ALF Lambert Austin

[Guest]

Have all been possible buys, all looked good, all scored against us

[Bris Vegas]

Have all been possible buys, all looked good, all scored against us

All obvious buys too..

I really don't understand the ALF one though, everyone knew he was a good player, and I mean everyone.. At $350k he was a bargain.. So why didn't anyone else in the NPC go for him?

Reading have a knack of just signing players with good reps in the lower divisons and they turn out quality..

Paul Jewell has picked up a bargain in Aaron Creswell at LB too, another obvious signing..

I don't know why managers don't dip into League 1/2 more often and just cherry pick the best players for around $300-$500k.. Barnsley took a few from Rochdale and they now play some great football.

[sage]

Brayford, Bailey and Davies.

[mcsilks]

Jake Buxton - Proven himself to be a more than capable understudy.

Legzdins - Same as Jake.

I'd say that Clough has a knack of finding talent from the lower leagues.

[Albert]

Are you kidding RamNut? Why not have a look at this another way:

What about all the clubs who missed out on Brayford, one of the best fullbacks in the league. What about all those who missed out of Bailey for that matter.

How about all those teams who missed out on Frank 'England's Number 3' Fielding for a mere £400k. Not too many teams at this level have players in the England squad, let alone for less than half a mil.

What about Ben Davies, there was a lot of talk about him early last year, yet we got him for near nothing and he's pulling all the strings at the moment.

Not to mention Jason Shackell, especially considering how much Leicester paid for Matt Mills.

Now, back to those 3 though. Austin's fee was reported to be around the £1.8 mil mark, we haven't seen that kind of money fly about since we signed Hulse years back. Didn't even score for them for his first 6 months there.

Then there's Lambert. As impressive as he's been this season, if we'd signed at the time they did for the money they did, which was around £800k- £1 mil we'd be screaming about Non-League Nigel's lack of ambition. He was a 27 year old lower league journeyman at the time who'd scored around 116 goals in 358 appearances (0.324 goals per game), with a lot of those coming in League Two. Its not a bad striker rate, but £1 mil was a lot for someone with only one really good season at League One level (29 goals) having only hit 13 the season before and only reached 20 one previous time in his career. He wasn't really a player that screamed out.

Then there's ALF with his 121 goals in 291 appearances (0.416 goals per game) at League two level. That's a fairly impressive striker rate, but at League Two level. Many said he'd be worth a shout and at £350k that sounds like a no risk deal, however he was always reported to have attitude problems and his signing would have been against how the club does this at the time. Even more importantly is that he isn't exactly a big striker and wouldn't offer us that different option that we need. Interestingly Davies has more goals this season too.

You can go on about the these players we've "missed" all day, but to deny that Nigel knows what he's doing with the lower league players is just silly. Overall the only player of those 3 that we really could have signed was ALF and again his attitude problems don't exactly make him as good a signing as many say.

[Hucknall Ram]

To be fair Austin was mostly injured for the 1st six months

[Albert]

To be fair Austin was mostly injured for the 1st six months

So if we'd signed him he'd have cost us £1.8 mil to be in the treatment room, any guesses how happy we'd have all been with that?

[Hucknall Ram]

So if we'd signed him he'd have cost us £1.8 mil to be in the treatment room, any guesses how happy we'd have all been with that?

One thing for sure it would of been expected lol

[Day]

Was Lambert possible? 21 goals in League 1 and won promotion to the Championship. Not going to pick him up for a fiver.

[Ambitious]

Lambert since moving to Southampton was always going to be worth 2 to 3 million, he has been nothing short of brilliant and hate to say it but football manager 2008 did predict so 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='^_^' />

Anyway, the last of the prolific goalscorers is currently hitting around a goal a game in league one, and has always had a similar record despite still being on the right side of 25 in Jordan Rhodes who is a similar sort of player to lambert and perhaps even better.

I'd sign him in a heart beat, although I will go against the grain and say another striker isn't the biggest issue, I think a centre midfielder, a left back, and then a striker is on the list, then a cover right back and another play-maker for good cause.

I'd much rather find a centre midfielder than will break up oppositions play, and keep us on top in possession than another striker when in fairness, I believe we have a decent collection of strikers that will score goals if asked, also 2 or 3 coming through the youth ranks.

Steve Davies

Nathan Tyson

Jamie Ward

Theo Robinson

Chris Maguire

Tommy Cywka(has played there)

Connor Doyle

Callum Ball

Mason Bennett

Kwame Thomas

[smiffy]

Lambert has been around for 9 or 10 years, and is somewhat of a late developer.

He was good at Rochdale, but at that time we were not looking at the lower leagues for players.

Bristol Rovers paid I think £250,000 for him, which was a big fee for them at the time.

Lambert came to most peoples eyes when they had a great FA Cup run beating Fulham and Southampton among others, and

Lambert play really well, on TV, so got noticed.

I thought he was worth a dig at the time and said so (not on here ), Southampton must have pencilled him in, but it was a year or so before the bought him.

Managers can not buy every decent players, but for me he is one that got away :-(

[samtheram83]

I disagree that Alf wouldn't have added anything to our striking options. He is what none of the proven forwards are in that he is a goal scorer, knows where to be at the right time to put the ball in the net. we don't have that and the more i see s.davies he looks less like the finisher or hold up striker we seem to need. i would still like to see jamie ward played up top cos i think he can be a total nuisance in the box. Its always a shame to miss out on a quality goalscorer, they are the signings that excite fans.

[Jourdan]

I think the only viable signing from the three was le Fondre.

His contract situation over the summer and the asking price were well-publicised and did not seem beyond us financially. We were crying out for this kind of signing over the summer and at £350k he's going to prove a shrewd purchase for Reading.

He comes alive in the 18-yard box and his intelligent movement, not pace or strength, help him get into goalscoring positions and then he has the ability in front of goal to finish the move.

With Lambert and Austin, it was different. In 2009-10, we had Hulse leading the line and didn't really need Lambert. In January, Clough had little room to manouevre financially and I don't think the board would have been willing to sanction a £1m+ signing.

The only one that got away for me was le Fondre because we don't have that 'fox in the box' and the player who is capable of scoring 15-20 goals at this level.

[ianm]

I think the only viable signing from the three was le Fondre.

His contract situation over the summer and the asking price were well-publicised and did not seem beyond us financially. We were crying out for this kind of signing over the summer and at £350k he's going to prove a shrewd purchase for Reading.

He comes alive in the 18-yard box and his intelligent movement, not pace or strength, help him get into goalscoring positions and then he has the ability in front of goal to finish the move.

With Lambert and Austin, it was different. In 2009-10, we had Hulse leading the line and didn't really need Lambert. In January, Clough had little room to manouevre financially and I don't think the board would have been willing to sanction a £1m+ signing.

The only one that got away for me was le Fondre because we don't have that 'fox in the box' and the player who is capable of scoring 15-20 goals at this level.

That figure unfortunately was beyond us financially, Glick again stated the other night we are running over budget.

[VulcanRam]

I think the only viable signing from the three was le Fondre.

His contract situation over the summer and the asking price were well-publicised and did not seem beyond us financially. We were crying out for this kind of signing over the summer and at £350k he's going to prove a shrewd purchase for Reading.

He comes alive in the 18-yard box and his intelligent movement, not pace or strength, help him get into goalscoring positions and then he has the ability in front of goal to finish the move.

With Lambert and Austin, it was different. In 2009-10, we had Hulse leading the line and didn't really need Lambert. In January, Clough had little room to manouevre financially and I don't think the board would have been willing to sanction a £1m+ signing.

The only one that got away for me was le Fondre because we don't have that 'fox in the box' and the player who is capable of scoring 15-20 goals at this level.

Presume that was what Tyson was brought in to do?

if you're judging Le Fondre on his goals against us, his first was a fluke and his second my granny could have headed in such was the quality of the cross. Prior to that he had scored two this season, even less than Theo! So let's judge him after he's played at least half a season in this league.

I can't stand this hand-wringing every time a player who has moved clubs, whether or not we were in for him or could even have afforded him, scores against us.

[RamNut]

Lambert was an obvious miss.

He went to southampton when we were buying Barker.

We'd blown our cash on Porter a bit too early.

If Hulse was a guaranteed fixture why did Nigel sign Porter 6 months before Lambert went to Southampton?

Personally I think he's good enough for the Prem.

Austin....was the obvious target after we'd missed Lambert.

In the end - like Hooper - he became too expensive for us.

Le Fondre - definately a miss.

Looks like a Bobby Davison to me.Bobby scored goals in div 4 / league 2 and showed that good strikers at those levels can play at Championship level.

Tubbs is another.Just look where Crawley are now.

Can't see what Brayford, Bailey and co has got to do with it myself..

[RamNut]

You can go on about the these players we've "missed" all day, but to deny that Nigel knows what he's doing with the lower league players is just silly.

where did i say that?

i think he's made a few great signings.......he's made a few duffers too mind.

[Guest]

Presume that was what Tyson was brought in to do?

if you're judging Le Fondre on his goals against us, his first was a fluke and his second my granny could have headed in such was the quality of the cross. Prior to that he had scored two this season, even less than Theo! So let's judge him after he's played at least half a season in this league.

I can't stand this hand-wringing every time a player who has moved clubs, whether or not we were in for him or could even have afforded him, scores against us.

If you want picture book goals that your granny could score, stick to FIFA 12, if you want a player that is in the right place at the right time and don't care if it comes off his arse as long as the ball goes in the net the he is your man.

People quite understandably question why a player who has scored 4 in 7 so far, and goals throughout his career was not looked at even though we are crying out for this sort of player.

You mention Tyson as being the fox in the box, yet he has not set the world alight recently in terms of goals has he, the difference between the 2? Well one was free and the other 350k, anything above £3.50 and we are out of the running.

[Albert]

Loads of teams missed out on the bargain buys of Brayford, Bailey and of our Fielding. But on the topic of these strikers a lot of teams stayed clear of Le Fondre and as I mentioned before it seemed to be his attitude problem that was causing this. If that was the case I don't care if he hits 20 goals this season, it wouldn't be worth ruining the atmosphere around the club for him as it stands.

[Albert]

If you want picture book goals that your granny could score, stick to FIFA 12, if you want a player that is in the right place at the right time and don't care if it comes off his arse as long as the ball goes in the net the he is your man.

People quite understandably question why a player who has scored 4 in 7 so far, and goals throughout his career was not looked at even though we are crying out for this sort of player.

You mention Tyson as being the fox in the box, yet he has not set the world alight recently in terms of goals has he, the difference between the 2? Well one was free and the other 350k, anything above £3.50 and we are out of the running.

That's just a silly thing to say. We spent more than that several times over the summer. Let's compare Tyson and Le Fondre though, at League Two level that is:

Name - Games - Goals (Goals per 46 games)

Le Fondre - 293 - 122 (19.4)

Tyson - 57 - 33 (26.6)

And for fun:

Liam Dickinson - 33 - 94 (16.1)

Both Tyson and Dickinson were top strikers at League Two, and yes I realise that Le Fondre is a different type of player, however with the before mentioned apparent attitude problems its fairly obvious why the club (and many others) didn't want to take the risk.