First Day of Training and It's All Change

The first day of a long season has just begun, the players retreated to Hogwoods for the first day of training and there are plenty of familiar faces missing.

Seeing the pictures were peculiar without the presence of Graeme Murty and Marcus Hahnemann be there at training - it does not seem quite Reading.

To make things a little bit more stranger there was someone wearing the number 9 training kit. Unless my eyes deceive me, it was Shane Long sporting the garment, the one previously worn by Kevin Doyle. Does this mean that Brendan Rodgers sees Long as the long-term fix and the source of goals for next season? Or what is just coincides he wore that jersey?

It was nice to see Stephen Hunt turning up even though a move away is more or less a certainly – Rodgers even claimed on SSN that he expects the Irishman to move on.
Therefore, do we look for his replacement now or leave it when he leaves?

Rodgers spoke of how he wants at least four new players to join the squad he has inherited and he spoke of his desire to bring Tommy Smith to the club. A move that I support, even though Watford have reacted angrily to Rodgers’ comments. Who cares?
If Smith wants to move to Reading, in time he will do so.

Nathan Tyson has been rumoured that he is likely to rejoin the club and this would please me immensely. I always thought we got rid of him far too quickly as in time he would come good. He’s similar to Darius Henderson in retrospect, two young players we just sold cheaply and moved on to make a real names for themselves. Simon Cox is another, even though it’s claimed we have received a ‘significant’ sell-on fee, these players we should have been looking to develop.

At present, the current of crop of youngster should be given time to develop. Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce, Julian Kelly, James Henry, should all be given time to develop and they should ideally all have a pivotal role to play in this season coming up.

Nevertheless, Long is one youngster that will have the time to make the step up to a first team regular and being given the number 9 would give him much confidence to lead the line for the Royals. My God, I hope he does and I think he will.