Reading FC will forever rue £7m+ transfer mistake: View | OneFootball

Reading signed Inter Milan striker George Puscas in the summer of 2019 but he failed to live up to expectations in Berkshire

The days of buying players for over £7million will feel like a long time ago for Reading FC, but it's easy to forget that it was the reality for the Royals just a couple of seasons ago.

After missing out on promotion to the Premier League during the 2016/17 season thanks to a play-off final defeat, the club looked determined to return to the top-flight for the first time since 2013, and weren't afraid to get the chequebook out in the years that followed.

The Royals made headlines in the summer of 2019 when they signed highly-rated striker George Puscas for a reported fee of £7.5million, plus add-ons, from Italian giants Inter Milan, but the Romanian striker was unable to live up to that hefty fee, despite showing some glimpses of what he was capable of.

It's a far cry from the most recent summer transfer window where the Royals made just one signing, a loan deal on transfer deadline day, becoming the last EFL club to do any business thanks to their financial constraints.

Reading FC will rue spending over £7million on George Puscas

Reading were certainly ambitious a couple of seasons ago and signed the likes of Sone Aluko for a reported fee of £7.5million in 2017, and Puscas for around the same fee two years later, huge money for a Championship club with no parachute payments.

Puscas was certainly an exciting signing after impressing in Italy, and he'd made a handful of appearances for Inter Milan's senior team, as well as being a full Romanian international.

He made the dream start to life at the Select Car Leasing Stadium, scoring twice on his home debut as the Royals beat a Cardiff City side who had just been relegated to the Premier League, but he wasn't able to replicate that too often.

His next goal didn't come until October, and while he showed flashes of brilliance, such as his hat-trick away to Wigan, he couldn't do it on a consistent enough basis.

The Romanian international did enjoy a slightly better end to the season and finished with 14 goals in 42 appearances across all competitions, a decent return, but that was as good as things got for him in Berkshire.

He scored just four league goals during the 2020/21 season, a campaign that was undone by injuries, before scoring just twice during the first half of the following season, and subsequently joining Serie B side Pisa on loan for the rest of the season.

January 2022 was to mark his final appearance in a Royals shirt, and he spent the entire 2022/23 campaign on loan at Genoa, before joining them on a permanent basis in the summer of 2023, for a reported fee of €4million, meaning Reading made a loss on the striker.

In total, the ex-Inter Milan man made 91 appearances for Reading, scoring just 20 times. It proved a huge waste of money given the fee they paid for him, and it's one the club will certainly regret now given their financial situation.

£7m George Puscas fee summed up Reading's poor ownership

Reading's financial issues have been well-documented in recent times thanks to protests against controversial owner Dai Yongge, with the club suffering a number of points deductions, which ultimately led to them falling out of the Championship.

However, throwing quite frankly silly money at players like Puscas summed up Reading's ownership, with the club being so desperate to reach the Premier League and the riches that went with it, they were reckless in their spending in a bid to do so.

Reading were always playing a risky game if they didn't win promotion, and so it's proved. Sone Aluko, who was brought to the club two years earlier than Puscas for a similar fee, was arguably an even worse signing, and the club's rash spending caught up with them in the end.

It's easy to say in hindsight, but the club would have been far better off taking a measured, sustainable approach and buying players with potential on cheap deals, in a bid to hopefully sell them on for more in the future.