I said before I'd like to be in court when he explained how he planned to turn a £12m profit out of a chronic basket case like Reading, in the end that explanation would have embarrassed a five-year old.
It's not an impossibility, the club is on its arse badly starved of resources and nowhere near it's potential , just not having to deal with that eejit Dai makes it a much better resale prospect.
It was speculated a long time ago that all Rob was going to do was get Dai gone, restructure any debt (or CVA / admin to lose it entirely) help them up the table a bit by upping the budget then sell it on anyway. The club is probably worth very little now and a basket case, fast forward 2 years with no significant debt, good crowds and a push for the championship and It could well be worth a lot to someone with eyes on the Premier League with it's ground and training ground included.
Because we have played the same amount of games, but Wrexham have played Reading twice and we have not played our second Reading game yet.
If Reading's results are expunged, Wrexham still have 9 games left (as they don't have Reading remaining on their fixture list) but we would have 8 left (because we do and it would be cancelled).
Wycombe P 36 Pts 70 (44 game schedule)
Wrexham P 35 Pts 68 (44 game schedule)
I don't like it because it puts it back in Wrexham's hands.
There was something about a 30 day period for it to apply. But I must admit I'm not sure if that's upto that April 5 date or the period starts from there.
The Couhigs might prove to be a right shower of grasping crooks at some point, but they did alright by us and would probably have done alright by Reading.
It's a fair point that there may be some money to be made from mucking out the stables and flipping the club for a profit selling to a much wealthier individual who probably has no desire to deal with snakes like Yongge.
My line of thinking before was that Couhig was claiming he could run Reading at a profit over a number of years, which is patent nonsense while the business is still severely distressed and will take years to recover after sustained investment.
Making a personal profit from selling the club is a different kettle of fish, I have no idea if that is a quantifiable enough of a "tort" to be able to litigate against someone for money that could potentially be made in this situation if all the stars align AND he finds someone daft enough to commit to sinking 10s or 100s millions with no return to buy the club off him, and thus generate the profit he is litigating over. Generally wealthy people saving clubs on the brink of going bust or liquidating entirely do so for social clout or their own personal motivations rather than making a killing out of it.
genuinely curious, but how have we had our trousers pulled down?
It was pretty obvious his plan was to come in, make the club look more attractive and then sell on, wasn’t it? He never said he was going to be here for years and years.
His plan was always to make money on exit - most people laughed at the idea that he would actually be able to make money out of football club ownership (which seems to be a money pit) rather than him pulling our pants down in regards to his intention?
That bluster and world class WiFi etc, wasn’t bluster. It’s “making the product more attractive to a prospective new buyer”. Adding value to the football club outside of on field activities is how was going to make money.
to answer questions on why we’ve had our pants pulled down…
Couhig was only able to sell the club for an extensive profit because he was able increase allowable shareholding by one person from 75-90% on the promise he would carry out certain ground improvements, access, etc which haven’t happened and are unlikely to happen.
No way should a loss making League One club be able to achieve a significant profit on sale.
Comments
I said before I'd like to be in court when he explained how he planned to turn a £12m profit out of a chronic basket case like Reading, in the end that explanation would have embarrassed a five-year old.
He needs to take 15% off the claim as they’ll be no-one to gift him extra shares when he sells them!
It's not an impossibility, the club is on its arse badly starved of resources and nowhere near it's potential , just not having to deal with that eejit Dai makes it a much better resale prospect.
It was speculated a long time ago that all Rob was going to do was get Dai gone, restructure any debt (or CVA / admin to lose it entirely) help them up the table a bit by upping the budget then sell it on anyway. The club is probably worth very little now and a basket case, fast forward 2 years with no significant debt, good crowds and a push for the championship and It could well be worth a lot to someone with eyes on the Premier League with it's ground and training ground included.
I bet you miss the fireworks though!
I think we always won when he wheeled those out though.
Because we have played the same amount of games, but Wrexham have played Reading twice and we have not played our second Reading game yet.
If Reading's results are expunged, Wrexham still have 9 games left (as they don't have Reading remaining on their fixture list) but we would have 8 left (because we do and it would be cancelled).
Wycombe P 36 Pts 70 (44 game schedule)
Wrexham P 35 Pts 68 (44 game schedule)
I don't like it because it puts it back in Wrexham's hands.
From the BBC:
Not sure if this is true, but with our match April 5th, ours would be the first called off.
I keep thinking of Dodds saying there are 16 matches to go when there were actually 17, and wondering if he knew something.
It's a strange scenario where at first you'd think we benefit as they lose a 3 pointer and we only lose a 1.
But obvs we lose the potential to beat them in the unplayed game.
Luckily I don't think it'll come down to this and Reading will survive long enough for the season to finish.
There was something about a 30 day period for it to apply. But I must admit I'm not sure if that's upto that April 5 date or the period starts from there.
The Couhigs might prove to be a right shower of grasping crooks at some point, but they did alright by us and would probably have done alright by Reading.
I recognise that other opinions are available.
It's definitely a weird scenario! I just hope Reading do stay in business and that the season is not altered for anyone (least of all them).
Though the thought of dropping to 7th only to sneak in the playoffs and win them is just a little funny.
On hearing that the Purple Turtle has put up the price of shandy from 4.50 to 5 quid, Rob returns to pay them the pound he owes them.
For the sake of simplification and any new readers, here is the story so far:
If Reading get thrown out of the League, I assume that only three teams will be relegated from League 1. Shame this is unlikely to help Shresbury.
Your map is showing Reading and Bearwood as north east of Wycombe.
They are both to the south west. And Marlow is due south. Please redo your homework, and hand it in on Monday.
Simplified version
Super-Simplified version: 💩
It's a fair point that there may be some money to be made from mucking out the stables and flipping the club for a profit selling to a much wealthier individual who probably has no desire to deal with snakes like Yongge.
My line of thinking before was that Couhig was claiming he could run Reading at a profit over a number of years, which is patent nonsense while the business is still severely distressed and will take years to recover after sustained investment.
Making a personal profit from selling the club is a different kettle of fish, I have no idea if that is a quantifiable enough of a "tort" to be able to litigate against someone for money that could potentially be made in this situation if all the stars align AND he finds someone daft enough to commit to sinking 10s or 100s millions with no return to buy the club off him, and thus generate the profit he is litigating over. Generally wealthy people saving clubs on the brink of going bust or liquidating entirely do so for social clout or their own personal motivations rather than making a killing out of it.
One of the other biggest takeaways for me has been Couhig’s claim in court that he made significant profit on WWFC.
We’ve had our trousers pulled down.
And yet some people believed his bluster about the access road, new toilets, new terrace etc...
There has been a nagging thought in the back of my mind for a good while that ML will end up buying Reading and its academy from RC.
And world class wifi, guessing that never got switched on.
genuinely curious, but how have we had our trousers pulled down?
It was pretty obvious his plan was to come in, make the club look more attractive and then sell on, wasn’t it? He never said he was going to be here for years and years.
His plan was always to make money on exit - most people laughed at the idea that he would actually be able to make money out of football club ownership (which seems to be a money pit) rather than him pulling our pants down in regards to his intention?
That event would go down in history as the short term cause of the Berkshire bedsheet crisis
That bluster and world class WiFi etc, wasn’t bluster. It’s “making the product more attractive to a prospective new buyer”. Adding value to the football club outside of on field activities is how was going to make money.
It’s reasonable that taking over a small League One club who win promotion to the Championship should make you a profit as an owner.
Especially when you sell water bottles and towels for about £50 a piece and double everyone’s ticket prices.
to answer questions on why we’ve had our pants pulled down…
Couhig was only able to sell the club for an extensive profit because he was able increase allowable shareholding by one person from 75-90% on the promise he would carry out certain ground improvements, access, etc which haven’t happened and are unlikely to happen.
No way should a loss making League One club be able to achieve a significant profit on sale.
When Mr Couhig was granted a higher percentage ownership of our club, was it on the agreement that he fulfilled certain requirements?
Fixing stuff, extra access, improved ground etc?
If it was, and that stuff didn't happen, then it's not hard to see what @Midlander is saying.
Does anyone know if he did actually make a profit or just more “bluster”?