Royals Chairman Sir John Madejski spoke to the media today in light of Brendan Rodgers' departure from the club. He fielded questions on many aspects of this decision, and the process of moving the club forward.

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Sir John, Brendan Rodgers was not in the job long, and at the start of his tenure quite a few senior players left the club for various reasons. Is there a sense he paid the price for a lack of investment?
Let me point out first of all, Brendan Rodgers is one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet, so for me it was one of the hardest decisions I had to make. We all hoped and prayed it would work out but managers live and die by results. I have every respect for him, a wonderful person, but it hasn't worked out and therefore we mutually decided to part company yesterday afternoon. I wish Brendan every success and I want to place on record that he is one of the finest people I know. He is a very honourable, straightforward gentleman and we left on amicable terms.

It's been widely reported there was a row over money, what's the situation there?
No, that is completely unfounded and in fact we never had a cross word together, ever. I've never had an argument with him, ever, and you can take that as gospel.  We left on cordial terms and I will say it was with deep regret he had to go. He's a fine man and I have a great affinity with him, as he does with Reading Football Club. It's all about results, that's all there is to it. It was a board decision. I never make a unilateral decision.

Had it been on the cards?
There's been rumblings for some time, we're not exactly flying up the table and we thought with the squad we had, we weren't in the right place. This happens in football, as we know. It was no reflection on the manager as such, and I wish him all the best, as I do Dean Austin and Frank Lampard. They all worked hard, it sadly didn't work out.

How did he take the news?
He was philosophical. He is an intelligent guy, he knows the score. He left amicably and I'm sure we remain on good terms.

Was it too soon for him to come here?
You can speculate all day. We all know the situation, we are one place off relegation, we don't want to be there and had to move on.

Why didn't it work out?
There are quite of lot of things that conspired but I'm not in the business of pointing out what went wrong or right. It was the way things have happened and sport is mercurial like that. All I can say is I'm a very sad Chairman, it's one of the saddest things I've had to do because he's a straightforward, nice guy.

Could anyone have done better?
He brought in 7 players. You can speculate all day long but we are where are.

Did you think about giving him until January?
We could have, but as a board we decided that we had to move before then.

Steve Coppell's name comes up, Darren Ferguson and so on...
I won't talk specifics but as you can imagine there have been a whole load of people in touch.

Already?
For the last few weeks. But as I say we're not here to speculate. We've had applications through the door but we are putting them to one side because we're concentrating on the short term.

Will you now go for someone with experience?
I just want to reiterate that we are reflecting on the whole circumstance. That takes time, we won't be kneejerk about anything. All I can tell you is that Brian McDermott is a very able person, he's been here ten years. He managed our reserves successfully and now we'll reflect on what we have and what we might do. That's all I can tell you.

What happens next?
We've got Brian McDermott in the role, he has been with the club ten years, he successfully managed the reserves in the Premier League and won trophies. He is a terribly good motivator and good person. This is a time for reflection, we won't be bumped into anything at all. We will reflect, people at this club have a great deal of football knowledge.

Could he get it full time, would you rule that out?
Absolutely not ruling it out. I just want to say gentlemen, and I know you guys have been anxious to speak to me and I'm very pleased to do that, but all we are concentrating on now is Saturday's game. That is most important in our minds, to get the hearts and minds concentrated on that. We need cool heads now. Some fans will agree with what's happened, some won't. At the end of the day Reading Football Club goes on, it's a great club and we're doing our best.

Whoever comes in, will they have funds to lift the club up the table?
We've got one of the largest squads in the division and some very good players. What we need now is time for reflection, to look at what we have and what we might want. All we can do is reflect, now we're concentrating on an important game at Bristol City.

Will Brendan make a go of it in the future?
I sincerely hope so. He's a very decent guy and I'm bitterly disappointed it hasn't worked out here at Reading.

Did falling attendances make a difference?
No. It's not an economic decision - falling attendances, sack the manager, it doesn't make sense. Times are hard.

Lastly, could Brian still be manager into the new year, it's only a couple of weeks away.
You're right. Frankly, things are in place now and to change [again] is ludicrous. Let's see what unfolds, I can't start doing hypothetics. I will give him all the support in the world, and the team around him. We've made a monumental decision and let's go forward positively.

Is Nigel Gibbs his assistant?
Yes. We've some very good football brains around the place and we're dealing with that. This club has seen high times and low times. At the minute they're not so good, we hope we can get back to the good. We've got to find that heart, move forward together.