Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan Agrees New Reading Terms: All Contracts Now Sorted
The Royals’ summer contract-renewals process has finally reached a conclusion.
Reading have finally confirmed that forward Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan has signed a new deal at the club. The exact contract length wasn’t revealed in the announcement article though.
This brings to an end months of a ‘will he, won’t he’ saga over the forward’s future. Reading have their man now though, and this summer’s squad-wide contract-renewal process is belatedly all done and dusted.
News on Reading’s out-of-contract players had been slow to arrive after the publication of the retained list in mid-May. Announcements only really started in mid-June when Joel Pereira renewed terms, with further news starting to come more regularly from late June onwards. While that was typically positive from a Reading perspective, a few (Amadou Mbengue, Jayden Wareham and Michael Craig) swapped the SCL for pastures new.
And then there was Ehibhatiomhan, the one player left with a question mark over his future. Rumours went around in early June of him still being in training at Bearwood, before Noel Hunt and Joe Jacobson said in interviews published on July 10 that they were optimistic he would be staying.
Hunt then shared after the Gillingham friendly that Ehibhatiomhan had been given the weekend (of July 12/13) to make his mind up. Still we were left waiting... and waiting... (despite Ehibhatiomhan starting against Tottenham Hotspur)... and waiting. The manager partially explained the situation on July 24, saying:
“He has been happy to agree for quite some time now it’s just little trivial things in the contract that people wanted changing that has taken longer than we wanted. He has been happy for the last few weeks.”
It’s been a very successful summer overall for retaining out-of-contract players. Of the 22 first-team and academy players offered new deals, only three departed (those mentioned higher up). Otherwise the following 19 have been persuaded to stay on (I’ve included the length of their new contracts in brackets):
First team: Joel Pereira (3), Andy Yiadom (1), Jeriel Dorsett (1), Abraham Kanu (1), Michael Stickland (1), Tivonge Rushesha (1), Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan (?)
Academy: Josh Welland (2), Ashqar Ahmed (2), John Ryan (1), John Clarke (1), Sam Harrison (1), Philip Duah (1), Jacob Borgnis (1), Shay Spencer (1), Luke Howard (1), Carter Bowdery (1), Jeremiah Okine-Peters (1), Basil Tuma (1)
Ehibhatiomhan staying is a big, albeit not unqualified, boost for Reading’s forward options. In a summer of widespread overhaul even before Wareham’s departure for Devon, it was important to retain someone who’s settled here, clearly liked by the manager and has shown flashes of great potential.
Ehibhatiomhan is a versatile forward, able to play through the middle or off the left. I’d go with the latter position personally, but having the option of deploying him centrally is never a bad thing.
He also brings something a little different to Reading’s front line. Ehibhatiomhan is a tricky, confident dribbler who’s able to go either way, and he’s got a clever finish in him too. Just check out his goal away to Shrewsbury Town last season for a snappy summary of both points.
And yet, he didn’t show that consistently enough last season. Ehibhatiomhan actually only managed four goals and three assists in 35 appearances across all competitions in 2024/25, but even if you focus solely on the eye test, this was a player who struggled to make an impact in games often enough.
Hopefully some pre-season preparation, the arrival of a solid left-back in Matty Jacob and the potential for some proper competition in the squad for his place will get a lot more out of Ehibhatiomhan in 2025/26. Then again, it’s still on him to improve in his own right - it’s not all about other circumstances.
While he’s far from the finished package, he’s still worth sticking with. Reading simply don’t have the money to go out buying a bunch of first-team-ready forwards - they need to back themselves to develop young players, whether they’re already here or coming in as loanees. Cheap replacements for Ehibhatiomhan - on a permanent deal - would not be easy to come by.
So I’m glad we’ve been able to keep him, and hopefully he can enjoy a really strong season.