What First For New Reading Owner Rob Couhig?
Alex runs through some things that could be on the new owner’s immediate to-do list.
Sound the alarms, book the rest of the week off work, put out the bunting, organise the street parties and get the town crier out to decree: we’ve only flipping gone and got ourselves some new owners!
Reading FC have finally confirmed that the Rob Couhig/Todd Trosclair takeover is fully complete. The deal was initially agreed on May 3, the final day of the season, when Sim had his say on Couhig’s purchase of the club.
In these dizzying times, it’s like Christmas and Easter have been rolled into one bumper special. I’m going to write out my Christmas-style wish list in the middle of May because I’m just so giddy with delight that the Gregorian calendars can take the day off.
Here is my wish list for the new owners, the things I’d like to see them do. I’m not going to write things like “remember to pay the players and staff” or “pay the actual tax bill” because that’s just such a fundamental basic that it would be incredible for any football club owner not to do that and you’d never catch Reading FC, an established footballing side since 1871, mucking around with nonsense like that… again.
I first wrote a version of this article more than a year ago, ahead of the anticipated takeover by an individual called *checks notes*… Rob Couhig? Hmm.
Well, now that fella has disappeared into obscurity and we have a chap taking over the club… who has the same name? Wow - what are the odds of that happening?
I felt it was time to revisit and re-edit the original that I had lined up - but not published - to address a checklist of things that I’d like to see the new owner do to win over the fanbase, even though a recent TTE poll suggests he’s already doing that.
To give you a flavour of the discussion points: Sim has written about giving the stadium a bit of TLC and fixing it up, while I’ve written about the pressing need to sort out the Women’s team. As a small aside, this was the original opening to the piece written a year ago, and it is hauntingly prescient:
“At the time of writing this, we are still waiting for the takeover to be confirmed, which means anything could yet still happen. And this being Reading FC, we just can’t rule anything out.
“I hear that Couhig and his associates are waiting on Dai’s team to complete the offer, and I have no reason to disbelieve this. If I’m going to be frank, I don’t trust Dai enough not to do something crazy like pulling out of the deal at the last conceivable moment to leave us well and truly in the lurch.”
Contracts
This was, originally, a second priority for the list. The first priority has been bumped down to number two, for reasons I’ll explain there.
Right now, it’s simply easier to list who among the playing staff that we know will have a deal that continues beyond the end of this season. Kelvin Abrefa, Ben Elliott, Harvey Knibbs and Lewis Wing all have one more year with us. Charlie Savage has two more years. That’s it.
It’s not entirely clear regarding the contract situations for some of the youth players, but it seems we have no goalkeepers hanging around and no attackers either. Some of these players will have, I imagine, trigger options for an additional year built into their contracts.
Indeed, last year, the majority of players running out of time on their deals had this option triggered. However, some of those players are back in the same situation again and not all players will have such an option.
There are some immediate priorities: Joel Pereira, Amadou Mbengue and Michael Craig are mainstays of the team and getting them tied down on deals is crucial. I feel a little bit more confident with the first two, because they both do genuinely seem to love the club - and especially someone like Pereira, whose career has been somewhat nomadic, to have a place to call home and be loved must be hugely appealing.
Others, such as Jeriel Dorsett, Andre Garcia and Jayden Wareham, are also really important to tie down because... obviously. However, it’s not all bad.
There’s an opportunity here to have a reset of the team. There are some players whose time has run its course and whose wages coming off the books will give us more flexibility in the wage budget. David Button and Harlee Dean are examples of this - a little harsh for Dean, but he’s not the future of the team.
Then there are those who just aren’t cutting the mustard - Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan and Mamadi Camara are prime examples of this. Though disappointing not to get money for them, letting them go could be the best thing for all parties.
The Women’s team
What I wrote last year rings true:
“Now, I fully believe that the Women’s side need urgent attention. However, I also believe that ship has kind of set sail now.
“They have had the management team binned off, they had all the players released and they have had the decision to willingly(?) drop out of the Women’s Championship and three divisions lower imposed on them.
“None of those things can be changed now, but they have in place a new head of women’s football, a new head coach and assistant manager, and are building a team (we are told) for the new season ahead.
“As disastrous as many of these things have been, they seem to at least be doing something to rebuild.”
The team has been built and is now being run by the Community Trust. If Couhig wants to do something good, something right and buy himself some points, bring them back into the family and give them support to develop into the force that they once were.
It’s as simple as that.
The academy
I know I write a lot of articles that are quite lengthy. I could speak volumes and for hours about how good the academy is: look at how well the under-18s did this season, look at how many players have broken through into the first team over the last two years…
The reality is - I shouldn’t have to. So I won’t. We all know it’s crucial to the club, and not as a vanity project. Yes, it is expensive to run, I hear around £5-6 million a year. However, if we are being run by a businessman then a sensible one will know that developing and selling your academy players is - while not quite like a license to print money - an unbeatable business strategy.
Keep the academy as it is. Let the players we develop through there do their talking on the pitch.
Appoint a hierarchy
Brian Carey seems to have been left as the left man standing. And, by all accounts, he continues to do an excellent job. Bring in a small team to support him and allow the club to be self-sufficient in how it is run, organised and managed.
There were rumours about Joe Jacobson coming in last year. Though I haven’t heard these rumours this year, it’s important that Couhig makes clear who does what within the structure and gives them the resources to support their jobs.
Stable back rooms have always led to results on the pitch at Reading. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, nor do we want them to, but let’s just give the existing teams the structure, tools and support to deliver what they need within their roles - without having to work with their hands tied behind their backs.
A Q&A forum, or similar
As is my custom, I’ve left my most important point until the end. However, it’s difficult to rank this one because there is still so much uncertainty.
Yes, we’ve heard Couhig on podcasts and doing the PR rounds, but now he’s been publicly named and has taken over the club, this would be the right thing to do. Couhig should speak to STAR and the Community Trust, then engage supporters in clear, open communication about his vision and intentions for the club. Do it sooner rather than later.
There are concerns about the academy, women’s team(s) and training ground. These are all rumours. I’ve made my views clear on what should and shouldn’t be done but the best thing to do would be to offer clarity, insight and vision as soon as possible, while giving the fans (those who know the club best) the opportunity to express their opinions.
Get the buy-in now from those who matter, and Couhig will have a smooth smart. If not, this could be a long summer and one that is more difficult than necessary.
He’s not the previous owner - which, naturally, is a plus. However, just ‘not being the last guy’ is a chip that can only be played for so long, so be open with us and take us on the journey with you.
Communication and transparency
Following on from the earlier point: we’ve gotten a lot better at communication over the last few months, but there’s still work to be done. Certainly, we cannot afford to regress in any way, particularly not to the boardroom silences of the Dai Yongge days.
And we also cannot afford to regress to the days when owners didn’t listen to fans. This is a club that has become united firstly by the removal of a common enemy and then even more so by the love of a team and coaching staff that just embody all we associate to be good with Reading teams of the past.
Continue the good work with the community too. The work to make Reading a more inclusive club to support the needs of the supporters who identify as having a disability and getting the bronze certification is fantastic work. Working with kids in the local community and regularly planning visits where fans can ask questions to players is fantastic and increases the bond. The Purple Turtle events are a must; the club and that venue are inexorably linked.
Naturally, we will understand if you don’t buy into all the suggestions and feedback that fans will have. But at the very least, allow us - as a community of fans - to feel heard, appreciated and valued. Clear and transparent communication is key to that.
Stability
It would just be really nice to be a well run football club again, doing normal things that normal football clubs do. Keep the finances in check, win more games than we lose, compete and enjoy the bond we have with the first team. Accept that we will lose good players but do so for good money that can be reinvested and then watch as our academy steps up to keep the bandwagon rolling.
And to keep doing this, season after season as we grow, improve and work our way back up the pyramid to get back into the Championship as an established side. Let’s not throw money at this, because money solves nothing on its own. Let’s keep the structure, but enhance it. Let’s keep the core of the first team, but supplement it with quality. Let’s keep the fans on side, but keep them in the loop for the future.
Let’s go another season without a points deduction, hey? Let’s just be boring for a while. Let’s just be stable and grow within our means.
The Sign
I wrote about this fairly recently, but The Sign is essentially an embodiment of the club being left to go into ruin. I had some great feedback from people about the article (my sincere thanks) and the common consensus is that the land the sign lives on is owned by Tesco.
Without getting too deep into this… let’s just invite Tesco over for a cuppa and have a chat about it, maybe, yeah? Lovely, thanks.