Jaap Stam, the former manager of Reading, feels he was not given what he was promised after leading the team to within one Premier League penalty kick.
As the first non-British manager of the Royals, the legendary former defender for Manchester United and AC Milan took over in 2016 and completely changed the Championship.
Despite finishing third, Reading advanced to the Championship play-off final at Wembley where they lost to Huddersfield Town on penalties.
The team was unable to support it after losing Danny Williams and Ali Al-Habsi in the summer of 2017, and the Dutchman was fired in 2018 as the team was fighting for relegation.
Speaking on the Sky Bet-sponsored Stick to Football podcast, Stam thought he should have received more support during the transfer window.
“In the playoffs, penalties cost Reading the game. You go out after missing the first two. Then everything is changing, as you can see. The risk lies in the fact that, with Reading, you nearly make the Premier League, and the owners—who recently sold the team to Chinese investors—are thinking, “You’ve done the first season that well with these players.”
“If you want to keep this up, then you need to add extra quality to this team next season,” I told them in January of the inaugural campaign. “We’re going to be doing that, there’s a big budget to do so,” they added. In the end, they continue to acquire players through trades, free agents, or players who have been on larger teams but have never seen action and are benched.
Unknown at the time, Stam allegedly paid a record-breaking £7.5 million for Sone Aluko in August 2017.
He was one of two January loan acquisitions and seven fee-based additions.
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