Ex Royals (No not prince Andrew)

[Sutekh]

That man took the field, his star was swingin' high
Oh Curo
This man was my bombers, my Dexy's, my high
Oh-oh-oh Curo-o
The crowd they all hailed you, and chanted your name
But they never knew like we knew
Me and you were the same
And now you're elsewhere, but song is not tame, brrrrr
You fed me, you bred me, I'll remember your name

Academic inspiration, you gave me none
You were Jamie the scorer
The fighter that won
But now just look at things
We’re still looking up at you
No you’re not being flash
It's what you’re built to do

Oh Curo, Woh-oh-oh Curo-o
Oh Curo, Woh-oh-oh Curo-o


Thanks to Kevin Rowlands and the boys of Dexys Midnight Runners for the above lyrics.

[Needle]

Shane Long has just put his name in the history books.

6 seconds and it was a Watford kick off

[AthleticoSpizz]

and to think that we were “going to sign him” a year or do ago

[Libertine]

A nice interview in the Guardian with Jobi McAnuff.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Thanks Libertine, one of our unsung heroes during (one of the many) of our first ‘troubled times’

Great memories of his workrate and cutting through defences and midfields......one of the only players that I have (ashamedly) squared up to another Reading fan at a game for, (he was blaming him for everything that everybody else was doing even worse).

Still keep an eye on his performances at Orient in the NL Paper, always a 7/10 or better.

Top bloke too

[URZZZZ]

Anyone remember Darren O'Dea under the Rodgers regime? Most people probably won't but he's retired from football

Saw earlier that Fosu is struggling to make the squad at Charlton, basically Bowyer said because he's not putting in any effort in training. Must admit I always thought Fosu was wildly overrated on here by some after one OK performance at Derby, miles too greedy. Stacey always did look the more accomplished player which is what we're now seeing

Already discussed here but Danny Williams OOC at Huddersfield, let's be honest, he wasn't good enough to be a Premier League footballer

[AthleticoSpizz]

Yeah D O’D, on loan from Celtic....never really accomplished much of note with us, bit of a meh signing iirc

[Snowflake Royal]

O'Dea had a bit of the Ilori's about him. Looked accomplished but rather soft.

Fosu always struck me as lacking in work rate and being a little to talented for his own good. But I hope he can find his feet. There's a cracking player in there.

[URZZZZ]

https://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/foot ... s-16245811

Few words from Joey here. From reading that, I'm not sure who's the biggest arse out of Clement and Joey. He seems arrogant in this interview but then it was senseless from Clement to leave it that late to tell him

[muirinho]

https://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/joey-van-den-berg-lifts-16245811

Few words from Joey here. From reading that, I'm not sure who's the biggest arse out of Clement and Joey. He seems arrogant in this interview but then it was senseless from Clement to leave it that late to tell him

Don't think Joey comes off as particularly arrogant here, but he is Dutch, and they don't pussy-foot about. He's just saying what he thinks. Interesting how he reckoned training under Scott Marshall was better than training under Clement, who is supposedly a good coach - I'd say he and Clement never hit it off, and he wouldn't let a moment pass to put him down, but at the same time, a little bit of an insight.

Don't know whose decision it was to try to move him out, and I'm not saying it was the wrong decision in itself - but he's quite right, should have been done way before pre-season started. Give players a chance to find something else.

It should be possible to move players on without being a d*ck about it - I'm not surprised he dug his heels in, and basically told them to honour the contract, that it was their problem, not his.

[Snowflake Royal]

Not surprised Clement had them "running their arses off" given how badly we often finished games under Stam.

I'm sure breezing through skills based training with the kids was a lot more fun.

I like Joey and I know the Dutch tend to be quite blunt. And waiting until the first day of pre-season to tell him to leave isn't great, but that's still a couple of months to find a club and he already says he had a good idea he was on the way out.

[URZZZZ]

https://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/joey-van-den-berg-lifts-16245811

Few words from Joey here. From reading that, I'm not sure who's the biggest arse out of Clement and Joey. He seems arrogant in this interview but then it was senseless from Clement to leave it that late to tell him

Don't think Joey comes off as particularly arrogant here, but he is Dutch, and they don't pussy-foot about. He's just saying what he thinks. Interesting how he reckoned training under Scott Marshall was better than training under Clement, who is supposedly a good coach - I'd say he and Clement never hit it off, and he wouldn't let a moment pass to put him down, but at the same time, a little bit of an insight.

Don't know whose decision it was to try to move him out, and I'm not saying it was the wrong decision in itself - but he's quite right, should have been done way before pre-season started. Give players a chance to find something else.

It should be possible to move players on without being a d*ck about it - I'm not surprised he dug his heels in, and basically told them to honour the contract, that it was their problem, not his.

Don't get me wrong - I get his viewpoint completely. Where I take offence is where he says "this was my best contract ever". You may think that in private but you don't say it

And let's be honest, Joey and running didn't really come hand in hand so naturally he would have preferred Marshall's training methods

But as I've said before - I always liked him and considering Meyler (his replacement) has been an absolute disaster, I think it was the wrong decision in hindsight. Maybe not at the latter stages of the season with Baker and Rino, but certainly up to January where the midfield continuously struggled

[10539.4 Miles Away]

Hope someone tags @PaulClement1972 on twitter with that article (go on maffff you know you want to)

[Nameless]

https://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/joey-van-den-berg-lifts-16245811

Few words from Joey here. From reading that, I'm not sure who's the biggest arse out of Clement and Joey. He seems arrogant in this interview but then it was senseless from Clement to leave it that late to tell him

Don't think Joey comes off as particularly arrogant here, but he is Dutch, and they don't pussy-foot about. He's just saying what he thinks. Interesting how he reckoned training under Scott Marshall was better than training under Clement, who is supposedly a good coach - I'd say he and Clement never hit it off, and he wouldn't let a moment pass to put him down, but at the same time, a little bit of an insight.

Don't know whose decision it was to try to move him out, and I'm not saying it was the wrong decision in itself - but he's quite right, should have been done way before pre-season started. Give players a chance to find something else.

It should be possible to move players on without being a d*ck about it - I'm not surprised he dug his heels in, and basically told them to honour the contract, that it was their problem, not his.

Don't get me wrong - I get his viewpoint completely. Where I take offence is where he says "this was my best contract ever". You may think that in private but you don't say it

And let's be honest, Joey and running didn't really come hand in hand so naturally he would have preferred Marshall's training methods

But as I've said before - I always liked him and considering Meyler (his replacement) has been an absolute disaster, I think it was the wrong decision in hindsight. Maybe not at the latter stages of the season with Baker and Rino, but certainly up to January where the midfield continuously struggled

Not sure what is wrong with is comment in the context it was made. Why should he be forced to walk away from his biggest pay check of his career ? Lower level Dutch football doesn’t pay great wages and hismove here would have been significant in terms of his long term future. Nothing wrong with him defending his livelihood.

[muirinho]

Don't think Joey comes off as particularly arrogant here, but he is Dutch, and they don't pussy-foot about. He's just saying what he thinks. Interesting how he reckoned training under Scott Marshall was better than training under Clement, who is supposedly a good coach - I'd say he and Clement never hit it off, and he wouldn't let a moment pass to put him down, but at the same time, a little bit of an insight.

Don't know whose decision it was to try to move him out, and I'm not saying it was the wrong decision in itself - but he's quite right, should have been done way before pre-season started. Give players a chance to find something else.

It should be possible to move players on without being a d*ck about it - I'm not surprised he dug his heels in, and basically told them to honour the contract, that it was their problem, not his.

Don't get me wrong - I get his viewpoint completely. Where I take offence is where he says "this was my best contract ever". You may think that in private but you don't say it

And let's be honest, Joey and running didn't really come hand in hand so naturally he would have preferred Marshall's training methods

But as I've said before - I always liked him and considering Meyler (his replacement) has been an absolute disaster, I think it was the wrong decision in hindsight. Maybe not at the latter stages of the season with Baker and Rino, but certainly up to January where the midfield continuously struggled

Not sure what is wrong with is comment in the context it was made. Why should he be forced to walk away from his biggest pay check of his career ? Lower level Dutch football doesn’t pay great wages and hismove here would have been significant in terms of his long term future. Nothing wrong with him defending his livelihood.

Yep, I can see why the comment might be thought of as blunt. But I'm at a loss as to how it is arrogant. Also, unless the club actually comes out and tells him that he is surplus to requirements, even if he thinks the current manager won't play him, that doesn't mean it's down to him to start looking for another club. There was no guarantee, that when he came back for pre-season, it would still be the same manager!

It was badly handled. Whether that was down to Clement, or Tevreden, or someone else, we don't know. (They may have been the messengers, rather than the decision-makers).

[URZZZZ]

Don't get me wrong - I get his viewpoint completely. Where I take offence is where he says "this was my best contract ever". You may think that in private but you don't say it

And let's be honest, Joey and running didn't really come hand in hand so naturally he would have preferred Marshall's training methods

But as I've said before - I always liked him and considering Meyler (his replacement) has been an absolute disaster, I think it was the wrong decision in hindsight. Maybe not at the latter stages of the season with Baker and Rino, but certainly up to January where the midfield continuously struggled

Not sure what is wrong with is comment in the context it was made. Why should he be forced to walk away from his biggest pay check of his career ? Lower level Dutch football doesn’t pay great wages and hismove here would have been significant in terms of his long term future. Nothing wrong with him defending his livelihood.

Yep, I can see why the comment might be thought of as blunt. But I'm at a loss as to how it is arrogant. Also, unless the club actually comes out and tells him that he is surplus to requirements, even if he thinks the current manager won't play him, that doesn't mean it's down to him to start looking for another club. There was no guarantee, that when he came back for pre-season, it would still be the same manager!

It was badly handled. Whether that was down to Clement, or Tevreden, or someone else, we don't know. (They may have been the messengers, rather than the decision-makers).

Maybe arrogant was the wrong word, but it shows a lack of class . "I said even if you let me train with the U12s, I'm not going anywhere because this was my best contract ever". So he'd rather get paid more doing nothing than what he should actually get paid for

[sandman]

Sounds like they were only doing what Gomes did with some of the players when he got here.

Interesting that the man who signed off on this "biggest contract of my career" is absent from this story.

I know it doesn't fit the HNA? narrative but could it be that Clement and Tevreden were trying to clean up Gourlay's mess and get an extremely average defensive midfielder who was on high wages off the books? Particularly as Moore seemed to suggest upper management were the ones stalling during his transfer/contract signing saga last summer.

[Hound]

the article is just taken from the podcast a few weeks ago. tbh Joey sounded anything but arrogant on it really, it was a good interview and he came across as a likeable bloke - but with a bit of that typical dutch bluntness as mentioned.

He didn't come over as particularly bitter about PC, but just matter of fact - why would he throw away a great contract when it was the last time he'd earn any decent wage in his career? Who would? His main issue was they waited until after he came back of holiday rather than at the end of the previous season, giving him little time to get himself sorted elsewhere

He clearly thought little of BT - 'that guy was something else' - was the quote he used

[URZZZZ]

He didn't come over as particularly bitter about PC, but just matter of fact - why would he throw away a great contract when it was the last time he'd earn any decent wage in his career? Who would?

Well I don't know about him but I'd rather play and earn less money than not play and earn a bit more, I'm sure he could survive on a lower wage, just like most of the rest of the population does

As for not being given enough time to look for a new club, yes they should have told him before, but he still had 1 and a half months to find a new club

[Hound]

Well I don't know about him but I'd rather play and earn less money than not play and earn a bit more, I'm sure he could survive on a lower wage, just like most of the rest of the population does

nah - last decent contract of his career for one year? He'd probably earn a quarter of what he did here in the dutch league from the sound of it. Gourlay's idiocy/generosity probably make a huge difference to his life. Gotta remember he hadn't had a big career behind him to fall back on those earnings.

If he was 21 maybe, not 31.