Tyler Bindon Sold To Nottingham Forest, Loaned Straight Back To Reading
The Royals have sold a second first-team player in the final week of the transfer window.
Reading have cashed in on another first-team player, with Tyler Bindon sold to Premier League side Nottingham Forest. He joins Sam Smith in heading out of the exit door - the centre-forward joined Wrexham for a fee reported to be around £2m late last week.
While the fee for Bindon hasn’t been disclosed, the Reading Chronicle’s James Earnshaw thinks it’ll be less than the Smith fee. While Bindon (20) has a much higher ceiling than Smith (26) in the long run, as far as we know the young defender was also due to be out of contract in the summer, so a smaller price tag makes sense.
The crucial thing on the pitch though is that Reading have Bindon back on loan until the end of the season. As with Luton Town paying the Royals for fellow centre-back Tom Holmes and then allowing us keep him temporarily, Forest have done us a solid really, letting us have our cake and eat it.
Even in an ideal off-pitch situation (not that any of us have a clue what that’s like), keeping Bindon beyond the summer would have been very unlikely. He’s a hugely talented centre-back that, in truth, we’ve probably been lucky to keep for as long as we have. It’s no surprise to see him join a Premier League side, and I’d absolutely back him to be a success in the top flight.
Bindon gets a well earned move, Reading bring in much-needed cash, Noel Hunt is able to keep playing one of his best players, Nottingham Forest secure a huge talent for the long term. As bittersweet as it is to know Bindon won’t be here next season, it’s still one of those rare transfers where everyone’s a winner.
Hopefully Bindon can fare better than Nelson Abbey, his former centre-back partner, who’s struggled to kick on since leaving a year ago. After 22 League One appearances in his breakout Reading campaign, Abbey has since managed just four at new parent club Olympiacos and one on loan at Swansea City - before being recalled in January and sent back out to Rio Ave.
Bindon has very much proven his potential since joining in 2023, so it would be a real shame if he were to similarly struggle for game time now. Maybe send him back to us on loan again next season ey, Forest?
It’s been quite the meteoric rise for Bindon. He was such an unknown when he signed that there wasn’t even a photo of him in the Getty database we use; it looked more like he’d actually be one for the academy.
However, after an excellent performance in the League Cup at Millwall (a game that propelled a number of other young players into the first team) - and then backing that up in the 1-0 win over Cheltenham Town a week later - Bindon never looked back.
He missed just four games in the rest of the 2023/24 league season. The bulk of his 44 appearances in all competitions came at centre-back, although there was a brief (forced) spell for him at right-back. In the middle he had a number of partners, including Holmes and Abbey, but injury to the former and the sale of the latter in the second half of the season meant he was paired up with Amadou Mbengue for the run-in.
And that’s been Reading’s best centre-back duo in an awfully long time. Mbengue’s aggression and energy mixed perfectly with the poise and composure - in and out of possession - of Bindon.
But Bindon performed excellently in his own right too. He was a comfortable winner of our Rookie of the Season award for 2023/24.
Bindon picked up where he left off last season, playing every 2024/25 game in League One so far and going from strength to strength in his performances. The pinnacle of his displays came in December, when he was the comfortable winner of our Player of the Month award with around 70% of the vote.
In fact, his overall average from our player ratings (6.4/10) is edged out by just one player: Joel Pereira on 6.5/10. If Bindon keeps going as he has been, then there’s no reason to think he can’t be named Player of the Season outright.