Over the last couple of weeks, I have been fortunate enough to be invited on to a couple of radio stations and podcasts to discuss Reading’s season so far.
It’s great talking about such an incredible start to the campaign and far more enjoyable than similar radio appearances I have made in recent years when the agenda has firmly been why the Royals are quite so bad.
After the praise for Veljko Paunovic and the form of Lucas Joao, attention has always turned to what the rest of the season holds. Can Reading keep this form up? Should promotion be the goal now? Where do you think they will finish?
It throws me every time because I genuinely haven’t thought about it. I have been so caught up in simply enjoying what has been the most remarkable start to the campaign that I haven’t even entertained the fact that promotion to the Premier League could be a real possibility.
But as we near the quarter-point of the season, it is worth assessing what the level of expectation should now be. Because, let’s be honest, all this talk of promotion was fantasy stuff back at the start of September.
Reading had just made a managerial change that appeared to throw preparation for 2020-21 into absolute chaos. The man they hired was an unheard of Serbian with a patchy record in MLS and only two new signings had been confirmed. In our pre-season predictions piece on The Tilehurst End, the highest position one of our writers had the Royals to finish in was 10th and that was considered optimistic. Others went as low as 19th.
Among the fanbase in general, I think the general hope was for some sort of progress from last season. Build on a 14th place finish, keep giving opportunities to youngsters and set the club up for a promotion push in the next couple of years. I’d imagine that’s what Veljko Paunovic envisaged too.
But if that is how the season transpired, after what has been a record-equalling start, would supporters be happy? If Reading regressed from where they are now to finish 10th for example, would that be considered a success?
I think it would all depend on quite bad the drop off was, but there’s no doubt that there would be a sense of disappointment if Reading didn’t at least make the top six from the position they are currently in. But equally, if you offered me 10th before a ball had been kicked, I would have taken it in a heartbeat.
Before the game against Preston North End on Wednesday, the Royals had 22 points from nine games. Last season, Swansea City finished sixth with 70 points. Using that figure as a benchmark,
Reading would only need to average around 1.3 points per game across the reason of the season to get into the playoffs. That’s certainly achievable and gives the Royals a realistic aim for the next six months.
So what did I go for when asked for a prediction of where Reading will finish? I settled on fourth – not too ambitious but still a position that would mark a superb debut campaign for Paunovic. I didn’t specify whether we would win the playoffs, but why not? The last year has taught us to expect quite frankly anything and everything.
By Olly Allen
