Chelsea loanee Cesare Casadei impresses on second start for Reading

Cesare Casadei headed out on his maiden loan at the end of January, having spent the first six months of his Blues career excelling in our Development Squad after joining from Inter Milan’s youth setup over the summer.

He didn’t have to go too far, joining up with midtable Championship side Reading, managed by the legendary England midfielder Paul Ince. However, the step up from youth football to senior second division football was a pretty far distance indeed.

Just a few days after arriving, the 20-year-old was immediately throw in at the deep end by Ince, in a match against promotion hopefuls Watford. He was removed before the hour-mark to okay reviews, but would not see any further minutes ... until last night, when he started against relegation-battlers Blackpool.

This time Casadei lasted over 80 minutes, proving a quick study, and leaving his manager wanting more (in a good way).

“I was really pleased with Casadei. I brought him back in [to the starting 11]. When you come in from a foreign country like Italy, the tempo of the football is a lot different to Championship football. He’s needed that extra few weeks in training to get that tempo and you saw that against Blackpool.

“You can see he is getting there, though, and sometimes you look and wish he was our player! But he’s not. he has to go back to Chelsea. He did really, really well and he’ll get better.”

-Paul Ince; source: Berkshire Live

Love to hear that!

And that’s right, Casadei’s ours. But take good care of him until then.