In what will be his second match for Manchester City, Claudio Reyna will be playing away this weekend to, guess who? Fulham - the same team he recently snubbed in order to play for Man City. I'm curious if he'll get anything of a warm reception there - who am I kidding? Since there hasn't been a lot of time gone by to make the Fulham faithful forget, I think Claudio will be given the full treatment by the crowd. Isn't it great? One of ours getting on their s*@#list because he didn't play for them. My we've come so far... I hope he has a great match and shows them what they missed out on. It'll be interesting to see if any Fulham players give a little extra on their tackles.
He may not be a big star in Europe, but he snubbed THEIR team, and that I don't think they'll likely forget. It's even worse that a 'lesser' star snubbed them - like a slap in the face (in their eyes, of course Claudio was perfectly justified in choosing Man City over Craven Cottage). I think they'll get on him quite a bit.
A resounding yawn will emanate from the crowd. And there is about an 11% chance that one of the first two games that Reyna would play would be against Fulham. To me, 11% does not count as an "ironic twist of fate".
Chances are even greater since they had previously played 3 games. So that's 3 less teams that were a possibility. He may get some schtick if he does play but probably not too much. You have to keep in mind that the press loves to play these things up. I'm sure Coleman wasn't happy about the move but it's not like it was anything illegal. Nor was it that he had played for Fulham and left on some bad note. Where I'd see something like that happen would in a rare case like the Ronaldinho / ManU / Barca case where it was really drawn out and people may view ol' curly-haired jar-jar as holding out for the best $$$$$$$. Then again that won't happen cuz by next year the fans will have someone else to jeer and think about and this year Barca aren't in the CL.
your math is a bit off there - 11% would be if there was only 10 teams in the EPL - however there are 20 - even excluding the three already played, it's actually a 6.25% chance and i think some are underestimating reyna's rep over there, he is quite well respected in the UK - i'm thinking he'll take some stick
I agree with Metrogo and Art. I doubt he plays much, if at all. But even if he does get off the bench, I think Coleman was more upset at Cladio's "defection" than many of the fans were. So I'm not quite sure how much whistling there would really be. They may be content enough thinking "what a wanker...he left us for a 'better' club, and he doesn't even get to really play...serves him right." It'd be nice if he does get meaningful minutes in the game, though, especially if he does well. Can you imagine Coleman's face if Claudio scored or assisted on a goal?
As soon as Keegan thinks Reyna is healthy, he's in and Joey Barton is out of starting 11 IMHO. After last weekend, its clear that McManaman is a certain starter every time out, and probably playing in the center of the park, not replacing Wright-Phillips on the right.
If internet forums are any reflection of the fanbase, then, yeah, Reyna will get a lot of stick (note to pk166: Shtick is something quite different from stick). The boys on the Fulham board were pretty bent out of shape about Reyna's last minute change in fortune and promised a very unpleasant reception this weekend. Of course, the deicsion for Claudio was a no-brainer. Fulham have been in disarray on and off the field for the last two years and I doubt it will get better any time soon. Even in just the 10 minutes Claudio was out there last weekend, he showed that he was class. He'll be in the first 11 as soon as he's fit, proably, as someone noted earlier, for Barton.
Similar thing happened with John Arne Riise a couple years back. He was poised to sign with Fulham and at the last minute his agent (his mother I believe) made the switch to Liverpool. I was able to attend his first match at Craven Cottage and the Fulham fans definitely let it be known that they weren't pleased with his decision.
Actually, it's around an 11% chance to play one of the other 19 teams in the first TWO games, I think. Anyway, it doesn't matter. My point is that even thuogh Reyna is a very good player, I do think that some posters, including the topic starter here, tend to exaggerate yanks impact and/or regard abroad. Reyna is a solid premiership player, not a superstar premiership player.
From this weeks TimeOut London caption summary for the Fulham-Man City game: "The imminent return to SW6 should also prompt a celebratory air around Loftus Road, a venue many fans will be glad to see the back of. Meanwhile, 'Honest' Claudio Reyna can be assured of an interesting welcome after going as far as posing with the Fulham shirt before flitting off to the former England manager's mob in Manchester." I think you're underestimating just how much small moves are scrutinized. You're right about some posters here, but Reyna's fairly well-known, so his snub did cause a lot of publicity here.
Possibly, though time Out especially suffers from the peculier English disease of preferring a clever turn of phrase to substance. MAybe they're right, or maybe this just made for some clever copy.
TimeOut is all about clever copy, but then again, so are English fans. I live over here, so I'm not talking out of my @ss when I say Reyna got some covereage during this move.