McDermott - Reading are ready

Reading manager Brian McDermott insists his side are ready for the challenge of competing with the best in the Premier League.

A fine post-Christmas run in the Championship saw the Royals take the second automatic promotion spot and secure a return to the top flight, after a four year absence. The excitement among the supporters grew even further when it was confirmed that billionaire Russian Anton Zingarevich had completed a take-over of the club. However, the Berkshire side have not embarked on a spending spree akin to that of Zingarevich's compatriot at Chelsea Roman Abramovich. They have though spent £5million on six new players, including Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, who had a successful loan spell at Fulham last season. McDermott insists that such measured investment is the way forward, especially with UEFA's new financial fair play regulations looming. Further funds are still available though and punters may be tempted to use their free bet on backing the Royals to stay up on the back of such wise spending. McDermott is confident that the players are fully prepared ahead of their season opener against Stoke at the Madejski Stadium next week, though he stopped short of making a prediction of where they will finish. "Supporters should be happy because we've signed a good calibre of players, kept good players from last year and got ourselves in the Premier League," he said. "We've got to be proud of the job we've done financially here. We had to keep the club washing its own face and we've done that over the last five or six years. "There's always bumps in the road every season. I don't know how we're going to do. All I know is we're going to be ready and we're going to enjoy it."