Reading FC

Zurab Khizanishvili is not in Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce’s plans
advertisement

Reading FC wait to follow up on Zurab

By Matthew Sadler
June 30, 2010

Assistant boss Nigel Gibbs insists Reading have made no move for Zurab Khizanishvili, despite Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce revealing the centre-back is free to leave Ewood Park.

Khizanishvili impressed during a three-month loan spell at Madejski Stadium at the end of last season, but Royals boss Brian McDermott admitted last month that he was not confident of signing Georgia’s captain because of his valuation.

However, last week Allardyce revealed that Khizanishvili is surplus to requirements at the Premier League outfit.

Gibbs said: “I saw the quotes from Sam and we are aware of the situation, but nothing is happening at the moment.

“Not much will be happening anywhere until after the World Cup and when all the teams are back in pre-season. Our aim is to keep the players that we have and if we do that, then we will be happy.”

Reading will be looking to use the loan market to their advantage again this season by loaning out some of their highly-rated youngsters.

Current player-of-the-season Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wales international Simon Church and Adam Federici all made great strides following loan spells in the lower leagues and Gibbs is keen for more players to have that opportunity.

He said: “Loaning out the young players has helped us in recent seasons and I am sure it is something we will be looking at again.

“It gives them the experience of playing league football week-in, week-out and then we have seen the players return and kick on.”

Reading’s impressive second half of the 2009/10 campaign has seen them installed as one of the favourites for promotion next season, but Gibbs is refusing to get carried away with the club’s chances.

He added: “We finished the season well and had a good run-in, but ended up just running out of games. We need to start this season how we finished the last.

“If we can improve on the points we won last season we will not be far away.”

| Submit Comments | View Comments (4)