Reading FC legend Dave Kitson expressed his anger and sadness at the club’s current ownership situation as the saga for a resolution rumbles on.
Speaking on the ‘Price of Football’ podcast, Kitson spoke about the fans sceptical nature of Dai Yongge’s frivolous spending during his first few seasons at the club.
As part of his spending spree in August 2019, Yongge splashed out around £8million on George Puscas and around £5million on forward Lucas Joao in the same transfer window.
Kitson said: “It’s interesting if you go back to social media at the time and newspaper columns written about Reading, very few people were saying ‘this is great, we’re really happy we’re spending £8million on a striker.’
“Everyone, Almost to a person, was really sceptical because we don’t do that at Reading, we’ve never done that.
“I don’t know what goes through the heads of some of these owners.”
Kitson reflected on the two times that the club has won promotion to the Premier League compared to the despair of how the team has been run under Dai Yongge.
He continued: “If you look back at the two times Reading have been promoted to the Premier League, they brought in young, hungry players and had a staff where everyone knew where they were.
“The second time they were promoted, most of that team were academy graduates that were stepping in to take on the mantle.
“When somebody turns up and buys an £8million striker and all the other players are from the same agent, no one is asking for that.
“No one cares how much you’re spending, people were really wary of it and nobody wanted it. Nobody thought it would go well.
“When you build squads you don’t go to one agent because you end up with a mishmash and whatever they have got. The stupidity of the whole thing, it’s just got worse and worse.
“Very genuinely there have been some tears shed over it.
“Your legacy is ‘did you find something and did you try and help it and leave it in a better shape?’
“That’s why there has been tears over this football club because we did do that.
“We’ve had to watch someone come in and completely destroy it, and it’s getting me quite choked up, but it’s really sad.”
