Owners wants emphasis on youth

Anton Zingarevich seems to be hinting that he could splash the cash over the summer, but is keen to emphasis he has focus on the club’s youth system too.

The Royals’ academy has been booming in recent seasons, opitimised by the under 18 side reaching the national final, only to lose to Fulham 3-0 at Craven Cottage last week. Coming second out of all of the teams in the country is a great plus and proves how the youth system continues to thrive under the leadership of Eamonn Dolan.

Speaking to the Official Reading FC website, Zingarevich emphasised his focus on youth by saying: ‘The Academy is essential, this is where the roots of the football club are born. They have done very well again this year under Eamonn Dolan and his staff. I was at the under 18s game against Manchester United a couple of weeks ago’

‘We can all say what can be done for the short term success, but long term this is where we need to go, we need to pay even more attention to our Academy. We dominated the whole game against United to win 1-0 and in that team we have 6, 7, 8 players that can make it to the first team in a couple of years.’