READING midfielder Pele described the atmosphere in the dressing room as a ‘family’ with the Royals enjoying a recent upsurge in form which has seen them go seven games unbeaten in the Championship.
“I’ve started to enjoy my football here, Reading is a great club,” said Pele.
“I want to keep my position. When I was out, I fought for my position so I need to keep working hard to keep my place in the team.
“I do everything my best to help the team and keep going as I’ve started to play better, and I want to keep fighting and playing better.
“The dressing room is a very good place, all of the players are great. We are like family. We spend more time here than we do at our homes so we need to keep going together.
“We need Ovie and Swift, they are great players. We are very different players, I’m more defensive so I need to work to help them to score. We keep going together to fight to push our position in the table and we want to go higher to fight for promotion.
The Porteguese born midfielder expressed his gratitude as being included as a regular in the team this season having made 18 Championship appearances this season, playing a pivotal role in Reading’s superb form over the last couple of months.
“We started to play well and know all of the players because we had a lot of transfers,” continued Pele.
“We won one game, we got confidence. We won two and got even more . If you win, you have more confidence and play better and we know that every team we play, that we can win the game.
“He (Bowen) has shown more details of what he wants and we have started to listen and work towards this. We have got more confidence that he has given to us, so when we go onto the pitch, we know what he wants.
“I wasn’t surprised by the winning run because we work everyday to do this. The energy he has given to us, we take to the pitch.”
Currently on loan from French side AS Monaco, Pele reiterated his desire to find a permanent club having been loaned out numerous times during his career, and believes that Reading may be the ideal place to settle.
“I like english football and it was always my dream to play in England.
“I had my first chance at Nottingham Forest and when the second chance came and my agent told me about Reading, I decided to come because it’s a big team and I knew the last coach (Jose Gomes).
“I enjoy the football here, it’s a great place to play. It’s a different style, it’s hard to play in the championship and we have to work hard every day to stay in a good moment.
“It (Reading) is a great team and if I have the chance to stay, I will stay. They have given me everything and the people have been good with me. But it’s too early to say because with football, things change everyday.
“I don’t know if Monaco wants me to go back, but if I have a chance to stay at one club I will because I don’t want to go on loan every year. I need to stay at one club and enjoy my football.
“My family is here, my son and my wife, they like the city, it’s quiet which is perfect for me so we will see what happens at the end of the season.”