Reading manager Paul Clement has said that work at the club needs to be done before the players return for pre-season training.
Reading’s campaign was a poor one by their standards, and they only survived relegation on the final day, with a 0-0 draw at promoted Cardiff City enough to guarantee they remained a Sky Bet Championship side for the 2018/19 season.
This contrasted massively to their 2016/17 campaign, when they went all the way to the Play-Off final, before losing on penalties to Huddersfield Town.
But despite their poor season, recently appointed Paul Clement is looking forward to next year, and says work must start right away to ensure they have a more successful campaign.
Speaking to BBC Radio Berkshire, Clement said: “There’s seven weeks before the players come back for pre-season. Three of those they will be having complete rest, but then they’ve got an off-season programme which we expect them to do. There’s a way we can monitor them to see if they’ve done that or not.”
“They need to come back in decent shape so that we can have a strong pre-season to put us in a good position for a long season.”
Reading will be looking for a busy summer in the transfer market as they look to build a squad capable of challenging towards the top of the league again.
It’s Paul Clement’s first summer transfer window, and it’s fair to say he is looking forward to it.
“The easy part can be identifying the players, the tough part can be actually recruiting them,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s whether or not they want to be here and be part of what we’re doing and also whether or not that works out for the club financially. But we’ll be working hard, making sure we get some decent additions to this squad.”
