Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ROYALS FLUSH
Paunovic prepared to take the long and winding road to the top with Reading
VELJKO PAUNOVIC used to walk four hours to go training, so the long slog of a 46-game Championship season is just another route march.
The Reading boss could go top of the table tonight with a win over pointless Wycombe at the Madejski.
Paunovic speaks English, Spanish, Russian, German, Macedonian and Serbo-croat but since taking over from Mark Bowen two months ago, he has quickly reacquainted himself with the most valuable language of all in football – winning.
Five years ago, Paunovic guided Serbia to glory at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, beating Brazil – including Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus – in the final.
If the Royals have been the surprise package of the season to date, few coaches have had a more exotic journey to the Madejski Stadium.
Paunovic, 43, who was once Diego Simeone’s room-mate at Atletico Madrid, was a left-field appointment at Reading after spending five years in charge of Chicago Fire in America’s Major League Soccer.
But hard yards were a daily test of his resolve before breaking into Partizan Belgrade’s first team as a 17-year-old, and he told the Coaches’
Voice: “Sometimes I had to walk for four hours to get to training because there wasn’t any petrol for the buses to take you. But not even that was hard for me – going without food, and not eating until after school, for me was normal.
“The war in Yugoslavia had a huge impact on the direction a lot of people took.
“Football was my escape, my refuge, a subconscious bubble for me to go into.”
Paunovic’s late father, Blagoje, was a defender who reached the 1968 European Championship final with Yugoslavia.
“My father was my inspiration,” said Paunovic. “He once told me, ‘Son, run like a horse on the pitch, eat like a horse off it’. We always talked about football together. At breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth is out to upset his neighbours tonight. He lives just nine miles from the Madejski in an area full of Reading fans.
“I want to pick my boys up and really fight and scrap tonight,” he said. “If it’s going to be our first win, that would be good for me. It will allow me go around town a bit easier.”