Head of Reading Academy, Michael Gilkes, has said that the Royals 'blew up' the assessment as the club regained Category One status at the first attempt.

A prestigious youth set-up under the guidance of Eamonn Dolan, the club were demoted to Category Two last season after struggles adapting to life at Bearwood and in a pandemic.

Determined to return to the top table of youth development at the first attempt, the club continued to fund the set-up as if it were in Category One.

The results were clear to see, as Royals icon Gilkes explains.

"It’s a full audit, like OFSTED. It’s a four-day audit where they scrutinise everything as an academy, from top to bottom. Then they put you in sections: safe to operate, compliance and standards. There are 366 EPPP rules, and we blew them up completely. They look at coaching, sports science and medicine, safeguarding processes in place, how you operate and whether you have the right paperwork in place. It is so full-on. We’ve just expanded beyond what we were required.

"We were audited as a Cat 2 Academy trying to get back to a Cat 1 Academy. You look at what Mark Bowen has said, and the owner made the decision to operate last year as a Cat 1 Academy- although not in name. It gave us a great advantage with preparation because we already maintained what we had and improved it with necessary changes like making sure staff were in the right positions. There has been a lot of people involved."

Something to be proud of for staff and supporters, Gilkes- who played almost 400 times for the club in the 1980s and 1990s- tried to put into words what it means.

"There’s so much going on at the club at the moment. There’s been so much hard work from everyone involved and it’s been a collective effort. It’s a positive boost for the players, staff and the club. Hopefully this can be the start of us, as a club, moving in the right direction.

"We’re back playing against the Man United’s, Chelsea’s, Man City’s- whoever you want to see. We’re back playing the best Academy players, elite for that level, in the country and most probably Europe. It’s great to earn our right to be back among the elite."