25-year-old Crystal Palace midfielder joins the Royals until the end of the season

Reading Football Club are delighted to confirm the loan signing of talented midfielderfrom Crystal Palace, linking up with Jaap Stam’s side until the end of our current 2016-17 Championship campaign.The six foot midfielder joins the Royals’ ranks with a vast amount of Premier League written into his CV despite his relatively young age; Mutch has played top tier football for Birmingham City, Cardiff City, QPR and Palace since making his senior team debut for the Blues at just 16 years of age back in 2008.Jordon also has history in terms of earning promotion to the Premier League – he played a key part in Cardiff City’s title win in 2012-13 and he scored 7 goals as a regular for the Bluebirds during their year in the top tier.Manager Jaap Stam said, “Jordon is a good technical player, he is quick and he has good stamina as a runner in midfield. He has a lot of experience of both Championship and Premier League football and it is good to bring a player with his quality into the squad – he will give us more choices against different opponents and different styles of play going forward.”Mutch first came through the youth ranks at Derby County before linking up with the side we take on at St Andrew’s tonight, Birmingham City, where he would make his debut as a half-time substitute for Gary McSheffrey in a 2-0 defeat at Southampton in the Carling Cup – becoming the Blues’ second-youngest debutant of all time after Trevor Francis!His first goal was a long range effort against Middlesbrough whilst on loan with Doncaster the following year and after spending a successful first half of the 2010-11 season on loan at Watford, Mutch returned to St Andrew’s to make his Premier League bow for the Blues at Old Trafford that January.He helped City reach the play-offs in 2011-12, but the following year moved to Cardiff where Jordon went one better and earned automatic promotion to the Premier League and the Championship title to boot.Capable of scoring spectacular goals, the midfield maestro scored a stunning long range effort to secure the Bluebirds their first away win in the top tier at Fulham – and he went on to notch at Stamford Bridge, Anfield and the Hawthorns as well as firing twice past Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet at home in March 2014.And although he couldn’t prevent Cardiff being relegated that year, Mutch remained in the Premier League when he moved to Loftus Road ahead of the 2014-15 season and, six months later, he put pen to paper on a long-term deal with Crystal Palace.The most recent of his 40 appearances as an Eagle came last weekend when he started for Sam Allardyce’s side in an FA Cup defeat to Manchester City, but Mutch will now spend the remainder of the 2016-17 campaign as a Royal!With nearly 200 games to his name, the former England youth won’t be eligible to feature against his former side this evening, but Mutch could make his Reading debut when we travel to Ipswich this weekend.Chief Executive Nigel Howe added, “Jordon is player who has spent much of his career playing Premier League football, so his valuable experience and undoubted ability will certainly help bolster the first team squad as we go into the final three months of the season.”