Reading FC assistant manager Alex Rae reflected on a ‘challenging’ spell after he helped the Royals to Championship survival.
Rae joined the Royals on an interim basis as part of Paul Ince’s coaching staff after previous manager Veljko Paunovic was sacked in February.
“It’s been an incredible couple of months, it’s been challenging,” said Rae.
“Everyone was delighted that we got it done with a couple of games to spare. When you factor in some of the circumstances.
“We’ve had an injury list that has grown so I’m pleased we got over the line.”
Ince and Rae have committed their future to the club after being appointed on a full-time basis and are now preparing for what will be another difficult campaign under financial restrictions.
He continued: “The earlier you can get your targets in and get a full pre-season in the better. If you can get that done and dusted with a tough pre-season under your belt, that stands you in good stead.
“There’s a lot more intensity in the games, and having played a lot of my career in the championship, playing 46 games in the championship is so demanding both physically and mentally. You have to be prepared for both challenges.
“It will be a factor to try and get players inand get as full of a pre-season as possible.
“You want to get guys that can go the distance, but with some of the guys like Andy Rinomhota, he played 40 games last year and then got a knock and that was his season finished so you can’t always legislate even if you’ve had a full pre-season.
“But if you do have a full pre-season, it gives you a fighting chance.”
Rae reflected on his thoughts when he was asked to take up the job as part of Ince’s coaching staff and was surprised by how quickly he became invested in the task ahead.
“I keep an interest across all divisions and we saw the club was having a tough time. The previous manager managed to get an important win before we came in the door.
“It was important to try and get a run going over a five or six game period and thankfully that was the case. It was crucial to add the pressure on the opponents below us.
“I’ll be honest, there was a game before the international break where we had just beaten Blackburn, and I said to Incey that I woke up through the night thinking that we were playing Barnsley after the break and thinking about preparation and being totally invested in the challenge even though we had only been at the club for five minutes.
“He said the same thing that he had been up at five and it was almost as if we were trying to beat each other at who had the most to worry about for the next challenge.
“You get really invested and with the challenges the Championship poses with so many different styles and the analysis you have to do, you think about what frame of mind the players would be because the previous results weren’t great and with a lot of them out of contract but they were great.
“Me and Incey are very similar characters. When we met each other at wolves we didn’t have a great deal of time for each other, we had this rivalry. But then we became teammates and bounced off each other.
“We knew what it meant to everyone surrounding the club and with it being the 150th anniversary and the ramifications relegation would have on so many people at the club, we knew that wasn’t an option.
“It was important to make sure the players were aware of that.
“The fightback against Swansea was incredible and it meant that the others had to win their remaining games. The manager drove us forward to keep us focused on the next game because the job wasn’t done yet.
“After Notts Forest and Millwall, it felt as if we were unlucky not to take anything from Millwall and those were the kind of games we needed to pick up points in. but we responded well and built momentum and belief and you can sense that around the place.
“The last thing we wanted was to come here and have a relegation on your CV.
“Paul is football mad. His knowledge is incredible. He knows the game inside out. He lives and breathes it, and is very passionate about it. Thomas (Ince) is the same so it must run in the family.”
They ve been invaluable. They’ve been here for a longer period and know the characters. Without them, it would have been difficult.
