STEPHEN HUNT - IS HIS TIME UP?

[zummerset]

I can't believe the ignorance of the fans that think SHUNT is off loadable. The reason why you dulllards are fixated on him is because of his huge influence on the game i.e. always involved and carrying most of the midfield work (not always brilliant but very good a lot of the time). Perhaps you should look harder at the Mr Invisibles such as Harps and the oh so forgettable performances of Long and Convey. Ding without SHUNT could be very dodgey in the promotion chase.

BTW Shorey looks shite for Villa and a step in class behind his peers - which is why he features so much as a bit part player for them. Good business for us.

[Woodcote Royal]

Odd to see how the same stuff was spouted about Shorey last season, not interested, crap right foot, and ignore the assists, so why was it ok to say Shorey should go, but not ok to say Hunt should go??

As with the past so long as Hunt is replaced, should he go, then there is no reason we should be weaker, Armstrong or Shorey Woodcote?? And pray tell us why.

We haven't seen Armstrong in the top flight but I'd take him over the Shorey of last season as, I believe, would most Reading fans.

That's why it's was OK to say Shorey should have gone months before he did because he clearly couldn't give a sh*t and was a major reason for our relegation.

Hunt, on the hand, is a major reason why we are in 2nd place.

PS.May I take this opportunity to offer you seasons greatings and many blown gaskets for the new year?

[The 17 Bus]

Only time will tell

[winchester_royal]

PS Nicky Shorey, involved in 12 out of 20 Prem games so far, not that bad really.

LOL. Ask Villa fans what they think of Shorey.

[SteveRoyal]

PS Nicky Shorey, involved in 12 out of 20 Prem games so far, not that bad really.

LOL. Ask Villa fans what they think of Shorey.

Not even Villa fans, ask anyone who watches Villa and see what they think!

[winchester_royal]

Thanks for providing a wonderful example of the blinkered favouritism that pervades our fan base.

Even at his very best, Shorey's right foot was always extraordinarily poor; so bad that the minute he cut inside he had nowhere to go. Compare this with Hunt who is quite comfortable playing on the right.

While you lambasted Hunt for his recent poor form, there are no complaints about an entire season of dire performances from Shorey ; all largely because West Ham didn't think he was worth as much as Wigan have offered for Hunt and therefore failed to come back with an improved offer.

Whilst I would be happy to take the money if a viable replacement could be signed, Hunt has shown on many occasion that he is worth £5m to a Premiership team in need of a left sided midfieder. I'd expect him to play most weeks if he was signed by a middle Prem side and that's more than be said for Shorey who seems to have been relegated to Villa's 2nd string.

I have to laugh at how Woodcote describe VM as being guilty of blinkered favouritism, merely because he disagrees with him. People have different opinions, that is natural, this board would be the very epitomy of tedium if they didn't, and to call people blinkered or stupid just because they don't agree with you is quite childish.

[Woodcote Royal]

And LOL at more nonsense from a typical source.

Blinkered was my observation of someones opinion.....................if you see that as childish perhaps it's you who needs to grow up.

[Platypuss]

Is blinkered favouritism somehow worse than blinkered scapegoating?

[Woodcote Royal]

Not sure, but it's hardly the same as calling someone stupid.

[Victor Meldrew]

Hunt's contribution is rarely dire even when his overall play is poor, which is why Wigan are not the only club considering forking out what is a relative snip for a player of Hunts capability.................as ever, it's Reading fans who under value their players.

If only Hunt would change his name to Shorey, acquire an absolutely useless right foot and enter a 12 month sulk, he would be guaranteed unbridled adulation.

Have you been to any games recently?
If, and IMHO it's a big "If" and may be just his agent talking things up,one of these Premier League sides are genuine (Everton never were) about paying £5 million for this type of player then the world really has gone mad.
BTW he already has a useless right foot (look back at those missed chances) so doesn't need to work on it and don't forget we only got £3 million for Shorey,a player capped by England,so to get £5 million for a reserve player for a mickey-mouse country like Ireland is clearly ludicrous and we should bite the hand off whoever might be dozy enough to pay it.
Just as important though is that whatever we get must be invested in new players as the quality that we now have in Premier League terms is (apart from Doyle) sadly lacking.

Thanks for providing a wonderful example of the blinkered favouritism that pervades our fan base.

Even at his very best, Shorey's right foot was always extraordinarily poor; so bad that the minute he cut inside he had nowhere to go. Compare this with Hunt who is quite comfortable playing on the right.

While you lambasted Hunt for his recent poor form, there are no complaints about an entire season of dire performances from Shorey ; all largely because West Ham didn't think he was worth as much as Wigan have offered for Hunt and therefore failed to come back with an improved offer.

Whilst I would be happy to take the money if a viable replacement could be signed, Hunt has shown on many occasion that he is worth £5m to a Premiership team in need of a left sided midfieder. I'd expect him to play most weeks if he was signed by a middle Prem side and that's more than be said for Shorey who seems to have been relegated to Villa's 2nd string.

Shorey has already played in more than half of a top 4 side's games but stay blinkered yourself and ignore facts.
Also a bloke called Sidwell who you also lambasted is doing just as well.
This isn't about Shorey and I was never one to go over the top about his abilities because he was in my view a poor defender not helped last season by playing behind a loose cannon.

Over the years there are 3 players (probably a damn sight less than you) that I have felt our fans over-rated and in some ways held our club back.
The first was Rougier
The second Andy Hughes
The third is Stephen Hunt.
And you think he has a right foot better than Shorey's when in fact he is just as poor and your idea that he is comfortable on his right foot is blinkered to the extreme-what the hell do you see man?-perhaps you ought to try the East Stand and you might get a better perspective.

As I said earlier I will be amazed if any Prem club is prepared to pay £5 million for somebody of such limited ability and so far it's only paper talk just like it was last summer.
Lastly on Sidwell who (unlike Hunt AND Shorey) played his heart out for us in that last season and you continually knocked him,a player that we have struggled to replace and yet two top managers in Mourinho and O'Neill thought worth having.
I'm afraid your views at times on players are stuck in a 3rd division time warp where running about a lot constituted a good player-join the real world of the upper echelons of football where significantly more than running around a lot is needed or would you be happier back down there with just a few thousand fans,something that you have ludicrously gone on about when laying into our fans in the past.
Maybe you would be happier going to watch Brentford and could see a load of Hunt-type players every week.

[working class hero]

If Stephen leaves will Noel be happy to stay?

[Archie's penalty]

The truth is quite clearly between the two extremes that VM and WR are putting across.

I like Stephen Hunt and while 5m is a lot for him, he is important to our cause.

And Sidwell is certainly doing well for Villa, I always defended him against the attacks of WR. Shorey on the other hand is having a mare at Villa. You say he has played more than half of their games but have you seen the mistakes he has been making?

[seahawk10]

We won't go up automatically if Hunt goes

That pretty much sums it up for me.

Thirded. I hope he stays.

[Ian Royal]

Hughes wasn't overrated in the slightest. Loads thought he was worthless, and many recognised that he was a valuable asset at the time.

Hunt is in the Sidwell bracket. A player who will continue to go out there and give it his best shot rather than get distracted and sulky because he hasn't got a move.

Unfortunately for Hunt he doesn't have the skill level to be as consistent as Sidwell. But he can be a match winner and we'll have huge difficulty in adequately replacing him.

The money he goes for is completely irrelevant. What's important is can we replace him and the answer is probably not well enough. So we have to hold out for £5m, because that's the amount we can't refuse. He's worth AT LEAST that much to US.

[Woodcote Royal]

Shorey has already played in more than half of a top 4 side's games but stay blinkered yourself and ignore facts.
Also a bloke called Sidwell who you also lambasted is doing just as well.
This isn't about Shorey and I was never one to go over the top about his abilities because he was in my view a poor defender not helped last season by playing behind a loose cannon.

Over the years there are 3 players (probably a damn sight less than you) that I have felt our fans over-rated and in some ways held our club back.
The first was Rougier
The second Andy Hughes
The third is Stephen Hunt.
And you think he has a right foot better than Shorey's when in fact he is just as poor and your idea that he is comfortable on his right foot is blinkered to the extreme-what the hell do you see man?-perhaps you ought to try the East Stand and you might get a better perspective.

As I said earlier I will be amazed if any Prem club is prepared to pay £5 million for somebody of such limited ability and so far it's only paper talk just like it was last summer.
Lastly on Sidwell who (unlike Hunt AND Shorey) played his heart out for us in that last season and you continually knocked him,a player that we have struggled to replace and yet two top managers in Mourinho and O'Neill thought worth having.
I'm afraid your views at times on players are stuck in a 3rd division time warp where running about a lot constituted a good player-join the real world of the upper echelons of football where significantly more than running around a lot is needed or would you be happier back down there with just a few thousand fans,something that you have ludicrously gone on about when laying into our fans in the past.
Maybe you would be happier going to watch Brentford and could see a load of Hunt-type players every week.

And still those blinkered observations keep coming.

Shorey is one of the most one footed players we've had at this club in the last 10 years and whatever Andy Hughes limitations (and he had quite a few) the only reason he managed to stand in for Shorey was because his left foot was light years ahead of Shorey's right.

I remember one afternoon Hughes getting slagged off for delivering a less than impressive corner. Funnily enough, it never seemed to matter that Shorey delivered so many cr@p corners with that golden left boot of his but when Hughsy blasted one high and wide that day, as usual, the natives were revolting.

This was when Shorey was injured and Hughes was at left back. The problem was, we wanted a left footed corner but didn't have any left footed players on the pitch...................guess which right footed player volunteered and guess how many of our observant fans failed to spot what had just happened before engaging in their favourite past time of Hughes bashing?

If you think Shorey is capable of delivering a better corner with his right foot than Hughes could with his left, your powers of observation are even worse than I feared.

Nevertheless, I would agree that Shorey scored some nice goals with that left foot and is good enough to play in the top flight (no mean achievement for a player we plucked from Orient reserves) but he lacks what it takes to be an established top international and so does Hunt.

Furthermore, there is nothing superior about Shorey's skill set when compared to Hunt's. For every decent free kick we used to get from Shorey we are now getting at least two decent corners from Hunt. All that is required to spot these differences is the ability to either count, read stats or perhaps just pay attention when you watch our matches but it seems you struggle with all 3.

Your powers of observation also appear to be struggling with Shorey's true position at Villa. He's no longer a regular starter in the league for his top four club and that's despite his predecessor being out for the season. This supports my view that I doubt he'll get another England cap whereas Hunt stands every chance of remaining in the Irish squad.

Shorey was dreadful last season but we still got £3m simply because there never seems to be enough left backs to satisfy demand. Had he played to the same standard as the previous season (when he was my player of the season but only came 2nd ) we would have got at least the same figure as that which triggers Hunt's release clause.

Whatever Hunts current form, he's having a far better season than Shorey did in the last campaign and anyone interested in signing him would see the stats support this view.

I think most observers would place at least 10 Premiership strikers ahead of Jermaine Defoe yet, Tottenham have just forked out £15m to take him back to White Hart Lane. So, in a league where you get £30m for coming bottom, why anyone would think that a club in need of a left winger would baulk at paying £5m for someone with Hunt's stats in the 2nd tier and a previous history at the top level just beggars belief.

Meanwhile, Sidwell is playing well at Villa......................the sort of club I always said he should have joined rather than Chelsea (were he bombed as I predicted he would) Yes he's performed better than I expected but Shorey getting dropped has seen his main midfield rival, Reo Coker, moved to right back which has done his cause no harm.

We didn't replace Sidwell simply because Coppell chose not to and in his last 2 seasons at this club (the best in it's history) he was never a contender for player of the season in two excellent teams and was never noted for any skills beyond what we regularly see from Stephen Hunt including the same highly impressive work rate.

Didn't Villa pay £5m for Sidwell?........................that figure rings a bell for some strange reason.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

"Hunt wasted a succession of corners before Long, on for Oster (who had put in an erratic performance to say the least), outpaced the City defence and was brought down. Shorey's superbly flighted free kick was met by Bikey who made no mistake with a downward header which Taylor had little chance of keeping out

"Shorey provided his third assist of the afternoon from a corner with Kitson rising at the near post to direct a header into the far side of the net to make it 3-2"

Just a couple of report extracts from last season. Shorey's dead ball delivery was just as good as Hunty's and our ratio of goals from set plays last year wasn't so different from this year. We just had far less corners and free kicks last year ! A general observation would be that comparing Shorey and Hunty is largely pointless as they are different types of players playing in different positions.
For example WR says "there is nothing superior about Shorey's skill set when compared to Hunts". Err, ball retention, creation in open play ? At the same time Hunty is much better at shutting people down and defending in general. Different players with different abilities.
As for Sidwell, he was and is a top class CM player. Capable of doing all of the defensive side of the job as well as consistently making the box and notching a few goals. Reo Coker playing at right back has nothing to do with Sidwell getting into the side. If both are available for CM then Sidwell will play every time.
As for his Chelsea move. Firstly, Jose saw enough in him to take him to the club and he made a number of appearences despite having the likes of Lampard and Essien in his way. Secondly, he ran his contract down at Reading and probably signed for £40k a week which made that his going rate should he move on at any time during the 3 years of his Chelsea contract. So, not only a good player but he has a smart agent as well

[Stranded]

EP this morning has Hammond stating that we've had no bids at all for Hunt but a couple of sounding out calls.

Also says we'll move for Jay Tabb if he does go.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

EP this morning has Hammond stating that we've had no bids at all for Hunt but a couple of sounding out calls.

Also says we'll move for Jay Tabb if he does go.

Let's hope he stays and that we add that quality striker that we need. Brum are strenghthening significantly and in the right areas so we are potentially going to need an even better second half season performance if we are to stay ahead of them

[loyalroyal4life]

EP this morning has Hammond stating that we've had no bids at all for Hunt but a couple of sounding out calls.

Also says we'll move for Jay Tabb if he does go.

F'in joke if that would turn out to be Hunt's replacement. Talk about going for the cheap option when will RFC open their eyes!!

[The 17 Bus]

Can't we go for tabb anyway, I think most here suggested that the current back ups are not good enough after the Cardiff cup match, Tabb can play in midfield, either wing or forward, versatility we could do with.