I wish my O Level Law course had covered 'Not buying something but legally being allowed to claim all future profits'. My life would have been very different if I had known about this.
The longer this saga goes on, (and the court case may well take a very long time), The longer the club can't be sold with RC holding the Liens and a court case holding everything up. I am now thinking the only option is going to be Dai folding the club, as he has done before, twice. Will there be enough interest to form a Reading Phoenix club? If so, where would they play and how far down the pyramid? How long would it take to get back to the EFL? Even so, I am now starting to think that would be the best option. to get out of this nightmare!! Sadly I can only see the end of a club over 150 years old going to the wall.
The sale, according to sources, was “90 per cent completed” with everything tied up bar Yongge’s signature. Despite all of the necessary paperwork being drafted and circulated by the seller’s lawyers, including to the seller’s minority partners, Couhig was abruptly notified by email that loans he had supplied the club on the basis of buying the club had been repaid.
“I was amazed and taken aback,” Couhig told The Independent. “I am baffled.”
Another buyer just folded in frustration...not sure what Yongge wants from all this. As for Rob, seeing as Trump sues anyone for anything at the drop of a hat, it seems to be a proven US business tactic. He might not get 9 mill...but he'll no doubt get a few bob in a settlement.
Surely a phoenix club would be formed fairly quickly, and be very well supported? I'd anticipate a fairly rapid rise up the pyramid. Wimbledon were getting about 7k when they moved to MK and got back into the league within a decade. Reading get twice that - that there would be interest is surely a given?
I've seen this film before, it ends with Reading writing off their debts, signing a bunch of financially unobtainable players and running away with L1 next season.
Its a horrible game the parties are playing. Rob is feeling scorned so is talking up these law suits (fictional or otherwise) to try and get leverage. Yongge seems immune to all tactics, strong arm or otherwise. So Rob hopes that Yongge will say 'have the club just call off your lawyers'?. I doubt it. In the meantime any potential grown up buyer will be thinking this is mad and I want nothing to do with it.
Normally Rob does seem to use The Athletic/NY Times as his mouthpiece, different this time. This latest article saying he just wants the best for the lads is cringeworthy.
This move is Rob Couhig to a tee, it's just what he did to Derby County a few years ago - sue in a case he has zero chance of winning, just in order to delay and frustrate the other party in the hope they'll just buy him off so he goes away. I don't know enough about Couhig's legal career before he bought Wycombe to be certain, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was a tactic he had employed in it regularly. It's the sort of thing huckster attorneys in the States do very well. Launch legal cases left, right and centre in the assumption that a few of the accused will just settle to get them off their backs rather than fight it and win. It is so insalubrious - but it also makes crap lawyers / ambulance chasers rich very quickly.
Taking a pulse of the Reading forum, they seem to think it is all just a tactic to force the sale, and none of them seem upset over it, more clinging to the hope that it moves the needle in that direction.
I don't share their hope, however forlorn - I think Dai has finally managed to do what so many have tried to failed to do, namely make a fairly large club unbuyable.
It's a pretty awful situation when going into administration would almost be a good outcome. At the moment it looks like Dai will stall until promotion to the Championship is mathematically impossible. At that point I would be very worried if he hasn't sold up or already pulled the plug.
I wouldn't worry about there being enough interest in starting and sustaining a phoenix club, I'd say you're in a stronger position than fans of the original Wimbledon FC were in, certainly in terms of numbers and the fact there is a suitable stadium in your town. The organisation around the campaign to oust Dai has been pretty formidable, and would no doubt be able to launch a phoenix club.
"AFC Reading" would most likely play at Combined Counties or Hellenic League level, taking on the likes of Flackwell Heath and my near neighbours Reading City down Scours Lane.
My brother-in-law is a work colleague of Roger Smee, the former director who led the latest, failed, attempt to take over Reading. The feedback I’ve got from him is it’s a complete mess, the owner is impossible to work with, he’s just driving it into the ground and doesn’t seem to care, he takes the loan with lots of promises then renegades on the agreement. Sounds familiar to the Couhig debacle.
It sounds like the worst possible combination - an awful owner who would shrug if the club went to the wall, plus an absolute tangled web of financial issues.
I was going to say, surely a number of fans would go and support Reading Town but I see they have folded! They used to play next to the railway line, I remember going to watch them in the Combined Counties days.
I think Rob has gone on record as saying he has so far lost approximately £1m on this venture so I guess that may explain why he wants to take the legal route.
If the idea is that Couhig makes selling to him the easiest , cheapest, maybe only viable option that does still rather depends on the clown in charge caring if it's viable, not being offended by the very suggestion and having any interest in due process.
I agree with the others suggesting he's much better off giving up and going elsewhere, he had a pop at what was always going to be a horrendous negotiation but could have sparked a cheap deal and a profit, and it hasn't worked out. That's at least partially his fault.
Reading "City" now play on that ground now. I am not sure if it is a phoenix club or a new enterprise. Reading is a town not a city so it is a bit of a misnomer. Borough would have been a better choice.
Time will tell wether this is a clever move or simply throwing good money after bad chasing something already lost like a bad gambler.
It might not make much difference to Reading, may even force Dai's hand, and Couhigs name is probably already trashed to people outside of Wycombe (and a few inside).
Are the EFL going to let this rumble on forever I wonder.
Comments
I wish my O Level Law course had covered 'Not buying something but legally being allowed to claim all future profits'. My life would have been very different if I had known about this.
Reports that Ruben Selles is due to open talks with Hull. Would be a huge blow to Reading.
The longer this saga goes on, (and the court case may well take a very long time), The longer the club can't be sold with RC holding the Liens and a court case holding everything up. I am now thinking the only option is going to be Dai folding the club, as he has done before, twice. Will there be enough interest to form a Reading Phoenix club? If so, where would they play and how far down the pyramid? How long would it take to get back to the EFL? Even so, I am now starting to think that would be the best option. to get out of this nightmare!! Sadly I can only see the end of a club over 150 years old going to the wall.
Where as a week ago in this article
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/reading-fc-takeover-dai-yongge-couhig-b2654580.html
The sale, according to sources, was “90 per cent completed” with everything tied up bar Yongge’s signature. Despite all of the necessary paperwork being drafted and circulated by the seller’s lawyers, including to the seller’s minority partners, Couhig was abruptly notified by email that loans he had supplied the club on the basis of buying the club had been repaid.
“I was amazed and taken aback,” Couhig told The Independent. “I am baffled.”
Another buyer just folded in frustration...not sure what Yongge wants from all this. As for Rob, seeing as Trump sues anyone for anything at the drop of a hat, it seems to be a proven US business tactic. He might not get 9 mill...but he'll no doubt get a few bob in a settlement.
Commiserations @theRoyalBiscuit
Surely a phoenix club would be formed fairly quickly, and be very well supported? I'd anticipate a fairly rapid rise up the pyramid. Wimbledon were getting about 7k when they moved to MK and got back into the league within a decade. Reading get twice that - that there would be interest is surely a given?
I've seen this film before, it ends with Reading writing off their debts, signing a bunch of financially unobtainable players and running away with L1 next season.
Its a horrible game the parties are playing. Rob is feeling scorned so is talking up these law suits (fictional or otherwise) to try and get leverage. Yongge seems immune to all tactics, strong arm or otherwise. So Rob hopes that Yongge will say 'have the club just call off your lawyers'?. I doubt it. In the meantime any potential grown up buyer will be thinking this is mad and I want nothing to do with it.
Normally Rob does seem to use The Athletic/NY Times as his mouthpiece, different this time. This latest article saying he just wants the best for the lads is cringeworthy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0mv0zk2d71o
If I'm reading that correctly it looks like another long term bid ends and there might be another one still going on...
Are we likely to be in the firing line of projectile tennis balls on Saturday?
This move is Rob Couhig to a tee, it's just what he did to Derby County a few years ago - sue in a case he has zero chance of winning, just in order to delay and frustrate the other party in the hope they'll just buy him off so he goes away. I don't know enough about Couhig's legal career before he bought Wycombe to be certain, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was a tactic he had employed in it regularly. It's the sort of thing huckster attorneys in the States do very well. Launch legal cases left, right and centre in the assumption that a few of the accused will just settle to get them off their backs rather than fight it and win. It is so insalubrious - but it also makes crap lawyers / ambulance chasers rich very quickly.
What a horrible world we live in 🤦🤦🤦
So many of the world's problems stem from the fact a lot of very rich people think they need to be even richer.
A-bloody-men
And not pay anything towards the infrastructure of the country 'they love'.
(though they all like a knighthood.)
Taking a pulse of the Reading forum, they seem to think it is all just a tactic to force the sale, and none of them seem upset over it, more clinging to the hope that it moves the needle in that direction.
I don't share their hope, however forlorn - I think Dai has finally managed to do what so many have tried to failed to do, namely make a fairly large club unbuyable.
It's a pretty awful situation when going into administration would almost be a good outcome. At the moment it looks like Dai will stall until promotion to the Championship is mathematically impossible. At that point I would be very worried if he hasn't sold up or already pulled the plug.
I wouldn't worry about there being enough interest in starting and sustaining a phoenix club, I'd say you're in a stronger position than fans of the original Wimbledon FC were in, certainly in terms of numbers and the fact there is a suitable stadium in your town. The organisation around the campaign to oust Dai has been pretty formidable, and would no doubt be able to launch a phoenix club.
"AFC Reading" would most likely play at Combined Counties or Hellenic League level, taking on the likes of Flackwell Heath and my near neighbours Reading City down Scours Lane.
My brother-in-law is a work colleague of Roger Smee, the former director who led the latest, failed, attempt to take over Reading. The feedback I’ve got from him is it’s a complete mess, the owner is impossible to work with, he’s just driving it into the ground and doesn’t seem to care, he takes the loan with lots of promises then renegades on the agreement. Sounds familiar to the Couhig debacle.
Oxford fans must be worried. Reading dissolve and Swindon go non-league.
We're going to be their derby day fixture next season.
We can diffuse the situation by showing some fan solidarity.
Waving bedsheets with "Agent Couhig: Mission Accomplished" written on them should do the trick.
It sounds like the worst possible combination - an awful owner who would shrug if the club went to the wall, plus an absolute tangled web of financial issues.
I was going to say, surely a number of fans would go and support Reading Town but I see they have folded! They used to play next to the railway line, I remember going to watch them in the Combined Counties days.
I think Rob has gone on record as saying he has so far lost approximately £1m on this venture so I guess that may explain why he wants to take the legal route.
What an odd business football can be.
If the idea is that Couhig makes selling to him the easiest , cheapest, maybe only viable option that does still rather depends on the clown in charge caring if it's viable, not being offended by the very suggestion and having any interest in due process.
I agree with the others suggesting he's much better off giving up and going elsewhere, he had a pop at what was always going to be a horrendous negotiation but could have sparked a cheap deal and a profit, and it hasn't worked out. That's at least partially his fault.
I feel bad for JJ for getting temporarily dragged into the pit of nonsense. Hopefully he lands on his feet somewhere.
Reading "City" now play on that ground now. I am not sure if it is a phoenix club or a new enterprise. Reading is a town not a city so it is a bit of a misnomer. Borough would have been a better choice.
Reading City were renamed from Highmoor Ibis, I think.
Time will tell wether this is a clever move or simply throwing good money after bad chasing something already lost like a bad gambler.
It might not make much difference to Reading, may even force Dai's hand, and Couhigs name is probably already trashed to people outside of Wycombe (and a few inside).
Are the EFL going to let this rumble on forever I wonder.
Is it possible to fit 'if you'd sold us Bearwood you probably wouldn't be in this mess' on a bedsheet?
We could get one word per bed sheet and co-ordinate a massive tifo along the terrace