On Wednesday, Reading FC travel to Peterborough United for the biggest game of their season. Some have called it the biggest game of the last five years. Others the last decade. A few believe it could be the most critical 90 minutes in the club’s history.
Regardless of which hyperbole you subscribe to, it’s a very big game. The winner will take a massive step towards Championship survival, gaining the physical and psychological step ahead of their relegation rivals.
And Reading have prepared for it in the worst possible way. In a season of never-ending mayhem, the all-encompassing chaos of the last 48 hours has truly taken things to a new level.
On Sunday evening, multiple sources told The Chronicle that manager Veljko Paunovic was expected to depart imminently with a wide range of local and national press reporting the same.
This doesn’t happen by accident. This happens because of people inside the club either believing it to be true, or trying to make it be true. Either way the rumours, or the reports, haven’t come from nowhere and aren’t simply unfounded.
Yet, on Monday morning insiders at Reading’s Bearwood Training Base explained that things were “business as usual” with Paunovic leading training while presumptive interim boss Michael Gilkes attended the U23’s 3-1 defeat to Derby County.
All this means that somehow, almost inconceivably, Paunovic will likely still be in charge of Reading when they head to the Posh for the ultimate six-pointer of all six-pointers.
To mark the weekend’s 150th anniversary celebration, a circus of sorts was set up outside the SCL, but there was no need for it. The circus has long been running at Reading Football Club.
Fans and media alike believed that Paunovic was on his way out and according to certain reports, he has even tried to offer his resignation - a claim The Chronicle hasn’t yet been able to substantiate.
People are asking me what I know:
— Eddie Wallbank (@EddieRFC7) February 14, 2022
Paunovic offered to leave the club a few weeks ago, the club rejected it.
A rumour went around the dressing room (inc players and staff) last week that Pauno would be gone by today (14th). #ReadingFC
Eight defeats in a row. No wins since November. A squad of players who appear to have largely lost faith in their manager, or actually have lost faith according to Tim Dellor’s recent report for BBC Berkshire. Yet somehow on we go, with everything as it was.
Tim Dellor reporting on BBC Radio Berkshire that 'a number of' #ReadingFC players told him after the defeat to Bristol City on Wednesday that they wanted a change in manager. This reportedly included 'senior' players in the dressing room.
— The Tilehurst End (@TheTilehurstEnd) February 12, 2022
On Saturday as Reading fell to the eighth-straight defeat in this disastrous run, emotions spilled over as a small group of fans flooded the pitch to voice their frustration.
Pre-match, several hundred fans gathered outside the ground for an organised protest against the running of the club. This fanbase has reached a breaking point and action must be taken.
Virtually everyone - seemingly many inside the club included - knows what immediate step needs to be taken: Paunovic needs to go. But those in charge are asleep at the wheel, letting things fall into deeper and deeper chaos while the team slides ever closer to relegation.
And the people who suffer most? The fans. The people who flocked to the SCL two hours early on Saturday to display their concern. The people who will have been lying awake last night wondering what has become of their football club.
It’s hard to see where things go from here. Dai Yongge and those holding the power at Reading have made it clear that they will do everything possible to avoid sacking Paunovic, or seemingly making any kind of meaningful decision. And a season spiraling well out of control could quickly become unimaginably disastrous.
More than 1,000 Reading supporters will be heading to Peterborough to support their team and facing a side who have lost six of their last seven Championship matches, this should be the chance to get the season back on track (whatever that means at this point).
Instead it feels like an inevitable car-crash waiting on the horizon as the action and inaction behind the scenes thrusts the club and their supporters into even deeper murkiness - something not helped by the decision-makers’ refusal to openly communicate.
This is not sustainable and quite simply it can’t continue. On Saturday, the world saw a taste of the frustration and disgruntlement of the Reading fanbase. It’s something that demanded a response and thus far there has been none.
Toxicity is growing and while the results on the pitch will always be the main factor, the disastrous and chaotic running of the club - further displayed by the last two days - has more than played its part and will continue to play its part until there is real and tangible change.
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Victory on Wednesday is obviously still possible and everyone around Reading will be hoping with the tightest of crossed fingers that they somehow do what hasn’t happened yet in 2022.
Regardless though, the events of the last 48 hours just further emphasises the deep concerns about where this football club is headed - both through the actions of those in charge and as dangerously, through their inaction.
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