James Harper close to suicide - and its down to Barnsley apparently!

Couldn't quite believe this when I read it earlier.

From the Reading Evening Post:

So down I felt like dying'
By Nick Ive
13/ 6/2008

James Harper admitted he took relegation so badly he felt suicidal and he fears the release of the fixture list next Monday will again hit him hard.

The midfield schemer is still struggling to come to terms with Reading’s heart-breaking relegation from the Premier League on the final day of the season.

He told the Evening Post: “I’m not sure if it has hit home yet. It will probably really hit home when the fixtures come out.

“I don’t mean any disrespect to the Championship, but if you are playing away at Barnsley as opposed to Manchester United it’s not the same.

“But we were obviously not good enough because otherwise we would still be in the Premier League. We were all so desperate not to go down.

“In the last game of the season at Derby we battered them 4-0 but ended up getting relegated and it was such a strange feeling.

“I flew off to Vegas pretty much straight away because I just had to get away.

“But the nine-hour plane journey was a nightmare because relegation kept going through my head and I wanted the plane to go down!

“I took it really badly because I live for my football. I had worked all my life to play in the Premier League and to have it slip away was awful.”

Despite Reading’s drop into the Championship, Harper believes he has learned a lot of positives about himself as a player.

He added: “I look back and think ‘if this or that had happened’, but it’s too late for that really. I would say I have learned a lot – about myself and my team-mates.

“When things are going crap and there is a crisis it’s easy to crumble. In football there is nothing worse than getting relegated, but I felt I dealt with the pressure we were under.

“I always stood up and was counted, I played every game and gave my all under a lot of pressure and I like that about myself. I like my character because I know I can handle pressure.”

Reading, who finished eighth in their first-ever season in the top flight, only went down due to having an inferior goal difference than relegation rivals Fulham.

Inflexibility

And Harper blamed Royals’ failure on their inflexibility and having just one way to play.

“Individually I don’t think we were that horrific, but on occasion as a team we let ourselves down and that is frustrating,” said Harper. “Being able to function as a team has been our strength in the past, but we didn’t always do that last season.

“We became easier to stop and we didn’t appear to have a Plan B because there was no other way of playing.

“We didn’t score enough, but we didn’t seem to recognise what the problem was and couldn’t change it as a team.

“People talk about second-season syndrome. I think there is some truth in that because teams have a better idea of how to stop you.

“In our first season we were unknown and teams didn’t know how to stop us. They got a better idea of us last season and found it a lot easier to stop us and score against us as we also conceded too many goals.”

Harper is being chased by Fulham, Bolton, West Ham and Middlesbrough although Reading have yet to receive any firm bids for the £3million-rated star.

I understand the midfielder has a clause in his contract which automatically put him on the transfer list once Royals were relegated, but the 27-year-old has not asked for a move.

Manager Steve Coppell is expecting to lose some of his stars and is already lining up possible replacements.

Swansea’s Ferrie Bodde, Sunderland’s Dean Whitehead and Dundee United’s Noel Hunt are all possible targets.

 

Lets make sure we give him a Barnsley welcome then

Something like McPhail got last season for Cardiff would do fine.

 

Well obviously Man U didn't make it to the FA Cup Semi's duhhh

....

 

RE: Well obviously Man U didn't make it to the FA Cup Semi's duhhh

It's rich coming from someone playing for a club which only 10 years ago, you would have ranked up their with the Hartlepools and Rochdales of the football world.

 

tell me about it he wants to get off his high horse a little bit its not like hes a regualr in the england side or has played european cup football every season is it.

 

What a *****!

 

It pisses me off when they always insist on comparing our club as the crap of the division, seeing as we are now an established championship club who were also fa cup semi finalists, he can expect a hostile reception when he comes to Oakwell next season!

 

what a pretentious *****, can imagine him out with his mate [ note singular ] talking about joking after games with Cesc, chrissy ronaldo and lamps etc, KNOB

 

We should make a chant for him.

 

All together now....

"DO YOU WANT TO BUY SOME ROPE?!"

 

RE: All together now....

KING OF THE SWINGERS

 

it's going too far when he says because he has to play barnsley he was contemplating suicide, yep it must be terrible being a professional footballer earning 10,000 + a week......

 

Poor lad

Still, if they had stayed up, James would have an away trip to Hull to look forward to. Now there's an attractive prospect.</p>

 

RE: All together now....

The jungle VIP?

 

RE: All together now....

That's the one!

 

RE: All together now....

I can see it now.....James Harper photoshopped hanging from a tree and Baloo from Jungle Book having a speech bubble coming from him saying "you James are the real king of the swingers".

 

LOL

 

What about fecking Donny?!

Is it not a worse thought to be going there?

Ah no, let's pick on Barnsley again.

Nobhead.

 

RE: What about fecking Donny?!

I remember Dichio from qpr making derogatory comments about us in the past. Something along the lines of not looking forward to a rainy tuesday night game in barnsley.

 

The football GIANT that is Reading FC, covered in past glories and footballing history

Reading.

Good one.