Playing the name game

Following the news today that three new Korean youngsters will join the Reading Academy, it got us thinking about the subject of player surnames and pronunciations for the new season.

The chances of the new kids from Korea making it anywhere near the bench this year are extremely slim, but even so there will come a time during the season that they'll be paraded at the Madstad. Nam Taehee, Ji Dongwon and Kim Wonsik shouldn't cause too much of a problem for messers Allen and Croucher on the mic - although the latter has fallen over easier ones many times before!

But what of the rest of the Premier League, especially the influx of overseas players during the summer? Scanning through the ins and outs of each club there are a couple that will surely require our men on the mic to pho·neti·cal·ly assure themselves before opening their mouth.

Lukasz Fabianski of Arsenal is sure to cause concern - anything with a 'z' normally does - so include Rafael Schmitz (Birmingham), Blerim Dzemaili (Bolton) and Tomasz Kuszczak (Man Utd) in that category. Others of note which Croucher certainly will struggle with are Yuri Berchiche (Spurs), Arsenal's Bacary Sagna and Rolando Bianchi of Man City will surely turn into Ronaldo!

One thing is for sure, we're only human. Meaning the likes of Garry O'Connor (Birmingham), Andy Todd (Derby) and Nani (Man Utd) will unfortunately be the ones we stumble on!