No Demerit (again, getting ready for life without him?) for Watford. Scoreless so far. All Reading so far.
It’s been a season of beautiful beaming smiles at Reading this year, but by contrast, this last home game saw a display more rotten than Shane McGowan’s teeth as Reading meekly surrendered the initiative in the race for Europe against a feeble Watford team. The second goals summed up the day – Seol couldn’t be bothered to try and tackle and Hahnemann wasn’t switched on enough to catch the simple resulting cross. It presented a chance which was just on a plate for Marlon King, but served up on a silver platter on a trolley as well. Much has been made of the lack of pressure on Reading this season, but perhaps there needed to be a tad more as Reading took the field on this sunny afternoon looking like they’d packed their winning mentality up for the season and were hoping to win without really trying. Not that Watford suggested any different. In the first half they had all the threat of a neutered one-legged sheep as they advanced with the proficiency of an Italian tank. Not that Reading were forcing the pace themselves. Forward drives were stalling like a learner driver on a steep hill, and a vineyard in Reykjavik looked more likely to bear fruit than Reading’s half-hearted efforts. It was hoped that the second half would be different. It was, but only in that Watford managed a few chances. A weak Watford effort inside the box ought to have at least given warning that Watford really weren’t more hopeless than a lacerated haemophiliac swimming in shark-infested waters, but this is the sort of day when lessons would not be heeded. Watford’s first was controversial to say the least. A free kick from outside the box found about half the Watford team looking offside by a margin that would comfortably accommodate Africa’s rift Valley, sideways, but Shittu’s goal stood despite the protests. Given that the linesman would have required to have been accessorised with a white stick rather than a flag to have missed that, I can only assume someone, somewhere, somehow, really was playing Shittu onside. It at least sparked a burst of effort from Reading, but after an hour of playing on autopilot, switching to manual is never easy. Defensively Reading were doing OK. Ingimarsson, named Reading’s player of the season didn’t do a lot wrong – it was just everywhere else. Sidwell, back for a final swansong, turned in a performance that would seem him lucky to get his current salary again, let alone double it. Harper and Hunt looked more lost that a couple of grey-haired maples tourists in a foreign city. Seol had another day where his contribution was subliminal. Kitson and Lita both showed they really need to improve their first touch, as against opposition of a modesty that make Steve Coppell sound like Muhammed Ali, they usually didn’t get a second. Easily the worst Reading display since the days of Andy Hughes’ perpendicular attempted crosses, about as disappointing an end to an otherwise fine season there could be. Things may change next week at Blackburn, but it’s hard to see it happening, and it’s even harder for me to see it happening as I’ll be on the other side of the world in Melbourne, and the football I’ll be seeing next Saturday is a rather different kind played on an oval pitch. There’ll be about 50,000 more than at Blackburn too. Overall I’ll just have to write off today and maybe wish I’d left a day sooner, and I’ll just have to find a few papers to take on the plane tomorrow that don’t have a big sports section. Today’s game isn’t one I’ll want to relive too often.
Got on a lucky one. Came in 18 to 1. I've got a feeling this year's for Reading and you ... (and now you've got me singing my kids to bed with yer a bum yer a punk yer an old slut on junk ... oh well, guess it could be worse. Could be Barney or Oasis.) As I've already been too generous the loquacious and elegent Richard consider this a "body of work" award.
didnt the Reading manager go on record as not wanting a Europe Bid? That his team was not deep enough and may in fact suffer the setbacks of WestHam this year? Not that they are tanking the games on purpose, but maybe he takes them to the Zoo or bowling instead of training.
He was reported as having picked up a training ground knock, and on other sources simply as being rested. Obviously, he was drunk.
For pds 50k a week. That's $100k a week. That's $5.2m a year. Simply wow, and good luck to him. Easy to say he won't play much, but not sure a lot of folks turn away that kind of cash. Reading made a break the bank offer, and it was half that.
did you watch Ballack oplay last year? If sids is as good as you guys have been saying, I think he'll have a good chance to beat him out
I'm pretty sure he makes more in a week than the entire working class of the city of Reading, including the players.
Sids will be the new Scott Parker. He'll get a few games, he'll piss away a couple of key years in his career (while setting himself up for life, and who can begrudge him that) and then move to a Tier 2 Prem club. Not to get OT, but in a Reading thread, when fans were wondering who would be in the center of midfield for them next year, I suggested that they look to a club overloaded at that position and see if they can bring in a loaner, or a cheap buy. For the former, I specifically mentioned Chelsea. (For the latter, I named Fulham...damn, they have alot of central mids...Bullard, Davies, Brown, Dempsey, Diop, Elliott, just off the top of my head.)
Right now, we're looking Arsenal, according to the rumors. The reading central mid grouping is far less than impressive: Harper, Gunn, Oster are the only players left on the roster who got multi games there this year. They've got a number of players they talk about converting: Bikey (who played a dmid role for locoMoscow, including in their CL games), Halford (who has worked very well there in reserves, and is a heck of a player, but better right back), Seol, Convey (who did this on youth int level, but not since) and Little.
I'm not a Harper fan; if I were Coppell I'd be looking to replace him. I'd investigate what went wrong with Diop and see if I could fix it. Cuz last year, he was a hell of a player. As for Sids...yeah, Arsenal also may have a decent player laying around. That's how Rovers got Bentley, and Bentley's damn good.
I thought he was injured on and off for much of the season and was never able to work himself into form.