"It's disappointing news" - Pundit reacts to fresh Hull City, Ruben Selles updates | OneFootball

The Royals' manager is the number one target for Hull City, who sacked Tim Walter in November.

Carlton Palmer has said that Ruben Selles' potential move to Hull City from Reading will be "disappointing" for the League One side, with the Tigers identifying the Spaniard as their number one target.

The East Yorkshire club sacked Tim Walter last month after a run of form that saw the team slip into the relegation zone, despite only moving to the MKM Stadium in the summer.

Selles, the Royals' current boss, has been given permission to speak to Hull, and he is expected to take over before this weekend's clash with Blackburn Rovers at home.

However, the impact that will have on Reading, a club already struggling with financial issues, will be huge, and there will be a lot of worry surrounding the Berkshire team right now.

Palmer makes Selles verdict

The 41-year-old took over the Royals in 2023, and kept them in the third tier last season despite point deductions, and financial issues hitting the club extremely hard.

In 2024/25, he has got Reading into the top six, with a 3-0 victory over Cambridge United on Tuesday, expected to be his last.

Former England and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder, Palmer, has spoken exclusively to Football League World about just how strongly the loss of Selles will be felt by the League One club after turning their fortunes around on the pitch.

He told FLW: "Ruben Selles has done a fantastic job at Reading given all the uncertainty around the football club; he has them in a play-off spot, conducted himself well and got the team playing really, really well despite all the speculation about takeovers.

"It's disappointing news for their supporters, again with the ongoing saga, that Roger Smee's bid to buy the club has been rejected and it seems as though former Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig was set to complete a deal to buy Reading, he spent much of the summer under a period of exclusivity only for the deal to collapse.

"There's still supposedly one other party that's interested in buying the football club, but Selles has been given permission to speak to Hull City, and he looks like he's set to join Hull City.

"I think the uncertainty surrounding the football club at Reading, the way that he's been working, obviously there's always that situation where new owners, when they do come in and buy the football club that they bring their man in. So, there was also that uncertainty.

Palmer continued: "I know there's been previous problems at Hull with the chairman, shipping managers out pretty easily when they're doing well, as we've seen with Liam Rosenior, there's always that concern.

"But when you're a manager that they're going to have to pay compensation for, and they've asked for permission to speak to him, I'm sure his contract will have a break clause and that the owner of Hull will have to think twice about giving him the sack pretty early on.

"So, it's disappointing for Reading supporters and their football club to lose somebody like Selles, who's doing a sterling job."

The Spaniard has been one of the only positives from the last few years for the Royals, and there will be an extremely bitter feeling surrounding the Select Car Leasing Stadium in the coming weeks and months.

It will be incredibly difficult for a new manager to come in and have the same effect that Selles had on the team, and he has worked fantastically with extremely limited resources, and it would not be a surprise to see Reading drop down the table now.

The Berkshire club have a very young side, and they have battled against the elements throughout this season to give fans something to cheer in a very testing time, but without their leader, there could easily be a decline in performances.

Nevertheless, if the Royals can hold on to the majority of their key players in January, then they may be able to keep pace with the rest of the top six, and make a surprise appearance in the play-offs come the end of the season.