Nigel Howe, nephew of Arsenal's former manager Don Howe and now Chief Executive at the Madejski has claimed that Reading Football Club has the potential to be bigger than Arsenal.

"People may laugh now, but you can see that we're right on track. The similarities between the two clubs is amazing: Like Arsenal we're expanding our stadium.  Arsenal have been criticised for traffic problems on match days and we have the A33 relief road traffic lights fiasco. Arsenal entertain European matches and we have the U-21 England team here in Euro qualifiers regularly. London is only half an hour away so we have a massive catchment area to draw our support from and we have a far better record in the Simod Cup than they do."

Arsène Wenger despite backing Steve Coppell for Manager of the Year, wasn't prepared to back Nigel Howe's vision for Reading. "I think he's being a little ambitious. If instead he'd said that in a year's time Reading could be bigger than Spurs, then I'd have to say he has a very good chance."