06 December 2018
By Hob Nob Anyone?
Paul Clement has been sacked as Reading manager in what comes as a shock announcement from the club this morning. Clement's dismissal comes just a day after former Vice Chairman Nigel Howe was appointed as Chief Executive on a permanent basis.
Reading fans were starting to think a corner had been turned with a reasonable set of recent results after a poor start to the season. It was widely expected that Clement would be given more time to turn things around. His sacking follows a run of just a single defeat in the last five game. That defeat was a narrow 0-1 reverse at Leeds United, where we missed a late penalty which would have shared the points. It is obviously a very fine line between success and failure as a football league manager.
Clement arrived at Reading in March this year with the club already in steady decline following a disappointing follow up to an appearance at Wembley in the play-off final the season before. Under the charge of Jaap Stam the football had become stale, crowds, like our league position were starting to drop, and a change was clearly needed. Clement was unable to stop that decline in his limited time at the club.
Unfortunately for Clement his time in charge at Reading will go down as one of the worst records of any Reading manager. His thirty games in charge returned 7 wins, 8 draws and 15 defeats. Despite that poor record, Clement was turning into a popular character with his honest assessments of both his and the teams performance.
Some will be pleased the club have acted quickly in making a change - the Championship table does not lie. However, many will believe chopping and changing the manager so frequently does nothing for the stability of the club, and it is disappointing he wasn't given more time in charge. We can only assume the management of the club already have strong plans in place for Clement's successor.
Club Statement:
Reading Football Club can announce that Paul Clement has left his position as manager of the club with immediate effect.
Clement was appointed towards the end of March and earned two victories and a final day draw in Cardiff which proved enough to secure the club its Championship status at the end of a challenging 2017-18 campaign.
However, following five wins in the first 22 league and cup matches of 2018-19, owners Mr Yongge Dai and Ms Xiu Li Dai have made the difficult decision that the time is now right to make a change.
We would like to thank Paul for his hard work during his time as manager of Reading Football Club and we wish him the very best of luck in his future endeavours.
CEO Nigel Howe will now seek to swiftly identify and appoint a new manager who will fit the Reading mould, build a team which can deliver performances and results that will help us climb the Championship table and lead the club towards promotion in the future.
The club will make no additional comment at this time but will provide further updates as soon as possible.
| Clement's Departure: Table as it stood on 06 December 2018 | ||||||||||||||
| Pl | HW | HD | HL | HF | HA | AW | AD | AL | AF | AA | GD | POINTS | ||
| 19 | Hull | 20 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 17 | -9 | 20 |
| 20 | Rotherham | 20 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 19 | -11 | 20 |
| 21 | READING | 20 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 16 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 17 | -6 | 18 |
| 22 | Millwall | 20 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 16 | 14 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 19 | -9 | 18 |
| 23 | Bolton | 20 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 12 | -13 | 18 |
| 24 | Ipswich | 20 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 20 | -18 | 11 |
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