Five Young Royals In Five Years’ Time: Part One

Tom gets his crystal ball out to predict the future of some of Reading’s brightest talents.

Back in 2020, TTE’s finest minds had a go at predicting the futures of nine young players, those being Luke Southwood, Coniah Boyce-Clarke, Gabriel Osho, Tom McIntyre, Omar Richards, Andy Rinomhota, Michael Olise, Danny Loader and Sam Smith (part one, part two).

It’s not quite the time yet to provide their five-year update, but it’s fair to say the club has changed drastically over the past few years, no part more so than our squad and the young players we have at our disposal.

Due to a January sale that DFS would have been proud of though, our academy graduate prospects have been rather depleted. So today I’ll be looking at under-21 players, homegrown or not, and trying to predict where they will be in five years’ time.

Disclaimer: The clubs listed are only there to serve as an indication I think they could feasibly reach. It’s hard to tell really where these players will end up!

Tyler Bindon

Prediction: Brighton & Hove Albion

I went for a fairly inoffensive but progressive and effective football club with this one, which in my opinion matches Bindon’s profile perfectly, so why not Brighton? They took our Caylan Vickers, and I could unfortunately see them poaching our centre-back too. The Kiwi has gained a reputation for being a brilliant, modern, ball-playing centre-back at the SCL this season, making him a perfect fit for the current Brighton project.

He’d be 24 by that stage, meaning he’d most likely be strong enough to compete in the upper echelons of the Premier League, and his ability to play on both sides as a centre-back, as well as filling in at right-back, would make him a great pick-up for savvy, shrewd teams like the Seagulls, who have the capacity to take risks on players such as Bindon.

A couple of more years developing in League One, and hopefully the Championship, with us, and I could see him fighting for Europe in England’s top division soon after.

Jayden Wareham

Prediction: Doncaster Rovers

Sorry Jayden, I can’t say everyone will end up playing at the highest level, so off to South Yorkshire you go. It feels like to me that the sort of strikers playing at the top nowadays are taller, slimmer and more agile. Of course there are many exceptions to that rule, but from what I’ve seen of the young lad so far, which is admittedly not too much, he doesn’t fit that profile so well.

However, Wareham has bags of energy and good pace, so I could see him being moved to the wing and probably bouncing around the English third and fourth divisions in his prime years, racking up a healthy number of goals along the way; a regenerated Paddy Madden, if you will.

The 20-year-old has already proved himself at National League level, making 17 appearances for Woking as early as 2020, so I’m sure by 2029 he’d be able to hack it in the EFL.

Prove me wrong Jayden, I’d love nothing more than to see you in the Premier League. With Reading, of course.

Tivonge Rushesha

Prediction: Greenock Morton

The midfielder has only managed 29 minutes of men’s league football in his career, so honestly, I can’t foresee a massive future in Europe’s top divisions, therefore I’ll go for a fellow team in blue and white hoops in Greenock Morton, where former Royal Mark McGhee started his career.

Rushesha’s energy and industry would do well in Renfrewshire, and the fact that he can comfortably occupy many positions across the pitch means in lower leagues’ smaller squads, “Tiv” would be very useful.

For me, Rushesha has had very promising glimpses in the cup competitions, but at 21 he hasn’t shown enough to play any more than a bit-part role in Reading’s League One season thus far. So in five years I’ll give him a starting role in a Scottish Championship team with high potential to get up to the Premiership.

Again, it’d be great to see him exceed these expectations, but with both Charlie Savage and Michael Craig a year younger and more favoured to start ahead of him with the club in this state, it’s hard to predict a future more successful for the Zimbabwean footballer.

Coniah Boyce-Clarke

Prediction: Reading

He’s the only player to still be at Reading, having never left since our 2020 predictions, and I’m saying the ‘keeper will stay on for another five years. Boyce-Clarke has been in the picture at Bearwood for a while now, going out on loan twice, one of which was St Albans City in the National League South, where he made his senior debut when he was just 18.

With two ageing goalies currently fighting for top spot with us, in five years’ time the Jamaican international should be in a good position to grasp the number-one shirt, maybe after a loan or two to develop him further, but Boyce-Clarke won’t have made it out of the academy and spells in non-league without talent.

It’s easy to forget our number 31 is still just 21, a relative baby in goalkeeping terms, and after starting his journey at Reading aged just eight, why can’t he continue his contract in Berkshire into the 2028/29 season?

Kiyan Coke-Miles-Smith

Prediction: Manchester City (On loan at Leeds United)

At just 17 years old and already looking like he could hold his own in the under-21s, maybe some first-team involvement too, the triple-surnamed man has a big future ahead of him. Hopefully he’s given time at Reading to develop as much as he can before moving on, and a chance to perform in the senior team in front of fans, but there’s no doubt that this lad has a ceiling far higher than what we are likely able to offer in the near future.

Coke-Miles-Smith is a left winger who’s brilliant on the ball, an instinctive finisher and seems to be a good size for his age too, so I have faith he’s going to be ready soon to compete at a higher level than the under-18s. He suffered a very unfortunate injury in February though - that being a dislocated ankle, fractured fibia and damaged ligaments - so hopefully some time out of the game doesn’t hurt his promising career prospects.

I’ll go for the treble winners for his next move, given I’m sure he’ll be on their radar after scoring against the Citizens a few weeks back in the FA Youth Cup, but when he’s 22 years old will be out on loan to Leeds to develop in the lower half of the Premier League.