Dear Reading

Reading Football Club may be back in uncertain times, but as Bobbins writes, all of us fans are right behind the players and staff. Every step of the way.

Dear Reading,

As the song goes that we’ve sung for decades on the terraces and in the stands, and one that you’ve no doubt you’ve all heard:

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are grey

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

Please don’t take my Reading away

Even though those words were never meant in a literal sense, we find ourselves in a situation where we hopelessly feel that we could lose you. Forever.

With the news that the takeover by Rob Couhig and associates has failed to get over the line, we feel such a sense of disappointment that the new dawn that we’ve all been waiting for has failed at the last minute. But what I want to say to you, personally, from my heart, is please, please, do not give up on us.

I’ll try to speak for an entire fanbase here, even though that’s a very difficult role to take on, but believe me when I say that, from our side of the pitch, we care a lot. Not just for the men and women who play in the blue and white, it’s much more than that.

We’ve learned so much about how a football club works over the last few years. Fans shouldn’t have to be so involved but we have had no choice, just like you have had to take in this information and emotion. It’s been unavoidable and it has almost always been bad news.

We know much more than we should do about how this club has failed you. How it has failed us all. We want to share your successes, but all we have shared is the failure that is not your fault.

We’ve also shared that disappointment of being let down constantly. We’ve been told so many lies, so many thinly veiled promises that lessons would be learned. That we’d taken our medicine. That the mistakes would never be repeated. It’s all been lies. We know that you must all be sick of it too.

And who has suffered throughout all of this? You have. We don’t doubt for a moment that none of this affects you. It must do. You’re the ones who have to set foot on the pitch and fight against the numerous points deductions and destruction of the women’s team almost in its entirety. So many false dawns of better times ahead that have been nothing but mirages.

We’re tired of it and we know you are too.

You’re human. You signed your contract with Reading because you thought it was the best place for you – whether financially to help your family, or because you felt it was the best place to hone your craft in an environment that is the envy of many in the country.

You didn’t sign your contract with Reading because you wanted to suffer. You signed or stayed because you believe that Reading can give you what you need and be a part of something good or great again.

We hope you still could feel this way, because we still believe in YOU.

Despite everything we’ve learned, we know how this will have hurt and affected you. As much as we can, we empathise from the distance that we naturally have as fans to players and staff. You’ve had to take on so much responsibility, so much anxiety, so much pain, whether that be physical or mental.

We can’t step into your boots, but we’re still beside you nonetheless. Trust in that.

Our support for you has always been unwavering. Please don’t doubt that for a second. We don’t know the full extent of what it is like being someone that wears our badge every single day, but we can say without any hesitation that we’re still so very proud of you, what you’ve achieved and what you continue to achieve.

We will continue to support you in every way we can. You know what we’re capable of. We’ve shared so many great moments with you: moments like the wins at Carlisle United and Wycombe Wanderers and evenings at the Purple Turtle, to name but a few. We know times are hard, we all hope for better days ahead, but finding the motivation to believe in what ultimately has been pulled from underneath us must be a massive challenge.

I’ve supported this club for over three decades and never before have I felt so strongly towards a manager and group of players such as this. Even through the massive highs that we’ve achieved before your time here at the club, it is this group that I feel for the most.

You’ve endured so much and have been the ones who have had to pick up the pieces from the mismanagement of an owner who has failed you. Who has failed us. Who has failed the good name of Reading Football Club.

It is YOU that we believe in, not those that purport to speak in our name. It is you that have to take it on the chin time and time again.

We believe in you. We all do.

I am proud of you. So very, very proud of you. I want nothing more than to see you play on a Saturday, or a Tuesday, or any day that the sun shines on us. You deserve more. You deserve to have a career you can be proud of here.

We don’t want you to leave because the situation was too hard to bear, although nobody would begrudge you that, if that were your decision. We know you’re suffering, but we’re beside you. We don’t know when this torture will end, but it will. Time will heal us all. We have to believe in that.

Trust in us, as we trust in you. We will endure. We will fight for you, just like you said you will fight for us.

You are my sunshine.