Summer Centre Forward Signings for Reading 1999-2013

[P!ssed Off]

Certain Nobbers seemed to be suggesting that Reading couldn't afford to sign Gary Hooper or Charlie Austin, therefore we couldn't sign any striker whatsoever.
By the sounds of it before we became successful and reached the Premier League we didn't used to buy strikers.
At the back of my mind I had a nagging doubt about that. Might it, in fact, be possible to sign a striker for a reasonable price, and had we previously done so?
I decided to do some further research into striker signings over the last 15 years or so (about the time I started going to games):

1999-2000: Summer: Nicky Forster 650K January: Martin Butler 750K.

2000-2001: Summer: Tony Rougier 325K, Jamie Cureton 250K.

2001-2002: Summer: Didn't buy a striker.

2002-2003: Summer: Didn't buy a striker.

2003-2004: Summer: Shaun Goater 500K. Dean Morgan Free in November, Dave Kitson 150K in December, Lloyd Owusu Loaned in December turned into a Free.

2004-2005: Summer: Didn't buy a striker. January: Les Ferdinand Free.

2005-2006: Summer: Kevin Doyle & Shane Long combined fee of 80K, Leroy Lita 1M, Eric Obbina-Chuckwunyela Free.

2006-2007: Summer: Only bought in Seol KI-Hyeon, who wasn't necessarily a striker, for 1.5M.
Didn't need anyone else, already had Lita, Doyle, Kitson and Long.

2007-2008: Summer: Didn't buy a striker.

2008-2009: Summer: Noel Hunt a rumoured 600K, Dave Mooney a rumoured €260K.
Only Hunt was for the first team, should we have signed more? No, as we had Doyle, Long and Lita already at the club.

2009-2010: Summer: Grzegorz Rasiak Undisclosed fee.
Should we have bought more? Probably not, as we already had Long, Hunt and Church. Injury to Hunt that kept him out for majority of season could not have been foreseen.

2010-2011: Summer: Didn't buy a striker. January: Mathieu Manset Undisclosed, Brett Williams 50K.

2011-2012: Summer: Adam Le Fondre 300K, January: Karl Sheppard Free, Jason Roberts Undisclosed.
Should we have bought more in the Summer? Didn't really need to as we already had Church, Hunt and Manset.

2012-2013: Summer: Pavel Pogrebnyak Free. January: Nick Blackman 1.2M.

2013-2014: Summer: Didn't buy a striker.
Should we have? Well let's analyse our current strike force (4 players):
Adam Le Fondre: A great finisher, but unfortunately he doesn't fit our formation and seems better suited to the super-sub role.
Nick Blackman: Only hope of hitting the back of the net is if we happen to win a penalty whilst he's on the pitch and Le Fondre lets him take it.
Pavel Pogrebnyak: A lazy Russian who's sunk to new lows of disinterested. Currently played 10 mins after 5 league games. An average of 2 minutes per game!
Jason Roberts: 35 years old, injured and hasn't played in 9 months. Last league goal: April 2012. Can't envisage him playing in the near future, if at all.
As for the youth: so far in the first 5 league games and 1 cup game there has been little evidence that Gozie Ugwu or Domininc Samuel will be given game time in the near future.

Conclusion: The evidence appears to indicate that when Reading have needed a striker in the past, they've gone and bloody bought one.
Summers when they haven't bought a striker, there's a fairly justifiable case for why they didn't.
2001-2002: 2 players, Butler and Cureton, had scored 20+ league goals the previous season. Forster had scored 10 league goals the season before that.
2002-2003: 2 players, Forster and Cureton, had scored 15+ goals the previous season. Butler, returning from serious injury, might have returned to previous form.
2004-2005: Goater had scored 12 goals the previous season. Forster despite having aged was still capable of potentially 15 goals a season. In half a season, Kitson had shown talent with 5 goals in 10 league starts. Owusu looked a threat with 4 goals from 11 starts in the previous campaign.
2007-2008: Doyle had shown in the previous season, with 13 Prem goals, that he was capable in that division. Kitson who had score 37 league goals over two seasons (2004-2006), was back having spent most of the previous season injured. Lita with 7 in the previous campaign was a legitimate threat.
2010-2011: Hunt had scored 11 league goals in his first Royals season, before missing most of the next though injury. Over the previous two seasons Long had scored 15 league goals whilst only, starting 33 times. In the previous campaign, Church had scored 10 in his breakthrough season. Church. Long and Hunt were all definitely capable of 10+ goals, though there may have been doubt that at least two of them could realistically score 15+ in the coming season.

Essentially, in previous years when we haven't signed a striker in the summer we still started each of those seasons with at least two players who had a very good chance of scoring 15-20 goals over the season, with a third, backup striker who might possibly get 10 goals. (With the possible exception of 2010-2011).

In my opinion we've currently got the weakest selection of strikers that I can remember.
Am I angry because we missed out on Hooper and Austin? No. That would have been excellent if it had came off and well tried if it didn't.
I'm annoyed because not only did we not sign any excellent strikers, but we didn't even sign any decent ones.
You might argue that I shouldn't expect any superstar strikers arriving at the club over the Summer, but surely given the signings we've made over the last 15 years I could have legitimately expected a decent striker arriving.

Yes, we might sign a striker on loan in the next few weeks, but this will still have gone against our way of going about things in the last 10+ years which has pretty much been a case of:
Have we got at least 2 strikers capable of scoring 15+ goals over the coming season, as well as another striker capable of scoring 10?
If not, we'll sign a striker in the Summer Transfer Window.

It's got very little to do with Nige promising 3 signings or ZIngy promising 7. And it's got nothing to do with our success in getting to the Premier League warping my expectations. I'm simply after the continuation of the good Summer transfer business that has been an ever present for as long as I can remember.

Cheers for reading.
I'll shut up now. (Possibly)

[Jimbo]

For anyone who can't be arsed reading all that:

"We need to buy a striker."

[Fox Talbot]

For anyone who can't be arsed reading all that:

"We need to buy a striker."

I thought it was well worth reading, even though your summary is fair.

[teignmouth hoops]

The other point to make is we normally buy cheaply or reasonably and we normally source 'hungry' players( not incl Rasiak & Pog) who have something to prove

[Ian Royal]

You say all this like we didn't even try.

It's pretty clear we want to make impressive signings who will seriously improve our first team options. And that we're not going to buy squad players to get in the way of the youth.

For years people have been decrying our lack of ambition in the transfer market. Then when we show perhaps too much ambition and it fails, people start complaining we're not doing anything and crying about fake / unrealistic bids / talks to appease and con the fans.


The childish sense of entitlement on display over the last week is pathetic. I have no problem being disappointed we haven't brought in more players and that we're weak upfront and missed out on strikers. But please, lets have just a little bit of perspective rather than throwing tantrums and crying like its some sort of disaster of epic proportions.

This is a more general point and not particularly directed at you PO. You're one of the least bad, although I still thing you're over-reacting a bit.

[RFCSPACE]

Should we have bought more in the Summer? Didn't really need to as we already had Church, Hunt and Manset.

Say what

[Avon Royal]

You say all this like we didn't even try.

It's pretty clear we want to make impressive signings who will seriously improve our first team options. And that we're not going to buy squad players to get in the way of the youth.

For years people have been decrying our lack of ambition in the transfer market. Then when we show perhaps too much ambition and it fails, people start complaining we're not doing anything and crying about fake / unrealistic bids / talks to appease and con the fans.


The childish sense of entitlement on display over the last week is pathetic. I have no problem being disappointed we haven't brought in more players and that we're weak upfront and missed out on strikers. But please, lets have just a little bit of perspective rather than throwing tantrums and crying like its some sort of disaster of epic proportions.

This is a more general point and not particularly directed at you PO. You're one of the least bad, although I still thing you're over-reacting a bit.

Are the club paying you to persist with this Ian? Or are you really as gullible, naive and sanctimonious as you are coming across?

[P!ssed Off]

Should we have bought more in the Summer? Didn't really need to as we already had Church, Hunt and Manset.

Say what

Emphasis is on need as you can see.
The argument was not that Church, Hunt and Manset were enough for the season, but that Church, Hunt, Manset + the arrival of Le Fondre meant another Summer signing was not necessarily necessary.

Bear in mind that at that point (Summer 2011), Noel Hunt had scored 10 league goals the previous season. Church had scored 5 league goals the previous season with only 14 starts, and had scored 10 league goals the season before that. Manset had shown a bit of promise in his six months at the club. I think it's reasonable to say that these four strikers were probably good enough not to require a further Summer signing.

[John Peel]

What evidence (I know people's definition on here of evidence can be quite loose) do people have that Jason Roberts isn't going to return. The only thing I've seen is his tweet saying he'd back in training in six weeks. And that was about 10 days ago.

[genome]

3 goals in 5 games is a fair amount for someone who doesn't "fit our formation".

[P!ssed Off]

3 goals in 5 games is a fair amount for someone who doesn't "fit our formation".

Do you think he is well suited to our formation?

[genome]

If he keeps up that strike rate, I couldn't give a sh1t if he is suited or not.

[P!ssed Off]

If he keeps up that strike rate, I couldn't give a sh1t if he is suited or not.

But will he keep up the striker rate?
The last two seasons he's proved pretty ineffective when starting games.
This season he's scored a penalty, a deflected header that may have been an own goal, and an excellent finish that came about after a set piece.
Based on his goals this season it's not blatantly obvious whether he'll be able to keep such a run going, here's hoping though.

[NewCorkSeth]

If he keeps up that strike rate, I couldn't give a sh1t if he is suited or not.

+1

[genome]

If he keeps up that strike rate, I couldn't give a sh1t if he is suited or not.

But will he keep up the striker rate?
The last two seasons he's proved pretty ineffective when starting games.
This season he's scored a penalty, a deflected header that may have been an own goal, and an excellent finish that came about after a set piece.
Based on his goals this season it's not blatantly obvious whether he'll be able to keep such a run going, here's hoping though.

As I said... if. And they could all go in off his arse for all I care! A striker's there to score goals.

[paddy20]

If he keeps up that strike rate, I couldn't give a sh1t if he is suited or not.

But will he keep up the striker rate?
The last two seasons he's proved pretty ineffective when starting games.
This season he's scored a penalty, a deflected header that may have been an own goal, and an excellent finish that came about after a set piece.
Based on his goals this season it's not blatantly obvious whether he'll be able to keep such a run going, here's hoping though.

As I said... if. And they could all go in off his arse for all I care! A striker's there to score goals.

After all our woes this week our troubles may be over.... Robson -Kanu is feeling sharper!!! (evening post) ha ha

[No Fixed Abode]

2013/14 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake