Five Reasons To Be Positive About Reading’s 2024/25 Season

Supporting Reading in recent years has been... challenging... but there are good reasons to be cheerful heading into 2024/25.

It’s safe to say it’s not been the most pleasant few years for Reading. But, without wanting to get too political here, “things can only get better”.

And that’s, erm, definitely never been said before at this club, has it?

Anyway, it’s time to put the past behind us once again and try to be positive. Club football is rapidly approaching again, and that’s always something to be excited about. No matter what happens off the pitch, it means more away days, last-minute goals, good times with friends and family and, most importantly, more The Tilehurst End podcasts, of course.

Right then, here are five reasons to look forward to Reading’s 2024/25 season.

An upwards trajectory

This time last year, we’d just come out of a season where we went from being top of the league at one stage to relegated: a sharp decline which would leave a bitter taste in the mouth. Last season however, we started awfully, and by the end were in playoff-standard form.

The squad that took us there is largely the same one we’ve retained, so I don’t see any reason why Ruben Selles can’t make a winning start to the season akin to the run we had through March and April.

We’ve seen the potential of what this squad can do, now it’s time to see if they can deliver the same as they have done in the past.

One year closer to a takeover

In the same way in which if you leave a monkey hitting keys on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time, it will type the complete works of William Shakespeare, if you supply Reading FC Twitter with a seemingly endless number of takeover rumours, one has got to come true one day or another.

Rumours have got to be better than radio silence. Even if it is a Gandalf cosplayer with a dubious energy drink brand or an angry German man wearing a turtleneck jumper, among more concrete candidates too, it shows interest from somebody. As much as we want a new owner as soon as possible, it can’t come at any cost, and the terms have to be right for every party.

What Dai Yongge has done to the Women’s team and girls’ academy is despicable, and we can’t underestimate the long-term impact of this on our club. I can see a situation in which, takeover or not, we struggle over the line for another year with him at the helm.

The cash is still coming from somewhere, and we still fight on.

Selles stays on

Before he joined us, it’s safe to say the Spaniard had a good amount of options in England and across the pond vying for his signature. Yet he still chose Reading. I’m guessing he did his due diligence of research on what he was stepping into - either that or he was plainly lied to upon joining - and despite all the off-field problems saw his future in Berkshire.

Now we see Selles back smiling in pre-season, something he surely wouldn’t do had he planned on quitting his role. Of course, there could be many other factors coming into his decision to remain at the club.

He’s unlikely to be afforded the same time that he’s been given at Reading at many other clubs, he has a settled squad who know how a Selles team needs to play, and it could even be as simple as wanting to keep his family in the area for longer.

Selles is undoubtedly one of the biggest assets we have at the club and is a class act in everything he does. I think we’re very lucky to have him.

A big fish in a small pond

We’re in League One. Gone are the days of being laughed at for supposedly being one of the smaller teams in the Championship, getting mocked for having a half-empty stadium and not bringing 3,000 away fans to another barren northern outpost of a ground that we’ve played at in 11 of the last 12 years.

We are now among the exclusive group of big ex-Premier League clubs in League One, and half the other teams in our division have been in non-league not too long ago.

Personally, I’ve enjoyed the company we share our league with though. Away days are no longer to a standard plastic bowl stadium, but to clubs with a more community feel. Yes, many of their stands look like bus shelters, but I found it nice to step into a different type of ground last year and am looking forward to visiting more new stadiums this coming year.

No more teething issues

Last year, we hadn’t been in the third tier of English football for well over 20 years, so it was rather a step into an unknown entity. At least now we know how many other teams will want to play, as well as the sorts of pitches we will encounter visiting teams away from home.

Our 2023 pre-season had also consisted entirely of losses aside from a “Reading XI” winning against Thatcham Town and Weymouth. Already we’ve bettered that record, the first team beating a decent-looking Watford side 2-0 behind closed doors and winning at Woking by the same scoreline, with four more fixtures to come against current Championship teams.

We also have a pre-season with the players likely to actually play for us in League One this season. This was the lineup for our match facing AFC Wimbledon in Alicante last year:

First half: Andresson, Abrefa, Guinness-Walker, Dorsett, Holmes, McIntyre, Hutchinson, Trialist, Vickers, Azeez, Ehibhatiomhan

Second half: Bouzanis, Paul, Maragh, Holzman, Abbey, Craig, Trialist, Senga, Abdel Salam, Camara, Akande

Only six, maybe seven of those 22 players could be said to have played regularly for Reading last season. This time around, all of them should be playing in pre-season, setting us up well for a strong start when the opening day against Birmingham City comes around.