STEPHEN HUNT - IS HIS TIME UP?

[Cookie]

After another shocker by him yesterday,wondered if it was time to cash in.
Can be a liability at times and probably getting too big for his boots.

[FiNeRaIn]

Hunt is just not prem class, if we get 5 million we'll be laughing. He's a decent championship left winger but hasn't got enough quality or final product for prem footy.

[Victor Meldrew]

Hunt is just not prem class, if we get 5 million we'll be laughing. He's a decent championship right winger but hasn't got enough quality or final product for prem footy.

So that's where we have gone wrong by playing him on the left.
Unfortunately we are now comparing him with Bobby which is crazy as Bobby is not the player of 2-3 years ago.
What we should be comparing him with is a player that might cost £2-3 million assuming that is the sort of money that at a push we could get for him because surely no club will pay the automatic release figure for him.

Coppell ,like all of us ,fans,managers,chairmen has a blind spot.
I confess to having had a blind spot about Hughes and Rougier in the past and I felt that Pardew had a totally opposite blind spot about them and now Coppell is the same with little Stephen-he is undroppable.
Yesterday (as with Ipswich away) he took off our first choice left-back who was having a decent game and had just put in two good crosses and moved our left-winger to left-back.
At Ipswich that move cost us a goal because Hunt went walkabout leaving their player with an unchallenged tap-in at the far post.He can't play there-witness other performances early on in the season as he lacks the discipline required.
Yesterday Hunt mistimed a tackle that gave them a chance to win the game from a close free-kick and he managed to completely miss man and ball in another couple of positions,all in the space of the few minutes that he was told to play there.

So much has been made of assists-well like Beckham if you take nearly all the corners and free-kicks (not forgetting penalties) you really should have an impact on the game and have more assists than anybody else.
My grouse is not what he does in dead ball situations ,it's what he does with the moving ball and IMHO in that area he is third rate and I only hope that in this time of financial restraint RFC doesn't hang out for £5million because there are bargains out there to buy in the January sales when some other clubs will be desperate for money.

If our scouting network can get us Bikey from Russia and other players from foreign leagues there must be somebody out there who can bring as much to our team as the little Irishman and as has been mentioned often enough the answer could be down the road at that skint club Southampton with Andy Surman and if we do get silly money for Hunt let's take McGoldrick as well.

[Basingstoke Royal]

If Hunt goes, would Man Utd be tempted to let Eagles join us for £5million?

That would be a great signing - best left winger in the championship by a country mile.

[AlexY25]

If Hunt goes, would Man Utd be tempted to let Eagles join us for £5million?

That would be a great signing - best left winger in the championship by a country mile.

Hes not on loan to burnley. Hes got a 3 year contract there.

[Basingstoke Royal]

If Hunt goes, would Man Utd be tempted to let Eagles join us for £5million?

That would be a great signing - best left winger in the championship by a country mile.

Hes not on loan to burnley. Hes got a 3 year contract there.

Really! Fair play to Burnley for signing him. He would have been ideal - would they be in a position to turn down a £5million bid?

[rg6royal]

That's what I've said...sign Chris Eagles. Then Kebe can go to left midfield which is apparently his preffered position.

[rfcjoe]

Or we could give Kebe to Reading Town.......just a thought.

[FiNeRaIn]

That's what I've said...sign Chris Eagles. Then Kebe can go to left midfield which is apparently his preffered position.

You think burnley will just offload him to us without any say?

We wouldn't be able to pay them enough, we missed our chance in the summer.

Any 3 of the saints kids would do, but bet we show no ambition to sign any of them as usual. Lallana, mcgoldrick or surman please. None would cost over 2 mill with their finances, id sign all 3 if we could.

[It's the round thing]

Time to cash in, had an awful game yesterday with misplaced passes, crosses, shots and that terrible free kick. Summed up his performance with the worst cross i've seen him put in when he smashed it out for a throw on the other side of the pitch.
If any club is dumb enough to put in a bid, on recent performances, i'd take the moeny and run as we could buy a few decent players with £5-7 million.

I think it's important to take a longer view. Clearly the upcoming transfer window has unsettled him - his antics (as reported on Hob Nob) from (was it) goals on Sunday show that he sometimes lacks judgement. I recall that he was quite unsettled at the start of the season too, before the transfer window closed, but then settled in and for most of the season so far has led with his characteristic energy and enthusiasm. That said, I too am at a loss to explain his move to left back - was Armstrong in danger of getting a card? He's on four and perhaps Coppell was keen to keep him from being suspended, or maybe Armstrong was suffering a slight injury...

I think it is undeniable that some players can do well in leagues well above where they are playing. Look at Hull's captain who has been captain in all four leagues, and now Sidwell owns his place in a team that's competing not just for Europe but for Champion's league. The rub is that, of course, not all players fit this description and it is difficult for the players themselves to objectively assess whether or not they have the potential to be one of the elite.

Maybe rather than fighting to keep players that want to go, we should promote Reading as a place where strong players can come, learn - make a great contribution - and progress.

[Joe 90]

FROM BBC Website:

Bruce has meanwhile made a £5m move for Reading winger Stephen Hunt, who only signed a new long-term contract last year. (Daily Mirror)


Also on SSN

[mini _dariusz]

Stephen Hunt, horrible little shit.

[smooth_royal]

Thanks for that valuable input, once again enlightening us all

[cmonurz]

Without Stephen Hunt's assists this season, we would probably be bottom half.

[1871royals]

Im not Huntys biggest fan but people are grossly underestimating his contribution this season.

Im sure other teams have players that take all their set pieces. For e.g. Knightley appears to take a lot of Wolves. But no-one in the country has set up as many goals.

[londinium]

Other than Doyle can anyone think of a better player for us this season???

Thought not.

I would turn down £5 million, as with Hunty we will get back to the Premiership, without him, we won't.

[runrunrunrungilksey]

[quote="londinium"]Other than Doyle can anyone think of a better player for us this season???


Noel Hunt

[OLLIE KEARNS]

Other than Doyle can anyone think of a better player for us this season???

Thought not.

I would turn down £5 million, as with Hunty we will get back to the Premiership, without him, we won't.

I can think of quite a few, especially in recent weeks when Hunty has been very poor. I think we all need to look past dead ball situations a bit. Yes, we have scored often from his set piece delivery but we happen to have a lot of players who are very good in the air at set pieces. Think through the set piece goals and ask yourself whether it was the exceptional delivery or the exceptional movement / header that was the dominant factor in the goal being scored. Mostly it is the latter.
In open play he has created only a fraction of what Kebe has created. Kebe may be frustrating at times but he gets into dangerous areas so often that, should his final ball continue to improve, he will be the one that clubs are chasing.
As a final thought, had Shorey still been here and taking free kicks, would Hunty be deemed to have had a good season so far based on the rest of his contribution ?

[cmonurz]

Take out Noel Hunt' goals and what would his contribution be considered to be? You can't remove a facet of a players game and then judge their performance, that's ridiculous!

The argument seems to be 'Hunt is in poor form recently, so sell him'.

[1871royals]

Hunty has set up 15 goals this season. Knightly has set up 13, the next player is Kebe/R Wallace with 7.

Across all the divisions Hunty has set up the most. That's the primary job of a winger.

Who cares if its from a set piece? If hes setting up goals, hes helping the team!