BREAKING NEWS: Reading sack Steve Clarke after less than a year
Published:
Jamie Clark, Sports Editor | December 4, 2015
Steve Clarke has been sacked as head coach of Championship club Reading, after a last-gasp defeat at home to QPR on Thursday night left the Berkshire club with just one win in eight matches.
The Scottish boss, 52, sees his reign at the Madejski Stadium cut short 12 days before the one-year anniversary of his appointment. Clarke won 19 of 53 matches in charge of the Royals, giving him a success ratio of just under 36 per cent.
Poor form behind dismissal
Reading remain a point off the play-offs, but have played a game more than the teams above them, with Coral offering promotion odds of 8/1.
“Following Thursday night’s defeat at home to QPR, added to a recent run of poor form which has seen the team pick up just one win in the last eight Championship fixtures, the board feel that a change in manager is now necessary,” an official Royals club statement read.
“As part of this process, assistant manager Kevin Keen will also be leaving the club, and we would like to thank him for his efforts. In the interim period, Under-21s Manager Martin Kuhl will take temporary charge of first team affairs.”
Fulham in his future?
Clarke held talks with Fulham over their managerial vacancy in November, and may now once again be a target for the Craven Cottage club despite his strong ties to west London rivals Chelsea. He is odds-on at 1/2 to be next permanent manager of Fulham.
Steering the Royals to an FA Cup semi-final last season, it seems Clarke has once against been the victim of his own success. In his previous job at West Bromwich Albion, Clarke steered the Baggies to an eighth place finish in the Premier League only to be axed in December 2013 after a downturn in fortunes.
After Steve Clarke's exit, we make Ostrich enthusiast Nigel Pearson fav for the Reading job
https://t.co/AcAOrFGYfz pic.twitter.com/NSfSjoarUY
— Coral (@Coral) December 4, 2015
At this very early stage, former Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson is the 7/2 favourite to take over at Reading. Brian McDermott, now scouting for Arsenal, returning to the club is an alternative possibility.
