If you split every Reading player of the last eight years into either unanimously liked, split opinion or unanimously disliked, the latter of those categories would be distinctly more populated than the first.
Andy Yiadom fits into the second though. There will be some fans that simply see him as a player who joined when we were an established Championship side and leaves us at the end of our third consecutive season in League One.
However, for me, any player who sticks with a club through the period
our players have had to endure over the last eight years deserves respect – and even more so if they’ve showed the kind of professionalism, character and humility that Yids has.
To put into context the various transitions that Yiadom has been through and come out the other side of, he’s played under eight different managers and represented the Royals alongside Saeid Ezatolahi, Alfa Semedo and Sam Hutchinson.
And up until the last couple of seasons, which have been a tad injury-ravaged, he’s been a mainstay in all of those various iterations of Reading FC starting XIs.
At times I feel he’s been made a bit of a scapegoat, à la Chris Gunter (maybe it’s a right-back thing?) but there’s a reason so many different managers relied on him and saw little to no reason to replace him: he’s been a ruddy good defender.
And I say defender, rather than specifying a particular position, because he’s played pretty much everywhere across the defence during his time here. Right-back, right-wing-back, right of a back three, centre-back in a back four, left-back and left-wing-back. Having a player in your ranks with that kind of versatility has been a godsend for us in recent years, and is no easy thing to replace.
But perhaps where Yids’ qualities shone through most was in how he conducted himself off the pitch.
It’s a shame that his time here has been so defined by off-the-pitch turmoil, and as captain for a significant period of that time, he’s had to bear the brunt more than any other player.
None of us will forget the scenes after that 0-0 draw at Peterborough United in 2022, and it was Yids who came out and tried to make peace with the fans. He’s shied away from fewer tough post-match interviews than he has 50/50s.
Fast-forward a few weeks from that moment, and it was Yids jumping into crowd and celebrating with us all after Tom McIntyre’s winner at Bramall Lane.
Essentially, through all the various highs and lows we’ve had over the last eight years, Yiadom has been an ever-present, and that deserves to be respected.
There’s also the fact that a player being at any club for eight years just doesn’t happen these days – and deserves to be respected in itself. Eight years at this club though deserves a medal.
I have no doubts Yids has been rewarded handsomely by some over-zealous Dai Yongge-era contracts, but he’s still had to endure the microwave meals and missed pay checks.
No road or path you go down in life is ever what you truly expect it to be, but when Yids signed from Barnsley in 2018, he was joining a club that had not long since played in a playoff final and was looking up rather than down.
I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that his Reading career hasn’t perhaps gone to the heights that he first expected.
But as they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and over the last few seasons, as I mentioned earlier, Yids has always been there battling.
His presence in the starting XI will perhaps not be as sorely missed as when the likes of John Swift, Michael Olise or Lucas Joao left – he hasn’t been a regular starter for a good couple of years now.
But he will be very, very tough to replace off the pitch and behind the scenes.
We can all have our opinions on his abilities – that’s part and parcel of football – and I’m not here saying he’s been the EFL Cafu since he joined.
What I am saying is we’ve been very lucky to have a player with such integrity, grit and character as Yiadom. His time and service to our club, through our darkest times, deserves to be looked back on with fondness and deep-rooted respect.
Here’s to you, Andy Yiadom.
