Karacan tips team full of academy players

Our academy is going from strength to strength at the moment and Jem Karacan believes we could even see a team full of youth graduates.

The Royals under 18 side beat Liverpool on penalties last night, to reach the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in our history. Jem is one of many youth graduates in the first team at the moment and he feels it will became a constant trend here.

Speaking to the Reading Post, Jem said: ‘In a few years you might even see a game when there`s eleven academy players on the pitch. If you look at the team that finished against Brighton I think that shows when you look at how well the academy is doing as a whole.

‘We had Jordan Obita, Jake Taylor and Michael Hector all playing on Saturday. With Alex McCarthy, Pearcey and Hal out there as well that`s six academy players together. You don`t get that at many clubs nowadays. Credit has to go to the staff.’

It’s fantastic to see that the youth team is doing fantastically at the moment and when they look at the likes of Jem, McCarthy, Pearce, HRK and Obita, it must give them great confidence that they can make the step up. As Jem also says, kudos to the staff as well for their job.