The Joy of No Media

Hello, is anyone there?

The Mad Stad is a ghost town with only the living dead walking around.

It’s official no one in Reading is remotely happy. When getting my eagerly anticipated Graeme Murty testimonial ticket (I urge you to get yours) at the stadium, it remained me of a funeral. There wasn’t even a glimmer of a smile; even a smirk would have been a long shot, there was just people speaking about the good times.

I must have walked past ten people and they must have been all stuck in their dejection of another season in the Championship. I even asked what was wrong with that. Foolish. I almost lost my head. The Burnley defeat hurt but for Pete’s sake, more on.

Even the man who sold the tickets looked like he lost the will to live.

I walked quite happily humming the tune to that latest Take That song (forgive me), people must have thought I was nuttier than squirrel shit but this is a season not to be down. This is one season I am looking forward too.

Yes, there is no Premier League - blah blah blah - but this season the Championship is going to be the most competitive it’s going to be for years. And as my brilliant (I have to say that) university housemate Dave Kifford pointed out in his blog Black and White Toon – media coverage this season so far has been sparse at this level.

Fair enough, Newcastle’s scintillating soap opera may be a tad more extreme than ours but the media hasn’t been out in their masses labelling us ‘relegated Reading’ or asking the question ‘will they bounce straight back up?’

Now it’s time to go through a pre season without the pressure of previous seasons and expectations are not as high neither.

The fact remains no one can judge us yet nor see what we can be capable of doing but at least we know who are manager is (sorry Newcastle and West Brom fans). No doubt Brendan Rodgers is busy preparing himself for a hopeful preseason and an eventful season, when it finally gets here.

We can get players on the quiet and spring a real surprise next term. Fly under the radar so to speak.

Let’s hope that’s the case.

Nevertheless, Murty’s testimonial is on July 21st and the game itself seems a bit of a farce. Reading Now versus Reading 4 years ago is not ideal. It was going to be Celtic but surely the organisers could conjure up something better. An ex-England 11, like Parkinson’s, would be a lot better suited and be more potentially fun for spectators.

However, it does give us the chance for us to familiarise ourselves with some ‘famous’ faces.

What does Chris Makin look like again?