Reading Want Johnson

[Red_Jim]

Excellent reply!

It would also help DN last longer that 60 mins (max) if he were to keep of the bloomin sauce!!

GJ is no fool and his patience may fast be running out with DN's lack of personal discipline in this respect.

Ive heard a few comments about Noble and the 'sauce'...

Is this true? I thought the drinking culture was gone from the club? Is this any coincidence that he's Keogh's housemate? Are they both partial to a few?

Id be surprised if Johnson kept playing Noble if he was a p155head...

Care to lift the lid on this?

[bh_red]

Is this any coincidence that he's Keogh's housemate?

hmmm, recall pre-season when GJ was discussing the "fat club" players who didn't come back for Pre-season in the "best" condition

[we8gas]

Noble - if he was fit enough he would be good enough possible, but he isn't fit enough for that role at all,

Johnson plays week in, week out because he is our only attacking optiion in that position,

plain and simple

Noble has just came back from injury and needs games. Once fit he will be superb.

Johnson plays week in week out because of who the manager is. I have said it before, LJ has been by far the worst player on the pitch numerous times and still don't get subbed and i personally don't think LJ is our only attacking option in that position.

[Chessels Chick]

Ive heard a few comments about Noble and the 'sauce'...

Is this true? I thought the drinking culture was gone from the club? Is this any coincidence that he's Keogh's housemate? Are they both partial to a few?

Id be surprised if Johnson kept playing Noble if he was a p155head...

Care to lift the lid on this?

Wouldn't surprise me after seeing him on promotion bus/College Green - though was understandable that day!

Have heard he is a bit of a smoker which probably doesn't help his lung capacity

[old_man_terry]

Noble has just came back from injury and needs games.

can see what you mean? he's been back since start of OCTOBER and hasn't been missed a game since then, should be ok by June at this rate!

:noexpression:

[ooRya]

Noble has just came back from injury and needs games. Once fit he will be superb.

Johnson plays week in week out because of who the manager is. I have said it before, LJ has been by far the worst player on the pitch numerous times and still don't get subbed and i personally don't think LJ is our only attacking option in that position.

Just wondering whether you ever bother reading the rest of a thread?

[Kibs]

Why on earth would Reading want him based on the general concensus on here.

Clearly GJ & SC are not worth of being football managers and everyone on here is

I have no Idea why Reading would want him which is why this is all complete tosh. LJ is a solid Championship player. He has had some very good games and some very bad games. He has created goals and he has cost us goals.

If i was a Reading fan and this was true (which it almost certainly isnt) id be very worried about the calibre of player SC is trying to sign for a team that finished well up in the Premiership last season and should be aiming high.

Id be dissapointed to see him go as he has done alot in his time here and to be fair to him he has steadily improved as the season has gone on but he is certainly not irreplaceable IMO.

[old_man_terry]

I have no Idea why Reading would want him which is why this is all complete tosh. LJ is a solid Championship player. He has had some very good games and some very bad games. He has created goals and he has cost us goals.

If i was a Reading fan and this was true (which it almost certainly isnt) id be very worried about the calibre of player SC is trying to sign for a team that finished well up in the Premiership last season and should be aiming high.

Id be dissapointed to see him go as he has done alot in his time here and to be fair to him he has steadily improved as the season has gone on but he is certainly not irreplaceable IMO.

who 's judgement to believe hey.........a very succesfuly football manager who was also an very good player for his country.....or some kid on an internet forum :noexpression:

[we8gas]

can see what you mean? he's been back since start of OCTOBER and hasn't been missed a game since then, should be ok by June at this rate!

:noexpression:

DN has played 1 reserve game since he came back from injury. He needs full games and once fit should be a regular in centre midfield.......next to Marv!

[samo]

Noble has just came back from injury and needs games. Once fit he will be superb.

Johnson plays week in week out because of who the manager is. I have said it before, LJ has been by far the worst player on the pitch numerous times and still don't get subbed and i personally don't think LJ is our only attacking option in that position.

Fair enough Noble missed most of preseason, but it's christmas now and he's been in the squad since the Sheffield United game, so I'm not sure he's "just back from injury" is correct.

Example being Enoch who got injured (whlst also clearly lacking fitness already) at Sheffield Wednesday away and now is back and playing at full tilt in a role a more physically demanding than the one that Noble occupies. No one (at least I'm not) denying Noble clearly has natural talent on the ball and is a creative force when at the peak of his powers, but those who say he is a better like-for-like replacement for LJ are bing willfully ignorant of the fact David Noble has struggled (for whatever reason) to complete full games for us this season.

LJ might fustrate and annoy sometime, but at least he is available 99% of the time.

[mozo]

LJ might fustrate and annoy sometime, but at least he is available 99% of the time.

And even if a pass goes astray, he doesn't stop running, closing down. He's a good employee in that respect.

[CiderJar]

more evidence that the average city fans knows **** all about football.

JJ is a good footballer and a vital part of our team - which is a team that wins due to balance,work-ethic and organisation rather than individual skills that morons who sit behind me slagging off JJ want to see every touch.

but take my word for it - ask Gary Johnson, ask Steve Coppell....

JJ?

He is a good footballer (LJ that is, I'm not sure about JJ, he's yet to prove himself to me - what do you reckon Chessels Chick? ). But if Reading make a decent bid for him we have players that can cover in that role so long as we keep hold of the main man Marvin Elliott. Cole Skuse. David Noble. Alex Russell. Even Brian Wilson could do a job there. Then there are the youngsters.

That's the thing these days. City have options. Selling is not the end of anything with all the players at our disposal. How much would Reading pay for LJ? How many half decent midfield players would GJ find for an equivalent or lesser amount? That is the key for me.

[maidenheadred]

who 's judgement to believe hey.........a very succesfuly football manager who was also an very good player for his country.....or some kid on an internet forum :noexpression:

hell yes!!!

[Red Ass]

We must have one hell of a side then guys, winning promotion last year and being where we are this year playing all of those games with 10 men?

Come on for ****s sake, the lad Johnson is quality and has been since he arrived........Period

[Kibs]

who 's judgement to believe hey.........a very succesfuly football manager who was also an very good player for his country.....or some kid on an internet forum :noexpression:

What very successfull football manager are we talking about?

Steve Coppell? I apologise, I didnt realise he himself had come out and said what a fantastic player he was and that he was desperately trying to sign him - Can you show me the link please?

Oh and if he does say this and he does sign Lee Johnson feel free to drag this thread up and rub my face in it. I will be happy to eat humble pie.

[old_man_terry]

DN has played 1 reserve game since he came back from injury. He needs full games and once fit should be a regular in centre midfield.......next to Marv!

1 Reserve game maybe, however he's been involved in another 12 first team games since, starting 9 of them, the first 2 being, Sheffield Utd and Norwich of which he played all bar 15mins of the sheffield utd game, he's had MORE than enough time to get himself fully fit, and yet he still can't manage much more than an hour of effective football.

[tin]

WHAT? been a key player this season so far and we have no cover for his position and you reckon just flog him?

if we have found a suitable replacement then fair enough, but to just sell him when we have no one else for his positoin is just stupid

I'm not going into this in depth as this topic's been flogged to death but I just don't rate him and never have in all honesty! I wasn't a fan when we joined but acknowledged his contribution to the promotion winning team as he came good in the end but I don't think he's made the step up.

Marvin Elliott has proved that there are bargains to be had out there and I think something in the region of that fee would strengthen the team. As for having no cover, we know that isn't true as we have Noble, Skuse, Russell who all could do a similar, if not a better job than LJ.

In a nutshell, if we received a decent offer and I'd bite their hands off personally. Sorry!

[BITW]

Were'nt reading rumored to be after Skuse not so long ago?

[Red Ass]

I'm not going into this in depth as this topic's been flogged to death but I just don't rate him and never have in all honesty! I wasn't a fan when we joined but acknowledged his contribution to the promotion winning team as he came good in the end but I don't think he's made the step up.

Marvin Elliott has proved that there are bargains to be had out there and I think something in the region of that fee would strengthen the team. As for having no cover, we know that isn't true as we have Noble, Skuse, Russell who all could do a similar, if not a better job than LJ.

In a nutshell, if we received a decent offer and I'd bite their hands off personally. Sorry!

Your talking absolute tosh Tin I'm afraid, Johnson Jr is a super player who will always give 100% to the cause, delivers decent dead balls, has a great eye for a pass and in the last few games has added tackling to his repertoire!

[old_man_terry]

I'm not going into this in depth as this topic's been flogged to death but I just don't rate him and never have in all honesty! I wasn't a fan when we joined but acknowledged his contribution to the promotion winning team as he came good in the end but I don't think he's made the step up.

Marvin Elliott has proved that there are bargains to be had out there and I think something in the region of that fee would strengthen the team. As for having no cover, we know that isn't true as we have Noble, Skuse, Russell who all could do a similar, if not a better job than LJ.

In a nutshell, if we received a decent offer and I'd bite their hands off personally. Sorry!

thank god your not the manager then.

Noble - not fit enough to replace Johnson - flog him

Russell - not upto football at this level - flog him

Skuse - DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER - great cover for elliott

none of them are suitable replacements for Johnson

I find it funny that you use Elliott as an example of "bargains to be had" especially considering the Johnson has been cheaper

[BS10 RED]

See he is no where near as bad as what some of you make him out to be if a premiership club are after him

[Alex_BCFC]

Your talking absolute tosh Tin I'm afraid, Johnson Jr is a super player who will always give 100% to the cause, delivers decent dead balls, has a great eye for a pass and in the last few games has added tackling to his repertoire!

His delivery from set pieces has been extremley poor this season.

[Guest]

I find it funny that you use Elliott as an example of "bargains to be had" especially considering the Johnson has been cheaper

I think the other point is how many times do you unearth a player of Marvin's quality. Certainly not twice a season, hell twice a decade would be nice.

[old_man_terry]

I think the other point is how many times do you unearth a player of Marvin's quality. Certainly not twice a season, hell twice a decade would be nice.

yep! it's not easy, though people expect mircles! last seasons was McCombe, this Season Marvin Elliot

best central midfielder personally since Gary Shelton

[maidenheadred]

I'm not going into this in depth as this topic's been flogged to death but I just don't rate him and never have in all honesty! I wasn't a fan when we joined but acknowledged his contribution to the promotion winning team as he came good in the end but I don't think he's made the step up.

Marvin Elliott has proved that there are bargains to be had out there and I think something in the region of that fee would strengthen the team. As for having no cover, we know that isn't true as we have Noble, Skuse, Russell who all could do a similar, if not a better job than LJ.

In a nutshell, if we received a decent offer and I'd bite their hands off personally. Sorry!

good job the manager knows his stuff then and disagrees!

if we put in any of those players, team would suffer.

JJ cant play any better, and we cant reasonably expect more from a 50k player who through not fault of his own is 5'6". Only solution to improve the team are new players - but to find a player that will improve on Marvin and/or LJ wont be easy, probably wont happen in jan, and might not even happen in the summer if we cant find the right player at the right price who wants to join a mid-sized championship club. Players like Marvin for example don't come along too often.

[samo]

I think the other point is how many times do you unearth a player of Marvin's quality. Certainly not twice a season, hell twice a decade would be nice.

I know I keep saying it, but that Pete Johnson interview indicated they've been chasing Mav Elliot since before GJ was at City, so if we want another player of that quality we better start looking to the 09/10 season!

[brady bunch]

The Reading interest in LJ is almost 100% certain to be utter tosh..... It has however almost certainly come from a source and that is probably one of the Johnson seniors (manager or more likely scout) to bolster LJ's confidance and try to get the fans off his back.

IMHO He was okay to good last year for us and has been poor to okay this year. he is not likely to be going anywhere in a hurry me thinks and certainly not up the leagues. no way!

[Redhyde]

DN is different to LJ in terms of attributes and style.

Find another player who plays the same role as LJ but better and then we can let him go. I'd go for... Hmm tricky.

Providing we think GJ knows what he's doing tactically we need to line up a direct replacement for LJ. I'll be interested to see who people come up with.

If we were to replace LJ we'd have to go continental as eng doesn't produce this sort of player.

[Nibor]

IMO LJ hasn't played that well so far this season. I've only seen a couple of away games and others claim he plays better away (which I can believe) but in the games I've seen his passing has not been as good as last season, he's been a bit too casual with the ball which has been punished, and he's not created much.

The statistics would seem to bear this out:

According to the football league site he has only managed one goal, one assist and half a dozen shots on target in 21 league games, despite taking the majority of set pieces.

For comparison, Bradley Orr has managed 2 goals, 2 assists and 7 shots on target.

Last season in total LJ got 12 assists and 5 goals - it's no coincidence he got far less criticism - he was playing much better.

I agree he is a bit unfairly maligned because he's not the all action tackling sort that we love but if he was changing games and creating goals for us, which is what he's in the team to do, then people would not be on his back so quickly.

I think he has the ability but he's not really been playing to it so far. If he were to be sold in January and we were to bring in replacement I would wish him well, I don't think I'd be overly happy or disappointed either way.

[REDOXO]

I agree with every single word you've written there Edson!

Sadly, there are those on here that are too blinkered to see sense.

Thank God we only have ONE manager!

So there's you me and Edson :noexpression: