According to GetReading, Royals striker Orlando Sa is close to completing a £600,000 move to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Sa only joined in the summer but since McDermott got the managerial job, the forward has only started once and has failed to find the net.
Sa made a good impression with Reading since joining from Legia Warsaw in the summer, putting in some solid performances and scoring 5 goals, including a superb hat-trick against Ipswich Town in the 5-1 demolition.
In the Royals’ run to 3rd place, Sa played a very important part, linking up very effectively with Nick Blackman and Matej Vydra.
The Portuguese forward was a big favourite of former Reading boss, Steve Clarke, before McDermott took over in December.
Since then, Sa has only made one start and a handful of substitute appearances, which many Reading fans feel is unfair because Sa has hardly put a foot wrong since arriving in Berkshire, apart from that horrible penalty miss on the opening day at Birmingham in the last minute – but we won’t go into that…
McDermott has admitted that there is a lot of interest in the availability of Sa, clubs such as Club Brugge and AEK Athens were thought to have made contact with Sa. However, it now looks like Israeli giants Maccabi Tel Aviv are in pole position to gain the strikers signature for a fee thought to be around the £600,000 mark, £400,000 less than how much Reading brought him for, which will displease the fans even more.
After the signing of Yann Kermorgant and the rumoured move for Latvian man Deniss Rakels, Orlando Sa was just starting to begin dropping down the pecking order, with Matej Vydra, Hal Robson-Kanu and even forgotten man Simon Cox being preferred to him upfront already.
Over the coming days I am sure Orlando Sa’s future will become much clearer and if he does move on, on behalf of the Reading fanbase, I wish him the best of luck and am deeply saddened to see him go.
