Reading being kept afloat by Michael Olise sell-on as another takeover collapses

Reading’s ownership saga has taken another twist after Rob Couhig’s takeover attempt collapsed.

The Royals, now playing in League One, have been in disarray both on and off the pitch during controversial owner Dai Yongge’s seven-year premiership.

5

Former Wycombe Wanderers chief Couhig had been in a period of exclusivity to take over the club.

The 75-year-old American lawyer and businessman had funded the club over the summer, and had even met fans at games this season.

Now, though, the final contract for the takeover could not be signed and Couhig has exited the process, talkSPORT understands.

BBC Radio Berkshire report Couhig has been paid-up in full for his loans.

The club will be kept afloat, short-term, by a recent sell-on fee received for Michael Olise.

The former Royals talent left Crystal Palace for Bayern Munich this summer, signing for £50million.

Reading – who sold Olise in 2021 for £8m – earned 10 per cent of that deal, meaning £5m will be used to keep the club going.

The report also states there is not a queue of potential bidders.

Reading and Couhig are yet to comment publicly.

5

Reading’s protest group, Sell Before We Dai, said: “Gutted. We want to thank Rob Couhig for his efforts to buy Reading. We believe he was acting in good faith. We now need to face the possibility that Dai Yongge and Dai Xiu Li are not.

“Put bluntly, something stinks. While we now wish he hadn’t got our hopes up like he did, Rob Couhig was clearly convinced the deal was done. The EFL had approved the deal and having consulted with an independent M&A expert, all the publicly available information showed the deal was structured in a way that was very favourable to Couhig taking over. So what happened?

“This has to be more than “Dai being tricky”, there must be something more fundamentally wrong with the deal.”

Businessman William Storey led a consortium trying to buy the club last year, with the club stating several other parties had been interested at the time. However none of these materialised.

Yongge has been the subject of strong fan protests for the last year.

The club made headlines in March after they held talks with League One rivals Wycombe to sell their training ground for £25m, despite it costing £50m to build.

Heavy backlash followed, including a protest outside Wycombe’s training ground, and the Chairboys later announced the deal was put on hold.

5

Reading were relegated to League One in 2023.

They were given a six-point deduction last season, with four coming after failing to pay wages on multiple occasions and a further two for not paying HMRC tax bills, and were also given two winding up orders.

The Berkshire side also received a suspended three-point deduction after fans stormed the pitch in protest against the Chinese owner, forcing the abandonment of the League One match against Port Vale.

They have had deductions totalling 18 points since 2021.

5

Despite the off-field noise, former Southampton manager Ruben Selles managed to guide his side away from relegation last season after a late run in form.

They finished in 17th place, nine points off the final relegation spot.

After a decent start to this campaign, the wheels of Reading’s League One season still threaten to come off.

The Royals have a thin squad this term, given they were unable to permanently sign any players over the summer due to a transfer embargo.

They sold young talent Femi Azeez to Millwall for around £1million.

Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Chem Campbell arrived on a short-term loan deal until January during the final hours of deadline day to replace him.

Reading have been under a transfer embargo for nearly five years, and are only able to sign free agents and loans until at least January 2025. 

In the meantime, Selles and co will have to block out the outside noise once again as they shake off another false dawn.

Speaking about Couhig’s proposed takeover just this weekend, Selles said: “I expected the takeover to be done two months ago.

“I want it to happen and everything inside indicates to me that it will happen but how long will it take? I don’t know.

“I think everyone is doing their best but it complicated, I’m just waiting for it to be done so we can move on to the next chapter.”