Reading Loan Finley Burns In From Manchester City

The young centre-back has previously spent time out on loan at clubs including Championship side Hull City.

Two signings in one day - what a lovely start to the week! As well as announcing the season-long loan of centre-forward Mark O’Mahony from Brighton & Hove Albion, the Royals have also confirmed the arrival of 22-year-old centre-back Finley Burns on the same basis, in this case from Manchester City.

Burns has interesting similarities with O’Mahony, which suggests Reading have highlighted a specific profile of player to bring in. Both are young, talented players from Premier League clubs yes - but crucially they’ve already been out on loan, so they arrive in Berkshire with experience of first-team football under their belt now. They won’t need to spend time getting used to senior football.

While O’Mahony spent time at Portsmouth in the Championship last season, Burns has had spells at Swansea City, Stevenage and Hull City. Those were worth three, 43 and 11 games respectively in all competitions, giving him well over a season’s worth of appearances in total.

The Stevenage spell is the most relevant for us, given that it came recently and at the same level as Reading in 2025/26. Encouragingly, Burns was a mainstay (37 appearances) in a side that boasted the fourth-meanest defence in League One across 2023/24, conceding an average of just once per game exactly.

He actually won their young player of the season award.

While he didn’t get as much game time at Hull last season, him being pushed up a league to the Championship does suggest he’s rated highly at Man City. And as with the addition of Matty Jacob - another defender on loan - Reading will have been able to run the signing past former boss Ruben Selles, who took charge of the Tigers for some of 2024/25.

You’d think that Burns will go straight into the first team alongside Paudie O’Connor, Reading’s first signing of the summer. That pairing will give the Royals no shortage of height at the back, with O’Connor and Burns standing at 6ft2 and 6ft4 respectively.

The Royals can also call on Jeriel Dorsett, Michael Stickland and Abraham Kanu (among others) for depth at centre-back. All three played 45 minutes in the 5-1 friendly win over Hungerford Town at the weekend, as did triallist Yeboah Amakwah.

While that trial came before Burns’ signing, I wouldn’t be surprised if Reading wanted another centre-back through the door as well as the City loanee anyway. Dorsett struggled for fitness last season while Stickland and Kanu are unproven at this level, so one more centre-back would give Noel Hunt some security in a key position.