Remember those heady days back at the start of the window, when the transfer window was still open and the sense of possibility still hung in the air? Now, a few months later, that sense of optimism has somewhat dropped.
One of the crumbs of comfort that some of the fanbase clutched to at the time was that the 106 season started with a loss as well. And, spoiler alert: things worked out OK. So maybe it could be OK this time around too?
However, as the season has progressed, the similarities to another
season in more recent memory are becoming a lot more apparent to me. That season is Ruben Selles’ debut campaign with us, all of two years ago in 2023/24. A lot has changed since then, but we’ve kind of done a full circle and have gone back to new beginnings.
Here are the reasons why I see the similarities.
Player turnover
This summer has required a really big rebuild for the senior squad – perhaps more than the new ownership realised/had planned. As we all know, we started with around half a dozen senior players with contracts to run and a whole group of others with contracts to get extended.
While we did get the majority done eventually, we lost key players in key positions as part of this, so the rebuild had to be a bit bigger. In total, 2025’s summer window saw us bring in 12 new players (eight permanent moves and four loans), and a further five players for the under-21 side.
Following relegation from the Championship, the 2023 summer window saw a huge turnover of players leaving to stay at a higher level, or just leaving because they didn’t fit the blueprint of the new manager. This led to us bringing in 12 players, of whom two were loan signings.
We also saw a number of players recruited for the under-21 side (I think around five or six, but I can’t remember exactly if I’m honest). In all, they’re pretty similar numbers and the only difference is that the recruitment two years ago didn’t have any funds to support it.
New leadership
This was also a summer of change further up the chain at the club. As we know, Joe Jacobson came in and took on the role of co-CEO. This would have been the first transfer window he oversaw, and it would have been quite a baptism of fire for him, given all the new contracts that needed sorting and new players that needed recruiting, coupled with the fan pressure to make some statement signings.
When we rewind two years ago, we also see similarities with a new structure at boardroom level. While head of football operations Mark Bowen and director of recruitment Brian Carey had already been in place since May 2022, 2023 was the first summer they were joined by head of scouting Jared Dublin, meaning a new-look recruitment trio for Reading’s rebuild.
Though none were unfamiliar with their role, they would have been hard pushed to find a more difficult club to operate within, given the financial boundaries.
Here we see the similarities with new faces being brought in to help support the club from a structural perspective – indeed, Brian Carey continues to pull rabbits out of hats for us up until this current day.
Missing players
One of the early signings of the season – actually, the first, was Paudie O’Connor. This was seen as a bit of a statement signing for us, bringing in one of the league’s best central defenders, and it gave us hope for a strong start to the transfer window. However, he is yet to kick a ball for us in competitive action because of an injury picked up just before the start of the season.
We also spent most of August being desperately short of having the required attacking reinforcements brought in, with the need for strikers enhanced by only having Mark O’Mahony as a (sort of) established option.
It wasn’t until right towards the end of the window that Jack Marriott – another relatively big-name signing from the league above – came in, and he needed time to get acquainted with his new surroundings and colleagues.
This reminds me a lot of two of our bigger signings that joined in the 2023/24 window: Lewis Wing and Sam Smith.
Wing in particular was probably the biggest name to come in, with a big reputation for being a great creative midfielder. It’s safe to say that has proven correct. As well as this, Smith returning home to become our lead striker, someone with a proven record in this division, was exiting for fans.
However, both started 2023/24 in the treatment room and were missing for some early games in the season as the team got off to a slow start. This somewhat mirrors the O’Connor injury and late arrival of Marriott, in terms of the ability for bigger signings to get an opportunity to make an instant impact.
Playing style
Some might suggest the lack thereof, but that’s a topic for another day. However, almost from the get-go of the season (and some might even suggest the pre-season friendlies brought about some concerns), it’s been evident that this Reading side is yet to form a tactical identify and defined style of play.
Some are questioning the shape (this writer included), some are questioning the selection choices, some are questioning the in-game decision making and some are questioning the coaching. Then, there are those that are questioning all of the above. There are some concerns, then, it’s fair to say.
This reminds me a lot of two years previously, when Selles came in and struggled to implement the 4-2-2-2 system with the personnel available. There was some talk of not having had the luxury of a proper pre-season to get the players familiar with the new system – there’s not been so much talk about this as a concern this season, but some argue Hunt has needed time to get to work with the large number of new players.
However, ultimately, it was clear to the fanbase quite early on that the squad of players were not suitable to this shape and style of play. There were a few exceptions – Harvey Knibbs is notable for his incessant pressing – but it took Selles until October to abandon the 4-2-2-2 set-up and move to a 4-1-4-1.
The results didn’t come immediately, but when they did start to arrive, we looked a different team. A table of results (via WhoScored) taken after after the switch from 4-2-2-2 had us 10th, which was a notable improvement from languishing in the relegation places for an uncomfortably long period of time in the first half of the season.
The similarities are obvious here – both in terms of the performances and results, and the current league position. The hope is that Hunt is able to be less stubborn and make the required adaptations to the current system, to get the best out of the playing personnel.
I’m no Ross Webber tactical mastermind, but the introduction of a new shape to the side would be one starting point I’d like to see, in order to provide a better bridge between the midfield and an isolated attack – perhaps a switch to 4-2-3-1, or even a 3-4-2-1.
However, if you set up the team in a shape but without a defined style of play – a philosophy, I will begrudgingly call it – there will always a challenge to knit together these new players in an aligned vision.
Youth breakthrough
I’ll start by reflecting on the 2023/24 season, but the first game we all really saw something that sit up and made us take notice was the 4-0 win against Millwall in the cup. Later on, it was a 9-0 win against Exeter City.
These wins featured players who had been given an opportunity from the academy, in order to allow for the first-teamers to rest. And so the likes of Michael Craig, Caylan Vickers, Nelson Abbey and Tyler Bindon came to the fore. Those who stayed have remained ever-presents in the side. Those who didn’t certainly made an impression before they left.
It can be argued that system change wasn’t the only reason for the improvement in the side, and the introduction of the academy players made a real difference too.
It’s similar this season too. While we have a bigger playing squad available to us, we have still seen the likes of Shay Spencer, particularly Michael Stickland and absolutely Ashqar Ahmed make the breakthrough to put themselves in the first-team picture and provide us with real strength in depth.
And this is before we even consider that we also have the likes of Basil Tuma and Emmanuel Osho waiting in the wings, to step up and show what they can do. Tuma’s pace, for example, could be a real game-changer from the bench.
What does it all mean?
Well, ‘there are a lot of similarities’ is probably the immediate “hot take”. However, let’s remember that we finished that 2023/24 season in 17th before going on to finish the following season in seventh.
Who knows where we would have ended if Selles stayed, but it’s obvious that the lessons learned from that difficult start to 2023/24 paved the way for success the following year, and indeed, still influence a lot of the work going on to this day.
I think it show us that maybe we won’t see the fruits of the work done this year begin to blossom until the next season. This is still a largely quite young, though relatively experienced, side, and they will need to continue their growth and development to adapt to a different type of challenge – it’s one thing to be motivated by using other entities as a common enemy to success in the face of despair, but a whole other thing to perform and succeed when the pressure and expectation is there.
However, I’d love to see Hunt learn from these comparisons and get – well, not ahead of the curve – but at least be quicker to react and put the learnings into practice. The changes made last time were too late to save the season, but making the changes now, in mid-September, would still give us all the chance of pushing on for the playoffs (with a bit of luck).
