SutekhClyde1998Elm Park Kid No one knows if surviving an extra season would have made any difference in the long-run. I think that the late 00s was already a bit too late for Reading to establish itself as a permanent PL club without a billionaire bankrolling us. You need that additional revenue that comes from a widespread support at home and abroad - I feel like Reading was already fighting an extremely difficult battle back then to get the attention of the younger generations. Yes, you've got other clubs that were our size now in the PL - but most of them have had a lot of additional cash ploughed into them.
Big John did what he could. He wasn't going to put his personal finances at risk in order to gamble on the club. We've seen the painful consequences of owners trying to do that. He tried to sell the club to someone he thought could spend what he couldn't - he messed up - it is what it is.
I think we could've established ourselves if we'd stayed up in that second season. I think Wigan are a good comparison - just about stayed up in their second season and were only relegated in their eighth season (albeit they were in a relegation battle most years). Wigan are are surrounded by much bigger clubs and rugby league is the biggest sport in the city. We probably have/had more potential to grow into an established Premier League club than Wigan because of these factors.
Stoke spent ten seasons in the Premier League (being mid-table for all but their final season); Swansea had seven seasons (mid-table for all but their final two seasons). I can't remember what either sides' financial backing was at the time though.
I believe a third season would've made a big impact for us: we might've gone ahead with the stadium expansion and I think we'd've had more incentive to make some serious transfers due to the relative lack of spending in the previous couple of seasons. I seem to recall we had John Mensah (I think) lined up to sign if we'd stayed up that season - who would've been a huge upgrade on our defence at the time.
If you look at the side that started at Derby on the final day of that season - Hahnemann; Murty, Ingimarsson, Duberry, Shorey; Oster, Matejovsky, Harper, Hunt; Lita, Kitson - there are only two players there who didn't play in the 106 season and the two wingers were second choice that season (Hunt did improve a lot in the Premier League though). You have to get to the tenth most used player to find someone not at the club during the 106 season (Bikey) and he played less than 40% of minutes.
I think the club had realised before the end of that season we needed to strengthen if we wanted to remain in the Premier League for a prolonged period. The problem was we narrowly got relegated after a decline in form towards the end of the season and we couldn't make it back the following season - killing the chance of establishing ourselves at that level.
The most annoying thing about that season was letting Fulham do the double over us, both by two goal margins and conceding very late in both games. Keeping both defeats to just a 1 goal margin would have kept Reading up! Also if SC had known that a 7-0 win at Derby would have done it anyway, Reading may well still have managed it as Derby were truly the worst PL side ever that year.
If you ask Wally Downes about it he says he pleaded with Coppell before that match to change the formation and put five in midfield to shut the game down and ensure we got a draw. But SC refused, saying "No, we play 4-4-2, it's what we do..."
Wally knew.
