Paul Clement has been appointed as manager of Reading, three months after he was sacked by Swansea City. He takes over from Jaap Stam, who was dismissed this week with the club three points above the Championship relegation zone after one win in 18 league matches.

“The immediate aim is to secure the club in the Championship – eight games to go,” Clement said. “But then beyond that I think there is a lot of ambition to take the club further forward. They were very close obviously last season, just penalty kicks away from the Premier League, and that is where the club want to be and that is the ambition I have to coach at that level again.”

Clement lasted just under a year in the top flight at Swansea and was previously in charge of Derby County, where he also had a relatively short spell, of eight months. He has assisted Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

“I am delighted to have secured the services of a hugely experienced forward-thinking manager like Paul, who I have personally worked alongside during our time spent at Chelsea,” Reading’s chief executive, Ron Gourlay, told the club’s website.



“Not only has he coached at some of the greatest clubs in Europe, winning trophies, league titles and European honours and working with some of the greatest players in the world, fundamentally he also has a rich understanding of English football having managed in both the Championship and the Premier League in recent years.”



Reading said Clement had been studying football and other sport in the United States in a series of study visits since he left Swansea.