Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
Thinking back to the first half of the season, we had Robinson, who was having fitness problems of his own, and no one else to play up front, so when a young player from the reserves started scoring plenty of goals in under 21 Cup games (Reindorf's scoring record in under 21s League matches is nothing special) and performing well in League Cup games for the senior team, it's only natural that we got excited and started clamouring for him to be given a league debut.
The word from the club at the time was that Reindorf was "raw" and not ready for first team football yet and, given how his season's turned out, you have to think that, this time, they were right. Reindorf eventually got some game time for the senior team when he came on as a sub away at Coventry and the home match with Preston and, while it was never going to be easy for him coming into a struggling team, he didn't do much to suggest he was ready for Championship football yet.
Given this, a move out on loan appeared to make sense, but, whereas I believe Eli King and, to a lesser extent, Joel Colwill have shown enough to suggest they could be part of a Cardiff City League One squad next season, Reindorf's time at Bristol Rovers couldn't really have gone much worse. Reindorf's going to be coming back to a very different looking City squad when he returns from his loan spell. It's possible that he'll have Robinson, Salech, Etete, Simic (although I think the likelihood is that he'll be out on loan somewhere) and, possibly, Pearce in front of him in the queue for a first team striker's place and I suppose there's the possibility that Meite might be offered a new deal as well if he can finish the season in some sort of goalscoring form - if I had to guess now, I'd say Reindorf is likely to be spending next year on a season long loan to a League Two club.