The Royal State Of Affairs: Goalkeepers

What we've lost

Over the past 12 months Reading FC have lost all four goalkeepers who've played league football for the club dating back to May 2009. Stuart Taylor was released last summer, Alex McCarthy was sold to QPR soon after and in the past few weeks both Adam Federici & Mikkel Andersen have also been released. Likewise several young prospects were also allowed to leave including Scotland U21 and occasional bench warmer Jon Henly.

What we've got now

Federici has gone to Bournemouth and although Andersen hasn't signed anywhere else just yet, technically the club are left with Stuart Moore as the only recognised senior keeper on the books. While Moore was recently voted Basingstoke's player of the season, the 20-year-old hasn't played a minute of league football and it would be a tough ask for him to suddenly make the jump to Championship football.

What we need

Ideally the club needs not just one but two experienced keepers to bolster the ranks. Swindon's recently released stopper Wes Foderingham was heavily linked with a move down the M4 but interest now seems to have cooled on the former Robin. Other names have swirled around including Wigan's Ali Al-Habsi but at the present time nothing has been firmed up. While two goalkeepers would seem sensible planning, Charles Watts speculated on this week's Tilehurst End Podcast Extra that Clarke could entrust the backup spot to Moore in which case you'd imagine a big push for a dependable number one would be even more important.

Priority rating this Summer:

Very High

That wraps up the keepers, we'll have a look at the situation at full-back tomorrow.