Modou Barrow: I always felt Barrow flattered to deceive, but I have to admit, his stats over his three seasons with us are better than I remembered: 83 appearances, 14 goals and 12 assists. His last season with the team, 2019/20, was spent on loan at Turkish side Denizlispor before he was purchased by Korean side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, so at least we got some of our money back for him.
Barrow spent three seasons there and experienced his most productive output in his career, registering 28 goals and 17 assists across 90 appearances. Barrow then got ahead of the times and departed for Saudi Arabia, joining Al-Ahli Saudi at the start of 2023, and has been there since – though, after not really pulling up any trees, he’s gone out on loan to Turkish side Sivasspor, making 18 appearances, notching one goal and two assists.
He seems unlikely to stay there, but you never know. Modou is also remarkably only 31 years old, and hasn’t played for national side Gambia since 2020.
Danny Namaso: Let’s get the obvious out of the way – during the 2022/23 season, Danny Loader requested to be addressed as Danny Namaso going forward, hence why you may not immediately recognise the surname.
It was bitterly disappointing to see such a talented forward and academy prospect leave the team, and even more so on a free transfer. However, it must be said, moving to FC Porto was most likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for local lad Danny. He remains at FC Porto, having spent two years developing his game in the B Team, scoring 22 goals and making five assists in 63 appearances.
Since the 2022/23 season he has been promoted to the full first team and is developing well there, contributing 10 goals and eight assists across 55 appearances. It seems FC Porto recognise his contribution as he signed a contract extension in January 2024 until 2028.
Eligible to represent both England and Cameroon – not unlike current Royal Ben Elliott – he has so far only reached under-21 level with England and hasn’t represented any international team since the end of 2019. He also has a brother who plays professional rugby, which is a fun fact.
Tyler Blackett: At the time of signing for Reading, left-back and occasional centre-back Blackett seemed like a real coup for the club. After breaking through to the Manchester United first team from the academy, the opportunities ran dry and it seemed the offer to work with a team aiming to get back to the Premier League was perfect for the young defender.
Sadly, it was not to be. Four years at Reading didn’t yield promotion, though 122 appearances and 10 assists showed he was a key figure in the team throughout. Blackett left the club to join league rivals Nottingham Forest on a free transfer after running down his contract.
Swansea City v Reading – Sky Bet Championship
Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images
It should be noted that, despite intending to see out his contract, he did sign a short extension to stay until the end of the 2019/20 season, after the season was extended due to the Covid-19 break, so fair play to him for doing that.
Blackett cited unrest behind the scenes at Reading, in terms of people not all pulling in the same direction and the likelihood of not achieving promotion, as factors behind not extending his contract.
He spent only a year at Forest, only playing 16 times and not achieving promotion, and was allowed to join MLS side FC Cincinnati on a free transfer, his first move outside of the UK. Two years in the US yielded 32 appearances and one goal, before being released at the end of the 2022 season.
In March 2023 he signed a deal with Rotherham United until the end of the season, making six appearances, and has seen that deal extended. Still with Rotherham, who are almost certainly likely to be relegated to League One, he has made 12 appearances this season but has contributed one goal.
Vito Mannone: Italian goalkeeper Mannone was, I thought, an inspired signing from Sunderland. He was very present during the first season, playing 41 times, but with a porous defence in front of him, he only kept eight clean sheets. Mannone featured only six times the next season and not at all the following season due to being sent on loan to Minnesota United (conceding 52 goals in 40 games) and Esbjerg fB in Denmark (conceding 27 in 13 games), so only made 47 Reading appearances in total and conceding a whopping 68 goals.
Upon leaving the club, he stated that the reason for departing was due to the club needing to cut costs due to significant concerns behind the scene about mounting running costs. In September 2020 he joined French side Monaco for two seasons as back-up, only making 11 appearances and conceding 16 goals. At this point, it becomes clear that Mannone was not quite the goalkeeper we thought we were getting.
Mannone left Monaco and spent the 2022/23 season at fellow French club FC Lorient, playing 20 games and conceding 26 goals, but also keeping five clean sheets, which somehow makes it worse that he conceded 26 goals.
Mannone’s magical agent secured him a move to LOSC Lille at the start of this season and he has played four times as a back-up goalkeeper, only conceding one goal. At the age of 36, retirement doesn’t yet appear to be in sight for the man with holes in his gloves.
Charlie Adam: Just an awful signing, really. I can’t think of one person thinking that it was going to go well. What on earth the club were thinking, we’ll never know. And no, “experience” is not an explanation. If you need experience, you might as well ask Michael Gilkes to dust off his boots.
Adam managed 21 appearances, two goals and two assists in his time with Reading, though the midfielder didn’t have the legs to finish most of the games he played in, being subbed off 13 times or subbed on seven times. Needless to say, we were all shocked.
Adam, similar to Blackett, extended his contract to see out the Covid-extended season but was not offered an extension to his one-year deal, despite seemingly wanting to stay. Frankly, it is amazing given how much money we have wasted on bad contracts as a team in our time that we had the foresight to only offer a one-year deal. Marginal wins and all that.
Adam joined boyhood club Dundee in Scotland, playing 65 times, scoring 11 goals and 12 assists, though was far more productive in this first season there than his last, due to injury concerns and also being fined for drink-driving during this time.
He retired at the end of the 2021/22 season and resurfaced again at the end of 2023 as fellow League One side Fleetwood Town’s manager. Adam has at time of writing managed them for 16 games, only winning three of them, and is likely to see them get relegated this season, though the jury is still out on his management credentials.
Jordan Holsgrove: Academy central midfielder Holsgrove was allowed to leave the club for an undisclosed fee, though potentially for nothing at all, given the historic operating model. Despite making no appearances for the first team he seemed to be a promising player and it was a shame to see him depart the club, citing that a lack of first-team opportunities was a concern for him.
During his last season at Reading he spent the time on loan at Spanish side Atlético Baleares, playing 22 times and contributing two goals and one assist and seemingly enjoying life there. Indeed, Atlético Baleares say that both they and Holsgrove wanted to extend the stay, but Reading blocked the opportunity.
Holsgrove instead ended up in Spain again, this time at Celta Vigo, which in fairness is quite a good move for someone who never saw any first-team action with Reading, and spent two seasons in their B Team. He played 52 times, scored six and assisted two goals, which is not bad for a nominally defensive-minded midfielder.
Then followed one season at Paços de Ferreira in Portugal, with 27 games, two goals and three assists. He then joined Greek side Olympiacos (home of Nelson Abbey these days) but was immediately loaned out to Portuguese side Estoril, making 19 appearances so far this season, contributing two goals and three assists.
Still only 24, he seems to be doing well and playing at good level, as well as having the good fortune to join teams in far warmer climates than Reading.
Adrian Popa: I’m not sure if Romanian winger Adrian Popa was any good because I genuinely don’t recall him ever playing a game for us. Sort of like Dejan Tetek. Always there in the background, but never on the pitch.
He joined the club in January 2017 under strange circumstances, in that we could have waited a few months for his contract to finish with his native Steaua București and signed him for free, but we paid actual money to bring him to the club instead. I guess it gave him the chance to score his only goal for us, in the March after joining.
Sheffield Wednesday v Reading – Sky Bet Championship – Hillsborough
Adrian Popa puts Reading 2-0 up at Hillsborough in the 2016/17 season Photo by Simon Cooper/PA Images via Getty Images
He made a total of 15 appearances for us in those three and a half years, with one goal and two assists, and spent a large chunk of time out on loan. I’d love to know if anyone can remember him participating in a game.
Editor’s note: I remember Popa being used as a right-wing-back in a 3-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest (2016/17). Appalling defensively, utterly appalling.
Popa went back to Romania in 2020, joining Voluntari. His two goals and one assist in eight appearances earned him a move to fellow Romanian side Academica Clinceni, and in his year there he contributed two goals and two assists in 19 games.
Lady Fortune shined on Popa as he was able to rejoin childhood side Steaua București for two years, albeit in a lower league than he had left them in, playing 49 times and getting 12 goals. He can now be found at Concordia Chiajna at the age of 35, having joined this season and played five times so far.
Lewis Gibson: The centre-back joined from Premier League Everton as a highly rated youth prospect and was known to be a ball-playing defender. Unfortunately, he had a lot of competition in front of him with centre-backs such as Liam Moore, Michael Morrison, Tom Holmes and Tom McIntyre all competing for a place in the back four. This limited him to only 13 appearances. A shame really: it feels like he joined us at the wrong time.
After returning to Everton, he was sent out on loan for the 2021/22 season to Sheffield Wednesday but only played six times, though contributing with an assist. For the 2022/23 season he joined Bristol Rovers and played 31 times, which up until then was far more games than he had ever played in a season of first-team football, though it likely it would have been more if he didn’t pick up an injury that sidelined him for a few weeks.
He returned to Everton at the end of the season and was offered a new contract. However, he elected to join Plymouth Argyle instead, having never played for Everton’s first team, and has been there since the start of this season, playing 36 times so far (sometimes at left-back) as they battle against relegation.
Jordan Obita: Obita was a favourite of mine, versatile in being able to play both left-back and left wing, and previously won the player of the season award for 2013/14. He’s certainly the kind of player we could use now. In the season when his contract ran to an end, he signed a temporary extension to see through to the end of the Covid-extended season.
Allegedly, he was offered an extension at the start of the season, which was not signed, and terms offered towards the end of his stay were changed. Perhaps this was an effect of both the financial state of football after Covid, with no crowds generating revenue, and the ongoing financial state of Reading. Either way, it was a shame to see him go and in these circumstances.
For the 2020/21 season, he went off up the road to League One Oxford United, playing 15 times and scoring one goal. He only played 15 times as he was bought by Championship side Wycombe Wanderers in the January transfer window for an undisclosed fee. He had a great two and a half years there, racking up 95 appearances, five goals and eight assists.
Obita was offered a contract extension but turned it down and instead moved up to Scottish side Hibernian at the end of his contract, which may seem strange but is likely to have been influenced by direct of football there, former Reading manager Brian McDermott. Since joining at the start of this season, he has been a regular first-teamer with 37 appearances and two goals.
Chris Gunter: The Welsh international right-back divided opinion – articles such as this and this from a website not a million miles away from here demonstrate that – but I always thought he was great.
Gunter always gave his all for the club, had opportunities to leave for clubs at a higher level but always stayed to fight for the team, and really, it’s a surprise for me that he wasn’t a club captain at some stage. 280 appearances in total, two goals and five assists. Ah, yes, I see the attacking output wasn´t great, but his game was more than about that.
Soccer – Capital One Cup – Fourth Round – Reading v Arsenal – Madejski Stadium
Photo by David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images
Seemingly released from the club as a cost-saving measure, Gunter spent the next two years at League One Charlton Athletic, playing 51 times, getting one goal and three assists. Then in the 2022/23 season he moved onto AFC Wimbledon, presumably swapping tips with departing coach James Oliver-Pearce, who left for Reading FC at the same time. In one season at AFC Wimbledon he notched up 31 appearances, zero goals and one assist and then gracefully went into retirement.
During all this time, he continued to play for the Welsh national team, earning 109 caps in total. Now retired, he has joined the Welsh national team’s coaching staff, working alongside manager Rob Page.
Garath McCleary: McCleary found himself in a similar situation to his best friend, Gunter, coming to an end of his time at Reading, frozen out of the side and trying to be moved on by Jose Gomes to save the club money, though being brought back into the fold under Mark Bowen after Gomes left, it seems that money remained a factor behind allowing him to depart.
I remember hearing on a recent pod that McCleary also divided opinion among the Reading faithful, but it seems to me that the winger was largely loved by the fans. Famous for scoring some absolutely outrageous goals during his time at the club, McCleary provided 27 goals and 46 assists in his 270 appearances for Reading.
After leaving Reading, he joined Wycombe Wanderers in November 2020 as a free agent, having trained with them during the summer. And he’s still there right now, to this day. And do you know what?
He’s still going strong at the age of 36 – he’s racked up 161 appearances for Wycombe, with 25 goals and 23 assists, though plays as a central midfielder for them from time to time. And do you know what else? Our fans still love him, after our 1,600 travelling fans gave him a standing ovation and chanted his name after he completed 70 minutes against us at the start of March. Sometimes football is nice.
Ben House: Academy graduate Ben House was a fairly active striker in the under-21s and under-18s teams for Reading, registering 61 appearances, 27 goals and nine assists during his time there. However, this never translated into breaking through to the first team, possibly due to a few unsuccessful loads to Swindon Town and Dagenham & Redbridge, and House left the club in the summer of 2020 after his contract expired, having only made one senior appearance for Reading.
House was picked up (rebuilt?) by Eastleigh in the National League, where he began to become a regular starter for the first time in his career, playing 56 times across one and a half years there and scoring 13 goals.
League One Lincoln liked the cut of his jib and signed in the January 2022 window for an undisclosed fee, where he continues to play for them. House has so far appeared 65 times for Lincoln, contributing 15 goals and four assists.
Gabriel Osho: One that got away? O, sho. (Crickets). I’ll keep the dad jokes to myself then.
Academy defender Osho had four separate loan spells while with the club, but struggled to make any real impact anywhere. He broke through into the Reading first team towards the end of the 2018/19 season, and then began to feature a little more regularly during the 2019/20 season, making a total of 10 appearances for Reading.
Osho was offered a new deal to stay at the club, however, he declined as he wanted more game time and departed the club on a free transfer to join local-ish Luton Town in November 2020, after a few months without a club. At the time, this was seen as a risky decision to make. Certainly the best case scenario that you could describe this as was “brave”, and this seemed to be vindicated after making a slow start to life at Luton, with only one appearance.
Coventry City v Luton Town: Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final
Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images
However, he broke through into the first team the following season and played a key part in the side’s unlikely push for promotion last season and remains in the Luton first team now. Apart from a play-off winner’s medal, he also has 80 appearances, five goals and one assist to show for his efforts, as well as vindication for making the right move. Earlier this month was called up to the Nigeria international squad for the first time. Fair play to the lad.
Alfa Semedo: Semedo came in as a loan signing from Benfica with previous experience playing at Championship level, and the midfielder definitely seemed like quite a good signing to be bringing in. In all, he played 40 times for us, scoring two goals and registering three assists, and had a decent season for us as an ever-present in the side.
This helped him gain international recognition, and he played his first game for Guinea-Bissau in March 2021. Unsurprisingly, we were not able to make the deal permanent, despite Semedo´s Benfica contract expiring at the end of his loan spell.
From here, he moved to fellow Portuguese side Vitória Guimarães for one season, playing 35 times but not contributing any goals or assists. Since the summer of 2022, he has played for Saudi Arabian team Al-Tai, and has so far featured 53 times, with three goals and three assists, and continues to represent Guinea-Bissau at international level.
Tomás Esteves: Fellow Portugal-based loan signing Esteves, and his beautiful mane of hair, came in to give us some cover in the right-back position for the team and actually played more often than expected, usurping Yiadom as first choice for the season. He made 30 appearances and contributed one goal, and then went back home to FC Porto.
After leaving Reading, he spent the next season on loan at Italian side Pisa, with both an option to buy and obligation to buy if certain conditions were met included in the deal. During the season he played 23 times, scored one goal and probably got a whole bunch of selfies with the wonky tower. The deal was made permanent for a reported fee of €1 million: Esteves became an official Pisa player this summer, and has featured 23 times so far, with one goal and one assist.
He very much seems to have developed into a utility player for the side, having played in both the left and right full-back positions, as well as featuring in central midfield. He’s yet to break through to the Portuguese national squad, but continues to feature at under-21 level because he’s somehow only 21 still.
Andre Burley: Andre Burley. Where would this feature be without academy star/hero/GOAT Andre Burley? The great man himself, dragging the club to dizzying new heights, redefining expectations of god-like status in his three appearances in the first team. OK, I admit it, I forgot about him too.
The defender jumped ship to Wycombe Wanderers, who do seem to like to take a punt on our cast-offs, making no appearances there and spending two years out on loan in the lower leagues of English football.
A loyal man, staying true to his roots and refusing to bless the footballing mortals with his talents outside of a small radius in southern central England, he then joined Oxford City in the summer of 2022 where the right-back and occasional centre-back has found a home. He’s played 74 times for Oxford City and even scored three goals, two of them this season, and remains there to this day.
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