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Paul Clement insists there are no problems behind the scenes at Reading despite Brian Tevreden’s departure this week.
The technical director left his role to take a job at Belgian side KSV Roeselare, who are also owned by Chinese duo Dai Yongge and Dai Xiu Li.
It has been reported that Tevreden left due to concerns over working with chief executive Ron Gourlay, who arrived at the club just over a year ago.
But Clement says the Royals are in good hands.
” I know that there’s some stuff around the club that’s a little bit negative, comments about disarray inside the club and that it’s a complete mess, but that’s definitely not the feeling that I get,” said the Reading boss.
“I get the feeling from our owners that they are disappointed with the start that we’ve had but they believe that we’re going to move in the right direction and they’re very supportive and very passionate about this club.
“Our chief executive Ron Gourlay wants the best for this club and is doing his best to support me. We have Gianluca (Nani) coming in now.
“So we are a lot more cohesive than maybe some of the noises are saying.”
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Tevreden departed this week after two-and-a-half years working at Reading, initially as head of international football and development before switching roles to replace the departing Nick Hammond as technical director two months later.
And Clement says Tevreden’s focus was becoming less and less on the Royals.
“I enjoyed working with Brian,” he said.
“Nice guy, he’s young, ambitious, he has knowledge and a lot of capability.
“My view of that situation was that our owners have more than one football club. One is in Beijing, China, one is in Belgium and play in the second division, Roeselare, and one plays here.
“Brian was getting used more and more to help Mr Dai and Ms Dai on the running of the club in Belgium. That’s hard to do if you’ve also got big responsibility here as well.
“He was becoming stretched and it’s normal that if anyone is stretched with their responsibilities you don’t quite do either one as well as you would’ve liked.
“Brian’s chosen to take up that challenge of running that club. He has extra responsibility where he’s going to be CEO and sporting director, what a fantastic opportunity to really go and build something. I think that’s a great challenge for him, fantastic opportunity and he goes with everyone’s best wishes.
“He’s still very much part of the Mr and Ms Dai corporation of football clubs so the relationship will be strong. What it means now is we have a new sporting director, whose sole focus is on Reading Football Club and I think that’s very positive.”
Tevreden has been swiftly replaced by Italian Nani and he has made a good first impression with Clement.
“I’ve met him. He’s great. A real positive guy with lots of personality and character,” said the Reading manager.
“He’s going to be a great support to me and this football club and the players of this football club.
“He comes with a lot of experience. He’s experienced this level of football in his time at Watford and West Ham so he has domestic experience. He has experience of Europe.
“He did a fantastic job when he worked at Brescia, a very small club who didn’t have many resources and managed to first of all unearth some great talent but also help that team push up to very high levels in Serie A. And he also has a global network of people that will really help us with recruitment.
“I’m excited about it and very optimistic.”
