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Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Dazzza on Monday, November 7, 2005, 19:28:05 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/reading/4415602.stm
Just so I can say in 5 years time... "What a ------- player, he nearly signed for Town don't you know." Quote Reading's new striker Kevin Doyle sums up everything about the club's latest bid to reach the Premiership. Unheard of when he arrived from Cork City for just under £80,000 in the summer, Doyle in his own quiet way has taken the Championship by storm. Much like Reading - nicely tucked in three points behind leaders Sheffield United, having built up a nine-point gap over third-placed Watford. Doyle told BBC Sport: "We just have to keep our heads down and do it quietly." Reading have never played in the top-flight, though the Berkshire club have come mighty close in recent years, suffering their fair share of heartbreaks in the play-offs. Last season was just as cruel as Reading lost their last three games, allowing West Ham to sneak in through the play-off backdoor and then win promotion to the Premiership. I'd be trying to sneak in a Gaelic football game on the Sunday Kevin Doyle "We've done well so far," added Doyle, "but we'll only know how well at the end of the season. "There is no point in getting carried away because the club were in a similar position last season, with their campaign dying off after Christmas. "This time round we have a stronger squad and the players that have come in have done well. "Hopefully we'll be able to sustain it and continue to win games. If we keep working hard hopefully we will be okay." During the summer it was Reading's capture of Bristol City striker Leroy Lita for a £1m that grabbed the headlines. But injuries to first Dave Kitson and then Lita has seen Doyle play more than he expected when he arrived in the summer from Cork. So far the Irishman has weighed in with four league goals, the same number as Kitson and one behind Lita, winning rave reviews from his manager Steve Coppell for his contribution. "I was lucky that when I came here in that it was in the middle of the Irish season so I felt very fit and made a good impression immediately. "With the injuries to Dave and Leroy the manager gave me an opportunity and left me in there. "Steve Coppell has given me a lot of confidence. He told me not to be frightend and said that I'd have an element of surprise over opposition defenders because they wouldn't have played against me before. "He also hasn't said too much to confuse me or wreck my head. He's just let me get on with it." As a teenager Doyle combined playing football with gaelic football until he was forced to choose between the two sports. "It got to the point where I was doing too much playing two games at the weekend trying to sneak in a Gaelic football game on the Sunday. "There's a danger you can lose your touch in football as you use your hands so much in gaelic football." Doyle started to play gaelic football seriously after he had to stop playing sport altogether as a teenager when suffered from Osgood Slatters Diease, a knee injury. "It was frustrating as I had been due to go on trial at Sunderland and Swindon before that. "In a way its funny as the worst injuries I've had have been due to football and I've never really had any injuries playing gaelic football. "Playing gaelic football has definitely made me stronger and helped me use my strength to shield the ball and hold people off." As well surprising a few Championship teams, Doyle has also earned a call-up to the full Republic of Ireland squad since joining Reading. "I knew former coach Brian Kerr had been to watch me and I had done well so I thought there was a chance," said Doyle. "It was a great experience to train with those players, but if I get another call-up it will depend on how well I do at Reading." Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Bob's Orange on Monday, November 7, 2005, 19:34:09 The guy has looked class on the clips I have seen of Reading.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Iffy's Onion Bhaji on Monday, November 7, 2005, 19:36:13 King probably wouldn't have signed him after a successfull trial spell anyway :-))(
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Monday, November 7, 2005, 19:52:46 Just like he didn't sign Parkin. :-))(
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Iffy's Onion Bhaji on Monday, November 7, 2005, 19:55:42 or Eastwood..........
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Monday, November 7, 2005, 20:07:43 And neither did a shitload of other managers, most wouldn't even have heard of him.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Iffy's Onion Bhaji on Monday, November 7, 2005, 20:09:03 but he scored a hat trick in the reserves ben
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Monday, November 7, 2005, 20:11:12 So did Tony Thorpe.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Nils on Monday, November 7, 2005, 20:11:56 We have missed out on lots of players but there is no point dwelling on it.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Iffy's Onion Bhaji on Monday, November 7, 2005, 20:12:29 after we signed him. how many managers wouldn't sign a striker who had scored 35 goals for a side and then a hat trick in the reserves?
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Spud on Monday, November 7, 2005, 20:14:59 Quote from: "Ben Wah Balls" Just like he didn't sign Parkin. :-))( :boring: Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Monday, November 7, 2005, 20:15:44 Thing is Rich King was going to look at him again and had offered him the chance to train with us again, Southend signed him before we had the chance, these things happen. Gotta say fair play for offering him the trial in the first place, we did not turn him down.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: sonicyouth on Monday, November 7, 2005, 21:49:24 if this lad played gaelic football he's probably a right hard cunt, that game is vicious.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: janaage on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 09:26:16 Didn't Man Utd sign Kevin Moran from a Gaelic Football side? Something like that anyway. He was a hard fucker too.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: barmyarmy on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 16:09:27 Quote from: "Ben Wah Balls" Thing is Rich King was going to look at him again and had offered him the chance to train with us again, Southend signed him before we had the chance, these things happen. Gotta say fair play for offering him the trial in the first place, we did not turn him down. excuse me king turned him down and choose opara instead. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: larwood on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 16:28:15 Quote We have missed out on lots of players but there is no point dwelling on it I agree with you Nils,i am sure there are loads of players we have missed out on in the past and it will happen again.Hindsight is a great thing, but managers don't have crystal balls [jose might though :) ]Sounds like Doyle was injuried at the time of his trial too. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 16:35:06 Quote from: "barmyarmy" Quote from: "Ben Wah Balls" Thing is Rich King was going to look at him again and had offered him the chance to train with us again, Southend signed him before we had the chance, these things happen. Gotta say fair play for offering him the trial in the first place, we did not turn him down. excuse me king turned him down and choose opara instead. :nono: Is that right? Why then did we only take Eastwood on trial after we had signed Opara and he only scored the hattrick afterwards then? The answer is you are wrong, Swindon did not turn down Eastwood, that's simply not true. We signed Opara in June 2004, Eastwood was taken on trial in September 2004 and scored his hattrick on 28th September 2004, Swindon were then going to have him back but he agreed to sign for Southend on loan on October 5th 2004. http://www.thisisstfc.co.uk/News_Headlines_Story.asp?NewsID=3548 Quote POTENTIAL Town target Freddy Eastwood has joined League Two Southend in a month-long loan deal. The teenager scored a fine hat-trick for Town’s reserves in the 5-0 win over Team Bath at Wanborough last week, prompting reserve boss Alan Reeves to say: “I think the manager was quite impressed by Freddy, so he may come training with us again and we’ll have another look.” But it seems Town may have missed the boat, with Eastwood who scored 37 goals for Conference South side Grays last season agreeing to move to Roots Hall. Southend are expected to make a permanent offer if the 19-year-old striker proves a success, although Grays are holding out for a sizeable fee. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Dazzza on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 17:08:16 Crying shame we missed out on Eastwood.
I think he’s have made a momentous difference and with the benefit of hindsight I’d fiddle Winton to have seen what rewards a front pairing with Parkin would have brought. Like poker one of those bad calls that would have brought the house down had you have played to the flop. Ben’s right though we didn’t turn him down in favour of big Loyd as I don’t actually think Eastwood was at Grays at that time although I may be wrong on that. If that was the case King deserves a castration. It was an odd decision at the time as the lad wasn’t exactly a completely unknown prospect with his goal scoring and you would have to have thought that three goals would have really have been the clincher to the deal. Maybe we were broke at the time and couldn’t afford the deal. But I’m inclined to think that the idiom “we’ll take another look at him” had the same significance as it usually did with King. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 18:21:18 King said in an interview at the time that he would have liked to sign him, not a bad call just one that got away, similar to Henderson.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: lebowski on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 18:52:10 eastwood was at grays at the same time as opara. as we all know, initially king went for opara but went back to have a look at eastwood later on. perhaps he was a bit apprehensive in signing freddy after what happened with opara?
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 18:56:38 Exactly so it wasn't a choice between them, we would have got Eastwood after going for Opara who had left by then anyway but unfortunately Southend took him before we had the chance.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: lebowski on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 19:08:57 i also think at the time king may have felt eastwood was always going to be behind parkin, and we couldn't really afford to have backup players. unfortunately, he's turned out to be a highly sought after player - i wonder how much grays got for him, or if they get a percentage of the sell-on fee?
southend picked up another good player from grays pre-season: a left winger called mitchell cole to replace nicky nicolau. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 19:32:45 Quote from: "lebowski" i also think at the time king may have felt eastwood was always going to be behind parkin, and we couldn't really afford to have backup players. Surely then he wouldn't have said he wanted to sign him or even offered him the trial. I don't think that's true. I believe at the time King was very much in search of another striker and Eastwood would've been ideal if Southend hadn't got there first. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Dazzza on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 21:10:00 Quote from: "lebowski" i also think at the time king may have felt eastwood was always going to be behind parkin, and we couldn't really afford to have backup players. unfortunately, he's turned out to be a highly sought after player - i wonder how much grays got for him, or if they get a percentage of the sell-on fee? southend picked up another good player from grays pre-season: a left winger called mitchell cole to replace nicky nicolau. Ex-Hammer and porking Joe Cole's sister a while back. Doing well this season they seem to have their nose to the ground at the moment. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Johno on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 16:21:44 we already had opara then...surely!?
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: DV on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 16:24:53 Quote from: "Ben Wah Balls" Quote from: "lebowski" i also think at the time king may have felt eastwood was always going to be behind parkin, and we couldn't really afford to have backup players. Surely then he wouldn't have said he wanted to sign him or even offered him the trial. I don't think that's true. I believe at the time King was very much in search of another striker and Eastwood would've been ideal if Southend hadn't got there first. but didnt we get there first, we had Eastwood on trail before Southend came in for him. Surely we should have tried to sign him then? Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 16:32:32 Quote from: "DV85" Quote from: "Ben Wah Balls" Quote from: "lebowski" i also think at the time king may have felt eastwood was always going to be behind parkin, and we couldn't really afford to have backup players. Surely then he wouldn't have said he wanted to sign him or even offered him the trial. I don't think that's true. I believe at the time King was very much in search of another striker and Eastwood would've been ideal if Southend hadn't got there first. but didnt we get there first, we had Eastwood on trail before Southend came in for him. Surely we should have tried to sign him then? Southend signed him directly after his trial with us, it's worth remembering that Grays and Southend are both in Essex, so I'm sure they would've scouted him and he wouldn't have to move or travel far which is important for a young player who I doubt had much money at that point and I expect that's why he chose them over us. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Johno on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 16:41:13 we didn't offer him anything though did we? i remember him on trial...then going?
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 16:43:54 Quote from: "Johno" we didn't offer him anything though did we? i remember him on trial...then going? We were going to have him back, possibly a loan spell and then offer him something after that but he decided to join Southend.Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Johno on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 16:48:06 well....thats fair enough then. if true.
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Dazzza on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 17:25:05 Southend secured Eastwood on a month's loan, it was only later after some impressive form in the league that they offered a permanent deal.
Aside from the standard King quote that accompanied every unsuccessful trialist over the years out of the door there is nothing to suggest the Town would ever pursue a move for Freddy Eastwood. Even after several league goals there was no indicator of even a hint of interest. The club/King missed out I don’t think it’s really worth dwelling on to much, you win some you lose some. :? Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Dazzza on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 19:29:48 :P Sorry Ben I'm not deliberately deleting your posts, well maybe one or two I didn’t take a shine to :wink: ).
Hit edit instead of reply and didn’t realise until the damage was done. :-))( Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: yeo on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 19:45:32 Dazzza is a nazi moderater :twisted:
Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 19:49:24 Tut tut Dazzza,you're trying to hide the truth which is that that was not a typical King quote.
Once when Eric Sabin's agent took a team of trialists here and he had to make up the numbers, King said they were all so crap the agent was the best player on the field, if he hadn't rated Eastwood he'd have said similar. The odvious reason Eastwood chose to join Southend instead of us is as it was an Essex club just like Grays, so once he had an offer from them there would be no reason for him to join us, as we wouldn't be able to offer him more money or even the guarantee of first team football so after his loan spell it's not surprising he wanted to stay there. Quote The club/King missed out I don’t think it’s really worth dwelling on to much, you win some you lose some. Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Dazzza on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 20:19:34 :soapy tit wank: Sorry!
Tell you what I’ll just reply the idiot’s way and not complicate matters trying to use the quote button this time. Outside of pre-season trials then if you will, King still said to a significant number of trialists that he would take another look at them, very few were ever herd of again. For want of anything concrete that points to the contrary I don’t recall any shred of evidence that would indicate that we ever had any intention to pursue the player after he left. I know Essex is a wonderful place and all but I don’t think he’d have taken a trial if he had no intention of joining us. Besides it’s funny looking back now but would he really have turned down a team just one point outside of the playoffs over a team 15th in the bargain basement of football and just 5 points from the zone relegation? Regards Adolf Title: Doyle the Royal was offered Town Trial Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 21:27:07 Quote from: "dazzza" :soapy tit wank: Sorry! I know Essex is a wonderful place and all but I don’t think he’d have taken a trial if he had no intention of joining us. Besides it’s funny looking back now but would he really have turned down a team just one point outside of the playoffs over a team 15th in the bargain basement of football and just 5 points from the zone relegation? Yeah but when he took the trial with us I doubt Southend had offered him anything at that stage. I'm not saying he wouldn't have considered joining us but it's not just about league position, I mean Opara had had little impact here so as well as distance he may have thought he had more chance of getting into Southend's team. What is clear is we can't be sure if he would've wanted to sign for us even if we'd immediately made a concrete offer with other clubs being interested and we didn't turn him down. |