by Woodcote Royal »
08 Jan 2009 12:39
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
The reason I compared these 3 players was to illustrate the blinkered favouritism employed by so many. Of course they have
different skill sets but they are all players of a similar standard, capable of playing at a similar level and, all things being equal, would have ended up with similar price tags on their heads.
This might be why they found themselves in the same Reading team that did so well in both Championship and Premiership yet, many hold two of these in high esteem and the other as little better than a park player.........................which is utter nonsense. Furthermore, it's still nonsense when you start delving into stats and comparing international recognition.
I said Shorey was guilty of delivering many poor corners not that he never sent in some really good ones. The same applies to Hunt but his corners have improved dramatically since Shorey left yet his detractors are only interested in what he gets wrong. For every excerpt from a match report extolling Shorey's credentials there will be one for Stephen Hunt
Had Shorey or Hunt left for Chelsea in the same circumstances as Sidwell, I would have made exactly the same observations as I did at the time........................that they stood no chance of establishing themselves in the multi million team at the Bridge and they were only being signed as squad cover because Mourinho was being starved of cash and they were free.
I'm far from convinced that every player would have thanked his agent for engineering such a move and I'm damn sure Sidwell now prefers the one that took him to Villa.
I saw all of Hunt Sidwell and Shorey as replaceable when we had Premiership clout behind us but Coppell was only forced to act when the latter finally got the move he so desperately craved.
We've yet to see Armstrong in the Prem but I don't think there are many Reading fans currently pining for the return of "Nicky who?"
