Sir Alex Ferguson finally admitting the atmosphere at Old Trafford is rubbish and Dave Kitson telling the world the FA Cup is a waste of time for Reading. Welcome to 2008, the brave new world of football truth; if this honesty amnesty continues we’ll have Joey Barton admitting by the weekend that he may sometimes be in the wrong.

The problem with truth is that it’s all so personal and subjective. One person’s naive comment is another’s inflammatory statement; see naming a teddy bear Mohamed. Nobody can really argue with Sir Alex. Not that there isn’t a contradictory point of view; literally, nobody can really argue with him. Not least a BBC broadcaster hoping that he may one day speak on our channel again. The Manchester United manager is totally right, of course; in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if certain broadcasters are using special effects to create fan noise when they show live games from Old Trafford. You don’t want an inexperienced sound man on that show, do you? Although it could make things more interesting if they used the laughter from Last of the Summer Wine button instead of the mythical “Premiership atmos” button.

Kitson’s comments were fairly straight to the point: “we are not going to win the FA Cup and I couldn’t care less about it”. No need to read between the lines there, folks, clearly no PR lady sitting in on that interview. Reading have an away trip to Tottenham Hotspur in the third round tomorrow, so Kitson is not being asked to trundle up to Preston North End on the Virgin Express. It’s a nice, fairly local game that, as a neutral, I would be inclined to watch – the last time these two met they scored ten goals between them. Oh but it’s such a chore if you are a Premier League footballer apparently, what with a busy Christmas fixture list just played and Premier League status to protect – these were two of the main reasons Kitson gave for his disdain of the Cup.

What are you talking about, man? How many times must we go over this, you are paid very well to play football and seem quite happy to take the dosh every month and be adored by the fans who pay extortionate amounts of their hard-earned salaries to buy season tickets and replica shirts and all the other stuff being peddled at football club shops. Please don’t be offended, Reading, I am not accusing you of any worse crimes to retail than any other club in the land; I am a mother who received a couple of Burnley Babygros as gifts when her children were born. I know that there is no market untapped and no product that is incapable of being logoed. Which is great, money and “stuff” made in China makes the world go round, except when it stops turning round because all the “stuff” made in China has polluted the planet to such an extent that we can’t even play football any more. But that’s for another day and I don’t want to spoil your purchase of that giant mascot beer cooler you were going to buy this weekend.

Aside from the obvious “you ungrateful so and so” arguments against Kitson that seem to be clogging up most blogs and fans’ forums, there is also the fact that he is wrong. Of course Reading can win the FA Cup, it is one of the very few competitions that they can win. Reading aren’t going to win the Premier League or the Champions League, but they could get to the FA Cup Final, just ask Millwall and West Ham United about teams outside the top four making the grade in recent years.

Reading are still in a period of consolidation, cementing themselves as a top-flight club, and while they may have flirted with European qualification in their first season, the norm is going to be more about survival and mid-table mediocrity for a couple of years or ten. So what better way to reward fans than with a jolly run in the FA Cup, all it takes is five games and you are at Wembley. Never mind rewarding the fans. If you don’t have any consideration for them then what about you? Isn’t this what dreams are made of? Surely, Dave, you can imagine the personal satisfaction and sense of achievement that would come from a great run in the Cup?

If not then have a word with the lads of Havant & Waterlooville. They take on Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow having beaten Notts County in the second round. Fortunately the players and manager of the Blue Square South side seem suitably excited about their trip to South Wales. Even if Marcus Hackney, their chairman, didn’t quite enter into the spirit of things at first. “I would have liked a big Premiership side,” he said. The 2008 truth bug is clearly rife, although Hackney denies being related to Dave Kitson.

Shaun Gale, the Havant manager, was saying all the right things. “It’s an honour to play a club as big as Swansea,” he said. I got a little tingle through my body – that’s the spirit, Shaun. Swansea might not be Manchester United, but they are top of Coca-Cola League One and playing some good football. All the players followed their manager’s lead and said how generally chuffed to ribbons they were and the second-round hero, Tony Taggart, added: “I hope the game can put me in the shop window”.

We do, too, Tony and we hope that somebody somewhere spots your talent and your enthusiasm and rewards you with a chance to play the game you love in a higher league. And if you do get that chance, never forget how you felt when you stepped on to the pitch at 3pm tomorrow, because some other players seem to have no idea what that feeling is like any more.