Reading legend Brian McDermott has spoken of a manager's challenge of managing upwards with off-field upheaval, and has called on the club to return to the 'Reading Way.'

The current Director of Football at Scottish Premiership side Hibernian, McDermott spent over a decade in Berkshire and famously lead the club to the Premier League in 2012.

12 years on, the Royals are staring down relegation to League Two for the first time since the 1980s, with off-field issues hampering the club with points deductions and transfer embargoes.

Talking to BBC Radio Berkshire, McDermott believes these issues have been going on for too long.

"It’s not just about this season," he said. "You can go back a long time I would suggest. You had the Jaap Stam season where Reading got to the final and nearly got to the Premiership- they were unfortunate not to get promoted.

"So much has gone on. We used to speak about the Reading Way back in the day: having good people in the building, having solid and strong characters who wanted to play for the football club, not doing crazy deals and making sure we stayed in the black and working together. That was the Reading Way, it wasn’t rocket science. That is what we are trying to create up here really."

Things were far from plain sailing during McDermott's tenure, famously Anton Zingarevich completing a takeover from Sir John Madejski partway through the Championship-winning campaign of 2011/12.

Speaking on how he dealt with off-field rumblings to keep the team on track, he added: "Every day is different when you’re a football manager of Director of Football. We had a chairman, Sir John Madejski, who was fantastic. An absolutely top-draw chairman. We had a CEO- Nigel Howe- who was a CEO. We had a Director of Football who was a Director of Football. Everything was aligned. Then you had a manager who managed the team and picked the players with the recruitment department. Even when we got promoted, there was all sorts going on behind the scenes that I had to manage- a change in ownership. What I was trying to do at the time was keep the noise away from the staff and players. There was loads of stuff going on even at that time, which was a very successful time for Reading.

"I watch for the result every week and I hope in the summertime they can build something, and the ownership can be sorted out."