Former Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig has declared that he is still interested in buying Reading Football Club following his recent court battle with Dai Yongge.
Dai Yongge had been seeking an injunction against Couhig, while the American is claiming more than £12m in lost potential profits after talks broke down between him and the club last year at the very final stages.
However, Couhig still has liens over the club, which the judge ruled is not blocking the sale of the club, as claimed by Dai Yongge.
Speaking on a podcast, Couhig reiterated that he is still interested in purchasing the club.
He said: “Absolutely (I’m still interested). It’s going to require lots of money. I think you have to do some serious maintenance work.
“This club with the right leadership instead of struggling attendances of 10,000 -12,000 it should be in the 17,000 – 20,000. It shouldn’t be in League One. They should be safely midtable in the Championship with a chance at promotion.
“Anyone who buys this club who thinks they can run it from afar, you need to be there one or two weeks a month, be on the phone everyday and put a lot of sweat into it.
“Ultimately my health improved, but I had sold my club (Wycombe) so I looked for something else when we left, the club was in great health financially, it had great on pitch performance.I love sport, I love business, I love the business of sport.
“The opportunity of Reading was presented to me, we had a look at it and thought we could have a go at it.
“I had the infamous trip to the Purple Turtle because everything was done. It’s not like we were waiting for a decision. We were waiting over there for three days waiting and finally went home. 10 days later they said here’s your money back. The management asked us to go to the game to excite the fans.
“For whatever reason, and they’ve never given me the courtesy of a phone call, they sent me the money back.
“We have security over everything because we lent a lot of money. Incidentally their lawyers quit after they sent the money back.
“Everyone seems to have missed the point that if he (Dai Yongge) tried to go into administration then he can’t. One of the things I have been reluctant about giving up the security is because I have a legitimate claim.
“The frustrating part is people only have half the story and accept whatever the club tells them as gospel.
“The academy has a great utility for the club. You have to be careful and prudent about it. Because of that some people have said ‘oh he wants to kill the academy’, the furthest thing from the truth. The academy has to function as a business on itself.
Couhig reflected on the proposed deal for Wycombe to buy Bearwood Park training ground last year.
He said: “My successor’s goal was to have a bigger academy. They (Reading) came to him and said would you buy our training ground. They were desperate, he struck a deal with them and as chairman I had to sign the deal.
“I’m not putting that on him, I thought it was a great deal for both participants, The folks at Reading never actually got the chance to hear the plan which was a sharing arrangement which would have taken a lot of burden off Reading in terms of economics.
“We weren’t out there hustling the deal, it came to us and met all of Mikheil (Lomtadze) objectives.”
He also commented on potential purchaser Robert Platek, who is believed to currently be in a period of exclusivity with the club
“It’s a long way in my estimation from being done. There are lots of unpaid bills out there which is one of the reasons we set up an escrow account. Maybe the guy (Platek) is going to buy it, maybe he’s not but I’ve seen no indication he is.”
To watch the full podcast, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuW8acbuNu0
