Reading were the surprise favorites of last season, early favorites to go down after spending relatively little preseason, they not only avoided the drop but finished only one point below a European spot Steve Coppell always maintained they didn’t want, with largely the same first team that had won him promotion. However managing to stay up in your first season in the Premiership does not mean that you can take it easy second time around, as Ipswich, West Ham and others have found out in recent years. Whether they should have been favorites for the drop is questionable however, as they finished first in the Championship the season before, with 106 points and 16 ahead of Sheffield United in second.

Several of Reading’s players were already beginning to earn a name for themselves, and although I doubt anyone could have predicted that they would finish as high as they did, it was not that surprising that they managed to adapt to the Premiership better than the other two promoted clubs, especially because, due to them signing only a few players, they had a team that already knew each other very well, and their team unit and spirit remained relatively intact from their promotion winning season.

Reading’s first setback of the new season occurred well before the old season had finished when Steve Sidwell announced he would be leaving on a free at the end of the season. At one point it looked like Newcastle would be his next destination with Alan Oliver describing it as “the worst kept secret in football”. Alas, Sidwell eventually decided to sign for Chelsea Reserves instead, citing guaranteed first team football as one of the reasons for his decision.

With Reading having already lost one of their star men, Coppell will probably be reluctant to let any more go easily, however Coppell will not keep a player that does not want to be at Reading from leaving and there are a few Reading players who could potentially be worth paying slightly over the odds for.

The first Reading player I shall single out is their 26 year old left back, Nicky Shorey. Shorey signed for Reading only nine days before his 20th birthday, when they were in League One (then called Division Two). He has gone on to appear over 200 times for Reading in the 7 years he has been at the club. By the start of the 2001/2002 season Shorey was a regular at Reading, appearing in 29 games that season, as they won promotion into the Championship, when he was only 21. Since then he has been their number one left back in the four seasons it took to transform Reading into a team worthy of competing in the Premiership. While most of the squad that gained promotion into the Championship have been gradually replaced, Shorey one of only a few from that team who managed to keep his position in the team as the club was transformed. Shorey is an attacking full back, no question, and at 5′ 10″ he is not the tall, strong full back that Allardyce is reportedly looking for. In Reading’s promotion season Shorey managed 11 assists and 2 goals in the league, contributions that were no doubt vital to them gaining promotion.

Shorey adapted well to the Premier League, getting 6 assists and 1 goal in last seasons campaign. His performances also earnt him a call up to the England B squad for a match against Albania and then, with Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge sidelined he made his full international debut in a friendly against Brazil. Although we have just signed a young left back for 6.3 million pounds, I still feel we could benefit from signing another. Whereas Enrique is a tall and strong left back, Shorey is a small and fast one, with good crossing. I think that having both of these types of left back in our squad could benefit us a lot. I don’t know how much he would cost, although I would say he would probably be available for around the same price of Leighton Baines, say 5 million pounds.

The second player that I believe could be worth a bid is another defender, Ibrahima Sonko. The center back initially impressed at League One side Brentford, before moving to Reading on a free for the 2004/2005 season. Sonko was straight into the first team when he signed for Reading, making 35 starts in his first season, aged just 23 (he turned 24 in January), he then started every single league game for Reading in the following season, opting out of the African Cup of Nations to help Reading gain promotion to the Premier League. Sonko made 23 appearances for Reading last season before cruciate knee ligament injury ruled him out of the remainder of the season.

Sonko is a big, fast, strong and powerful defender, and has his best years ahead of him. Signing Sonko would however push Huntington and Edgar, two promising youth players, further down the pecking order, which would not be brilliant for their development, but on the other hand could give Allardyce the confidence to send them out on loan, with the assurance that there is cover for the positions if we have any injuries. He is a Senegal international, so would be expected to go to the African Cup of Nations in January, although he did opt out of it last time, in order to help Reading gain promotion, so if he was needed here it is possible he would choose to opt out again. Sonko signed a new deal with Reading in December 2006, and could be hard to prize away from Reading. Curtis Davies, the West Brom center back, has a reported asking price of 8 million pounds placed on his head by the Baggies, and I can’t see Sonko moving for less than 6.

The final Reading players that I shall single out in this installment are the strikers Kevin Doyle and Leroy Lita. If there is one thing that we at Newcastle have a lot of, it is strikers, but on the other hand Owen is seemingly incapable of getting through two weeks of full fitness without injuring himself for another few months and Ameboi and Viduka have a poor fitness record. Smith has also only just recovered from a long term injury and we cannot completely rule out the sale of Martins before the end of the transfer window.

Lita and Doyle are both young, 22 and 23 respectively. Lita has made several appearances for England at youth level, including at the recent U21 tournament, a tournament where he was England’s top scorer with 3 goals in 4 games, although his performance there will be remembered for his spectacular misses as much as his goals. Doyle signed from Cork for just 85 thousand pounds in time for the 2005/2006 season. He scored 18 goals and got 10 assists during their campaign. He also managed 13 goals from 32 appearances last season, and looked like an early contender for the golden boot managing 8 goals in 16 games, but he had a more quiet second half of the season. He has appeared and scored for the Republic of Ireland. Leroy Lita was Bristol City’s top goalscorer when he signed for Reading for a record 1 million pounds. He has started 44 league games, and made 15 substitute appearances for Reading in the league since then, scoring a total of 18 goals in 2 seasons, 7 of which were scored last season in the Premiership.

Because both of these strikers are young, British and highly rated they could command fees a couple of million either side of 10 million pounds. If our strikers injury woes continue or if we need to sell any of our forwards, then either of these two could be a good replacement.

Who should Newcastle look to sign from Reading? How will Reading fare this season following their impressive start? Have your say.