The summer window is closed and the current owners have now been in post for almost 500 days (it’s more like 484 at time of writing, but close enough), so we thought it’d be a good time for another approval rating on how they’re doing.
This is the third time we’ve asked you to grade their performance. Almost exactly a year ago, not too long after completing the takeover and following what looked like a decent summer window, you gave them a very respectable 3.46/5 – the eighth-highest score in our
Approval Rating series.
Fast-forward to late May 2026, following a dull, middling season on the pitch which ended in disappointment – as well as intense flak for their managerial appointment Leam Richardson – and your view on them slightly improved. The new rating of 3.63/5 was actually the highest mark we’ve recorded since February 2021, when Reading were riding high under Veljko Paunovic in the Championship.
So what about now? What do you make of how well they’ve been doing since May 2026? While there’s plenty to cover, I’ve focused below on transfers, the matchday experience and a few other bits.
Transfers
For a more in-depth view on Reading’s recruitment, I wrote about it in a dedicated piece here, so I’ll try not to go over old ground too much in this piece. Alex also gave his perspective on the summer in his August knee-jerks article.
Overall I’d say Reading had a good summer window, putting together a squad capable of competing for promotion this season. A decent amount of money was spent, and some of it was invested wisely in long-term talents such as Kyreece Lisbie and George Earthy, who have already made a positive impact.
Looking through the lens specifically of how well the owners did, on the face of it I’m happy with the level of financial backing they provided for Reading’s recruitment. However, that’s without knowledge of what Reading’s wiggle room was like on the SCR front, which would be useful context.
On the flipside, I was a bit underwhelmed with how the final fortnight went. The late business probably didn’t quite go as the higher-ups at Reading would have ideally wanted – as I explained in the above article – and it’s got relevance for the owners considering Couhig talked up the potential of shopping late in the window.
The SCL experience
Another big topic of conversation in recent weeks has been the matchday experience at the Select Car Leasing Stadium. Though a lot of time, effort and money was put into improving things over the summer, the product on offer this season has come in for a mixture of praise and criticism.
I’ll start with what others have said, as a ‘matchday experience’ is inherently different for everyone and a variety of issues will come up. I posted a tweet asking for feedback after the Luton Town game – the first home fixture of the season – and here’s some of the more negative points you guys raised…
- The lack of WiFi
- Fewer available toilets
- Long queues in the fanzone
…though there were better things highlighted too, including:
- The introduction of safe standing in the South Stand
- A clearer sound system
- Spruced-up seating
On the safe standing point particularly, its introduction shouldn’t be overlooked. Seeing it installed in Reading’s stadium is something Jon Keen has long wished and argued for, as he wrote here, so kudos to the club on that front.
Our match reporter Alex also shared the following take on his experience of the Luton game:
“There were some changes to the stadium that I could see and notice. The sound system definitely seemed louder, the pitch’s advertising boards were now upgraded to the electronic screen versions and the bins inside the concourse had been replaced with newer ones, which provided options for general waste and recycling. And of course, safe-standing was present in the South Stand.
“From where I was sitting, it seemed the West Stand possibly had some new seats, but I couldn’t be sure. Certainly over in the East Stand, we had the same seats from last year where I was sat. However, the WiFi and phone signal were still terrible, the toilets the same (although clean) and the only difference in the food and drink selections were the slight price increases.”
In recent weeks I’ve also seen criticisms over the ad boards being too bright at evening games and the text on the big screen in the southeast corner being illegible.
Personally, I don’t get food or drink at the stadium (I moved away from this a few years ago due to it being poor value – it’s certainly not a new problem or one unique to Reading) so I can’t give an informed opinion on that. I can give you a review of the two Black Sheep Coffee outlets in central Reading and the cider in The Three Guineas, but it’d be a touch harsh to include any of that in the owner approval poll.
Back to the bits of my own matchday experience for which Reading’s owners are responsible.
The toilets in the Sir John Madejski Stand are fine, though the taps blast water out strongly enough to fell a horse and there aren’t enough hand dryers. My seat has been recoloured, which I appreciate, though the actual spot underneath still hasn’t been cleaned, so I might just do it myself at some point.
I love how much better the recoloured seating looks when I glance around the SCL before a game. Here are two similar shots from the Bolton Wanderers midweek game last season and the Mansfield Town midweek match this season:
Not every seat has been redone – supposedly some were “too far gone” to be improved (as was said on a stadium tour two days before the Luton match) – but that’s no big issue for me personally. The overall aesthetics are still far better than they were.
Similarly, the improvements to the audio and lighting are great. The latter is particularly noticeable for evening games, though the difference comes across better in person than on the above photos.
While the pitch is a bit patchy in parts (to be fair the especially dry summer was a big challenge), I’m appreciative of the effort and money that was put in to thoroughly redo it over the summer. A more basic relaying job would have cost £50,000, but the full extent of this rebuilding job (the pitch was sinking) cost £3.5m, as Couhig said at that same stadium tour.
Overall, there have undoubtedly been some major, notable improvements, but also a lack of progress in other areas that’ll provoke varying degrees of frustration depending on which fan you ask.
I’m not expecting the club to get absolutely everything completely perfect for the matchday experience, even when given an entire summer break to make extensive improvements. They would however have done well to be clearer to fans – before the Luton game – about what had and hadn’t been done.
The lack of toilets in some areas of the ground for example would have been understandable (I think I saw that they hadn’t been delivered yet – I’m happy to be corrected if I’ve misremembered), but that should not have been a surprise for supporters turning up with anticipation for the Luton game.
One Royal – Elite
While this has no direct current relevance for the vast majority of supporters, who won’t have gone down the same route as me, I thought I’d sum up my own experience with One Royal so far, given that a) the scheme was a big project for the owners and b) it might inform others’ decisions in the future.
I opted for the Elite package this season – I wanted to give it a go and see if it was worth it. (This is why I was on that stadium tour I mentioned above.)
While I can’t give a properly rounded and complete view of this package until the end of the season (it’s unfair to give a final judgement now), here are some observations, three months on since signing up:
- That stadium tour was excellent and it felt like real effort was put into it – not just the tour itself, but also Couhig, Todd Trosclair and other club staff making appearances. I’m looking forward to other experiences the club put on
- Getting a free home shirt and free entry to home cup games mitigates the overall cost as I’d be buying these anyway, so they’re nice inclusions
- The quarterly magazine (as far as I’m aware only one edition is out) is very well put together
- I’ve heard nothing about the monthly live stream
- Ditto ‘your name in the tunnel’
- Ditto ‘your name in lights’
- Ditto ‘member recognition wall’
- The welcome pack (I don’t know what this contains) is only now ready – and I have to physically pick it up from the stadium, which isn’t ideal when I live in London. It should have been ready shortly after I signed up, and could at least have been ready for one of the four home games we’ve already had
- I generally don’t feel like I’ve had that much communication from the club
So overall, there are some bits about the Elite package that I genuinely really like, but there have been too many noticeable misses or disappointments at the three-month mark. I get that it’s a new product and there may well have been teething issues while it’s being rolled out, but it’s also on the club to put out a product that’s ready and impressive.
Though I may well change my mind (and hope I do), at this stage I’m probably likeliest to downgrade to Plus next season.
The big call
There’s a lot of smaller details involved in what I’ve written above, but it’s worth also focusing in on one simpler – but bigger – point. Arguably the most important call any club owner makes is the future of the first-team manager, and Couhig really stuck his neck out at the end of last season by backing Richardson.
At the time I felt that was the wrong decision – the final two games of the season pushed me into the ‘Richardson out’ camp. When it became clear that he wouldn’t be moved on in May however, making that argument felt redundant.
Four months on though, it feels increasingly wide of the mark. While Reading still have a lot of improvement to do, Richardson did a good job over the summer in reworking the side and giving it identity – which we’ve started to see shine through in recent games. Scoring 11 goals in three games would have been unheard of last season.
He also generally seems a lot more relaxed in himself, which is great to see. Although that is first and foremost good for Richardson, him seeming more personable and in-touch during his media appearances has quelled a lot of fans’ frustrations.
Richardson deserves credit for those improvements, but the owners also warrant it for backing him when it would have been so easy to go in another direction at the end of last season. Hopefully that decision continues to age well.
Anything else?
Rick Catania and Alec Lundberg deserve no end of praise for their support for Reading Women, who were brought back into the fold this summer.
Proper backing means the Royals are in an even stronger, stabler position as they search for promotion this season. Plus, the first team are now able to train at Bearwood, games are being live-streamed on YouTube and matches are being held at the SCL!
The first of those is this Sunday, when season-ticket holders for the men’s team get free entry. It’ll be an emotional, special occasion and a long-overdue one also – two and a half years on from the last game Reading Women played at the SCL (a 1-0 second-tier win over Durham).
Back to the wider ownership group and there’s noticeably less communication these days. It feels less like they’re being deliberately guarded and more like they’re being careful not to over-communicate, which I have no issue with.
What I do have issue with (and here’s where I lose a bunch of you) is on this season’s shirt sponsorship. While I acknowledge that gambling sponsorship is widespread in football and potentially has big financial upsides for clubs, I wish Reading weren’t part of it.
It’s a personal ethical standpoint that I wrote about more extensively when Casumo got involved a few years ago. I fully accept that a lot of people have a completely different outlook on this topic (including the ownership, evidently), but I’m still uncomfortable with it.
Poll
What do you make of the job the owners are doing so far? You can find our 1-5 approval rating poll just below. If it doesn’t display on your device, try this link right here. If the link doesn’t work, please subscribe to the This Link Actually Works tier of One Royal.
