Reading boss José Gomes has given a pretty good interview to Portuguese outlet O Jogo.
Although most chats with players and managers who recently moved from Portugal to England are about the adaptation and the difference in leagues, this conversation turned out to be a little different.
Gomes didn’t mind revealing some details of the huge work he had to do when taking charge of the Royals, claiming it was a ‘shock’ to see Reading in such condition, and it’s been a hard path since guaranteeing their status in the Championship.
“It was difficult all the way until we got the stay, which happened now,” José Gomes told O Jogo. “But at the beginning it was a shock, not for us, but for the players, because we had to take an action, the first, which was to reduce the squad, which had about 40 athletes.
“In January we cut 14 and then seven more, to be able to reinforce ourselves with five loanees. The board understood and supported, but the players caught a fright.”
Asked about how they chose those who should go, Gomes said: “We saw a lot of videos with games of the team. Of course we didn’t know the importance of the players, nor even the influence they had in the group, even because there wasn’t any element of the previous technical staff. We had no help at all. We used the possible observation, the intelligence and the insight.”
The manager also talked about the other difficulties: “Well, the large number of games is really intense. We arrived on December 22nd and soon got Boxing Day and New Year. We did eight practice sessions and four matches in a very short time. This league really has an incredible intensity and has many moments of these, with great intensity of competition. We adapted well.”
Asked if the players accepted his ideas, he said: “Fortunately, today I can say yes. They said they were tired of a certain type of game. Here we play a lot of direct football, in the long free kick there are strong players with the specific mission of provoking contact, the goalkeeper usually goes to the midfield to take the free kick. There are 10/12 teams that do this.”
Asked if his team is one of these, Gomes is proud to deny: “No. The players assimilated the ideas well, liked to go out with the ball instead of the long passes, to play well, and luckily the ideas resulted. It’s a very competitive second league…”
Finally asked if he’ll stay at Reading, Gomes said: “Yes, I have one more year of contract”. And he also talked about the next goal: “It depends on the financial fair play to which the club is subject to. If we can get free, we can bet on a team to be promoted. Otherwise, it’s to win as many games as possible.”
