Iconic former Reading manager Brian McDermott has labelled the current ownership 'awful' and is hoping someone new takes over.

The 61-year-old spent over a decade at the club, including five years as manager and a Premier League promotion.

Now with Hibernian, the former Arsenal and Oxford United midfielder is on the outside looking in.

Reading Chronicle:

Asked about his fears for the club on Talksport, McDermott said: "It is not good. From 2000 until 2013 people used to look up to the club and how we used to run things. Sir John Madejski was in charge and the football people got on with what they had to do. We knew we didn’t have the biggest budgets, but we ran the football club the way we had to run it. From 2013 to now it has been awful. I’m watching from afar, I’m at Hibernian, and it is quite shocking what is going on.

"What can you do in a situation like this? The supporters at Reading have always been really good and they will be concerned- I’m not surprised. It seems like one points deduction after the next and it is not giving managers opportunities. I don’t know what is going on. There are rumours that the guy is going to sell the football club. What I hope is that someone comes in and stabilises the club and gets it back on an even keel to go again."

McDermott worked under three ownership structures while in Berkshire, including turbulent spells under Russian Anton Zingarevich and a Thai consortium.