The Academy/Development squads watch thread 2024/25

[Readingfanman]

John Ryan back in full training
0-1 18 mins
1-1 Bowdery 34 mins
H-T 1-1
Just spotted Alex Pearce in Reading coaches kit- does anyone know if he’s involved at the club ?

He is coaching the U15’s

[Sutekh]

John Ryan back in full training
0-1 18 mins
1-1 Bowdery 34 mins
H-T 1-1
Just spotted Alex Pearce in Reading coaches kit- does anyone know if he’s involved at the club ?

He is coaching the U15’s

Retired, finished at Leatherhead earlier this year after making 5 apps for Bracknell in September. Played 9 times for Ireland, scoring twice and scored 15 goals in 240 appearances for Reading. He’s 37 in November, let’s hope he still has a job here then as that sort of career story would be prime aspiration for the youngsters.

[Royals and Racers]

Arsenal U 18’s v Reading U 18’s
Sharlott
Neptune
Source
Duah
Harrison
Booth
Sackey
Bowdery
Osho
Omeregie
Coke-Miles-Smith
SUBS
Welland
Fuller-Thompson
Dove
Zie
Irish

Arsenal 1 Reading 0 14 mins
2-0 25 mins
H-T 2-0
3-0 55 mins
4-0 88 mins
F-T 4-0

[Royals and Racers]

Just an update on the various competitions that the Royals took part in.

PL 2 play-offs
Top 8 clubs were at home to the 9-16 clubs and all the top 8 won.
QF’s
Man City v Arsenal, Crystal Palace v Chelsea, Southampton v Fulham and Man Utd V West Ham

PL cup
At the semi stage and 3 non Cat 1 teams are through to it.
QPR v Burnley tomorrow 30th
Southampton v Brentford Thursday 1st May.
Edit QPR v Brentford final.

PL International Cup
Notts Forest v Lyon in the final on Wednesday 7th May at the City ground

FA Youth Cup
Aston Villa v Man City in the final on Monday 5th May.

[Royals and Racers]

Welland
Zie
Source
Duah
Harrison
Booth
Osho
Sackey
Bowdery
Coke-Miles -Smith
Omoregie
SUBS
Sharlott
Dove
Nour
Fuller-Thompson
Irish

Reading 0 Southampton 1 31 mins
H-T 0-1
0-2 54 mins
0-3 80 mins
F-T 0-3

[The Cube]

Forward Tyler Adjei is again in the England U15 squad. This is for the Vlatko Markovic tournament in Croatia. Group games are on 13, 14 and 16 May.

[Royals and Racers]

U 18’s v West Brom
Welland
Zie
Irish
Duah
Sackey
Booth
Howard
Omoregie
Osho
Trialist - S Barney
Coke-Miles-Smith
SUBS
Pullinger
Dove
Bowdery
Nour
Fuller-Thompson
Reading 1 WBA 0 Booth 18 mins
H-T 1-0
F-T 1-0
Royals finished 8th

[Royals and Racers]

Just an update on the various competitions that the Royals took part in.

PL 2 play-offs
Top 8 clubs were at home to the 9-16 clubs and all the top 8 won.
QF’s
Man City v Arsenal, Crystal Palace v Chelsea, Southampton v Fulham and Man Utd V West Ham

PL cup
At the semi stage and 3 non Cat 1 teams are through to it.
QPR v Burnley tomorrow 30th
Southampton v Brentford Thursday 1st May.
Edit QPR v Brentford final.- QPR at home

PL International Cup
Notts Forest v Lyon in the final on Wednesday 7th May at the City ground

FA Youth Cup
Aston Villa v Man City in the final on Monday 5th May.

Aston Villa won the FA youth cup this afternoon beating Man City 3-1. Attendance 25073 !!
PL 2 play-off semi’s
Crystal Palace v Southampton- Monday 12th May KO 7pm
Man City v Man Utd- Friday 9th May KO 7pm- result City 2 Utd 0
PL Cup final is on Thursday 15th May at Loftus Road KO 7pm

[Royals and Racers]

Nottingham Forest won the PL International cup by beating Lyon 5-4 on Pens after 0-0 after 120 mins.

[Royals and Racers]

Birmingham City and Burnley have both been granted Cat 1 status for 2025/6
The PL are considering re-organising the Professional development league (PDL) ( Cat 2) to end the regionalisation and play each other twice( 1 at home and 1 away) and then ‘ selected other matches’ to make up the season and then the top 8 teams would meet the PL 2 teams who finished 17-24 in an end of season play- off comp.

[Royals and Racers]

Just an update on the various competitions that the Royals took part in.

PL 2 play-offs
Top 8 clubs were at home to the 9-16 clubs and all the top 8 won.
QF’s
Man City v Arsenal, Crystal Palace v Chelsea, Southampton v Fulham and Man Utd V West Ham

PL cup
At the semi stage and 3 non Cat 1 teams are through to it.
QPR v Burnley tomorrow 30th
Southampton v Brentford Thursday 1st May.
Edit QPR v Brentford final.- QPR at home

PL International Cup
Notts Forest v Lyon in the final on Wednesday 7th May at the City ground

FA Youth Cup
Aston Villa v Man City in the final on Monday 5th May.

Aston Villa won the FA youth cup this afternoon beating Man City 3-1. Attendance 25073 !!
PL 2 play-off semi’s
Crystal Palace v Southampton- Monday 12th May KO 7pm
Man City v Man Utd- Friday 9th May KO 7pm- result City 2 Utd 0
PL Cup final is on Thursday 15th May at Loftus Road KO 7pm

Crystal Palace 1 Southampton 2 AET
QPR 3 Brentford 1 result

[The Cube]

Tyler Adjei was in the England U15 squad for the recent tournament in Croatia. He started the first and third games, and got an assist at some point in the week. You may have seen recent articles about Cristiano Ronaldo's son - this was the same tournament.

Also Adjei and at least 4 other Reading players were in the Forest School team that won the ESFA U15 Cup at The Hawthorns today. Full match here (40 minutes each way):
https://www.youtube.com/live/sb28ixjhUTc
Line-up shown at 6:10:20.

[Sutekh]

Sometime U18s player and Bradfield College student Carter-Blue Bowdery has taken up a professional contract offered by Reading and will officially join the ranks after finishing his A levels in late June.

[Royals and Racers]

Sometime U18s player and Bradfield College student Carter-Blue Bowdery has taken up a professional contract offered by Reading and will officially join the ranks after finishing his A levels in late June.

He scored the spectactular equaliser in the PL U 18 cup final against West Ham.

[JedMaxwell]

He could be one to watch next season. Perhaps will be introduced into the first team via the LDV trophy and be a solid u-23 option. I was very impressed the few times I saw him this past season.

[Sutekh]

He could be one to watch next season. Perhaps will be introduced into the first team via the LDV trophy and be a solid u-23 option. I was very impressed the few times I saw him this past season.

Whatever happened to players called Steve or Dave?

[MartinRdg]

He could be one to watch next season. Perhaps will be introduced into the first team via the LDV trophy and be a solid u-23 option. I was very impressed the few times I saw him this past season.

Whatever happened to players called Steve or Dave?

Yes - Carter-Blue is quite, err, modern?

[Sutekh]

Garcia assists

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/spor ... n-england/

[Brogue]

Interesting stat I’ve just seen

97% of former cat 1 academy players now aged 21 to 26 never made a Premier League appearance.

70% weren't handed a pro contract at an EPL or EFL club. And only 1 in 10 went on to make more than 20 league appearances in the top four tiers of English football.

[Hound]

Interesting stat I’ve just seen

97% of former cat 1 academy players now aged 21 to 26 never made a Premier League appearance.

70% weren't handed a pro contract at an EPL or EFL club. And only 1 in 10 went on to make more than 20 league appearances in the top four tiers of English football.

Yes, it’s extremely competitive; that’s not a failure of those academies but a reflection of how difficult it is to make it as a pro footballer

I imagine a lot of those kids end up tiers 5/6 which is still a great achievement