I agree with you, but that's just football isn't it. We can't guarantee people will get games when they go out, they have to work hard and show their ability and earn games, just like they would here. Unfortunately for Gibson, if he can't force his way into the Reading side, it doesn't say much about his ability to force his way into ours. Not every prospect will make it at the top, and some of the ones that do will have to work their way up over a number of years. It's a competitive world, whether you stay in the under 23s or go out on loan, there's a good chance that you're going to fall by the wayside unfortunately.
This may be true atm, but not necessarily long term. He's only 20 this year, won't be 21 until after the season. Say he has another loan next year, that'll take him up to 22. Holgate is 24 now, had his WBA loan when he was 22. No reason we need to be expecting Gibson to show himself to be ready for the first team for a couple of years. Obviously we can't be keeping all our youngsters on like we have with some in the past, but at the same time that doesn't mean we need to be discarding them all if they haven't burst in to the first team squad by the time they're 20.
No of course not, they're the decisions the club has to make, as always. Personally I've said before that i'm not convinced they have huge hopes for Gibson, the way things have panned out with him just makes me think they're not totally convinced. I'd be surprised if he was offered a new contract at the end of this season, and as he'd be in his last year I wouldn't be shocked if they looked to move him on. Players can always develop later but as you say, we can't keep hold of them all while we wait and see either, nor will many of them want us to.
Yeah tbh I haven't seen that much of him recently, just remember a fair amount of fanfare when he did come in, and has looked decent the few times I have seen him. Perhaps we can arrange a 1yr extension, and send him on loan with most of it covered by the loanee team. Again, like you say it really depends on what the club think of him, and tbh he may not want to stick around anyway
I liked what I saw of him personally, but the fact that they let his contract run down, the lack of 'big' teams linked with him when that happened, the fact he never even got on the bench last season when we only had 3 centre halves all season, him only getting a 2 year extension, and now the lack of game time at Reading all point to me to him not being seen as top prospect. Compare it to Branthwaite for example, where pretty much the exact opposite applies in each of those cases, despite him being 2 years younger. It doesn't mean Gibson won't make it obviously, but I think the signs are that he just isn't that highly rated at the moment.Yeah tbh I haven't seen that much of him recently, just remember a fair amount of fanfare when he did come in, and has looked decent the few times I have seen him. Perhaps we can arrange a 1yr extension, and send him on loan with most of it covered by the loanee team. Again, like you say it really depends on what the club think of him, and tbh he may not want to stick around anyway
Gibson was still here for at least the first cup game I think? The reports early in the season were that he wanted to stay thinking he might get games, but the club wanted to get him out on loan. I think the loan made reasonable sense in theory - reading can’t have been THAT happy with their options or they wouldn’t have asked to take him - but it hasn’t worked out. It happens.
