Howe: Zingarevich Said "Dad Will Give Me A Cheque"

Reading signed three players during the transfer window and unloaded the troublesome Drenthe and unwanted Cummings, but Nigel Howe has revealed just how desperate things were under former owner Anton Zingarevich; the man who sent the club slipping toward the administration mire.

Speaking to GetReading, Howe said:

"When Anton came in he and his advisors said to me, what do we need to go up? I said we need a striker, a left-back. That's going to cost you £3.5 million probably, something like that in terms of cost and salary.

"But he had already put on loads more costs. Say our budget was to lose £5m, he's already said we're going to lose £15m because I'm going to cover that. Don't you worry, dad will give me a cheque.

"But when it came to the crunch, he said to me, sorry I can't give you a cheque. What I want you to do is go and borrow some money against our future parachute payments."

Zing. There's more:

"That money has to be paid back. It's not like one of these beg, steal and borrow places you can go. It's got to be paid back.

"So if you watch the cash flow curve, you suddenly get to the point where you have to pay that back, but I've already had the money and I've spent it.

"And Anton kept spending. In comes Royston Drenthe, in comes Danny Williams, in comes some really high earning players.

"It doesn't take long to get that massively out of kilter compared to your income, never mind the parachute. That's already gone.

"We just went ahead of ourselves."

The club has made clear that we are on the verge of breaking Financial Fair Play regulations, having been forced to sell Adam Le Fondre in the summer just to pay a tax bill with HMRC looming.

It's clear from the above quotes that this summer could be one of the most important in the recent history of the club, with a host of big-earning star names sitting on expiring contracts.