Samuel And Tanner Return To Reading FC But Perhaps Not For Long

There have been growing calls for Samuel to be brought back into the Royals first-team, where he began the season before sustaining a knee injury in August, being sent on loan to League One Gillingham to regain form and fitness. In nine games, that is exactly what the forward has done and his four goals have helped the Kent side to second in the table. Now his temporary contract has reached its conclusion, Samuel is back in Berkshire but the two sides are in talks about extending his deal.

After Saturday's win over Bristol City, manager Brian McDermott discussed Samuel's future with reporters:

"We don't know yet, had a discussion before Saturday’s game actually - it’s something we need to talk more about.
"We need to speak to Gillingham, we need to speak to Dominic and we need to have a conversation ourselves between the staff, the owners and everything about what we’re going to do.
"Dominic has done really well and he’s scoring goals.
"What I don’t want to do is stop Dominic’s progress. If he’s playing for Gillingham and he’s scoring goals and I bring him back and don’t use him as much, that’s not good for him.
"I need to make sure that I do the right thing by him - so that’s something for discussion."

The same can be said for Craig Tanner, who after making his debut in the early weeks of the 2014/15 season has reinvigorated his development with a spell at Plymouth Argyle. As the Home Park outfit challenge for promotion out of League Two, Tanner has done well and boss Derek Adams maintains that the attacker wants to stay in Devon.

Meanwhile, Cheltenham Town loanee Andrija Novakovich has come back to Reading after his spell with the National League leaders finished. Manager Gary Johnson revealed that Town had the option to keep the American youngster, but after only five appearances, they opted against doing so, citing Novakovich's need for first-team football.