A Farewell to Femi Azeez
Harry bids so long to Femi Azeez, who has moved on from Reading to pastures new at Millwall.
One of the beautiful things about football is the difference in opinion among fans on pretty much everything associated with their club. From the match-day food to whether the kits are nice or horrible, we all have an opinion on everything.
But, unsurprisingly, whether a footballer is any good or not is the main argument you hear in the concourse at half-time or when having a pre-match pint. And Reading fans are no different.
In my opinion, no player has split opinion quite like Femi Azeez since he broke into the first-team picture - and particularly in the last year or so in which he really cemented his spot in the starting XI. You only have to have a quick scroll through the reaction to his move to Millwall to recognise that.
Some fans are genuinely gutted he’s gone, fretting over how on earth we’re going to replace such an integral part of the team. Some have an air of nonchalant passiveness about the whole situation - they don’t care he’s left and wouldn’t have cared if he’d stayed. Some were quick to bid good riddance and think it’s great business from the club.
Yes, at times he has flattered to deceive (but then again, who in a Reading shirt hasn’t in the last 10 years or so?), and has been the cause of more than his fair share of angry moans and groans from the crowd.
However, in my eyes, Azeez will leave a gaping hole that will be very, very difficult to fill. He is by no means irreplaceable, but if you watched this team from January to the end of last season, you should understand the importance of Azeez to this side.
He didn't provide the week-after-week 8/10s like Lewis Wing or Tyler Bindon, or the tireless, boundless energy and work of a Harvey Knibbs, but what he did provide was moments of quality that few others in this team could come up with.
Among others, at Peterborough United he grabbed a superb goal and assist to earn us a much-needed point, a double against Charlton Athletic got us a 2-0 win, and a screamer against Exeter City saw us get a 3-2 victory.
The term ‘purple patch player’ has been thrown at Azeez quite a bit. There was a bit of it last season, but it’s mainly been banded about since his move. For me, that’s a bit narrow-minded, but it’s about how you choose to perceive it I suppose.
Is he an average player who found a random unplayable bit of form over Christmas and New Year? Or is he a good player who, having got a bit of confidence and starting to feel comfortable in the team, was finally able to show us the kind of footballer that was always there? I’ll put that one out into the ether and let it hang there I think.
I still think there’s a seriously good player in there. I mean, let’s be honest, Reading Football Club in the last five years or so hasn’t exactly been the perfect environment to nurture and create homegrown talent.
He will have games where he’ll want to make you pull your hair out in annoyance and frustration, but that’s only because we’ve seen just how good he can be. I doubt he’ll ever be a player who bags 20 goals a season, but he’s still someone I’d rather have in this Reading team this season than not.
Let’s not forget the wider contextual points beyond whether you think he’s a good player or not as well. We are already probably the most stretched squad in the Football League pyramid. To lose any player, let alone one who popped up with 18 goals and assists last season, is a big blow.
But on the other side of this very multi-sided coin, to get around £1m for a player who is into his last year of his contract, in the financial position we’re in, should also be regarded as a shrewd bit of business in my opinion.
There are a lot of valid points to either side of this argument. For me it’s all about what happens next. Who will we replace him with? Are we even allowed to replace him? When will this godforsaken takeover actually happen? (Okay, that last one isn’t technically Azeez-related but it’s still the biggest elephant in the room at the moment).
I don’t think we’ll know how significant a blow this is until a lot later down the line. There are other players - Wing, Knibbs, Ben Elliott, Bindon, Amadou Mbengue - who are all more important to the team than Azeez. But if we didn’t have his goals and assists last season, who knows where we’d be? He needs replacing, it’s just how effectively we’ll be able to do that.
I saw one fan say that any player who stayed and endured last season has paid their dues as far as they were concerned. And I couldn’t really agree more with that. Azeez was given an opportunity that he couldn’t really turn down, and good luck to him.