After a bright start to first team football last season it may come as a shock to some Southampton fans that Harrison Reed hasn’t had a glimpse of first team action this year. It was just this time last year that Reed made his full début in an impressive 3-0 win over Everton at St Mary’s putting on a fantastic show for the Saints fans which raised some eyebrows.
It seemed as though the chances for Reed were going to become somewhat more frequent. Being given the number 18 shirt pre-season would probably have raised high hopes for the youngster hoping to make a bigger impact amongst the first team. However, this has not been the case for the 20-year-old. Since his start against Everton in December 2014, Reed has made a mere 11 cameo appearances trying to show Ronald Koeman just what he is capable of, and I’m sure many other Saints fans would agree that he did not look out of his depth.
Before the 2015/16 season kicked off some rumours were floating around Reed suggesting a possible loan move to either Derby or Hull. Looking at his current situation maybe this wouldn’t have been such a bad idea considering the amount of opportunities both Clement and Bruce give to the younger players. But Southampton’s stance on Reed has remained clear. He will stay with our development squad and look to progress from there, the potential loss of Gaston Ramirez in January may open up a possible gap for Reed to fill into and this possibly could be the clubs plan all along.
The fiery U21 will certainly look to carry on impressing the England U20 set up as he looks for a future international career. He has made several appearances this year for both the Southampton U21 team and the national side impressing in both squads, but it is without no doubt that Reed will be a fantastic and complete midfielder when he has matured later on in his career.
