by Sutekh »
29 Dec 2020 13:33
Nameless morganb ITK Eddie on Twitter says:
Omar Richards’s fate is very much in his agent’s hands (he has very little involvement in any negotiation). Mr Dai really wants to keep him at #ReadingFC with a serious wage hike and lengthy contract. It’s set to be an interesting month with many clubs interested.
Wonder if he has the same agent as Osho? He could be at Yeovil soon
Interesting that Richards seems to have the same agent(or at least the same agency) as Jack Grealish. Grealish could have moved clubs and probably earned more but has opted to stick with Villa for other reasons. This might suggest Richards might get better advice than some of our other young players who have jumped at the chance to join a big name on a bigger salary and found it was probably not the smartest option.
Think there are many good agents out there who don’t just recommend a move for the sake of it. Presume Omar will be advised that staying at Reading is a good option for him at his age (he’ll be 23 in February) as he will have a lot of game time and the club itself at last looks to be getting its house in order on the playing side so another 2/3 year deal would see him at the top of his game and the world would be his oyster if he fulfilled the potential. Negotiate in a decent release clause as well and the player could, in a sense, have the best of both worlds.
Of course if there is an established PL club showing interest and promising to see him as their first choice left back within 18 months or so, then given the monetary values likely to be involved I would imagine a move would be recommended - and of course every player will want to play at the highest level they can so if the Everton interest is correct and they were to offer something along those lines then I don’t think Reading would have a chance, however much they offered.
All we can do is wait and see. Wouldn’t surprise me if this went on to the summer before being settled.