View From The Town End: Tom Dele-Bashiru

Reading made their first (hopefully of many) summer 2021 signing last week with the addition of Tom Dele-Bashiru. The young midfielder has joined the Royals on a season-long loan deal from Watford, who won promotion to the Premier League last season.

To find out some more about what we should expect from Dele-Bashiru, we spoke to Mike Duffy, host of Watford podcast The Voices of The Vic. You can find them on Twitter @MikeDuffy_26 and @VoicesOfTheVic.

Sum up his time at Watford so far

Things were looking promising for Tom Dele-Bashiru last season as he looked like he was going to play a fairly regular part in our bid to gain promotion back to the Premier League.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that well due to him doing his ACL away at Reading just four league games in to the campaign. What a real shame for someone that had shown promise in the early stages of the season too.

What style of midfielder is he?

A box-to-box, ball-carrying midfielder. As mentioned in my previous answer it was so tough to judge exactly how we would’ve panned out playing and his exact style due to him only playing two games for us.

The game against Reading, up until his injury, he was having a cracking game. Someone who wants to get on the ball at every opportunity and looks to excite as well as always looking to get the ball forward at every opportunity.

What would you say his main strengths and weaknesses are?

His weakness may come from not playing a full competitive game of football for almost a year due to injury and he may take a while to adapt into a new squad. His strengths are having the lively energy and always wanting the ball and wanting to get involved in every passage of play too.

Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images

What’s his character like?

He seems to be a very likeable character behind the scenes and has done exceedingly well to come back from his ACL injury the way he has so he strikes me as someone who will keep their head down and get on with the task at hand.

How much potential does he have to improve in the long term?

If he can get regular game time at Reading then I firmly believe he will be a first-team regular at Watford as soon as next season. The promise and talent shown by Tom, albeit for only two games, was enough to suggest that he can be a first-teamer at the club.

This will be his first taste of regular first-team football - does he have what it takes to be a success for Reading this season?

If Paunovic keeps his same style of play then yes absolutely. The majority of Watford fans are very pleased that he’s joined Reading and we believe, if given a chance, it will be an excellent signing for Reading and also excellent in helping the player himself improve and come back to Watford raring to go for next season. Perfect for both parties and we wish him and Reading all the best.