Reading sign 30 year old Midfielder

Dougall said:
Sooner have no signings …

https://twitter.com/x/status/1546811618134093829
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Not all that long ago he was a £10m player when the Dingles signed him.
You suddenly don’t become a bad player because you reach the age of 30.
Would have been a very positive signing for us the way things are going.
If your expecting a higher calibre signing than Hendricks then I think your going to be very disappointed.
 
We already have our version of him in the squad between Stewart, Connolly and Dougal.

Reading are in a different place to us, they're going to struggle next year due to financial mis-management over many years .

We need 3/4 quality additions to our strong base, it's not a question of him being good or bad. His best days are probably behind him and he'll suit Ince's mantra at Reading, it's a question of need they desperately need cheap experience we desperately need attacking brains & flair.
 
Hes a lot better than those from what I saw. V skillful on the ball, within our means, Championship ready. Starting to feel we are missing out on players. We will see.
 
SeasideKurt said:
There is a weird set of people on here who don't want us to sign anyone at all.

Hendricks is shit.
Mooy is shit.
Every free transfer for every other squad is shit.
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There's also a weird set of people that just want us to sign anyone, even though we have 4 iterations of that player already in the squad.
 
Liverpool have just extended the contract of a 30 year old, albeit at a huge salary cost.
I don't hear many Liverpool fans complaining about that. Players these days can still be at their peak
in their early 30's.
 
Thatseasider said:
There's also a weird set of people that just want us to sign anyone, even though we have 4 iterations of that player already in the squad.
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Like who? Hendricks and Mooy are far better than Dougall, Virtue and Connolly. By quite some way to be fair.

What a lot of people want, is improvements to the squad and not status quo. Which, will leave us around the relegation zone if we don't add quality.
 
Thatseasider said:
There's also a weird set of people that just want us to sign anyone, even though we have 4 iterations of that player already in the squad.
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If what we're saying is our strategy is to buy to sell and at a proper age then the non-sign of Brannigan is weird. The losing out on Ebou Adams is strange. And the lack of activity now is also a bit weird. This strategy is long term planning and it suggests to me we don't currently have the finances to go down this route.
 
SeasideKurt said:
If what we're saying is our strategy is to buy to sell and at a proper age then the non-sign of Brannigan is weird. The losing out on Ebou Adams is strange. And the lack of activity now is also a bit weird. This strategy is long term planning and it suggests to me we don't currently have the finances to go down this route.
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Or bigger clubs are coming down to our finance level and picking off our targets easily.

We're in the wrong league really.

Jeff Hendrick is an odd-looking f**er but he's a solid championship centre mid. Didn't even realise he was on the market tbh. Probably a sign that Newcastle have money now more than anything else.
 
poolfc said:
Or bigger clubs are coming down to our finance level and picking off our targets easily.

We're in the wrong league really.

Jeff Hendrick is an odd-looking f**er but he's a solid championship centre mid. Didn't even realise he was on the market tbh. Probably a sign that Newcastle have money now more than anything else.
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Reading are having financial difficulty, so why have they managed to get him and we're not? It's very difficult to sit here and think nothing is wrong in the background.
 
SeasideKurt said:
Like who? Hendricks and Mooy are far better than Dougall, Virtue and Connolly. By quite some way to be fair.

What a lot of people want, is improvements to the squad and not status quo. Which, will leave us around the relegation zone if we don't add quality.
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In your opinion they're better.

btw Mooy? Really? - Hasn't he been out in China the last 3 years, I havn't seen him since he played for BHA, where he looked a shadow of his peak years at Hudds.

Hendricks has been a good player in the past, and maybe would be an improvement on any individual player out of the ones you name, but I don't think you're living in the reality of our club, we arnt going to go for someone like Hendricks when we have 4 players of the same ilk. This isn't Football Manager where you press a few buttons and Virtue is sold and Stewart's paid up, then we can click a few more buttons and Hendrick's is in on loan for a year.

It's real life, it's actual money and real people we're dealing with, our priorities are at different positions on the pitch.

We're all getting a little worried about the lack of activity, the board and owner haven't let us down yet, and whilst it's clear we've missed out on a few people I've every confidence they'll deliver decent additions to the squad before the end of the window.

SeasideKurt said:
If what we're saying is our strategy is to buy to sell and at a proper age then the non-sign of Brannigan is weird. The losing out on Ebou Adams is strange. And the lack of activity now is also a bit weird. This strategy is long term planning and it suggests to me we don't currently have the finances to go down this route.
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Brannagan was Quitch's target, Oxford wanted more for him than we were willing/able to afford. Again this is real life. Ebu Adams, god give me strength, were we really ever in for him? Or was it just a LancsLive article claiming that he was a free agent and we might be interested, He's gone to Cardiff who are scatter gunning free signings after a dire season, not sure I'd be happy with the business they've done so far if it were us.

Maybe we don't have the finances, maybe we do, can't really judge at this current point. Until the owner and the board give me a real reason to complain about their decisions and actions I'll always have confidence in them and back them given their record so far.

Fundamentally this pre season, we're trying to add a select few players, I had a little debate with Phil a month or so ago about John Swift, I actually make him right on that one, he would have been a great addition for us, but WBA are likely paying him 20+k p/w, it's unobtainable for us right now, and I'm ok with that, just as I'm ok with us not going for a Jeff Hendricks, I don't want a Jeff Hendricks simply because no one else has come in yet.

Again, this is not Football Manager, it's real finances that if misused have real consequences, we do need to bring players in and quickly, but ultimately they have to be the correct ones. Hendricks is not that at this current time.
 
SeasideKurt said:
Like who? Hendricks and Mooy are far better than Dougall, Virtue and Connolly. By quite some way to be fair.

What a lot of people want, is improvements to the squad and not status quo. Which, will leave us around the relegation zone if we don't add quality.
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Have to agree with Kurt here, Hendrick is a completely different player to the original 3 that were mentioned as comparisons. Much more attacking and dynamic going forward.
 
SeasideKurt said:
Reading are having financial difficulty, so why have they managed to get him and we're not? It's very difficult to sit here and think nothing is wrong in the background.
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They probably just want to make sure they've got a team to start the season with. Working under EFL restrictions but maybe not skint. I don't think it's one man and his dog there as Mark Bowen went back as HOFO this summer and they brought in a head of recruitment in that I saw. Irish guy from Spurs I think. Might know Hendrick and have some leverage in a move.
 
Thatseasider said:
In your opinion they're better.

btw Mooy? Really? - Hasn't he been out in China the last 3 years, I havn't seen him since he played for BHA, where he looked a shadow of his peak years at Hudds.

Hendricks has been a good player in the past, and maybe would be an improvement on any individual player out of the ones you name, but I don't think you're living in the reality of our club, we arnt going to go for someone like Hendricks when we have 4 players of the same ilk. This isn't Football Manager where you press a few buttons and Virtue is sold and Stewart's paid up, then we can click a few more buttons and Hendrick's is in on loan for a year.

It's real life, it's actual money and real people we're dealing with, our priorities are at different positions on the pitch.

We're all getting a little worried about the lack of activity, the board and owner haven't let us down yet, and whilst it's clear we've missed out on a few people I've every confidence they'll deliver decent additions to the squad before the end of the window.



Brannagan was Quitch's target, Oxford wanted more for him than we were willing/able to afford. Again this is real life. Ebu Adams, god give me strength, were we really ever in for him? Or was it just a LancsLive article claiming that he was a free agent and we might be interested, He's gone to Cardiff who are scatter gunning free signings after a dire season, not sure I'd be happy with the business they've done so far if it were us.

Maybe we don't have the finances, maybe we do, can't really judge at this current point. Until the owner and the board give me a real reason to complain about their decisions and actions I'll always have confidence in them and back them given their record so far.

Fundamentally this pre season, we're trying to add a select few players, I had a little debate with Phil a month or so ago about John Swift, I actually make him right on that one, he would have been a great addition for us, but WBA are likely paying him 20+k p/w, it's unobtainable for us right now, and I'm ok with that, just as I'm ok with us not going for a Jeff Hendricks, I don't want a Jeff Hendricks simply because no one else has come in yet.

Again, this is not Football Manager, it's real finances that if misused have real consequences, we do need to bring players in and quickly, but ultimately they have to be the correct ones. Hendricks is not that at this current time.
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I would suggest the majority of people who understand, watch and know football will be able to tell you a 30 year old Hendricks is better than Virtue, Connolly or Dougall. Not sure it's massively up for debate. We aren't talking anything about football manager.

We're talking about other sides who are being far more pro-active than us currently when we have KNOWN positions that require strengthening. A midfield of Dougall and Connolly doesn't massively work as January onwards proved statistically.

We're slipping behind day in day out, the Championship is not a league where you can go into it with a sub par squad. We got away with it at the start of last season because of how poor Barnsley, Derby and Peteborough were, coupled with the coming up factor.

We don't have that luxury this season and I've seen far too many people saying "we'll be better than 3 other sides" it's so unambitious it's unreal.
 
Can never understand why some people on here want to sign league 2 players (the 2 Wimbledon lads) yet a player who has bags of premier league experience is deemed too old at 30 and not good enough.

Weird one that. 🤔
 
SeasideKurt said:
I would suggest the majority of people who understand, watch and know football will be able to tell you a 30 year old Hendricks is better than Virtue, Connolly or Dougall. Not sure it's massively up for debate. We aren't talking anything about football manager.
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Well these people clearly didn't watch much Championship football last year, where Hendricks turnout for QPR and was dreadful. 🤡
 
Thatseasider said:
Well these people clearly didn't watch much Championship football last year, where Hendricks turnout for QPR and was dreadful. 🤡
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Might have been dreadful but he played more games for QPR in 4 months than Virtue and Connolly did in central midfield for us in a season.
 
Jaffa_The_Hut said:
10 games hardly going to set the world alight in such a short time.
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There wasn't 10 games left when he signed though was there. Wonder why he couldn't get in the side......

More than happy to revisit this at the end of the season, as I might very well be wrong and he is someone we should have pursued.

I just have a very good feeling the players we have and will sign in midfield will be at least on par if not outperform him.
 
SeasideKurt said:
Might have been dreadful but he played more games for QPR in 4 months than Virtue and Connolly did in central midfield for us in a season.
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Connolly played 13 times in CM and would've played more if he wasn't needed at RB, Hendrick managed 10 for QPR.

Virtue of course was injured.
 
Thatseasider said:
There wasn't 10 games left when he signed though was there. Wonder why he couldn't get in the side......

More than happy to revisit this at the end of the season, as I might very well be wrong and he is someone we should have pursued.

I just have a very good feeling the players we have and will sign in midfield will be at least on par if not outperform him.
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Hendricks adds value to our team and is ahead of Dougall Connolly and Virtue in selection, the only player who matches his quality is Stewart but he's unreliable.
 
SeasideKurt said:
Hendricks adds value to our team and is ahead of Dougall Connolly and Virtue in selection, the only player who matches his quality is Stewart but he's unreliable.
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Lets see eh, you might be right, time will tell, I don't think he'd add as much value as you think, at least over and above what we have and who ever we may sign. But we do need to get someone into that attacking role as soon as possible.
 
Thatseasider said:
Lets see eh, you might be right, time will tell, I don't think he'd add as much value as you think, at least over and above what we have and who ever we may sign. But we do need to get someone into that attacking role as soon as possible.
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Agree with that but had we announced Jeff Hendrick on loan with a foreword from Ben Mansford saying how hard they worked to get it done I'm confident you'd be doing a post saying what a good signing it is.

I understand the Sonny Carey hype train, and how nice it looks when Keshi gets it right, but you need that one player who's just better than what you've got to push you on or at least keep you afloat in the championship.
 
Thatseasider said:
Lets see eh, you might be right, time will tell, I don't think he'd add as much value as you think, at least over and above what we have and who ever we may sign. But we do need to get someone into that attacking role as soon as possible.
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What we have?
We have a crock who’s always out injured one who recovering from a bad injury and 2 others who average about a goal a season between them.
That’s hardly encouraging.
 
SeasideKurt said:
Hendricks adds value to our team and is ahead of Dougall Connolly and Virtue in selection, the only player who matches his quality is Stewart but he's unreliable.
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I think he would have added a captain type influence on the team as well. Something we are short off- no disrespect to Epo/Max, but neither are captains as such.
 
Whether we could have signed him or been interested in him is pretty immaterial. Fact is we've signed no-one and people on here are so dismissive of a player who has a bir of pedigree. Think it's a cast iron certainty that if he had signed for us, all those critcising him wouldn't have been having the view of being so critical.
 
poolfc said:
Agree with that but had we announced Jeff Hendrick on loan with a foreword from Ben Mansford saying how hard they worked to get it done I'm confident you'd be doing a post saying what a good signing it is.

I understand the Sonny Carey hype train, and how nice it looks when Keshi gets it right, but you need that one player who's just better than what you've got to push you on or at least keep you afloat in the championship.
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I think I'd say I'd trust the board's decision but I'm not sure it aligns with our strategy. I think this board would have gone into meltdown if we'd have signed him, hardly kicked a ball in anger in 24 months and I have my suspicions he's coasting to retirement now.

Agree with your last line but it's got to be right for the club, I don't think Hendrick (s) ;) would be right for us

Jaffa_The_Hut said:
What we have?
We have a crock who’s always out injured one who recovering from a bad injury and 2 others who average about a goal a season between them.
That’s hardly encouraging.
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Well depends what you think Hendrick is? I've seen him described as 'Dynamic', 'attacking'& 'Very Skilful', I'm not sure what player these people have been watching but he's been none of those things for years, maybe ever.
If he's a steady midfielder that can make some decent runs and crack a decent shot away, he's not been better than anyone of our current midfielders for a long time. His injury record seems decent so that's a plus.
I'm still confident we'll sign a decent attacking midfielder, we all just wish it had happened already, which is why Reading signing this guy seems appealing.
 
20togo said:
Whether we could have signed him or been interested in him is pretty immaterial. Fact is we've signed no-one and people on here are so dismissive of a player who has a bir of pedigree. Think it's a cast iron certainty that if he had signed for us, all those critcising him wouldn't have been having the view of being so critical.
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And I can guarantee if we'd have announced him today, this board would have been in uproar, given his recent history and age.

You wouldnt have been able to move for, 'Past it', 'Oh my god we have no money to spend', 'This is shit, we're only signing has beens'. etc etc.

Let's see who we do eventually sign and compare them to the likes of Jeff Hendrick.

It needs to happen as quickly as possible I think we all agree on that.
 
20togo said:
Whether we could have signed him or been interested in him is pretty immaterial. Fact is we've signed no-one and people on here are so dismissive of a player who has a bir of pedigree. Think it's a cast iron certainty that if he had signed for us, all those critcising him wouldn't have been having the view of being so critical.
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There is an element of support who believe the Club should never be criticised, either openly or implied. And that means if we didn't sign someone then he wasn't good enough otherwise we'd have signed him or we are waiting for the 'right' players.
 
fcblackpool said:
There is an element of support who believe the Club should never be criticised, either openly or implied. And that means if we didn't sign someone then he wasn't good enough otherwise we'd have signed him or we are waiting for the 'right' players.
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The club should be criticised when they do something worthy of criticism. A couple of weeks delay on signing players, given everything that's happened is hardly cause for capital punishment.
 
Thatseasider said:
The club should be criticised when they do something worthy of criticism. A couple of weeks delay on signing players, given everything that's happened is hardly cause for capital punishment.
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Capital punishment is a bit much.

The reality is we do need better players in and whilst the window is open until Sept 1 by then the season will be 7 games in.

The infrastructure is in place within the club to recruit, but we haven't- fans are right to question.
 
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