Where would missing out on the play offs leave us?

AT the end of January, after the 3-1 win over Bournemouth at the Mad Stad, I'm going to admit that I had one eye on the top two – and I probably wasn't the only Loyal Royal thinking like that.

Fast forward just over two months and at the time of writing we have five games left and are now sitting in seventh place, five points below the Cherries incidentally.

That in itself shows what a horrible, tricky couple of months it's been for us.

It's been so tricky for us that, I hate to say it, I don't think we will finish in the top six anymore.

We may well do – but it’s looking unlikely. With this said, I've been starting to think about what this summer might look like if that is the case. Surely it can’t be as hectic or as shambolic as last summer, can it?

Well, who knows with this club.

Firstly, it looks certain that a few players are going to be heading out the exit door (some of the names will please the fans, some, not so much).

The likes of Michael Olise, Lucas João, John Swift and Yakou Méïté will probably be on the radars of some bigger and better clubs – and rightly so.

And there are still huge question marks hanging over the futures of the likes of Morrison, McIntyre and Holmes who, as it stands, will be leaving the club on a free transfer this summer.

This will worry the Reading faithful, it’s certainly worrying me. These are some big players, some of which you could even class as irreplaceable.

However, if Pauno and the club can get some things sorted in terms of getting some players on new contracts, and freeing up the wage bill elsewhere to be able to bring some new faces in – I truly believe there is a platform there for something really good to be built upon.

We have a young, progressive, impressive manager and backroom staff, an academy who seem to be producing gem after gem, and an atmosphere around that club that has been missing for some time. There are definitely reasons to be optimistic, even if we miss out on the play offs.

But, don’t get me wrong, there is also a rather large part of me that is worried.

This team has produced some wonderful moments this year and, amongst the recent hair pulling and anger, has given us a lot of excitement and joy, too.

So it would be horrible to see that team get completely dismantled.

Which makes this a huge summer for the club.

Everything possible has to be done in order to continue this upwards trajectory, because for it to be stopped before it’s even properly started would be heart-breaking.