Chalobah Loan Move In Doubt?

The latest news comes from the Reading Chronicle's Paul Carey who was the first to report the club's interest in both Nathaniel Chalobah and Lucas Piazon. 24 hours ago the move for at least Chalobah looked to be a done deal but now Carey reports that the move might be off...

'Late interest from another club on Wednesday evening has put the completion of the deal on hold - with the Chronicle understanding that Chalobah would now prefer a move abroad.

The offer from Reading remains on the table but it will be a bitter blow for Steve Clarke, who believed he had all but agreed a deal for the England Under-21 international to return.'

While seeing any move fall at the final hurdle is frustrating, in this instance you could very much sympathise with Chalobah for wanting to take another opportunity in a top division elsewhere. The midfielder has spent most of the past three seasons at Championship level, with the one exception a lacklustre spell at Premier League Burnley that yielded just 4 appearances in six months.

It was that failure at Turf Moor that opened the door for him to join Reading in January and the England U21 International proved his quality in helping us reach the FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal. However, Chalobah did look a little casual at times in the league and while you could possibly blame that on the entire team's malaise, you did get the nagging feeling he didn't feel he was being challenged in the Championship.

Even so, missing out on a player of Chalobah's quality will be disappointing for Clarke but at least he's been boosted by the form of Stephen Quinn, Danny Williams, Aaron Tshibola and Oliver Norwood plus the signing of Alex Fernandez. Central midfield is probably one area where missing out might be an easier pill to swallow.

As with the Piazon deal this is very much a wait and see move so we'll keep you right up to date with any developments here on The Tilehurst End.