Stephen Hunt: The good, the bad and the ugly

So Stephen Hunt has finally completed his move to this seasons Premier League whipping boys, Hull City, and I’ve decided to resist the temptation to write something that could be summarised as ‘good riddance’ and instead provide some more balance. We Royals fans didn’t alway dislike him, in fact there was a time where we all rushed to his defence after the incident with Petr Cech, so lets look at the highs and lows of his Reading career.

The good

Sporting some splendid attire on Match of the Day, a look that inspired me to set up this facebook group

The ‘pop up at the back post and score with a close range header’ move that he pulled off so well and so frequently in our Premier League debut season

Coming on in almost every game of our promotion season to help form a great substitution song – Ole, ole, Convey, Convey – Stephen Hunt, Hunt, Hunt! Did it actually go like that? It’s how I like to remember it anyway.

His hair. Steve Coppell jokingly blaming it for his poor form. When he subsequently had it cut. By about half an inch. He didn’t always look that way.

The bad

The incidents. The Cech injury springs to mind (I still maintain that it was an accident), but also >this one on Gelson Fernades, which was unpleasant. He was also involved in drama with Keith Gillespie (albeit being elbowed in the head) and was generally always found wherever the trouble was.

The attitude. Hunt has never kept quiet about his desire to leave and it is from this that most of the discontent amongst supporters stems. Happy to be linked with any number of clubs, he lost focus on the pitch in his desperation for a new club, despite signing a new and improved contract with ours.

The form. Another reason that we lost patience. It’s possible to get away with coveting the big clubs if you are producing the goods on the pitch. If you aren’t, and you don’t appear to be too bothered about it either, then you can’t.

The Ugly

I thought we covered that…