It’s a right royal mess again for Reading
RUSSIAN’S EXIT GIVES MADEJSKI A HEADACHE
IWAS sorry to see the news this week that Reading are already looking for another buyer. It’s barely two years since Anton Zingarevic, the Russian millionaire, bought a 51 per cent stake from John Madejski. When Zingarevic arrived the Royals were heading for the Premier League and the fans had high hopes he could turn them into a real force in English football.
Now it transpires he hasn’t been to a game since September and wants to get out of the club. What a shame.
I feel very sorry for John, who’s been left to carry the can. He’s a good man who does things the right way. But it was such hard work for him to keep taking the club forward without committing his life to mayhem and throwing cash around.
He loves the club with all his heart and he worked ever so hard to find someone who he thought could take them to the next level.
Prospects
He thought he’d hit utopia when Zingarevich came on board, so now he’ll have to start all over again in trying to find the right person.
On the field, Nigel Adkins and his men got a fantastic 3-1 win at QPR last week. It’s put them right back in the promotion mix and was arguably their best result of the season. In that sense, this couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Having said that, looking at the team they’ve got, the prospects, the manager and the steady finances, it shouldn’t be a hard sell.
Nicky Hammond does a fabulous job as director of football at Reading. He takes a lot of pressure off a lot of people, from John to the manager and everyone in between.
Having people like Nick in place will make the job of finding a new buyer that much easier.
The only thing they don’t have is the crowds, but if they can be successful in the top flight, the potential is there. Hopefully somebody out there can see it.