On November 25, 2023, Reading headed into an away game against Wycombe Wanderers in an objectively dire state – both on and off the field.
We had not won an away game in 378 days, we’d won seldom more at
home, and things off the pitch were the worst they had ever been. Even by this club’s own standards, it was not a positive or optimistic time to be a Reading fan.
However, in the space of 90 minutes, something seemed to shift. Goals from Sam Smith and Lewis Wing, and surviving an excruciatingly painful second half in which the hosts piled on the pressure, led to that much, much needed away win – and the scenes at full-time were euphoric.
In that moment, fans, players and staff united in full-time scenes that set the tone for the next 18 months or so. The club was at rock-bottom – for Christ’s sake we genuinely didn’t know if we’d have a club to follow in the near future – but games like that Wycombe win connected us all in a way I can’t remember experiencing before.
Other similar moments followed – 3-1 at Carlisle United, last season’s win at Bristol Rovers, the draw at Birmingham City. We were at our lowest, but the camaraderie between fans and club was arguably at an all-time high.
Fast-forward to now and things have taken a cruel, ironic twist.
Simply put, Rob Couhig’s takeover has not brought about the immediate upwards curve we perhaps expected, or most definitely at least hoped for. Whether we were naïve to think that is a separate debate, but I think we can all agree we should be feeling more upbeat about our club nine months after the takeover than we currently do.
Last May was supposed to be a turning point. The turmoil of the Dai Yongge era had brought us all together, in a strange way, so there was a foundation to be built on. It was a chance for the new owners to really hit the ground running, which I would imagine is a bit of a rarity when it comes to those kinds of situations.
Last summer’s transfer window was a bit of a hodge-podge. There was a mass turnover but the recruitment – from the outside at least – lacked a real cohesive plan. That led to a well below-par start to the season, with Noel Hunt losing his job and Leam Richardson coming in.
That in turn has led to the need for another mini-rebuild mid-season. And although the January window was a much more structured one, results and performances on the pitch haven’t backed that up.
I’m sure if Couhig, Todd Trosclair or Joe Jacobson were sat with me now reading this, they would probably tell me politely to get my head out of the sand and into the real world. I’m sure the club was in a much worse state off the pitch than it seemed to us, and the possibility of a sudden upturn in fortunes on the pitch was unrealistic and over-ambitious.
However, ignoring the comments made by Couhig last summer – which I myself argued had been blown out of proportion somewhat and were made out of ill-judgement rather than ill-intentions – I still think we should be feeling more connected to the club than we do now. Relations between fans and players have regressed – that should not have happened and ultimately falls on the shoulders of the owners.
How distant do the days of Amadou Mbengue’s fist pumps, Harvey Knibbs’ full-blooded tackles and Sam Smith’s kissing-of-the-badge feel?
All of them have deservedly and quite rightly moved on to bigger and better things, but they haven’t been replaced. And I don’t mean that in terms of quality – I mean it in terms of personality.
As fans of a club like Reading, we can’t expect to win every game, get promoted every other season and compete for trophies.
So the moments we treasure are moments like these: the victory at Wycombe after more than a year without winning away in the league, Mbengue in Club 1871, a late equaliser at O***** United, El Jefe Day for Ruben Selles, Hunt pumping his fists and thumping his chest. But we feel so far away from that now.
I left the game against AFC Wimbledon last Saturday feeling more dejected and detached than I have been in a long time. In a way, the loss didn’t really affect me that much – I was more annoyed by the fact my trains back to Brum were delayed by more than two hours. It pains me to say that, because the result of a game used to dictate my mood until the next one (disclaimer: that too is an unhealthy relationship to have with your football club, do not try this at home).
And, in reality, the win against Wigan Athletic on Tuesday evening hasn’t injected a huge amount of pep or optimism into me either. Yes, it was a win, but that’s about it. The performance was again a bit of an eyesore and there’s more than a fair argument to be made that a draw was probably a fair result.
I want to feel more connected to my club than I do now. I wanted to be more bothered by losses, and more elated by goals and wins.
The beauty in the fickleness of football and football fans is that this situation itself could be a distant memory in three or four games’ time, and we could be on that path towards happier, more connected, times. But I fear this is a bigger problem than perhaps meets the eye.
It’s going to take some huge turnarounds both on and off the pitch for us all to be aligned once again. An opportunity was missed after the takeover to build on what was already there, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel like that again.
