As Reading edge ever closer to Championship safety, eyes begin to turn towards next season and specifically who will be in the dugout at the start of the new campaign.
In recent days reports have emerged that that man will be current interim boss Paul Ince, who is reportedly set to be offered the role on a permanent basis.
It’s fair to say the news hasn’t gone down too well among the fanbase, particularly as it comes after a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Cardiff City at the weekend when Reading once again got nothing from a game in which they took the lead.
The way I see it, two things can be true.
You can acknowledge that Ince has done a ‘good’ job in the sense that he is set to fulfil what was asked of him.
He had one clear remit when he replaced Veljko Paunovic in February: to keep Reading in the Championship.
With the club currently eight points clear of the relegation zone, he is on track to achieve that.
Confidence was at rock-bottom when the former England captain arrived and he has done well to lift spirits among the squad. That gives him some credit in the bank at least.
Yet it is also fair to say he has shown little to suggest he should be here longer than the end of the season. The reality is it hasn’t been a drastic overhaul.
Ince was not handed an impossible job – Reading were five points clear of the relegation zone at the time of his arrival – and he has only had to encourage some minor improvements to push the club further away from danger.
Considering how badly the team were playing under Paunovic, that wasn’t exactly hard. Three wins from nine games is hardly inspired form.
There is also a feeling of a lack of transparency and honesty from the club, which isn’t something new.
When Ince was announced as interim manager, it was framed that he would be here in the short-term while, I quote, “we embark on the thorough search for a new permanent manager”.
If Reading were to now turn around and appoint Ince on a full-time basis, it raises questions as to how thorough that search actually was.
All of the concerns raised around Ince when he came in remain valid.
The 54-year-old has always been a ‘firefighter’ and doesn’t seem suited to a long-term project. This of course is his first job in eight years, and he doesn’t come across as a modern manager suited to the Championship in 2022.
After Reading’s 4-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest last month, Ince declared his players should forget about playing ‘tippy tappy c**p’.
This appeared to contradict his marvelling at the team ‘playing like Barcelona’ when he first arrived.
Add in his apparent ignorance towards the advice of physios and sports scientists, and he doesn’t particularly strike me as the man I want leading my club.
