Stead Set for Bristol City Talks
Monday, 26th Jul 2010 09:06

Striker Jon Stead's agent is set to travel to Bristol City today for talks regarding his player's personal terms at Ashton Gate. If all goes well, Stead himself is expected to undergo a medical and hold further discussions on Tuesday.

It is likely Stead, who is contracted to Town until 2011, will have to take a pay-cut to move to Steve Coppell's club, so there is still the potential for the move to break down.

The ex-England U21 international, who was in and out of the Blues team last season, was one of the eight players recently made available for transfer by boss Roy Keane.

The Blues and Robins are said to have agreed a fee between £200,000 and £250,000 for the former Huddersfield, Blackburn and Sheffield United man.

Meanwhile, Celtic are said to be close to completing the £2.4 million signing of reported Town target Gary Hooper from Scunthorpe.

Photo: Action Images

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devontractorboy added 11:34 - Jul 26

Seriously Delusional, I'm affraid you are, who exactly has Keane got lined up..... is that tumbleweed I hear blowing over Portman Road. Keane has already talked about 'less is more' and already having the players here. He has spent badly & we are now paying the price, Stead is a quality Championship striker and will benefit from a long run in the team (something he didn't get under Keane) I hope I'm wrong but we're in for a long hard struggle this season & IMO Keane will be gone by Christmas as he has so far failed to inspire any of our players!

Seasonticketsteve added 12:09 - Jul 26 Anyone else seen the Mail today (I know, not the most reliable source). Charlton want Lee Martin on loan! Cant see the point in that imo.
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Vexorg added 12:14 - Jul 26 I guess the fact that these players are all wanted - albeit at "correct" prices - tells me that we have decent players but that the Irish plank was unable to bully them into performing for him. Would rather see most of these players staying and the plank moving on but I guess that won't happen until late October when we are bottom are 14 games without a win ..
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denhamblue added 12:19 - Jul 26

Agreed its good to cut the wage bill,but theres a snag here.If we get rid of players faster than were getting them in(especialy strikers)as were thred bare there anyway,were going to be stuck,and very lightweight.Most people are deluded to think because were offloading players,chopra ect are certs to come,im not so sure.It sounds like evens is holding firm,and if we do get a striker,it will be a cheapy free or a loanee.

bleedblue added 12:28 - Jul 26 Don't think he is the answer to town's attack, so all the best at Bristol, but we wont be able to buy a played better for that sort of cash! £250k is a steal for stead.
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ChambersM added 12:31 - Jul 26

Yet another silly decision by keano clowno. Tbh I get the feeling Evans is just saying look Roy if you have to sell them at pathetic prices then so be it, I want some of my money back. But if the owner is being forced to say these things to his manager then is it really worth having that manager here in the first place because he clearly doesn't trust him IMO. Get the clown out he's getting rid of good players at this level and bringing no one half decent in!

bluepeter added 13:11 - Jul 26 never did that much here, but he always looked to have some class about him, Will never forget the QPR game.
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Yallop added 13:14 - Jul 26 Hard working player but I can't ever see him playing a lead part in a top 6 side. Good luck to him though. Seems a nice bloke.
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jas0999 added 13:30 - Jul 26

I see it still isn't sinking in for some people - WE HAVE TOO BIG A SQUAD. ME has made it very clear that we need to reduce the wage bill and who can blame him. Jim bought and bought and then Roy added some more. It is not sustainable. The Histon game summed up for me the problem ... we fielded TWO seperate teams - most of the two teams were made up of highly paid first team players and Lisbie didn't even make the bench! People need to wake up! I am sure Roy would prefer to get rid of Pablo, Martin, Lisbie, Healy and Quinn ... but those are NOT the offers on the table. Likewise a player is only worth what someone else will pay for him. The Bruce deal is good business - a 200K profit. Okay we will lose on Stead, but what would you pay for a 6 goal a season striker? Saving on his wages is the key thing.

ChambersM added 13:41 - Jul 26 6 goal a season striker ey? Well maybe that's because the clown didn't give him a run in the side and sent him out in loan as soon as he was hitting form...explain the logic there jas0999. Stead is a good player and we will miss him.
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Lightningboy added 13:45 - Jul 26

I agree with you jas0999 but the problem is that we are being left with a very small choice of first team players..if we get injuries to key players we're really going to be in deep sh1t because Keane has so far failed to bring in any quality players all summer long,so what chance of getting in any cover at short notice?.

..the guy to me seems totally inept at man-management & totally incapable of bringing any players to our club unless he's previously worked with them/or is mates with them...if Marcus wants to cut down on the wage bill,then i'd get rid of our overpaid boss first....I can see us being stuck with Gary Ablett as boss by xmas.

GeorgiDoundarov added 13:52 - Jul 26

I say he is the only one from the 8 listed I would keep but it seems Keane doesn't go well with Stead wherever they meet so it may be better for both parties if Steady goes. I still think he may decline the offer because of the paycut... We'll see but in every case I wish him well. He may not be the Premiership striker we want but he was our top scorer 2 seasons ago and I bet he would have been last season too if he was more involved and not loaned out...
Good Luck Jon!!!

SeriouslyDelusional added 13:54 - Jul 26

We are only 'threadbare' in terms of quality for strikers - we have 6 on our books and that is far too many, especially seeing as amongst us we can't pick a favoured 2 of them the start every game, just Wickham - that sums up the problem.

Maybe being delusional but I think Keane must have someone waiting in the wings (probably Chopra) to come in and that deal is not as cool as we think, and a back-up plan (maybe a loan) if it doesn't. Either way he clearly wants rid of half of those 6, and will probably listen to offers for the other 3 if forced to.

Failing that, maybe (I hope not) he thinks that even with 3 of them going, we have enough to challenge up front. But that is putting a lot of faith in Wickham (totally deserved so far) and banking on a marked improvement in Priskin and Walters this season. Could explain the 4-3-3 we've been practising?

robdaful added 14:17 - Jul 26 I hope Keane has got a few replacements lined up seeing that this week, lots of players are set to leave Town.
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bluechick added 15:21 - Jul 26 So Stead going what are going to do if one of the mentioned clubs stumps up the £10M asking price for Wickham?
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hype313 added 15:24 - Jul 26 Anyone else think stead looks like a younger Andrew Castle in that pic?
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ChambersM added 15:51 - Jul 26 6 goal a season striker ey? Well maybe that's because the clown didn't give him a run in the side and sent him out in loan as soon as he was hitting form...explain the logic there jas0999. Stead is a good player and we will miss him.
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SiBo added 16:05 - Jul 26

ChambersM: Stead is an OK player... No more! He doesn't have power, pace or a finishers instinct... and you need at least one of those to be a good striker. He's no better than OK, but probably the best experianced stirker we have at the club, which says more about the poor quality we have, rather than how good he is... If this paves the way for a goal scorer to come in... all's well and good!

RetroBlue added 16:23 - Jul 26 The thing that will pave the way for our targetted striker to come in - will be the IR lifting that embargo they have placed on CC - cos Mr Chopra is all agreed (transfer fee and now wages ) in principle with Town, he's just not allowed to leave due to embargo!
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WadzillaBhoy added 16:26 - Jul 26

Stead scored 6 goals for us last season out of 22 games, when exactly did he hit form? Is the patch of "form" you are talking about his 4 goals in 3 months? Oh and by the way Stead ruined his own "purple patch" by getting sent off against Crystal Palace before you blame Keano for sending him out on loan. He is a nice lad but lets be honest he is barely a Championship striker so I don't know why some people are crying about losing him. Its funny because the same people who are upset about losing Stead are also the ones that are complaining about not challanging for promotion. With Stead's scoring ability I'm not surprised we didn't finish in the top 6!

ramseyn added 17:05 - Jul 26 Not sure about the embargo reason with chopra, how did we get Kennedy then? As for slating keane over fees involved, he will have diddly squat to do with negotiating fees, that'll be clegg, and clegg not being a football man limits qualifications to get the best money available.
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Mark added 17:47 - Jul 26

Stead scored 5 goals in 3 games in December, so that is the form referred to.

We all know Jon's limitations, but he is a reasonable Championship striker (else Steve Coppell would not buy him) and at the moment we don't have anyone better, Wickham aside.

If we can replace these players leaving with high quality replacements then great, but Keane will need to improve his transfer record. If Stead, Garvan, D.Wright etc. are "deadwood", what are Edwards, Martin and Priskin? Around £4.5M wasted on these three, plus wages of over £30K a week probably.

SMS added 17:54 - Jul 26 Interetsing. Keane has pulled the plug on the Bruce deal: http://www.sheffieldunited-mad.co.uk/news/tmnw/bruce_stays_at_ipswich_540432/ind I'm pretty glad about that. He's better than we could replace him with for 200k.
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