Following a football club is mentally exhausting. I may be biassed here, but there is nothing else in sports that compares to the emotional investment and grip a club has on the lives of its supporters. Few other places have as many fans spending so much money flying across the country to watch their favourite team play another game.
We experience every high and every low to our core. Unfortunately, there haven’t been many of the former for Reading supporters to enjoy in recent years. Instead, we have had to deal with low after low after low. Since Dai Yongge joined Reading Football Club, the term “rock bottom” has taken on new meaning every few months.
Many of us reached our breaking point last season. No football fan should have to endure a season like we did. No football club should ever reach the level that ours attained.
That’s why, as much as soon as the season ended and I walked out of the SCL after the 3-2 win over Blackpool, I deactivated Twitter and cut off all things Reading FC until around three weeks ago. Except for the occasional Google to see if there was an update on the ownership saga, I did not look at anything. Like many of you, I’m sure, I’d reached an emotional tether; last season had ripped me up and spat me out. It was exhausting.
I wasn’t even that interested during the Euros – the only games I watched were the England ones. But when they finished, that said to me the season was just around the corner, and I should probably immerse myself back into things.
Predictably, nothing had changed. No new owners, no new players. But I felt refreshed – and still do. There were times last year when I’m sure we all were dragging ourselves out of our home to go to games – or not going at all, which is completely understandable.
But now, even though Dai is still our owner, and we’re yet to sign any new players, I feel excited and was logged on at 10am on the dot to get my Birmingham City ticket last Wednesday.
