Well it looks like we'll be playing last year's Premier League Champions next year in the Championship
Some pretty tough games coming up for Reading in the next 8 weeks and 3 of the teams are in the play-off places and 2 are in the automatic places!!! Tue 21 Feb Huddersfield V Reading Sat 25 Feb Brighton V Reading Tue 7 Mar Reading V Newcastle Fri 17 Mar Wednesday V Reading Sat 1 Apr Reading V Leeds
In the absence of an MTD for Wigan, some team news. Naismith isn't fit and Maddison has a slight back problem. Mulumbu and Jarvis will be in the squad and I expect Godfrey to get some game time as well. Hoolahan may be rested. It's going to be a strange line up for tonight's under 23 game,
It will be interesting to see if the pressure gets to Wildschut, assuming he plays, as Wigan fans are preparing to give him a very hard time. He was a bit sensitive about the "half empty stadium" article in the Pinkun.
Under 23s giving a good account of themselves without Godfrey and Maddison. A player to watch - http://www.canaries.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/norwich-city-glenn-middleton-pro-3490984.aspx He's 'one of our own' and he's only just turned 17!!!! I thought he was one of the better players on show last night
They were talking on talksport about the mess Leicester are in. Got me thinking, I wonder how much Vardy is punching himself for turning down Arsenal. He might have continued his form training with those players, getting assisted by them. I thought at the time I respected him for staying but was a once in a lifetime chance he'd turned down.
If he had made the move we'd probably be saying it was partly his fault Leicester are now where they are. More so if he was also bench warming at Arsenal.
Interested to see how AN lines up the midfield with new options back from injury and internationals plus how Wigan fans react to Wildschutt.
Yes HQMC, team selection is going to be very interesting as you say and I expect Wildschutt to get quite a hostile reception from the Wigan fans. I quite expect Mulumbu to replace Tettey and Pritchard to replace Naismith. I think it's really tough on JM being injured, as I'm sure he would at least have been on the bench.
Pretty much as I see it JMF - Wes needs a rest and Pritchard should drop into his place although I expect Wes will be back for the Florists on Saturday.
That's how I see it as well. I think Jarvis may replace Josh on the bench not just because he's more experienced but because he's much better at tracking back when the ball is lost. That's the weakness that Josh has to improve on in the way that Jacob certainly has.
Just seen that Dijks is in the Team of the Week with this comment: 'Dijks` first game in English football was an impressive one, earning the Man of the Match award for his performance in Norwich's 1-0 victory at Cardiff City. The on-loan Ajax defender gave the Bluebirds no room to manoeuvre, helping the Canaries to a third straight win which leaves them just three points away from the top six.'
That's great for Timm and the club. He was dominant at Cardiff. Back to Dijks, AN had this to say: “The one thing about him is he is determined to play. He hasn’t come here just to see how he does. He is desperate to get us to the Premier League and he wants to test himself at the highest level,” said Neil. “He is one of those happy-go-lucky lads and that helps in terms of how he fits in with the group. It is well-documented how hard I tried to get him here. Having watched him at Ajax we hoped that quality and his characteristics would convert to the Championship and the signs were good at Cardiff. We have spoken about wanting to add a bit of physicality to the team and he is 6ft 4in. He won his tackles, he got up and down the pitch. The really pleasing thing for me was after about 60 minutes he had a bit of cramp. He hasn’t played for a while with the winter break in Holland but he pretty much refused to come off the pitch. He took his gels, cracked on and got the job done. It shows mental strength as much as anything else. He’ll be fine.” He and Klose seem to make a very good pairing.
I guess we'll never know what that was about. Was also strange that there was never a rumour about Klose during the recent window even though AN said all our players were available for transfer.
I totally get the media pressure on Ranieri. I do not get how people think he should be sacked. They were relegation candidates. He inspired a stupidly special, unbelievable season that will never be forgotten. That wasn't a fluke! A whole season is never a fluke! The past clubs he's managed shows he isn't a 1 season manager. They were never going to finish in Europe this season with the Champions League commitment. It's a bit worse than I expected, but not by a mile. I thought they would be bottom half/eye on relegation this season anyway. To say he's done all he can and needs to go, it such a pile of sh*te.
