At 7:30pm on Thursday evening, Rob Couhig hosted a Q&A session for Reading fans to attend in the Select Car Leasing Stadium. Fans were given the opportunity to turn up and ask questions, or submit them
ahead of time online.
The Q&A itself was held outside, in the G7 block of the Lower West Stand, on a fairly chilly night. Couhig later revealed that it was because the rooms were being used for corporate-related events, though I also think they had planned it outside because they wanted to give as many people the opportunity to come along as possible.
In the end, there were around 100 fans there, including yours truly. Given so few were able to attend, I wanted to recap the highlights of the night, so we can all share in this together.
When I arrived, I was greeted by a lady who gave me directions to where the event would be taking place, and advised that I could buy a drink at the food stand. It was nice to see they had left this open for the occasion. I do feel a little bad because the lady distracted my attention with the greeting and directions, and I didn’t get a chance to say hello to Couhig, who was stood next to her. However, it’s good to see he was on the door to greet fans.
On my walk to grab a drink, I overheard a familiar voice: Phil Catchpole was there, and it later transpired he was the MC for the night, reading the questions out and engaging with the audience. Lastly, Rick Catania was also there. For those who don’t know, he recently joined the board of directors as an investor; his role at the Q&A was to run up and down the stairs to give the microphone to fans to be able to ask questions. He did this all in good grace, so fair play to him for that.
The night lasted just over an hour in total, and Couhig started the night by giving a little speech for a couple of minutes about the things that had happened at the club and were happening at the club. After that, he actively said he loves difficult questions and Catchpole repeated this sentiment to almost challenge us to ask difficult questions. I think the most difficult question of the night was the one to kick things off.
Noel Hunt
Catchpole started by reading out a question that he noted had come from a number of fans: why is Noel Hunt still in a job given the poor start to the season? In this moment, you could almost sense a little ripple of tension through the crowd. Couhig took this question, and indeed all others, in good grace.
He started by saying that he and the other directors at the club felt Hunt had done an exemplary job last season in really difficult circumstances and they felt Hunt met the criteria they were looking for in a manager. However, he never really discussed what those criteria were.
What he did do was go into a lot of detail about the summer transfer window, acknowledging that we lost a lot of players and that we needed to bring a lot in, and this was a challenging element to Hunt’s summer.
Couhig noted that he considers Lewis Wing and Joel Pereira as like summer signings, but recognises the fans won’t consider them as such. He also said he believes Reading are playing almost as well as anyone else in the league, and that what he does like about Hunt is the fact he is not “married to a system”.
Also, while acknowledging that Hunt is learning on the job, he likes the fact that the manager is demonstrating the lessons being learned and getting better each day. He said he likes the fact that Hunt will always be better tomorrow than he was today, and wanted that mentality across all areas of the club.
I admire Couhig’s optimism – and he said as much that he is a very optimistic guy – but I think there will be a number of Reading fans who question the point of “playing as well as others in the league” and definitely the flexibility with the systems, given this is a system that has been inherited from Ruben Selles and is in desperate need of a change, which only came about recently.
Passions and expectations
At one moment during the evening, he was asked if he regretted buying the club. He acknowledged that he’s not getting the best time of it from fans online, but also said he’s 75 and he’s heard it all.
However, he was very passionate about the need for fans to be supportive of players and, at this stage, he seemed to start to get even a little angry, as he was totally against young players getting barbs online from fans who don’t like something about them.
He passionately defended the players and actively encouraged people to focus on blaming him if they didn’t like something. I actually thought this went down really well, to see him bubbling close to the surface like that, because it showed that his heart is in the right place.
Questioned as to what his expectations and timelines for the club were, he said that, in the near future, the aim is to be a mid-level Championship side – but if the chance to grow us to get to the Premier League is there then they’ll do what they can, within reason. I think the former is a reasonable target, but the top flight is more than a bit of a stretch.
Stadium upgrades
He used the time to also acknowledge he’s gotten it wrong with the promises around getting things solved around the stadium by a certain time, but promised they are working on improving the WiFi, the bathrooms and sound system. Later on he admitted that it’s embarrassing the seats haven’t been repainted in a long time.
Another question was raised later on about whether a safe-standing area would be introduced, and he shared that this was also something asked by the staff, in a meeting earlier in the day, and that Neil Peters – Reading’s managing director – is looking into this.
This tied into other questions asked around stadium upgrades. Couhig said the club are looking at who should be operating the stadium.
Couhig discussed the benefit of having people use it for events other than occasional football games and small-scale corporate meetings. He did also tease that he wanted to make an announcement about something substantial happening in the stadium, but was reluctant to commit to a date for the announcement (though he did say October 12 was his original plan), but was hoping to be able to announce something “this season”.
Reading Women
The last question I will go into detail about is one raised about the women’s team, and his expectations about what will unfold with them. He mentioned that, when he was first looking to buy the club 18 months ago, he expected the women’s team to be a part of it.
His view seemed to be that he’s happy to let them be run by the Community Trust – though he did say the club are effectively “sponsoring” the team for the next two seasons – and he’d be willing to essentially sell (though he didn’t use the word “sell”) the women’s side to someone else, by letting team use the branding. He openly admitted that his focus is on the men’s side, and that maybe in the future, their attention will turn to the women’s team.
When challenged about this by the same person who asked the question – the lady said another local-ish team described the Women’s FA Cup run as bringing in big revenue for the team – while not being dismissive of this, he challenged the data points and said it’s dependent on the cost of the playing staff and facilities too. I think he has a point, in fairness, but it’s still a shame to see the reticence to actually own the side.
He often referenced we are a community club, but actions do speak louder than words and the women’s team is as much a part of the community as the men’s side. He did, however, promise that Catchpole would promote Reading’s FA Cup game against Brentford at Arbour Park, Slough on Sunday in the live commentary.
In summary
Overall the night was interesting, moved quickly, and did demonstrate Couhig is an engaged owner who does seem to care about the club. He spoke about wanting to grow it, improve revenue and bring in bigger crowds and better players, but to do so in a sensible, frugal way – I am paraphrasing that slightly.
While it’s clear he isn’t looking to dismiss Hunt anytime soon – and I think the backing is important to have, giving a united front as a club – it worries me that it’s not clear what he’s seeking from for a Reading manager, other than “not being married to a system” and “being willing to learn and improve”.
It’s a shame not many fans turned out, and I think Couhig was probably a little disappointed by this too. However, while I didn’t like all the things he said, he was charismatic, friendly and showed he cared for Reading FC, staff, players, academy and fans, wanting to make things better and grow the club. Catania also seemed like a really down-to-earth person, too. It was definitely an interesting hour, and being free, it was time well spent.
Other notable things
Please bear in mind a lot of this is paraphrased, and only the things in speech marks are 100% word-for-word.
- Couhig noted the fans weren’t complaining about when Dai Yongge or the Thais were spending money, when justifying his frugality in the face of online criticism. While I don’t think that justification is required, I also think he gets this wrong slightly wrong, as a lot of fans (admittedly not the majority) didn’t like this money-spending approaching, and became disinterested and/or disengaged with the club. Those that did complain at the time of it happening, and for sure there are those that did, just weren’t listened to.
- When asked why we don’t have a director of football, he said he doesn’t believe in them and noted that, between Brian Carey and Joe Jacobson, they were covering the role with occasional support from Hunt. When later asked about the target of mid-Championship and the need to improve the structure to match that move up the footballing pyramid, and whether that would facilitate the introduction of a DoF, he said it could be possible but also still might not happen.
- Couhig said Fanatics were removed because his wife is a believer that a community club should be running its own merchandise-selling, and while Fanatics had fulfilled their contract, he thinks running the megastore in-house is better and more profitable for the club. He also noted (I suspect to the delight of Ross) that, with Fanatics running the store, it is really difficult to get merchandise over to the US.
- He said he’s not a big believer in buying players and would rather get a player on a free and use the money to pay them more. Player sales are not planned as part of the budget, but he acknowledged we are a “selling club” given our stature, and that proceeds from sales are treated like a bonus for the budget. He also noted that, the way transfers are handled, clubs aren’t getting the money the next day, and fans need to realise that. He hinted payments come in instalments from buying clubs.
- Couhig said there would be funds available for January transfers as they continue to negotiate the SCMP with the EFL.
- He remains committed to the academy and spoke highly of the work Michael Gilkes is doing there, also noting it’s expensive to run, as they anticipate they will make a £2.5m-£3m loss because of it this year. However, there are no plans to change its status from Category 1 while he is at the club.
- He spoke of the challenges of competing with Premier League clubs in this catchment area, and that we don’t always get the best talent because the players tend to go to bigger sides, but they aim to get the ones who have the room for growth and development to get to that level.
- Couhig also noted Bearwood is much more costly to run and operate, but prefers to keep it as it is a big part of our appeal.
- He’s also looking to improve stadium accessibility for wheelchair users.
- When asked what he discovered about the club when buying it that made his “hair curl”, he said he’d love to be able to discuss this but the lawyer in him won’t let that happen because they are still in a dispute with the seller. He hopes to be able to say something about it by around Christmas – when he said he will do another similar session.
- Questioned about the pyrotechnics at every game, he said it’s simply because he loves the fireworks. Couhig repeated the line he told Ben and Ross on the pod about being told by a dad of two kids that the kids come to games now because they love the fireworks, and because of that, they have been able to grow the fanbase.
- He also hinted at doing something big around fireworks in November.
- When asked about the land around the stadium and who owns it, Couhig said there is a debate at director level: some want to own it and others don’t. It’s not clear what plans there are for this, if any, but he mentioned the land owners for the car park have been good to work with and Reading have been able to save around £500,000 through their negotiations with them.
- He thinks home attendance is “good, but not great” but is enthralled by the away fan support, noting that Reading fans will follow their team anywhere.
- There was a submitted question about whether Couhig has gaslit the fans by raising expectations high but not delivering. This was met in good humour by Couhig, saying he wishes they had said it more nicely, but he said he had only gaslit himself. This was explained by him not realising how long it would take to get things done, both in terms of recruitment and facilities, but he recommitted to making sure the improvements would happen, saying he thought the team had started well this season and will continue to improve the more they are able to play together.
- Couhig said the challenge around signing a striker was that 92 clubs were all looking for strikers this summer, and you can’t buy one from Tesco. He said one overseas player had agreed to terms, but when he was supposed to come here, he ended up going to a club in Europe. He admitted he got carried away when announcing that one and will learn from it.
- He also said Jack Marriott was signed as soon as he was made available by Wrexham and asked how many other teams had got a striker this summer who scored four in four games, which was met by a few nods of agreement.
- Couhig has been in discussions with documentary crews filming Reading, as the club has a great story, but hasn’t confirmed whether that will happen.
- He recognises that Selles and Hunt have different styles of play, and acknowledged that perhaps Selles is seen as more entertaining. He also said he had developed a good relationship with Selles in the short time they crossed paths, but he was supportive of Hunt and said the team is getting more exciting. He finished by saying that, ultimately, the most exciting thing will always be the score.
