Reading manager Kelly Chambers says that her side have set their expectations high once again ahead of the new season.
The Royals are now the only Barclays Women’s Super League club to be affiliated to a men’s team outside of the Premier League. This brings unique challenges for the Berkshire club with manager Chambers having to operate on a carefully balanced playing budget.
Chambers has worked wonders with the Reading budget in recent seasons with the club never being pulled into any relegation battles. The Royals continue to achieve season-on-season and Chambers has revealed that she has set her side a similar high expectation going into the latest campaign.
“For Reading now in the WSL, we are the only Championship club in the league and are probably one of the smallest clubs,” Chambers said when speaking in a recent media session. “We know that it is going to be a challenge year-on-year competing with the budgets that some of the other clubs have got.
“We’ve always been a team that have competed and some may even say overachieved in some seasons. First and foremost, we want to stay in this league but we also want to finish better than we did last season definitely.”
Reading open the season at home to Liverpool on the back of the club recording record ticket sales over the summer. Chambers went on to say that The Royals simply cannot wait to get the new campaign up and running.
She said “Everybody wants to be playing at home in the first game of the season and we are going to be playing in front of a huge crowd, probably the biggest that we have ever had here. For me, we need them to be our 12th player, the players will be so excited stepping back into that along with the new signings.
“We are so excited to get going, the group have bonded really well, they’ve learnt about each other and the new signings have really bonded with everybody else.
“When we step out against Liverpool, we are going to be raring to go.”
Tickets for Reading’s opening match of the 2022/2023 Barclays Women’s Super League season against Liverpool are on-sale now and can be purchased by clicking here.
About The Author
