Reading FC chairman and co-owner Rob Couhig has assessed his and the team’s start to the 2025/26 season after a difficult spell on the pitch which led to him sacking Noel Hunt at the weekend.
The Royals sit in 19th position in League One in what has been an underwhelming opening 14 games of the season having been expected to challenge in the top half of the table having narrowly missed out on a play-off place last campaign.
Frustration was beginning to grow amongst large sections of the fanbase with lacklustre results and performances which led to the club announcing on Saturday afternoon that Hunt had been relieved of his duties as first-team manager.
Speaking to BBC South Today before Hunt’s dismissal, Couhig said: “Everyone’s a little anxious. We’re 25% of the way through the season, there are things we wish we were doing better on the pitch but there’s a little level of frustration.
“The club is so close to really producing but of course you can only say that for so long.
“If I fault anybody, I fault myself and it will be a shock to some people that I haven’t been ruthless enough.
“We’re in a performance-based businesses and we can talk about all the good games in the world that you want but I looked and the table and there’s no column that says ‘nice game’.
“You win, you lose, you draw. We’re having some heart-to-hearts with ourselves about what’s going on.
“Thing thing I feel best about is there’s no finger pointing, we’re all in it together and we all still have confidence in our ability to make this thing work.
“I think my reputation is I’m slow to change on these things, but it is the nature of the business. So if the time would come when we wanted to change out our players in January, we’ll change them out.”
Reading’s next game comes in the FA Cup first-round when they host Carlisle United next Saturday before they play Stevenage in League One at the SCL on Thursday, November 6.
