Your worst 11 since supporting RFC?

[AthleticoSpizz]

Wow…forget the saves and stuff….and the two goals that he scored lol.

Anyways….and what is more important……..is what is your ‘beef’ with Ray Hiron? Spindly Barry Hunter legs, ex-Portsmouth but your suggestion still puzzles me

[paultheroyal]

Van Der Kwaak

Halford
Kromheer
Barras
Marcus Williams

Antonio
Fae
Evers
McLaren

Brayson
Fleck

Antonio

[Orion1871]

He's done very well since, fair play to him or getting as far as he has from such a low base, nice guy too.

However, he was absolutely rubbish when he was a Reading player.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Ray Hiron????

Come-on explain yourself JC

[Sutekh]

Excluding all loans

The worst ever Reading XI (playing 4-4-2)

Van der Kwaak

Swales
Whitlock
Kromheer
Booty

Burvil
Crawford
Robinson D
Drenthe

McNulty
Branson

And to be positive, the best ever Reading XI (playing 4-4-2)

Death

Harte
Wdowczyk
Ingimarsson
Murty

Gilkes
Caskey
Sidwell
Little

Quinn
Forster

[LUX]

Friday and Doyle up front for me.

[SCIAG]

Find it quite hard to think of a worst XI, but then I see my own post from 2022 and basically agree with it.

Would now feel comfortable drafting Ashcroft ahead of Halford.

Best XI is boring, it's just the 2005/06 side with one of them dropped for Gylfi - only question is whether it is a striker or Harper or Convey. Think if we want to get the most out of Gylfi then it makes sense to drop Kitson.

[From Despair To Where?]

Excluding all loans

The worst ever Reading XI (playing 4-4-2)

Van der Kwaak

Swales
Whitlock
Kromheer
Booty

Burvil
Crawford
Robinson D
Drenthe

McNulty
Branson

And to be positive, the best ever Reading XI (playing 4-4-2)

Death

Harte
Wdowczyk
Ingimarsson
Murty

Gilkes
Caskey
Sidwell
Little

Quinn
Forster

No. He was a shit signing but I can forgive him everything for that one night he absolutely rinsed Leeds at Elland Rd.

[Panas]

On a slight tangent, I remember standing there at the end of this game just struck by how much I truly hated watching the Stam-into-Clement period: https://royals.org/matdoc/210418.html

It actually looks decent on paper but this and the six months either side of it was excruciating.

21 April 2018
SHEFF WED 3 READING 0

Reading: V Mannone, T Blackett, L Moore, C Gunter, T Ilori, J van den Berg (Y Kermorgant, 58), S Aluko (P Clement, 83), J Swift, L Kelly, M Barrow, J Bodvarsson (O Richards, 78).
Subs not used: C Martin, D Edwards, A Rinomhota, A Jaakkola.

[Fezza]

Virginia

Halford
Terell Thomas
Martin Keown
Marcus Williams

Drenthe
John Halls
Meyler

Baldock
Dave Mooney
Matthieu Manset

Dishonourable mentions for... Bond, Gamble, Branch, Roget and Obinna

[SCIAG]

Drenthe

No. He was a shit signing but I can forgive him everything for that one night he absolutely rinsed Leeds at Elland Rd.

'greed. Entertaining, obvious "quality", and enough good performances to comfortably be above Brooker or Popa or Aluko.

Obviously he was grossly overpaid, unfit, and largely ineffective, but I'll remember him fondly, if only for the impression that he had a comically oversized but harmless ego.

[From Despair To Where?]

Drenthe

No. He was a shit signing but I can forgive him everything for that one night he absolutely rinsed Leeds at Elland Rd.

'greed. Entertaining, obvious "quality", and enough good performances to comfortably be above Brooker or Popa or Aluko.

Obviously he was grossly overpaid, unfit, and largely ineffective, but I'll remember him fondly, if only for the impression that he had a comically oversized but harmless ego.

I remember the excitement when we signed him. "Wow, we've signed Royston Drenthe!!!!" quickly followed by "His career must really be on it's arse if he's signing for us". It's the hope, however misplaced, that kills you.

[From Despair To Where?]

Its difficult to pick a whole 11 that were outstandingly bad but a few names always pop out when this question is raised:

I think players like van Der Kwaak and Kromheer, we always knew would be shit but Gary Phillips and Mark Whitlock are two players that always stand out for me. They came with reputations of adequacy and were utterly deficient on any redeeming qualities.

[Hendo]

No. He was a shit signing but I can forgive him everything for that one night he absolutely rinsed Leeds at Elland Rd.

'greed. Entertaining, obvious "quality", and enough good performances to comfortably be above Brooker or Popa or Aluko.

Obviously he was grossly overpaid, unfit, and largely ineffective, but I'll remember him fondly, if only for the impression that he had a comically oversized but harmless ego.

I remember the excitement when we signed him. "Wow, we've signed Royston Drenthe!!!!" quickly followed by "His career must really be on it's arse if he's signing for us". It's the hope, however misplaced, that kills you.

I was beyond excited when we signed him. Massive let down, obviously. But agreed on the above, no worse than Popa or Aluko.

[On Strings]

Not easy with a dodgy memory, but:

Simon Sheppard (Terrified me on crosses)
Nicky Colgan (Oxford away will forever live in my depressive memory)

Paul Bodin
Joe Mills
Barry Hunter
Stuart Gray

Sean Evers
Jimmy Crawford
Mark Reilly
Eric Nixon

Paul Brayson
Keith Scott

[Sutekh]

Not easy with a dodgy memory, but:

Simon Sheppard (Terrified me on crosses)
Nicky Colgan (Oxford away will forever live in my depressive memory)

Paul Bodin
Joe Mills
Barry Hunter
Stuart Gray

Sean Evers
Jimmy Crawford
Mark Reilly
Eric Nixon

Paul Brayson
Keith Scott

To be fair that Oxford performance featured wholly arse performances by many Reading players. I particularly remember the ineptitude of Michael O’Neill who was so bad he walked into the halfway line “corner” flag that the Manor used to have when he was subbed off in the 2nd half.

[SCIAG]

XI of "not necessarily terrible but didn't deliver on huge reputations"

Mihalyov (or Mannone)

Gunter
Oxford
Keown
Rahman

Drenthe (c)
Drinkwater
Guthrie
John

Pogrebnyak
Puscas

Subs: Grabban, Vydra, Martin, Sharp, Baldock, Aluko, Piazon, Halilovic, A. Ferdinand, Ilori, Bridge, L. Ferdinand

Could add a bunch of loanees who barely got on the pitch, most of whom I'm probably forgetting.

Slightly harsh to include Bridge and A. Ferdinand who were obviously quality but permacrocked. Lots of competition for the striker spots.

[Sutekh]

XI of "not necessarily terrible but didn't deliver on huge reputations"

Mihalyov (or Mannone)

Gunter
Oxford
Keown
Rahman

Drenthe (c)
Drinkwater
Guthrie
John

Pogrebnyak
Puscas

Subs: Grabban, Vydra, Martin, Sharp, Baldock, Aluko, Piazon, Halilovic, A. Ferdinand, Ilori, Bridge, L. Ferdinand

Could add a bunch of loanees who barely got on the pitch, most of whom I'm probably forgetting.

Slightly harsh to include Bridge and A. Ferdinand who were obviously quality but permacrocked. Lots of competition for the striker spots.

Actually thought Drinkwater had turned a corner while at Reading and he was looking quite decent in his last few weeks. Actually think we should have picked him up on a free the following summer.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

I've convinced myself that the worst player I have seen in Hoops was Jimmy Crawford - one of the "Magnificent 7".

I've just looked him up and he seems to have had a half decent career as a coach...

Maybe I just saw him on a lot of "off days"...

[Forbury Lion]

Van Der Kwak

Andy Gurney
Greg Halford
Joseph Mills

Jimmy Crawford
Mark Reily
Danny Guthrie
Andy McLaren

Keith Scott
Paul Brayson
Robert Fleck

Manager: Terry Bullivant
Owner: Dai Yongge

Might be a few I could swap in/out.