Everyone's favourite tabloid journo confirmed for 23 Feb

[biscuitsrus]

Olivia

Do you agree with RFC fans bottom of the Fans League Table?

[GJ79]

Oliver - dont listen to these Reading fans. They cry everytime somebody doesn't give them the credit they think they deserve.

Can someone please tell me why "Harold" is a member???? When hes clearly a chelski fan. Is he another tredder in disguise, just here to make pointless comments?

[Royal Lady]

Oliver - I'm a Cheatski fan. I love you.

[Forbury Lion]

Oliver - dont listen to these Reading fans. They cry everytime somebody doesn't give them the credit they think they deserve.

Can someone please tell me why "Harold" is a member???? When hes clearly a chelski fan. Is he another tredder in disguise, just here to make pointless comments?

Harold is a member.

[Boston Royal]

Junction 11, if you feel so strongly why don't you ring up and speak to Holt?

Not got the bottle me thinks

He lives to write the shit that's published in the Mirror. What beggars belief is BBCRB handing him the platform. I don't have to listen!

Holt,

I think that you are missing the point M4J11.

BBCB should (as aforementioned) be commended for bringing a bit of controversy to the programme, and indeed Mr Holt should be commended for actually coming onto the programme to face the music.

Hopefully, the quality of questions that he has to face, will not give him the luxury of gaining a few more negative column inches at our expense.

I completely agree. I personally find Holt's columns offensive and bordering on slanderous, but would like to hear two sides to every story. Well done to BBCRB for getting him on; it should be interesting. I'm surprised BBCRB are being attacked for giving him a platform and fans will boycott; it's as if they've pre-judged. Even suspected murderers are are allowed to defend themselves, and Holt is nowhere near that (although you wouldn't believe it given some reactions on here).

[noise]

As a journalist, his articles should explain his side of the story, if he is unable to do so, he should not be a journalist. He should not have to go to BBC Berkshire Footy-In to explain, he can do so in the Daily Mirror. This is bleeding of self-interest and forced controversy in order to get people listening. I won't be listening, let me know when Sonks, or someone who actually cares about the Royals is on, not some sleezy back-door peice of shit journalist who has to bully our hunt around and make up rubbish stories just to whore himself to the white van men who read it. Better have the bleeb machine in first force, I might have to call in.


STEVE'S NO SAINT
PLENTY of observers attempted to paint Stephen Hunt as a man of saintly innocence over his appalling challenge that fractured Petr Cech's skull. An accident, they said. Such a quiet lad, too. Not given to that kind of thing at all. No track record of nasty challenges. Not in his nature.
I thought of that when I saw Hunt launching a double-footed tackle at the Reading mascot 10 days ago in the aftermath of Reading's opening goal against Sheffield United. How playful.
And it appears Hunt's preferred goal celebration is not to punch the air or raise a forefinger in triumph. Funnily enough, it involves a manic double-footed challenge on the corner flag. (perhaps it was an anorexic Petr Cech).Anyone sense a pattern emerging here? Petr Cech probably does.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Oliver - dont listen to these Reading fans. They cry everytime somebody doesn't give them the credit they think they deserve.

Can someone please tell me why "Harold" is a member???? When hes clearly a chelski fan. Is he another tredder in disguise, just here to make pointless comments?

Ah yes I remember Tredder, funny how he's complete disappeared since we're up here and they're down there.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Oliver, when do you hope to be able to move to a more learned paper such as the Sunday Sport?

Has to be said though, we seem to be generating a lot more interest in this one than in the normal Reading related people, just goes to show what a bit of controversy does and seems to indicate that Mr Holt is actually doing a rather good job by adopting this attitude (which he may or may not actually believe)....?

So, Tim ask the question

Red or blue bounties?

[M4 Junction 11]

Should VOTE Hunt top of the Premier League Player of the month table in time for the visit by the man from the Mirror on Friday.

[Vision]

OK if you wanted any other reason to totally ignore the attention seeking gimp then his latest offering should do the trick.

SO READING'S season is a fairy tale is it? Excuse me for a second while I decide whether to giggle or gag.

Okay, that wasn't too hard. I'll gag. Because I don't see any fairy story at Reading. I don't see romance, either.

I'll be honest. I don't like the club. I don't like what it stands for.

AdvertisementThat starts at the top with a self-satisfied poster boy of conspicuous consumption and Tory donor, chairman John Madejski.

I don't think you should ever, ever trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle, or a bloke who is complicit in having a stadium named after him. What a joke that is.

No doubt the board begged and pleaded with him to allow them to recognise his outstanding contribution to Berkshire life. No doubt it was absolutely none of his doing. But I don't care how much money he's poured into the club.

Name a stadium after Tom Finney or Stanley Matthews or Bobby Moore. Name it after Alex Ferguson, Paul Gascoigne or Bill Shankly. But not after a guy who made his money from a magazine flogging used cars.

Perhaps Madejski simply couldn't call to mind a famous Reading player. Come to think of it, neither can I.

But even Doug Ellis drew the line after naming a stand at Villa Park in his honour. He couldn't quite muster the hubris to go the whole hog and adopt the - entire ground.

But not Madejski. He's got all sorts in his name. Some Fine Rooms at the Royal Academy of Arts, too, apparently. Whatever they are.

I read an interview with him in The Independent last year. The reporter noted that a copy of the Rich List, in which Madejski figures prominently, was placed on a table nearby. Gag, gag, gag.

It's not just the chairman, though. I know times are changing fast but I could have sworn that fairy tales didn't used to feature skull fractures and concussions.

I don't care whether Reading finish sixth. You know what, even if they overtake Chelsea and Man United, romp the title and win the FA Cup as well, my abiding memory of their debut Premiership season will always be Stephen Hunt kneeing Petr Cech in the head.

That's their bequest to this campaign. The first team to disable two opposition keepers in the same game. Let's think of a name for the fairy tale that unfolded that day, shall we.

Snow White and the Seven Stretchers. Beast and the Beast. Barbie in It's a Knockout. Then, of course, Reading played the poor little underdog card, proclaimed their innocence and escaped scot-free. Gag, gag, gag.

A few months later their coach, Wally Downes, who really ought to be led to the dugout in a muzzle and restraints, had the gall to accuse Sheffield United boss Neil Warnock of urging his players to injure opponents.

Funny that, given that it was only a few seconds earlier when Reading midfielder Steve Sidwell produced another of the worst tackles of the season with an over-the-top lunge on Chris Armstrong.

I hope the FA throw the book at Downes when they get him down to Soho Square and tell him his tiresome Crazy Gang garbage went out with the dinosaurs.

Then there's Whispering Steve Coppell, another soul bursting with romance.

That's why he blew the chance to get his side into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on Saturday when he played his second team at Old Trafford.

There's more joie de vivre in a door mat at a funeral home than there is in the laughing boy in charge of Reading.

Coppell couldn't be bothered to attend the post-match press conference on Saturday night. He was too busy raving it up with a cup of tea in a room next door.

So he sent his man on earth and scorer of the Reading equaliser, Brynjar Gunnarsson, instead.

Gunnarsson hails from Iceland and, yes, I know it's unkind but a 2lb pack of Petits Pois from the deep freeze would have spoken with more animation than him.

The reporters, better men than me, who persevered magnificently in asking him questions, deserved commendations for endurance in the face of determined and desperate tedium.

The Iceman cometh and Iceman sendeth fast asleep.

I almost forgot the Reading fans. A contingent of them anyway. They're the rabid bunch who made it their speciality to behave in an especially unhinged fashion towards former managers.

Alan Pardew got the full treatment when he was leaving for West Ham. Mark McGhee was another treated with gratitude and respect whenever he returned.

And I think that's just about covered it. Except I've just remembered I'm doing a phone-in on Radio Berkshire on Friday evening.

Should be a lorra lorra laughs, as John Madejski's favourite theatre companion might say.

[M4 Junction 11]

I wonder what he'd have done

[Dangerous]

I wonder what he'd have done

[M4 Junction 11]

put Holt in a sports bag

[Nomad_Royal]

Dear All,

Whilst it is clear that Oliver Holt's work has provoked a strong response from yourselves it is only fair that he be given a chance to come on and have his say, explain the reasoning behind his views and also hear what loyal Royals have to say.

It should be an interesting debate.

You never know, you may well win him round !

All the best

Joel

Joel,

I hear what you are saying and agree with you that, in principle, people should be given the chance and the platform to explain the reasoning behind their views.

However given the article in today’s Mirror which appears to be totally inflammatory and aimed turn Fridays programme into a "bleep" fest, can you condone an attempt by a self publicist to hijack your programme to promote his own agenda?

As for winning him round - LOL- you can only do that if someone is prepared to listen, Holt as he already states in his latest diatribe .... "(Reading) I'll be honest. I don't like the club. I don't like what it stands for." seems to have made up his mind.

He is best ignored.

[79Royal]

I'll be listening on Friday, I'd like to hear his reasons why he dislikes Reading so much.

And I hope that we don't lower ourselves to his level by coming across as uneducated heathens. Lety's have a lively debate and I believe we can make him fell as small as we all already believe he is.

Well done BBCRB for getting him on.

EDIT: I've just read the article in the Mirror and now I understadn why there is so much hatred towards him! I'd still hope, however, that we don't become the fans that Holt believes we are.

This is a great club. Holt needs to be taught that.

[Forbury Lion]

Name a stadium after Tom Finney or Stanley Matthews or Bobby Moore. Name it after Alex Ferguson, Paul Gascoigne or Bill Shankly. But not after a guy who made his money from a magazine flogging used cars.

The players quoted have done nothing for Reading FC, John Madejski has.

[Schards#2]

Oliver, when did you decide to give up on pursuing a career as a serious journalist and, instead, choose the path of writing and saying anything however ludicrous just to generate an income.

[bigmike]

Oliver Holt is a Joke and not a journalist of note therefore I cannot believe that the BBC will be giving airtime to such a person.

The only person who respects Holt I would have to say is Holt.

[Schards#2]

Joel

A tip for your listeners, when sending a fresh turd through the post to bitter and twisted sports journalists, always use a self sealing envelope to avoid unhygienic accidents.

[weybridgewanderer]

so he protests at the naming of our stadium after our chairman and his "lack" of impact on world football

so where is the condemnation of the "JJB" Stadium, the "Rebook" satdium or the "Emirates" Stadium. What have Emirates Airlines done for World football?