Caylen Vickers

We must also take into consideration that at the time of Mladens 'up n at em' interview.. We had just finished mid table and had a goals against column of a bottom 4 side. Plus we were still rattling the 'please buy a season ticket' tin under people's noses..
Looking a mixture of sales patter and hot air 3 months on.

 

I can forgive doing it last season but to fail to deliver so much during your first season including an absolutely disastrous January window let’s also not forget to then have the stupidity to say things that you are unlikely to be able to deliver is just ridiculous and is going to lead to the kind of criticism that’s starting now then empty promises seem to be just that again.

 

He was worth the wait, but we ended up paying more than we had liked, do you think we are in a position this season to pay inflated fees the later the window goes on? again the point being we had stated that we were doing significant early progress with transfer targets to quote after the Reading game

"These couple of weeks now are massive for us. We have already been in contact and know the market and speak to agents and players and these are the bits where we are saying: ’this is where we are putting our money’ into the window"

If you compare to last summer, we were still operating with a 352 system, Mladen admitted we were later than we wanted due to focus being on recruiting a new head coach.
We have had more time and planning this summer for the first time in years hence appointing Conor in early April, yet here we are 2 weeks from Plymouth with nothing that resembles putting out a team that has proper full backs on both sides and wingers.

 

Personally, I think Mladen has been a disaster so far. Recruitment (and the justification for much if it) has, overall been dreadful. His media 'performances' have been poor and, as such, he's not endeared himself to fans. He is a reason why there is disconnect between fans and club. He should also not have said things like 'we have a competitive budget' and indicated that the ball would be rolling early if he wasn't sure that was the case. He's either lying, spinning things or deluded. He should have been honest or simply kept his mouth shut instead of raising false expectations. Yet again he's not helped the link between club and fans. I'd have sacked him by now if I were the owner (based on what I know - and there are obviously things I don't) but he seems to have Parekh in his pocket.
Having said all that he still has time to do something more positive before the season starts/ window ends and, for me, the fact that DKD is still here is a good sign (and I know some people like Phillips and Russell who are both still here). Its frustrating and there's not a lot to talk about at the moment but even I can wait a bit longer to see how things ultimately pan out. See who else is brought in - if anybody - and see who is offloaded - if anybody. If the squad looks poor by September then I think Mladen should definitely go. If it looks a bit better I'll be willing to cut him some slack.

 

I’d disagree that his was inflated but that’s another story.

We’ve also covered off that he shouldn’t have said what he said although it doesn’t change the issues faced.

The point I was making was it’s worth waiting for the right person and a season is not decided in the first 6 games.

Wether we get the right people is also another thing and history and funds would suggest that’s challenging to say the least but as I’ve always said I’ll judge once the picture is full.

 

I’m talking about this season not last. So try again

 

Err you said an effective window?
How can you tell it’s effective until the season pans out?

and even if Liverpool transfers work out for them there’s a couple of caveats in that statement in that you managed to pick one team out of what nearly 30 years of transfer windows and also it’s widely acknowledged that the reason so much was done early this year was the to the World Club trophy and without doubt the majority of transfers will still happen at n the last days of the window, which is what originally said.

 

We're "set to win the race" according to this. It also suggests the deal will be permanent which I'm surprised at as I think he's still got a long deal at Brighton:

https://rdg.today/league-one-side-set-to-win-race-for-former-reading-fc-young-star/

Edit: the article appears to have been updated now, and it says, potentially on loan.

 

Would surely cost a decent fee? If that were true then we must be selling someone to cover the cost.

 

Will a guy with 2 league one goals for an average third tier side really cost that much?

 

I think we have ideas above our station and are targeting the wrong players. I don't doubt for a second that we had a list of targets and a plan of action to recruit those targets and have them settled well before the start of the season.

But when negotiating with those players we found what we were prepared to offer was miles off what those players were prepared to accept. Similar story for our second choice in each position. And while we were wasting time on trying to recruit players who had no intention of ever coming here, our 3rd and 4th choice targets for each position had already signed for teams who were more realistic about the players they could recruit.

So now we're scrabbling about for anything that's avaliable rather than players we thought could do a job. Which is why we ended up with the dross we signed in January.

 

He plays on the left.

Go and find some footage of him and tell me he wouldn’t improve this squad of ours.

 

Well Real Madrid wanted to sign him from Reading little more than 18 months ago so he must have something? Doubt Brighton will be selling him for £200k or so.

 

Looks like a great signing. Be very pleasantly surprised if we manage to get him on a permanent.

 

Yup!

 

Just lazy journalism that. Looks to me like a rehash of Pete’O Rourke tweet. So just the news we already had rewritten.

 

Can’t see this TBH, they will know roughly what players earn and so by default have a clue on wages.
Even if they didn’t it would come out very very early in talks so wouldn’t impact that much.

 

Excited if we get this over the line. Suspect it will be a relatively small fee with significant sell on. He’ll improve the squad and feel he has a higher ceiling than either Humphry’s or Koroma.

 

Why would Koroma initially agree terms then? If the story is correct that is. Why would he initially agreed to sign then ‘change his mind’ Of course it’s money, but if other clubs were after him anyway he could’ve just said no to us and certainly not initially agreed?

 

Anyone know if there’s any truth in this?