Tim Dellor column: Separating the good news from the bad at struggling Reading
- Published
Reading are 20th in League One with two wins and four losses
A year is a long time in football.
Reading have lost four of their six games in League One and have sunk towards the wrong end of the very early season table. At the same stage last season they were top of the Championship, Paul Ince was being nominated as EFL Championship manager of the month, and with Sheffield United and Norwich, Reading looked the team to watch.
The story of what has gone wrong at the club since then is longer than War and Peace. Had Leo Tolstoy instead written about the downfall of Reading FC critics would have labelled it as farcical.
The downfall was triggered by another less celebrated Russian - Anton Zingarevich - way back in the heady summer of 2012. Since then, and the days of the Premier League, there has been a steady slide. Naturally, fans cling on to any shred of optimism available, but there is no real evidence the club has reached its lowest point.
A team in transition?
Andy Carroll was rarely included in Reading boss Ruben Selles' new look line-up and he only made two appearances this season
This season there have been several abrupt U-turns, in an effort to reverse fortunes. Offloading talismanic striker Andy Carroll is one example. Having built the tactics around him, and allowed him to be the leading personality in the dressing room, it's been decided that did not work. Unfortunately it was obvious that wasn't working a year ago, but the management stubbornly persevered far too long.
Veering from a manager with a glowing playing CV, gut instinct and charisma, to a modern rookie sports scientist with more academic qualifications than a rocket scientist is another example. Frequently last season at least six of the first team were over 30 years old. Now six are frequently teenagers. Fans often trot out the "team in transition" cliché. "Transition" is football speak for "not very good".
Protect valuable academy players
The young team that manager Ruben Selles puts out each week are well drilled and exciting. They are full of energy, flair and inhibition, and a good proportion of them will have terrific careers.
Selles is doing the correct thing, because it is the only way out the mire for Reading in the long term. Pump up the value of talents like Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, Nelson Abbey, Tyler Bindon and Amadou Mbengue, sell them to stay inside Profitability and Sustainability rules, and begin again. The rising stars from the academy are by far the most important at the club now.
For fans, it is draining being a helpless bystander. They've watched the crash happen but haven't been able to do anything about it. They stoically trail around the League One circuit, hoping the slide has come to an end, but knowing it probably hasn't, seeing positives on the bleakest of matchdays, trying to stay upbeat despite defeat after defeat.
Reading haven't won an away league fixture since last November, a remarkable run of 15 winless games. If that is a "transition" period, Reading fans would not recommend it to other clubs.
