Stam led the Royals to third place in the Championship in his first season, but less than 12 months later he was sacked by Dai Yongge
HIGHLIGHTS
- Reading FC’s decline from Championship contenders to League One strugglers has been gradual since Dai Yongge’s takeover in 2017.
- Poor recruitment following the 2017 play-off final defeat was a factor in Reading’s downfall.
- Despite spending money on signings, Reading FC had little success in the 2017-18 season.
The decline of Reading FC from a promotion-chasing Championship side nearly seven years ago to being relegation strugglers in League One with crippling financial issues has been sad to see for many, and the decline has been gradual since Dai Yongge’s takeover in 2017.
The Chinese businessman’s purchase of the Royals was approved not long before they headed to Wembley to take on Huddersfield Town in the Championship play-off final, but that is as good at it has gotten for his time in Berkshire.
There had been four bottom half finishes in five seasons before the club’s eventual relegation earlier this year to League One, and there has been a mountain of financial problems and points deductions under Yongge’s guidance.
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When he took over, Reading’s manager was Jaap Stam, who had guided the club to third position in the Championship in his first season in charge, which led to their trip to Wembley.
However, they lost out to the Terriers on penalties and really poor form in 2017-18 led to the Dutchman’s sacking in March 2018.
Stam blames recruitment for Reading FC failures in his final few months at club
Speaking on the Stick To Football podcast, Stam’s time at Reading was brought up by his former Man United team-mate Roy Keane, where he said a factor for Reading’s down-turn following their defeat in the Championship play-off final was the poor recruitment that was done following Dai Yongge’s takeover.
“Two ahead and then you’re missing and you go out,” Stam said on the ending to the 2017 play-off final, which was the start of the club’s decline.
“Then you can see everything’s changing, but the danger in that as well is with Reading, 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 said we will be doing that, there’s a big budget to do so – at the end of the day they still get players in on a free or players who had been playing at bigger teams but they never played, they were always on the bench. That’s the difficulty.”
Reading FC’s signings in the 2017-18 season – money was spent but little success
In the summer of 2017, Reading actually spent money on seven players to strengthen Stam’s squad, and they had varying degrees of success.
| Reading FC – 2017-18 Summer Signings (Fees Per Transfermarkt) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Player Name | Signed From | Fee |
| Sone Aluko | Fulham | €7.5m |
| Vito Mannone | Sunderland | €2.3m |
| Modou Barrow | Swansea City | €1.7m |
| Leandro Bacuna | Aston Villa | €1.5m |
| David Edwards | Wolves | €1.1m |
| Jon Dadi Bodvarsson | Wolves | Undisclosed |
| Pelle Clement | Ajax | Undisclosed |
And looking at the fees spent by Reading in Yongge’s first summer, it was perhaps not right that Stam said that players were brought in on frees when every summer signing cost the club a transfer fee, with Sone Aluko in particular being an expensive one – he was also a player though who only ended up scoring six league goals.
Leandro Bacuna ended up departing for a profit, but the rest of Stam’s summer signings that year were either underwhelming or flops at the Royals, but he definitely did have money to spend.
It did not work out for him in the end at Reading, but aside from a seventh-placed Championship finish in 2021, the Royals have had plenty of tough times since Stam’s exit.
