by The Cube »
21 Apr 2024 08:04
The important point here is the loss of Category 1 status last year. The U18 squad is a mixture of U18s and U17s. So this years U18s are the ones who signed a two-year deal when we were Category 2. Our best U16s at that time would have looked elsewhere first (obvious example is Princewill Ehibationham, who was playing for Southampton yesterday). Also there is usually quite a large intake of first year scholars, and we wouldn't have been able to get the best U16s from other clubs.
This season we got Category 1 back, but we would already have missed out on some U17s who weren't sure that would happen. Again this means either losing our own players, or failing to take others from elsewhere. Let's face it, would any scholar sign have signed for Reading unless there was a very good reason?
So roughly speaking our current U18s are mostly at a Category 2 level, and our current U17s are a bit below the normal standard.
Finally, our best U18 this season was Taylan Harris, who is now at Luton.
So just to be clear, it's all Dai's fault.