At the start of the summer, Reading announced that they were looking to bring in three players for this season - a defender, a midfielder and a forward. A little later Alan Pardew said that we were looking for three or maybe four players, and then in mid-June he said we wanted to bring in five. In fact we have so far made four signings (excluding youth players) and I think we can probably expect that the manager is still looking for one more.
We've brought in two central defenders, Adie Williams and Adi Viveash, and two midfielders, Keith Jones and Ricky Newman. Bearing in mind that Williams and Newman were playing for us on loan at the end of last season, what this really means is that we have got Viveash as a replacement for Linvoy Primus and Jones as a replacement for Peter Grant. Perhaps "three players" meant three in addition to Williams and Newman, so that all the statements were consistent.
So let's have a look at each of the four players:
Adrian (Adie) Williams
Adrian Williams is well known to Reading fans. He's a local lad, grew up with the club, and played for us until 1996. He was part of our greatest ever line-up and had a habit of chipping in with important goals, including one at Wembley. He only ever did two things to annoy Reading fans - play for Wales and sign for Wolves. I think we can forgive him for the second mistake - we got a large transfer fee and he hardly played any games for them anyway. What's more he scored for us in one of those games!
When he came back on loan last season, at first he looked absolutely awful. Fortunately he played through that spell, perhaps gained in confidence and fitness, and was back to his imperious best by the end of the season. One thing I've always liked about Adie is the way he defends at corners - every other player looks at the player about to take the kick. Adie always has eyes only for the man he's marking - he knows that it doesn't really matter where the ball goes as long as he's able to stop his opponent from being a danger. The great irony is that when Willians goes up front for our corners or free-kicks, the opposing defence are not able to stop him in the same effective manner, and he often scores or creates goals this way.
Another factor that he brings to the team is leadership quality. That's something I don't remember from the mid-90s; perhaps in those days he was deferring to Wdowczyk or McPherson who obviously had even greater experience. If it is something he's developed at Molineux, then I'm glad that we're going to get the benefit rather than them!
Adrian (Adi) Viveash
Adi Viveash also played for us in the 90s, but only for a few games whilst on two separate loan spells from Swindon. I remember him as an average player, but given that we were at the top of Division 1 in his second spell, that probably translates as very good in Division 2. He's played for Walsall in recent years, and has picked up their player of the year award twice. That means that he must be not only a good player but also one who tries hard and plays for his team.
Again, what he brings to our club are experience and leadership. He's been through the problem of getting out of this division (and to be fair the bigger problem of getting back into it the wrong way!). From our point of view, if we are to have a stronger central defence than last season we need him to be better than Primus. For a start, the fact that he's left-footed gives him an advantage as it means he can more easily slot alongside Williams or Hunter. I don't know how quick he is, but then again I never understood how anyone could describe Primus as quick anyway. From the friendly appearances he looks like another good signing who will help us to step up in quality.
Keith Jones
In an article last season, I suggested that we look at Andy Hessenthaler as a replacement for Peter Grant, but that I hoped our management had better ideas. Well, I think they've shown why they're in the job instead of me! On paper, Keith Jones looks like the ideal signing. He's played at the highest level, was part of a side last season that gained promotion to the Premiership, and can play the role of experienced pro among our (relatively) young midfield. Grant had a good end to the season but Jones should be an improvement, which is what we were looking for.
Having said that, there are doubts. Will he be injured all the time? Will he just be looking to pick up the last pay-check? I think that that is what we thought about Grant at first, but he did surprise us later on. For now, I hope that Jones will repay the faith Pardew has shown in him.
At Chelsea, Jones picked up the incredibly imaginative nickname of Jonah - perhaps we can do better than that.
Ricky Newman
Well, I've seen every game Ricky Newman has played for us, and I really don't see that he adds much. His reputation from Millwall seems to have two parts - firstly, he is the sort of nutter that will get into a fight (and that's no problem at all - remember David Madden?!), and secondly that he wasn't good enough to get into Millwall's reserves. Well, perhaps it's time that we bring players in who suddenly improve rather than the all-too-familiar version where they leave Reading and then step up a gear.
I would say that Newman is behind Jones and Parkinson for places in the centre of our midfield but I expect him to play from the start alongside Jones because it is obvious that Pardew rates him. As a back-up I guess he's OK but I'm really going to be looking for a lot more than he produced last season before I value his arrival as highly as most of Pardew's other signings.
Others?
The obvious piece missing from the jigsaw is that of a new forward. I assumed that Pardew's plan was to play Butler and Forster (well, that bit wasn't hard to guess!) with the likes of McIntyre and Henderson as backup. The desire for a forward would then be to bring in someone as a winger, probably as a left winger. It might be that the re-signing of Lee Hodges means Pardew is now happy with that position, but I think there's still a vacancy.
The name that Reading fans will always quote at this point is Mark McKeever. I would have thought it likely that with Sheffield Wednesday dropping into Division 1 McKeever can realistically look for a place in their first team and would not move. It's pretty clear that there's not many decent left wingers around and our best bet may be to look for promising youngsters.
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