Reading Head of Football Operations, Mark Bowen, underlined the club's desire to regain Category One Academy status after losing it for the first time this season.

A proud aspect of the club, 75 players have graduated into the first team since 1999 with stars Tom Holmes and Tom McIntyre just the latest to become regulars in the first team having come up through the ranks.

Speaking to the popular fan group ElmParkRoyals, the former Reading boss- who returned to the club in a behind-the-scenes role- made it clear that their plan is to re-apply as soon as possible.

Reading Chronicle:

"The plan, obviously, is to get it back as soon as possible," he stated. "It’s something the club should be, and are very, proud of. I will say, if you look at a club of this size and where we’ve been on league position over the last few years, I’ve had people in the game astounded at Reading pushing for Category One. I said it’s important, when you go back to Eamonn Dolan and what he started off here- it’s a legacy we’ve inherited and we’re rightly proud.

"Laying my heart on my sleeve, it’s a bloody hard process to keep trying to compete with the big boys. It’s like a big juggernaut that’s rolling along- continuing to pay out. I’m not saying in any way, shape, or form that we should look twice at what we’re doing but I’m just putting it out there for people to realise it’s not just a simple thing to say we should be getting Category One. Michael Gilkes and his team, the passion they show for what they’re doing to keep up with the big boys is admirable. We will try desperately because we owe it to the parents and the players who are there in the Academy."

Reading Chronicle:

A shock to the supporters when it was announced the set-up had been demoted, questions were asked on how it was allowed to happen.

Bowen, who was first team manager in RG2 from 2019-2020, believed it was a mixture of elements.

"It’s human nature, you almost want to blame people," he empathised. "But having spent some time looking at it I think it’s just the culmination of situations that’ve happened: the league looking at the club’s money, positions needed filling in the Academy that Michael Gilkes wasn’t given the remit to do, people started crossing jobs and sharing jobs. They weren’t doing a bad job, but the league came back and said you should be having, for example, psychologists with the U15s team.

"We thought we’d gotten away with it because we showed the league what we were hoping to do over this coming league, but they weren’t prepared to except that and their words effectively were ‘we’ve warned you over the last season, we’re taking it away- but you’ll come back to Category One if you can prove over the coming year that you can fulfil the remit.’"