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Sasima Vows To Clean Up Mess Left By Zingarevich

Reading's Co-Chairwoman Lady Sasima Srivikorn has been giving her thoughts on a range of issues at Reading FC as we get a little bit of extra insight into her motivations for buying the club.

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Srivikorn has spoken in depth with the club's official website, giving her take on a range of subjects from her own personal life, summer signings, long-term goals and even THAT song.....

One of the key questions we've had as Reading fans relates to the long-term plans of the owners and while Sasima doesn't suggest that they're looking for an exit any time soon, she stops short of suggesting it's a grand long-term project.

'A lot of foreigners come in to buy football clubs and some of them make a mess of it and some make a good thing of it. People may think ‘we don't know what sort of group you are, whether you are going to come for long or short term. Whether it will be like a hit and run.' I can say, we will be passionate and love the club. We have a good team, a very dedicated team to straighten things up and clean up the mess when we came in.'

As for why she got involved in the first place, the 77-year-old explained how football has helped fill the gap left by the death of her late husband.

'I have done quite a lot of things in my life in terms of business, it's been quite diverse, but I never thought I would be an owner of a football club. I love football, but to own a football club was quite far-fetched for me. I believe in fate and when I heard I knew I wanted to own it.

When I came to the Club I had just lost my husband and my life became empty, I needed something to cheer me up and I figured out football is a good answer. I never thought about profit or loss at that point, I thought it might be something exciting and challenging for me to do at this time of my life.'

So what about the club's transfer plans?

'There are still plans for signings. My friend is flying all over the world looking, they are not easy to find, and everyone wants good players. Their [strikers] price is unbelievable, we want to find the right one and we are still looking. But buying players is not the only answer, I am not a football expert but you need to bring them together, get their spirit up and have cohesion in the squad and I am sure Steve is doing that.

If investors are buying more players it is not the only answer. I know the fans like to see new players, but they have to be really good. Our football department are working for the best players for our investment, which is not easy.'

There are plenty of other topics covered in the full interview including her thoughts on the town, her co-owners, the new training ground and the song she wrote for the club, which you can read in full here.

What does stick out from the general interview is the fact that she's ambitious but also very realistic about those ambitions. Things like real-estate and cross-rail are mentioned heavily which suggests that the owners see realistic opportunities to grow the business and to generate funds to keep the team competitive.  Likewise we've already heard from Get Reading how there is the potential to re-name the Madejski Stadium and to build an entertainment complex on the property.

There's no suggestion that the group are going to simply throw money at the football club and that's something that should fill fans with a lot of confidence. Yes there's talk of the Premier League and growing the brand but there seems to be a bit more of a realistic road map to get there than the empty rhetoric we heard from Anton Zingarevich.

So what do you think Tilehurst Enders? Let us know below.