Shane Long

[Babylon]

That's a fair point to make, but at 24 he's not even at his peak yet.

In a fairly attacking team such as ours, there'll be service from midfield and the likelihood of goals. If, as I and several clubs seem to think, last season was a breakthrough season for him then he looks a solid acquisition. Also, he'll be under the tutelage of a manager who is very good at developing attacking talent.

If only Fatty had stayed fit we could have flogged him to some mug for £7m

[Babylon]

So we sell Matty Fryatt for less than £1mil who's now scoring plenty for Hull, n pay £7-8 mil, yes thats £7-8 mil for a similar type of player in Long?????????????????

Obviously the manager does think there is a difference.

[the royal]

No offence to Brian MCD but Shane Long under the tutelage of :sge: will thrive and I feel will score a lot of goals

McD will arguably be better than Sven at tutoring Shane - let's remember that McD was our chief scout for years before moving to become manager, and was as far as I know, instrumental in discovering Long and Kevin Doyle whom we bought together for under £100,000. When Long moved to Reading, he was 17-18 and I remember reading that he stayed with McD's family when he was settling in. They know each other better than most managers will know their players - and let's also remember that the time Long started banging the goals in oddly or not so oddly correlates with McD moving to become first team coach aka, the manager

[Guest ttfn]

And that is why we are going all guns blazing this season to go up. It's a huge gamble but they are stubbornly confident are our owners and manager so we've just got to get involved.

We're going all guns blazing because Sven only has 1-year and the Thais don't have infinitely deep pockets.

Bidding £7.5m for Long, when we have reportedly refused to go above £5m for Maynard (a ludicrous price in itself) is crazy.

Why not get an expensive loan player in for this season? Would that not be a better idea as it won't impact the club for the future. Snapping someone who won't play at Man City (for example) and paying him £60k a week this year would (oddly) make more financial sense than bidding all that money for Long.

[SMX11]

So we sell Matty Fryatt for less than £1mil who's now scoring plenty for Hull, n pay £7-8 mil, yes thats £7-8 mil for a similar type of player in Long?????????????????

When has Matty Fryatt scored 24 goals in a season in the championship?

Shane Long is about 2 yards quicker as well.

[Tielemans63]

It's a shitload of money for a gut who'd be free to talk to in 6 months.

Also, (if he does sign) I hope to god he gets off to a good start. If he goes 4/5 games without scoring than we might have another Badbiyi on our hands.

On the other hand he might be bloody brilliant!

[Happy Fox]

McD will arguably be better than Sven at tutoring Shane - let's remember that McD was our chief scout for years before moving to become manager, and was as far as I know, instrumental in discovering Long and Kevin Doyle whom we bought together for under £100,000. When Long moved to Reading, he was 17-18 and I remember reading that he stayed with McD's family when he was settling in. They know each other better than most managers will know their players - and let's also remember that the time Long started banging the goals in oddly or not so oddly correlates with McD moving to become first team coach aka, the manager

Cheers for the reply, do you feel he would work well in a 4-3-3 formation or 4-4-2?

[Red Dawn]

So you have spent 10million and are going to cough up another 5-7 on Long.

Insane.

[Babylon]

Why not get an expensive loan player in for this season? Would that not be a better idea as it won't impact the club for the future. Snapping someone who won't play at Man City (for example) and paying him £60k a week this year would (oddly) make more financial sense than bidding all that money for Long.

It would make sense if they were looking short term, but maybe they are looking long term.

The financial fair play thing hasn't really been set out fully yet and teams will bend rules.

[the royal]

To be fair, I'd be spitting if I were a Royals fan.

Seems strange to me that you're selling your best players when your owner is probably as rich as ours are?

As far as he lets on, he's not as rich as he was - or at least, he makes it club policy to not splurge on players. It's extremely risky to do so as a club in the Championship, you don't have the TV revenue akin to that of the Premiership, gate receipts will be lower, and sponsorship won't rake in as much. Unless your owner is absolutely filthy rich (which Madejski most definitely is not), I can almost certainly see this backfire on you guys at some point, I'm afraid to say. Even QPR, with their notorious millions, didn't splash out like you guys.

Edit: And I'm not spitting. We're used to selling our prize assets... we've been in the Championship for four seasons now counting this one coming one up and have thus far sold around £20m worth of players not including Long. Think Doyle £6.5m, Sonko £5.5m, Kitson £5.5m (to be fair we were laughing to the bank with that) Sigurdsson £6-7m - who I remember scored a brilliantly taken goal at the Walkers' just a few days before he was sold.

[Matt]

So you have spent 10million and are going to cough up another 5-7 on Long.

Insane.

It's how we roll.

[Bettsy82]

So you have spent 10million and are going to cough up another 5-7 on Long.

Insane.

yeh £10m on 10 players !

[Bettsy82]

So we sell Matty Fryatt for less than £1mil who's now scoring plenty for Hull, n pay £7-8 mil, yes thats £7-8 mil for a similar type of player in Long?????????????????

yeh but we sold fryatt for a genuine reason, he was crap !

[the royal]

Cheers for the reply, do you feel he would work well in a 4-3-3 formation or 4-4-2?

I would say 4-4-2 but he's a great lone striker.

[lestajigs]

I thought there manager said we havn't even made a bid, then someone one here says we've made a bid and had it accepted!!! So how does he no all this!!!

[Happy Fox]

Shane Long and the Jong a match made in heaven

[Jimmy]

yeh but we sold fryatt for a genuine reason, he was crap !

and he was sulking and wanted out

[Red Dawn]

Be careful to gloat though even if you do go up. Id be shitting myself if we had some dodgy owners with Sven 'kid in a candy shop' Erikkson in charge.

Still, best of luck.

[Itsthejoeker]

Be careful to gloat though even if you do go up. Id be shitting myself if we had some dodgy owners with Sven 'kid in a candy shop' Erikkson in charge.

Still, best of luck.

They aren't dodgy...

[Libertine]

Do worry that he's a confidence player. McDermott is clearly a great man manager and whilst players generally love Sven, I'm not sure he's quite the same style. Still excited by the prospect but I'm wary of the (apparent) price, seems odd that we don't seem to be willing to go that high for Maynard.

[Bettsy82]

and he was sulking and wanted out

I hate to say it because i love the guy but Waggy will go the same way he is simply not good enough and far too inconsistent for what we want.

[Salieri]

I would say 4-4-2 but he's a great lone striker.

Prior to last season his goal record was mediocre to say the least. What brought about such a massive turnaround? Was it a change of system (and improved service) or just a vast improvement in his finishing etc?

A combination of the two I suspect?

[One Arm Babba]

Be careful to gloat though even if you do go up. Id be shitting myself if we had some dodgy owners with Sven 'kid in a candy shop' Erikkson in charge.

Still, best of luck.

I think it is a little bad reasearch on you part to call our owners dodgy. They are revamping the club from the ground up... Not just playing staff.

Wouldn't every manager want a large amount to spend? Sven has spent wisely, Some of our Key signings have came in on frees.

[john doe]

Be careful to gloat though even if you do go up. Id be shitting myself if we had some dodgy owners with Sven 'kid in a candy shop' Erikkson in charge.

Still, best of luck.

id be more upset if we had the wolly with the brolly . but we don`t we have his boss :sge:

[Tielemans63]

As far as he lets on, he's not as rich as he was - or at least, he makes it club policy to not splurge on players. It's extremely risky to do so as a club in the Championship, you don't have the TV revenue akin to that of the Premiership, gate receipts will be lower, and sponsorship won't rake in as much. Unless your owner is absolutely filthy rich (which Madejski most definitely is not), I can almost certainly see this backfire on you guys at some point, I'm afraid to say. Even QPR, with their notorious millions, didn't splash out like you guys.

Edit: And I'm not spitting. We're used to selling our prize assets... we've been in the Championship for four seasons now counting this one coming one up and have thus far sold around £20m worth of players not including Long. Think Doyle £6.5m, Sonko £5.5m, Kitson £5.5m (to be fair we were laughing to the bank with that) Sigurdsson £6-7m - who I remember scored a brilliantly taken goal at the Walkers' just a few days before he was sold.

Fair play to you. I don't know why but I had it in my head that Madejski was one of the richest men in the country? Maybe I dreamt it!

I can see that losing these players doesn't upset you too much but surely the good work done by Brian Mac is undone when you sell your best players? You were 90 mins from being a Prem team - why not add to the squad and go for promotion again? Does the club have a big debt?