JAAP STAM says Saturday’s game with Barnsley is the start of a “very tough period” of fixtures for Reading.
The visit of the Tykes to Madejski Stadium will be the first of four games in two weeks for Stam’s men with clashes against fellow promotion-chasing Huddersfield Town, Brighton and Hove Albion, Newcastle United and Sheffield Wednesday all on the horizon in the near future.
But the Royals boss is looking forward to seeing how his players cope with the challenge.
“It’s going to be a very tough period,” he admitted.
“It’s going to be a couple of very hard months to be fair with tough games following each other in a small period of time.
“But if you want to win something, towards the end of the season is where you can win it.
“There’s going to be a bit of extra pressure, not only on us but on the other teams, because everybody wants to end up in the top six of the table.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how the squad is dealing with that.
“Can we handle that, stay focussed and stay as sharp as we were? And can we keep getting results?”
Lewis Grabban, Jordon Mutch, Reece Oxford and Adrian Popa all joined the club in the closing days of the transfer window to bolster Reading’s squad.
And with Paul McShane (calf), Joey van den Berg (hamstring), Tiago Ilori (knee), Deniss Rakels (ankle), Stephen Quinn (knee) and Callum Harriott (hamstring) all set to be sidelined for at least the next two games, Stam hopes his new recruits can provide an added boost.
“With the quality that they have, hopefully they can give an extra impulse to the team to perform and do well,” said the boss.
“I’m not sure if they are the players who are leading the team towards promotion, we didn’t bring them in the club to do that.
“We brought them in the club to give the squad an extra impulse of quality and hopefully they can give success together with the other players.”
Stam also confirmed that there is an option to buy some of the three loanees (Oxford, Grabban and Mutch) at the end of the season, but stopped short of revealing any names.
Away from the pitch talk continues over the future of the club, some current members of the squad and Stam himself.
“I’ve still got another season after this one so I don’t think about my contract at this time,” said Stam.
“I’m just enjoying my work with the club and hopefully towards the end of the season we’re going to be talking about that.”
He added: “I know they are still in talks about the takeover, but I don’t know if it’s going to
happen or not or when.
“I just need to wait and see as well like you. My job is to work with the squad.
“Brian (Tevreden) is going to be in talks with Danny (Williams).
“I think everybody we have within the club who is set to be out of contract in the summer is in talks with the board, including Yann Kermorgant. He’s already in talks.”
Stam heads into the Barnsley game with his first managerial award under his belt after picking up the Championship manager of the month award for January.
He fought off competition from Cardiff City’s Neil Warnock, Norwich City’s Alex Neil and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ chief Paul Lambert, but Stam insists it is not all about him.
“It’s nice to win something on a personal note,” he said.
“But I’ve got a great staff with me who are working very hard to get the success and to win games.
“It’s always nice that people give you something for the work that you do, but it’s not me, myself and I.
“It’s the whole staff who have been working together with me because I don’t think a manager can do it on his own.
“To get this trophy now is nice, but hopefully we get an even better trophy towards the end of the season.”
