Danny Guthrie refuses to travel to Sunderland...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20688848

It seems all is not well with Reading and Danny Guthrie - he refused to travel up to Wearside for the Royals' Premier League clash with Sunderland.

Obviously I can't blame the lad for not wanting to set foot in such a dump... but he's being paid to play football and he's simply refusing just now.

He left us for first team football but it seems he can't seem to get that at Reading either - I wonder why that is?

Listening to BM in this post match interview, it seems they have a number of injuries too...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20688048

 

We've missed him a lot this season. Shame his move didn't work out he always put a shift in.

 

His attitude has been shocking since going there. I can understand he is sick of not being a regular at every club but at some point you have to look in the mirror. To be fair in his last season here it looked like the penny was finally starting to drop. Got himself fit for the first time since arriving and lost the chubbiness. He had a good little spell for us while Cabaye was out.

The problem I always had with him was that he clearly had good passing ability but would give the ball away with alarming regularity. He also gave away numerous dangerous free kicks near the box (fatal with our defending of set pieces ).

I am happy with Anita and believe we took a step forward. Shame we didn't know Jonas was past his best and we needed another back up creative central midfielder to make our 433 work when injuries came! We'll need another in the summer unless Vuckic or Abeid is ready to fill the role. I'd say Jan but I hope we are concentrating on centre back, left back and left wing/forward.

 

I don't think it's right to just assume that he's got a poor attitude. There might be extenuating circumstances.

 

No his manager confirmed it when he said "he is struggling to adapt to our ways". Guthrie then had a go at the manager on Twitter! Manager commented about last night

"Jason Roberts and Hal Robson-Kanu pulled out with injury but Danny Guthrie decided his head wasn't right to travel yesterday," said McDermott.
"It's not helpful, we need all our players pulling in the right direction. We've always done that at Reading and it is really important to me.
"But it's a question for Danny because he was definitely going to be involved tonight."

Sorry Tash, former player or not, the lad has had a shocking attitude and behaved completely unprofessionally. Not acceptable, particularly when you're in a scrap and everything that is wrong with modern footballers. Their fans want him gone straight away.

 

thought you were talking about Tiote there

 

Struggle to argue with that this season! Been a bit better of late

 

Bit better? I take you didn't watch the Fulham game then. Gave it away in a dangerous position at least 5 times and conceded a needless foul on the edge of our box which led to their 2nd

 

I meant overall. Stupid one the other night but only one. Earlier in the season there were 4 or 5 per game! Tiote and Colo fully to blame for that goal. When they are struggling, you know we're in trouble. The manager is getting a lot of stick but I agree with him about the soft goals personally. Our better and most experienced players are dropping loads of clangers.

 

2 week wage fine.

Would you have him back?

 

I think he's an average player, and if he doesn't possess the ability to get into a team struggling as much as Reading, a team struggling as much as us don't want him back for certain! Think he's a waste of wages, and thought he was while he was with us. Tried a bit, but I never thought he was up to it, and so it's proving. Gosling is the same, only he's an injury prone version

 

I never really rated Guthrie, I wasn't particuarly bothered when he left, although I did think Reading was a good move for him, and it should have been an opportunity to establish himself in the first team.
It looks as though things haven't progressed as well as Guthrie would have hoped, not too sure what's gone on there, but I find his refusal to travel yesterday quite staggering, being fined two weeks wages, he's got off lightly as far as I'm concerned.

 

Cabaye did this and hasn't gotten anything done since...

 

Completely understandable

Hopefully by the end of January he will be having a modelling comp with his big bud Debuchy eh

 

Spot on, rep!

 

I disagree about "never really rating him". Last October we had a couple of injuries/suspensions and he stepped into our team and kept our good start to the season (Stoke away etc), I even thought he was unlucky to lose his place to Cabaye when Cab got fit again as he then proceeeded to play garbage for a few games (over christmas). He was versatile and stepped in for Cabaye and Tiote at times - not their standard but not the carthorse people make out sometimes. I think we've missed him, he was 'industrious'.

 

That is one word I would not use to describe Guthrie I have to say. I thought he was pretty lazy and when the going got tough, he just went missing.

 

You could say that about almost our entire team this season, I'm still waiting for some of them to turn up at all. One thing I would add about Guthrie at Reading though is that he's not exactly a lucky charm - 5 games 1 point with him, 11 games 8 points without.

 

I have to say I thought things would go well there for him. I thought he'd be a big fish in little pond and last season I did think was easily the best level of play he achieved for us. I wanted rid for years but was not actually against him staying. Just hasn't worked out, seems like he wanted it on a plate. McDermott is right to keep each and every one honest.

Cabaye defo doesn't fancy these winter months much does he?

 

Yeah Cab was pretty clueless this time last year (if memory serves me right) and seemed to regain form against Man Utd. Odd as its not like he's from Brazil. I am starting to wonder if (blasphemy spoiler) Cabaye and Tiote just aren't quite as good as I thought they were. Overall last season I thought they were in the top few midfield pairings in the league (baring in mind we finished 5th, they were a strong point and Man Utd's central midfield looked gash).