Former Director of Football at Reading, Brian Tevreden, has slammed former CEO Ron Gourlay for his time in Berkshire.

Colleagues together at the SCL Stadium, the former Chelsea and Manchester United chief spent 18 months with the Royals but garnered a poor reputation among staff and supporters alike.

Dutchman Tevreden, formerly of Ajax, helped oversee the Dutch revolution in 2016/17 as Jaap Stam lead the Royals to the Championship play-off final.

Leaving in 2018, and citing Gourlay as one of the reasons, it is clear to see that there is still no love lost between the pair.

Speaking on the 1871 Podcast, Tevreden said: "If I have to put him [Nigel Howe] next to Ron Gourlay, it was a disaster for the club. I’m professional and don’t want to talk a lot about him too much, but it was a massive mistake to get Nigel out of the club. You could see it already when he left, and Ron came in, people left the club from down. Even Lee Herron, who was really important for me in the Academy because I promoted him as a Academy manager.

"When I came into the club I worked with people within the club and developed people within the club, why should I bring people from outside if they don’t know the club? These people knew the club for years, so give them the opportunity to step up. This is what I did with staff members in the Academy. That was the difference with me and Ron- Ron came in and kicked everyone out and made things difficult. It was a big mistake when they got Nigel out.

"The biggest frustration was that when I worked with Nigel, I had everyday contact, but he knew my plan and supported me in my plan. He was not always in agreement with myself, but that’s normal in business, I think. Ron Gourlay wanted to sit in my chair. That was the difference. He made the calls on renewing contracts for players and then after a year cancelled the contracts- financially it’s unbelievable. The other thing is he brought players in on big wages. That was not my idea, and I was not happy with that. I can go on and on."

Now with West Brom, Gourlay is attempting to help the Baggies return to the Premier League after two seasons out- taking Reading favourite John Swift with him to the Hawthorns.

Tevreden continued to work with Royals owner Dai Yongge with Belgian side KSV Roselere, although they no longer exist.

When asked whether he would have stayed on in Reading without Gourlay, the answer was emphatic.

Reading Chronicle:

"100 per cent [would have stayed without Ron Gourlay]. Even my wife was really happy with everything and my youngest was born in Reading. We were all into the club with the people in the club. If there was another CEO I would have stayed at the club, for sure.

"You can never predict that after two months he would have left. In the back of your head, you think I should have fought more, but I had fought already for the whole season. I’m not a person who is going to sit on a chair, open my hands and take my wages- that’s not me, I want to work. It was a little bit sad to see when he left that I had to stay for two more months, but it is what it is. I was not important; it was more important for the club that the person was out of the club because it was unbelievable."