There’s no doubt that owner Dai Yongge has been the biggest factor in the Royals’ downfall.
During the first few years of his time at the Select Car Leasing Stadium, it was overspending that Dai was criticised for, with many of their high-profile signings failing to live up to expectations.
Lucas Joao missed a significant portion of his time at the club due to injury, George Puscas performed admirably in his first season in Berkshire but fell short of his potential, and Sone Aluko’s performance after joining from Fulham was remarkably lacklustre.
Sam Baldock didn’t perform well either, but the Royals signed all of these players after the January 2017 transfer window, when their recruiting calibre began to decline.
Even though Adrian Popa didn’t have much of an influence while he was at the SCL Stadium and loanees Jordan Mutch and Reece Oxford performed poorly, they nevertheless made it to the 2017 Championship play-off final.
In the second half of the 2016–17 season, Lewis Grabban performed admirably; the Berkshire side also added Tiago Ilori during that transfer window.
Despite having a very good rating, Portuguese centre back Ilori was unable to have much of an influence at Liverpool.
However, the £3.75 million move to Berkshire offered him a chance for a new beginning, and this was an exciting prospect.
Under head coach Jaap Stam (shown above), the Royals were leading the division at the time and were playing really good football.
Despite Ilori suffering a ligament injury soon after his arrival, the Berkshire club was able to get it into the play-offs and almost win a spot in the Premier League, losing to Huddersfield Town on penalties in the championship game.
Over his two years at the SCL Stadium, Ilori did manage to stay fit for a significant amount of that time and did manage to make a respectable number of appearances. Still, it’s indisputable that he didn’t live up to the hype.
Tiago Ilori will be disappointed about his time at Reading FC
The England-born defender cost an estimated £3.75 million, so the Royals were hoping for much more from him.
The fact that the team signed some extremely smart players in the summer of 2016, which was before he arrived, does not aid the defender.
John Swift joined on a free transfer, Liam Moore moved from Leicester City for £1 million, and Yakou Meite also joined.
Ilori had a far smaller influence than the three individuals that were previously named.
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