Coppell: money can’t buy success

READING manager Steve Coppell has told Royals fans worried by a lack of new signings that opening the chequebook is not always the best policy.

So far Coppell has been able to entice just two players to the Madejski Stadium as the club gear up for their Barclays Premiership debut.

South Korea international Seol Ki-Hyeon moved from Wolves in a £1.5 million (€2.2m) deal while Sam Sodje, a £500,000 (€730,000) capture from Brentford, will provide cover in defence.

The Royals are keen to emulate Wigan and West Ham by following up promotion with instant success in the top flight but both of those clubs had made a host of signings before kickoff.

Coppell said: “New signings are not a guarantee of success. If we could sign some Juventus boys it would certainly change the odds in our favour but that is not realistic.

“There are many ways of competing in the top division and just buying new players isn’t necessarily the magic formula. It is part of it but there are other factors involved.”

Coppell admitted he was hoping the Premiership big guns, who have been quiet since the World Cup, would start to spend heavily.

That might force players on the fringes of the first team at established Premiership clubs to consider a move elsewhere.

Coppell had been hoping Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United could have begun that process already by signing big names from the clubs relegated from Serie A in Italy in the wake of the match-fixing scandal.

But so far they have been heading for Spain, with Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram joining Barcelona from Juventus and Fabio Cannavaro and Brazil midfielder Emerson leaving for Real Madrid.