Reading Football Club are an English Championship Football team based in South East England and was formed back in 1871. They were in the Premier League last year, but were relegated so will be looking to bounce back this season. The ‘Royals’ have had some brilliant players who have worn the blue and white striped shirt over the years, with legendary former Chelsea striker Kerry Dixon playing for Reading for three seasons before moving to Stamford Bridge, another is former England International and Manchester United midfielder Neil Webb, who started his career at Reading Football Club.

Current

As mentioned above, Reading Football Club were disappointing last season as they finished in nineteenth position in the table thus becoming demoted to the Championship for this season. The Club changed their manager during the course of last season, with former Southampton boss Nigel Adkins taking over the ‘Royals’ from previous incumbent Brian McDermott.

Nigel Adkins has brought some players in this summer with Dutch International and former Real Madrid midfielder signing in what is seen as a coup for the Club. Other new faces are the experienced England International defender Wayne Bridge and U.S.A. Midfielder Danny Williams.

If you add the new recruits to a squad already boasting some quality players like Adam Le Fondre, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Jimmy Kebe and Adam Federici, this means that Reading should be aiming to gain promotion back to England’s top division this year. Indeed the ‘Royals’ have started well so far in the new season as they won their first game against Ipswich Town and followed that by drawing away at Bolton Wanderers.

The expectation from the Reading fans and Club as a whole will be to be at least challenging for promotion back to the Premier League this season, and manager Nigel Adkins will be doing his upmost to ensure that this happens.

No shows booked at the moment.

Rivals

The leading rivals to Reading are the two teams that were relegated with them last season, namely Queens Park Rangers and Wigan Athletic who will have exactly the same ambitions as the ‘Royals’ this term. Other teams that will hope to be challenging are Bolton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City and Watford amongst others. The Championship is a tough league as any team on their day can beat any other side in the division, so there are other teams that Reading need to be wary of, like Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers and Derby County just to name a few.

Stadium

Reading play their home games at the 24,161 capacity Madjeski Stadium which was opened in 1998 and was named after John Madjeski, who owned the Club from 1990 through to 2012. He has been a major factor in rejuvenating Reading Football Club’s fortunes, as not only has he funded their new stadium but has also helped with finances for on the pitch matters too, he has since sold the Club onto new owners Anton Zingarevich’s Thames Sports Investment group.

Reading FC – 2012/13

Brian McDermott is Reading’s current manager having been backed by new owners of the club Thames Sport Investment who eventually completed their takeover in May 2012 just as the team secured promotion. Currently lying in 20th place having played 4 games isn’t where the club would like to be, picking up a single point. Reading managed to lure to the club some very good signings including Pavel Pogrebnyak who scored 6 goals in 12 appearances for Fulham last year.

History

Reading Football Club, also known as ‘The Royals’ were established in 1871 and are one of the oldest teams in England, however didn’t join the football league until 1920. The club originally played at Elm Park and played there for 102 years before moving to their current stadium, the Madejski.

Reading in the past have shown a severe lack of consistency, moving up and down leagues when they joined in 1920. Reading were in division 2 until May 1931 when they got relegated and remained in the Third Division South until the outbreak of war. Finishing runners-up twice in as many years, Reading were denied their promotion as they didn’t win the league. In 1988, they tasted cup glory by winning the Simod Cup, beating a number of top flight teams to reach the final where they beat Luton Town.

Two seasons before this Reading secured promotion, only to be relegated the same year as their cup glory. There was more angst for Reading as they were denied promotion into the Premier League because of the reduction in teams from 22 to 20. In 1998 Reading moved to the Madejski stadium as they looked to secure a place in the Premier League which came in 2006 when they won the Championship. Only managing 2 seasons before being relegated, they got promoted once again in 2012 and are now currently playing top flight football for only the second time in the clubs history.