Reading boss Ruben Selles has labelled those targeting promotion to the Championship next season as 'unrealistic' due to remaining uncertainty around the club's ownership.

Off-field calamity has hung over the club for the last 18 months, with the EFL and tax authorities hitting the club with sanctions for late payments.

Despite points deductions, transfer embargoes and winding-up petitions, the Royals maintained their League One status with time to spare, finishing 17th.

There are hopes that these issues could be resolved, with the club currently in exclusive negotiations with an unnamed buyer until mid-May.

However, Selles is refusing to nail down any ambitions until plans can be made for the future.

"I’m not going to put anything for next season," he told the media before the final match of the season a fortnight ago. "I think the club is still in a moment that is uncertain so to start talking about promotion with the situation we are in is a little bit unrealistic."

"Nobody deserves another season like the one we had and right now we are looking at the takeover process and looking at a good breakpoint to look into the future and have some calmness," the Spaniard continued. "The transfer embargo is still there, so we’re not going to buy any player and we need to fix a lot of things before we can talk about big achievements.

"I think that if everything goes well, we need to target a season to continue developing and see how far we can go more than talking about different things. Obviously, there needs to be a moment in the next two months where we sit and talk about a plan, but we cannot open the door on June 26 and not know if we are going to be getting paid or the conditions. We need to give a bit of time for new owners to come but we also need to know that the longer it takes, the less ready for pre-season and the season we will be."

Reading are building for next season from their lowest point since 1989 and will remain under embargo until 2025.