Just Done: Reading FC seal stunning Deal of €500,000 ‘Midfield Maestro
Reading conducted some excellent business under Brian Tevreden during the summer of 2016, with John Swift joining as one of many additions.
Not every move worked out, with Danzell Graveberch barely making an impact during his time in Berkshire and Sandro Wieser failing to make a single competitive appearance for the Royals.
However, some of their other business was very smart.
Joey van den Berg was an effective figure in midfield and defence, Roy Beerens contributed more than he gets credit for and Yakou Meite proved to be a real bargain.
Tyler Blackett was also a fairly decent signing and the Berkshire side did a fantastic job to get a deal over the line for Leicester City’s Liam Moore for just £1m.
Overall, Moore’s time at the Select Car Leasing Stadium wasn’t viewed as a huge success, but he was a real asset during his first season at the club and played a big part in the Royals’ journey to the 2017 Championship play-off final.
Their most successful signing during the summer of 2016 proved to be Swift, who joined on a free transfer following his departure from Chelsea.
He was just 21 at the time of his arrival and having secured some senior experience out on loan, he looked set to be a smart addition.
John Swift’s previous loan spells
With the player unlikely to win much game time at Stamford Bridge, he was loaned out to then-League One side Swindon Town back in January 2015, registering two goals and three assists in 19 appearances for the Robins.
Unfortunately for Swindon, he missed the play-off second leg semi-final and the final, something that would have been a major blow to the player too.
This temporary move came after a disappointing loan spell at Rotherham United where he barely played and didn’t really make an impact.
However, following a better spell at Swindon, he spent the 2015/16 campaign at Brentford, registering seven goals and four assists in 28 competitive appearances for the Bees.
He left Chelsea in the summer of 2016 and it was unclear where his next destination was, until the Royals snapped him up on a three-year contract.
