Well, say what you like about Clive from Wokingham Lib Dems - but he seems to be more capable of due diligence in one day than our hot-shot New Orleans attorney-at-law chairman is in five-six months.
Will be interesting to hear what Mikhail Lomtadze thinks of this utter incompetence - it could go one of two ways - either he wants nothing more to do with this club or he realises how easy it will now be to screw the current ownership over when taking us on.
Also worth noting the clarification comment in the new statement. It was not WWFC looking to purchase Bearwood. It was Feliciana EFL. A very different proposition indeed and one that should have been made clear from the very start.
Tbh I just had a look as well. I've gone from feeling for them to actually not caring much now !
Can you imagine what will happen if the consortium drop out this afternoon saying they are not proceeding as they don't want the training ground and everything falls through again. You can gaurantee it'll be our fault again as well.
Don't blame your board/owner too much. After all, who would expect a person/club to offer to sell a facility that can't be used by the buyer? Dai Yongge must have known the planning permission clause was in force before he offered the Bearwood to WWFC. This whole episode stinks of one of Dai's "gamemanship" and moving the goalposts, as he has done so many times in the past. Will our tax bill now be outstanding or will it be a couple points being deduced? Of course it could also be a case of him wanting a winding up order imposed by the taxman. He can then say "it wasn't me that liquidated the club, it was that man who wanted his money". This bloke has proved himself to be a liar and untrustworthy on numerous occasions in the past.
The cost of training at Bisham Abbey is likely to prohibitive in the medium term and the owners of the Marlow Road training ground would probably be quite keen to turn their c.£350k investment into a £20m+ profit.
Chairboys Funders raised an amount far in excess of the sum needed to fund the training ground. When the Funders target figure had been reached there was then a 'waiting list' of potential funders waiting for a 'vacancy'. I was one of those on the waiting list who eventually got to be a funder. To my knowledge the training ground funding was never offered to any supporter (or group of supporters) other than those who secured the deal. It seems very unlikely IMHO that the finance requirement was as immediate as we have been led to believe.
Does this mean that Reading is going to default on their wages this month then without this purchase going through? It must mean that their "American Investors" are going to pull out as they didn't want the training ground included in the deal?
I do think "blame Wycombe" will now be in the playbook for every "massive" club that is victimized by not paying it's bills in a futile attempt to get into the Premier League.
Reading FC are essentially insolvent and I can't see any potential buyers wanting to pay the huge extra outlay for a training ground which is far too big for a single league 1 club to occupy (as well as being a huge asset which HMRC would eye up to claw back some money for debtors).
Don't see why some people, @aloysius included are jumping on our owners for not immediately knowing that details of the planning consent on a site offered to us. It being found out now is the due diligence, I also suspect that it would get changed pretty easily from RFC training ground To WWFC ground if we pursued it further
Maybe I should have written "more positive than I could have come up with". This whole episode has been a car crash, what happens next in terms of their selling up of the club is going to be the next worry. If the Bearwood deal was in any way a key part of Lomtadze's plans, it could well be curtains for any further involvement from him.
Looks like the usual suspects learned absolutely fuck all from their days of outrage that we might buy Bearwood and have switched gear to outrage that we're not buying Bearwood, all based on speculative bollocks. Fuck's sake you lot.
There are other things to be annoyed about during this shitshow, this is one thing to be genuinely angry about. That and using our club's name in the press releases when the ground was going to be purchased by Feliciana.
Look at the absolute state of this. Maybe "research" (more usually known as due diligence in a business deal) is exactly why it's no longer going ahead. The only people who look like utter fools here are the fans insisting on losing their shit about absolutely everything based on nothing but rumours. Embarrassing.
This was the due diligence! They agreed to go ahead with a potential purchase, did due diligence and now it's not happening. This sort of thing happens a million times a day in business. If anything, this shows the Couhigs to be reputable and diligent business people who absolutely should be taken seriously. I despair.
Very interesting m'lud. It'll be an ill wind that blows no good, hopefully more information on just how self-serving a role those rent-seeking so-and-sos played will be brought to light.
So, if you were to get your wish and Rob (he does have a Christian name) were to go, who do you suggest takes over, when do they assume control, and who pays the bills in the meantime?
I stayed out of the discussion waiting for more information initially. We have now got more information. It has become very clear that our ownership team have displayed incompetence. That is embarrassing.
I think you need to take things a bit less literally. Quite clearly I don't mean go right now and leave us in the mud. And why should I refer to him by his first name? He's not our mate. He's a temporary custodian of the club, like any other or owner.
Where is the incompetence in entering into an agreement subject to terms, doing due diligence on that agreement and any potential terms, and then pulling out of that deal because the terms could not be made favourable?
Genuinely would like to know as I do this on a regular basis with my business.
Because a random bloke from Twitter sussed out that Bearwood could not be used for purposes other than hosting Reading FC in a mere 30 minutes. We have been viewing the site since November and made a club statement in March that we were intending to purchase the training ground. For what purpose? To host Reading FC? Rob Couhig is a lawyer that knows better. His nephew has been dishing out retaliatory abuse to teenagers on Twitter. It’s embarrassing.
When the dust settles, we are simply back to where we were before this whole episode was reported last week. The only additional complication may be the potential additional rental costs for our existing training ground but I am obviously not aware of those terms.
The embarrassment that is being highlighted resulted from our interaction with Dai or whatever his name is, who must have known the terms associated with the use of the training ground. He also must have known that such a key usage restriction would be uncovered during legal due diligence.
We should simply move on and breathe a sigh of relief that it is all behind us.
We do have a cup final to look forward to, so COYB!!!!
So you’re now saying that you didn’t actually mean ‘time to go Couhig’ which begs the question why did you write that? Apart from common courtesy, it would have been clearer to say Rob as we have had three members of the Couhig family on the board of directors.
Comments
Well, say what you like about Clive from Wokingham Lib Dems - but he seems to be more capable of due diligence in one day than our hot-shot New Orleans attorney-at-law chairman is in five-six months.
Will be interesting to hear what Mikhail Lomtadze thinks of this utter incompetence - it could go one of two ways - either he wants nothing more to do with this club or he realises how easy it will now be to screw the current ownership over when taking us on.
Also worth noting the clarification comment in the new statement. It was not WWFC looking to purchase Bearwood. It was Feliciana EFL. A very different proposition indeed and one that should have been made clear from the very start.
It absolutely does, btw.
Tbh I just had a look as well. I've gone from feeling for them to actually not caring much now !
Can you imagine what will happen if the consortium drop out this afternoon saying they are not proceeding as they don't want the training ground and everything falls through again. You can gaurantee it'll be our fault again as well.
First shot from the Netflix movie. Lomtadze meets the Wokingham LibDems.
Then pretty much the whole Gasroom is going to get sued!
Don't blame your board/owner too much. After all, who would expect a person/club to offer to sell a facility that can't be used by the buyer? Dai Yongge must have known the planning permission clause was in force before he offered the Bearwood to WWFC. This whole episode stinks of one of Dai's "gamemanship" and moving the goalposts, as he has done so many times in the past. Will our tax bill now be outstanding or will it be a couple points being deduced? Of course it could also be a case of him wanting a winding up order imposed by the taxman. He can then say "it wasn't me that liquidated the club, it was that man who wanted his money". This bloke has proved himself to be a liar and untrustworthy on numerous occasions in the past.
The cost of training at Bisham Abbey is likely to prohibitive in the medium term and the owners of the Marlow Road training ground would probably be quite keen to turn their c.£350k investment into a £20m+ profit.
Chairboys Funders raised an amount far in excess of the sum needed to fund the training ground. When the Funders target figure had been reached there was then a 'waiting list' of potential funders waiting for a 'vacancy'. I was one of those on the waiting list who eventually got to be a funder. To my knowledge the training ground funding was never offered to any supporter (or group of supporters) other than those who secured the deal. It seems very unlikely IMHO that the finance requirement was as immediate as we have been led to believe.
Does this mean that Reading is going to default on their wages this month then without this purchase going through? It must mean that their "American Investors" are going to pull out as they didn't want the training ground included in the deal?
We can only hope for such high comedy.
I do think "blame Wycombe" will now be in the playbook for every "massive" club that is victimized by not paying it's bills in a futile attempt to get into the Premier League.
Can't see this being the end of this saga
Reading FC are essentially insolvent and I can't see any potential buyers wanting to pay the huge extra outlay for a training ground which is far too big for a single league 1 club to occupy (as well as being a huge asset which HMRC would eye up to claw back some money for debtors).
Don't see why some people, @aloysius included are jumping on our owners for not immediately knowing that details of the planning consent on a site offered to us. It being found out now is the due diligence, I also suspect that it would get changed pretty easily from RFC training ground To WWFC ground if we pursued it further
Maybe I should have written "more positive than I could have come up with". This whole episode has been a car crash, what happens next in terms of their selling up of the club is going to be the next worry. If the Bearwood deal was in any way a key part of Lomtadze's plans, it could well be curtains for any further involvement from him.
The only thing we should be annoyed about with our owners is that they wanted to do business with a basket case like Dai Yongge in the first place.
True @Username. There seems to be fresh overreaction now.
Wycombe announce plans to buy Bearwood: Overreaction from fans without all the facts.
Reading announce sale of club: "Huzzah!"
Wycombe pull out of Bearwood: Overreaction from fans without all the facts.
Looks like the usual suspects learned absolutely fuck all from their days of outrage that we might buy Bearwood and have switched gear to outrage that we're not buying Bearwood, all based on speculative bollocks. Fuck's sake you lot.
It's not the Gasroom if we're not outraged by something at any given time.
There are other things to be annoyed about during this shitshow, this is one thing to be genuinely angry about. That and using our club's name in the press releases when the ground was going to be purchased by Feliciana.
Look at the absolute state of this. Maybe "research" (more usually known as due diligence in a business deal) is exactly why it's no longer going ahead. The only people who look like utter fools here are the fans insisting on losing their shit about absolutely everything based on nothing but rumours. Embarrassing.
This was the due diligence! They agreed to go ahead with a potential purchase, did due diligence and now it's not happening. This sort of thing happens a million times a day in business. If anything, this shows the Couhigs to be reputable and diligent business people who absolutely should be taken seriously. I despair.
Very interesting m'lud. It'll be an ill wind that blows no good, hopefully more information on just how self-serving a role those rent-seeking so-and-sos played will be brought to light.
So, if you were to get your wish and Rob (he does have a Christian name) were to go, who do you suggest takes over, when do they assume control, and who pays the bills in the meantime?
I stayed out of the discussion waiting for more information initially. We have now got more information. It has become very clear that our ownership team have displayed incompetence. That is embarrassing.
I think you need to take things a bit less literally. Quite clearly I don't mean go right now and leave us in the mud. And why should I refer to him by his first name? He's not our mate. He's a temporary custodian of the club, like any other or owner.
Where is the incompetence in entering into an agreement subject to terms, doing due diligence on that agreement and any potential terms, and then pulling out of that deal because the terms could not be made favourable?
Genuinely would like to know as I do this on a regular basis with my business.
Not to be a misery guts but what makes you think a sustainable model with those average crowds at this level is achievable?
Because a random bloke from Twitter sussed out that Bearwood could not be used for purposes other than hosting Reading FC in a mere 30 minutes. We have been viewing the site since November and made a club statement in March that we were intending to purchase the training ground. For what purpose? To host Reading FC? Rob Couhig is a lawyer that knows better. His nephew has been dishing out retaliatory abuse to teenagers on Twitter. It’s embarrassing.
When the dust settles, we are simply back to where we were before this whole episode was reported last week. The only additional complication may be the potential additional rental costs for our existing training ground but I am obviously not aware of those terms.
The embarrassment that is being highlighted resulted from our interaction with Dai or whatever his name is, who must have known the terms associated with the use of the training ground. He also must have known that such a key usage restriction would be uncovered during legal due diligence.
We should simply move on and breathe a sigh of relief that it is all behind us.
We do have a cup final to look forward to, so COYB!!!!
Two words: Gareth Ainsworth.
Oh. Damn....
(Not a serious post for the avoidance of doubt but to be fair he did do a pretty fair job of trying to make it so)
The biggest concern for me is that we were going to give Reading money to sustain themselves. Is it just me or is that absolutely insane?
So you’re now saying that you didn’t actually mean ‘time to go Couhig’ which begs the question why did you write that? Apart from common courtesy, it would have been clearer to say Rob as we have had three members of the Couhig family on the board of directors.