:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65717005/1169956907.jpg.0.jpg)
We’ve asked you to rate the job Mark Bowen’s doing at the moment, and now we want you to do the same thing for the owners. The last time we ran an approval rating for Dai Yonnge and Dai Xiu Li - in August, just after the close of the summer transfer window - you gave them the biggest score we’ve ever seen.
They’ve had two big calls to make since then, though: the future of Jose Gomes and the identity of his successor.
In the end, Gomes remained in his position as first-team manager until mid-October. By that point, Reading were 22nd in the Championship after a run of five defeats in six, having exited the League Cup on penalties at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
At the time, that was looked on very unfavourably by the fanbase (see the replies to this tweet), with around three quarters of you telling us in a poll that you were against the decision.
This is the first time in my memory of the club that the owners have acted before the fans turned
— Luke Rogers (@TheSaiint) October 9, 2019
Echoing the thoughts of others, we simply won't know until after Christmas or even later. It looks bad from the owners given the amount Gomes was allowed to invest in the summer
— Jim (@JimHammertime) October 9, 2019
The owners followed up that unpopular sacking with an even more unpopular appointment: that of sporting director Mark Bowen. The reaction to him being named first-team manager was extremely negative, if not outright furious from many, with plenty of fans raising questions about whether or not Bowen had essentially sacked Gomes to give himself the job.
However, having firmly denied those suggestions, the new gaffer got himself off to a fantastic start with an almost perfect set of results: three wins and one draw, eight goals scored, two conceded. That form has pushed Reading up the table to the dizzying heights of 17th, five points off the bottom three and ten off the playoffs.
So, with all that being considered, how do you rate the part the owners played? Were their two decisions correct, and did they go about them in the right way? Grade the job they’re doing in the poll below, or through this link.