Sign up to our newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

When Anton Zingarevich arrived at Reading, it seemed the perfect fit.

Here was a wealthy, young, ambitious man who was offering to take the club to the next level just as chairman Sir John Madejski was looking to find a ‘sugar daddy’.

And he had links to the area as well. He wasn’t just another foreign owner arriving in England with no direct connection to the club he was buying.

In fact when the Russian came in there were stories told of the times when he used to watch Royals from the terraces of Elm Park while he was studying at Bearwood College.

It all seemed too good to be true. Madejski even labelled the January, 2012 takeover of Zingarevich’s Thames Sport Investment (TSI) as the ‘dream ticket’.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

The chairman said: “This fit is so good it is not funny.

“Not only does Anton come from a very wealthy family, but he was also educated in the area.

“He has a great love for the club and football. It’s a match made in heaven.

“I couldn’t think of a better partner to have than TSI.”

And at first Royals’ chairman’s optimism seemed to be well founded as, boosted by an injection of TSI money, Reading flourished.

Jason Roberts came in and helped breath new life into Brian McDermott’s side who went on a memorable run during the second half of their 2011/12 Championship campaign.

A run of 15 wins from 17 games saw them promoted back to the Premier League, giving Zingarevich a dream start to life in charge at Madejski Stadium.

But the Russian soon discovered that things don’t always run so smoothly when you’re at the helm of a football club.

Reading struggled to cope with the demands of the top flight and Zingarevich soon came under fire for a lack of investment in the team.

Royals star Jimmy Kebe blasted: “It’s not the manager who decides who he can buy or not.

“Right now we are in big trouble so you should ask if (Anton) wants to spend any money to make the team better so we can compete in the Premier League.

“We are all trying our best and you have to ask the owner if he wants to spend any money to make the team better otherwise there is nothing to expect.”

Perhaps stung by those words, Zingarevich loosened the purse strings. Daniel Carrico, Hope Akpan, Stephen Kelly and Nick Blackman all arrived in January while there was an ambitious attempt to lure back Gylfi Sigurdsson which ended in failure.

A brief upturn in form gave supporters hope of a great escape but things soon began to unravel and Zingarevich acted by sacking McDermott.

“I stress that it was a really difficult decision for me,” he said.

“I had a good relationship with Brian and I think he was a great person. But it was the right time to move forward.”

Nigel Adkins was eventually chosen as the man to replace McDermott but he could do little to halt Reading’s inevitable slide back to the Championship.

During the summer of 2013, things started brightly. Wayne Bridge, Danny Williams and, perhaps most eye-catchingly, Royston Drenthe arrived during the early stages of the transfer window.

Optimism of an immediate return to the Premier League was high and Zingarevich spoke passionately about his ‘eight-year-plan’ for Reading which would culminate in the club’s 150th anniversary in 2021.

“We know what we’d like to achieve by then,” he said. “We are working on an eight-year strategy that would involve international expansion as well.

“We know what our plan is and we’ve always said that, it is to fulfil the potential that we have. You can only do that if you are successful on the pitch.”

But those words, spoken during the club’s pre-season tour of Portugal in July, proved to be the last we would hear from Zingarevich.

Things started to unravel somewhat during the latter stages of the transfer window as, despite Adkins constantly calling for new additions, none arrived.

The Russian also became conspicuous by his absence. Once a regular face in the directors box, he was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

The ‘international challenge’ match against Oman on September 7 would be the last time he was spotted.

And then, later that month, it was announced that he had failed to meet the deadline to complete his full takeover from Madejski.

At the time the official line coming out of Reading was that both sides were ‘comfortable’ with the situation.

It was clear, however, that things were far from comfortable. There were real problems at the top of the club and the owner had done a disappearing act.

Madejski did his best to keep a lid on things but when the January transfer window came and went with no new additions, it was obvious that things had gone badly wrong.

The chairman then went public. “I’ve had the casting vote for some time now,” he said. “I’m really in charge.”

Zingarevich, who had arrived with such fanfare, had vanished without a trace and left Reading paying the price.

Players like Pavel Pogrebnyak and Royston Drenthe were tied down to huge contracts and rumours of financial troubles were rife.

Jobi McAnuff, Mikele Leigertwood and Kaspars Gorkss were all released and then came the revelations that HM Revenue & Customs were chasing the club for unpaid tax, prompting Adam Le Fondre to be sold to Cardiff City last week.

The calls from supporters for some clarity were growing and on Monday, Madejski finally broke his silence.

He said: “The club can announce that directors Anton Zingarevich, Christopher Samuelson and Andrew Obolensky have left the board.”

So that was that. Zingarevich, and his TSI accomplices, had officially left the building. No words of thanks, no big send off, just one brief sentence buried in the middle of a wider statement.

It spoke volumes and showed how just how much the Russian’s star had fallen. The one time ‘dream ticket’ had turned into a nightmare.