Karacan praises Saints duo

Reading midfielder Jem Karacan has spoken of praise for Southampton’s duo of Nigel Adkins and Adam Lalana.

The 23-year old midfielder gave his thoughts in an interview for the recent Championship play-off final programme between Blackpool and West Ham. Saints boss Adkins led to his side to two-consecutive promotions, with his playmaker Lalana crucial to their success over the past two seasons.

When asked about his best player, Jem said: ‘Adam Lallana at Southampton. I played with him whilst on loan at Bournemouth during the 2007/08 season and, from our first training session, you could see that he was a class act and would go on to be a top player. He’ll adjust to the Premier League, no problem.’

When asked about best manager, Jem added: ‘I’d love to say Brian McDermott, but if that’s a rule that I can’t say my own boss – then it’s got to be Nigel Adkins! Like Brian, Nigel is very level-headed and tries to stay under the radar yet he has knitted together a squad of players at Southampton who would die for each other.’

The Turkish midfielder is likely to be fit for pre-season, saying that everything is going to schedule. When Reading and Southampton met during the Championship campaign, both games were of high quality, accumulating six goals in total. Both sides will now face off next season in the Premier League, with many people labelling both of them as relegation favourites.