Reading boss Paul Ince reveals that he would like to build something at the club similar to former teammate Mark Robins.

Ince, who has been with the Royals for eight months, played with Coventry City manager Robins at Old Trafford in the 1990s.

In his second spell with the Sky Blues, Robins has taken the club from the fourth tier to the brink of the top-flight, battling turbulent off-field surroundings, since 2017.

Ince got the better of his former teammate last week in a 1-0 win at the SCL Stadium, but the former England captainrevealed that his ideal 'Christmas present' would be to emmulate the former Royal loanee.

Speaking ahead of the clash with Swansea City, Ince said: "First and foremost, I’d want to stay in this league. I think it’s important for me to build. We’ve got something going here, the culture is great, the environment, the spirit. I just want to keep building. I’ve been here eight months now and I’m one of the top six or seven longest-serving managers. It’s madness.

"If I could have a feeling where I’d be here five or six years, like Mark Robins at Coventry, I’d like to think I could build something. As a manager, that’s all you want, the opportunity to build. Whether you get that opportunity, who knows. The quicker I can stay in this league the quicker I can start building for the future. We’ve got six or seven out of contract at the end of the season, I don’t want another situation like we had this season. We need to start doing things properly as a football club."