Reading have enjoyed a number of successful seasons in recent years, with their promotion to the Premier League in the 2012/2013 campaign being up their with one of the greatest moments in the club's history. 

But those good times seem like a lifetime away, with the Royals now battling to retain their status as a Championship club this season.

A former Reading fans favourite has weighed in with his verdict on the current predicament surrounding the Berkshire-based side at this moment in time.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World's Jacob Potter, the former Reading captain admitted that it's tough to watch the Royals struggling to stay afloat in the Championship this season.

"It’s a real hard one for me, looking from the outside. It’s a club that means a lot to me and the last thing that anyone wants is what’s been going on, especially this season."

The Jamaican born winger feels as though there has been too many wholesale changes at the club in recent years, which hasn't helped their cause.

"From the outside looking in, there’s been far too much of a turnover, and I mean that from top to bottom.

"I know a lot of staff left, whether it be goalkeeping coaches, physios, real good men, kit men, people that were instrumental and the heart and soul of it."

When asked whether the heart and soul was ripped out of the club, McAnuff agreed and revealed that the off-the-field matters had some effect on the results on the pitch.

"I know for a fact know that it got ripped out and had a bit of a knock-on effect to the players. Once again, this isn’t a criticism of any single player, for me, as I say, we had that togetherness and it’s just hard to see it at the moment in the Reading team.

McAnuff issued high praise to Steve Coppell's title-winning side back in the 2005/2006 season and admitted that the stability that his side had is currently missing from the current crop of players at Reading.

"I just feel like once again, one of the great strengths of the Coppell era was that stability with the players knowing what’s going on, and about who you’re working with, playing a certain type of football that everyone was in tune with.

"I feel like they’ve gone away from that in the last few years and I think that then creates the instability and the inconsistency on the pitch which is obviously been clear."

Stay tuned for the next instalment of Jacob's exclusive interview with McAnuff where he gives us an insight into Reading's promotion to the Premier League in the 2012/2013 season.