The decision to allow Academy graduate Josh Sims out on loan this season to Reading raised an eyebrow or two as plenty of fans believe he’s more than capable of doing a job for us this season in the Premier League, but manager Mark Hughes obviously wanted him to gain greater game time so he travelled for the Madejski Stadium in August.
Heading out later in the month, his debut came almost immediately as they faced Blackburn Rovers on August 22 and since then the 21-year-old winger has made five substitute appearances in total for the side as he continues to adjust to his new colleagues and with a return of two yellow cards so far, he’s not afraid to throw himself around a bit.
Using his pace and freshness as tired legs kick in so far, the tie last weekend against Preston North End at Deepdale saw him get his just rewards as, again as a substitute, he came on and created their winning goal in stoppage time and he put it on a plate for Leandro Bacuna.
Josh Sims is class
— ???? (@KingTiago_) September 16, 2018
Aluko should never start again, possibly never play again for us let’s take a hit on the transfer and let him go Josh Sims is the way forward #readingfc
— Rob (@RobP_1871) September 15, 2018
Class little player. Robbery how aluko is starting ahead of him
— Archie (@archrfc) September 15, 2018
He changed the game. Don't know if its a massive compliment to him or a massive criticism of Aluko. Probably a bit of both
— Ian Phillips (@The_Revolutian) September 15, 2018
Josh Sims, is magic. I like him, shame its just a loan.
— Chris Hartley (@Chartley1983) September 15, 2018
Having seen glimpses of what he’s capable of, the assist certainly saw the fans warm to him as the above Tweets demonstrate, so fingers crossed it’ll be a good spell and we benefit from that down the line.
