Reading eventually parted company with Jose Gomes on Wednesday afternoon after speculation was rife that the Portuguese was going to be sacked earlier on in the week.

After guiding the Royals to safety last season in the Championship, the hope was that this year would see a more upwardly mobile side on show at the Madejski.

Despite some promising performances early on in the season, though, form has taken a turn for the worse and, unfortunately for Gomes, it’s the manager that usually carries the can.

We caught up with former Reading man Ady Williams to grab his thoughts on the sacking, then, and he revealed to Football League World exclusively that it was a decision he understood:

“I can understand it, I think it’s football as it is in the modern era. As a manager if you spend money in the transfer window, and Reading have spent money, and don’t get results and you’re going into the international break in the bottom three, I think most people can say that they understand the decision. I think the majority of fans were hoping that he could turn it around with another three or four games in charge though.”

Some might have suggested that Gomes had lost the dressing room and that was the reason, in part, for him going, but for Williams the facts are that results were not good enough and that must be the chief explanation for the departure:

“I think the fact of the matter is, without guessing about the dressing room, is that he lost games and didn’t get results. I don’t go into the dressing room and I don’t know about the dressing room but I can talk about results and they were not good enough.

“The players are coming out now and saying they could have done more but it’s easy to say that now. What really matters is 3 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, picking up results and the results haven’t been good enough and the players haven’t been good enough but, ultimately, there’s only one man that gets the bullet."