Donny Ironside I was about to say about emergency loan players but reading that it seems only Goalkeepers are allowed for that criteria.
I find it extremely ridiculous that a player could play 5 EFL Trophy nothing games and be "established".
Yeah agree but there is a clause about Championship standard competition. So I would imagine that if our academy were in the competition those games may not count but they would towards a total of a player on loan (or vice versa).
Anyway, players under contract to Reading who are both over 21 and have had at least 5 starts are:
Holmes
Morrison
McIntyre
Moore
Halilovic
Rinomhota
Swift
Meite
Ejaria
Joao
Araruna
Rahman
Hoilett
Laurent
Rafael
Puscas
Dann
Drinkwater
Dele-Bashiru
McNulty
Southwood
So 21 - as all others were under 21 at the end of June. Azeez and Bristow have both made more than 5 apps though, so that could be the bone of contention but will still leave us 1 spot.
So it "feels" like we were working to use up all 24 spots for established players and the striker was the last piece, as was taking longer to sort out than the others but the EFL made it clear they wouldn't sanction it, so we are back to being in discussion with them.