Reading boss Velijko Paunovic offers update to January transfer window
With one month before the official opening of the January transfer window, Reading manager Velijko Paunovic has explained how he and the club would seek to approach the market.
Placed under a transfer embargo this summer due to a violation of EFL profit and sustainability rules, Reading has since accepted a six-point deduction. Meanwhile, the club have been given an additional six-point suspended deduction, which is expected to take effect at the end of the 2022/23 season, if it does not follow an agreed business plan.
While the details of the business plan are so far unclear, it is certain to strictly limit the transfer of business Reading can make with the club required to reduce the payroll over the next few months.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s clash with Hull City, Paunovic made it clear that the club’s priority is to extend short-term contracts offered to key players such as Andy Carroll and Scott Dann while immobilizing their lenders.
“I think there are priorities,” said the Serbian. “Players like Scott Dann, like Andy Carroll, we have to secure. And certainly, we also have to do with other players, other additions, lenders, because at the moment we are only allowed to lend six months. .
Andy Carroll’s contractual situation is high on Reading’s priority list. Image from: JasonPIX.
“We actually had a visit from Chelsea, Paolo Ferreira came here, we discussed it two days ago. They were very happy to see their players playing and performing very well. They are also happy with the style that we are. let’s play, and they were very happy with what they saw of the way we’ve worked this week and the facilities that we have. Same at Watford with Tom Dele-Bashiru – four goals is his best season, and that’s probably because we’re doing something right here. So I think all the players, all the additions that have come here, are working fine and now it’s our job to secure them. I think we’re planning a good image, we are raising the values ​​of the players who come here, so I hope that is enough for the players to extend. ”
While Paunovic maintains that the club’s goal over the next few months is to secure the squad they already have, he isn’t ruling out further additions if the right opportunity presents itself.
“You never know what the January transfer window will bring. We are not the market players, it is not our role in the market. But there are market players who can trigger movements in the market. all of the spheres and levels of the football pyramid. So we “I’ll see if anything touches us for good, or something that we need to replace. We will be active and we will also be proactive in knowing if something happens, we can react quickly. ”