I can only wish you well @theRoyalBiscuit you have always had a sense of awareness when it comes to the whole picture especially the events surrounding the original thread.
I don’t know how this ends apart from administration. This doesn’t have to be the end of the world as Luton proved with their reset. But an adjustment of fan’s ambitions and shedding the wonderful academy is inevitable.
Thank you for all the messages of support and wishes. It goes to show that even local rivals can be friendly and show sympathy. I would take administration as a way out of this mess, even though the stadium and training ground won't be included and we have to ground share, and the points deduction, even if that meant League 2. Hopefully, though, we have gained enough points to make relegation less likely. N.B. I would rather not ground share at the SwinesDen. but if that was the only option, then so be it. Have you got room at your new training ground or your stadium? Oh, the look on the faces of " the bed sheet boys" would be fun to see.
What happens if, as seems possible from what I've read, Dai gets jailed in China and presumably forfeits his assets? Presumably there's no protection for the club at all?
@railwaysteve that's right, the planning conditions prevented it and no-one from the council to the fans of the club were prepared to enter into the process for modifying those conditions. All concerned were more horrified by the prospect of losing an asset than by losing the entire club. The potential buyer has moved on now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that the asset is unsaleable but it is certainly less in demand, particularly as the council have shown their hand regarding changes of ownership let alone changes of usage.
It is not the fans' fault, they have been entirely helpless and largely in the dark, we ourselves sold the name of Adams Park to Causeway. We were horrified at the material time and it only came out a decade later that the club were on the brink of administration; incredible that a members' club could be run that close to the brink without notifying the members, but having been through that and worse following the Chairboys, it is impossible to have anything but the deepest sympathy for Reading fans.
Who knows? My view is that the club and all his assets would go to the banks he is alleged to repay his debts/dubious loans from. How that would impact on the club, I have no idea. I doubt if anyone else has either.
I suspect the 2 likely alternative scenarios are as outlined by our friend @theRoyalBiscuit
the banks lose patience with the failute of Yongge to close a sale of the club & as a consequence foreclose on the loans & force administration. two things then happens the club gets hit with the ususal EFL penalties including points deduction & transfer embargo possibly leading to relegation & secondly the banks sell the assets to an interested party - perhaps even Couhig.
Yongge gets jailed in PRC leading to the forfeiture of all his assets including Reading FC, the stadium & Bearwood. The problem here is outside of the lenders & a few Yongge insiders no-one knows who has which asset as security against which loan & the banks are much less likley in that circumstance to work together meaning their is a high chance that the assets will be sold piecemeal & the club ceases to exist.
I sincerely hope that the neither happens & Yongge comes to his senses & strikes a deal with someone soon.
Genuine question(s) to Mr Biscuit. What was the feeling amongst the fanbase, if you can remember that far back, when Dai took over the club? Given his track record, was there apprehension? Did it start off okay? At what point did the alarm bells start ringing?
As far as I remember there was apprehension at the time the takeover was announced, due mainly to the Premier League having blocked his takeover of Hull City, albeit, he wasn't the person the PL took exception to. Don't forget. the two clubs he folded were wound up well after he bought us, so other than his failed bid for Hull there was not much of track record. i would guess about 50/50 for and against. He has never shared his ambitions for the club, unlike most, if not all new owners do and remained silent about the affairs of the club which gave some fans (me included) some doubts about his motives. Some of course welcomed him as the new messiah as we had been sold to a Russian non billionaire, who couldn't afford to pay the balance owning and the club reverted to John Madejski who sold it to a group of Thai's who sold off some of the club's land to themselves, and gained permission to build Royal Elm Park a housing/shopping, area, which even now, doesn't exist, although a few spades were dug in the ground, to preserve Planning Permission.
Then Dai started to pay out lots of money on new players, which pleased some of the less enlightened fans, probably the ones who moaned that John Madejski didn't spend enough (even though that got us to the Prem). but made many of us wary. The trouble was he took advice from his friend Kia the Superagent, sorry I can't remember how to spell his name, only that it begins with a K. It turned out though that most, if not all of the players signed turned out to KA's clients. Needless to say these players were on high wages but were rubbish on the pitch. Then the EFL got involved and deducted points for breaching the P & S rules, or whatever they were called at the time. That, i think started to really set the alarm bells ringing. As soon as the embargo ended Dai and his agent friend were up to their old ways again and exceeding the limits on spending. By now the fanbase was turning to, I guess 60/40 against him. More deductions followed and the bells were got louder. To compliment the awful signings chopping and changing the manager none seemed to last more than a season.
So, in summary, Pretty much 50/50 on the takeover.
OK(ish) for a couple of years
Alarm bells started ringing soon after the takeover for some but took a couple of years or so for some to hear them, but got deafening about 2-3 years ago.
The only thing I will thank him for is Bearwood Training Ground, even though that is now proving to be a millstone around our neck. At least it has given us some youngsters who are keeping the club afloat and doing well in the team the last couple of seasons. But I expect many of them will be moved on as I am sure Dai will see ££££'s signs in front of his eyes.
From what I have read on their website, it looks like Noel Hunt will be taking charge of the first team for the time being. Apparently Hunt has been their under 21 coach.
A bit annoying that the wind may act as an equalizer tomorrow, as one would perhaps expect a demotivated team. Mind you, it just takes a goal off someone's backside in the 2nd minute to change the complexion of a game, no matter the prior motivations, so perhaps amateur psychology is limited in it's predictive benefits to begin with!
So, the turmoil goes on. According to the club website Noel Hunt has been offered and accepted the role of Manager. No mention of temporary. Not surprising as I can not see any out of work manager would come here at the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if the under 18's manager steps up to the u21's job and the senior ball ball (or girl) takes over the U18's job.
That's a good summary of the events leading to where Reading are now, and how the Football League's rules (set and agreed by the owners of its member clubs) were powerless to stop a rogue owner acting against the interests of their club, the Football League as an organisation and the whole sport in general.
Kia Joorabchian is the super agent in question, his like will gravitate towards football club owners with more money (at least initially) than sense or football knowledge looking to "chase the dream", rather like pushers make a beeline to those addicted to chasing mythical fire-breathing creatures.
This is a brilliant summary - thanks. I couldn't help but wince nervously at this bit:
"He has never shared his ambitions for the club, unlike most, if not all new owners do and remained silent about the affairs of the club which gave some fans (me included) some doubts about his motives."
I could be wrong but our new owner has been involved with our club now for 18 months after lending Rob money at the beginning of last season but to my knowledge has never set foot on the Adams Park turf or openly spoken directly to us or the media about his intentions.
He continues to invest in Harlington and Adams Park, plus the wage budget for the first team. We are reaping the rewards. Thank you.
Would love to see you at AP and hear you talk about our club. Would mean a lot to me and I suspect many others.
openly spoken directly to us or the media about his intentions.
He did a podcast earlier this year where he mentioned, in passing, that he's bought the club in order to improve football in Kazakhstan and this will happen in three steps.
A) Improve the training and academy facilities. B) Move the team up the leagues. C) Improve Kazakhstan football.
Dan Rice has spoken at length about A, mentioned B briefly and lay down and pretended to be dead when asked about C.
It might go all Yongge if C doesn't happen but until then COYB, Up the Wyc, etc.
Thank you @theRoyalBiscuit for the detailed summary. I always find it interesting to see how fans react to new ownership, us included.
Whatever happens to Reading, and I hope it’s not the worst case scenario, don’t ‘do a Derby’ and very quickly forget the situation you are in. It will help manage expectations going forward and will allow you to operate slightly more sustainably.
We know it's MLs money being invested in WWFC and the academy but isn't it EduardVyshnyakov who is invested at a personal level I the project.
As a billionaire ML has to do something with his wealth and, I suspect, it's Eduard who had the real vision for improving Kazakhstan football.
So far the project is going well, possibly even too well as I doubt it was expected that MB would get us to the top of Lg1 in NI ember and playing such good football. Let's hope we can continue on this trajectory.
No football team deserves an owner like Yongge, he seems to be positively spiteful towards Reading and their fans. Hopefully today we can show them what they are missing and how it could be if things were managed correctly. We need local rivals and I would much prefer Reading to join us in the Championship than either Poxford or MK (although they are going the other way, thankfully).
Good luck @theRoyalBiscuit and hope the sorry mess is resolved soon for you, you'll be so much better off when Yongge is gone.
Comments
I can only wish you well @theRoyalBiscuit you have always had a sense of awareness when it comes to the whole picture especially the events surrounding the original thread.
I don’t know how this ends apart from administration. This doesn’t have to be the end of the world as Luton proved with their reset. But an adjustment of fan’s ambitions and shedding the wonderful academy is inevitable.
Fingers crossed for you after Saturday
Thank you for all the messages of support and wishes. It goes to show that even local rivals can be friendly and show sympathy. I would take administration as a way out of this mess, even though the stadium and training ground won't be included and we have to ground share, and the points deduction, even if that meant League 2. Hopefully, though, we have gained enough points to make relegation less likely. N.B. I would rather not ground share at the SwinesDen. but if that was the only option, then so be it. Have you got room at your new training ground or your stadium? Oh, the look on the faces of " the bed sheet boys" would be fun to see.
I thought the reason the Rob Couhig deal for Bearwood fell through was that there was a planning condition that it could only be used by Reading
What happens if, as seems possible from what I've read, Dai gets jailed in China and presumably forfeits his assets? Presumably there's no protection for the club at all?
@railwaysteve that's right, the planning conditions prevented it and no-one from the council to the fans of the club were prepared to enter into the process for modifying those conditions. All concerned were more horrified by the prospect of losing an asset than by losing the entire club. The potential buyer has moved on now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that the asset is unsaleable but it is certainly less in demand, particularly as the council have shown their hand regarding changes of ownership let alone changes of usage.
It is not the fans' fault, they have been entirely helpless and largely in the dark, we ourselves sold the name of Adams Park to Causeway. We were horrified at the material time and it only came out a decade later that the club were on the brink of administration; incredible that a members' club could be run that close to the brink without notifying the members, but having been through that and worse following the Chairboys, it is impossible to have anything but the deepest sympathy for Reading fans.
Who knows? My view is that the club and all his assets would go to the banks he is alleged to repay his debts/dubious loans from. How that would impact on the club, I have no idea. I doubt if anyone else has either.
I suspect the 2 likely alternative scenarios are as outlined by our friend @theRoyalBiscuit
I sincerely hope that the neither happens & Yongge comes to his senses & strikes a deal with someone soon.
Genuine question(s) to Mr Biscuit. What was the feeling amongst the fanbase, if you can remember that far back, when Dai took over the club? Given his track record, was there apprehension? Did it start off okay? At what point did the alarm bells start ringing?
As far as I remember there was apprehension at the time the takeover was announced, due mainly to the Premier League having blocked his takeover of Hull City, albeit, he wasn't the person the PL took exception to. Don't forget. the two clubs he folded were wound up well after he bought us, so other than his failed bid for Hull there was not much of track record. i would guess about 50/50 for and against. He has never shared his ambitions for the club, unlike most, if not all new owners do and remained silent about the affairs of the club which gave some fans (me included) some doubts about his motives. Some of course welcomed him as the new messiah as we had been sold to a Russian non billionaire, who couldn't afford to pay the balance owning and the club reverted to John Madejski who sold it to a group of Thai's who sold off some of the club's land to themselves, and gained permission to build Royal Elm Park a housing/shopping, area, which even now, doesn't exist, although a few spades were dug in the ground, to preserve Planning Permission.
Then Dai started to pay out lots of money on new players, which pleased some of the less enlightened fans, probably the ones who moaned that John Madejski didn't spend enough (even though that got us to the Prem). but made many of us wary. The trouble was he took advice from his friend Kia the Superagent, sorry I can't remember how to spell his name, only that it begins with a K. It turned out though that most, if not all of the players signed turned out to KA's clients. Needless to say these players were on high wages but were rubbish on the pitch. Then the EFL got involved and deducted points for breaching the P & S rules, or whatever they were called at the time. That, i think started to really set the alarm bells ringing. As soon as the embargo ended Dai and his agent friend were up to their old ways again and exceeding the limits on spending. By now the fanbase was turning to, I guess 60/40 against him. More deductions followed and the bells were got louder. To compliment the awful signings chopping and changing the manager none seemed to last more than a season.
So, in summary, Pretty much 50/50 on the takeover.
OK(ish) for a couple of years
Alarm bells started ringing soon after the takeover for some but took a couple of years or so for some to hear them, but got deafening about 2-3 years ago.
The only thing I will thank him for is Bearwood Training Ground, even though that is now proving to be a millstone around our neck. At least it has given us some youngsters who are keeping the club afloat and doing well in the team the last couple of seasons. But I expect many of them will be moved on as I am sure Dai will see ££££'s signs in front of his eyes.
Selles gone...
https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2024/december/06/ruben-selles-departs/
no mention of who is taking the team tomorrow
From what I have read on their website, it looks like Noel Hunt will be taking charge of the first team for the time being. Apparently Hunt has been their under 21 coach.
A bit annoying that the wind may act as an equalizer tomorrow, as one would perhaps expect a demotivated team. Mind you, it just takes a goal off someone's backside in the 2nd minute to change the complexion of a game, no matter the prior motivations, so perhaps amateur psychology is limited in it's predictive benefits to begin with!
I think they will be up for it tomorrow. I am expecting a tough game and a noisy away following.
Noel should go all 'This is SPARTA" tomorrow though it might be a lot easier to lock the team in the dressing room and take the 3-0 forfeit.
I am sure Reading fans are hoping that it is Dai who gets kicked down the well.
The football purist in me: If you have the ability to play the ball on the ground (as we now do) the wind shouldn’t be an issue.
The old skool fan: We need to kick Lewis Wing up in the air minute one as a welcome back gift.
So, the turmoil goes on. According to the club website Noel Hunt has been offered and accepted the role of Manager. No mention of temporary. Not surprising as I can not see any out of work manager would come here at the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if the under 18's manager steps up to the u21's job and the senior ball ball (or girl) takes over the U18's job.
They've had to replace the ball boy with a ball? Times really are tough.
Easy for an imposter to slip on the pitch and into the action, too.
oops. Age is getting to me!
That's a good summary of the events leading to where Reading are now, and how the Football League's rules (set and agreed by the owners of its member clubs) were powerless to stop a rogue owner acting against the interests of their club, the Football League as an organisation and the whole sport in general.
Kia Joorabchian is the super agent in question, his like will gravitate towards football club owners with more money (at least initially) than sense or football knowledge looking to "chase the dream", rather like pushers make a beeline to those addicted to chasing mythical fire-breathing creatures.
This is a brilliant summary - thanks. I couldn't help but wince nervously at this bit:
"He has never shared his ambitions for the club, unlike most, if not all new owners do and remained silent about the affairs of the club which gave some fans (me included) some doubts about his motives."
Wince indeed!
I could be wrong but our new owner has been involved with our club now for 18 months after lending Rob money at the beginning of last season but to my knowledge has never set foot on the Adams Park turf or openly spoken directly to us or the media about his intentions.
He continues to invest in Harlington and Adams Park, plus the wage budget for the first team. We are reaping the rewards. Thank you.
Would love to see you at AP and hear you talk about our club. Would mean a lot to me and I suspect many others.
openly spoken directly to us or the media about his intentions.
He did a podcast earlier this year where he mentioned, in passing, that he's bought the club in order to improve football in Kazakhstan and this will happen in three steps.
A) Improve the training and academy facilities. B) Move the team up the leagues. C) Improve Kazakhstan football.
Dan Rice has spoken at length about A, mentioned B briefly and lay down and pretended to be dead when asked about C.
It might go all Yongge if C doesn't happen but until then COYB, Up the Wyc, etc.
Thank you @theRoyalBiscuit for the detailed summary. I always find it interesting to see how fans react to new ownership, us included.
Whatever happens to Reading, and I hope it’s not the worst case scenario, don’t ‘do a Derby’ and very quickly forget the situation you are in. It will help manage expectations going forward and will allow you to operate slightly more sustainably.
We know it's MLs money being invested in WWFC and the academy but isn't it Eduard Vyshnyakov who is invested at a personal level I the project.
As a billionaire ML has to do something with his wealth and, I suspect, it's Eduard who had the real vision for improving Kazakhstan football.
So far the project is going well, possibly even too well as I doubt it was expected that MB would get us to the top of Lg1 in NI ember and playing such good football. Let's hope we can continue on this trajectory.
No football team deserves an owner like Yongge, he seems to be positively spiteful towards Reading and their fans. Hopefully today we can show them what they are missing and how it could be if things were managed correctly. We need local rivals and I would much prefer Reading to join us in the Championship than either Poxford or MK (although they are going the other way, thankfully).
Good luck @theRoyalBiscuit and hope the sorry mess is resolved soon for you, you'll be so much better off when Yongge is gone.
😅😅😅😅
Mikheil is a lousy owner. Not one firework!
He's not made of money!