Reading Roars!

Further to the last post, you may be interested in knowing that highlights of the Spurs-Reading game will be shown first on Match of the Day tonight, 10.30pm on BBC One (despite West Akaju sesli sohbetHam’s defeat of Man United, arguably the more meaningful encounter).  Subject to change, of course, perhaps if the game at Goodison Park is similarly chaotic.

More bonkers than bonkers. The current season has seen some pretty bizarre results, topped by September’s nutty Portsmouth-Reading game. Incredibly, Reading were today involved in a goalfest that threatened to equal that 7-4 classic. The Royals ultimately fell at Stamford Bridge, losing 6-4 to Spurs (who in their previous fixture whipped Fulham 5-1).

Berbatov grabbed 4 goals for the home side, with Jermain Defoe and Steed Malbranque scoring one apiece. David Kitson’s brace and goals from Kalifa Cisse and Ivar Ingimarsson demonstrated that Spurs, too, seemingly had defenders missing this afternoon. Catenaccio it wasn’t.

So Reading are still left without an away win and Spurs’ ascendancy under Ramos continues. Ironically, the two sides will meet again on Saturday 5 January after Reading hosts Portsmouth. But will it be New Year fireworks or scrappy draws this time, I wonder?

I have been a very bad blogger lately, not having posted anything since the beginning of December, and fully deserve a lump of virtual coal.  Here’s a Reading Roars! roundup of recent Reading FC games:

• West Ham 1 - Reading 1.  Reading’s respectable run, following on from successive defeats by Fulham (no, no, no), Arsenal (challenging for the title) and Man City (who are doing tremendously well under Sven) continued with a draw at West Ham.
• Reading 2 - Sunderland 1.  First Mourinho, now Keane (Roy).  The volatile Sunderland manager allegedly accused Reading backroom staff following his side’s 2-1 defeat of “disrespecting Sunderland” and emerged from Steve Coppell’s office, according to reports, effing and blinding.  Sir Alex Ferguson recently said that Keane should learn how to lose (he’s certainly getting enough opportunities this season).  I think he should learn how to compose himself.
• Reading 3 - Liverpool 1.  One of the greatest results in the history of Reading FC - and I didn’t blog about it.  Despite again fielding Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, who had earlier tormented Reading when the two sides met in the Carling Cup, the Reds made little impact and slumped to their first loss this season.  Perhaps it was because the aforementioned stars were substituted too soon by Rafa, looking ahead to their must-win Champions League game in France.  Whatever, it was an important win for Reading and a big loss for Liverpool, who I now feel will not win the title they sorely crave.

Reading end 2007 positively, I feel (though a resurgent Spurs, revitalised by Ramos, are next), after a difficult beginning.  I wonder what 2008 will bring?

Reading FC’s achievements last season reminded me of Getafe CF’s exploits in Spain’s La Liga.  Indeed, both clubs have a few things in common.

Getafe is a small club just south of Madrid (and Reading is a relatively small club west of London).  Both towns have similar populations - 156,000 in Getafe’s case and there are 144,000 people in Reading.  Both towns have good universities.

Getafe, like Reading, pulled off some stunning results.  Both clubs are managed by relative unknowns (until recently) of a very similar age (48 and 51), though Getafe’s Schuster has just joined Real Madrid (I guess this would be like Coppell going to Man United).  Both managers played for top clubs in their prime - Coppell for Man United and Schuster for Barcelona.  And both clubs achieved good results last season against those clubs - Reading versus Man United and Getafe when they met Barcelona.

Perhaps the two clubs should consider playing each other in a friendly?

So it’s confirmed: Sidwell out, someone else in.  That someone else is Boavista’s Kalifa Cisse (who?), signed by Reading FC for “just under” €1 million.

Cisse is a French defensive midfielder just 22 years of age.  Apparently there was quite a bit of competition for his signature (he was linked to Bolton back in January 2007).  He’s also “very nice”, according to John Madejski.

As for Sidwell, he’s now had his Chelsea medical and is close to signing with the London club (where he will undoubtedly earn a lot more.  Money, eh).

Good luck to the both of them, but especially Cisse, who will probably spend less time anyway warming the bench than the Blues-bound Sidwell.

Reports suggest that Chelski, sorry, Chelsea have agreed to sign Reading star Steve Sidwell, according to The Guardian’s Jeremy Wilson.

The Mirror says the club’s Special One, who has had a less than special season, offered the midfielder a deal worth a stunning £50k per week, but adds that Fergie has now also spoken to him.

So is it to be the winning Reds from up North or the London club, minus Shevchenko and (the £130k per week) Ballack?

What’s black and white, and red all over?  An embarrassed Newcastle Utd, crashing to a 1-0 defeat by Reading at the Madejski this evening.  Not a great joke, perhaps, but the result, against one of the strong clubs in England’s top flight, is yet another to be applauded, especially as the visitors included Michael Owen, back from injury.  The win lifts Reading to 7th in the Premiership.

The only goal of the game was driven in by Dave Kitson in the 50th minute.  Seol Ki-Hyeon created the opportunity.  Other than this, and two bookings for the home side, it seemed an even encounter.  Both teams enjoyed a similar number of corners and shots on goals.  

Recently, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger commented that Alex Ferguson, on the cusp of winning the title, and Steve Coppell were his managers of the season.  I agree.  Reading are no one-hit wonders, but a quality side led by a quality manager.  A calculating, pragmatic manager who, unlike team bosses above him, steers clear of verbal skirmishes, preferring the pitch to be his battleground instead.  A manager fully capable of taking the team even further next season.  And that’s something to savour - preferably with a glass of Gran Coronas.

I’m not a Telegraph reader. I’m more of a Guardian man. But the still-not-very-compact paper’s Footballer’s Wines, written by the ubiqituous Adrian Chiles, is delicious.

Prior to a big game, Chiles writes about the two contesting teams as if they were wine products. Different, and funny. As you might have guessed, the clubs this week getting the vinicultural treatment are Reading and Newcastle.

Interestingly, both Reading FC and Newcastle Utd “wines” are Spanish. This isn’t explained by Chiles. Reading is a red wine (because of the name, we’re told), a Gran Coronas with 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Tempranillo.

Now for the analysis.

fermentation happens when the sugar from the grapes and yeast react to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. This gas escapes as quietly as the Royals’ pre-season doubters. Reading’s red grapes were destalked and lightly crushed (breaking the skins to release the juice) before being placed in the fermentation tank, skins and all.

The tank’s temperature is controlled to retain the wine’s aromas and flavours. The escaping carbon dioxide pushes the skins to the surface where they form what’s known as a cap. Just as Steve Coppell seeks to improve things on the pitch with his substitutions, the wine maker agitates or removes the cap to achieve the colour and tannin required in the finished wine.

Chiles helpfully informs us that a Gran Coronas can be bought from the Co-op for £8.99. Curiously, this is twice as expensive as the Newcastle wine, Vina Sol (£4.43). Is Chiles hinting at riches to come? The other interesting thing to note is that “Corona” is the Spanish word for crown!

Let’s hope that Reading return to wining ways against the Magpies (weak, I know).

Reading Football Club are certainly ambitious, there’s no doubt about that, but how about this for a goal (excuse the pun), suggested this week by the club’s chief exec Nigel Howe:

I would say [the club] has the potential to be bigger than Arsenal because its catchment area is hugely beneficial…If this club started winning some serious stuff and got into the Champions League that would hugely move the Reading brand along and move the crowd on. 

It’s a gradual progression and it would take a few years to do it, but that has to be anybody’s ambition running an organisation like this - to get into the Champions League.  That might make a lot of people smile, but anything is achieveable.

That very much made me smile.  It’s more than a goal.  It’s a 60-yard-lob-over-half-the-pitch-while-the-keeper-was-adjusting-his-laces type goal.  So Reading have had a good season.  Make that two good seasons.  The Champions League, however, is seriously ambitious stuff. 

The domestic Big 4, the league within the league, have been looking pretty dominant lately, mainly, I’d argue, because of cash (Chelsea, Man Utd and now Liverpool), tradition/prestige (drawing top managers), and I suppose continuinity (Fergie and Wenger have been at their clubs for years).  Reading is an exciting club, but not prestigious, and their project has only just begun.  Also, it’d take an awful lot of cash to compete with the big boys.

I think the UEFA Cup is a realistic target for Reading, therefore.  The Champions League (a tournament increasingly dominated by the super clubs in Europe) is a realm almost impossible to reach. 

BBC Berkshire is inviting readers to submit their magic moments from Reading FC’s sparkling first season in the Premiership (despite that the season isn’t over yet).

It’s a tricky one, but the “moment” I’d suggest has to be Reading’s recent comeback against Man United (who are excelling domestically and in Europe this season) at the Madejski. What a fight. Something that Roma were not able to achieve last night, in response to a similar onslaught.

Afterthought: it was an FA Cup, rather than league, game. Can we bend the rules a little?