SIGNED - Hope Akpan

[winchester_royal]

Crawley fans I've spoken to have compared him to Paul Scholes and reckon he's destined to go higher than Reading ever will. Palace and Cardiff supposedly had bids turned down last week. We're more likely to sign him whilst we're in the Premier League, and he won't be included in the 25 man squad because he was under 21 on January 1st 2011, so there is no negative to this transfer. Obviously we want to see Premier League players come in who will make an impact on the 1st team immediately as a priority, but those types of deal usually take longer to negotiate.

+1 to this. PL clubs will want to bring in replacements before they let anybody go, unless they are surplus to requirements. IF we manage to bring in anyone with PL experience on loan, I expect it'll be towards the end of the window.

It's as if Reading fans seem to think that because we're in the PL we should completely ignore players from the lower league, and if the opportunity comes up to sign a promising youngster we should say 'no thanks, we're premier league big timers now'.

Particularly on twitter, deary me, and they have the nerve to slag HNA off. Apparently it's all Anton's fault we're making this signing, and that Brian's had his pants pulled down.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

It is Akpan. Fordham is all over this. So is he another water carrier or can he pass the ball?

Guess the promised experienced pl pros will come later?

Physical def.midfielder who likes to bomb forward and has a decent shot on him apparently. At 21 he's worth a punt.

Water Carrier then

[Scutterbucketz]

And Coppell will have told Brian to steer clear if he wasn't good for us.

Same people moaning about this are the same ones who bemoaned the signings of S.Hunt, Shorey, Ingimarrson, Sonko, Kitson... "No ambition"..

All of whom cut their teeth in the Championship. Perhaps with the exception of S. Hunt who hardly played that year in the 106 year.

[royal67]

Guess the promised experienced pl pros will come later?

Don't hold your breath........

[jellytot]

It is Akpan. Fordham is all over this. So is he another water carrier or can he pass the ball?

Guess the promised experienced pl pros will come later?

Physical def.midfielder who likes to bomb forward and has a decent shot on him apparently. At 21 he's worth a punt.

Water Carrier then

That would fit in with Reading way. Hoof and run. Scrappers in the midfield..

Would be nice to see us pull off a move involving more than 3 passes some day.

Hope desperately that more EXPERIENCED signings will foll
ow.

[Maguire]

"Akpan Everton didn’t look very assured in midfield position. 1st touch was shocking, his passing was wayward looked off the pace"

With quotes like that he should fit nicely to Reading's midfield. Do doubt Akpan will go down the pan along with the other cheapo signings by McDonet.

Get Real we are getting ready for Division One. Let alone the Championship. Real Facts from the Main Man. You know it makes s enseeeeeeeeeee

That was one guy talking about his one game against BATE in the Europa League.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

If this is one of the "2 or 3" players Brian said he was trying to sign, the this is absolutely pathetic from the club and confirms we are not even going to try to stay up.

You're right, absolutely disgraceful. How dare the club take the low risk strategy of signing a promising young player for the future for a small fee, on low wages.

Signing a young promising player and a more experienced one are mutually exclusive, the two things just can’t happen, that would be a physical impossibility. No football club has ever signed more than two players in one transfer window.

We should be throwing money at washed up has-beens instead, with no care paid to the future, that’s what we all want to see, following the Portsmouth model.

+1.

Some people see sense.

QPR have spent lots of money. Where are they?

[Scutterbucketz]

Fukking hell! Why do people always have to mention QPR?!?

Why not mention any one of the other 5 or 6 clubs who have spent the same kind of money as QPR (not just this year but every year they've been in the PL) who will stay up comfortably?

Yes, spending money doesn't guarantee success, but spending none almost certainly guarantees relegation. I just know someone's going to mention 2006/7.

[Isaac Hunt]

Would be nice to see us pull off a move involving more than 3 passes some day.

Take a look at Hunt's goal from Saturday.

[Big Ern]

Guess the promised experienced pl pros will come later?

Dream on.

[Big Ern]

Fukking hell! Why do people always have to mention QPR?!?

Why not mention any one of the other 5 or 6 clubs who have spent the same kind of money as QPR (not just this year but every year they've been in the PL) who will stay up comfortably?

Yes, spending money doesn't guarantee success, but spending none almost certainly guarantees relegation. I just know someone's going to mention 2006/7.

+1

We should also mention Portsmouth.

[Kebe is our Messi]

Looks to me like the experienced premier league players dont want to come here. Were linked with Chamack, Joe cole etc all went to west ham. Guess players from lower leagues is all we can hope for... Thought we could do better than this though!

[Scutterbucketz]

Probably best not to mention Portsmouth.

[Millsy]

Fukking hell! Why do people always have to mention QPR?!?

Why not mention any one of the other 5 or 6 clubs who have spent the same kind of money as QPR (not just this year but every year they've been in the PL) who will stay up comfortably?

Yes, spending money doesn't guarantee success, but spending none almost certainly guarantees relegation. I just know someone's going to mention 2006/7.

This x 1000000000000000

Scared little Reading.

[Millsy]

Crawley fans I've spoken to have compared him to Paul Scholes and reckon he's destined to go higher than Reading ever will. Palace and Cardiff supposedly had bids turned down last week. We're more likely to sign him whilst we're in the Premier League, and he won't be included in the 25 man squad because he was under 21 on January 1st 2011, so there is no negative to this transfer. Obviously we want to see Premier League players come in who will make an impact on the 1st team immediately as a priority, but those types of deal usually take longer to negotiate.

+1 to this. PL clubs will want to bring in replacements before they let anybody go, unless they are surplus to requirements. IF we manage to bring in anyone with PL experience on loan, I expect it'll be towards the end of the window.

It's as if Reading fans seem to think that because we're in the PL we should completely ignore players from the lower league, and if the opportunity comes up to sign a promising youngster we should say 'no thanks, we're premier league big timers now'.

The concern amongst such sceptics, me included, is not that we're signing these players - of course even if we were top of the Prem we should be looking to sign such players, so much more so now that we need to build for the champ - the concern is that this is ALL we'll be signing. This concern comes on a backdrop of a miserable history of inadequate signings in the past when we needed to stay up. So it's another roll of the eyes and nothing but despair when in a similar situation we are only making signings like akpan, rogic etc..

However sceptics such as ME for one will not be making any such negative noises until the window has closed because siging one for the future in akpan doesnt mean we wont be making proper signings for now in the next couple of weeks. And even then Im unlikely be too negative because I for one thought we did ok not to sign much in the summer. We just ended up having bad luck, no big deal this time.

Anyway back to the point, if you understand where the scepticism comes from you can do more to reassure these guys. The window hasn't closed yet so don't panic!!

[RoyalBlue]

If this is one of the "2 or 3" players Brian said he was trying to sign, the this is absolutely pathetic from the club and confirms we are not even going to try to stay up.

You're right, absolutely disgraceful. How dare the club take the low risk strategy of signing a promising young player for the future for a small fee, on low wages.

Signing a young promising player and a more experienced one are mutually exclusive, the two things just can’t happen, that would be a physical impossibility. No football club has ever signed more than two players in one transfer window.

We should be throwing money at washed up has-beens instead, with no care paid to the future, that’s what we all want to see, following the Portsmouth model.

It depends on what you call 'low wages' - I suspect they aren't as low as you might think plus there will be signing on fees, agent's commission etc. Add up all the failed 'one for the futures' we have signed over the years since we struck lucky with Long and Doyle. It's a very long list and a lot of wasted money. By and large you do get what you pay for and the more you pay, the better quality you tend to get. Otherwise Madejski would be driving around in a sodding Fiat!

And I get sick and tired of idiots continually throwing up the doomsday scenarios (how often has it actually happened anyway?) and completely ignoring the bleeding obvious demonstrated by numerous clubs - there is a middle way! You don't have to spend to go bust but you do have to invest more to secure your future than JM and co appear willing to do.

[winchester_royal]

Fukking hell! Why do people always have to mention QPR?!?

Why not mention any one of the other 5 or 6 clubs who have spent the same kind of money as QPR (not just this year but every year they've been in the PL) who will stay up comfortably?

Yes, spending money doesn't guarantee success, but spending none almost certainly guarantees relegation. I just know someone's going to mention 2006/7.

And why do people always assume that just because a player isn't well-known he's guaranteed to be shit, and that their signing represents a lack of ambition?

[RoyalBlue]

Seriously? Are you c*nts writing off a 21 year old who's been the best player in a team near the top of League 1 without him playing a game?

Crawley fans think he's destined to play in the prem. He has good pedigree having come from the Everton academy. Is a good age. And because his contract his up in the summer we'll get him quite cheap.

Just because we've signed him doesn't mean we won't be looking for experienced prem players as well.

More intelligent debate - resorting to the C word for anyone who doesn't agree with your view of things!

Not much good being the best player (open to debate) if he spends so much time suspended. Appalling disciplinary record.

[bennno]

People are writing this league 1 recruit off to easily, lets not forget 'The Beast' from Herefordshire (just released by Sion for being caught drunk in a nightclub, the night before a match - sigh)

[winchester_royal]

Seriously? Are you c*nts writing off a 21 year old who's been the best player in a team near the top of League 1 without him playing a game?

Crawley fans think he's destined to play in the prem. He has good pedigree having come from the Everton academy. Is a good age. And because his contract his up in the summer we'll get him quite cheap.

Just because we've signed him doesn't mean we won't be looking for experienced prem players as well.

More intelligent debate - resorting to the C word for anyone who doesn't agree with your view of things!

Not much good being the best player (open to debate) if he spends so much time suspended. Appalling disciplinary record.

Not sure 6 months of regular first team football is a large enough sample size to come to such a conclusion.