James Harper

[howser]

Great player and servant to the club during his 8 years here, life and soul of all the good team spirit, never a bad word from him good luck James and thank you.

[Compo's Hat]

Got plenty of abuse by me on Tuesday night. One of my least favourite RFC players in the past few years.

Always thought Sidwell carried him and i was right when he left. Fair play to Sheffield United not employing him as a holding midfielder when he can't tackle!

[brendywendy]

I was under the obviously mistaken impression that virtually all people who bother to make it to away games are deep-seated supporters of the club and therefore should able to make better judgements about ex-players who served their club faithfully for a number of years (8 years in Harps case - no mean feat in the modern game)

I love this bit about loyalty, as if he was forever turning down offers from Real Madrid and Barcelona.

didnt he turn down a move to feeyenord, or somewhere?
plenty of prem teams would have enquired
never heard him whingeing
never saw his agent agitating for a move
could have gone when we went down
only left in the end cos he was forced out
he loved this club, and deserved better from our fans on tuesday night.

please see the majority of other players to have left this club over the last 5 years, to compare and contrast with harps, and im sure youll come to the correct conclusion about his loyalty

[brendywendy]

Got plenty of abuse by me on Tuesday night. One of my least favourite RFC players in the past few years.

Always thought Sidwell carried him and i was right when he left. Fair play to Sheffield United not employing him as a holding midfielder when he can't tackle!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[SLAMMED]

Reading legend.

[RG30]

It sums Reading fans in abundance when they can give a hero's reception to Leroy Lita yet when it's James Harper they feel the need to abuse him.

[mikey0406]

This annoys me about half the in breads on this site

Harper was key to the success of this club over the years, him and Sidwell lead the midfield, provided for the likes of Kitson, doyle and Lita. a great credit to this club, loyal servant for many years. he didnt want to leave ever! but was made clear by RFC that he was surplus to requirements due to his wage, now look at us.

its not just harper leaving but the whole nucleus of the squad has changed over the last 18 months. how can anybody expect succcess when such an event occurs. just shows where this club is heading!

anyone who gave such a player stick on tuesday night isnt a real supporter, and quite frankly shames what this club once stood for and achieved.

[Hoop Blah]

karacan has potential to be better and gylfi aready is

Debatable on both fronts, and that's without even considering the fact that Sigurdsson is a totally different type of player to Harper so comparing them is like saying Doyle was better than Shorey.

If Harper was still involved and utilised to anywhere near his potential then we wouldn't be in the position we are now.

It baffles me how many football fans don't get the whole idea of a team being made up of different types of players and personalities and it's that balance that gets the most out of the 11 players on the pitch.

[size 12]

Very fondly remembered in this quarter for the goal against Liverpool, which gave the club arguably its biggest ever result.

[Compo's Hat]

anyone who gave such a player stick on tuesday night isnt a real supporter, and quite frankly shames what this club once stood for and achieved.

ALOL!!! Some people who are set in their ways as to what a football supporter should be

Best summed up by that day down on the south coast when we shipped 7 (seven) goals in when the central midfield had nobody tackling and we stood off them a couple of yards to allow teams to easily pass the ball through.

[Focher]

anyone who gave such a player stick on tuesday night isnt a real supporter, and quite frankly shames what this club once stood for and achieved.

bollox, it is and has always been a part of football to give ex players grief. It doesn't make anybody any less of a supporter.

By the way, im not at all bothered what this club used to stand for, it doesn't get you 3 points.

[handbags_harris]

It sums Reading fans in abundance when they can give a hero's reception to Leroy Lita yet when it's James Harper they feel the need to abuse him.

This. The baiting of Harper, coupled with the "Morgan is a murderer" chant, shoved Reading fans to an all time moronic low IMO on Tuesday night. What happened to the days of baiting players, in an aggressive or humourous fashion, who actually deserved it (aggressive), rather than just baiting a player because he's either a bit rugged and had a questionable bit of previous with a player of another team, or served us with no little distinction (humourous)? The quantity of fans has increased over the last decade to fifteen years, but the quality has drastically reduced.

[seahawk10]

Reading legend.

This, +1000.

Suffered as the HNA whipping boy every now and again, but his game-clinching goal vs. Liverpool will remain one of my favourite memories as an RFC follower. I think I will have an old fashioned fry-up in his honour this weekend.

[Focher]

It sums Reading fans in abundance when they can give a hero's reception to Leroy Lita yet when it's James Harper they feel the need to abuse him.

This. The baiting of Harper, coupled with the "Morgan is a murderer" chant, shoved Reading fans to an all time moronic low IMO on Tuesday night. What happened to the days of baiting players, in an aggressive or humourous fashion, who actually deserved it, rather than just baiting a player because he's either a bit rugged and had a questionable bit of previous with a player of another team, or served us with no little distinction? The quantity of fans has increased over the last decade to fifteen years, but the quality has drastically reduced.

if thats true about Morgan then thats disgraceful. Ive got few problems with ex players getting grief, as long as its light hearted 'banter' and not family or racially motivated.

[handbags_harris]

It sums Reading fans in abundance when they can give a hero's reception to Leroy Lita yet when it's James Harper they feel the need to abuse him.

This. The baiting of Harper, coupled with the "Morgan is a murderer" chant, shoved Reading fans to an all time moronic low IMO on Tuesday night. What happened to the days of baiting players, in an aggressive or humourous fashion, who actually deserved it, rather than just baiting a player because he's either a bit rugged and had a questionable bit of previous with a player of another team, or served us with no little distinction? The quantity of fans has increased over the last decade to fifteen years, but the quality has drastically reduced.

if thats true about Morgan then thats disgraceful. Ive got few problems with ex players getting grief, as long as its light hearted 'banter' and not family or racially motivated.

Yep, true. It was cringeworthy.

I have no problem with the latter either, but this was aggressive sh*t being flung in his direction. Uncalled for IMO.

[Compo's Hat]

It sums Reading fans in abundance when they can give a hero's reception to Leroy Lita yet when it's James Harper they feel the need to abuse him.

This. The baiting of Harper, coupled with the "Morgan is a murderer" chant, shoved Reading fans to an all time moronic low IMO on Tuesday night. What happened to the days of baiting players, in an aggressive or humourous fashion, who actually deserved it (aggressive), rather than just baiting a player because he's either a bit rugged and had a questionable bit of previous with a player of another team, or served us with no little distinction (humourous)? The quantity of fans has increased over the last decade to fifteen years, but the quality has drastically reduced.

The Morgan is a murderer chant was stupid and i for one certainly didn't join in. Some fans are just plain idiots!

[RG30]

In terms of the supporters it was a game of 2 halves because 1st half, despite going a goal behind early we got behind the team with a longer than normal chant of "blue army" which seemed to lift the mood in the away end which dissapered soon after the 2nd goal. But the 2nd half yeah it got beyond ridiculous. Harper deserved better, especially as he didn't celebrate any of the goals (which I picked up upon at the time)

[RG30]

anyone who gave such a player stick on tuesday night isnt a real supporter, and quite frankly shames what this club once stood for and achieved.

ALOL!!! Some people who are set in their ways as to what a football supporter should be

Best summed up by that day down on the south coast when we shipped 7 (seven) goals in when the central midfield had nobody tackling and we stood off them a couple of yards to allow teams to easily pass the ball through.

What about all the good things Harper has done/achieved in his RFC career? 02/03 he was our best player but is often overlooked by Forster because of the role he played as the lone striker. 07/08 he had an excellent season goalscoring wise with a good return on goals.

[Handsome Man]

A Reading great without a shadow of a doubt.

Also, unlike Doyle, Kitson, Hunt, and many of our other superstars, he put together a whole season of premiership-quality performances for us.

Good luck to him.

[Maguire]

Can't believe Harper got grief, particularly when juxtaposed with the embarrassing worship of Lita in October who is 1000x the arsewipe that Harper is, and acted like it too.

I didn't even like Harper as a player but there's no way i'd dish it out to a bloke who was with us for 8 years and never acted the pcunt like Shorey and Hunt did towards the end of their time here.