Jobi McAnuff provides honest verdict on Reading FC’s appointment of Paul Ince

Paul Ince replacing Veljko Paunovic on an interim basis until the end of the season came as a huge surprise for the majority of Championship viewers last month.

Reading won their first game under the 53-time England international, but have lost three on the bounce since to a negative aggregate score of 9-1.

The Royals have been slipping for a number of months and it looked as if bringing in a firefighter with some experience of a Championship relegation battle was going to be their most sensible option, once Paunovic was dismissed.

Ince’s CV does not contain that and the 54-year-old’s last managerial role came back in 2014 with Blackpool.

Former Reading ace Jobi McAnuff gave his opinion on the appointment of Ince when he appeared on The Totally Football League Show.

He said: “I think it was a strange appointment if I’m being honest.

“The fact that he’s been out as long as he has.

“If I was recruiting a manager to come in and have an immediate impact, it has to be someone who has been in the league or knows that league that he’s operating in.

“He’s spoken about a softness, a weak underbelly that clearly has been the case at times.

“I really fear for Reading, they looked as though they were going to start getting themselves going, but there’s been nothing since then to suggest they can arrest this slump they’re in.

“He has to instill a harder mentality to break down.”

It has been bleak viewing for Royals supporters for a long while now and it does not seem that Ince has the resolve to turn the tide in the short term.

The Verdict

The six point deduction they suffered has really hit the belief and confidence of a squad that was performing very well in the opening few months of the season.

Under Paunovic the Royals came very