Nigel Howe reveals Royals had drawn up a shortlist of potential candidates to replace Clarke

The Cottagers contacted Royals earlier in the week seeking permission to talk to Clarke about a move to west London.

The 52-year-old Scot met Fulham's representatives on Wednesday, only to turn down the opportunity before pledging his future to Reading.

But Howe says denying Clarke the right to speak with Fulham would have been pointless.

“I'm not disappointed he wanted to speak to Fulham, you are always better off letting them have the conversation than not,” said Howe at this morning's press conference.

“I've got a bit of history and I always remember Alan Pardew when all the toys were thrown out of the pram.

“Sir John Madejski wouldn't let Alan speak with West Ham and it all got a bit messy.

“It got to the point where Alan was going to leave and if it hadn't been to West Ham it would have been somewhere else because he was so disenfranchised by the way it had been dealt with.”

@Smudgersport I worry that fans will turn on Clarke now, maybe with boos as soon as Reading lose. Hard to come back from from that.

— Robert Stevens (@Robs_Sport) November 20, 2015

Nevertheless, Howe also says he understands that feelings amongst Royals fans might be different following the wholesale changes Clarke initiated during a summer clear-out.

Reading's Thai owners backed Clarke with 11 new signings and he also changed his backroom team, dismissing club stalwarts such as goalkeeper coach, Sal Bibbo, physio, Luke Anthony, and kitman, Selby Armstrong.

“I think anyone with any sense would see that as disappointing,” confessed Howe.

“You can do it openly or surreptitously. We did it in a professional way and I think Steve can only show his worth to the club now by being successful on the pitch.

“If he isn't successful on the pitch you are back in a really difficult scenario again.

“But I will only be judging Steve on results.

“He has been given all the tools. I think this is one of the best squads we've had for as long as I can remember.

“They are capable of doing good things and it's Steve's job to get it right.”

Important to remember that Steve Clarke stayed at #ReadingFC. He came to the same conclusion as you: we're a better proposition than #FFC.

— The Tilehurst End (@TheTilehurstEnd) November 20, 2015

Reading, though, were not convinced Clarke would turn Fulham down to concentrate on seeing out the 18 months left to run on his contract at Madejski Stadium.

And Howe revealed the club had drawn up a shortlist of potential candidates to replace him.

“Within the few hours we had between Steve stating he wants to speak with Fulham we started thinking about a list of candidates to put forward,” he explained.

“You know who is about anyway and in that period you get agents ringing up to ask if we would consider their manager.

“Most of them interestingly were already in jobs, so you end up in the same scenario as we were already in.”

He continued: “I've been here a long time and what happens at football clubs on a daily basis never surprises me.

“My phone rings, it's another club and I don't know if the call is about our manager, a player, a physio or whatever.

“They (Fulham) said an email was on the way and they wanted to talk to our manager.

“I went into professional mode, we had to deal with it in the right way. That's what happens, you get this sort of thing.

“Some clubs don't deal with it in the right way and it causes issues.”

He continued: “We had the call from Fulham so I asked for that in writing via email and to confirm they would cover any compensation which was written into Steve's contract.

“I told the manager there had been an approach and when that has happened down the years I always go and speak with them.

“I had a conversation with Steve and he said he would like to talk to Fulham.

“My initial reaction was 'why?'

“But like all of us, he could have said it's about his career or what Fulham were planning which could have been totally different to what he expected, whether that's loads of cash or all sorts of things.

“I told Steve I needed to know very quickly what he was going to do.

“To be fair, it was over in a matter of hours after he had that conversation.

“He said he didn't want to go and that he wanted to stay here because his opportunities were better at Reading. He was very clear in his own mind.”

Reading return to Championship action tomorrow after a fortnight's international break when they host Bolton Wanderers at Madejski Stadium (3pm ko).

Michael Hector, Garath McCleary and Matej Vydra have all picked up recent knocks and are rated as injury doubts, though fit-again Paul McShane should be available.