Fair enough. I tried to read @Onlooker’s brilliant post but I was in a kind of post siesta semi consciousness and the tiny faint blue words kept dancing before my eyes. Is there any way of darkening the typeface ?
@Onlooker has a real talent as a writer. Any published work?
This is probably the more pragmatic view. RC has moved on. I have nothing but good things to say about Pete and Rob. But we have had their era now and it was a very memorable one to say the least. Lucky generals or good stewardship - a combination of the two. But it is safe to say under their era by design or pure good fortune the stars aligned for our club and certain players. It is safe to say that some players experienced their best moments of their careers in a band of brothers era I doubt will ever be repeated.
So to think that Rob is going to go to Reading and recreate THAT era is fanciful. He will have an entirely different job to do at Reading as opposed to signing off the wages of a guy in desperate need of hip replacement and negotiating a new contract with a striker with one functioning knee.
We have moved on. He has moved on. I wish him luck. I suspect his tenure will be under a year as he acts as a transitional owner. But if that is what it takes to get rid of the current incumbent so be it.
The only thing that will annoy me, and I said the same about Derby fans, is the billy big bollocks act that will start the moment the announcement is made.
The reality is Couhig is a businessman and has seen the greater opportunity in Reading. He has no loyalty to Wycombe at all. All the crap when he left, saying he’ll always be a Wanderer is absolutely bollocks. A bit like kissing the badge. If a better offer comes, players move on. It will be interesting to see if Pete Couhig is involved. My sense he bought into us more than his rich Uncle.
It could certainly be done with the likes of ChatGPT.
My wife is inexplicably quite high up in the world of this sort of stuff and she says current AI is just getting Google to Google stuff for you. She also thinks it won't take away people's jobs (at present) but it's going to make it a lot harder for women to get boyfriends.
Yes in the end, it’s actually a moot point as to when Rob started getting interested in the Reading opportunity.
The main thing was that his commitment to Wycombe and leadership continued right through to the day he sold up. As demonstrated by the support he gave Matt Bloomfield when things got tricky in the winter months and for then backing him in a very successful January transfer window. He did right by us.
If, having had some success investing in Wycombe he then wants to try and repeat it at the club up the road that’s more than fair enough. Especially having passed the club on to owners with the means to take the club forward.
So I hope it works out for him financially, although I still want Reading to lose every single match they play because that’s how football works.
For me, it is a mark of how bland Reading are that even after the death threats, the stickers and the bedsheets, I still feel "meh" about them. They are just a club I find hard to generate any passion for at all, whether positive or negative. I am glad they still exist for their fans, and obviously hope we beat them twice, but I feel as though their fans could all let off smoke bombs and run around naked every game without anyone noticing.
I have resisted posting this for too long. Apologies in advance if I’m not towing the party line.
But……
The Gassroom is such a generous place.
The list of false promises by Rob is legion and yet we just say thanks for saving little Wycombe.
IF he does buy ‘the ing’! and IF he shows his face on Dec 7th at AP I won’t be welcoming him back I’ll be giving him dogs abuse. His learning curve of how tribal football is part of the fabric of our society will continue. It’s not just a business deal it’s our football club. If the long flights are too much so be it old man. But disingenuous Trump like bull$#*t turn coats are not welcome at AP in my book.
Sorry guys. I feel better now. 👎me at your leisure.
Old? Various satanic rituals in the Hellfire caves (involving LX1's blood) means that Rob is now eternal and will have bought every club in League One by 2056.
I think we have been quite fortunate to have what we need during the period we needed it:
Years of Trust ownership where we built the current foundations, massively overachieved and ended their ownership spell in L1. They should always have our thanks for that.
The Couhigs saving us from financial oblivion (to my mind, an unavoidable crisis that I don't blame the Trust for) and us hitting a high watermark on their watch (contrarian disclaimer, I am not saying the Championship was our best ever season). They continued to build on the prior foundations.
Obviously remains to be fully seen, but Lomtadze seems to be running a professional approach, with the likes of Dan Rice on board. At first blush, we seem like a serious, analytics-based club with promising academy aspirations.
Can’t add too much more to this, great summary. The quasi-derby games against Reading will be rather odd this season (and possibly beyond). I wish them no real ill will, couldn’t care less about them and am glad they’ll have a club to support. But I can already hear the weird chants about ‘taking our Chairman’.
The family gathering for the Couhigs forthcoming Thanksgiving Dinner would make interesting viewing. How does Pete feel about ‘The Ing’? Is Missy happy to apply her retail expertise to ‘The Ing’ merch range? Is Rob’s brother unrealistically positive about ‘The Ings’ promotion chances?
Sadly the answer is ‘probably’, after all Yanks don’t do irony.
Not sure it would be for me - and again all of this is pure supposition.
But if it was the case, it was clear that Wycombe at that point were in the market for a massively improved training ground to meet the new owner’s strategic objectives. There aren’t many around so Bearwood, like Harlington, was a decent option. So there was no harm in Rob looking into it.
He might possibly have thought that it would be handy if Wycombe bought it as it might help him get Reading, but it always pretty obvious that it was Lomtadze’s money that would have paid for it (as Rob doesn’t have that sort of cash) so the final decision would always have been his and would have been based on whether it was the right thing for Wycombe Wanderers.
And in the end, of course, it didn’t happen anyway.
Them taking Couhig is as underwhelming as when Crewe nabbed Kenny Swain back just as he was about to be appointed our manager. If Lomtadze has a fraction of the positive effect the person who stepped into Swain's shoes had, he'll be doing perfectly fine.
Important to separate Rob and Pete here I think. I noticed Pete sent an "Up the Wycombe" ahead of the first game last week. I very much doubt he'll have any involvement in Reading and - purely my opinion - suspect he's quite bemused by the whole thing. He always seemed more emotionally attached to WWFC then Rob, and a number of Reading fans behaved really poorly to him.
Comments
Fair enough. I tried to read @Onlooker’s brilliant post but I was in a kind of post siesta semi consciousness and the tiny faint blue words kept dancing before my eyes. Is there any way of darkening the typeface ?
@Onlooker has a real talent as a writer. Any published work?
Very kind @micra but it was the work of ChatGPT
Incroyable!! And rather disturbing.
I am surprised there is sufficient relevant information to be algorhythmically culled to create that.
I’ll have a proper look but I’m far from convinced that you’re telling the truth.
Brilliant. No AI there !
Second look complete. No way could AI have created that. You’re hiding your light under a bushel.
Am I just old and naive? What do other Gasroomers think?
I think RC has already proved this
Probably. I think there was still a theory where he didn't really see the full Reading opportunity until after he sold us.
Know your gasroom poster is all I'd say.
Midlander I'm pretty certain has industry links, or at least had links beyond the rest of the gasroom put together.
This is probably the more pragmatic view. RC has moved on. I have nothing but good things to say about Pete and Rob. But we have had their era now and it was a very memorable one to say the least. Lucky generals or good stewardship - a combination of the two. But it is safe to say under their era by design or pure good fortune the stars aligned for our club and certain players. It is safe to say that some players experienced their best moments of their careers in a band of brothers era I doubt will ever be repeated.
So to think that Rob is going to go to Reading and recreate THAT era is fanciful. He will have an entirely different job to do at Reading as opposed to signing off the wages of a guy in desperate need of hip replacement and negotiating a new contract with a striker with one functioning knee.
We have moved on. He has moved on. I wish him luck. I suspect his tenure will be under a year as he acts as a transitional owner. But if that is what it takes to get rid of the current incumbent so be it.
The only thing that will annoy me, and I said the same about Derby fans, is the billy big bollocks act that will start the moment the announcement is made.
The reality is Couhig is a businessman and has seen the greater opportunity in Reading. He has no loyalty to Wycombe at all. All the crap when he left, saying he’ll always be a Wanderer is absolutely bollocks. A bit like kissing the badge. If a better offer comes, players move on. It will be interesting to see if Pete Couhig is involved. My sense he bought into us more than his rich Uncle.
You'll be telling us he didn't truly believe we'd be 2nd to none for matchday experience next.
And that we genuinely were after a new road, new stand, new training ground etc
It could certainly be done with the likes of ChatGPT.
My wife is inexplicably quite high up in the world of this sort of stuff and she says current AI is just getting Google to Google stuff for you. She also thinks it won't take away people's jobs (at present) but it's going to make it a lot harder for women to get boyfriends.
She's such a card.
Yes in the end, it’s actually a moot point as to when Rob started getting interested in the Reading opportunity.
The main thing was that his commitment to Wycombe and leadership continued right through to the day he sold up. As demonstrated by the support he gave Matt Bloomfield when things got tricky in the winter months and for then backing him in a very successful January transfer window. He did right by us.
If, having had some success investing in Wycombe he then wants to try and repeat it at the club up the road that’s more than fair enough. Especially having passed the club on to owners with the means to take the club forward.
So I hope it works out for him financially, although I still want Reading to lose every single match they play because that’s how football works.
For me, it is a mark of how bland Reading are that even after the death threats, the stickers and the bedsheets, I still feel "meh" about them. They are just a club I find hard to generate any passion for at all, whether positive or negative. I am glad they still exist for their fans, and obviously hope we beat them twice, but I feel as though their fans could all let off smoke bombs and run around naked every game without anyone noticing.
I have resisted posting this for too long. Apologies in advance if I’m not towing the party line.
But……
The Gassroom is such a generous place.
The list of false promises by Rob is legion and yet we just say thanks for saving little Wycombe.
IF he does buy ‘the ing’! and IF he shows his face on Dec 7th at AP I won’t be welcoming him back I’ll be giving him dogs abuse. His learning curve of how tribal football is part of the fabric of our society will continue. It’s not just a business deal it’s our football club. If the long flights are too much so be it old man. But disingenuous Trump like bull$#*t turn coats are not welcome at AP in my book.
Sorry guys. I feel better now. 👎me at your leisure.
If he knew he was going to buy Reading and tried to get Wycombe to buy Bearwood to make his acquisition easier, that is a huge issue for me.
I stopped believing his guff pretty early on in his tenure but I did fall for the ‘I’m getting to old for this’ nonsense I’m afraid.
Old? Various satanic rituals in the Hellfire caves (involving LX1's blood) means that Rob is now eternal and will have bought every club in League One by 2056.
I think we have been quite fortunate to have what we need during the period we needed it:
(contrarian disclaimer, I am not saying the Championship was our best ever season). They continued to build on the prior foundations.Can’t add too much more to this, great summary. The quasi-derby games against Reading will be rather odd this season (and possibly beyond). I wish them no real ill will, couldn’t care less about them and am glad they’ll have a club to support. But I can already hear the weird chants about ‘taking our Chairman’.
The family gathering for the Couhigs forthcoming Thanksgiving Dinner would make interesting viewing. How does Pete feel about ‘The Ing’? Is Missy happy to apply her retail expertise to ‘The Ing’ merch range? Is Rob’s brother unrealistically positive about ‘The Ings’ promotion chances?
Sadly the answer is ‘probably’, after all Yanks don’t do irony.
Not sure it would be for me - and again all of this is pure supposition.
But if it was the case, it was clear that Wycombe at that point were in the market for a massively improved training ground to meet the new owner’s strategic objectives. There aren’t many around so Bearwood, like Harlington, was a decent option. So there was no harm in Rob looking into it.
He might possibly have thought that it would be handy if Wycombe bought it as it might help him get Reading, but it always pretty obvious that it was Lomtadze’s money that would have paid for it (as Rob doesn’t have that sort of cash) so the final decision would always have been his and would have been based on whether it was the right thing for Wycombe Wanderers.
And in the end, of course, it didn’t happen anyway.
Fuckin Hell, my house is under that red dot!
Any reason you keep saying "ing" rather than the actual "ding" they refer to themselves as?
As ding is bloody ridiculous as it is.
Danny Ings is going to be very confused by the chanting if he draws Reading in a cup game!
Them taking Couhig is as underwhelming as when Crewe nabbed Kenny Swain back just as he was about to be appointed our manager. If Lomtadze has a fraction of the positive effect the person who stepped into Swain's shoes had, he'll be doing perfectly fine.
POTD for me
Although to be fair, not a small part
I hope it's an unmitigated disaster
Ultimately, I never really want a (real) club to go under, but massive pratfalls by clubs around us are always welcome.
No, I agree with that. The Franchise are the only club I'd like to see out of existence
But Reading getting relegated would be magnificent
Important to separate Rob and Pete here I think. I noticed Pete sent an "Up the Wycombe" ahead of the first game last week. I very much doubt he'll have any involvement in Reading and - purely my opinion - suspect he's quite bemused by the whole thing. He always seemed more emotionally attached to WWFC then Rob, and a number of Reading fans behaved really poorly to him.