Five Young Royals In Five Years’ Time: Part Two

What does the future hold in store for these five young Royals?

Through the years, various TTE writers have had a go at predicting the future of five young player on Reading’s roster, more specifically where they will be in five years’ time.

Following the massive squad overhaul that’s taken place over the last few years - for the squad looks virtually unrecognisable to ones of the recent past - we’ve got a very different crop of youth footballers now, so I’m not just looking at academy graduates this time around, but more generally under-21 Royals players.

In part one, I predicted the careers of Tyler Bindon, Jay Wareham, Tivonge Rushesha, Coniah Boyce-Clarke and Kiyan Coke-Miles-Smith, so here I’ll be taking a look at five more young Reading players and attempting to guess where they’ll 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!

Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan

Prediction: Bristol Rovers

The striker’s contract expires at the end of this season, and I could see us renewing it for another couple of years, but for Ehibhatiomhan, tying himself down to this circus for too long wouldn’t be a very clever move.

Ehibhatiomhan has five goals in 38 League One appearances to his name, hardly enough in my opinion to get a move up the divisions. So I’d imagine that, in five years’ time when Reading are hopefully a Championship club again, he won’t be good enough to cut it in England’s second division.

He’s one of those players who’s undoubtedly talented to a good degree, but I just don’t see the “it” factor in him yet, and I think we’d be in a far worse position if we never had Sam Smith and had to persist with Ehibhatiomhan up front.

Still, he’s only 20 years old, so by his prime I think he could well cement himself a starting spot in the strike force of a top-half League One team, so I’ll go for Bristol Rovers, maybe under the management of a young, up-and-coming manager like Pete Wild.

Charlie Savage

Prediction: Leeds United

Although Savage signed a four-year contract in 2023, my five-term timeframe is a little too much to guarantee his services in Berkshire right up until 2028, but with this lad’s talent, I’ll be very surprised if a club isn’t willing to pay big before that for the Welshman’s signature.

It feels like he’s almost thought of by fans as one of the more senior members of the squad sometimes, possibly due to the fact that he joined permanently from another club, but Charlie had only 15 senior appearances to his name before coming to Reading, all of which came in the second half of the 2022/23 season for Forest Green Rovers, who were as well as relegated by the time he signed on loan.

I’ve been really impressed with Savage’s work rate, attitude and strength for such a young man. By no means does he go above and beyond at the moment to show that he should be playing at a much higher level, but again, at just 20 years of age, there’s so much time for improvement.

Let’s imagine him going to a romantic Marcelo Bielsa reunion at Leeds, where the West Yorkshire club will have been promoted back to the Premier League, and turned to the Argentine in January to keep them up. Savage’s energy would certainly be put to good use in his relentless play style.

Ben Elliott

Prediction: Valencia CF

Elliott is a confusing one. As much as I think he could be the next Dele Alli, James Maddison or Jamal Musiala, I think it’s equally possible the midfielder is the next Alen Halilovic, Josh McEachran or Freddie Adu.

As an excellent piece on the man himself recently highlighted, no-one quite knows where he plays best, and when he does play he struggles to make a big enough impact for me, doing enough to get a 6/10 or 7/10, but not really enough to warrant a guaranteed starting spot in Ruben Selles’ XI.

I have a lot of faith in Elliott’s future in football though, and for this one I’m heading abroad, to La Liga, where the football is notoriously more technical and less physical, with a heavy emphasis on presence in midfield.

Mark Bowen admitted to interest in Elliott from overseas when we signed the 20-year-old in the summer, so I don’t see why that would have curbed after a decent season so far for the midfielder, and in five years he could do more than a job in the Los Ches midfield.

Mamadi Camara

Prediction: Norwich City

The 20-year-old has been on the scene at Reading for over three years now, having made his debut under Veljko Paunovic in January 2021, but has never really broken through as of yet.

He’s played 215 league minutes this season, the most out of any in his career as of yet, a lot of which will be a lot down to absence due to injury, but still, underwhelming in my opinion. Camara is another player who no-one seems to know for certain where he should play. He’s been employed on both wings, in attacking midfield and as a second striker throughout his career, and while performing at under-18 and under-21 level, he has a single senior goal to his name.

The Guinea-Bissau international’s contract expires in 2025, when he’ll still be just 21 years old, with bags of potential, and I predict a move on a free transfer to Championship mid-table floaters Norwich City, who in five years’ time will have lost the cutting edge they used to gain so many promotions with, but will be stable nonetheless. Again, Camara has lots of ability - not too much to show for it though yet.

Matty Carson

Prediction: Fleetwood Town

Hope you’d rather be a Cod than a Haddock Matty. I’m predicting him to head back north to Lancashire where he started his career in professional football, but this time at the Highbury Stadium. Carson last started a game for Reading in October, and since has hardly made a matchday squad.

I feel like it’s going to be a tough way back into the starting XI in Berkshire for the 21-year-old, with Jeriel Dorsett, Clinton Mola and recently Kelvin Abrefa preferred at left-back, so I can foresee him being let go at the end of this season and bouncing around the lower divisions for a few years before finding his feet at Fleetwood.

On the left side of a back five, with his crossing, Carson would no doubt excel when used correctly. His defending leaves a lot to be desired, but I’ve found that with most League One defenders in general this season, so I don’t think that should stop him too much.

Although his contract length has never been disclosed by Reading, whether at the club or not, I don’t think he’ll be in the first-team frame with us for much longer. He’s a talented player of course, but maybe not right for Selles’ system.