norfolk royal

As a Reading fan I'd say the signing of Tom Ince, if it happens, could have several outcomes, the most likely that it will be a good signing, but carrying some risk. He was Reading's best player last season without a doubt, although a slightly lower bar than other clubs given the circumstances, and rightfully won the fans' player of the season award. He's got a great left foot, usually puts in a good cross, takes corners and is a very dangerous free kick taker on the right side just outside the penalty area. Early in the season he was on fire, great passion, going the extra mile, running players down in the last ten minutes lifting the crowd etc. Of course there was speculation that if you can't try your hardest in front of your father (Paul Ince the manager at that time) then you are never going to do so. Maybe that did spur him on a bit but even if it did it showed what he was capable of, which is very good. He had to be rested a couple of times as the analytics were showing that he was due an injury. This duly happened around ten games before the end of the season, the crucial time obviously, and there were complaints from our fans that he (Tince) had been flogged to death and there was some truth in it. He was never seen again from that moment apart from isolated reports that he had been seen in the vicinity of the stadium wearing a huge plastic boot thing on one leg. Most fans believe that without Tince's injury Reading would have stayed up comfortably, notwithstanding the six-point deduction. So all good apart from the injury. Now the risks. Most criticism I've seen of Tince speculates or claims outright that he has a bad attitude, arrogant, etc, etc, you get the drift. You'd probably have to speak to Stoke fans about that to get the full picture. But for the avoidance of doubt on that score, this is what happened at Reading. In the half a dozen or so games before his injury he lost a bit of form, nothing drastic but enough to take the edge of what made him special earlier in the season, maybe not so motivated, a few niggles with team mates, etc. This culminated quite noticeably at a home game where a lazyish ball was chipped out to him on the touchline. Instead of letting it go and maybe encouraging the player who mispassed with a clap or whatever, he petulantly and quite violently volleyed the ball back in the direction of the player as it passed over the touchline then had what appeared to be an on pitch row with colleagues. Some of our fans at the time were saying this was good in a way in that it showed his passion and that he was frustrated with the shortcomings of players around him. There may be some truth in that but in reality it was a petulant and unhelpful act. His form dipped again after that and there were rumours of tetchiness with other players, no more than that, might not be correct, but something was wrong for sure. There were hopes that he would be back from his injury before the end of the season but after Pince was sacked, that seemed every more unlikely. So in short, rightly motivated and played in the right position, which is essentially a free role, he could play very well for you and I hope he does. But he will need to be carefully monitored by Wagner and is unlikely to take kindly to criticism or being benched, for instance.

Of the 30 odd games he played for Reading last season he was good in about five of them.

Hi. You say based on the stats we are' giving away a fair few chances that teams are just not taking.' I think that is misleading. The games I've seen I don't think I've seen the opposition teams creating hardly any chances where you say 'Oooh, they should have scored that.' As I say the 'chances' have not been clear cut. If they were you would expect us to have let in more than three goals unless everyone we've played has forgotten their shooting boots. Two of those goals were scored by Armstrong on Tuesday night. Free scoring Blackburn with a top striker. Look at their two goals to provide clues on how to attack us, and it's not down the middle as my OP said. Blackburn are a good team with some players that can really hurt you, make no mistake about that. But what was notable about that game was that every time they got within a goal of us we simply upped our game and scored again. Sign of a good team? Well hopefully. You're right to say the confidence and momentum you get from winning games is powerful. Certainly the case.

There's a thread on the Reading forum which explains it from the fans point of view. https://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=188031 One of the posts pasted below summarises reasonably. Olise is betterLaurent brings balance to midfieldWe have depth in midfield with SemedoAluko isn't a complete waste of spaceRichards has improvedMoore is betterThe manager has changed - I don't think for one minute we'd be doing this well under Bowen, although no one thinks they'd be doing this well ever. I think we'd be much improved on last year, but not to this extent. We've got the balance between playing out and going long right for the first time in at least a decade. Back to me, some of those names will be unfamiliar but of those, Olise is an 18-year old of high skill, having a similar impact to say, Cantwell or Buendia for Norwich, when they burst onto the scene. Laurent is a midfielder who was a steal from Shrewsbury, Richards a young left back much like Jamal Lewis, say. Liam Moore is the centre half who is Premiership borderline quality but was dropped towards the end of last season. He has been welcomed back into the fold by the new Serbian manager Paunovic and is now playing at the top of his game. Missing from that list is Lucas Jaoa who has been around for some time in the championship but nobody has ever got him playing at his best, which is pretty devastating. The new manager has solved that though his injury record suggests it may not be for long. And Michael Morrison, a centre half, former Birmingham captain who we got on a free. His pairing with Moore is crucial at the back and part of the reason for the many shut outs we are getting. The other reason for that is that we are effectively playing two holding midfielders, Laurent and Rinomohta in front of Moore and Morrison. Teams are finding it impossible to attack us through the middle due to that pair's athleticism and understanding. With regards to the new manager whose main claim to fame before this was winning the World Championships under 20 tournament for Serbia. His approach is being likened rather optimistically by some to Klopp's approach at Liverpool. That's a bold claim but there is a kernel of truth to it. At the end of one of the first games Paunovic called all the players back out onto the pitch for a huddle. But crucially he included all the backroom staff in that, injured players, one hobbling onto the pitch on crutches, and academy players. It was clear then that he was fostering an 'all reading from the same book' team spirit, something managers hack on about endlessly. Also crucial to the improvement has been sorting out the form at home. Reading lost 15 games at home last season which is a shocking record. But the clues that improvement was possible was the away form which was impressive. We are now winning games at home. How has that been solved?: For the first hour of games we have been relying on the defence to shut teams out then pick them off in the second half. A lot of our fans have been saying this is a risky strategy against the better teams, would include Norwich in that. A few mistakes and we're two-nil down and chasing the game. That hasn't happened, yet, so we don't know how we would fare in that scenario. With regard to xG, well, statistics. We have been clinical in attack and had few shots, that is true. But when you go two-nil up in games you don't really need many more shots. Because we are confident defensively now, we are happy to conceded possession and watch the other teams pass it around in midfield until they founder. Someone above mentioned our home game against Wycombe where they had more shots. Indeed they did but these were tame efforts in the main from distance and they did not carve out a single clear chance really. All this has been achieved with arguably our best player, Jon Swift, out injured long term and the first choice right back Yiadom also out injured long term. So will our form continue? Crucial to that is keeping Jaoa fit so watch that space. We play Coventry away tomorrow and I suspect we will win that if we play 80 per cent of the level we played at Blackburn on Tuesday. Realistically our form will take a dip at some point, of course it will. Or will it? We only lost two games and amassed 106 points in our last promotion season from the championship. Lastly, having lived in Norwich for 35 years and count many NCFC season ticket holders as mates, the double whammy for me will be Reading and Norwich getting promoted at the end of the season. I don't think that is impossible. ,

Le Fondre wasn''t considered a ''massive gamble.'' Reading only paid £300,000 for him.   [quote user="Orford65"]Adam Le Fondre had never played top-flight football and it was considered a massive gamble by Reading when they signed him from Rotherham.Check his goal-scoring record - and he''s not even in the starting eleven most weeks.[/quote]

Weird that you describe Reading as the new QPR when they have spent less than £5-million on players, considerably less than Norwich spent when they were promoted last season. Pogrobneyak, McCleary, and Guthrie, were all free transfers. You could argue in the case of Pog that wages and/or signing on fee are inflated, and it is true that Reading outbid Fulham for his services in terms of wages, but without a transfer fee no doubt there was some leeway there.  

That''s about the third time I''ve seen someone post that Shane Long is available for free. He is under contract at Reading until the Summer of 2012. It''s also been widely reported that Newcastle, Everton, and Celtic, will bid for him if Reading aren''t promoted. In other words, dream on.

[quote user="Hardhouse44"][quote user="kdncfc"][quote user="Hardhouse44"][quote user="maninblack"] As far as I am aware no ''business'' has been placed in administration due to either an annual loss or indeed the debt that the organisation has. A business is placed in administration by either the board or the banks if it has run out of cash and cannot a) service the debt payments or/and b) meet it''s necessary and conracted regular outgoings. This clearly includes such areas as salaries (being the biggest commitment). I am also not aware that the palyers have not been payed, a point I am sure we would all find out about. Finally would the board approve a 3.5 yr contract yesterday to CM and all the additional cost that incurs if we were " on the brink of financial meltdown".............Unless there is another motive! Exceptional TEAM performance yesterday! [/quote]Common sense but well said.We have a squad that is currently full of salable assets. Holt, Hoolahan, Martin, Russell, Smith,even the Doc. They would be sold to stave off administration. We have also signed players like Whitbread, Martin and McNamee all for a fee I believe and not to mention their wage.We have a guy in Mcnally who as far as I can see has never lied to us. He told us we have no need to sell our star players. We haven''t. If we were so close to administration would he say that? would we still have our stars?Finally we have in Bowkett, Foulger and Smith and Wynn Jones 4 people with the financial capability to stave of any threat of administration at this level. I for one am convinced they would, but I for one think this story is a load of waffle.[/quote] I wish I shared your confidence but I can''t believe anyone would make something like this up and print it in a national newspaper. The people running the club would have no say in the matter if the banks decided to pull the plug and say enough is enough. [/quote]Freddie star ate my hamster. You don''t believe the NOTW make up stories! All newspapers and reporters make up stories or fabricate thing out of situations. We have money worries as do half the teams in the country. Not every bank is pulling the plug and nor is ours. We are paying our debts. They are hardly that out of control. A lotto winner could pay them off on a good day. Thursday will come and go in the same way as everyday that Nostradamus predicted the end of the world has come and gone. Without consequence. Stop worrying about something in a newspaper that nobody else is reporting. when they all carry the story thats the time to take note.[/quote] Freddy Starr ate my hamster story wasn''t done by the News of the World.

The point of this is that the Hoolahan to Middlesborough rumours first surfaced in the national press at the beginning of December. The Archant story is a rehash of that and takes it no further.

The pies at Carrow Road are an absolute disgrace, ironic as the club is owned by a celebrity chef. Last time I was there I bought a steak and kidney pice and it had the taste, texture, and size of a past its sell by large rich tea biscuit. The filling was burnt and dry and the pastry, biscuit like. What a disgrace, hang your apron in shame Delia.

Signed for Reading.

I live in Norwich but support Reading. HTH.

When Coppell left Reading at the end of the season he is on record as saying he wanted to take a year off to see more of his family, particularly helping out his son who was in America at the time. I''d find it highly unlikely that he''d go back on that to help a club in Norwich''s state. Keep on dreaming though.

Brendan Rogers hotly tipped.

Fair point.