Reading chief scout Brian McDermott has told fans to expect big things from January signing Jimmy Kebe.

Kebe joined Reading in January from Lens, and has made three substitute appearances in the first team.

McDermott told the club's website: "Jimmy has massive amounts of pace and potential. It's difficult for him because he doesn't know the language. But he's showing his ability in spurts. He could have scored against Everton, and he's come off the bench for little spells.

"He's still got to settle, I've got massive hope for him when he settles and learns the language. It took Drogba a year to adjust to the game over here after his move from France."

Kebe is little-known outside France, but McDermott argues: "That's what we do, obscure signings. What was the point of signing a player like Kevin Doyle from Cork, or Dave Kitson from Cambridge? Why would you take Stephen Hunt on a free from Brentford? The list goes on.

"We look at our players and try to identify players we can work with, they are the ones we go for. We don't get the finished article players, and I've said before that if we tried to sign the players we have currently playing for our first team we couldn't get them.

"We've always tried to go for players who are young and hungry. When we recruit we always go down that road."