Boss Steve Coppell has decided to stay with the Royals, and he has spoken at length about his reasons for remaining at Madejski Stadium.

He chatted frankly with Reading 107's Mark Tompkins, and the full audio can be heard on Reading World now. Read below for a complete transcript as Steve opens up about his decision, relegation and much more.

Steve, please tell us about your decision?
It wasn't just a decision for me to make, it was also for the Club. My contract was structured in such a way that there was an opportunity for both sides to discontinue the relationship if the worst happened. Unfortunately the worst did happen, we were relegated. I know from the past that you have to make the decision which is best for you and also best for the Club.

I've been at Reading for almost five years and I'm very, very conscious about what is best for the Club and what is best for me. And, to be honest, I was fairly overwhelmed after the Derby game at the reception the supporters gave me at the end of the match and also, since then, the correspondence I've had. It's not very often that a manager, who has taken a team down, is given the reception that I had and the response that I've had.

Looking at it now, the last thing I want is to be remembered at Reading for relegation. I really wanted the opportunity to try and put it right. And the Chairman was terrific - we sat down and had a chat last week. He made it clear that he wanted me to continue and, once again, I feel very privileged to be manager of Reading going into the new season. It's not what we wanted. We didn't want to be in the Championship. But I feel that, all things being equal, we have a really good chance of trying to regain our status in the top flight of English football.

The fans staged a rally to ask you to stay?
That was very significant. To be honest, players will always tell you what you want to hear in many ways. They're not going to slag you off while there's a prospect of you remaining in charge because that could be the end of their careers. The important thing was the supporters and also the people who work at the Club. Again, I'm very conscious that there are an awful lot of people who work at the Club who I have a really good connection with. I feel comfortable - I hope it's not too comfortable, but I do feel comfortable.

I just wanted to continue and, hopefully as and when I do finish, I will finish on a better note than relegation. If you'd asked me six months ago what I'd do if we got relegated I would probably have said I would leave and allow someone to come in to have a fresh look at things. But in the circumstances it was the last thing on my mind. I didn't want to be remembered for relegation, I wanted to be remembered for something else. That is now our motivation, our goal and intent for next season - to try and make this a memorable season for the right reason.

Other clubs might have been tempted to make a knee jerk reaction during the season just gone?
Again, I'll be honest. After the run of eight defeats I had a conversation with Nick Hammond and he asked what my thoughts were. I said 'at any other club I'd have been sacked by now, so whatever you want to do I'll be comfortable with. If you want to get rid of me, then fine, I'll go.' It might have been that another manager coming in might have made a significant difference just because he is new.

Nick and the Club said 'No, we have confidence in you.' Looking back, their confidence might have been misplaced! We had a little rally after that and then the spell of games when we couldn't score. One point was so significant over the course of the season. You can look back at so many occasions when we could have nicked an extra point here or there, but it's very difficult to go eight games in the Premier League without picking up a point and still maintain your status. That was eventually our undoing.

We had opportunities - I look back at Bolton at home, I look at Fulham at home - two great opportunities. A point in either of those two games would have made all the difference. Ironically they were the most important games, and we were at our poorest. We played really poorly in both of those games and were well beaten in them. We can all look back at the season and those times when we may have done better.

The bottom line is that at the end of 38 games it's no accident that we were relegated, we just weren't good enough. I hope that might be a lesson for the future; I hope we get the opportunity to take advantage of that experience, and use it to our benefit. But the first step in that rehabilitation is making sure we're contenders for promotion next year.

The decisions which will have to be made on players and playing staff are going to be critical in deciding the future of the Club for next season. We've got to keep our key players. There's bound to be change, that's inevitable under the circumstances. But we need to keep our key players to make sure we have a real positive challenge to try and regain status.

Will the style of play be different next season? Will you draw on the Premier League experience to try and get back to the top flight?
You always draw on experiences to try and make yourselves better, that's human nature. Will we change our style of play? I'm not sure. I don't think we have a particular style of play to be honest. If anything we're a bit of a chameleon, we can change according to our opposition. It's one of the main reasons why we got promoted a couple of seasons ago and that will be the quality that will make us successful this year. We are flexible and adaptable.

As I say, there has to be change. If anything last year we had too many players and there will be a number who will be moved or turned over, whatever expression you want to use. There will be players leaving and we have to make sure we keep the core of what we are about so that we can be significant challengers for the coming season.

Take in our free preview clip from this interview. Reading World has complete coverage of Steve's decision to stay, with the press conference, and interviews with John Madejski, Nick Hammond and Athole Still, as well as footage from the fans' gathering to keep Steve here.