Former Reading striker Dave Kitson acknowledged that ‘tears had been shed’ amid the club’s off-field problems, which has soiled his side’s ‘heritage’.
Kitson, a weekly contributor for the Reading Chronicle, continues to invest in the local area nearly 15 years after leaving the Royals. He established the Dave Kitson Academy and coaches at Bluecoats School.
Since leaving the Premier League in 2008, the Royals have found themselves in League One, lurching from one financial problem to the next under Dai Yongge’s management.
Surviving last season despite being punished points for the third consecutive season, there is a glimmer of hope as exclusive conversations with potential new owners continue.
Kitson was interviewed for the award-winning Price of Football podcast and questioned about his opinions regarding the club.
“Some tears have been shed over it,” he said. “Your legacy is whether you left something in a better state than when you found it. Have you spread goodwill and been courteous to others? It’s not about how many goals you scored or who you played with or against. What is your legacy? Did you uncover anything, strive to help it, and leave it in better shape?
“That is why there have been tears over this football club because we did it, and now we have to see someone come in and absolutely trash it. I still get choked up because it’s so heartbreaking.”
Reading’s owner, Yongge, has led the club on a rocky journey since taking over in 2017.
Smashing the club’s transfer record on several occasions and, for a time, paying for supporters’ travel to away matches, the following four years have been nothing short of disastrous, with continual financial problems.
The past 18 months have been the club’s worst period in a generation, with missed pay and debts becoming commonplace.
“If you go back to a lot of the social media at the time and a lot of the columns written at the time about Reading, very few people were saying it was great or being really happy that we’d spent £8m on a striker,” Kitson said of the club’s owners.”Almost everyone was skeptical because that is something we never do at Reading.
“I’m not sure what goes through the minds of some of these owners. If you buy a football team and say, ‘Right, when was this club last successful and how did it do it?’ Reading has been promoted to the Premier League twice, each time bringing in young, motivated players who were underpaid. It had a staff that knew where they were, and they broke the points record. The following time, the majority of the team was Academy graduates who had been squad players when we were there and stepped forward to carry the mantle. Again, they were young, hungry, and underpaid.
“That is what Reading is used to, so when someone shows up and says they’re going to buy an £8 million striker while the rest of the players are from the same agent, no one asks for it or cares how much money they’re spending.” People were really apprehensive around here. Nobody wanted it, nobody begged for it, and nobody expected it to go well. When putting together a squad, you don’t go to just one agent because you’ll wind up with an 18-year-old left-back, a 35-year-old right-back, and a midfielder who has never played before—a jumble. It’s only getting progressively worse.”
