Arthur Read all about it: City's new midfield maestro
And I say hey, what a wonderful kind of day
Arthur Read joins City after three productive seasons at Colchester United - what qualities saw him named in the League Two team of the season for 2025/26, and where is he likely to fit into the midfield equation at York?
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: yes, Arthur Read shares a name with a certain cartoon aardvark. A quick Google search for his name will bring up a lot more results about the bespectacled TV mammal than the 26-year-old midfielder who joined the Minstermen this summer. But does the aardvark have a wand of left foot and possess a mean set piece delivery? The evidence of his footballing pedigree is thin, but points towards him being a fairly undistinguished goalkeeper. So let’s forget about that Arthur Read.
Arthur Read (the footballer) started his career in the youth system at Luton Town, and progressed well enough to be handed his first-team debut in the EFL Trophy aged just 17. He left Kenilworth Road at 19, however, to join Brentford as part of their B team. Brentford set up the B team structure in 2016 after the closure of their academy, with the intention of providing a different pathway to the first team. Under this setup, Read made 30 appearances in the 2019/20 season as Brentford B (who at that point only played friendlies rather than competing in a league) toured various countries across Europe.
The following season, Read joined Stevenage on loan and quickly established himself in their first team. He impressed manager Alex Revell enough to make the move permanent, but the next season found game time harder to come by as Stevenage struggled near the bottom of League Two and went through three managers. Under Steve Evans, Read broke back into the first team and provided some important assists to help secure their status in the league. But by January 2023, he had again become frustrated at a lack of regular starts and made the move to fellow League Two side Colchester United for an undisclosed fee.
Colchester is where Read has really come into his own as a top midfielder at the level over the past three-and-a-half seasons. After cementing his place in their team in the second half of the 2022/23 season, the following campaign was a breakout one for Read. While the U’s struggled near the foot of the table, the few bright moments they had often came from Read: highlights included scoring a brace in a 5-4 win over Notts County, winning the League Two goal of the month award for a superb solo goal against Sutton, and curling an inch-perfect free-kick into the top corner in a 1-0 win at Morecambe. It was no surprise when he was named Colchester’s player of the season.
The 2024/25 season saw Colchester improve under Danny Cowley, just missing out on a playoff place, and Read continued to be a regular starter in midfield even if his goals and assists didn’t quite hit the same heights as the previous season. In 2025/26, he recaptured his form in front of goal, hitting a career-best 7 goals over the season including another League Two goal of the month (a rocket into the corner in a 2-0 win over Shrewsbury). He was also instrumental in setting up opportunities for teammates, ranking 5th among all players in League Two for chances created. His status as one of the standout midfielders in the division was underlined when he was named in the League Two team of the season.
With his contract at Colchester expiring this summer, Read makes the move up to York citing the ambition of the club to push for back-to-back promotions as a motivating factor. His signing is a statement of intent for City: as George Elek said on a recent episode of the Not The Top 20 podcast, “Going out and getting a guy who's been a key player for an established League Two side with big ambitions themselves is a pretty good marker to lay down”. Given how highly-rated he is at the level, we can expect him to play a big part, but where might he fit into City’s midfield?
His role will surely be as one of the two deeper-lying midfielders, and as he is left-footed that may suggest he will be competing with Hiram Boateng for the left of those two spots. Read’s strengths are as a playmaker, often acting as the link between defence and attack, picking up the ball from deep and either initiating passing moves or carrying the ball upfield. With his other key attributes including shots from distance and set piece deliveries, it’s tempting to describe him as a left-footed version of Alex Hunt (with a little more physicality).
Read’s heatmap from Colchester’s 4-1 win over Barnet this February, in which he scored the opener, reflects how he is comfortable dropping deep to offer a passing option for the defence, but also how he likes to take up positions in the ‘half-space’ between the flanks and the central zone where he can offer an attacking threat. It also shows that he doesn’t stick to the left side of the pitch, so could potentially occupy the right midfield spot if needed. York now look to have a great deal of depth for the deeper midfield roles, with Read and Mark Shelton offering competition for last year’s most common starting duo of Hunt and Boateng. Which pairing Stuart Maynard selects to start the season will be interesting, but it’s a nice headache to have.