Reading FC's Brian Tevreden On Ajax, Jaap Stam, Transfer Budgets And More

Technical director Brian Tevreden is fast making a name for himself behind the scenes at the Madejski Stadium. The 35-year-old was an unknown in English football when he replaced Nick Hammond just under a year ago, but has already had a profound impact on Reading.

He seems to be turning heads in the media too, both domestically and internationally. Ahead of the club's visit to Manchester United at the weekend, Tevreden spoke to the Daily Mail and Dutch outlet De Telegraaf.

Below, we've collected some of the most revealing highlights.

On emulating Ajax with Reading

"Ajax have one of the best academies in the world. The first thing I did when I got the job, I said I wanted to implement the same philosophy.

"The whole mentality, the whole playing style, everything. Total football. The Premier League. There is a three-year plan.

"Individuality is the main thing. Flair. You don't see that individual quality at a lot of clubs.

"There's a lot of pass, pass, pass but there's no player with creativity or who tries to be adventurous. That's what Cruyff wanted. That's what I want to bring here to Reading."

On Reading appointing Jaap Stam

The Daily Mail writes:

When Tevreden said he could convince Stam to come to the Championship club, he says he was laughed out of the Reading board room.

A phone call later, the former Manchester United and Ajax centre-back was on his way.

Tevreden himself says:

"He did not know that I was working at Reading. When I called he was a bit surprised. I met him, told him my whole story, and he was really enthusiastic."

On the future of Reading FC

"Reading has a philosophy that they want to play football. If everybody stays calm and stable we will see what happens.

"You can already see what we have achieved in six months. Imagine when we are three years further."

On how he deals with football agents

"When they get out of my office, they know. I'm very straightforward. I'm very direct. I'm very strong."

All of the above comes from the Daily Mail.

On Reading's transfer budget in comparison to other Championship sides

De Telegraaf says Reading will only have a budget of 2.5m Euros, whereas other sides have around 50m Euros to spend. Whether that's an exact figure or not isn't made clear.

On having a smaller budget in general, Tevreden says:

"That does not matter. I have a clear vision about the scouting of youth, education and re-selling. Jaap has the same vision."

On adapting to the job of technical director

"Of course I had to get used to it. I was just here as the head of youth, when I suddenly got the job of technical director.

"I studied for weeks contracts, budgets, salaries and other issues.

"Suddenly you sit at the table with brokers and you have to negotiate hard. But the latter is perhaps my strongest point."

Those last two sections come from a Telegraaf article which you can find here. It was translated with Google Translate.