'We don't need more strikers' insist Royals.

Anthony Smith • Published 3 Jun 2010 10:00 0 Comments

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ROYALS are ready to put their utmost faith in their current crop of strikers to fire them to promotion next season.

Royals were rumoured to be on the lookout for a new forward to boost their firepower over the next Championship campaign.

The club has been linked with a string of potential targets including Sunderland's Daryl Murphy, Peterborough's Craig Mackail-Smith and Bournemouth's Brett Pitman.

But it is understood boss Brian McDermott is happy with his first-choice quartet of Shane Long, Simon Church, Grzegorz Rasiak and Noel Hunt, and that he will only try to sign someone if a player leaves.

Shane Long is said to be a £2 million target for Birmingham City, while reports suggest Church is also being watched by top-flight sides.

However, Royals director of football Nick Hammond insisted: "Whilst our continuous aim is to strengthen the squad, we're are not specifically looking at strikers.

"In fact, we are more than happy with the ones we already have. We believe they performed very well last season and our young forwards will have learned a great deal from the experience."

Royals leading scorer last season by a mile was attacking midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson who cracked 20 goals in all competitions.

Church was the leading striker with 12 goals, while Long and Rasiak both finished with nine. Hunt, however, scored only twice after missing almost the entire season through injury.

However, Hunt will have made a full recovery from knee surgery in time for pre-season training and has already proven himself at Championship level.

"For young players learning the game I think our strikers were very good last season," argued Hammond. "Simon Church has grown and improved this season and he's getting stronger with every game.

"I've already said I believe Shane Long has the talent and ability to be as good as anything in this division and I stand by that.

"Grzegorz Rasiak also gave us some important goals and Noel Hunt should be back from injury. We have big hopes for Noel because we really missed him last season.

"That's before you include Hal Robson-Kanu, Nicholas Bignall and Jake Taylor who are three extremely promising young players who, like Simon Church, have all come through the Academy.

"So yes, we have to mindful of what might happen over the summer but I genuinely think our strikers are capable of doing the job."

Nevertheless, Reading could be tempted to cash-in if a rival clubs makes a substantial offer for any player. They will be £12 million out of pocket compared with a year ago following the end of Premier League parachute payments.

"The board know what Brian and I want to do and where we want to take the squad but we understand the potential difficulties we may face over the summer," added Hammond.

"We want to move forward and be successful and we need to find a way through that. I don't want to get bogged down with talk of figures but we are confident we can remain competitive."

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