READING FC assistant manager Alex Rae has insisted that any talk of the FA Cup tie at Manchester United has been banned to keep focus on their test at Stoke City this weekend.
The Royals are on the road in the Championship on Saturday at struggling Stoke City before their glamour tie in the cup the following weekend at Old Trafford.
“The manager has banned anyone from talking about it (Manchester United),” said Rae.
“Any bit of focus has been purely on Stoke. We know what they are going to bring to the table.
“We have to implement our style and plan to get the three points.
“The priority is the league. We have to go about our business the way we always do with preparation.
“It won’t be on any of the players’ minds because it’s so important to get as many points as possible in our league campaign.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re playing someone at the bottom of the league or someone with the magnitude of Man United, we focus on the here and now.
“The manager has emphasised that and if anyone is speaking about it, it’s put to bed.”
Despite Stoke’s poor run of form which sees them in 20th position in the Championship table, Rae is expecting a tricky test against Alex Neil’s team.
He continued: “They’ve got some real quality throughout their squad. Their results haven’t been where they would like but at any given moment they can get a good run going.
“There’s disappointment on the back of last week having been in a good position but there were lots of positives to take that we need to take into Stoke.
“50 points is the initial phase the gaffer set so we’ve still got work to do to compete in every game.
“I’m not going to give out (names) who trained today, I don’t think that would be wise, but we managed to get a couple that will hopefully be part of the squad this weekend.
“We got a few knocks last week and it’s been threadbare at times so we need to keep these guys healthy.”
