Both our under 21 & under 18 sides are thriving at the moment and Nigel Adkins has said he will try to create a ‘pathway’ into the first team for them.
The under 18s, led by Eamonn Dolan, won the National Group 1 with eleven wins for fourteen games. In Phase 2 they are second in the table with a game in hand over leaders Fulham, after beating Manchester United 1-0 on Saturday. The under 21s are currently second in the table of Group 2, after just missing out on the elite group.
Speaking to the Official Reading FC website, Adkins said: ‘The future of the football club is the youth coming through. Eamonn Dolan heads up the Academy structure here and all being well, we’ll get EPPP1 category status. The under 18s won against Manchester United and we’ve got some really talented players.’
‘What we’ve got to do is make sure there is a pathway for them to get into the first team. The principles and standards of play that we want, we want throughout the whole football club. And all being well, once we get back in the Premier League we’ll be well equipped to give ourselves a situation where we don’t get relegated.’
To see our youth system battling it at the top with the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea is fantastic to see and proves we have a great system currently in place, even without Category 1 status. You can see the likes of Jordan Obita, Michael Hector and Dominic Samuel playing a part under Adkins next season.
Wiki page: Nigel Adkins
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