Robin Friday

[Royal Jelly]

Despite our recent rise up the leagues, Robin Friday remains the greatest player ever to play for this club.

Irreplaceable.

I'm always interested to know how anyone can justify this kind of comment?

As great as he must have been, can anybody say without doubt that Friday would have held his own in the multinational premiership the current Reading squad is making look easy?

I always have a natural scepticism when I hear about how great sportsmen of the past were, it seems a lot easier to proclaim somebody as great when you only think of the highlights.

Simple. I have never seen a better player in a Reading shirt.

Do you doubt that George Best, Pele, Di Stefano, Moore, Finney etc were great players just because they played before you were born?

Not at all, and I'm not aiming to be controversial, I was just questioning the comment that he's the best ever, when football seems to have changed so much over the years.

I particular, it now seems so important to be a supreme athlete and to live and train in a profesional way. Without quesitioning Friday's talent with a football I'm not sure he'd be able to live and play with the swagger he displayed back then and still cut it at the level Nicky Shorey does now (for instance).

Anyway, as pointed out its all relative, and I'll probably be on here in thirty years time going on about Darren Caskey being better than our current World Soccer Mega-League champions.

[The Cube]

I saw him play. He was nowhere near as good as Glen Little, for one.

[Coppelled Streets]

Robin Friday was a poor mans Keith Scott.

[BarryWhiteRFC]

I saw him play. He was nowhere near as good as Glen Little, for one.

Funny you should say that, I was going to add to this thread saying that although I've never seen Robin Friday play I find it very hard to believe he is better than Glen Little.

All hail Glen Little!

[Sharpy]

local market trader in twickers saw me in my hoops and stopped me saying he was one of fridays best mates as they grew up together in acton. told me loads of the 'silly' stuff he did

ie shitting in the team bath etc

[Tilehurst Mike]

I saw him play. He was nowhere near as good as Glen Little, for one.

I saw him play from the time he first joined Reading from Hayes and until then I think Tommy Jenkins the winger we had for a short time before we sold him to southampton was the best player in a Reading shirt I had seen. That changed after watching Friday play against Tranmere in a 5-O win and one of the best individual goals I have ever seen by a Reading player. The downside to Robin Friday was that he was quite a nasty piece of work outside of the game and even threatened to smack me when I asked him for an autograph!

Its nigh on impossible to make comparisons with players in the current squad as the standard of footaball and opposition is so different now to the Friday days. You also have to remember that Friday left Reading to join Cardiff in a higher league and never quite cut it but by then his career was already on a downward spirall through drink and drugs.
Like George Best his name will always provoke conversation and fond memories.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

He was a nasty, little pikey waster.

Yes he had buckets of talent but he doesn't deserve the worship

[SpaceCruiser]

I've never seen him play, unfortunately. However, there was a brief clip of him on the video of the club's history. Is that the same one on the youtube link somebody posted earlier in the thread?

[ElmParker]

Given Little’s universally acknowledged majesty, can someone sort a compilation of his finest moments for YouTube? Colleagues of mine think I’m lying when I tell them how great he is.

Even Andy Hughes has clips on there, although granted they seem to be ironic.

[SpaceCruiser]

Given Little’s universally acknowledged majesty, can someone sort a compilation of his finest moments for YouTube? Colleagues of mine think I’m lying when I tell them how great he is.

His goal against Plymouth ought to be in it. A majestic goal. Much better than Rooney's recent effort.

[Ashfordroyal]

I notice most of the people who make comments that have downers on him didnt see him play.
At the time he played for us he was a star in the lower divisions, we worshipped him at school, there was nothing else like him about then, and there isnt now.
The skill of Rodney Marsh, Tony Currie, etc, self destruct button of Gaza, Best to name a couple.
Its a different game now, he wouldnt get away with his antics by the authorities or the club.
As far as Im concerned, the best palyer ive ever seen in a Reading shirt.

[East Stand Ste]

never heard of him....did he play for Reading?

[Ashfordroyal]

I tell what else he was good at, saw him many times on the banks of the Thames, sitting there with a can of special brew in one hand, and a rod in the other..!!

[Vision]

I notice most of the people who make comments that have downers on him didnt see him play.
At the time he played for us he was a star in the lower divisions, we worshipped him at school, there was nothing else like him about then, and there isnt now.
The skill of Rodney Marsh, Tony Currie, etc, self destruct button of Gaza, Best to name a couple.
Its a different game now, he wouldnt get away with his antics by the authorities or the club.
As far as Im concerned, the best palyer ive ever seen in a Reading shirt.

I saw him when i was schoolage and thought he was brilliant.

Glen Little is better and producing in the top tier of English football..

[Ashfordroyal]

Yeah, alright then.

[West Stand Man]

As great as he must have been, can anybody say without doubt that Friday would have held his own in the multinational premiership the current Reading squad is making look easy?

Possibly the greatest military figure who ever lived, but would Napoleon and his army survive 5 minutes in Basra? It's all relative.

Also probably true to say that Napoleon was not the greatest military figure ever to have lived. He had his strengths - but there are some prttey great military figures above him (Hannibal for a start, and Alex the Great too, coming into the more modern era lets not forget MacArthur, et al)

[Vision]

Yeah, alright then.

i take it you disagree

[Vision]

[quote="West Stand Man
Also probably true to say that Napoleon was not the greatest military figure ever to have lived. He had his strengths - but there are some prttey great military figures above him (Hannibal for a start, and Alex the Great too, coming into the more modern era lets not forget MacArthur, et al)

[/quote]

Napoleon was shit in the air, Hannibal lacked pace, Alexander The Great wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes in the modern game while MacArthur was completely right sided.

[SpaceCruiser]

As great as he must have been, can anybody say without doubt that Friday would have held his own in the multinational premiership the current Reading squad is making look easy?

Possibly the greatest military figure who ever lived, but would Napoleon and his army survive 5 minutes in Basra? It's all relative.

Also probably true to say that Napoleon was not the greatest military figure ever to have lived. He had his strengths - but there are some prttey great military figures above him (Hannibal for a start, and Alex the Great too, coming into the more modern era lets not forget MacArthur, et al)

Napoleon got his arse thrashed by the genius that is Duke of Wellington.

[Pants of Primus]

He was a nasty, little pikey waster.

Yes he had buckets of talent but he doesn't deserve the worship

What a lovely thing to say about someone who is dead, on a website that his family read. Nice one.