Rob Couhig - The Wycombe Wanderers Show
Hi all!
Forgot to post this last week but Bob spoke to Rob Couhig a couple of weeks ago while he was out in Louisiana they spoke about the latest on Derby County, Fireworks, Gareth Ainsworth, an update on the party of all time, Wanderers TV and lots more. You can hear the second part of the interview on tonight's show or you can hear the full interview on the show's podcast feed!
Thank you for all the comments on the show on here it's much appreciated!
Link to the show > https://podlink.to/TWWS
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Comments
Really enjoyed hangin out with Rob m Bob. Nice work.
Enjoyed the interview
Maybe some spoon fed chunks for @aloysius on social media as a taster?
I couldn’t get the picture out of my head that it was Richard Osman interviewing Rob, such was the similarity of voice to my ears.
Very interesting interview. Just as a point of order, Rob Couhig acknowledges that the deadline for Derby to submit their accounts was after the season had started.
He also claimed that we should have been able to swap positions after the season had started, and take on each other's positions, which seems nonsensical to me
Also, I wasn't aware Kevin Couhig owned PreSonus
Didnt Fender buy them out?
Yeah, owned as in used to own. I can see how that was ambiguous
I agree.
Whilst we are talking of people acknowledging things, he points out that Derby missed the deadline. Are you prepared to acknowledge that at last?
Yes, that has never been in doubt, but the deadline was after the start of the season.
I believe they were then granted an extended deadline
They were granted several extensions to deadlines at several points in time. If you added up all of the extensions it runs into the months. That Mel Morris is on record saying that missing those deadlines was deliberate is the basis of Rob Couhig's action against Derby.
No he isn't. He is on record as saying that he wasn't going to submit the accounts before the start of the season for that reason.
The deadline was after the start of the season.
It's all there in the podcast actually, you should give it a listen
Rob Couhig specifically names 14th August as the deadline, which is after the start of the season.
I have listened to it, it is indeed all there. Interestingly Rob and I are both talking about the deadline, whereas you are talking about the beginning of the season. Why is that?
Sigh.....
"The judgment of the panel had said, at the latest, Derby had to file their new financials under the agreed scheme by August 14th which was a week or two after the season began. Most rational people knew that they were going to file it and would immediately be deducted the penalty so the league wanted to be prepared. I pushed ,in wanting to be prepared. People forget this but they didn't file it by August 14th. We could have, I don't know that the league would have agreed, I suspect they would have, switched places as late as August 14th or even the 21st because what most people don't realise...Derby and we had exactly the same record up until August 21st or thereabouts and so it could have been no harm, no fall and off we could have gone."
And then......
"The reason I feel particularly aggrieved for our club is Mel Morris acknowledging he deliberately didn't file 'em because he knew the moment he did there would be a points deduction, so that's what makes ours different than most, it's not a question if well if the league had done x, y or z....it is that he, following a pattern, he deliberately avoided his responsibility"
Rob Couhig is not claiming that the deadline was before the start of the season. He is claiming that Wycombe and Derby could have started the season in one league, and the retrospectively have a points deduction applied to Derby last season, and then swap leagues having already played some games that season and taking in each others playing records.
If you agree with him in that, then fine, say it. You're entitled to that opinion. I think it's utter fantasy but we're all entitled to our opinion on it.
But this narrative that has arisen, and that you are continuing to perpetuate, that Mel Morris avoided a deadline which would have allowed the league to apply a points deduction before this season is a false one. He chose not to submit those accounts before the start of the season for that reason, undoubtedly. But at that point the deadline had not passed.
You find this tiresome Eric? The narrative which I amongst others continue to perpetuate is not borne out of this deadline but previous deadlines missed (deliberately). That has been explained before. The Mel Morris interview has been removed from the public domain so it is no longer possible for either of us to reference it, nevertheless everything follows from that. I look forward to the day that it comes back into the public domain, which I presume the BBC intends to make happen once all the legal stuff is over.
I am not privy to Rob Couhig's thought process but I am in agreement with him that it is worth pursuing Derby for recompense. My own thought process is that in setting up a dual fixture list the EFL tacitly implied that the leagues that Derby and Wycombe started in were not set in stone and given that Wycombe and Derby's fixtures were aligned (including leaving a gap in Wycombe's fixtures for international weekends) the implication was that the penalty was going to be restrospective and the two teams would we swapped. I think it would be hard for the EFL to come along and say 'it was all just a wheeze to get people to pipe down until it was too late' as that would call into question the EFLs impartiality and their integrity, but that's the only possible rebuttal that I can see - however impractical it may seem, the EFL created a mechanism and Derby effectively scuppered it by missing yet another deadline.
As an aside, I don't know what I expected Scott McGleish to sound like but I didn't expect him to sound like Harry Redknapp.
Seems odd Rob didn't mention these previous deadlines in the interview, would make a lot more sense and give a lot more legitimacy to our claim. What were they, seeing as you seem to be across all the details.
As for the dual fixture list, I had assumed that this was so that right up until the season started the club's positions could be switched. I don't think it was ever so that that switch could take place once the season had started.
The EFLs statement said that it had developed an interchangeable fixture list for the 2021-22 season for Derby and Wycombe Wanderers while the disciplinary process was finalised. That disciplinary process was contingent on Derby resubmitting their accounts so it follows that having set a deadline within the start of the season that the EFL were prepared to apply it even if the season had started.
No, I'm not across all the details, but it is a matter of public record that they have been serial offenders in failing to submit their accounts on time with HMRC and Companies House, to say nothing of the various vexatious appeals. I don't intend to compile an exhaustive list for you.
ps - that Rob did not mention all of these other deadlines is neither here nor there, the interview was not about him laying bare his whole plan of attack.
So why didn't they then?
The EFL actually confirmed that Derby would be in the Championship and Wycombe in League 1 about a week after they published the interchangeable fixture list by the way
https://www.efl.com/news/2021/july/efl-statement-derby-county-sanction/
The link says that the fixtures published on 24th of June will be in effect, that's the date that they published dual fixtures for Derby and Wycombe, so the facts don't support your conclusion.
Don't you think that is a question for the EFL? I suspect they will say that Derby had kicked the can further down the road as to make their scheme unviable.
Because the EFL, having expressed disappointment with the independent panel’s decision on Derby, knew that when Derby published the revised accounts in line with the recognised accounting standards these accounts would then show Derby in breach of the EFL rules and the club would suffer a points deduction. Derby, knowing this, delayed publishing those revised accounts so that they could stay in the Championship and take the points deduction this season, rather than dropping to League One and leaving Wycombe in the Championship.
That is one key element of this case and I think there is a pretty decent case for compensation here.