Reading FC legend and former captain Jobi McAnuff has questioned the messaging and delivery on expectations from club owner Rob Couhig after he decided to sack Noel Hunt last week.
Reading’s disappointing start to the League One season, which sees them in 19th, meant that Hunt was dismissed last weekend following a draw at home to Doncaster Rovers and has subsequently been replaced by former Wigan manager Leam Richardson.
Speaking on BBC’s Football Daily podcast, McAnuiff admitted that he was disappointed to see his former team mate sacked by Reading.
He said: “I’m really disappointed for Noel. I think the people overlook how well they did last season, when Ruben Selles, it would have been easy for that to go kaput, but he very nearly got them into the play-offs.
“That was obviously a big factor in why Rob Couhig did keep him on I’m sure, and unfortunately they weren’t able to replicate the results they would have wanted this season.
“But if you come out in pre-season and say you’re going to get the club back to where you want it to be an don’t necessarily back the manager to that level, in my opinion, it’s obviously going to put you in a situation of the ans is higher that what Rob Couhig is willing to do from an investment point of view.”
The ownership claimed at the start of the summer transfer window that the club would have one of the highest budgets in the league and McAnuff believes that they did not deliver on that promise and set expecatations among the fanbse too high.
He continued: “That’s not what the messaging was at the start (a season of consolidation), I’m telling you.
“If owners came out and were transparent and said exactly that, I have got no problem, and I don’t think Reading fans would have a problem.
“They said ‘we’re going to return the club back to its former glory and have a budget that is going to be top end of the league’, but that wasn’t the reality.
“Automatically, as a fan, you’re going to be thinking that we should at the top end of this table.
“They have still unperformed results wise, that isn’t an issue, but I just think those expectation levels were raised right at the start of the season, and in my opinion, he hasn’t delivered to match those expectations.”
