experienced championship players which we lacked massively last season. With the potential signings of Ince and Redmond who are both very good time-served championship players and a sprinkle of foreign youth and rough diamonds we can push for promotion. Hopefully Healey will be more of a Danny Graham signing than a Joe Garner signing, but that’s what pre-season is all about. Regardless of whether Ince scored 9 worldies or 9 tap ins a goal is a goal and if we can get a 20+ goal striker, these additional goals and chances created will guide us to promotion, unless we don’t strengthen in defence and let in a silly amount of goals
I think 20+ goal strikers being required for promotion is a bit of a myth (although obviously it helps!). Only Luton of the promoted teams this season had a 20 goal striker in Morris. And of course, last time we went up, Sarr top scored with 13.
Still, 13 seems unusually low for a top scorer of a promoted team, and that of course was for a team who equalled the Championship defensive record, maybe 20 isn't absolutely necessary, but someone getting towards 17-18 would be good
