It seems that an article in The Guardian today reported that Rob Couhig has turned down the offer of putting some money into Escrow. He wants a cast iron legally binding signed agreement before he will accept this. I don’t blame him for wanting assurance knowing Dai’s track record, I am dreading tomorrow’s (Thursday) EFL meeting. If Reading FC can’t prove to the EFL that the sale is likely to go ahead soon, (I think that is now impossible) or Mr Plaket pulls out as he is not guaranteed the Stadium/Training Ground I fear the the plug will be pulled at the end of the regular season as the only other option will be for RC to buy the club quickly which I can’t see Dai agreeing to.
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As I understand it, Couhig is now firmly back in contention to buy Reading.
This is brinkmanship like none other I’ve seen in football. Both Yongge and Couhig seem indifferent to the worst case scenario, Yongge’s motivation to hold on to the bitter end is as inscrutable as ever and Couhig seeming happy to risk no club existing anymore in trying to extract money from potential buyers by proving an impediment to others buying the club.
Hopefully some semblance of common sense will creep in with the stakes so high.
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@Midlander The suspicion when the whole training ground saga popped up last season was that Couhig was preparing the way for Lomtadze to buy Reading. The twist being he had designs on buying the club himself was one I didn’t see coming.
As I understand it, Couhig had interests on Reading considerably earlier than that.
That is interesting. I suppose I took a lot of his public statements (especially about him looking to wind down his involvement in football) at face value a bit too much, which is more fool me.
Makes you wonder whether the training ground fiasco could resurface at some point, especially if Couhig takes charge.
Couhig is not going to let this go quietly. He sees this as an opportunity of making money
I read the Guardian article this morning, and I get the dread of all Reading fans at the moment. My take was that Couhig wanted a legal agreement about the money put aside (the max he’s claiming against Dai Yonge) is secure so he can fight the legal case against him in the summer with the knowledge that the money will be paid if he wins the case.
I think the EFL will try very hard not to pull the plug. These things always go to the wire.
From our shallow perspective I’m just wondering if Reading need any more motivation to beat us on Saturday?!! You couldn’t make it up, on the face of it the former owner of WW is ‘holding up’ things with administration or worse on the cards. But hold on, look who we play next…
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I would take any Guardian article about this with a pinch of salt at the moment. They clearly have a hotline to Rob Couhig and are just regurgitating everything he says without much sense of balance or fact checking. We all know from experience not to take everything he says seriously - I’m not sure the Guardian does yet.
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Fair point aloysius. It’ll be interesting to be a fly on the wall at the EFL meeting today. I imagine they won’t need too much persuading that a deal is worth holding out for, so they can extend it to the summer, if the club have enough funds to last that long.
I would hate to see Reading go to the wall and as others have said I wish both Dai & Rob would give their heads a wobble & consider the club rather than their bank accounts for a change.
Let’s wait and see what the EFL decides today
If they want to wind themselves up by associating Couhig’s actions, after having sold his controlling stake in WWFC, with us, they should probably ask Plymouth fans how getting in a tizz like that in the run up to playing us worked out for them.
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BBC website * 19 minutes ago
Reading owner Dai Yongge has been given more time to sell the club by the English Football League.
The EFL previously said that he must complete a sale or move on from the Royals this week, but this has now been extended to 22 April.
I just personally hope this gets sorted, for the good of their fans and football in general and Reading remains a football club.
I also hope it gets sorted so I can start slagging them off again as at the moment, it doesn’t feel right.
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for some reason I’m getting images in my head of a boot, a can and a road.
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“The League has the power to suspend a club if a director fails to comply with the requirements of their disqualification,” the EFL statement added.
“The terms of any suspension would be at the discretion of the board, and while suspended clubs are not permitted to fulfil league matches, they would continue to be a member of the league at that point.”
Part of the EFL’s statement above. I am glad they have stated that suspension is different than expulsion. At least for now. Our last two games are against Bristol Rovers and Barnsley. he latter are not likely to be involved in a play off race so could be awarded the the three points. Rovers, though may still be in a position that could lead to relegation. I guess the EFL are hoping they will be clear of that possibility to avoid legal issues from relegated clubs. We Royals fans can breath and sleep a bit easier for a couple of weeks.
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I look forward to @petef1 slagging us off again. Sooner rather than later! 
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According to a tweet from the Reading side, only 776 seats remain for home attendance. Should be a great atmosphere.
This is incorrect, the Reading ticketing website is showing 1,000’s of tickets left.