Reading Football Club is pleased to confirm that Paul Ince has been appointed as first team manager. Alex Rae has also accepted the opportunity to be Assistant Manager with the Royals as both interim positions now become permanent ahead of the 2022-23 campaign.
Ince took interim charge of the club in late February and won his first match after only three days in charge - earning three crucial points under the lights at the Select Car Leasing Stadium against Birmingham City.
As Interim Manager, Ince won four and drew three of his first eleven games in the dugout – home victories against promotion-chasing Blackburn Rovers and then Stoke City at the start of April followed up with an unforgettable injury time win at Bramall Lane on Good Friday.
An incredible comeback at home to Swansea City three days later earned Reading a dramatic point in a 4-4 draw in RG2 to all but make safety secure with three games of a challenging season remaining.
Along the way, Ince helped make a fragile first team more resilient, earning points away at high-flying Bournemouth and in a pressure clash at Oakwell against fellow relegation rivals Barnsley.
Following talks with the owner, Ince will now be given the opportunity to help the club reset and rebuild a squad capable of competing in the second tier next season.
Chief Executive Dayong Pang said, “Paul and Alex were brought into Bearwood to instil confidence, structure, spirit and determination into a first team squad which in difficult circumstances had lost its way early in the year. And ultimately, he had to produce almost immediate results.
“Fourteen points from their first ten games proved enough to keep the club in the Championship and I am delighted that Paul and Alex have accepted the challenge to take this club forward.”
Twice a Premier League winner, twice an FA Cup winner, a League Cup trophy, a Super Cup trophy and a Cup Winners’ Cup triumph to his name…Paul Ince starred for West Ham and Manchester United before spending two years in Italy with Inter Milan. Back in the UK, his career continued at Liverpool and Middlesbrough before four years at Molineux.
Tenacious in the tackle and with a fiery determination in every game he played, the box-to-box midfielder was capped 53 times for England, captaining his country and scoring twice for the Three Lions whilst representing England at three major international tournaments.
His coaching career began at Swindon before he heroically helped Macclesfield avoid relegation from League Two. Then he added the Football League Trophy and a League Two championship medal to his cabinet as MK Dons boss before being appointed at Premier League Blackburn Rovers in 2008. He went on to manage MK Dons for a second time, Notts County and Blackpool before returning to the dugout to rescue the Royals last season.
By his side will be a familiar face to Ince. Former Dundee and St. Mirren manager Alex Rae partnered the former England skipper in Wolves’ midfield twenty years ago towards the end of a playing career that saw him rack up nearly 600 appearances.
A Scottish Premier League winner in 2005, Rae was twice promoted from the second tier south of the border with Sunderland and then Wanderers and he was reunited with Ince on the touchline as his right-hand man at MK Dons, Notts County and then Blackpool in 2013-14.
