Reading: No manager, financial problems & a new life in League One - what are fans saying?
- Published
Mark R, Helen, Andy and Mark C say their fond memories of Reading FC are slipping away because of the recent chaos and disappointment on and off the pitch
The past season has been long and torturous for Reading fans.
Poor performances, a manager change, and a points deduction handed down by the English Football League all but sealed their relegation to League One.
Last week the EFL hit the managerless club again and charged them for failing to pay their players on time and in full on three occasions in 2022-23.
Reading's owner Dai Yongge was also charged with causing the club to be in breach of EFL regulations.
Before the charges, chief executive Dayong Pang posted a letter to fans where he said he was "confident" the club would "fully correct the mistakes that were made many years ago".
But many fans are struggling to see a way out of the chaos and fear another points deduction as they prepare to get behind their team's first campaign in the third tier for 21 years.
Reading and Dai have until 16:00 BST on Thursday, 29 June to respond to the latest EFL charges.
The only thing that seems certain at the moment is the discontent among Reading fans - here's what some of them told BBC South Today.
Mark R: You look at the state of the club and you think, 'I should be upset about this', but actually you just start laughing because it's become such a joke and the fans are just used to it now.
Helen: It would be nice to have a new owner, someone who understood the club, our traditions and history.
Andy: The letter that Dayong Pang put out last week was just a PR exercise and it didn't mean anything, I have no confidence in what the board is doing.
Mark C: I think the future lies with someone coming in and buying the club. Someone with the finances to put us in a position to fight to the top of League One.
Reading 'isn't a good prospect' for a new manager
Mark R: I have been a Reading supporter since 1999, I love this club, but I fear one day my children won't even know who Reading FC are.
Helen: Reading FC is like family to me and the team was there to support me when I lost both of my parents. It's important to me so I feel really sad by the current situation.
Andy: I'm struggling to see a future for Reading at the moment.
Mark C: Appointing a manager that can build a team is what I would like to see. At the moment, we are trying to sell the club to a new manager that has seven players, no money and has had a points deduction which isn't a good prospect.
Mark R: I keep thinking the owner Dai Yongge is going to do the right thing, I want to give him a chance, but I don't want him at Reading any more - I want someone else to come in and take us over.
Helen: I just wish there was something that we as fans could do to help, but something like fan ownership would be very difficult, because you need someone with extremely deep pockets and we don't have that.
Andy: I remember when we were relegated to division four and I sat in the terraces crying. But we played our way out of that division and got promoted and life went on, it was fine. But where we are now with no manager and no players, the owners seem to have very little commitment to the club - nothing is happening.
'My worst fear is that the club will go out of business'
Reading supporters chat to BBC South's Sports Editor Lewis Coombes
Mark R: I think it is a little too late for the club to say 'there is a bright future ahead' we know we are never going to hear from the owner Dai Yongge. Talk is cheap and we need to see action, but we are not even seeing that. If he [Yongge] doesn't go we won't have a Reading FC anymore.
Helen: We need Dai Yongge to come out and be transparent. He has very successfully hid behind the fact that he is not a very public person. But I'm sorry, when you own a football club and have done as much to it as he has, the fans have every right to expect him to come out, talk to the media and the fans and be honest about what is going on. It's been a horrible past season, with both the men's and women's teams being relegated and my worst fear is that the club will go out of business - it would be devastating for the town.
Andy: Who is going to run this club going forward? I have no idea. We have people who can manage the club and we were joking earlier about Andy Carroll taking over. But that would really be clutching straws wouldn't it. Personally I am very hurt and upset by all of this and the fact that it is happening to my club.