You may not have noticed, but Reading's season has gone a little dull recently. After four straight defeats (possibly after the Palace game, even), it's hard to get excited about the remaining few games of a thoroughly underwhelming 2015/16.
Naturally, Brian McDermott's focus has recently somewhat been on the future- and that's only increased as the season winds down. Today, revealing a fair amount about his thoughts on the summer, McDermott has spoken to the media. Below, we've taken a look at some of the most interesting quotes, from both BBC Berkshire and Get Reading.
Get Reading
On transfer plans
"If we can it would be lovely to do some business early. But the summer will take care of itself. We'll see what we've got left come the end of May then we'll go from there.
I don't know when we'll do anything. You always want to do your stuff early, has it transpired that way at whatever club I've been at? Not generally."
On discussions with Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth, who owns 25% of the club
"I had a good meeting with Tiger. It was a good conversation, he's a good man. He watched the match on Tuesday and then flew back on Wednesday.
"He was very supportive - it was really encouraging. We understand where we're at. I haven't had conversations [about a transfer budget]. I had an empathetic conversation with Tiger. I like him, we get on well. We talked about football."
Looking at those quotes, Brian doesn't seem to think that Reading will have a lot of money to completely revamp the squad. That said, there should be enough funds to make some transfers.
In addition to that, this is the most significant appearance the Thais have made in quite a while. Although it doesn't appear to have been a formal meeting between Brian McDermott and 'Tiger', the two having a chat about footballing matters certainly can't hurt. For those of you who are #McDermottOut, this definitely doesn't point to the Thais drawing up a P45.
BBC Berkshire
On 'building something' at the club
"You know I think we've got to build something. I don't think it's about turning things round I think we have to build something. I think that's going to be important and we know there's a lot of players out of contract, there's a lot of loan players, so we have to build something.
We've done that before in the past and that's what we've got to do, we've got to build a squad, we've got to build a team capable of playing in the top end of the division."
On a 'big summer' for Reading Football Club
"It's a big summer for all of us - the whole club. You know we want to have a successful summer which is gonna be important."
And what that means exactly...
"Well, you know we have to try to get the balance of the squad right... we have to organise our pre-season, which we're doing as we speak, we have to get that camaraderie around the place - everybody going in the same direction - so, I'm looking forward to it, I really am."
On using the young players next season
"We're going to bring our loan players back from the various places that they've played, and the young players have had the experience - a couple of the boys have scored the other night..."
There's less to go on here, as it's mostly platitudes about 'building something' and the Royals having a 'big summer' - we knew all of that anyway. That said, it does play into what the gaffer has previously said about Reading needing to build up the squad, rather than packing it full of loanees.
Plus, the brief mention of the young players points to them potentially being involved in some capacity with the first team squad next season. That'll be great news for the likes of Dominic Samuel, Craig Tanner and others.
You can find the original sources for these quotes at Get Reading here, and BBC Berkshire here.