Deadline Day Dealings

[gullsrus]

a bit baffled by your comments on oastler last night royalgull as a few mates were at the game and and said he was decent especially in the second half and the cheltenham live commentator stated that he was having a good game (perhaps he was being sarcastic) also my mates said that ellis and saah should take total responsibility for poor central defending.

[lovinthatsurf]

Really interested to hear all your comments, i dont have time to write much of my thoughts about the comings and goings but i really enjoy reading yours !
thankyou

[royalgull]

Oastler in posession is fine, but there is no way he was decent. The 2nd goal he was half at fault for. It was mainly the 2 CB's fault for letting the first ball bounce but he got in a bad position, and only succeeded in flicking a backward header straight to their striker.

i like Oastler but he's not a right back. In my opinion.

[gullsrus]

spose its all about opinions !! however not sure robertson is a right back either if thats the case. i was at dagenham last week and he let loads of crosses in and if my memory is accurate so did mansell at right back last season if i dare say

[Jeff]

It really is all about opinions - for example I thought Robertson did a good job on Saturday at Dagenham - well, nobody was good first half but he was much improved second half anyway.

I too agree the the Oastler/Right back experiment hasn't worked out too well. By all accounts he looked great there pre season, but that's not translated into league form. His positioning is poor, he is consistently being sucked into the centre leaving gaping spaces in behind.

I really hope that Leadbitter can get himself fit soon so we can see if he is any better. Failing that, the only realistic option is to put McPhee in there - let's not forget he represented England C playing at full back.

[gullsrus]

perhaps i should start cleaning my boots if thats the ultimatum lol

[ferrarilover]

Following on from Royal's perfectly decent post.

Oastler was, once again, caught miles out of position, far too far infield, for their first goal last night. The left winger had the freedom of the park to get in a decent cross.
As good a cross as it was, there is no way that a L2 striker should be getting in front of hopeless Brian Saah as easily as the striker did last night. Brian needs to be stronger (or just fecking better) if he is to bring anything to the team.

Having been a vociferous critic of Macklin in years gone by, I am happy to report that he is doing a lot of good things to dispel my previous (correct) assertion that he is crap. His pace is frightening and wins us so much possession. Perfect example from yesterday; a defender is just jogging along behind a long, aimless ball punted forward, waiting for it to go out of play. No danger what-so-ever. Macklin, on his bike and then some, lopes at the geezer and manages to make a tackle of such quality that he wins the ball, kills it dead, wipes out the defender and comes up with possession. Genius.

Mark Ellis was pretty good last night, largely solid, but totally and indefensibly (and somewhat inexplicably) at fault for their second.

Our best striker is Taiwo. That boy has some control, its nigh on impossible to get the ball off him once he's made up his mind to keep it.

Anyway, I've got a gig in Russia so, Moscow.

Matt.

[kingsgull]

Is this figure confirmed, or rumour?

Seems an awful lot. Doubtless, he's good, but is he better than Ryan Lowe who went for less? No, he certainly is not.

Matt.

in this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 574224.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[royalgull]

Lowe at 32 isn't going to command the same fee as ALF at 24 who has a history of 20+ goals a season. I think him at £350,000 is an absolute bargain signing for Reading.

Pretty much agree with Matt's more blunt summary. We need to do better defensively as a group.

[usagullmichigan]

350,000 for O'Kane anyone?

[Bigman]

350,000 for O'Kane anyone?

In a word, no.

I'm not saying he's not a fabulous player, but gone are the days of teams in higher divisions taking a punt on players for big (6 figure) money. Those that have moved today and in recent windows for these kind of fees have been players who have regularly been winning matches for their teams almost singlehandedly, be it through scoring a lot of goals, running the midfield, or providing an impenetrable barrier to keep the opposition out. That is to say, players who will go straight into the team and make a big impact. At the moment Eunan fits none of these profiles.

If he consistently plays to the standards we all know he can then he could one day be worth that sort of money, but right now he's simply not eye-catching enough to command that sort of fee. The same could probably be said of Le Fondre at Eunan's age, it's only in the last couple of years that he's really started banging in the goals, and we know O'Kane has bags of potential, but nowadays it is product and not potential that commands the big fees.

And if we're going to make any more signings I would expect them to be on loan as Ling has stated he's happy with the 20 man squad he already has.

[Dave_Pougher]

350,000 for O'Kane anyone?

Think most clubs at our level would take that kind of money for any of their players esp. in these difficult times.
The only exception would be if PB came in for him, in which case our lot would probably take 10p plus a couple of old copies of the radio times.

[ferrarilover]

I knew someone would mention the age thing. For me, Lowe is a much better footballer than Le Fondre. Sure ALF gets lots of goals, but he's never really done much else on the pitch. Lowe, however, brings goals and so much more. Regardless of his advancing years, Lowe will be the better buy, you mark my words.

Matt.

[Trojan 67]

Macclesfield lose Emile Sinclair to Peterborough. Good timing!

Another one of their players is away on international duty this weekend. I hope he's a forward as well.

[royalgull]

I knew someone would mention the age thing. For me, Lowe is a much better footballer than Le Fondre. Sure ALF gets lots of goals, but he's never really done much else on the pitch. Lowe, however, brings goals and so much more. Regardless of his advancing years, Lowe will be the better buy, you mark my words.

Matt.

No chance Reading or a Championship club would spend money on a 32 year old whose never played above League 1 before, ALF has scored 20 goals + for 3/4 seasons. Lowe has done it 1 season in his career. No brainer to take a punt on someone who at 24 already has a proven goal record.

Having seen a bit of Reading they just need someone to put the ball in the net, their forwards are pretty rank.