Reading sign Bennett from Cork

Cork City have confirmed that they have agreed a fee with Barclays Premiership outfit Reading for central defender Alan Bennett.

No details of the fee where announced by either side, however the price agreed is believed to be in the €380,000 region.

The timing of the agreement means that Bennett is available for selection for the Premiership match agianst Wigan tomorrow night at the Madjeski Stadium.

Cork City said in a statement: 'We wish to thank Alan Bennett for his wonderful dedication and services to his hometown football club.

'It has to be stated that Alan's ambition to perform in the FA Premiership was the pivotal aspect of the decision.'


Yet another Cork City player of to Reading and yet another good player from our league moving to Britain, theres been too many of them recently. They got a better price that the 100k for Doyle & Long but I still think hes underpriced. Good luck to the lad, hope he does well in the Premiership

Think he'll make an appearance tomorrow night?

Good bit of business by Reading again though, two absolute bargain buys not long ago, and they've gone and done the same again. Well done Reading

im really chuffed with this signing and really hope he can continue the trend of fantastic irish players at Reading. A fantastic piece of dealing and also will now hopefully mean we steer clear of Michael Duberry!!!! result!

He should be a good buy, hes not the youngest - about 26 I think, but he should improve their defence and if he follows what Doyle and recently Long(who scored again tonight) are doing then he could be a big success. The price is apparently €450k though, not 380k so Cork got a decent deal, that sort of money isnt much in the Premiership but it should be a big financial boost for Cork.

anyone know if Bennett played tonight?

No he wasnt in the 16. Long was magnificent though!

Yeah I just saw an interview with him on Sky Sports, says hes nowhere near match fit yet. its pre season over here now so it will probably be a while before he plays

Yeah thats what i thought

Any chance anybody over the water wants to take him back?

You mean Barca or Madrid?

Has he even played a single game for you?!

Nope. He played pre season I think and then went out on loan to Southampton where he was good and bad, generally incosistent.

He's now on loan in bloody League Two at Brentford. Will be gone in the Summer.

Indeed, as i stated in the Reading rumours thread we have released Alan Bennett a year and a half before his contract was due to expire. Never came close to making a first team appearance and just never looked like making the sufficient grade required in training or out on loan by all accounts. We have too many central Defenders so Bennett was always, along with Sodje, down as the first one to go. Shame it didn't work out, I like to see Irish players doing well.

Yeah..a bit of a disaster for him. Shame it didnt work out.

I hear Reading are trying to sign Dave Mooney from Cork now, another quality striker, hes got around 20 goals already this season & looks a real player from what ive seen of him. Cork wont want to sell him at this stage of the season though

First i've heard of it? The only reason i could see us signing another striker would be to add a bit of height to the squad, Cooney isn't tall is he?

Nah not really, 5-10 ish, quality player though, gets plenty of goals.

Its probably not true anyway, Reading are always linked to Cork players over here, same with Sunderland. Blackburn were favourites to get him a while ago but nothing came of it. Looks like he might stay with Cork now though, until Christmas at least..

There was paper talk today of Coppell stepping up his bid for Mooney - and if Doyle moves to Villa, Cork will be getting a mini windfall that will clear their debts in one hit.

Yeah I read that, Doyle is apparently moving to Villa for £8.5m and Cork would net around £1m of that from a sell on clause. Reading then signing Mooney as a replacement, dont know how much he'd cost but with their current financial trouble they probably wont be in a position to reject something around £500k

Dont know if theres any truch in it though, cant say ive heard much about this Doyle move in any major way

Yeah I've heard that too. Villa are offering a lot for Doyle i am led to believe, but we are holding out for a little extra. Personally If we sold Doyle I would not bother with Mooney, acknowledge Noel Hunt as the Doyle replacement and concentrate on getting a tall, battering ram of a centre forward in. He's not in the best of for ol' Doyler, hasn't been for quite some time in fact, but i think he can get back to it so obviously I'd rather he stayed. The money we receive for him won't be invested hardly at all in strengthening the squad anyway so it's not vital we sell.

So Mooney has gone to Reading - Doyle to Villa looking more likely now?

Coppell has picked up a few bargains in the Republic, I wonder if Mooney make as much of an impact as Doyle did?

Indeed mate, under discussion in both Reading Rumours and Reading FC match thread.