Skip to main content

Players Released

Just three days since the end of the season, and the club have announced that five players are the leave in the off-season when their contracts come to an end. Jobi McAnuff, Mikele Leigertwood, Kaspars Gorkss, Stuart Taylor, and Wayne Bridge have all played their last games for the club, and the latter has played his last game in professional football as he's simultaneously announced his retirement. Although this announcement isn't a particular surprise there's a definite sadness in letting three key members of our 2011-12 Championship winning squad.

Jobi McAnuff
2009-2014 | 206 apps, 16 goals


Jobi followed Brendan Rodgers across from Watford where he immediately cemented his place in the team. In 2011 he was handed the captain's armband, and has led from the front since - taking part in every Premier League game last season. Although not a prolific goalscorer, his strike to cement our place in the 2010-11 play-off final will live long in the memory.

Mikele Leigertwood
2010-2014 | 109 apps, 10 goals


When Mikele first arrived he seemed to be a talisman as Reading seemed unbeatable with him in the line-up. His goal sent Reading back into the Premier League for the second time, causing a perfectly legitimate pitch invasion in the process. Unfortunately a lengthy injury kept him out for almost the whole of this year, but he showed that he still had the same steadying influence with a terrifc performance against Burnley.

Kaspars Gorkss
2011-2014 | 87 apps, 8 goals


Kaspars, king of the near post corner. Another that we snatched from QPR, the Latvian was a rock in the heart of our 2011-12 Championship winning team, and brought stability alongside the inexperienced Pearce. His contribution to the development of Alex is just another reason to love the man from Riga.

Stuart Taylor and Wayne Bridge

Stuart Taylor was always meant to be back up, but managed to get a few games last year including playing against Arsenal, where he spent his early years. Wayne Bridge joined the club last summer, and played twelve games for the club before injury cruelly ended his career early.

Thank you all for your contribution.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scout Report: Brentford

It almost feels superfluous to write about a Brentford team who have already been covered so extensively. Famed for their player recruitment the core of their side is a young, attack-minded group of players who seemingly love to play together. They tend to play 4-3-3, with Watkins as the main striker, and Benrahma and Mbeumo attempting to find space to either side of him. The midfield three is given stability by Christian Norgaard in the holding role, while Dasilva and Jensen are free to push on. Even goalkeeper David Raya Martin is crucial to the team's attacking intent. His quick distribution reminiscent of Marcus Hahnemann bowling out to Bobby Convey to set the winger away. That said defensively the Spaniard can occasionally be caught out, infamously allowing Ryan Tafazolli to pass the ball from the halfway line into the Brentford net. That's not the only mistake he's made this year - a missed punch condemned Brentford to a loss at Kenilworth Road, and similarly lead to
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading FC Season Review | 2020/2021

When your season starts with your manager having to watch your opening match from the hotel because he's not been hired in time to beat the quarantine, anything above getting relegated should probably be classed as a success. And Reading exceeded surely even the most optimistic of pre-season predictions. Veljko Paunovic Veljko Paunovic almost exclusively utilised a core group of players in a 4-2-3-1, only changing things when enforced. One of the consequences of that is that Reading had more players play over 3,000 minutes than any other side (roughly three-quarters of the season). That consistency is often seen as a good thing, but in a condensed season, it surely contributed to the injury woes. It can't have helped that the manager also used the second-fewest number of players over the course of the season. His substitutions were often categorised as late (Reading's subs played just 16 minutes on average, only Norwich's played fewer) or non-existent (Reading were 19t
Post a Comment
Read more

If Anything, Reading's Win In Wales Is Just More Of The Same

Paunovic has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks. Last Tuesday he received criticism from all quarters after a dire midweek defeat to Sheffield United, where he changed the shape of the team to nullify the opposition threat. Although there were some interesting takes by those who didn't seem to fully appreciate the formation, it was clear that it wasn't just the opposition's attacking threat that the manager put the mockers on. And yet, one win seems to redeem all. My personal view on The Gaffer is that, given the injuries in the squad, he's doing as well as could reasonably be expected. Obviously he's made errors, but he's also been handicapped by off field matters. The six-point deduction has made the gap to relegation closer than it ought to be, but the team are clearly good enough to comfortably pull clear over the course of the season and, indeed, have been achieving if Reading had started on minus 6.  So my issue isn't with him, but with th
Post a Comment
Read more