Yeah i agree with that post mate. Oster was fairly dismal and had a poor, poor reputation when he first arrived but it was clear that despite his age he had progressed slightly as a footballer towards the closing stages of last season and he was beginning to show a little bit of good form, but the johnny come lately plastics jumped continuously on his back. The run where he was starting to show some form was leading up to the Arsenal away game in which the team was hugely changed and he was left out. I'm not too sorry to see him go, but i thought they might perhaps want to keep him as a squad player at least in the Championship, which now leaves us with Little as our only authentic first team right winger and his injury problems sadly have really troubled him in recent months. There have been rumours that Little might be on his way to Coventry, but i believe firmly that that is just a cheeky little ploy in order to improve the one year deal currently on the table for him, as his contract is up in the Summer. I can imagine the wages we have offered him don't amount too much but i do hope he signs on with us again, if we can get him back to full fitness and he can maintain this fitness consistently he is the most skillful player in our ranks, who was vital in the two successes of the 05/06 and 06/07 seasons. Even with Little staying though i expect another winger to be bought, as i said he is rather hampered by injury these days and a back up right winger is somewhat of a necessity to cater for that problem should it inevitably arise. Whether one will be bought or someone like James Henry, a youngster from the reserves will be promoted to the first team and given a chance to prove himself remains to be seen.

Regarding Harper that short summary you posted there Axey is more or less there. I've been somewhat of a critic of Harper's over the past few years, he was very good indeed the season we were first in the Championship and we went all the way to the playoffs but since then he has been incredibly frustrating, but always an ever present. He is a likable lad and works his absolute socks off in games and always gives his best in terms of work rate but does not have many other stand out attributes other than that. He simply cannot tackle or defend, and makes himself look rather comical in his attempts to. He does offer a little bit more when played in a more advanced role, he has the ability to score goals as we saw on the occasion this season and he can pick out a pass, but he decides to do these things too infrequently. He simply cannot work a successful partnership in the middle with Matejovsky due to the lack of tackling and defensive work that goes on when they play together, which is why i am not too adverse to seeing Harper sold as Matejovsky is the better player.

Sh*t, I'm absolutely crestfallen this afternoon. Glen Little has agreed to a one year contract at Portsmouth. One of the players i hoped the most would not leave and help us to bounce back.

Boll0cks.

My disappointment has just given away to being p*ssed off. I know that the lure of a Premiership Club would have been a factor and indeed the financial offering, but i have a sneaking suspicion the offer we put on the table for Glen would have been rubbish. Despite his recent injury lay offs we really could of done with holding onto him, he is by far the most skillful player at his best that i have ever seen grace the Reading shirt, and providing he could of regained fitness he would have once again become a lynchpin in our attempts to get back up. We now have no right Midfielders with this and the release of Oster and without question we need a decent replacement, although i am skeptical of to if that will happen. The depressing thing is i can see clearly now we are just going to hemorrhage players this Summer.


But hey it's not all doom and gloom eh, insight of our new shirt sponsorship deal with Waitrose, the supermarket chain are offering deals in store to season ticket holders. Whoope doo.

Strong rumours circulating that we will be set to lose Harper, Sonko and Shorey within the next couple of weeks. Regarding Sonko, i am rather in two minds to be honest. In the season in which we won promotion and in our first season in the Premier League he was simply sensational, providing huge defensive stability at all times and putting in performance after performance with his aerial power, tough tackling and all round no nonsense centre half style. He was unfortunately then rather badly injured in a game in that 06/07 season against Sheffield United and since his return last season in all harsh honesty, he has been nothing short of a liability more often than not. He looked extremely shakey, unconvincing, consistently mis-timed challenges and gave away three penalties over a period of just a few weeks, before his infamous falling out with Coppell toward the end of the season over refusing to play in a reserve team fixture. After that incident in which he and Emerse Fae were suspended, he still insisted he wanted a future at the Club but has apparently in the last few days undergone a u-turn on that and wants to seek his fortunes somewhere else after four years with us, rumours suggesting any three of the newly promoted trio of Hull, Stoke or West Brom. Personally, I would have been far more objective to even consider selling him in the previous two Summers but now I think providing an offer we receive represents good value, then we should go ahead with it. Simply because his head is not with us anymore, we currently have a number of centre backs at the Club capable of coping in the Championship and thirdly and perhaps most importantly i just don't think Sonks can ever, ever reach the standard he was at in that 06/07 season again.

Harper is a player i have by my own admission been a somewhat harsh critic of for many years now and is another who i would not be so adverse to leaving if an attractive offer were to come are way. Harps has a relentless ethic and work rate, he covers a hell of a lot of ground and can be described as a Midifield engine, yet in simple terms, running seems to be the only thing he does. He cannot defend to save his life, his attempts at tackling are comical and always result in giving away cheap free kicks. He lets players just drift through our Midfield like he isn't even there half the time which i personally find down right frustrating. As i said in a previous post going forward he can offer a little bit more, he does pick out the odd 30 yard pass and can weigh in with a few goals a season but at the end of the day these flashes of competence are all too few and far between for me. It is thought he is on the verge of a move to Boro, inconsistency going hand in hand there, but we are apparently holding out for a bit more money from them as we have to give a third of any transfer fee to Arsenal as part of the terms of the deal when we signed him from them years back. I am far more concerned at the void Little will leave than players such as Harper, and the departure of Harps will finally allow a new Midfield partnership to commence, one that i hope will see a Midfield battler brought into compliment and work with Matejovsky.

Shorey's imminent departure is no shock whatsover, it's been common knowledge for a long time now. At first I thought the Club may, had we stayed up, brought about a situation similar to that of Sidwell's when he was here, letting his contract wind down whilst reaping the benefits of the player for that last year. I'm glad they did not however as those are two totally different situations, with Sidwell we had just been freshly promoted going into the last year of his contract and he was simply vital to our chances of avoiding relegation and the club took the decision to not sell him that Summer but instead let him go for free at the end of the year, benefiting hugely as we did from his solid performances in that initial PL season. Shorey's current deal runs out next Summer and this is obviously the time to cash in on him, and i believe there is interest from a few Premier League Clubs.

According to "SKY" Middlesborough's are in for "Harper" at 3m.
Good news coz i heard Whfc were interested,bad times if we were after this joker

Being strongly linked at the moment with Seyi Olofinjana of Wolves, who is transfer listed at Molineux by his own request. He looks fairly good from what i have seen of him and could really fit the bill in that battling central Midfield role, a role that we so desperately need to fill at this time. I understand there are one or two Premier League Clubs in for him also so I don't know if this will come to anything at this moment in time. Pompey have emerged as the front runners to sign Shorey, Hunt and Doyle continue to be linked with Sunderland whilst Kitson is supposedly being tracked by Wigan and Fulham.

Not a lot of rumoured activity at the moment, just the customary list of possible outgoings that papers view as inevitable with our relegation. The most persistent seem to be Keane wanting Hunt and Doyle in a double swoop, Shorey going to Pompey and Harper possibly to Middlesbrough.

Still hearing mutterings of Olofinjana, a player who may be the perfect foil for Matejovsky in the centre of that Midfield.

Well hose me down and call me a bitch, for the first time in literally weeks I have heard mutterings of us being linked with a player, albeit just a Newspaper gossip column rumour. The player in question is Coventry wideman and all round versatile Midfielder Jay Tabb, who I would actually be interested in us going for, he seems very versatile and an impressive, determined player, strong at Championship level. Perhaps the Little replacement we must be undoubtedly searching for. Although I've heard Burnley are in competition with one other Championship club for Manchester United winger Chris Eagles, hope it may be us actually as i believe he would be well worth a punt at this level, particularly with us needing a right sided Midfielder. I can only assume we are operating on a purchase after selling policy, although we are told Hammond and Coppell know who they want and are making moves for players.

Dave Kitson expected to sign for Stoke from Reading tomorrow morning.

Yeah this will happen I think, he supposedly was Ill for the friendly with Forest Green on Tuesday night, but i saw him in town yesterday afternoon and he looked fine. As long as we get a decent deal for him, i believe it will be a couple of million plus some reasonable add-ons, I am fine with this. On form, Kitson is a top class centre forward but he's to put it bluntly, a moody f*cker who plays when he wants to play an sod anyone else half the time he always plays far too deep also, i have no time for this season for us to cater for players who won't wish to be here in all honesty. Good luck to him, but Stoke are coming back down, he's going to regret it.

Id be happy with the deal your getting floody, 5million. Hes a decent player but 5 million is a bit much if you ask me.

It's just the inflation of the market these days Yobbo, if players like Marlon King go for that sort of money then kits' price tag is justified in a sense. It won't be five Million up front anyway, i would seriously doubt, it's all to do with add ons depending on appearances etc.

Yeah players prices are going sky high no way is Kitson worth any where near 5 million, especially if Hleb was only woth 11 million.

But again I re-iterate it will not be that sort of money up front. It will be a couple of million up front plus a few other complicated and various add-ons, some of which will probably not come to the fore for a year or two.

Probably but thats the same thing with the Darren Bent transfer yet everyone carries on saying 16 million even though at the moment weve only payed about 10 million.

Indeed. But that's the thing I suppose, clubs never release all the details of a transfer and they are always more complicated most of the time than just a one off payment. A fee reported by the media is nearly always an estimation or "in the region of", and doesn't give details.

True, we shall see though if it does rise to 5 million and he doesnt do better than he did with Reading it wont be worth it. Then again if he does really well like we have seen on occassions with him the possible 5 million fee could be an alright deal.

Kitson was simply outstanding during the early stages last season, in fact I think you will see that if you dig up some of my match reports from that time but he faded away into poor form along with most of the other lads as the season wore on and got progressively worse. I've watched him for five years now, and he's always featured for us regularly, from what I remember i believe it was Pardew who lined him up and Coppell who actually pushed through and persevered with the deal. When on form he really is a force to be reckoned with, he's got great skill and finesse for a man of his height and can battle well in the air, scores goals from on the floor and with his head. He can drop deep, collect the ball and bring others into play through passing and through aerial flick ons, something him and Doyler linked together well with, and generally defends from the front, tackling hard and pressuring defenders into making mistakes. He can though, as he was guilty of throughout much of the latter stages of last season, constantly drop just too deep to collect the ball to try and make things happen when it is indeed him who needs to be in the final third finishing any chances. However there have always, always been questions over Kitson's attitude, he can often be in a game and look like he is not bothered in the slightest with regards to both his body language and his aggravation at the slightest little things, which has always made him a bit frustrating to us in the stands. I have always had question marks over his relationship with Coppell, that's just the nature and personality of the two men but if he does indeed complete his move tomorrow I wish him all the best, but it's a move I believe in time he may really come to regret.

Stoke have completed the signing of Dave Kitson from Reading on a three year deal for 5.5 million.

I think this is a very good deal for Reading.

Show me the money, thank you very much Pulis that will do nicely. I am sad to see him go but it was evident he no longer wanted to be at the club and we have made an extremely tidy profit here, since we paid shy of £350,000 for him, I wish him all the best but I think this is the wrong move for him, i think he will regret joining Stoke.

I'm pleased to see us insisting with a stance that Clubs must pay our valuations for our players. Long may it continue, that money can go towards bringing in another striker which is needed now.