‘We were promoted so early that we went to Marbella twice in six weeks’

Steve Sidwell has revealed he was once promoted so early on in the season with Reading that the squad flew out to Marbella twice in six weeks.

Sidwell joined Reading from Arsenal as a teenager in 2003, quickly becoming an integral player for the Championship side. His fourth and penultimate 2005/06 campaign with the club was by far his most prolific and successful.

The central-midfielder netted 10 goals in 33 appearances for the Royals as they made history, scoring a remarkable 99 goals while finishing first with 106 points.

Reading were promoted to the Premier League for the first time in their history. And such was their dominance that they were allowed to make two trips to Spanish holiday destination Marbella – before the season was even over.

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Speaking on That Peter Crouch Podcast, Sidwell said: “It was nice to get them into the Premier League for the first time. We got a record 106 points in the Championship with a hundred goals. We were promoted by March.

“Put it this way, we were promoted and went to Marbella twice in the space of six weeks for ‘mid-season training’ before the end of the season. We came back and we still won every game.”

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A bewildered Peter Crouch was left in tears of laughter as he joked: “[Wayne] Lineker got some early takings there didn’t he?!”

Sidwell revealed at-the-time manager Steve Coppell permitted the mid-season breaks, with alcohol in full flow as the players partied on in Spain.

And the Reading players even bumped into runners’ up Sheffield United on their second trip, with the Blades securing second-place on 14 fewer points.

Sidwell added: “The second time [we went to Marbella], Sheffield United were there as well because they went up as well. We had two tables next to each other and there were drinks flying around.

“We left and we stuck our whole bill on them and they didn’t even know about it. Have some of that.”

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