A new blog from Vital Reading named after one of the clubs greatest ever players, Robin Friday! It will of course be here for you every……yes you guessed it – Friday!
It`s Friday and there is an annoying trend among Reading Players that now seems to be happening every week, too much talking. Today we have had Noel Hunt and Matt Mills telling various people how important the Leicester game is on Saturday, just as others had done about the Forest game, the Portsmouth game and the Scunthorpe game!
Fact of the matter is, it`s about time they started doing the talking on the pitch. Fans accepted the defeat to Scunthorpe as a bad day at the office, swallowed the spin about the Portsmouth draw being a good result and even took Federici`s error against Forest with little fuss. However Tuesday`s Carling Cup defeat has riled certain sections of our fan base who think Brian McDermott`s honeymoon is over.
Unfortunately it`s not going to be easy going to the Walkers Stadium, it never is, but with a number of injuries it will make it difficult to get a positive result heading into the international break. We do have a hell of a lot of injuries, more than any club would realistically expect three weeks into the season, but when you sell so many squad players and do not bring in replacements then we deserve all we get. Going into a season with two fit centre backs is asking for trouble, especially when you tell everyone that your back up is one of only three fullbacks at the club!
Quite who will play tomorrow is anyone`s guess, especially in the full back positions. Marcus Williams and Andy Griffin are both very doubtful so Brynjar Gunnarsson should deputise but who will play on the left, and what about centre midfield? We could really do with three Gunnarssons!
Elsewhere Chris Armstrong looks set to make a return to the first team in the not too distant future, which really made my Friday morning. I thought he was finished and was waiting for the announcement that he had retired, so if he really is fit and training well and nearing a return for the reserves then that is just brilliant. Not least because of the form of new boy Williams, the former Scunthorpe left back has not began his Reading career well and was rinsed by a league two right winger for the second Carling Cup game in a row on Tuesday. I must admit having a defence of Griffin-Mills-Ingimarsson-Armstrong within a month or so would be brilliant, really strong. Fingers crossed that there are no set backs on either players recovery.
Finally this week, the end of the transfer window is Tuesday at 5pm and Brian McDermott has been sweetening us all up with talk of replacements should any ‘big` player be sold. I`m not stupid enough to think that we are in a position to turn down any bids for our better players but if someone does go, we must be able to get replacements in before the window closes. Can you imagine selling Sigurdsson at 4.55pm on Tuesday and leaving ourselves without a replacement?!
