Recent reports suggest that Aston Villa manager Martin O`Neill has failed in an attempt to prise Royals striker Kevin Doyle away from his Madejski Stadium home.
Irishman Doyle, who is currently sitting in an impressive third place in the Premiership`s leading goalscorers chart with 10 goals to his name so far this season, has recently penned a new deal with his Berkshire club which will keep him here until the end of the 2009/10 campaign.
Upon signing, Doyle announced at how happy he was with life at Reading, and admitted that the club is moving onto great things in his eyes.
However, it has recently been suggested through circles in the media that Villa chief Martin O`Neill fancies his chances of tempting Doyle to the midlands, and as such, has tabled a £5million bid for the in-form striker.
From a personal point of view, I laugh at Mr. O`Neill`s ignorance, yet applaud his interest in such a fine young player.
It has been publicised that Doyler is extremely happy to be a part of this historic Royals team, and in scoring 10 goals so far this term, has outlined just how well he is playing with his teammates. Having signed a new deal as recently as just last week, most managers would have taken this as an indication that Doyle is not looking to move on anytime soon, and is hoping to push this club up the league and cement our place in the top flight.
If it costs £8million to take Andy Johnson to Everton from the division below, for example, why should O`Neill believe he`d successfully capture Doyle for only £5million?
Doyle has scored 10 goals already this Premiership campaign – of which only two have been from the penalty spot, contrasting with Johnson`s count of over 60% of his tally for Crystal Palace coming from 12 yards. Doyle is also a regular international for his country and has already opened his Irish account on the scoring front.
I`m by no means suggesting that Everton`s Johnson was not worth the price that was paid, but for O`Neill to offer what is such a derogatory bid in my opinion is somewhat questionable on his part.
Since Doyler moved to Reading for just £75,000 from Cork City, he has scored an impressive 29 goals in 72 games for the club. Couple this with his down-to-earth attitude and the tremendous work rate and winning mentality he brings to the team, it would take far more than £5million to even raise an eyebrow`s thought to selling our hitman.
As far as I`m concerned, O`Neill can take his £5million and use it to buy a reality check. There is no way Doyle will be sold for such a bargain price, if indeed, at all.
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I suspect our Aston Martin was testing the water. Reading have done very well in the first half of the season. But the Premiership is a gruelling race and you may well need to cash in on Doyle in order to strengthen other areas.
Idle paper talk, dosent mean O Neil is interested. As an irish man I appreciate Doyle but as a villa fan I hope we dont sign him as anything above 5 million would be too much. Johnson has the commodity of lightning pace as well to add to the fact he is a goalscorer plus he scored over 20 goals in the prem in a team that relegated (not to be done again for a while)
If Doyler finishes the season with near 20 goals then he can be considered to be worth a lot more than 5 million.
Doyle is not worth more than £5m!!
Dave Nugent is being tauted at £6million… and how much did you pay for Milan ‘I show no team-work what so ever’ Baros?
Feel sorry for Doyle – he probably would have loved to join the MON revolution.
In the prem for half a season yet the arrogance of a Manure fan? Great team, great manager though.
doyle wont go anywhere. he doesnt want and the club doesnt want him too. cant see whyd he’d want to join villa, they were tipped to do so well but they arent. we’d never sell players to build other areas, its not the reading way. reading are doing well on teamwork and an old fashioned can do ethos not pound signs and big names. i think doyle and the rest of the team like this, its certainly refreshing in the prem
link, i think i could see why he would want to join villa – Ne chairman with promise of money, one of the best managers on the land, and some proven premiership players. To be honest, look at past players who have been a hit for half a season Crouch, Stead, Ricketts, our own Angel. I think a £5m bid is appropriate under these circumstances. If he can prove not to be a one season hit, he will be worth much more.
I doubt he made the bid anyway.
“we’d never sell players to build other areas”, link201 I must say how nice it is to see someone who is obviously readings chief decision maker on the club forum, I am sure the fans appreciate it
very picky. but coppell, hammond and madejski have said on several occasions we are not that sort of club. perhaps i was a bit premature to believe you already knew this but calm down dearest!
I think the point the editor is trying to make is that it’s a bit of a questionable bid from O’Neill seeing as Doyle’s just penned a new deal. The article begins “Recent reports suggest…”, so he is not claiming it to be 100% fact.
If you were a bit more familiar with Doyle, you’d know from his interviews and comments that he’s not one to go chasing the big money, and is more than thankful to Steve Coppell for giving him his chance.
I don’t think the editor has shown arrogance in the article, more the fact he’s critical that a bid has come in after the new deal.
glad to see a bit of action and debate and comment on vital reading!!!