Snowball Stranded Quick question Snowball, as you would appear not to be a Reading fan - do you go round fan sites of other clubs defending all footballers from the evils of moderately nasty words?
How do you figure that I'm not a Reading fan? (Because I also like Arsenal, Newport, Carlisle?) Is that not ALLOWED?
I have a season ticket. I go to half-a-dozen away games a season.
I take my family to RFC games as often as I can.
I defend RFC players. Now which bit of that makes me NOT a Reading fan?
Of course you can, and I apologise for the slight, however I would ask though whether you do as you are now on sites for Arsenal fans, Newport Fans, Carlisle Fans, fans of A.N.Other club, as discussions of the type you see on here happen on every single fan site - always have and always will.
The simple fact is with regards to Long, some fans don't rate him, some do (on this board as well as in the real world) the one concern or criticism they have is that AT THIS TIME, as our No 1 striker, they feel he is not scoring enough despite actually playing quite well most weeks. I don't care how old he is, I don't care if his peak is 4/5 years ago, in the here and now he's not scoring enough and that's a real concern for a lot of people.
Is that his fault, to an extent yes, as he has missed some very decent chances - in other ways no, as perhaps we aren't playing a system that will create the type of chance he needs.
Some have questioned his work ethic, again at times that is valid - he is probably the hardest working player on the pitch, it doesn't mean he can't be lazy at times and sadly for him it will be magnified more as it is more noticeable when he does shirk (however rare that may be) so it will get picked up - regardless of your actual view of the player.
I don't think anybody will ever claim that Long is always crap but I can also understand the frustration of fans that perhaps, just perhaps his continued is holding us back as the goals aren't coming from him right now (as long as they come from someone, I'm happy)
You've surmised yourself on occasion that losing Glyfi has been of benefit to the club - yes we lost a great player but it's allowed others to step up or come in - isn't also a fair suggestion for someone to make that letting Long go,
could be of benefit to the team overall? Admittedly some could choose their words better but it's a football forum where people often post whilst het up about a result and don't censor themselves.