I rather hope Harper and Shunt leave now

[Royal Rother]

Cisse/Harper is the only midfield partnership that has really worked this season...

You might be surprised to know that our best run of the season was with Karacan and Gunnarsson.

4-0 Swansea
3-0 Wolves
3-1 Burnley

We then annihilated Preston away in the 1st half only to lose 2-1 in the end because the strikers didn't convert the chances created....

[Hoop Blah]

Cisse/Harper is the only midfield partnership that has really worked this season...

You might be surprised to know that our best run of the season was with Karacan and Gunarsson.

4-0 Swansea
3-0 Wolves
3-1 Burnley

And our worst?

I think consistency and ability to play the whole season gives the Cisse/Harper partnership the edge. A mix of Gunnarsson/Karacan wouldn't keep up those good performances over a 46 game season.

[Royal Rother]

Maybe not, but SKDD's assertion that Cisse and Harper is the only combination that has worked was plainly incorrect.

[facaldaqui]

So many people wanting to change a team that is in second, in which Hunt and Harper have played most of the games. I say, leave as is and we should get promotion. Then recruit. Am I seeing things but is not Hunt an aggressive nuisance to opponents who keeps putting in sweet assists, like the one at Birmingham (I quote that for the person who said his only good game recently was against Watford)? Is not Harper a sort of footballing scrum half, sweeping the ball out to the wings as quick as he can, oiling and supervising Coppell's tactics? I want them both to stay, but if we go up I'd like us to buy in the summer. Wigan have shown that you can keep reinventing a team to survive in the prem. If we go up, I don't want us to rely on the slowly decaying remnants of a promotion team, but to keep recruiting. Rather than allowing two of our key players to leave now and then trying to patch up the holes in the team machine, I'd rather we do it the other way round; buy better players in the summer and then let those they supersede go.

[Sun Tzu]

I think consistency and ability to play the whole season gives the Cisse/Harper partnership the edge. A mix of Gunnarsson/Karacan wouldn't keep up those good performances over a 46 game season.

They don't need to, we've only got 17 games left.

[SteveRoyal]

Okay, let's look on the bright side of the squad, saying we don't buy any others.

If S Hunt goes, we still have Tabb, Convey and Harding to play over on the left.
If Harper goes, we still have Tabb, Gun, Karacan and Matejovsky to play in the centre.

Not the end of the world, though it would be lovely to see us keep both.

[Leamington Royal]

'If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it' is my view with 17 games to go.

If form over the past 10-15 games persists then this Reading team should pull away from Wolves and particularly Brum. Coppell has relatively limited control over Hunt's departure but I cannot see how we would benefit from Harper going at this stage. IMHO I rate Jem very highly, and in combination with Cisse, Gunnar I think it gives us a strong back up plan, but I'd rather not lose Harper/ drop a few points whilst somebody else 'beds in'.

If we achieve Premiership status come May, then I believe we need to seriously upgrade our midfield if we want to stay up. That is a whole different debate.

Hunt is more instantly replaceable if we can get one of the said replacements in before the window closes.

[Hoop Blah]

I think consistency and ability to play the whole season gives the Cisse/Harper partnership the edge. A mix of Gunnarsson/Karacan wouldn't keep up those good performances over a 46 game season.

They don't need to, we've only got 17 games left.

Fair point.

In essence I meant just dealing with the week to week grind of league football. I think Karacan would be up to it for the rest of the season, although one of the usual draw backs of youth is inconsistency, but I think Gunnarsson will struggle with 90 minutes these days as he looked a bit off the pace against Wolves.

It's interesting that I can't remember Coppell matching either of Gunnarsson or Karacan with Cisse when possible, or Mateovsky actually. He seemed to favour Gunnarsson and Karacan OR Cisse and Harper, or Mateovksy with Gunnarsson or Harper (thats how I remember it in my head at least). I wonder if it's because he always wanted the experience/communictaion/organisation of Harper or Gunnarsson alongside one of the other three?

[1871royals]

Like the rest of us, I was delighted to see an academy player given a chance but i do think Jems performances were just okay. I dont think he played any better then Harps or Cisse. But considering it was his first chance at championship level he did well. I dont think he should be given a chance just because hes a youngster. When hes good enough (which imo isnt too far way) he should replace Harps.

I think a loan spell to a championship team a la Pearce going to southampton would be the correct move.

[loyalroyal4life]

If you don't know what you've done wrong, then maybe you should have been concentrating more in your English class. Or have you finished school early?

didnt come on here for an english lesson but i ll take that as a bonus. always can rely on you spacey

[OLLIE KEARNS]

So many people wanting to change a team that is in second, in which Hunt and Harper have played most of the games. I say, leave as is and we should get promotion. Then recruit. Am I seeing things but is not Hunt an aggressive nuisance to opponents who keeps putting in sweet assists, like the one at Birmingham (I quote that for the person who said his only good game recently was against Watford)? Is not Harper a sort of footballing scrum half, sweeping the ball out to the wings as quick as he can, oiling and supervising Coppell's tactics? I want them both to stay, but if we go up I'd like us to buy in the summer. Wigan have shown that you can keep reinventing a team to survive in the prem. If we go up, I don't want us to rely on the slowly decaying remnants of a promotion team, but to keep recruiting. Rather than allowing two of our key players to leave now and then trying to patch up the holes in the team machine, I'd rather we do it the other way round; buy better players in the summer and then let those they supersede go.

Agree per my earlier post. If we do go up, this summer will be a pivotal moment for the club IMO and we would need to upgrade a number of positions. At the same time there will be many players contracts coming to a conclusion with clubs no longer able to pay the same level of wages as in years gone by. Which could bring us into play for a better type of player given our financial health.
Let's hope we get up so that we can see how things play out. It could be a very interesting summer

[Ian Royal]

Gareth Southgate: "I can't see any more players coming in now."


Answer the questions about Harper? Going nowhere.

[RoyalBlue]

Gareth Southgate: "I can't see any more players coming in now."


Answer the questions about Harper? Going nowhere.

Not really. It's dark now and maybe the lights have failed at The Riverside Stadium.

Harper could turn up and Southgate would still be telling the truth!!

[Woodcote Royal]

One has to wonder if Harps has given further thought to a few years living in the sh*t hole known as Middlesbrough

Money really isn't everything......................

[TommyF]

I noticed on newsnow for ReadingFC the headline from the official RFC site of Buy One get one half price

Could this be a plea to Wigan or Everton for Hunt and Harper?

[Row Z Royal]

And the Transfer Text ad's up again.

[Stranded]

I don't think we'd miss Harper in the long-run though. It'd take the new midfield a few games (say, 10) to settle and then if the combination's right we might have 50% of a unit capable of more than just shadow-boxing.

Hunt, fo rall his faults, would be a big miss. Shorey is finding out just how hard life post-Hunt is. Luckily Armstrong seems to need him a bit less.

In the long run possibly not, but like you say it could take 10 games for a new partnership to settle - there's only 17 games left so that's a sizeable chunk of the rest of the campaign - it's a risk that isn't worth taking at this point as things for the most part are going well.

[PEARCEY]

The thread title should be changed to...I, Rother hope Harper and Shunt leave now.

[RoyalBlue]

Presumably anyone that hopes that Harper and SHunt leave now isn't overly keen on us getting promoted back to the PL at the end of this season!

[Ian Royal]

And want us to state our ambition by selling two of only a handful of premier league proven players we have.

(Doyle, Rosenior, Duberry [getting past it now], Murty [ditto Doobs],Hahnemann & Ingimarsson [not sure he's up to it any more]. Bikey and Lita still have question marks and the rest have a only a handful of appearances)