Simon Parker comment: The Phil Parkinson to Reading link is an obvious one but I can’t see it happening.

For Stuart McCall at Bradford City, read Parky with the Royals. Eleven years service in central midfield earned him legendary status in Berkshire.

Should he go back there as manager one day, it will be a hugely popular appointment with the fans.

But I don’t think he’s the man that the owner has his eye on to replace the unfortunate Brian McDermott.

Were John Madejski still in control, Parkinson could have been settling into the hot-seat by now. But the club is a very different one since Anton Zingarevich took over.

The 30-year-old Russian, with the model missus, does not have that emotional attachment of the supporters. So however much Parkinson may have been championed by director of football Nicky Hammond, his former team-mate, I can’t see it cutting much ice.

Zingarevich, like so many foreign owners who breeze into the English game, wants to get Reading known across the world rather than just beyond the M4.

McDermott was clearly not showbiz enough so he got the bullet just 33 days after he was named Premier League manager of the month for January.

I would imagine that Zingarevich’s eyes are now fixed on some more exotic name. If not Paolo Di Canio or Gus Poyet, then someone yet to emerge from the shadows on the continent.

Even Nigel Adkins, still the short-priced favourite yesterday, may not have the wow factor that the 30-year-old supremo is after.

Parkinson’s time will surely come again at Reading but I’d be very surprised if it was now.