It's time for Reading to stop settling for "just making the playoffs." That's the bold message from first-time TTE contributor Oliver Mantell, who argues the Royals need to set their sights much higher next season.

Let's be honest—how many times have we heard the same old story? "We might sneak in on the final day." "We could be in and around the playoffs." "If we can just get back in contention..." It's a narrative that's become all too familiar, and it usually ends the same way: with a sense that we almost had a chance, but couldn't quite sustain the challenge.

This season, Reading finished 12th out of 24 teams. In a league of averages, they were the definition of average: 63 points, right in the middle of the pack. The playoffs? They weren't even close. And yet, for much of the campaign, the conversation was about whether they could claw their way into that top six.

Here's the hard truth: nearly making the playoffs is just a fancy way of saying "mid-table." It's not almost getting promoted. It's being good enough to dream, but not good enough to win.

Even if the Royals had scraped into sixth place, history tells a sobering story. Over the last 20 seasons in League One, only three teams have won the playoffs after finishing sixth—Scunthorpe in 2008/09, Barnsley in 2015/16, and Millwall in 2016/17. Only three have done it from fifth, either. Meanwhile, eight teams have gone up from third place, and six from fourth. Momentum is great, but quality wins out.

The playoffs are designed to keep things interesting, sure. They give fans hope and keep clubs in the hunt. But hoping for the playoffs is really hoping to probably not get promoted. To have a better-than-even chance of going up through the playoffs, a team would need to win more than 70% of their knockout matches. Any side that dominant would almost certainly be in the top two anyway.

So what's the real goal? Aim for the top two. Build a squad that's good enough to challenge for automatic promotion. If the playoffs become a backup plan rather than the main objective, then you're on the right track. But if the playoffs are the ceiling, you're just setting yourself up for another season of "almost."

For Reading, next season can't be about sneaking in. It has to be about breaking through.