I'm talking about his club career. So is the Singapore Premier League, but I obviously meant "good first division." "Established" implies that it's transferrable across top division leagues. Someone playing in the top flight of Somali football isn't an "established first division player." Anyway, he hasn't played in one of those matches in over a year. Not in terms of prestige.
I agree that it’s not a priority but they should be looking to sell players for more than they’re worth all the time unless they don’t have enough time to look at every realistic opportunity to buy/sell.
I think that the most likely/best move for him is for a club that gets relegated OR a top 10 championship team trying for promotion. It's clear that he can handle the Championship. He shored up a pretty awful defense instantly. If he keeps on performing there clubs will start to notice. Call it pulling a Yedlin, but for players where he's at right now it's playing well enough so your team gets promoted and they deem other areas of the squad to be more important to be upgraded. Yedlin honestly doesn't get enough credit. He was bought right after Newcastle got relegated on a team that remained mostly intact. Got them promoted the first year and has kept his job.
Obviously "first division" is relative. So is relative club size. Big difference between Reading and Ajax. A much smaller difference between Reading and Fortuna, or Reading and Vitesse. Perhaps he should be a starter in a Big 4 league, but his initial and immediate loan to Vitesse suggests that he was not bought as if he would start in the EPL soon. And as you mentioned, he's got 2 years to get there to equal Ream/Cameron's career zenith.
You don't have to overthink it, you only need to watch the guy play. He's looked good in the Championship. He'd be a good fit for a team trying to get promoted. Anything beyond that, well, that'd be a surprise. Nantes was above his pay grade.
But was it? The team was underperforming after having played well with him. A new manager comes in and benches him. There may have been personal problems between he and the manager as the manager removed him from the squad altogether.
He was leaving glaring holes in his desire of sprinting forward for a header. You can do that in the Netherlands, where most of the fast build-up happens on the wings, but in France? No way, those central mids are fast. The eight league games he played for Nantes (all full 90) their record was 1 win, 4 losses, and 3 ties. With him benched/not in the squad, they managed 5 wins, 5 losses, and 2 ties. It was a significant improvement.
But it's not simply that removing him fixed the problem. Other factors in play here. Often teams start to perform better for a new manager.
I hope you're not suggesting a new five-man back line. And next time first initials please for the Hoc brothers.
Starts: 🚨 TEAM NEWS 🚨#Royals unchanged for @BrentfordFC clash@LucasBoye1 and @Chrisgunter16 also return to the squad#BREvREA pic.twitter.com/XaI7Up9xau— Reading FC (@ReadingFC) November 23, 2019
Starts: 🚨 TEAM NEWS 🚨2️⃣ changes for #Royals against @LUFC #REAvLEE pic.twitter.com/wlbjSUEPGa— Reading FC (@ReadingFC) November 26, 2019
Not watching, still 0-0 at 65', but my screen is showing Reading playing a 5-3-2, with the 3 M's in the middle and two fullbacks outside of them. And Leeds is in an odd-looking 3-3-3-1.
They always play with the Three M Men as CBs (Moore, Morrison, Miazga). They're getting the 0-0 at home against a very good Leeds (who's had 68% possession), so that's a good result. PS: Leeds scores at the death. Can't say it wasn't deserved. 0-1.
I swear El Loco has Leeds playing the 3-3-1-3 with an enganche (Harrison) like back in the day. The difference is that this is a 3-3-1-3 plus gegenpressing.
No one thought these british boys could play this fast and accurate with their passing. But they are. We've seen that by the end of the campaign this team slows. Maybe Loco can downshift a bit. Leeds win on a late cross that just narrowly clears miazga and his backside defender arrives late. Very fast, frenetic match.
Started in 3-1 win: 🚨 TEAM NEWS 🚨@gmccleary12 and Pelé start at Wigan 🔙 @AndyYids returns from suspension ℹ️ Ejaria and Swift out with illness and injury#WIGvREA pic.twitter.com/J5LyIlSWoF— Reading FC (@ReadingFC) November 30, 2019