When Reading went on a spending spree at the end of the summer transfer window, Reading fans were filled with excitement.
Within the last three days before the deadline, Reading had secured five big-name signings, whilst securing some of them for fees some fans thought they would never see their club spend again. In comes Lucas Joao from Sheffield Wednesday, a proven Championship striker for a fee of around 5 million pounds. Defensive midfielder Pele came on loan from Monaco, who had spent the second half of the previous season at Nottingham Forest. Ovie Ejaria had rejoined on loan from Liverpool, and goalkeeper Rafael had also cancelled his contract at Sampdoria to come to England after not getting the game time he wanted in Italy. However, the fifth and most expensive signing was the one that caused the most intrigue from fans across the country. His name was George Puscas.
George Puscas is a Romanian international, plying his trade mainly in Italy's Serie B, on loan from giants Inter Milan. He had spent last season at Palermo after signing a four-year contract, playing 33 games that season, scoring 9 goals and getting 3 assists. He has also previously played for sides such as Benevento, Novara and Bari. Although he has never hit double digits in a season in his career, it's not the club competitions that he necessarily caught the eye. It was on the international stage.
He currently plays for Romania's international team, playing 11 games and scoring 5 goals, most recently scoring the first in a 3-0 win away at Faroe islands. He most prominently played for Romania's u21s for four years between 2015 and 2019, scoring 18 goals in 25 games, which is a very good record for a player of that age. However, he really caught the eye at the u-21 European Championships, when he scored 4 goals and got one assist in 4 games as Romania reached the semi-finals, before being knocked out by Germany 4-2. This was where he started to catch the eye and the attention of the English fans when he played in a 4-2 group stage win against England. This match was to be a catalyst for change in his career, for all the right reasons.
George Puscas was put as a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation, having Ianis Hagi, Dennis Man and Andrei Ivan behind him to support. However, in-game they changed to more of a 4-4-2, with Puscas staying forward, and rather than Ianis Hagi playing the attacking midfielder role in a 4-2-3-1, he was more of a shadow striker, the striker in the 4-4-2 that dropped deep to collect the ball to drive at his opponents and spray balls either in the middle for Puscas, or out wide for Dennis Man and Andrei Ivan. In this game, Puscas showed just how good he is, by showing he has all the attributes to become a top striker. Within the first 7 minutes, a ball was played over the top and he managed to not only jump and get it but also make an accurate header by playing it behind him to Ianis Hagi, who was waiting in the box for it, only for him to shoot wide from close range. That was the only real chance from both teams in the first half. It took 75 minutes for the deadlock to be broken when Romania won a penalty after Jonjoe Kenny had tripped up Florinel Coman in the box, just over 10 minutes after he had come on for Andrei Ivan. Puscas showed his penalty-taking abilities, calmly slotting it home in the bottom-right corner. For the second goal, Puscas showed his ability to be able to be a pressing forward, Putting pressure on central defender Fikayo Tomori, forcing a mistake making him give the ball away straight into the path of the oncoming Ianis Hagi to strike to make 1-2. The third goal, although he was not directly involved, showed his awareness of what is going on around him. When Coman takes a touch onto his right foot to take a shot, Puscas smartly makes a run towards the left of the goal. This then draws a defender away from their defensive shape, allowing more room to shoot at goal. This movement also gives Coman another option, with Puscas making a run where Hagi could slip the ball straight through to Puscas for him to finish, however, Coman opts to go for it himself and succeeds. Puscas does the same thing again for the fourth goal, making a run to the left, however, Coman again opts for a shot at goal and again scores. He ended up being the only player in the team of the tournament that was not playing for a team in the final. The England game was one that caught the eye of the fans as Romania are not a high profile nation in football, so having an England team with high profile players such as Tammy Abraham and James Maddison losing to a team full of lesser-known players, it must have been something to behold. George Puscas was one of those players, but not for long.
George Puscas then started to reportedly attract interest from a host of Premier League and Championship clubs just four days after the match, with Sheffield United the first club rumoured to be interested. Reports started to come out that an offer was made from the Premier League club. A few days after that, another rumour came up that Birmingham City was interested, with him to be a replacement for their outgoing star striker Che Adams. A few European clubs started to show interest, including the likes of Steaua Bucharest and Fenerbahce. Leeds were rumoured to make a late bid at the start of August, just a week before the deadline. Then, at the last minute, just two days before the deadline, Reading seal the deal under Leeds and Birmingham's noses, for a club-record-fee believed to be around £8 million. With the amount of money spent on him, the pressure to perform well was high. But has he shown he was worth the money so far?
At this moment in time, no. But he has shown glimpses of the sheer quality he has. At the time of writing, he has played 14 games in all competitions this season however only scoring three goals, two against Cardiff and one against QPR. All three goals showed yet again the different qualities Puscas has. The goal against QPR was a lovely counter-attack goal, as he got put through on goal and managed to calmly slot it into the bottom right corner, showing his composure is very good. The game against Cardiff, however, is the game that caught the eye this season, more specifically his first goal. He picked up the ball on the right-hand side, took on the defender and glided past him, before cutting in on his weaker foot to curl it past the goalkeeper. This showed that he has the dribbling abilities to make a chance from nothing.
Although he has had good games like the one against Cardiff, most of the others he has been underwhelming, facing a lot of criticism from Reading fans following poor displays, specifically his goal rate, as he has been criticised for missing fairly easy chances.
Overall, George Puscas has shown this season and in the past that he has the quality to be a top striker, however, he just has not hit the ground running in his first season in English football. I do believe that he can and will improve, and will hopefully help Reading climb the league and further his own career, and become the high-quality striker he shows the potential of being.