Former Reading youngster Scott Davies labelled Chris Wilder 'an absolute legend' and believes he would be an 'incredible appointment' for the Royals.

Wilder, who saw success in charge of the likes of Oxford United, Northampton Town and Sheffield United, is 1/6 to take over in Berkshire after leaving Watford.

Managing Davies at Oxford United, the current Slough Town player-manager raved about the Yorkshireman.

"I think he would be an incredible appointment," he told the 1871 podcast. "The players that maybe haven’t been pulling their weight so much will start pulling their weight under someone like him because you can’t cut corners. He’s not the kind of manager you don’t want to run through brick walls for...I couldn’t speak any more highly of him. If he was someone I didn’t like or had a different opinion I’d say, but I’d hang my hat on him all day long."

Starting at Reading in 2005, Davies struggled with a gambling addiction and spent much of his time in the lower leagues.

When asked why he liked Wilder so much, Davies said: "I spent 13-14 months with him- the back end of a season and the majority of the season after- and he’s one of the best people I’ve met in football. A brilliant person in terms of man-management, in-and-around the place he’s polite and honest. I say honest in a weird way that he’ll tell you when you’ve done well, but when you’ve not done well you’ll hear about it. You respect him because he’s black or white- exactly how you want it to be. He doesn’t butter things up. He’ll make you feel uncomfortable at times and on top of the world at times.

Reading Chronicle:

"I think he’s a brilliant guy. I bumped into him for the first time a couple of years ago at the EFL Awards and it’s like we were best mates for 20 years and we hadn’t seen each other for a few years. He was my manager, and I was his player, but he couldn’t have been any more welcoming when I saw him. A lot different to other managers because he’s got a human side to him. I felt other managers were maybe a little more unapproachable at times. When you see their door and it has ‘manager’s office’ on it you think you’re going to run past it as quickly as I can and that I don’t ever want to go in there, whereas he’ll come down and sit on the sofa with the rest of us, have a chat about life."