Brendan Rodgers has confirmed Nigel Gibbs has been offered a new contract at Reading - and dropped the strongest hint yet that he will not be moving in the opposite direction back to Vicarage Road.

The Watford legend has been widely tipped as a possible successor to the man who, ironically, looks likely to be his new boss at the Royals.

“Nigel Gibbs has worked closely with the team and knows a lot of the players inside out,” Rodgers said. “We’re delighted to keep him on board.”

The expected departures of football consultant Frank Lampard Snr, assistant manager Dean Austin and football physiologist Karl Halabi were confirmed by Watford earlier this afternoon and their arrival at the Madejski Stadium is expected to be formalised by the end of this week.

“It’s so important to get the group dynamics right at a club,” Rodgers told the Reading Chronicle. “We had that at Watford and for me a winning team is 100 per cent all about the culture.

“It needs to be spot on and I believe we have got a good mix of experience, energy and ambition which are very important qualities. It will be great to have them on board and I’m sure Reading fans will quickly appreciate the work they put in.”