Who would have thought at the start of the season that Reading would be where they are in the League?

It's unbelievable what they have done, especially when you think they came up last season below Albion.

I think they have a good chance of going up along with Leicester and Portsmouth, who are set in stone for promotion.

I tipped Leicester to bounce straight back up at the start of the season and having seen them play Pompey in the week I am sticking by that. They have so much quality and Micky Adams knows the League inside-out.

Reading have quality too and deserve their success at the moment. They are an example to every team because they have gone about things in the right way. There have a nice balance there with a manager who has been in charge for a long time, a fantastic stadium and some talented players.

They took the boy Steve Sidwell who can score goals and I said at the time that players like him are worth their weight in gold, it's just a shame Albion couldn't have kept him.

But when you look at Reading you can't blame him for going. They are potentially a massive club with a very good catchment area and they are averaging about 14 to 15 thousand every week.

I think they are a club which Brighton could be if this stadium at Falmer ever goes ahead.

Steve Coppell said Albion needs a stadium before he can start building a team and he is right up to a point.

Ideally you want to have a bit of both otherwise you can find yourself in the situation of teams like Huddersfield who have a fantastic stadium but struggle to fill it because they are in the Second Division.

But it takes money to do both which is what Albion haven't got. It doesn't help that they are stuck in Withdean because Brighton have the whole of Sussex as a catchment area and I think they could easily fill a stadium which could hold 15 thousand every week.

Weary players are in need of a break
Something has to be done about the amount of games we play in this country.

I saw the Champions League games in the week and I must say Arsenal and Manchester United were far from convincing.

They looked tired and who can blame them.

Top players play so many games it's untrue. We are the only country in Europe that doesn't take at least a two-week break and I think something has to be done if we want any of our teams to do well in Europe.

Other countries have a break in winter, Spain has two weeks off and in Germany they take longer than that, but I can sympathise with the people who have to make that decision over here.

They could have taken a break over Christmas but then we have been hit by this cold snap in the last couple of weeks and there has been a lot of games called off which results in a backlog of fixtures.

Also people like the games over Christmas especially Boxing Day, so I can see the pluses and the minuses of both sides of it.

But I do tend to agree with Arsene Wenger when he said that we don't use the best months of the year in this country. We don't play football in June, July and August because it is set in stone that is when the cricket season is and people take their holidays.

One way of getting round it is reducing the amount of football and I think that is probably a more important issue.

It doesn't matter how many breaks you have, if you play 50 games in a season it is always going to take its toll.

The Premiership is the fastest league in Europe without a doubt and it also has the most games which is madness. It is up to the managers to decide when to rest players or not and it has become a guessing game. Players will always say they are fit because they want to play but they can burn themselves out if they keep going.

Another big factor is the amount of travelling top players have to do for internationals and Champions League games. Gilberto Silva was playing for Arsenal against Ajax in the week having just flown back from an international with Brazil in China. He went all the way over there for a friendly that finished 0-0, which is crazy.

You are talking the best part of 15 or 16 hours and then he is expected to perform at the top of his game. I have been to China with Watford and I can tell you it is absolutely exhausting. Even though you are sitting down for most of the time, travelling really takes it out of you.

The only way to solve the problem is to reduce the number of games clubs play and the number of needless international friendlies.

I complain about driving up to work in London three or four times a week and that's just a couple of hours there and back. These players are expected to go half the way round the world and back and then are criticized for saying they are tired.

Saturday February 22