In my last column, I looked at the new arrivals and suggested that there was still a vacancy for a new forward, probably a left winger. I was obviously thinking along the same lines as Alan Pardew, because we have now bought Tony Rougier from Port Vale.
I must confess to never having heard of Rougier before and I don't think I'd ever seen him play before the Millwall away game, so let's assume for the moment that he really does fit the bill as the player we were missing.
What can we find out about him? Well, obviously he's a Trinidad & Tobago international, and what's more one of their star players, so we can assume that he's going to be playing in all of their internationals. Furthermore, whilst Manchester United might be able to put pressure on T&T to omit Dwight Yorke from certain games, that's not going to apply to us. In fact, if Yorke is missing that's going to make it even more certain that they will want Rougier.
Last season he missed 8 Port Vale league games because of international commitments, and he played in several more whilst jet-lagged (although Port Vale fans said that even whilst jet-lagged he was still their best player!). But in Division 1, there's a much greater chance of games getting called off due to international commitments - maybe not by Port Vale but certainly by their opponents. That won't apply to Reading unless both Hunter and Adie Williams get recalled to their own international teams (and if T&T games coincide with European games), and it doesn't apply to any other Division 2 team other than Stoke. Fortunately T&T failed to qualify for the Olympic Games, but World Cup qualifiers are just getting under way, and they will be trying their hardest to make it to the 2002 World Cup.
The following are their remaining scheduled World Cup
qualifying fixtures:
16th August - Panama (home)
3rd September - Canada (home)
8th October - Mexico (away)
15th November - Panama (away)
With FIFA's five day rule, that means Rougier will potentially
miss the following Reading games (although given that he played
in the Millwall game on 12th August, there's obviously no
guarantee of this):
2nd September - Port Vale (away)
6th October - Wigan (away)
11th November - Colchester (home)
We might also reasonably assume he will be jet-lagged for the
following games:
5th September - Orient (home)
18th November - FA Cup 1st round
However, this is only the semi-final round. If T&T finish in the top two of their four-team group (and they're top with a 100% record at the time of writing), they will play a further ten fixtures between March and November 2001. Obviously these dates aren't fixed yet, but it will probably mean another three games missed this season, plus the same number jetlagged.
Ignoring cup games, that's 6 fixtures out of the 45 remaining that he may not be available for, and 3 more where his fitness will be suspect. If he did play in all 39 games, then that would be much more than we can expect, particularly given our track record on injuries.
Having said all that, it appears that the Port Vale fans really did rate him. They are talking about returning season tickets, and holding a protest march through the town before their next home game. However, this isn't just down to Rougier - it's a reflection of how much they dislike their chairman and how concerned they are about the way he is running their club. They have spent several years ahead of their local rivals Stoke, and see that advantage slipping away. They also worry about potential merger rumours. So just because they're up in arms at the moment doesn't mean that we've got away with the steal of the season.
The other question is how much we paid for Rougier. These figures are always shrouded in mystery, but you normally get some consistency in the different reports. According to Reading FC, Rougier cost £300,000. This fits with the Port Vale chairman referring to a profit of £125,000 since the reported fee they paid for him was £175,000. However, Teletext stated that we had paid £325,000 (sometimes also stating that Port Vale had paid £200,000 for him, making the Port Vale sell-on profit accurate), and the Reading Evening Post said that it was £340,000. To some extent, it doesn't make a great deal of difference, but it would still be nice to know the truth.
Anyway, having said all that, Rougier's performance at Millwall showed that he has skill. It wasn't a game where we got to see what he can really do, because he was playing on his own for much of the match, but there were promising signs. If he really does deliver the goods on a regular basis, then we'll be quite prepared to live with him being away every now and again.
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