David Meyler - Reading's biggest ever mercenary?

[McDermolenko]

Taking attention away from both Clement and Gourlay for a second, I really do believe that nowhere near enough has been made of David Meyler's attitude this season.

I completely understand, and accept, that he hasn't been a part of Clement's plans as of late, but the fact that he has fallen into a blindingly obvious pattern of tweeting how 'gutted' he is with a result, before following it up with content relating to FIFA, is an absolute disgrace.

The tipping point for me has come this weekend. A supporter of ours tweeted an image yesterday that shows he had spent Saturday (and I'd imagine a significant part of it) playing FIFA in order to improve his in game ranking. He is quite literally prioritising his YouTube/gaming career, and I highly doubt we'll be paying him pennies as he continues to offer f*ck all influence towards getting us out of our current mess.

Wtf is going on?!

[Zip]

As with McShane there seems to be a silence surrounding him. Is he injured or just out of favour?

[Hound]

Yeah it’s an odd one. No idea what is going on.

But when you see Kelly/Swift/Bacuna getting over run for the umpteenth time, it’s a pretty poor state of affairs

[Snowflake Royal]

Brought in to solve our midfield problems by adding a bit of steel to the centre. Turned out he can't pass, run, or tackle. If he plays another game for us it'll be too soon.

[Hound]

Brought in to solve our midfield problems by adding a bit of steel to the centre. Turned out he can't pass, run, or tackle. If he plays another game for us it'll be too soon.

Thing is I wouldn’t say that’s totally true

He played pretty well vs Palace pre season and looked like he could at least do ‘a job’

Seasoned international with plenty of experience to play that role. At a loss to as why he has been so bad

[Kulshaw72RFC]

I said this a few weeks ago, as did OMA, yet we were both ridiculed.....

Why is he spending time playing video games when he should be clearly trying to improve to get into the first team? Unbelievable!!!! He is stealing a wage when we have more younger and hunger players who want to play.

[Snowflake Royal]

Brought in to solve our midfield problems by adding a bit of steel to the centre. Turned out he can't pass, run, or tackle. If he plays another game for us it'll be too soon.

Thing is I wouldn’t say that’s totally true

He played pretty well vs Palace pre season and looked like he could at least do ‘a job’

Seasoned international with plenty of experience to play that role. At a loss to as why he has been so bad

Well, he's put in some of the worst midfield displays I've seen and has been replaced in the matchday squad by an Academy player so I think it is true. Pre-season games aren't played at the same intensity. Maybe he doesn't look as bad when the rest of the team are playing better, but he's simply an utter failure.

I couldn't give a rats arse what he does with his spare time though personally .It's not like h's going to be ducking out of training to play FIFA... players simply have a lot of time on their hands. And why should he care? He's been here a handful of months, he's at the end of his career and he's been proved so useless he's been dropped for a youth player.

[URZZZZ]

Brought in to solve our midfield problems by adding a bit of steel to the centre. Turned out he can't pass, run, or tackle. If he plays another game for us it'll be too soon.

And our current midfield can? Swift can't pass, he certainly can't run and he certainly certainly can not tackle. Same applies to Kelly unless he's playing a backwards pass or pass three yards to the side, the whole midfield is a mess and IMO is the major reason why we are where we are. Let's be honest, if Meyler is any worse than those two, he really is awful (considering I've only watched him against Derby and Wednesday)

[Hound]

He’s 29 isn’t he? And still in the Ireland squad

Back end of the career but hardly time to hang up his boots

[Pepe the Horseman]

What's he supposed to do with his Saturday afternoon if he's been (rightly or wrongly) frozen out of the team?

[Snowflake Royal]

Brought in to solve our midfield problems by adding a bit of steel to the centre. Turned out he can't pass, run, or tackle. If he plays another game for us it'll be too soon.

And our current midfield can? Swift can't pass, he certainly can't run and he certainly certainly can not tackle. Same applies to Kelly unless he's playing a backwards pass or pass three yards to the side, the whole midfield is a mess and IMO is the major reason why we are where we are. Let's be honest, if Meyler is any worse than those two, he really is awful (considering I've only watched him against Derby and Wednesday)

Meyler doesn't have the atheleticism, commitment or passing ability of Kelly, the creativity, set piece delivery or passing of Swift, or the atheleticism, shooting and tackling ability of Bacuna. That's why they've all played more than him and will continue to do so.

[CountryRoyal]

Really disappointed I was proved right regarding Meyler.

Showed promise against Derby but that was all he amounted to. Just a complete and total cock end.

[Old Man Andrews]

The Meyler debate is dull and has been had on numerous occasions. What else is there to say? He's poor, we know he's poor. Moaning about that fact isn't going to make him less poor.

[Kulshaw72RFC]

What's he supposed to do with his Saturday afternoon if he's been (rightly or wrongly) frozen out of the team?

Train and apply himself?

[SCIAG]

Pretty pathetic to be criticising people just for having hobbies.

Unless they're being unprofessional then I don't care what players get up to in their spare time, and that's regardless of whether they are good or bad. Unfortunately so far Meyler has been pretty bad after we pinned a lot on him.

And he's nowhere near as big a mercenary as Pogrebnyak, Drenthe, or Jason "extra year" Roberts.

[CountryRoyal]

Pretty pathetic to be criticising people just for having hobbies.

Unless they're being unprofessional then I don't care what players get up to in their spare time, and that's regardless of whether they are good or bad. Unfortunately so far Meyler has been pretty bad after we pinned a lot on him.

And he's nowhere near as big a mercenary as Pogrebnyak, Drenthe, or Jason "extra year" Roberts.

He's also nowhere near as good as any of them, and that's saying something.

[The Royal Forester]

I said this a few weeks ago, as did OMA, yet we were both ridiculed.....

Why is he spending time playing video games when he should be clearly trying to improve to get into the first team? Unbelievable!!!! He is stealing a wage when we have more younger and hunger players who want to play.

I rather he fiddled around with video games, than spending time in a casino, in the bookies or propping up the bar and getting drunk and/or abusive and ending being arrested. Why expect him to be training at all times of the day and night, surely he is allowed a bit of free time to do what he wants to do?

[Snowflake Royal]

What's he supposed to do with his Saturday afternoon if he's been (rightly or wrongly) frozen out of the team?

Train and apply himself?

Players train for a set period for a reason. He can't do it all day.

[Forbury Lion]

David Meyler - to be honest, I don't even recognise the name, probably goes to prove how disconnected I feel from the club these days but perhaps also an indication that he hasn't been utterly terrible.

[paddy20]

Brought in to solve our midfield problems by adding a bit of steel to the centre. Turned out he can't pass, run, or tackle. If he plays another game for us it'll be too soon.

And our current midfield can? Swift can't pass, he certainly can't run and he certainly certainly can not tackle. Same applies to Kelly unless he's playing a backwards pass or pass three yards to the side, the whole midfield is a mess and IMO is the major reason why we are where we are. Let's be honest, if Meyler is any worse than those two, he really is awful (considering I've only watched him against Derby and Wednesday)

Agree. We lack a midfield general and a dynamo. Along the lines of Sidwell and Karacan to help our defence. Who do we have that can run all day and make fierce tackles?