Latest news with #Couhig
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Search for Reading coach 'well underway' as Gibbs makes West Bromwich Albion switch
Work is already under way to find a new assistant manager at Reading following Monday's news of Nigel Gibbs' departure, confirms new owner Rob Couhig. The Watford playing legend arrived back in Berkshire to work under Noel Hunt in December, but now moves back to the Championship to take up the role of assistant manager to Ryan Mason at West Bromwich Albion, with the pair working together previously at Tottenham Hotspur. Advertisement The 61-year-old was popular in Reading, this latest return marking his third spell at the club. Arriving originally back in 2006 to work under Steve Coppell, the former defender was assistant manager to Brian McDermott between 2009 and 2013, winning the Championship in 2011/12 while Hunt and fellow coach Mikele Leigertwood were playing. Joining McDermott at Leeds United, he returned in 2018 under Paul Clement for a less successful stint. Couhig, who only took over less than a month ago, thanked Gibbs for his work while he heads off to the Hawthorns, but confirms the search for his replacement is well under way. Advertisement "Nigel leaves the club with our best wishes to go and join a club in the league above, and we thank him for helping us achieve a strong placing in last season's League One campaign," Couhig told the club. "Work is now well underway to appoint a successor to Noel's leadership team, with discussions ongoing with multiple exciting prospects." Manager Hunt added: "I'd like to place on record my thanks to Gibbo for his hard work over the past six months. "To have an Assistant of his pedigree working with me was a major coup for our club, and the successes of last season have seen him attract attention from clubs in higher divisions. I wish him all the best for his next exciting project."
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Working with Rob Couhig again 'a big factor' in new deal says Reading favourite Wing
Reading midfielder Lewis Wing has admitted that the opportunity to work with new owner Rob Couhig was a driving factor behind signing a new contract. The 29-year-old signed a new three-year extension last week, the first new deal signed in the Couhig era after the American ended Dai Yongge's eight-year reign on May 14. Winning Player of the Season in his debut campaign, the former Middlesbrough man has racked up 99 appearances in two years and was regularly captaining the side in the absence of Andy Yiadom. Joining in 2023 after 18 months with Wycombe Wanderers, the fan favourite worked with Couhig and new CEO Joe Jacobson at Adams Park and has admitted that the opportunity to work with them again was appealing. "Ever since I walked through the door, it has felt like home," Wing told the club. "Throughout my career I've missed that, so that was the main reason. "With the new owners coming in, I've worked with them before, and I know how they run a club and how successful they can be so that was a big factor. "Most of all, I want to repay the fans for everything they have done for me in the last two years. I want to continue the journey with them and this football club." There are still 13 futures up in their air this spring, with contracts offered to players set to depart. This includes key men Joel Pereira, Amadou Mbengue and Michael Craig, all who have deals that run up to June 30. Talks remain ongoing as thoughts already turn to next season, with pre-season plans being confirmed in the coming weeks.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reading chief reveals impressive season ticket stat ahead of 'serious' week of work
Reading owner Rob Couhig has revealed that the club sold more season tickets in the first five days on sale than in the first EIGHT WEEKS last time out. The Royals fans are riding a crest of a wave currently, revelling in the news that Dai Yongge no longer owns the club and Noel Hunt's impressive on-field squad finishing seventh in League One. Season ticket numbers were at their lowest point for well over two decades last season and the average crowd fell to under 13,000, still strong for third tier standards. Keeping prices frozen until June 6, keen to harness the feel-good factor currently at the club, Couhig has confirmed that the they have done just that with sales sky-rocketing on last year. Good last week: more season tickets sold in first 5 days than in first eight weeks last year! Great first signing with Lewis. This week, serious work on review and improvement of infrastructure, customer fronting efforts, and further development of the squad. Thank you and please… — Rob Couhig (@RCouhig) May 26, 2025 Speaking to supporters via his social media, Couhig said: "More season tickets sold in first five days than in first eight weeks last year! Great first signing with Lewis [Wing]. This week, serious work on review and improvement of infrastructure, customer fronting efforts, and further development of the squad. "Thank you and please join us today because We Won't Back Down! Up the Ding!" Any supporter who renews before June 6 will be offered a tour of Bearwood training park, with finance options available.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reading ownership nightmare finally over after Dai Yongge sells club to Rob Couhig
Reading's Select Car Leasing Stadium, formerly known as the Madejski Stadium, is included in the deal to buy the club. Reading's Select Car Leasing Stadium, formerly known as the Madejski Stadium, is included in the deal to buy the club. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA Dai Yongge has sold Reading to Rob Couhig, ending the Chinese businessman's turbulent reign. Couhig, the 76-year-old former Wycombe owner, has acquired the League One club, their stadium and training ground. The English Football League said it wished Reading and their supporters 'a successful future following a difficult period for all associated with the club'. A deal had been agreed for several weeks and has now been ratified by the EFL. Advertisement The US-based Couhig has been named chair and his business partner Todd Trosclair has also joined the board. Couhig tried to buy Reading last year but the deal collapsed in September 2024. Reading have been bought by Redwood Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Dogwood Football LLC, which is owned by Couhig and Trosclair. 'Redwood is ambitious and dedicated towards the club returning to its rightful place within the English football pyramid, while adhering to clear principles of honesty, transparency and financial sustainability,' a club statement said. Reading have been docked 18 points across the past three seasons, a period in which the club have also been under a series of embargoes for defaulted payments. Dai cut funding for Reading Women, resulting in them withdrawing from the second tier last summer, and in March he was disqualified as an owner by the EFL and given a deadline to sell the club, owing to business activity in China. A statement from the supporters' campaign group Sell Before We Dai said: 'We are incredibly relieved and happy that Reading Football Club are finally under new ownership. It's a day which we thought, at times, may never happen.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Reading owner Rob Couhig: ‘There is a real market for the EFL in the US'
Rob Couhig talks of having been 'jilted at the altar' when he describes the unceremonious end of his previous Reading takeover bid but eight months on he has finally consummated his on-off relationship with the troubled club. The divorce from the previous owner, Dai Yongge, was a long and painful one which had passed the 600-day mark by the time Couhig's £25m purchase was completed last Wednesday. From his home in New Orleans, Couhig talks at length about the extraordinary process, including the revelation that he did not speak to Dai and had only occasional contact with the former Reading chief executive Nigel Howe. The image of the 75-year-old lawyer being stood up at a popular Reading nightspot, The Purple Turtle, when he went to exchange contracts last September also boggles the mind, although much about the saga made little sense. Advertisement Related: Matty Godden's late strike fires Charlton past Wycombe and into playoff final Couhig was one of five bidders to enter exclusive negotiations with Dai and had drifted from the picture until a judgment from London's commercial court last month upheld his claim to have security over the stadium and training ground resulting from last year's aborted deal. 'I always thought it was going to happen because we're not idiots,' Couhig says. 'When we did the deal [last summer] we did what we thought was right, and our lawyers did a terrific job for us. I was just at home when it happened after my experience last year. 'I went to The Purple Turtle club in Reading of all places. I thought it'd be a great place for us to go and be able to sort of softly make the announcement. I realised while I was there that it wasn't happening and I had to go home. We were jilted at the altar. Nobody said a word, did a thing, anything. 'I never spoke to Mr Dai. I spoke to Nigel twice in a year, maybe three times. I spoke to several sets of lawyers representing Mr Dai at various times. And that's as close as I came to having any real discussions with anybody. We worked almost around the clock for two weeks to get it done. So it wasn't a feeling of: 'Let's go pop the champagne!' Instead we've just plunged straight into it.' Advertisement The uncertainty surrounding Dai's ownership means Couhig bought a club with only six first-team players under contract for next season, although new deals were offered to 11 other players last week in an attempt to retain the bulk of the squad which finished seventh in League One, three points off the playoffs. The manager, Noel Hunt, will be staying after doing a hugely impressive job in difficult circumstances since replacing Rubén Sellés in December. Couhig's focus, as during his ownership of Wycombe, who were promoted to the Championship for the first time on his watch, will be on obtaining value via the best free transfers. 'I'm a big believer that at this level of football there's a lot of people who are coming out of other clubs, Championship clubs, Premier League clubs, even League One clubs, who are going to be looking for a new home in a place where they can succeed,' Couhig says. 'I think we're going to be much more oriented towards frees. Transfer fees will be not excluded from our consideration, but will be an anomaly. 'We're always going to ask: 'Does it make sensible business?' I would rather spend extra money on infrastructure than extra money on a specific player. Because if I go out and I build the infrastructure, I know I'm going to get a return on it. With a player, some of them end up injured or something happens in their life, and all of a sudden you've got a player who's not the same person that you bought.' Advertisement Having owned Wycombe for more than four years, Couhig is well versed on life in the English Football League and has strong views on how it operates. He advocates tougher spending controls in League One to prevent cash-rich clubs such as Birmingham and Wrexham from running away with promotion as they did this season, and also argues that the EFL should be doing far more to promote the competition in the United States. 'If I could be the tsar of football for the day I would tell all clubs in League One you can only use twice what you get from the league in payment for your first-team players,' Couhig says. 'Make it a real meritocracy and not so dependent upon how much money a club brings compared to another club. 'The EFL is a hugely undervalued asset, particularly in the United States. It's the biggest market in the world and we're barely tapping into it. Sometimes the assumption is made that people only worry about the Premier League, but I think there is a real market for all three divisions of the EFL. 'Most people over here live in small towns so have a natural affinity with smaller clubs. They like to adopt them as their own. We don't have promotion and relegation over here, so should be marketing the hell out of that. Every game matters in the EFL, which isn't the case in the States.' Advertisement Couhig's immediate targets for Reading are a playoff place and a period of stability. 'On the pitch I would expect to do better than we did this season,' he says. 'Off the pitch it would be reasonable to expect not to have as many disruptions. 'People can say all the bad things they want about Mr Dai, but he has assembled an impressive collection of assets. The stadium, the training ground, the fact that Reading have a history of success, and a solid fanbase that's proven its mettle. What I want to do is take a troubled business and turn it into a hugely successful one. 'My goal is always to leave a place better than I found it. And I think we will be well on that road by this time next year.'
