"What can we do?" - Reading FC blasted as Spurs and Man City eye Royals star | OneFootball

The Royals could be about to lose one of their brightest young stars

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Reading are fielding strong interest in young left-back Andre Garcia.

The 16-year-old made his first-team debut earlier this season and is now a regular in the side despite his young age, and is still not old enough to have signed professional terms.

Unsurprisingly, his quick rise to third-tier football has not gone unnoticed, and he is now attracting interest from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, and abroad from Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta, according to a report from TBR.

We asked our Reading fan pundit, Johnny Hunt, for his thoughts on the fresh reports.

It came as little surprise to the Reading fan that the club may lose out on one of their young talents in the context of a club struggling with ownership issues.

Speaking to Football League World, Johnny said: “No surprise in the current climate, a decent left-back at 16, could be snapped up by a bigger club.

“But what can we do? You know, it’s depressing all around, to be honest, as a fan the ownership issue’s just dragging on, getting worse, Couhig’s back in with his issues.

“And, you know, what position are we in to offer a young, promising player like that a decent contract? We're not.

“It’s just another example of the mess that's been caused by Dai Yongge destroying our club.

“If it was a proper club, run well, if we did have to sell that lad, we’d be making a lot of money for him.

“Of course, any young lad’s head’s going to be turned by that interest: Reading or Madrid? It’s a tough choice, isn't it?

“Yeah, but look, all we can do is just hope for the best, and I just hope we still got a club at the end of the day, that's all that matters for me, personally.”

Reading need to be in top shape to keep Garcia, and are far from it

In truth, any 16-year-old breaking into senior football and retaining his place in the side is always going to attract strong attention from clubs higher up the food chain.

Reading’s situation is made even more difficult by the fact that Garcia’s age means he’s too young for professional terms — making a departure much easier from the player’s side.

To keep a player of that talent, even at least until he has strong contractual ties with the club to extract a transfer fee, Reading would need to be in top condition.

If they could pull out all the stops, with a high-value contract ready on his 17th birthday, promises made about playing time and plans for the club to begin ascending the league table, they may just manage to convince him that staying with them and playing first-team football would be better for his progression than moving and undoubtedly dropping back into youth football with a top-level club.

But with the well-trodden ownership issues surrounding Dai Yongge, that seems unlikely.

Garcia would only need to look at the issues another promising young player, Charlie Savage, has suffered with the Royals to feel some scepticism about whether the SCL Stadium is the best place for him.

Savage was first hit by registration issues on arriving in Reading due to embargoes put on the club for their financial mismanagement, then later in the season getting stuck on a set number of appearances, seemingly because the club didn’t want to trigger a pay rise in his contract.