Royals boss confirms bids have been received for Reading duo linked with Luton move

Reading boss Ruben Selles has confirmed that the club have accepted bids for academy graduates Tom Holmes and Nelson Abbey after the duo were linked with a move to Luton Town on Friday.

England youth international Abbey, 20, is currently enjoying his breakthrough year for the Royals, playing 26 times in defence, also captaining the club too. Despite the speculation about his future, he was named in the starting line-up for yesterday’s League One clash against Port Vale which was abandoned on 16 minutes due to a pitch invasion from home supporters in protest against the owners.

Meanwhile Holmes, 23, has made over 100 appearances since coming through the ranks at the Madejski Stadium and making his senior debut in March 2018, but was not included in the side yesterday. Although Luton manager Rob Edwards down played the reported interest from the Hatters as wide of the mark, when speaking to the Reading Chronicle, Selles said: “We have two players who had bids, and two proposals have been accepted by the club. One of them we are managing the option of a loan back, so that will not affect us in football terms. It does not mean that they are going to leave us, the club have accepted but the players need to agree to accept those proposals.

"One is a Premier League club, but it is not only one Premier League club that have interest. There is interest from other clubs abroad. It would be dangerous to speculate. I have been informed about the deals but I was not involved at the very beginning.

"I understand the game and that some of my players, like Nelson Abbey, have been growing a lot and his profile is interesting not home but abroad. I also understand that I would like to keep Nelson and Tom because they have real character. My target was to keep my team together for the rest of the season because I think we fought really hard to be in a good moment, and to need to restart the process will take time. We don’t have time if we want to be in this league next year."