Readings most underrated and overrated players are....

[Snowflake Royal]

….and again…..nobody I know underrated Simon Osborn…..far from it in all honesty

There's only about 2 of us who didn’t think Meaker was utter shit.

There's some really weird definitions of rated going on here.

[Wycombe Royal]

John Oster was underrated by many.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Blackett I'd say was just poor. In my opinion, he's the worst LB we've had since our relegation from the Premier League. Had a good spell during a purple patch over Christmas time in Bowen's reign, but was largely poor at the most other things.

Worse than Baba last season? No chance

Genuinely yes, I thought he was worse than Rahman.

[Tinpot Royal]

Blackett I'd say was just poor. In my opinion, he's the worst LB we've had since our relegation from the Premier League. Had a good spell during a purple patch over Christmas time in Bowen's reign, but was largely poor at the most other things.

Worse than Baba last season? No chance

Genuinely yes, I thought he was worse than Rahman.

Can't agree with that, he could at least put in a decent cross, Rahman offered absolutely nothing last season

[SCIAG]

Under-rated:-
McCarthy

This must be about someone other than Alex McCarthy, right?

[SCIAG]

Would say near enough every record signing at the time flattered to deceive - Hurlock, Moran, Nogan (post 94/95), Caskey, Butler (slightly unfair but mediocre at best post 00/01), Lita, Seol, Halford, Fae, Pog, Aluko, Puscas...

Pig was a free transfer.

Could replace him with Ilori.

[South Coast Royal]

Under-rated:-
McCarthy

This must be about someone other than Alex McCarthy, right?

No-I never thought he was much appreciated when with us.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Bas Savage

Underrated or Overrated?

Not sure

[Loafer]

Over-rated - Matejovsky
Under-rated - Bryn

[billybraggsbeard]

Over-rated- Puscas & Pogrebnyak

[RoyalBlue]

Oh oh I have a good one. Probably an unpopular one. Carl asaba - underrated

Scored 12 in 42 in a dreadful team. But becuase he was our club record signing at the time, was it 750k? He got a lot of stick. He was, imo a useful striker and we got shot of him the next season which was too soon. And could have been a good striker for us.

Fully agree. A very good player, much maligned (wrongly so IMO) because of his price tag and also, IIRC, because he wasn't the typical lower divisions' blood and guts, very physical striker.

[RoyalBlue]

Would say near enough every record signing at the time flattered to deceive - Hurlock, Moran, Nogan (post 94/95), Caskey, Butler (slightly unfair but mediocre at best post 00/01), Lita, Seol, Halford, Fae, Pog, Aluko, Puscas...

Wow! I reckon that, perhaps because money was more often than not extremely hard to come by for our club, many of our fan base had unduly high expectations of those who cost a reasonably amount. I'm staggered by some of the names that feature on your list. Hurlock, Nogan, Caskey, Butler, Lita and Seol for starters.

Interestingly I hadn't realised that Hurlock apparently fell out with Branfoot because he wouldn't relocate his home from Brentford to to Reading! Staggering that Branfoot wasn't happy with what really is a very short commute against the traffic and probably outside of the main rush hour!

[SCIAG]

Under-rated:-
McCarthy

This must be about someone other than Alex McCarthy, right?

No-I never thought he was much appreciated when with us.

Next you'll be telling me that you thought Dave Kitson was under-appreciated.

McCarthy was utterly beloved, we used to call him "England's number one". He came narrow second behind Le Fondre in POTS voting. His performance against Liverpool is one of the most mythologised I can think of. Even in the period where he was competing with Federici, he was the much more popular player, to the extent that one prolific Nobber (sandman) dedicated himself primarily to hyperbolic praise of Federici to balance it out.

I guess the best argument I can make is that McCarthy doesn't seem to loom as large in the collective imagination as the big three of Death, Shaka, and Marcus. But in no sense was he under-rated or underappreciated.

[South Coast Royal]

This must be about someone other than Alex McCarthy, right?

No-I never thought he was much appreciated when with us.

Next you'll be telling me that you thought Dave Kitson was under-appreciated.

McCarthy was utterly beloved, we used to call him "England's number one". He came narrow second behind Le Fondre in POTS voting. His performance against Liverpool is one of the most mythologised I can think of. Even in the period where he was competing with Federici, he was the much more popular player, to the extent that one prolific Nobber (sandman) dedicated himself primarily to hyperbolic praise of Federici to balance it out.

I guess the best argument I can make is that McCarthy doesn't seem to loom as large in the collective imagination as the big three of Death, Shaka, and Marcus. But in no sense was he under-rated or underappreciated.

Regardless of what you say, I know he was under-rated by more than a few.

I was one of his greatest fans , still am, and became very disappointed when he was dropped by Southampton which happened too often.
Also he has been great with my grand-daughter's step-brother who had a terrible covid time , spending 6 months in hospital with Leukemia, but, as a youth team keeper at Southampton, he was supported by Alex and a number of the Saints players.

[Loafer]

Oh yeah emerse fae lol what a shit player

[CountryRoyal]

Underrated - Matthew Connolly

[Loafer]

Definitely makin was under rated

[Loafer]

Definitely chris Armstrong was under rated

[URZZZZ]

Over rated:
Cooper - made so many basic errors. Made a good career for himself but wouldn’t have happened here
D Williams - heart and soul player, loved the energy and enthusiasm and had an excellent final few months under Stam but not enough quality overall, didn’t work well with Norwood
Richards - took him a while to cement a regular place in the XI (and even then because he was the only option). Had a good few months under Paunovic but struggled for form and consistency on the whole. A good move for him going to Bayern but his career will go the same way as Hector’s did
Ince - headless chicken. Good dead ball aside, his end product was severely lacking
Swift - has the talent, not enough application. Respectable career still but could have done a lot better than spending 6 years at Reading and 1 year at West Brom

Under rated:
Quinn - on the occasions he was fit, thought he was a class act. Very intelligent
A.Ferdinand - ditto Quinn
Raziak - he wasn’t brilliant but didn’t think he was as bad as was made out. Notched double figures in his one season IIRC
Griffin - excellent original loan signing under McDermott who helped transform a poorly performing side. Struggled towards the end and I think his disastrous showing at Wembley overshadowed his overall performances. Would file similarly under McShane and Gorkss who were both excellent at the start before age caught up with them
Beerens - classy winger who consistently came up with match winning moments. Big part of Stam’s team and a contributing factor to our 3rd place finish. Unfairly scapegoated because our genius manager thought he’d make a good lone striker

[The Green Programme]

Overrated - George Puskas
Underrated - Trevor Senior

Who rated Puscas?

He was highly rated when we signed him.

As you know he was rated as one of the best strikers at the Euro Under 21s - that summer and many Clubs were circling….

Our owners broke our transfer record…

And when he scored the two against Cardiff; I thought we had got the real deal…..

And then he missed the sitter of a 1 on 1 later in that same game and the deflation started and continued from there….