José Gomes: New Signings Are ‘Possible’

Ten days ago, we brought you the slightly worrying quotes from José Gomes in the Portuguese media that suggested that Reading were having a difficult time with transfers this summer, with the club entering a self-imposed embargo in order to help balance the finances.

However in a new interview back in his homeland with Record, Gomes is a lot more upbeat, implying that the situation has improved. He said:

“At this moment we are still inside an embargo, we can’t register anyone, but tomorrow it will be solved. The owner wants to build this squad that allows us to feed the dream of promotion. And I think it’s possible.”

What has happened in the last week and a half for the club to lift the embargo is unclear. The obvious answer would be the sale of a player or two, so keep an eye out for any announcements today in that regard. Danny Loader and Marc McNulty are the two players who have been most heavily linked with a move away from Berkshire this summer, but both are currently on international duty so it would be a surprise if a deal had been negotiated in the past few days.

Other possibilities include some of the higher earners in the squad signing a new contract on a lower wage or a new sponsorship deal being agreed. Again, you would expect an official announcement for any of these things.

What it does mean though is that we could begin to see a couple of new signings in the next few weeks, with Gomes appearing to suggest in that previous interview with Maisfutebol that the club had taken one unnamed player on trial. You can find all the latest transfer rumours from the summer so far in our rumour tracker.

It is news that will no doubt excite supporters, who have been keen for the Royals to enter the transfer market in recent weeks as the club looks to improve on last season’s 20th place finish. By this time last year, Reading had already signed Andy Yiadom, David Meyler and John O’Shea, but are far from alone in their current inactivity - 18 of the other 23 Championship clubs are also yet to confirm any new signings.