another trading loss . Paid 600k rising to 1.2 on appearances and add ons so maybe he cost us 750k. Then we have the dead 600k on lisbie. Then the dead 1.5 on martin , 1.3 on edwards and 1.7 on priskin.
we paid all this money out and are getting peanuts for anyone saleable .

chopra!!!!!!

stead going no big deal really. he cost far too much when we signed him, so if we can recoup the £500,000 touted as the price coventry are offering then fine. I am a little concerned that it may leave us a little light in attacking options but then we dont know whats going on behind the scenes. I cant imagine another striker coming in tho, certainly not micheal bloody chopra.
Stead always gave his all for town, so i thank him for that but he isnt an ambitious signing, the coventry fan will soon find that out, £500,000 on a 3rd choice striker? why do you think we've agreed to let him go? he's a hard worker but i really dont believe he has what it takes to perform consistently at championship level, not at least at the very top. having said that good luck to him.

I'd rather eat dog sh*t then call warnock my manager, he's a miserable, moaning, idiot and to those keane haters, if you cant see the good that keane has done for this team you are fools. Nobody is happy with our league position or our performances throughout the season, no one more so then keane and the players themselves. The job he has had to do was far harder then people wanted to admit, under magilton we were going nowhere fast. keane made the mistake of painting a big target on our backs by predicting promotion and has been let down by signings not performing as expected. However, to give up on the likes of martin and edwards typifies the fickle nature of supporters who are only interested in immediate success.

Im not happy with this one, Stead was always criticised for a lack of consistency and when he finally found some it was interrupted by an unfair ban. Now we ship him out on form to another club, yes Murphy looks good, Healy will probably come good but wether deals are in place or not they are not ours so leaves us young unproven Wickham and Pablo. Should have kept him and played him my opinion.

Stead is on a fair whack.

Stead is on a fair whack.

well said mightytown

Just out of interest - can the people who are slating Roy for this desision point out why? All well and good shouting 'Keane Out', but people have short memories. Earlier in the season 90% of the people on here (me included) were moaning about Jon. In fact his goal scoring record hasn't been that good. More importantly surely people can see it is not sustainable having a large number of highly paid players (and Stead would have been a higher earner)?

mightytown: not wishing to degenerate into Keane bashing all over again but you say that league position and performances have been poor. Agreed.

You say his signings have been poor/let him down (which is a nice way of saying he's bought duffers). Agreed.

What else there to judge him on? He has signed bad players and failed to get the best out of the ones he had at his disposal and didn't even get us playing nice football with no end result (we have poor football with no end result).

I fail to see what other criteria you are working on when you suggest he's done a good job.

Please enlighten me.

As to the mess Magilton left him, that's very subjective. I, for example, could say he was left with a team 9th in the table who needed two or three positions strengthened. Not too bad a starting position.

Definately would not want Warnock although he has a pretty good track record. Much rather see Burley return or BFJ than Warnock, still this won't be happening as Keane has another season left on his contract and although I don't see as clearly as 'mightytown' does what Keane has done so far, he deserves longer imo.
Long term could not see Town going forward with Stead and as this season is a washout and we are possibly being offered a half reasonable amount then let him go.
Murphy and Healy need to prove themselves as yet. Pablo and Walters are not firing on all cylinders in goals and Wickham does not look the finished article yet. Lisbie on recall, this won't happen as made clear doesn't want to return to PR. So we are dependant on one or two places starting to get form or else...?
I guess that Coventry probably have a better attacking option than us at present so Stead will do them no harm and will certainly put the effort in for them.
We need the midfield kicking in with a few more goals as this takes the pressure off just the strikers scoring.

osborne1nil: agree with all that. Esp. about midfielders needing to score more.

thanks naa.
If we look back to sucessful Town teams they have had several players who could make a few goals over the course of a season themselves, if only we had another John Wark, still I feel we have some decent midfield players and that they should be scoring more. Norris, Leadbetter, Colback, Garvan, Peters, Edwards, Martin have really not scored as many as we need and in the games that we have lost/drawn in the 90+ minutes with an extra goal from 1 midfielder the pressure would have been taken away.
Hopefully the new strikers will find their eye for goal soon. Nothing like a few wins in a row to build some confidence!

ridiculous. He was scoring for fun before he got sent off at Palace.. can't see roy's reasoning for this. He would rather keep pablo than stead? Dont get me wrong, im a big pablo fan, but Stead's record is not bad at all, it just seems like keano gets bored with his squad and decides to get rid for no apparent reason... getting ticked off with it tbh

I think it's a little harsh to say Keane has failed completely with signings. Murphy has started well, and without Leadbitter earlier in the season I think we could have been far worse off.

Begovic albeit being here for just a short time, seemed to sort out our defensive line. As for current players I think he has made Macauley a better player. Delaney has improved dramatically under the change to Centre back.

Edwards and Martin have been poor.

Colback, fantastic. Great player, be very lucky to keep hold of him. Players such as Garvan have appeared far more interested in playing football.

I would say the one area we have struggled with this season is goals. We havent scored enough and our strikers have been on poor form. In the last two weeks we have gained 2 strikers and lost one. Not a disaster if you ask me.

I don't think Magilton left us in a mess, however he had plenty of players here that were earning too much week in week out, and just weren't bothered about the results on the field hence the "mess" people are talking about. Bottom line is Jim had a crack at the whip and didn't quite manage it. Keane now has his chance, and I have no doubt that god forbid we get relegated or in the two years he doesn't manage to get us promoted then there'll be changes again.

If we continue to perceive every movement at the club as negative, we'll end like the QPRs of this game and will go no where, or more likely backwards.

If Stead goes to bang them in at Coventry, Keane will have got it wrong. Stead hasn't managed it anywhere else so I don't think he'll do it there. However losing one striker after gaining two doesn't bother me a great deal.

Either way best of luck Jon and thanks for all the effort you put into Town.

Goodbye and Good Luck Jon. I know you won't be back in summer. Good luck for the Future and your new addition to your family!
Thank you for your Services.

Ipswich till I die

Oh dear, whats has the clueless fecker gone and done now!!??

Think Stead has been harshly treated by management and the fickle fans. Cant have been easy to be picked one week, then dropped, playing out wide, then up front, sometimes alone, then with a variety of different partners. Im sure Ive seen somewhere that his goals to starts ratio is pretty good despite this (maybe some statto out there could add to that).
Then there has been this underlying feeling that hes not really one of Keanes favourites (suggestions early season that he wanted to move him on, but maybe just paper talk). Until of course he had that good run of goals recently and then all the fans apparently seemed to love him, and they and Keane were bemoaning our luck that he had a 4 game ban.
Think its a mistake to get rid - especially as Healy may not gel, and Murphy has had a great start but its still early days. I bet peoples opinions would change if Murphy suddenly went 10 games without a goal (which, lets face it, could happen cos his strike rate isnt historically any good).
Fingers crossed this isnt another nail in our coffin.

It must be true, Anglia news have just said he's staying, and Roy announced he's be in the squad for tomorrow. Marvellous. Would anyone who knows what's going on please make themselves known at the training ground tomorrow morning.

Sign for them in May and at least he will be playing championship next year.

Itv news just said stead was staying !

All managers ultimately live or die by their decisions and Keane is no different. If the Murphy / Healy front two works out (or any other combination of front runners for that matter) then allowing Stead to go Coventry will be forgotten. Despite a few goals and a bucket load of effort, in my opinion Stead was simply not good enough long term. His inclusion in our team misled people into thinking we had a big man up top - someone who could hold the play up and win his fair share of aerial battles. As we all know - this was not part of his game! And as I have said before, his control was distinctly iffy at times. However, if things don't go as planned and we continue to struggle (and Stead scores a few for Coventry), Keane will come in for heavy criticism. Personally, as I said when this story first surfaced, I think Keane is planning for next season as well as dealing with this. A bit premature maybe but we will see. 3 points tomorrow and all will look a good deal better. Thanks for the service Steady - you always gave it your best at least.

Good luck to you and your family Jon, Wish you all the best of luck...

well said moomoo.

naa: im not saying magilton was an awful manager, he agreed targets with the board, which he failed to reach and in the end it was thanks but no thanks. That however, is all in the past and now we look to the future.

i think moomoosereni gives a pretty good explanation of our improvement under keane. strong competition for goalkeeping positions, a solid defence, the addition of leadbitter, making walters captain, we are now a very difficult team to beat and we have the basis of a promotion chasing team. it has been a long hard season for everyone and i understand your anger, concern and dissapointment. Ive been at these games, shouting along as you have too, so im not here to argue with a fellow fan and didnt mean to ruffle feathers by calling the boo boys fools but i just dont see the dark cloud you see over portman road. what i do see is that we have a manager improving a mid table team bit by bit, yes he'll amke mistakes but i honestly feel we now have a squad that can chase promotion with the addition of a few new faces in the summer and i dont think you could have said that last year.

You can't get a silk purse from a pigs ear, Steady has done as much as he can, a 100% tryer, so bah-hoo to you miserable moaners!
Thanks Steady boy, you done well for us really, much appreciated.
Good luck at Coventry & the little'un!
ps don't take offence at some of the negative posts on here, some don't know their arse from their elbow!!!

another one bites the dust,now we have even less average strikers

Dissapointing