Royals boss rubbishes owner feud

Reading manager Brian McDermott has laughed off rumours that Royals owner Anton Zingarevich is growing impatient.

Some reports stated, notably after the 7-5 defeat to Arsenal two weeks ago, the Russian tycoon is becoming increasingly frustrated at the Royals’ failure to gain a victory this campaign. Some fans even claimed that Zingarevich left when the scoreline was 5-4 against Arsenal, but the former Slough boss has dismissed any of these claims.

Responding to claims of a feud between the two, McDermott told talkSPORT: ‘That`s nonsense. We went for a drink after the Arsenal game. We talked about players and we talked about football. He watched the game. We went to a local pub in west London. I stayed in the hotel with him that night. We had a few drinks with the locals.’

‘They all talked about the game the night before. We talked about different players, went back to his hotel, had a drink back there and then went to bed. We all discuss players. We all discuss football. He loves his football. He comes up with players, I talk about players and Nick Hammond, our director of football, talks about players.’

With a new Russian owner coming in and the club appearing to be struggling, this claim was bound to come out sooner or later. From what I’ve seen so far, both McDermott and Zingarevich get on very well. Brian admitted he was very close to leaving the club in January, but Zingarevich wanted him to stay, which says it all really.