It was pretty obvious what happened, just because he was bought a couple a few days before Gorkss was sold doesnt mean the moves arent related, it was well known he had to sell to buy. The Barton and SWP were clear signs of panic too.
The thing that worries me about relegation is that people think we will bounce straight back and thats not always the case, rememeber 96? Thought we had a good team then and we went the other way. The Championship may be a poor division but the best team does not always go up? Take this season, West ham play the best football and they are 3rd and will end up in the play-off's and may not go up. Reading not the best passing team but played well as a group and grounded out results and get promoted. Not sure some of our players will fancy Barnsley on a cold Tuesday night. That's why it's so important that we stay up. This season has had had a mixture of good and bad things for us but as a club we are moving forward. New training ground, academy, scouts, new stadium and profile. Will not be a disaster if we go down but it will set us back 2-3 years just when things are going well. But for me the worst thing about relegation is that c##p 'Football League Show' on the BBC on about 12:50! Just show the players that show and we will win every game.
Dont forget Steve Claridge! We will be ok if we carry on sorting out things behind the scenes, have a clear out and get some quality players to replace them. Hughes plays effective football and I dont think he will have to change much for the NPC and quite a few of our players already have experience there so it wont be a shock like it would be if Villa went down. Id also dispute that WHU play the best football because they have fat sam in charge.
I think the worse thing about relegation is that we may well struggle to come straight back up again. It is a hard division to get out of in the right direction! I still think that there is not much difference in quality between the bottom two thirds or so of the PL and the top 10 or so in the Championship, and if we go down it's likely to be a god almighty struggle to get back up again. And as you say I fear we may still have too many players who won't fancy Barnsley or a few other places a cold wet Tuesday night.
Who? If we bought Taarabt this year then everyone would have said him but he handled it ok last season. SWP and Cisse are the only ones I can think of at the moment, oh and Ephraim if hes still here.
In general Adel didn't play so well away from LR last season, and I remember the odd away trip like to Scunthorpe where we got stuffed. Who else won't like cold, wet nights in Barnsley - well who would? But apart from Kenny, Hill, Derry, HH and Smith, I can't think of any of the others who are playing for us fairly regularly now who can be depended on to "step up to the plate" in a dirty one in Barnsley.
Agree with the rest but cannot agree with this... I have watched many Championship games and thought the quality was very poor. The Prem is all about quick players and clinical passing and finishing. Look how well Legs and Gorkss have done but it looks like they are playing in 'slow motion' when you watch them. If we do go down and keep most of the players we should really come straight back up but that's not always the case. I don't want and our board don't want to be a yoyo club that's why we must stay up.
Ok, I have watched very little Championship this season! However I can think of Clubs like Wolves, Blackburn, West Ham, Birmingham, Leeds, Boro, Leicester, Blackpool, Cardiff, Brighton and a few others who have the support, history, and / or resources to be pretty competitive against us, or the other Clubs in the bottom 2/3 of the PL, in the NPC next season.
He seemed to do ok the last time we played in Barnsley. http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/MatchReport/0,,10373~52354,00.html Adel Taarabt's 47th second strike saw QPR move one step closer to the Premier League thanks to a 1-0 victory at Barnsley.
Well, if Kaspars and Legs are going to be Premiership players next year (and I mean playing regularly) Reading won't be staying there too long.....
Can't stand Reading! But I'm well chuffed for Legs and Gorkss, they've both been integral to their promotion and well deserved please log in to view this image
As I said at the time, I can only imagine that there was a falling out. He went pretty quickly. I'd be surprised if it was simply a case of balancing the books against the August signings, as appears to have been the case with Bradders in January.
Well said. Good luck to Legs and Kaspars. I think Legs may struggle but Kaspars deserves his chance: he did a great job for us.
He would have if he strung a few passes together. Look at Taraabt. He successfully completed a couple of passes a year ago and hes still idolized.
The thing is Gorkks, Connolly and Legs have never had the chance to play in the premiership. A lot similar was said about some of the Norwich and Swansea players last season but if they play in a well organised and well managed team as we have seen with Norwich and Swansea they will easily be good enough.