It's getting embarrassing at times to be a Reading supporter these days. The team's failure to gain a single point from their four "must-win" matches against Wigan, Aston Villa, Southampton and Sunderland has established them as the Premier League's whipping boys this season, and their comprehensive demolition by Arsenal on Monday night has seen their status get downgraded from "whipping boys" to "laughingstock" in the eyes of many.

And, as is usual when a team is doing so poorly, the man wearing the hat labelled "Scapegoat in Chief" is manager Brian McDermott. The clamour of disbelief at many of his decisions grows louder with each game - and each defeat - and many who were staunchly behind him just a few weeks ago are now among his loudest critics.

Because to many Loyal Royals, many of McDermott's recent decisions are bordering on the inexplicable. For example, his stubbornness in sticking to an orthodox 4-4-2 formation regardless of opponent and game situation; his failure to play Danny Guthrie despite the dire lack of creativity in his team; his on-going preference for Kaspars Gorkss ahead of fan favourite, and last year's Player of the Season, Alex Pearce; and his perseverance with Jobi McAnuff.

Although everyone appreciates that he has minimal options available when it comes to shuffling his limited playing resources - even before injuries to key players have made these even more limited - these are just a few of the decisions that have had Reading supporters scratching their heads in disbelief over recent weeks. And as team selections change, it has been commented by many that McDermott appears to be picking teams on a "names out of the hat" basis.

In light of this, his perpetual optimism is starting to grate with match-going fans, who are reacting more and more badly to some of McDermott's post-match summaries. That Reading have major problems is self-evident to everyone, and McDermott's refusal to publicly acknowledge this is not winning him support among Loyal Royals, many of whom assume that either he can't see these problems himself or is ignoring them.

Personally, I can see what a difficult position he's in, as part of his role is to present a positive face to the world and to boost the team's and the supporters' confidence. And if he told things like they really were, this would probably shatter the few shreds of self-belief and optimism still left at the club. But then again, a repeated Nelsonian "blind-eye" is probably taking this to extremes and is certainly not going down well with many Loyal Royals, who in the main, want to hear a realistic appraisal of the reality rather than a repeated search for positives.

Coupled with the constant talk of problems within the Reading dressing room - some of it conjecture, but some of it supported by clear evidence - it looks as if McDermott has many more problems to deal with than are being made public. In the past three months, we've had players using Twitter to publicly vent their unhappiness with selection decisions (Guthrie and Adam Federici’s girlfriend), a player refusing to travel to an away match (Guthrie again), a player who was outstanding last season complaining at not being in the team supposedly for contract-related reasons (Alex Pearce), persistent rumours about general unhappiness from other players at the wages paid to a player signed by the Chairman rather than the manager (Pavel Pogrebnyak) and today, Jimmy Kebe, a player who has previously said anything at all in public only very occasionally, angrily slamming the club for lack of investment.

For a club that prides itself on its ability to "control the message", and for a manager for whom the oft-repeated key strength of his team is the "unity of the group", these can only be immensely worrying and suggest both a breakdown of discipline and a major lack of internal harmony. I hesitate to use words as emotive as "disarray" and "turmoil" - but we're certainly getting close to that point, and this is a massive change from the way Reading has invariably conducted its business over the past decade or so.

Because, sadly, it very much seems that there is a whole set of unresolved issues bubbling under the surface at Reading Football Club. And all of the club's and the management's efforts to brush them under the carpet, to extenuate the positives or to look on the bright side just won't wash any longer with the ordinary supporters who invest their time and money week after week following Reading.

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