Former Reading manager Jaap Stam believes he was not given what he was promised after leading the club to within one penalty kick of the Premier League.
The iconic former Manchester United and AC Milan defender took charge of the Royals in 2016, becoming the club's first non-British manager, and took the Championship by storm.
Finishing third and reaching the Championship play-off final, Reading to Huddersfield Town on penalties at Wembley.
Losing Danny Williams and Ali Al-Habsi in the summer of 2017, the team failed to back it up and the Dutchman was sacked in 2018 with the club in a relegation battle.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet, Stam believed he should have been backed more in the transfer window.
“We [Reading] lost on penalties in the play-offs. Two ahead, then you miss, and then you go out. Then you can see everything is changing. The danger in that, with Reading that you almost go up to the Prem, that the owners are thinking – they sold the club to Chinese owners – and these people are thinking, ‘you’ve done the first season that well with these players’.
“In January of the first season, I told them, ‘if you want to keep this up, then next season, you need to add extra quality to this team’. They also said, ‘we’re going to be doing that, there’s a big budget to do so’. At the end of the day, they still buy or they get players in on a free, or players who have been playing at bigger teams, but they’ve never played, they’re always on the bench.”
Going down as undisclosed, Stam spent reportedly £7.5m on Sone Aluko in August 2017, a then cub record.
He was one of seven additions which cost a fee, as well as two January loan acquisitions.
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