Whilst England stumble around in Europe, nothing much is happening back in England. Whilst the government like to bury bad news under other bigger stories, Reading are using the poor England performance to quietly announce good news. Following on from Steve Coppell, Dave Kitson has signed a new 3 year deal.
Of the three first team strikers that caused havoc in Championship defences last season, I thought Kitson would perform the best in the Premiership. However a nasty tackle by Chris Riggott put paid to that and half Kitson’s season. Luckily both Doyle and Lita have stepped up to Premiership level and we haven’t missed him too much.
Kitson remains the least known of the strikers simply because he has played so few games in the Mediaship (The Sky Premier Media Obsessed League), to the extent that the media thought he was a reserve player when he was brought in by Coppell for the Man United cup games. He may well be our secret weapon next season and provide us plenty of goals.
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Steve Coppell has signed a new 2 year deal at Reading.
Steve told readingfc.co.uk, “I have always maintained that contracts are not really a big issue for me, but I have to admit that for the club to have such faith in me is very pleasing, and now I want to repay that faith by continuing to do my job to the best of my ability.”
Fantastic news, and a real break from his normal “one year rolling contract only” mantra. I foresee an excellent couple of seasons ahead at least.
Although I’m a bit worried about the enormous grin on his face. For someone normally so reserved, that is a very happy face. Almost too happy. Either Madejski has drugged him up to get him to sign, or there is a seriously large amount of money written down on that piece of paper.
Now, just get Steve Sidwell to sign.
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It seems that most managers and fans think that qualifying for Europe is a good idea. Except Reading manager Steve Coppell.
Coppell said :-
“We’re not geared up for Europe.
“It would be too heavy a load in our development, which would not be good for us.”
Why wouldn’t a manager show the ambition to get into Europe?
For a start it is important to remember that it is Reading’s first ever season in the Premiership and they have vastly exceeded expectations. It is reasonable to believe that the Pragmatic One is looking at next season and thinking that Reading will struggle. It is reasonable to believe that Reading will not finish as high next season as this. No one knew anything about Reading this season. Next season they will.
It is important to get as good as start next season as we did this, where we amassed enough points at the start to get over a dodgy spell where we played United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in the space of 6 weeks. Add in a few games in Europe and a little tiredness means a few more dropped points and suddenly, you are lucking at a West Ham season.
Another thing is that the UEFA Cup is not the Champions League. It doesn’t produce as much money as you think. Premiership money is more important and is guaranteed.
Finally, all the comments from Steve leads us to believe that he is trying to cement Readings place in the Premiership. He knows that if you can stay up the next two seasons, you can aim to stay a long while. Compare Bolton to West Ham.
On the other hand, getting into Europe will give Reading extra exposure to getting the better players to the club. It might make Sidwell more likely to re-sign.
I’m sure that Steve is “taking it one game at a time” and that if a European place is achieved, he will welcome the challenge. And put out a “reserve” side against Dynamo RussianFarAwayPlace.
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I unfortunately missed this game due to being rather ill. I gave my tickets to some neighbours who said they enjoyed it despite the scoreline.
I was very annoyed to miss the game and listened from my bed on BBC Radio Berkshire. That is actually quite fun as the presenters are charmingly biased. They were making fun of David James needing a cap brought out to him. From painful experience sitting in the North Stand, I know what that sun is like.
Later I watched the game highlights on Match of the Day, typical lack of analysis from the studio boys but I can see why for a change. Both defences looked very tight, which is good for Duberry to keep his place in the team. Looks like when Sonko is back the competition for centre back will be very good (especially as I’m hearing Alex Pearce is doing very well on loan at Northampton).
In all, probably another disappointing result. Portsmouth are the sort of team we should be beating at home. Maybe next year 
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Oh dear, we’re doomed. Mark Lawrenson has predicted Reading will beat Portsmouth this weekend.
Lawro says :-
It’s a measure of how far Reading have come, that perhaps they are the only team outside of the top four who you just assume will win at home.
Well, you haven’t assumed that very often this season have you?
Record signing, Greg Halford may make his debut if regular right-back, Graham Murty fails to get over an injury. I’d like to see Leta and Kitson upfront, with Doyle coming on later on. Little and Hunt to provide the width and Reading to really go at Pompey to make up for their most disappointing performance of the season when they lost 3-1 at Fratton Park.
Meanwhile, it was remiss of me to fail to mention that three of the Irish players made the squad, Doyle, Long and Hunt and the two icemen, Gunnarsson and Ingarmarsson also got call ups.
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It seems that skilful midfielder, John Oster has done something to upset Wales manager, John Toshack and keeps being left out of the Welsh squad.
“It’s frustrating when you see players in the Wales team who wouldn’t get into our reserves side at Reading.”
Maybe, Toshack is scared of Oster’s sharp shooting skills. Or he is too friendly with Robbie Savage. Either way, he can join the club in Reading players sadly neglected from international duty. Nicky Shorey is clearly England material. And if Preston’s David Nugent can be called into the England squad, Leroy Lita should be a little bit upset. Steve Sidwell may feel that he needs to leave Reading to get a chance for a cap, whilst injured Ibrahima Sonko keeps turning down Senegal so he can be ignored by France.
At least living right back Legend Graham Murty gets into the Scottish team (I won’t say how easy this actually is for fear of upsetting the kilt wearers).
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Reserve goalkeeper Adam Federici has signed a new contract to the summer of 2009. Despite the blunder for the first Manchester United goal in the 5th round replay, Federici is a very promising young keeper.
Graeme Murty is struggling to be fit for the Pompey game on Saturday with toe ache. Hopefully, he’ll be okay as he really holds the defence together and without Sonko it needs lots of glue (again see the United cup replay game where the defence only found out they were playing 10 minutes after the start of the match).
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Not the best time to start a blog. When there are no games for a week. I’ve let Paul get a headstart with all his United related guff. I thought I would start with some random Reading related news.
It seems that Jens Lehmann hasn’t gained any more friends in the Reading camp, with Stephen Hunt saying he “would have a fight with his own shadow”
Lehmann is clearly a very agressive person. I saw this at first hand earlier this season when Arsenal came to Reading. It was shortly after the Cech incident and Lehmann clearly wanted to make a fight out of it. Hunt followed a ball down, and Lehmann came out for it. Hunt ducked out of the challenge completely, when he was probably entitled to go for the ball. Lehmann still went for Hunt, wagging his finger at him.
Incidentally, I met the first non-Chelsea fan to think that Hunt did it on purpose at the weekend. He was from London, so maybe the mind bending waves had caught him too.
In the latest Arsenal clash, Leroy Leta got revenge on Lehmann in great style. At a corner, Lehmann comes out to shout incoherently at his defence. Then he backs off towards his goal still moaning at Gallas and the others. Leta sees him coming and adopts the classic schoolboy pose and bends over to “tie up his shoelaces”. Lehmann goes over backwards, looking a complete fool. To complete the trick, Dave Kitson is on the scene, offers his hand to Lehmann and pulls him to his feet. Leroy wanders away, and Lehmann is completely fooled into thinking it was an accident. I bet he exploded if he saw the replay later on TV.
In other not very actual news, Steve Sidwell may still stay or go in the summer. We knew this in August and nothing has changed. In the premiership, non-news really is news and I wish they would only report on things that have actually happened. Anything else is opinion or speculation, and if the story contains neither opinion or speculation or actual fact, then it is a complete waste of space.
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