Hob Nob Anyone?

RoyalBlue wrote:Happily I couldn't see Essex 'Mummy's Boy' moving up to the extreme North East on his own.

Sadly, I think West Ham will be a far more attractive prospect for him and we are likely to lose him.

Hope we screw the barstewards for as much a possible for his transfer.

Will be sorry to see him go - he has always given his absolute all to the club and is a far better player than many give him credit for.

toppy wrote:Kaka would be a great replacement

chilipepper91 wrote:

toppy wrote:Kaka would be a great replacement

Deco refuses to comment on his future

Smoking Kills Dancing Doe wrote:In an ideal world I'd say swap him for Mullins. But I think Mullins has become more of a regular in the West Ham side.

Still £3m for Harps could see us get a decent replacement for him and a proper partner for Marek.

Of course we'll prob end up with Bryn as a new centre mid for next season, again.

That's what worries me about selling players, will Coppell replace them or once again 'make do'??

Smoking Kills Dancing Doe wrote:In an ideal world I'd say swap him for Mullins. But I think Mullins has become more of a regular in the West Ham side.

Still £3m for Harps could see us get a decent replacement for him and a proper partner for Marek.

Of course we'll prob end up with Bryn as a new centre mid for next season, again.

That's what worries me about selling players, will Coppell replace them or once again 'make do'??

Ian Royal wrote:So what happens when one gets injured? Or in Bikey's case suspended?

I'd still like to see us try and switch to a 4-5-1 come 4-3-3 Like this:

..................Hahnemann
Murty Ingimarsson/Duberry Sonko/Cisse Rosenior
......................Bikey
......... Matejovsky......Harper
Lita..................................Doyle
....................Kitson

Not including new signings and assuming Shorey goes. Hunt isn't a great crosser so could play in that style IMO, Long could also do it. Allows quick change from attack to defence and vice versa and it means we don't have to rely on Convey and Little finding fitness or Kebe, Henry and whoever else coming good.

'So down I felt like dying'
By Nick Ive
13/ 6/2008


James Harper admitted he took relegation so badly he felt suicidal and he fears the release of the fixture list next Monday will again hit him hard.

The midfield schemer is still struggling to come to terms with Reading’s heart-breaking relegation from the Premier League on the final day of the season.

He told the Evening Post: “I’m not sure if it has hit home yet. It will probably really hit home when the fixtures come out.

“I don’t mean any disrespect to the Championship, but if you are playing away at Barnsley as opposed to Manchester United it’s not the same.

“But we were obviously not good enough because otherwise we would still be in the Premier League. We were all so desperate not to go down.

“In the last game of the season at Derby we battered them 4-0 but ended up getting relegated and it was such a strange feeling.

“I flew off to Vegas pretty much straight away because I just had to get away.

“But the nine-hour plane journey was a nightmare because relegation kept going through my head and I wanted the plane to go down!

“I took it really badly because I live for my football. I had worked all my life to play in the Premier League and to have it slip away was awful.”

Despite Reading’s drop into the Championship, Harper believes he has learned a lot of positives about himself as a player.

He added: “I look back and think ‘if this or that had happened’, but it’s too late for that really. I would say I have learned a lot – about myself and my team-mates.

“When things are going crap and there is a crisis it’s easy to crumble. In football there is nothing worse than getting relegated, but I felt I dealt with the pressure we were under.

“I always stood up and was counted, I played every game and gave my all under a lot of pressure and I like that about myself. I like my character because I know I can handle pressure.”

Reading, who finished eighth in their first-ever season in the top flight, only went down due to having an inferior goal difference than relegation rivals Fulham.

Inflexibility

And Harper blamed Royals’ failure on their inflexibility and having just one way to play.

“Individually I don’t think we were that horrific, but on occasion as a team we let ourselves down and that is frustrating,” said Harper. “Being able to function as a team has been our strength in the past, but we didn’t always do that last season.

“We became easier to stop and we didn’t appear to have a Plan B because there was no other way of playing.

“We didn’t score enough, but we didn’t seem to recognise what the problem was and couldn’t change it as a team.

“People talk about second-season syndrome. I think there is some truth in that because teams have a better idea of how to stop you.

“In our first season we were unknown and teams didn’t know how to stop us. They got a better idea of us last season and found it a lot easier to stop us and score against us as we also conceded too many goals.”

Harper is being chased by Fulham, Bolton, West Ham and Middlesbrough although Reading have yet to receive any firm bids for the £3million-rated star.

I understand the midfielder has a clause in his contract which automatically put him on the transfer list once Royals were relegated, but the 27-year-old has not asked for a move.

Manager Steve Coppell is expecting to lose some of his stars and is already lining up possible replacements.

Swansea’s Ferrie Bodde, Sunderland’s Dean Whitehead and Dundee United’s Noel Hunt are all possible targets

Sarah Star wrote:So far I've seen Doyle, Hunt and Harper all saying they're happy to stay, yet everyone seems to take this as saying they're leaving.

brendywendy wrote:

Sarah Star wrote:So far I've seen Doyle, Hunt and Harper all saying they're happy to stay, yet everyone seems to take this as saying they're leaving.

cos they all say they want to play at the top level

they arent asking to leave, its up to the club etc

really if they wwanted to stay theyd be coming out saying, i love this club, and im going to spend the next season getting reading back to where they belong
my career can wait, i have a debt to reading FC and the fans to repay

what they actually say sounds to me like"come and get me" but without saying anything that will upset the fans if for somereason they end up staying

hope im wrong though, specially about harps, and doyler