The Season When Reading Football Club Persisted

28/04/2024 22:12

A long read from Sim on an emotional rollercoaster of a season.

Congratulations, dear reader, you made it! You got all the way through the 2023/24 season and came out the other side. You persisted. We all persisted. Reading Football Club persisted.

And really, after the nine months we've just gone through, that's the biggest win of all. Reading have had recent seasons that are disappointing, depressing or even downright bizarre, but never before have we had one quite so existentially terrifying. It's one thing to not know how a club will end a season, it's another to not know if it'll still be around to start the next one.

This season was when Reading Football Club faced oblivion, when it seemed to be falling into the abyss. And yet, in the end, it was the season when Reading Football Club prevailed. Despite everything thrown its way - everything thrown our way - we refused to give up the fight. Every time we were knocked down, we got back up. Even in our lowest moments. Even when everything felt hopeless.

That's how this season deserves to be remembered. Not for the sadness, anger and fear we were all subjected to, not for the players who left or games we lost, but for the defiance we summoned up in response. For how this club simply refused to die.

The defiance that made the headlines was the loud kind. The mass resistance demonstrated by thousands of fans in the stands every week, through the streets of Reading on one proud October afternoon, and even once on the very turf of the SCL itself.

We chanted, threw tennis balls, carried banners and marched. A stubborn few even got a match abandoned, and rightly so. An actual, competitive game had to be hijacked in order to seize the attention of the footballing world and fixate it on what was going on in RG2. How sad that it had to come to that. How desperate our situation was.

But what won't get the headlines is the quiet kind of defiance. The understated yet powerful conviction to never give up on the club we all know and love, even in its darkest of moments. To keep the faith. To hold out hope that this wouldn't all end in tears.

Reading showed defiance on the pitch, in the dugout and behind the scenes too. As testing as this season was for all of us as fans, it sure was a mighty trial for those in the midst of the action.

Not even the few veterans in the squad and on the coaching staff will have gone through anything quite like this before. And for those in the early stages of their careers, this season was a baptism of fire. Imagine pitching this experience to a rookie manager heading into his first job. Or to a young talent, full of hope for the future after leaving a Premier League club for a fresh start.

This is one hell of a resilient group though. At every level of the club. They've had to put up with so much - none of it their fault - but still they've persisted. We're lucky to have had people of this calibre representing and keeping this club alive. I'm proud of every single one. To them all, thank you.

As things stand, we're not quite done yet though. We're still waiting for that crucial epilogue to be written. The one that not only brings an end to the story of Reading's 2023/24 season, but also draws the Dai Yongge era to a permanent close.

All of that's before we even get to the match action itself. What happened on the pitch often took a backseat to everything happening off it, but there was no shortage of footballing drama to be engrossed in. No shortage of highs, lows and everything in between.

Reading began their pre-season preparations in a mess. A summer break which had looked at one stage like it was set up to be one of optimism and renewal instead played out as chaos.

In June, Dai Yongge was hit by a volley of charges from the EFL - prompting the formation of Sell Before We Dai and, eventually, an array of protest action. Ongoing financial instability and general mismanagement meant the Royals struggled to bring in a head coach, let alone players to fill a squad.

Ruben Selles was eventually announced as Reading's new gaffer in late June. Well, sort of. The deal between Selles and Reading had been finalised at that point but his work permit hadn't. Cue an 18-day wait in which Selles was left in limbo, before he was finallyproperly appointed in mid-July.

Reading had been without a permanent manager for 94 days.

Selles brought an impressive coaching CV for someone so young, including a variety of backroom jobs across Europe, but little experience in the dugout itself. The record he did have - 11 defeats in a doomed 18-game stint at Southampton - inspired little confidence that he'd be a success in Berkshire.

Just six signings joined him before the season opener against Peterborough United, with two - Lewis Wing and Charlie Savage - in registration limbo until the 11th hour. Reading would bring in another half-dozen before the end of the window, with one more arriving on a free transfer afterwards.

And let's not forget the points deductions. At Reading Football Club you're never all that far away from a points deduction. One point was chalked off in mid-August, then three more in mid-September. Those took our Dai-era tally to 16 points since November 2021.

Yet again, Reading had gone into a new campaign without a proper pre-season of preparation. Yet again, players and staff were seeing hard-earned points chalked off through no fault of their own. And that wasn't the end of what Selles and his squad had to contend with. Not by a long shot.

Tennis ball protests frequently disrupted home games in the 16th minute, fans' frustrations boiled over during a particularly poor run of form in the autumn and were vented at full-time, non-playing staff went unpaid in November before some were sent redundancy letters just before Christmas, the televised FA Cup game at Eastleigh was disrupted by tennis balls and fake cash being thrown onto the pitch, drastic cost-cutting measures were enacted - including the scaling-back of catering and away-day hotels, key coaching staff Andrew Sparkes and Eddie Niedzwiecki had to be let go of in January - as did various first-team players, the home game against Port Vale was abandoned due to an on-pitch protest, another points deduction came Reading's way in February, and then in March, League One rivals Wycombe Wanderers were seemingly on the verge of buying Reading's Bearwood Park training ground.

It's a lot to take in, even now. And even more to deal with in the moment.

When that last bit of news broke, I don't know about you but I thought it was the death knell of Reading Football Club. I lay awake that night fearing the worst. God knows what it must have been like for players and staff at the time, when it looked like the club they were fighting for was being auctioned off for parts.

Against that backdrop, Selles had the unenviable task of not only building a side capable of competing in an unforgiving division, but also getting good enough results to stay in it.

The first third of the season couldn't have gone much worse though. Well, in the league at least, where Reading won just three of their first 16 matches, leaving them rock-bottom after mid-November's shambolic 3-2 defeat at Shrewsbury Town. The Royals were 10 points adrift of safety, going down with a whimper.

Reading's situation seemed hopeless. Of particular concern was the away form: eight games and eight defeats. Some matches on the road were worse than others, but where Reading were consistent was in their unyielding ability to find new ways of losing matches away from home. Hammerings, late losses, we saw it all.

Cup competitions were another matter however. Now that's where we had some fun. It started with one glorious August night at The Den, where a young Reading side ran riot. 4-0. What a way to pick up your first competitive win in 165 days, what a way to wash away the previous season's relegation and the summer's anxieties.

After a commendable 2-2 draw (but penalty shootout defeat) against Ipswich Town in the next round, the EFL Trophy was on the agenda. We didn't really know quite what to expect from a competition Reading's senior side hadn't taken part in for over two decades. Would this just be a set of glorified pre-season friendlies?

No. Not at all.

Reading didn't just win their early Pizza Cup games. They didn't just win comfortably. They utterly steamrolled anyone in their way. Exeter City were Reading's first victims. 9-0, and in front of 1,871 fans exactly. Then Swindon Town. 5-0 against old rivals. Finally, a 5-2 thrashing of Arsenal's under-21s meant the Royals finished the group stage with a colossal haul of 19 goals scored, a new competition record.

That was as good as it got for Reading in the cup unfortunately. The Royals would sneak past Charlton Athletic in the EFL Trophy's round of 32 on penalties and see off MK Dons in the FA Cup 3-2, but then fluff their lines at the next opportunity in each competition. The less said about the shootout defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion's under-21s, and the last-minute loss to Eastleigh on ITV, the better.

Reading's luck had flipped in the cup, but then, out of nowhere, it did the same in the league.

It all goes back to an ecstatic afternoon at Adams Park. Reading bounced back from one of their lowest points of the season a fortnight earlier, up at Shrewsbury, to win a league away game for the first time in 378 days. The referee's full-time whistle blew the lid on the emotions of thousands of Loyal Royals behind the goal. Emotions that had been bottled up for over a year.

Cue sheer pandemonium, and more than a little relief too. All those missed opportunities at winning a league away game had made it feel like we'd never do it again. But at Wycombe, all of that changed. This was what following a football team should be like.

That victory was transformative for Reading's season. All of a sudden, the Royals were rejuvenated. It kicked off the most important run in the club's season - four wins, four draws and one defeat in nine games from late November to early January. And the final match in that streak, a late 3-2 victory at home to Exeter City on New Year's Day, propelled Reading out of the bottom four.

Subsequent results elsewhere pushed the Royals back into the relegation zone for a time, but Reading weren't held back for long. A month after the Grecians win, Reading ground out a gruelling 1-0 at Stevenage, a first midweek league away win in front of fans since January 2018. The cold, driving Tuesday night rain only added to the cliché of a gritty three points on the road, but there was a serious point to be made: Reading now knew how to compete in slogs like this - and how to win them.

Once again Reading were out of the bottom four, and this time they didn't look back. The Royals did seem to be stumbling a few weeks later, losing four out of six from mid-February to mid-March. But, crucially, they knew how to get points on the board too. Three against each of fellow strugglers Port Vale, Carlisle United and Cambridge United kept the tally ticking up nicely.

Fast-forward to April and two key results got Reading over the line. A comfortable 2-0 win at Bristol Rovers was match point, and then an impressive 2-2 at Barnsley a few days later mathematically sealed the deal.

From 10 points adrift to 10 points in the clear five months and two days later, Reading had done it. The Great Escape was complete.

So what changed for Reading? How did Selles turn the ship around?

There's no one single explanation. As much as Reading's results hinged on that win at Adams Park, the team's development came down to a series of tweaks and reinventions across the course of the entire season. Some were bigger, some smaller, but all contributed to Reading's progress. All were important plot points in this side's story.

1) It wasn't even a given at the start of the season that Selles would trust in the youth at his disposal. First-team regulars from 2022/23 - generally more experienced players - retained their status when Peterborough United came to town for the season opener. However, following that emphatic win for the youngsters at The Den and a horrid display by the senior side at Port Vale, Selles flipped his squad's pecking order on its head for the following match at home to Cheltenham Town.

Out went Andy Yiadom, Tom Holmes, Tom McIntyre, Nesta Guinness-Walker and Andy Carroll. In came Amadou Mbengue, Tyler Bindon, Nelson Abbey, Matty Carson and Caylan Vickers. Nowadays we take for granted just how youth-friendly Selles is, but it all started with that one team sheet.

2) Of all the changes Selles made this season, getting rid of his favoured 4-2-2-2 was arguably the most significant. It was probably the most popular too. Reading's use of that formation wasn't their only problem in the autumn (injuries and inexperience both played their part), but it attracted no shortage of ire from supporters.

An ideal formation for Selles' brand of aggressive, front-footed pressing football in theory? Absolutely. The right formation for a squad without the specialists to play it properly? Certainly not. Reading lacked players with the know-how, discipline and versatility for the demanding full-back, central midfield and attacking midfield slots in particular.

When eventual title-winners Portsmouth came to town in October, out went 4-2-2-2. In came 4-1-4-1. It didn't have the desired impact immediately - two losses and a draw in its first three outings - but you could clearly see its promise from the off. Swapping 4-2-2-2 for 4-1-4-1 (or another formation for that matter) probably should have happened earlier, but it was the right call. It gave Reading not only more defensive security, but also the capacity to score much more freely too.

Further tactical developments would come later down the line. Selles introduced the 4-2-3-1 into Reading's formation repertoire later in the year, bringing one central midfielder in the 4-1-4-1 deeper and pushing another higher. The Royals made extensive use of both formations in the back half of the campaign.

3) Although we'd already seen senior players being jettisoned after the Port Vale game, the Shrewsbury Town defeat was effectively the end of the road for a few more. It was another much-needed team refresh as Selles again cut out underperforming experienced options, doubling down on his trust in youth.

Most notably that was Sam Hutchinson, who wound up plenty of people with an ill-judged post-match interview that was seen as passing blame. That was the final time he played in the league for Reading. But it was also an end for Nesta Guinness-Walker, who joined Stevenage on loan in January, and effectively Harlee Dean too, who managed just two League One minutes off the bench from that point.

I'm an outside observer so I can't entirely fairly judge how popular any of those players were in the dressing room. But it's striking just how quickly morale and results seemed to improve after that Shrewsbury game. And although some injured players were present for the final-day win against Blackpool, Hutchinson and Dean were nowhere to be seen.

4) The flipside of that has been the general improvement of other players - typically, but not exclusively, younger ones. In the first half of the season, no one epitomised that better than Femi Azeez, whose confidence was transformed by his goal against Carlisle United in late November, right after the Wycombe win.

Similar should be said for others though. Reading struggled for a dependable left-back option until Jeriel Dorsett stepped into the team - and stepped up to the task. Likewise, Harvey Knibbs was a source of frustration until being completely rejuvenated after Selles put him into the middle of the park.

More improvement came in the New Year. Clinton Mola enjoyed one of the more surprising turnarounds of any squad member, going from being a cast-out left-back option on the fringes of the squad to a positive, marauding right-back. Ben Elliott spent much of the season struggling for game time and consistency, but found both in April and was deservedly in the running for our Player of the Month award.

5) One of the understated successes from this season was how good Reading were at reinventing themselves at centre-back. The Royals started with an established pairing of Holmes and McIntyre. Before long that was Abbey and Bindon, before Holmes returned in late 2023, pairing Abbey in what looked to be Reading's strongest possible partnership.

The introduction of Holmes was crucial to Reading's December form. Grinding out draws against tougher opposition, or on off days, had been a struggle. But Holmes brought composure and experience to the back line, and were crucial in that run: Oxford United at home, Lincoln City away, Peterborough United away and Cheltenham away especially, when the Royals faced - and stood up to - an aerial barrage.

So it was concerning in January when Abbey and McIntyre were sold and Holmes got injured. We shouldn't have been worried though. I've rarely been as pleasantly surprised this season as when it became clear that Bindon and Mbengue made for one hell of a centre-back pairing.

The Royals had kept just five clean sheets in the 28 League One games before 'MBindon' - all of them at home. In the 16 since, starting with a 1-1 draw at the Kassam in February, MBindon managed six, with two of those coming away from home. Bindon brings the composure, Mbengue brings the intensity. It's a cracking pairing.

6) We take it for granted now, but Wing really is a star at League One level. He'd shown that in November and December (two goals, five assists), but really went from strength to strength after January. Starting with the draw at Fleetwood Town, Wing registered an impressive seven goals and three assists in 15 games.

It's not just about stats though. Wing oozes class. He exudes authority. He's a match-winner, a deserving recipient of the club's Player of the Season award and undoubtedly much better than League One level. This side would be a far weaker one without him. How could we even hope to replace him if we needed to?

7) Last but not least, it helps to have a decent 'keeper. Selles persisted with David Button until mid-March, when he was forced into picking Joel Pereira for the Derby County trip.

Pereira hasn't been perfect - Reading's final conceded goal of the season is testament to that - but he was certainly an asset in the closing weeks of the campaign. Not only is he a better shot-stopper than Button, but he's also noticeably more commanding of his area. He brings more authority to Reading's defence and has quickly attracted the love of the fans too.

I wonder how I'll feel about this season in the years to come. For now, I'm conflicted.

I wouldn't wish the journey we've walked on my worst enemy. As sweet as the feeling of survival was, as thrilling as watching this side succeed against the odds has been, we shouldn't have been in this position in the first place. We shouldn't have had to experience the level of dread we have. No one should.

Well, perhaps one person. As desperate as I am to see the back of Dai Yongge, I hope he one day comes to fully appreciate what he's put us through. I doubt he ever will though.

What I don't doubt however is my immense pride in how this club has responded. With unity, with passion, with the kind of resolve that can't be manufactured or faked. Though this season is done, let's keep all of that going.

Onwards and up the 'Ding.