WITH THE RIGHT OWNERS, JUST WATCH ROYALS LIFT OFF AGAIN!

READING legend Brian McDermott says the Royals’ current crop remind him of the side that stormed to the Championship title in 2012.

- Chris Dunlavy

McDermott, 63, spent 13 years at the Madejski Stadium, performing every role from Under-17s boss to player liaison officer.

But it was as first-team manager that he enjoyed his finest hour, guiding the likes of Noel Hunt, Jem Karacan and Ian Harte into the Premier League.

The former Arsenal winger recently returned to Reading’s revamped Bearwood training ground to watch his nephew play for Chelsea’s Under-15 side, and his appearance did not go unnoticed by current boss Ruben Selles.

The Spaniard - who has defied crippling financial problems to orchestrate a League One play-off push - invited McDermott to spend a few hours with the Royals’ first team and the experience left a lasting impression.

“It was really lovely,” said McDermott, who left Reading in 2013, briefly returned after a spell in charge of Leeds and has since held roles as chief scout at Arsenal, a consultant for the League Managers Association and, most recently, director of football with Hibernian.

“It was the first time I’d seen the new training ground and Ruben reached out to say ‘We’d love you to come back some time, look around the place and just have a chat’.

“So I did, and it was great. I met a few people that I hadn’t seen for a long time. I saw a couple of my old players, Noel Hunt and Mikele Leigertwood, who are on the staff. The manager and his two young coaches couldn’t have been more hospitable.

“But the most exciting thing for me was watching the players. They’ve got the second-youngest team in League One and when I watched them train I thought ‘Wow - you’ve got something special going on here’.

“You can sense it again, and it just reminded me of the past, what it used to be like. You look at the team, at the training ground, at Ruben… it’s a club that’s ready to go, just like we did. There’s just that one thing missing.”