Who will be the next academy player to break into 1st Team

[mambo3]

Jake Taylor

[ZacNaloen]

He's already played in the first team.

[NewCorkSeth]

Gozie

[sandman]

Doubt it will be any of the defenders.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Reckon on Aaron Tshibola

[DandyRoyal]

Since the beginning of the 2010 season the following academy players have appeared in the first team:

Taylor (2)
Obita (5)
McCarthy (37)
D'ath (1)
Samuel (1)

Of those McCarthy is obviously the big success and Obita looks set for further involvement with the first team. Will D'ath, Taylor and Samuel reach 50 appearances for Reading say? I think Samuel has a shot, I don't know enough about D'ath to judge and I don't think Taylor has what it takes at this level.

I guess if you want to think about the next academy player to play in the first team it would be a good idea to look at the first team squad, the competition they have between them and the team and with that in mind it is highly unlikely to be a GK, LB, RB, CB and midfield is pretty competitive too with Obita the up and comer there in part surely due to injuries. Ugwu is a good shout.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Craig Tanner when fully fit again after his recent injury.

[maffff]

Hector, towards end of season when Pearce or Morro gets injured.

[winchester_royal]

Craig Tanner when fully fit again after his recent injury.

^This.

[Hoop Blah]

I guess if you want to think about the next academy player to play in the first team it would be a good idea to look at the first team squad, the competition they have between them and the team and with that in mind it is highly unlikely to be a GK, LB, RB, CB and midfield is pretty competitive too with Obita the up and comer there in part surely due to injuries. Ugwu is a good shout.

LB and CB are competitive? They're weak in depth so are two of the positions most likely to see an academy player plug a gap.

Tanner is a good shout though, or any player who can help solve our lack of a 'number 10' in the current squad.

[urz13]

Tanner always gets mentioned on here. How good is he, and how good could he become?

[winchester_royal]

Tanner always gets mentioned on here. How good is he, and how good could he become?

It's hard to judge potential. Nige spoke highly of his ability to pick a pass on the OS, and he has a fantastic left foot that produced plenty of set piece goals for the U18's last year. Physically he's still quite a way behind the likes of Obita in his age group, but imho he's as promising as any a prospect we've had since Gylf.

[DandyRoyal]

LB and CB are competitive? They're weak in depth so are two of the positions most likely to see an academy player plug a gap.

Tanner is a good shout though, or any player who can help solve our lack of a 'number 10' in the current squad.

I think LB is pretty competitive for sure, Cummings would be selected there ahead of anyone in the academy and he doesn't even play when Bridge is out, Kelly fills in, which I disagree with btw, I would rather not see Kelly at left back at all. At CB we have Pearce, Morrison, Gorkss, (Baird?) so probably nothing doing there either, although I like Hector a lot and would play him over Gorkss. Anyone know if there is a recall clause on his loan @ Aberdeen?

[Hoop Blah]

LB and CB are competitive? They're weak in depth so are two of the positions most likely to see an academy player plug a gap.

Tanner is a good shout though, or any player who can help solve our lack of a 'number 10' in the current squad.

I think LB is pretty competitive for sure, Cummings would be selected there ahead of anyone in the academy and he doesn't even play when Bridge is out, Kelly fills in, which I disagree with btw, I would rather not see Kelly at left back at all. At CB we have Pearce, Morrison, Gorkss, (Baird?) so probably nothing doing there either, although I like Hector a lot and would play him over Gorkss. Anyone know if there is a recall clause on his loan @ Aberdeen?

What I was getting at was that if we had a youngster coming through who was anywhere near challenging, which I don't think we have, then left back would be a position that was up for grabs as neither Kelly or Cummings give us the balance and width out there that a proper lefty would.

As for centre half, we have 1 centre back to cover two positions and an option off the bench. Baird can play there, and to be fair Gunter played there for Wales recently, but your moving square pegs into round holes and making the team weaker elsewhere at the same time. A good natural centre half would stand a good chance of being involved this season.

[ZacNaloen]

Nick Arnold is the only challenger at left back really, Shane Griffin looked extremely raw against Oman.

Nick Arnold seems to be doing reasonably well now he's established himself at Wycombe... until he gets injured again.

[Hoop Blah]

He's also another right back surely.

[maffff]

Hector, towards end of season when Pearce or Morro gets injured.

Seems appropriate to reiterate this as a possibility since he's getting talked about so highly....

[soggy biscuit]

Either Johnson or Peters

[ZacNaloen]

He's also another right back surely.

Still the only challenger.

[maffff]

Talking of needing another left[/centre] back, we did recently sign Lasha Dvali - 18 year old Georgian from Skonto Riga...... at that age he must be signed with one eye on the first team?