Reading have announced the departure of long-serving manager Kelly Chambers following the club’s relegation to the Barclays Women’s Championship.
The Royals announced the news via a post on their official club website this morning.
Chambers has spent more than a decade in charge of the Berkshire club while she has also held a position of director of women’s football. The club’s eight-season stay in the Barclays Women’s Super League was recently ended and Reading will operate as a part-time outfit next season. Following a period of reflection, Chambers has determined that she will leave the club to pursue new opportunities in the game.
Under Chambers’ guidance, Reading overachieved time and time again in the Barclays Women’s Super League, recording some top half of the table finishes despite there being heavier financial investment elsewhere. The full-time era, combined with greater financial investment in the women’s game, has made Reading’s challenge to remain competitive tougher and the club were relegated from the top flight last month.
Chambers leaves Reading as a club legend. She symbolises everything that the club has been about over the last decade and beyond and she will be sorely missed.
Reading will now begin their search for a new manager to lead the club’s part-time model.