Making your writing debut for TTE knowing that 86% of Reading fans are going to disagree with what you’re about to write helps focus the mind. That somewhat incredible stat, from a recent TTE poll, reflects
the number of people who feel the time to replace Noel Hunt has now arrived.
That’s the same all-round good guy and club legend Noel Hunt who has patiently developed a conveyor belt of academy players into the first team over many years, who led a team to seventh in the most uncompromising of situations, who has declared his love of Reading on many occasions and exemplifies ‘The Reading Way’ that led to so much success in the noughties. But the unavoidable fact remains that, despite all that, the vast majority of you want shot of him.
Patience has become one of the watch-words of the season, used by Todd Trossclair when the online clamour for signings reached its crescendo in mid-August. It’s been used in ironic frustration when progress, both on and off the pitch, has appeared to some to be painfully slow since the sugar rush of Dai Yongge leaving in May.
But it’s a word I think we all need to embrace over the next couple of months when it comes to Hunt. After all, Trosclair was partly right – he asked for patience in signing a decent striker and we ended up with one who can’t stop scoring.
So what’s the case for sticking with Hunt?
Overall, his record since he took charge is W18, D14, L16. Without pulling up any trees it remains on the positive side of the tiller, and even if we look at this season, after a poor start we’re still not easy to beat – a carry-over from last season.
Surely some credit should remain in the bank for Hunt, and I find it hard to ignore that we played well (albeit sporadically) in the second half of last season under his stewardship and stopped losing away games, a skill that Ruben Selles never really acquired.
In Hunt, we are certainly not dealing with a manager who was unable to get their team playing well at any time, unlike some managers I could mention. Look away now, messrs Clement, Gomes and Ince.
Hunt also quickly identified the new challenges he and the team faced after the relentless scorched-earth approach of the previous owner left Reading in a deeper hole that perhaps anyone – including Rob Couhig – truly realised.
From the outset, Hunt has emphasised that it would take time for Reading to properly gel, and no one can be in any doubt about that after the first quarter of the season. Hunt has also rightly laboured the importance of bringing in far more experience and character – which he has done successfully. So his diagnosis is correct, even if the medicine is still yet to fully kick in.
This season has always been about rebuilding and that means a mid-table finish. That isn’t a lack of ambition, it’s a simple reflection of having had five players under contract in Mid-May.
Mid-table finishes are never pretty and they usually mean a period during the season when points are hard to come by. Being mid-table means only winning a third of your games. Are we really so confident, after 11 matches, that we won’t achieve that under Hunt?
If we had played and won our game in hand against Northampton Town we’d sit 14th. Would that represent a failure for Hunt, given how much player turnover he has had to oversee?
So while our league position is rightly causing alarm bells to ring, it’s far from irretrievable. At the time of writing Hunt is facing derision for suggesting we just need to make a few tweaks. But the number of draws bears him out. We’re close.
Performances
Recent performances have also shown Hunt’s adaptability (the switch to 4-2-3-1 is a positive in my view), and we usually play one good half, including in our last three away games, so there are green shoots.
With key defenders returning from injury there is further cause for optimism. But it’s also impossible to ignore the fact that, at times, the speed of progress feels like a caterpillar walking across Velcro. That’s where patience comes in.
If you’re still with me, then I suspect many of you are inwardly screaming: “But you’re totally ignoring the fact that we’re playing without a definitive style and Hunt doesn’t seem to be making any progress.” You’ve got a point – up to a point.
Hunt is not blinkered about how we’re playing. He has spoken about the need to bring Lewis Wing more into the game and about the frustration he has with defenders making basic errors.
He has rotated players out who are not performing. He gets that we’re not playing well and attempting to find the solutions. And that takes time.
If things click and we suddenly turn those draws into wins then I suspect the concerns about style will fall away. Hunt is a disciple of Brian McDermott, who always prioritised setting up a team to deal with the opposition rather than having an overarching style. I’d like to see more of a sense of identity, but claims that Hunt has no idea what he is doing are simply unfair.
Patience and stability
Patience (where is my exclamation mark?) is still required. History tells us this.
Reading had just eight managers in their most successful 20-year period, between 1992 and 2012. In just 12 subsequent years, we’ve seen a revolving door of 12 managers presiding over decline and defeat with no philosophy underpinning managerial appointments.
‘The Reading Way’ became ‘any way you like’. Each departure has been met with fan approval (with the exception of Selles’) and yet it never gets any better, so we roll the dice yet again, only to find the inevitable snake to slide down.
Virtually every Reading fan called for Selles to go when we lost to Shrewsbury Town in November 2023 and, under any normal circumstances, he would have gone. But he stayed and we got a lot better.
Alan Pardew, Steve Coppell, McDermott and Selles were all given time. Those were investments that paid off as players got used to the pattern of play, and it’s that stability which allowed fantastic teams to emerge.
In many ways this is less of a defence of Hunt and more of a call for stability and patience. Our great periods have all embraced those concepts. But in the 24-hour social media world we live in, everyone is an expert and patience is in short supply.
Hunt has earned far more credit than some of you are willing to give and, in so many ways, he’s the glue we need to rebuild after all that instability. Whether he is the long-term solution is a separate issue, but for now, and certainly for the next couple of months, he deserves the chance to steer the ship to mid-table, which I’m confident he will do.
Change is always tempting, but destabilising Reading after an endless period of instability is actually likelier to lead to us getting sucked into the relegation battle. Let’s actually get behind Hunt and the team, and channel the passion we all have in a positive way.
Tin hat on…
