Iconic former Reading owner and chairman Sir John Madejski has admitted that he does not miss the ‘white-knuckle ride’ of owning a professional football when sitting down for an exclusive interview with the Reading Chronicle.

A local treasure and hero in Berkshire, the 82-year-old Auto Trader founder kindly invited The Reading Chronicle into his luxurious penthouse suite overlooking his ‘church’ which he helped build back in 1998.

Spending almost an hour in his company, nothing was off-limits, but of course, there was only one topic on our minds…Reading Football Club.

Reading Chronicle:

“It’s quite an onerous task, being the chairman,” he said with a wry smile. “The number of times I sat in the director's box and enjoyed what I called the ‘white-knuckle ride.’ I used to sit in Y92 row A, and in front of me was a white metal bar which I used to cling hold of, hoping and praying that we would get a goal.

“I’m very lucky and owned it for 26 years and I look back today and think that we had a great team both on and off the pitch. We all worked together to ensure that we did our very best. Over the period that I did own the club, starting off at Elm Park where the crowds were very small, and realising quite early on that the only way the club was going to do anything was to either re-establish the club at Elm Park or look for a new site. I have to say that the local council were very supportive in that quest.

“We came to what was called the Madejski Stadium and that’s when we really started motoring. My mission was always to get into the Premier League and when we achieved it, I had gone to heaven.”

First buying back in 1990 after another son of the town, Roger Smee, faced some financial difficulties, Madejski took over an average third-tier side with small gates and small minds.

Over the next quarter of a century, the club firmly established itself as a footballing force and roared into the top-flight for the first time in over 130 years.

“I’ve always been about community because Reading Football Club is a church and is a part of the community. I was never particularly an enormous football fan; it was just the fact that I started my incredibly successful business in Reading, and I thought it would be nice to put something back into the area. The football club, when it was on its knees back in 1990, seemed the obvious choice. I think me and my team did an excellent job."

After earning a second crack at the Premier League in 2012, Madejski felt it was the right time for it to be passed on to someone with deeper pockets to keep it there.

Unfortunately a decade on, it marks the beginning of the end for what was a golden age to be a Royals fan.

Reading Chronicle:

“When I did a deal with the Zingarevich family [in 2012] I thought all my Christmases had come at once. Zingarevich Sr was a billionaire twice over, a part of the oligarch group, and his son went to Bearwood College, spoke English. I thought this was fantastic for Reading Football Club, we had a guy who spoke English, knew the area, had seen Reading play, and his father was a billionaire twice over…what could go wrong?!

“I land up selling him 49 per cent and in two years he was supposed to take over the rest of the club. After two years his father had got disillusioned with football and they scurried back to Moscow and left the club with me again. Fortunately for me, the Thais came in and took over the debt that they had driven up. That was a very tricky situation for me and had driven the club into the red of circa £20m. The Thais bailed me out. Lady Sassima came in with a great flourish, but I don’t think the whole family were too keen on the idea."

Relinquishing control in 2016, Madejski is no different to us in the present day.

Attending every home match as a supporter, even he could not predict the fall that was to come within seven years...