Reading Youngsters Prove Worth

The performance was quite simply breathtaking; a burst of goals that coincided with some excellent football to make an all-enjoyable evening but many did miss it. The sea of blue seats was a little disheartening but the fans that turned up still made good voice and saw five top quality strikes in a comprehensive 5-1 win.

Although it was ‘only’ Burton Albion, Reading produced a fine display and it just goes to show what a hungry, young squad Brendan Rodgers has at his disposal. This little youngster Nicholas Bignall made his debut and what a debut it was. Not many can claim that they scored two for their hometown club within 9 minutes of the start.

Bignall’s took his goals brilliantly and his all round game was equally as impressive. He caused constant havoc, his speed and energy troubled Burton’s helpless defence, as they didn’t know how to handle him.

I’m sure Burton defenders would have loved some rope to tie him to the corner flag just to have a moment’s rest from his movement off the ball, he must have tried to cover every blade of grass. He was always an option and the midfield consisting of Marek Matejovsky, Gylfi Sigurdsson and James Harper loved picking him out, he chased everything.

Irish eyes must have been smiling over David Mooney; he took his two goals very well, one from an almost impossible angle, to show case his talents in front of new manager Rodgers and fans alike. There’s a fans’ favourite in the making here.

The crowd sung ‘Mooney, Mooney, Mooney, Mooney, Mooney, ahaha’ in a remediation of the Kaiser Chiefs ‘Ruby’, inspirational stuff and no doubt it’ll be heard again. I fancy it for a ringtone in all honesty.

What a cracking little player Sigurdsson is. Before last night’s performance, he seemed a little unhurried and a tad weak to dominate the midfield, but those thoughts are now forgotten.

His goal flew in and I couldn’t believe I missed it. Damn dehydration. However, having the luxury of Sky Sports News and Sky+ I was able to watch it over and over again and once more after that. What a sensational strike it was; Cristiano Ronaldo would be eating his heart out.

Sigurdsson is the youngster in Reading’s Iceland contingent and has fine role models and compatriots he can look up to in Brynjar Gunnarsson and Ivar Ingimarsson. No doubt he has been given guidance and understands what it takes to succeed at the Mad Stad and on this perform, his career certainly looks promising.

New signing Matthew Mills also made his debut and performed amicable alongside skipper Alex Pearce and this is possibly, and hopefully, Reading’ first choice centre back pairing for the season. Mills looked commanding and has a bit of pace about him; first signs are very encouraging.

Rodgers would have a learnt a little more about his side. Now a trip to Newcastle awaits us.

Skipper Ivar

So it was the conservative decision for Ivar Ingimarsson to be appointed Reading’s new captain, a far cry from the far left decision to give youngster Alex Pearce the armband, he will be given the vice captaincy instead.

With Ingi’s injuries of late, it must have been tricky to give the responsibility to someone who may not be in the team often.

As determined last year and the year before that, Graeme Murty’s presence was solely missed and his influence and passion was left best on the pitch, when out of the side, the team missed that certain drive.

Let’s hope Ingimarsson will be able to supply that drive on a regular basis.

The Icelandic international was always the safe bet as he has been the club since October 2003, Steve Coppell’s first signing, and his love and knowledge of the clubs exceeds most other candidates.

James Harper’s potential move to Wolves, as reported earlier, gave indication that he was never in the running, and with Andre Bikey linked with many clubs it would be doubtful he would be risked with the responsibility, not that he would have been a good leader anyway.

Brendan Rodgers is certainly a clever man and what he said of Ivar speaks volumes: “Ivar has great respect from everybody here and his communication is open. He is ruthlessly simple, he says it as it is. I know he can put my message across when I am not there.”

That’s fair enough really and that is more than enough for me.

Pearce being given the vice captaincy role is fantastic new, Rodgers definitely knows his worth and if he’s playing constantly this season he’ll now doubt be able to fill role to a very good standard.

Rodgers spoke inspiring words of him: “In terms of Alex, I know that over time he can progress into a natural captain and he can learn from guys like Ivar. I want to help Alex in his progress because he is a natural leader of this club. He will learn as vice captain and be mentored to become captain one day.”

This may be the indication that Pearce may not be automatic first choice and with the signing of Matthew Mills he may have to show his worth more and more.

In all, a fine decision. The obvious one.

We just need a good song for him now.

Mills. Mills. Mills.

Excellent we have a signing and one to shout out about.

Matthew Mills is the latest, with some rumoured to follow, signing of a relatively peaceful summer and it’s the first purchase under the new Brendan Rodgers era.

He joins Ryan Bertrand, on loan from Chelsea, in beefing up the defence and it’s two players that I, personally, am really looking forward to seeing.

Last season Mills had a great season and was arguably Doncaster’s finest performer as Sean O’Driscoll exceeded all expectations to finish mid table in the Championship.

Mills comes to Reading for a slightly different task. He and Alex Pearce should form a formidable partnership as the club can get rid of the ever so slightly expansive Andre Bikey for a significant profit. There’s many rumoured in the hunt for his signature.

Doncaster paid a record signing fee for the centre albeit it only £300,000 but they made a grand profit of their own. Gladly he has a winning playoff mentality, when he secured promotion with Donny via the playoffs after beating Leeds ‘Scum’ United, and this may be a crucial factor come the end of the season.

It’s reported that Reading paid anything up to £2.3 million for his services and if he performs well he could attract a higher fee in the future.

It’s a grand transfer policy and a player that fits the bill perfectly. Well done Nicky Hammond.

He’s young, only 23, and ambitious but there is only one serious problem – he was born in Swind*n.

SJM has Good Intentions, Honest.

After reading some, if not many, comments about our ‘supposed’ financial state that Reading are particularly in I feel I need to go on the defensive.

This season especially we have seen big earners Kevin Doyle (Wolves for £6.5 million), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolves for free), Leroy Lita (Released, yet to find a club), Michael Duberry (Wycombe Wanderers for free), and Graeme Murty (Released, on trial at Southampton) all leave the club without replacements being brought in.

Dave Kitson (£5.5 million to Stoke City), Ibrahima Sonko (£2.25 million to Stoke City), Nicky Shorey (Around £4 million to Aston Villa) were all sold at the beginning of last season, so on paper it seems that Reading have made significant profit.

However, the price of relegation far exceeds what people expect. Given the demands of sponsorships and TV money in the top flight and it’s completely different compared to the Championship.

TV money is a small fraction from what you do get in the Premier League and the newly constructed media centre as well as stadium expansion plans all cost plenty of money. The club also paid for the upgrade on the Madejski Hotel annoyingly.

Player’s wages increase significantly and although there's a relegation wage decrease, it's still more than they were originally was on. The parachute payments simply help combat all those things.

Not to mention the empty seats that appears more consistently throughout the season. The playoff game against Burnley wasn’t even a sell out - just one game from Wembley. Every empty seat costs money and if we had the attendances that Sheffield United get we would be able to splash out £2 million on a single player on a regular basis.

It is nothing more than extraordinary that a club, like ours, are balanced brilliantly after suffering relegation, we could have easily gambled to the extent of Southampton, Charlton or Norwich (who are all relegated) and find ourselves in a much more complicated situation.

Birmingham City, for instance, spent two season budgets in one and if they failed to win promotion, they would find themselves in dire straits. Therefore, for a team like Reading, still with many talented players on high wages, it would have been foolish to impose our slim budget any further and gambled unnecessarily.

That’s why this supposed ‘huge war chest’ never came around.

This season has a different prospect however, we can’t afford to gamble anymore and the inevitable departure of Doyle and soon to be departed Stephen Hunt was needed to make sure the club stay stable. This is why that transfer money isn’t available for new players; I’m sure there is some but not to the extent some fans are expecting.

Some unfair criticism is currently pointed at Sir John Madejski for this, it’s becoming more of an everyday occurrence, as it appears that he hasn’t handed any of the previous managers’ war chests to improve the squad; however, there is a reason for this.

He gambled £1 million on Leroy Lita and we won promotion, even though the £70,000 spent on Doyle was a more worthwhile expenditure; he must have that in mind.

Financially speaking we lost £1 million on Leroy but gained £6.4 million on Doyle. Hardly need a mathematician to work out what are the better figures?

So he doesn’t see spending big will be beneficial for the club, and as there are not any Arab billionaires lying around, I think it’s the sensible choice.

The issue SJM has is losing money through his own pocket. The cash he’s invested into the academy has been somewhat pointless ever since its existence but now it is finally paying dividends.

The emergence of players like Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce, Julian Kelly, James Henry, Hal Robson-Kanu, Scott Davies, Shane Long, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Simon Church, Simon Cox, Mikkel Anderson will all, sooner rather than later, make an impact on the first team and his investment is starting to look worthwhile.

Before he saw many of players graduating from the academy, that had potential, being sold off cheaply with other clubs making grand profit.

SJM knows the value of youth and seen his club miss big windfalls as good talent left to make a name for themselves elsewhere.

The fees that some of youth have attracted after leaving have been unforgiving.

Darius Henderson was sold for practically nothing to Gillingham, he moved to Watford for £450,000 and then to Sheffield United for £2 million. Big money lost.

Nathan Tyson moved to Wycombe for a fee believed to be £100,000, and after performing well he soon transferred to Nottingham Forest for £750,000. Still big money lost.

Simon Cox was given to Swind*n Town for £200,000 and not long after he moved to rivals West Brom for £1.5 million. Good enough to lead West Brom’s frontline; surely he would have been a success at Reading?

Jamie Ashdown left on a free to join Portsmouth and we had to settle for a little compensation fee.

All this money nurturing talent was wasted as other clubs benefitted; the ones we trained and introduced into football.

Brendan Rodgers knows this and arguably, it was one of the major reasons for his appointment to get the best out of youth.

Most of the current young players would have been fresh faced 15/16 year olds when our new manager was in charge of the Reading youths back in 2003/2004, now Rodgers have seen them grown in men ready for the next stage of their careers and who would be better to implement them into the first team.

Now it’s time for the management to stop letting these players slip through the club’s fingers, as it’s now time to profit with success and top-flight football.

Time for Long to Deliver

I will galvanise a sublime panorama for you. Just imagine a striker that has no real or significant attributes, that has lived on his Irish pals fame, who’s been around for three season and yet to make any thorough impact will lead our attack next season.

Shane Long has been given number 9 and number 9 is what he will wear.
I’ve always been a Longer fan and his 24 is symbolised on the back of my rather too bright Orange away shirt. His four well-taken goals against Tolo IF will surely place him as hot favourite to fill spearhead the attacking 3 in a 4-3-3 that Brendan Rodgers is working so prominently on.

A four nil drumming is always morale boosting and will escalate Reading’s confidence that will be taken so epically into the new season but it’s Long’s goals that were the important factor in this win.

Although the part time pub footballers that we are coming against in Sweden can rarely be classed as ‘competition’, it’s always good to see strikers amongst the goals and with Long scoring all four it shows the fans that he can be relied upon to get a goal or two. Maybe Kevin Doyle’s departure has placed more emphasis on Long and stepping into his boots may be the best thing for him, he’s no longer hiding in the shadows.

The fans often have split loyalties on Longer; half believe he is utter crap and the other half are bedazzled by him. It is difficult to know what Long will turn up but if it’s in one that turned up against Charlton Athletic at home and Norwich City away last season, Reading will not be missing Doyler at all this term.

It’s going to be a big season for him and I rather doubt that he will be given much of an opportunity by Rodgers’ as with only one attacker up top he will need to be performing from the beginning or he’ll find himself warming the bench once again.

He’s needs to be in the goals now and be scoring and playing well with every game he plays up until the kick off the new campaign.

His photo-shoot for the kit launch gave an awe of arrogance from him and with the ‘marketing’ people choosing Long, it indicates that the people behind the scenes all believe that he will make an outstanding impact.

He’s now 22 and been on the fringes of the first team for a long time so it is time he makes his mark and my word I hope he does.

Beaten by Kettering, but Bertrand set to shine

Football is a results business; fortunately for Reading, friendly results are not. After demolishing Didcot Town 5-1 midweek, our season’s preparation came crashing down to earth with a damaging 2-1 defeat at Kettering (No, you did read that correctly).

And this was with are supposed first teamers. An experimental 4-3-3 formation was intact and the news coming from the website is that we lacked the cutting edge in front of goal. Using just a lone front man, especially in the form of Simon Church or Shane Long, we are always going to struggle to keep possession high up the field although this system relies on instant back up from the wingers it’s a system that we cannot adopt with our current crop of players. Hal Robson-Kanu and James Henry are great prospects and good players but they won’t get us promoted. Without sounding too much like Alan Hanson here, but ‘you won’t win anything with kids’.

Fair enough it’s preseason and this is only the second game into it but form in crucial and heading to the season with momentum is a must; hence why a game against Chelski is not ideal.

Long has yet to score whilst Church scored our only goal to show that he is good for a goal but we still need that defining cutting edge to make us Championship competitors. It scares me that Jimmy Kebe will be relied on to provide Reading with ‘cutting edge’ but he’s as creative as a rock and that’s being a little harsh on the rock.

Meanwhile Rodgers’ first signing as manager, Ryan Bertrand, started the game. He put in a good 45 minutes at left-back before being replaced by Stephen Hunt at half time. He’s supposedly an England under 21 international and is groomed to be Ashley Cole’s replacement at club and international level; on this basis signing Bertrand seems to be a masterstroke however is he joining as a first teamer or as cover.

Chris Armstrong done a fantastic job last term and it will be disappointing to see him pushed to the sidelines to play a bit part role. Rodgers’ has said that Bertrand is the ‘modern day full back’ and his addition to the squad does seem logical. Having two players in every position is crucial and with Julian Kelly out injured as well he will be good defensive cover, as he can play right back if called upon.
Even at the tender age of 19, he’s already ranked up almost 100 senior appearance appearances with various clubs, and at Norwich last term he was one of their most spoke about players, so joining a club that’s hopefully heading in the opposition direction will be good for him to learn his trade.

We’ll please to hear that Bertrand’s aim for the season is to win the league; but has to say that doesn’t he?

The Pre Season is Upon Us

It’s that time again kids. Well time for those overzealous adults for a deep unconditional love for Reading FC to dig deep in their wardrobes to get out their blue and whites, grab that thermos of Bovril and prepare themselves for another whirlwind adventure. Well Reading haven’t been like a whirlwind adventure for a while under the gamesmanship of Steve Coppell but hearing Rodgers’ ambitions and desires the club are set for one hell of a rollercoaster journey and boy I’m excited.

It’s been a long time since that crushing defeat to Burnley at the not very Mad Stad but nevertheless the new dawn is upon us and hope the sun will be shining stronger than ever. The annual trip down the road to the Loop Meadow Stadium is amongst us and surely a few Loyal Royals will be bounded to head down the A4074 to see what the season has in store for us.

I remember three years ago, I think, when a certain Jem Karacan kicked of his Reading career in style with a tremendous volley that any half-decent centre midfielder, and Reading have many of them, would be extremely proud off. This seasons agenda will be similar to last as ‘sticking out the reserves’ is not a welcomed opportunity that we can endeavour anymore. As a Championship side, we need as many games as possible to get the first team squad fit, ready and on form otherwise we are doomed to begin the season badly and we are somewhat famous for our good starts, so a bad start, an ok middle and a poor ending will not be a good season.

Didcot Town won’t provide us any real opposition and a routine win is what’s expected although it would be great to kick off the Brendan Rodgers era with a huge win with plenty of well worked goals. Some say the result don’t matter, I say the result definitely matters – a winning mentality is a successful one and that mindset needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

A winning mentality in football needs a good goal scorer and at the moment Reading severely lack one – making this game that all more important for players like Shane Long, David Mooney and Simon Church to get in amongst the goals to claim a rightful starting spot. Noel Hunt is good for a goal but the other three have huge boots to fill and scoring a jagged uneventful hat-trick would be good practise to show the Reading faithful as well as the new gaffer that they are capable of replacing Kevin Doyle, Dave Kitson and Leroy Lita.

Stephen Hunt will be in the team and getting rid of him must be a priority. The Irishman has a defining influence on the team and the set-up and the sooner he moves the sooner we can replace him. It’s hardly a new fact that Hunt is looking to move elsewhere and I wouldn’t particular use him in any real format anymore. That left side position is in need of strengthening and the possible signing of Tommy Smith reinitiates our desire to sign the Championship’s biggest names and make a real challenge to get back to the cooperate fat cats in the Premier League.
But for now it’s a game against Didcot and anything par a good win would ultimately be a disappointment.

Go on Longer get us a goal or four.

First Day of Training and It's All Change

The first day of a long season has just begun, the players retreated to Hogwoods for the first day of training and there are plenty of familiar faces missing.

Seeing the pictures were peculiar without the presence of Graeme Murty and Marcus Hahnemann be there at training - it does not seem quite Reading.

To make things a little bit more stranger there was someone wearing the number 9 training kit. Unless my eyes deceive me, it was Shane Long sporting the garment, the one previously worn by Kevin Doyle. Does this mean that Brendan Rodgers sees Long as the long-term fix and the source of goals for next season? Or what is just coincides he wore that jersey?

It was nice to see Stephen Hunt turning up even though a move away is more or less a certainly – Rodgers even claimed on SSN that he expects the Irishman to move on.
Therefore, do we look for his replacement now or leave it when he leaves?

Rodgers spoke of how he wants at least four new players to join the squad he has inherited and he spoke of his desire to bring Tommy Smith to the club. A move that I support, even though Watford have reacted angrily to Rodgers’ comments. Who cares?
If Smith wants to move to Reading, in time he will do so.

Nathan Tyson has been rumoured that he is likely to rejoin the club and this would please me immensely. I always thought we got rid of him far too quickly as in time he would come good. He’s similar to Darius Henderson in retrospect, two young players we just sold cheaply and moved on to make a real names for themselves. Simon Cox is another, even though it’s claimed we have received a ‘significant’ sell-on fee, these players we should have been looking to develop.

At present, the current of crop of youngster should be given time to develop. Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce, Julian Kelly, James Henry, should all be given time to develop and they should ideally all have a pivotal role to play in this season coming up.

Nevertheless, Long is one youngster that will have the time to make the step up to a first team regular and being given the number 9 would give him much confidence to lead the line for the Royals. My God, I hope he does and I think he will.

The Joy of No Media

Hello, is anyone there?

The Mad Stad is a ghost town with only the living dead walking around.

It’s official no one in Reading is remotely happy. When getting my eagerly anticipated Graeme Murty testimonial ticket (I urge you to get yours) at the stadium, it remained me of a funeral. There wasn’t even a glimmer of a smile; even a smirk would have been a long shot, there was just people speaking about the good times.

I must have walked past ten people and they must have been all stuck in their dejection of another season in the Championship. I even asked what was wrong with that. Foolish. I almost lost my head. The Burnley defeat hurt but for Pete’s sake, more on.

Even the man who sold the tickets looked like he lost the will to live.

I walked quite happily humming the tune to that latest Take That song (forgive me), people must have thought I was nuttier than squirrel shit but this is a season not to be down. This is one season I am looking forward too.

Yes, there is no Premier League - blah blah blah - but this season the Championship is going to be the most competitive it’s going to be for years. And as my brilliant (I have to say that) university housemate Dave Kifford pointed out in his blog Black and White Toon – media coverage this season so far has been sparse at this level.

Fair enough, Newcastle’s scintillating soap opera may be a tad more extreme than ours but the media hasn’t been out in their masses labelling us ‘relegated Reading’ or asking the question ‘will they bounce straight back up?’

Now it’s time to go through a pre season without the pressure of previous seasons and expectations are not as high neither.

The fact remains no one can judge us yet nor see what we can be capable of doing but at least we know who are manager is (sorry Newcastle and West Brom fans). No doubt Brendan Rodgers is busy preparing himself for a hopeful preseason and an eventful season, when it finally gets here.

We can get players on the quiet and spring a real surprise next term. Fly under the radar so to speak.

Let’s hope that’s the case.

Nevertheless, Murty’s testimonial is on July 21st and the game itself seems a bit of a farce. Reading Now versus Reading 4 years ago is not ideal. It was going to be Celtic but surely the organisers could conjure up something better. An ex-England 11, like Parkinson’s, would be a lot better suited and be more potentially fun for spectators.

However, it does give us the chance for us to familiarise ourselves with some ‘famous’ faces.

What does Chris Makin look like again?

'Winning Football'

Brendan Rodgers’ battle cry is in full force. The Reading website seems to have a different interview published every day on the manager’s intentions. Well it fills the void of nothing I suppose.

Today’s strong message was about him wanting the fans’ to be on his side.

“Our supporters are absolutely vital.” Rodgers told the Reading website, “They are down as number 13 on the teamsheet – and they certainly are just that.

“The atmosphere they can create, and the intensity of their emotion, it helps the players, no question.”

It’s all a rather nice sentiment at the moment and it reassure fans that something is happening, even though I expect these words were just an extension of the press conference when he was appointed but oh well it gives us something to read.

Rodgers says he is ‘the biggest Reading supporter’ and pledged to ‘give his life’ in order to bring success.

It’s all saying this but nothing has happened of note yet, us fans don’t quite know whose names we can be put on the back of our pending new shirts.

He continues, “It’s my job, with the players, to ensure that energy returns and the way to do that is with entertaining and exciting football – and of course winning football.”

His words do excite me a little.

‘Winning football’ – hallelujah!

Please, please, please, let that be the case.

On a lighter note, I’ve booked and reserved the hotel up in Newcastle for our first away trip of the season; Dick has volunteered to drive up there and that will be one fun road trip.

Let’s just hope it won’t be a fruitless journey.