New Signings ?

[Hoop Blah]

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/wages.pdf

Bottom 3, 3 teams that went down.

Reading's probably a bit swelled by the sheer number of players on the squad list with no chance of playing, Bennett, Sodje, Halls etc that season.

That second point is the most telling in my mind.

We had/have the money available to compete but we used it in all the wrong ways. We had players on a reasonable Premiership wage (£25k per week) which would probably have been enough to attract the likes of Taylor, O'Neil, Cahill etc but were too afraid to spend it on that calibre of player. It's not going to enable us to compete for players moving to the Villa's and Newcastles of the league, but it doesn't stop us getting players over the likes of Wigan and Fulham.

If we'd have been a bit more aggressive, and maybe used loan signings to fill in the squad gaps that the likes of Sodje took up (if we really needed them filling) we might've been able to use that budget more effectively.

[Gordons Cumming]

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/wages.pdf

Bottom 3, 3 teams that went down.

Reading's probably a bit swelled by the sheer number of players on the squad list with no chance of playing, Bennett, Sodje, Halls etc that season.

It looks like the league table in the Premier depends on how much is paid to the players, almost exactly.

[papereyes]

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/wages.pdf

Bottom 3, 3 teams that went down.

Reading's probably a bit swelled by the sheer number of players on the squad list with no chance of playing, Bennett, Sodje, Halls etc that season.

It looks like the league table in the Premier depends on how much is paid to the players, almost exactly.

Except for NewcastLOLe

You can actually analyse it quite easily.

MAGUIRE - PREPARE TO BE EMBARASSED FOR ME

The simplest method, I think, would be the Spearman's Rank Coefficient which is essentially a measure of the difference between rank of one value (say wage) and the rank of the other (position, in this case). I think if you plug the numbers into excel for the two seasons (get the missing three teams for 05/06 from bbc.co.uk) and you can get it to work out that measure.

There's more statistically relevent and powerful techniques out there. That's a good primer and also about the limit of my knowledge without reference to my thesis or wikipedia.

[Vision]

Lots of "probablys" and "mights" there Hoop Blah.

You're right though it was club policy to reward those who have contributed to our success rather than pay top wages to new signings. Hence we'd never do a Wigan or a Bolton in attracting the likes of for eg Heskey or Anelka as they did. The bulk of our wage bill would have been paid to the dozen or so players that had been instrumental in our 2 seasons of unprecedented success. Not sure it left much leeway to add higher earners from outside as well. Ultimately the difference i guess is the 6m profit we made that season.

That Deloitte list is interesting and I think if you added transfer fees on top of the wage bills then I reckon we'd be a bit further adrift than merely wages alone (certainly in the case of Sunderland it would have bumped them higher up the list). In the examples of Cahill and O'Neill its the 5m as well as the alleged 25k a week to consider for 2 players who were hardly Premiership regulars at the time.

In the long term I'm more than happy with our policy to be honest but as has been pointed out it will tie the hands of any manager if we ever make it back to the Premiership.

[Hoop Blah]

Certainly is all if's, but's and maybe's Vision yes.

I think time shows that you have to have the quality in the side/squad to last long term though. We just didn't seem willing to go down that route though.

[Royalee]

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/wages.pdf

Bottom 3, 3 teams that went down.

Reading's probably a bit swelled by the sheer number of players on the squad list with no chance of playing, Bennett, Sodje, Halls etc that season.

That second point is the most telling in my mind.

We had/have the money available to compete but we used it in all the wrong ways. We had players on a reasonable Premiership wage (£25k per week) which would probably have been enough to attract the likes of Taylor, O'Neil, Cahill etc but were too afraid to spend it on that calibre of player. It's not going to enable us to compete for players moving to the Villa's and Newcastles of the league, but it doesn't stop us getting players over the likes of Wigan and Fulham.

If we'd have been a bit more aggressive, and maybe used loan signings to fill in the squad gaps that the likes of Sodje took up (if we really needed them filling) we might've been able to use that budget more effectively.

Totally agree.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

Certainly is all if's, but's and maybe's Vision yes.

I think time shows that you have to have the quality in the side/squad to last long term though. We just didn't seem willing to go down that route though.

I would suggest that your suggestion of the budget being used more effectively is dependent on big wages ensuring quality.
Rather than getting another player who wont get into the team, but this time on a high wage.

Another way if assessing our transfer policies is to look at those players nowhere near the team and ask how many big name players they are blocking coming to Reading. So how many big name players are the combined wages of Halls, Sodje and Bennet blocking? I would say that looked at from this way, the issue isnt as serious as it first appears.

[Hoop Blah]

Fair point.

I would guess that all three of them were on somewhere between £2k and £5k per week, all three of them together possibly a total of £10k per week. That's the difference between paying someone like Kebe £10k a week to play for us or being able to afford someone like Gary O'Neil on £20k. The season we went down, one decent right winger and a proper replacement for Sidwell (instead of the two half baked ones in Fae and Cisse) probably would've seen us safe by a comfortable margin (quite a large if and but there of course Vision).

Totally agree that money doesn't always equate to quality, but usually the reason the players I would've like to have seen us compete for were able to demand the same wages than our top earners (and probably a bit more on top of that too) is because they've got some degree of proven pedigree at the level we needed them to perform.

The obvious thing is that you have to pick the right players to pay the money to as well, and that's where we went wrong in a lot of our purchases since Xmas of the first season in the Premiership.

[Royalee]

I'd happily have traded Oster, Halls, Sodje, Bennett, S Hunt and Duberry for a top class player who'd actually improve the squad. I think the wages squandered on those would have amounted to a decent wage at the very least.

[Alan Partridge]

I'd happily have traded Oster, Halls, Sodje, Bennett, S Hunt and Duberry for a top class player who'd actually improve the squad. I think the wages squandered on those would have amounted to a decent wage at the very least.

So this new player would have been a centre back who can fill in at right back,right midfield and do a stint on the left wing just in case.

[Hoop Blah]

Our hands where tied to a certain extent because of the transfer window, but I'm pretty sure you'll find that Gunnarsson covered pretty much most of those positions in the Premiership for us.

He probably played more games in those positions than the players you mentioned (Oster aside) put together.

[Royalee]

I'd happily have traded Oster, Halls, Sodje, Bennett, S Hunt and Duberry for a top class player who'd actually improve the squad. I think the wages squandered on those would have amounted to a decent wage at the very least.

So this new player would have been a centre back who can fill in at right back,right midfield and do a stint on the left wing just in case.

Not necessarily seeing as none of those other players were any good at their positions.

[papereyes]

I would guess that all three of them were on somewhere between £2k and £5k per week, all three of them together possibly a total of £10k per week. That's the difference between paying someone like Kebe £10k a week to play for us or being able to afford someone like Gary O'Neil on £20k

I'd also hesitantly suggest that Kebe was a pretty cheap player, but yes. That's the point.

Having players that are going to contribute > 'bed blockers'

If we accept that we don't have the wages to compete [and, imo, we're genuinely not that far off doing so at a Premiership level], then we have to really make sure that they're used efficiently. A squad that has depth and competition in every place rather than hoping players would make do and hoping that one season's substitute midfielder would become the next season's starting midfielder.

I'd happily have traded Oster, Halls, Sodje, Bennett, S Hunt and Duberry for a top class player who'd actually improve the squad. I think the wages squandered on those would have amounted to a decent wage at the very least.

As ever, you almost have a great point but ruin it with hyperbole. Take away S Hunt, take away Duberry. You've 4 players that barely contributed to our sophomore Premiership campaign - is the case simply one of releasing their wages to bring in someone who could have played right wing to a decent level all season rather than our actual case of playing mix and match and hoping one of the polygonal pegs was a close fit to the hole.

[Royalee]

In our second season in the Premiership I was crying out for Pearce to be slotted in - rather than contribute I feel Duberry and Hunt held the team back. Who knows what might have happened if we'd brought on Cox (who appeared a few times in midfield in cup and reserve games and looked decent there and Pearce at the time?

[papereyes]

To be fair, getting a full Premiership campaign out of one of these chaps might have probably been enough.

Emerse Fae
Leroy Lita
Greg Halford
Marek Matejovsky
Andre Bikey

[brendywendy]

agreed with the shit players

but doobs and shunt were far from that, one the source of many of our goals, the other hugely experienced, quality , and much needed cover for CB



oh, papes already said all that.....

[brendywendy]

In our second season in the Premiership I was crying out for Pearce to be slotted in - rather than contribute I feel Duberry and Hunt held the team back. Who knows what might have happened if we'd brought on Cox (who appeared a few times in midfield in cup and reserve games and looked decent there and Pearce at the time?

LOL- pearce would have been skinned alive in the pacey premiere league, and lost all his confidence before hed gained it, left a broken man, ending up at havant and waterlooville or summink

[Royalee]

In our second season in the Premiership I was crying out for Pearce to be slotted in - rather than contribute I feel Duberry and Hunt held the team back. Who knows what might have happened if we'd brought on Cox (who appeared a few times in midfield in cup and reserve games and looked decent there and Pearce at the time?

LOL- pearce would have been skinned alive in the pacey premiere leaguek

You mean like the rest of our defence?

[Royalee]

agreed with the shit players

but doobs and shunt were far from that, one the source of many of our goals, the other hugely experienced, quality , and much needed cover for CB



oh, papes already said all that.....

If he was as quality as you made out his signing might not have coincided with our fall from grace. I also think you'll find that Little was our best source of goals and they dried up once he got injured and we were left with Hunt to provide.

[brendywendy]

In our second season in the Premiership I was crying out for Pearce to be slotted in - rather than contribute I feel Duberry and Hunt held the team back. Who knows what might have happened if we'd brought on Cox (who appeared a few times in midfield in cup and reserve games and looked decent there and Pearce at the time?

LOL- pearce would have been skinned alive in the pacey premiere leaguek

You mean like the rest of our defence?

durr


thats my whole point- the other defenders were experienced, he was 17 or summink FFS
good idea royalee, just chuck him in, and hope he floats

how to destroy a kid.