Is Milinko Pantić The New Frontrunner For The Reading FC Manager Role?

Yesterday we woke up to the surprising news that Jaap Stam was supposedly in talks with Reading about becoming manager. Surprising if only because we still had a manager at the time.

However, at exactly 11am the club announced that we did not in fact have a manager as they sacked Brian McDermott. Stam was not surprisingly the bookies' favourite to replace McDermott.

This morning a new random name has been added to the list of contenders. BBC Berkshire announced they had heard that Serbian Milinko Pantić had held talks with the club.

He was in London last week talking to club officials.

His last job was with Azerbaijan side FC Baku. He's also managed Atletico's academy.

— BBC Berkshire (@BBCBerkshire) May 28, 2016

Who he?

The 49 year old is a former Yugoslav international midfielder who played for Partizan Belgrade, Olimpija Ljubljana, Panionios, Atlético Madrid and Le Havre. According to Wikipedia, after retiring from playing:

Pantić went back to Atlético Madrid as a coach in Atletico's youth system, working with kids 3 to 9 years of age in the club's training facility in Majadahonda. From there he moved up the ranks coaching different youth squads. He became head of the youth and developing squads at the club while managing certain squads at the same time. During the summer of 2011 Pantić became coach of Atlético Madrid B (Atlético Madrid reserve squad) after his great success with the youth and developing squads at the club and after just about missing out on being coach of the first team.

In June 2013, Pantić was given his first managerial role at FC Baku in the Azerbaijan Premier League. He would only last a year in the job though, having equalled his predecessor's fifth place finish.

What Pantić has done since that year in the Caucasus is unknown. He seems to be an ambassador for Atlético Madrid, which begs the question: why give up such a cushy job for a few months as Reading manager?