It’s still safety first for Royals boss Ince
“A QUARTER of the job done.” Reading manager Paul Ince wasn’t getting carried away when his team found themselves top of the Championship last weekend.
“Our number one priority is to stay in this league”.
The win against Millwall made it 12 points from the first six games.
Ince’s comments seemed very sensible standing on the touchline after the seventh game – a 4-0 trouncing against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
Usually when a team goes top of the Championship, regardless of the stage of the season, fans, players and managers talk about staying there.
The natural assumption is they are promotion contenders. Nobody seems to be thinking that in the Reading camp.
Promotion still seems to be far less likely than relegation, despite some superb performances, par
ticularly at home.
If they play as well as they did against Blackburn they will be at the top end of the table, but if they have to make too many trips north, based on what happened at Rotherham and Sheffield United, they will be in a whole heap of trouble.
The transfer window is closing at 11pm tonight, and it brings to an end an extraordinary period of wheeling and dealing.
Mark Bowen, the head of football operations, and Paul Ince have
flogging players, shifting players, borrowing players, finding bargains, bartering and negotiating.
When I next need to buy a second-hand car, I’m taking Bowen with me.
Considering the transfer embargo imposed on the club by the EFL for gross over-spending, clever, creative and crafty business has put Reading in a much stronger position this September than many fans feared earlier in the summer.
The EFL have to approve all the deals, so it has all been aboveboard, within the club’s means and within the EFL’s rules.
Naby Sarr looked an outstanding signing based on his performance at Millwall.
Baba Rahman adds balance to the squad, while Joe Lumley, Mamadou Loum, Tyrese Fornah, Sam Hutchinson and Shane Long have all impressed.
Getting the likes of Tom Ince, Tom Holmes, Andy Yiadom and
Junior Hoilett to sign new longterm deals has also been a coup.
Now the squad is assembled and Reading know what they need to do.
A fighting mentality, and playing every game with some desperation, as if it is a cup final and their lives depended upon the result, is what they have done when at their best and what they need to do as often as possible.
As soon as they take their foot off the gas they look very average.
Next up it is Stoke at the SCL Stadium on Sunday.
They then have a clear week before a tricky trip to Watford, which is not especially northern but is still away, and then they face Sunderland at home and Wigan away (definitely northern) before the season’s first international break.
It is a tricky run of games for a team in the tricky situation of being near the top of the table and yet still amongst some pundits’ favourites for relegation.