EFL veteran Neil Warnock believes Reading will be a stronger club in the future for going through the current off-field strife.

The Royals have had five years of transfer embargoes, three seasons with points deductions and have had months where the staff were paid late. As a result, the club have fallen from the Premier League in 2013 to its lowest finish in 35 years in the season just gone.

Despite this, supporters have rallied behind the manager, Ruben Selles, and his squad to create an unbreakable bond, with supporters backing the club and its staff through this crisis caused by owner Dai Yongge.

Warnock, who has seven promotions under his belt and has played the role of pantomime villain against the Royals for the past 20 years, was in charge of Huddersfield Town on the day Reading were relegated, admitting he has a soft spot for the club.

“I thought your fans were very good that day. They were good to the Huddersfield team and good to their own players even though they had been relegated. I hope they get their reward and can bounce back. It hasn’t been an easy time as a Reading fan.

“You’ve not known what you’ve been up to really. You’re expecting something to turn up every week and you can’t work like that. Hopefully, things change and you can have some clarity and then the manager can take it forward because he seems like a good lad to me. He deserves an opportunity where things are straightforward, and he just has to win games.

“The thing about football is you always overcome obstacles and things that are thrown at you, and you become a stronger club for it. In years to come, when you can sort the ownership out, Reading will again become a good club.”

Reading Chronicle:

Despite losing to Reading more than any other side in his career and regularly embroiled in verbal altercations with supporters, Warnock admitted he was keen on becoming manager at RG2 before his retirement this year.

“In the last few years, I’ve had a soft spot for them. I wanted to manage them a few times, but the owners had other ideas, so it never materialised. I go back to John Madejski, and he was fabulous for the club. They didn’t spend what other clubs spent at the time, but it was always steady and there were no crises. Oh, for a steady John Madejski now.

“I spoke to John occasionally and you had a Director of Football, Nick Hammond. I didn’t think he wanted me to become manager because I signed him at Plymouth Argyle as a goalkeeper and we had the first six games and lost every single one, so I had to get rid of him. I brought my coach in, and we ended up getting promotion that year through the play-offs. When he was Director of Football, I thought I was going to struggle.”