CONFRIMED: Latest rumours Confrimed as Unconfrimed

[Silver Fox]

Isn't that partially a result of lots of new grounds to go to?

[stealthpapes]

Yes.

[stealthpapes]

Pre-empting the obvious follow up - too soon to tell.

Might as well put this up. I'm not bothering with average attendances by club at this stage as one or two games doesn't really tell us anything.

2024-25 Reading away followings (allocation in brackets; midweek evening matches in italics)
Birmingham - 1,650 (2,200)
Colchester (LC) - 639 (988)
Wrexham - 1,259 (1,284)
Bolton - ON SALE - I've found 585 (1,430)

Given the question was "Would you rather be in Championship or League One", a valid answer could well cite the plethora of new grounds including those with terraces, safe standing etc.

A final anecdote - I've done Derby away a few times over the last decade. By far and away the best of those games was last season, packed out by both sets of fans on a Tuesday night.

[Snowflake Royal]

Of course there are, but not necessarily because they were relegated.

Do you think Ipswich would be in the Premier League if they weren't relegated from the Championship?

No. They'd done nothing for years, with no real significant prospect of improvment. They went down, where they were a big fish in a smaller pond, their youth had a better chance of transitioning, they were more attractive to the better players at that level, they rebuilt, got into winning ways and completely turned their fortunes around.

It's funny how no one is laughing at the people who said relegation would be a disaster, we'd be relegated straight down to L2 etc.

The issue is all about Dai. Not the relegation.

It's almost universally accepted last season was far more enjoyable than most of our recent Championship seasons. The only problem again being Dai.

Still banging this old drum I see. If it’s such a good tactic won’t don’t more clubs do it

Sorry for being right.

I didn't bring it up.

[Snowflake Royal]

Of course there are, but not necessarily because they were relegated.

Do you think Ipswich would be in the Premier League if they weren't relegated from the Championship?

No. They'd done nothing for years, with no real significant prospect of improvment. They went down, where they were a big fish in a smaller pond, their youth had a better chance of transitioning, they were more attractive to the better players at that level, they rebuilt, got into winning ways and completely turned their fortunes around.

It's funny how no one is laughing at the people who said relegation would be a disaster, we'd be relegated straight down to L2 etc.

The issue is all about Dai. Not the relegation.

It's almost universally accepted last season was far more enjoyable than most of our recent Championship seasons. The only problem again being Dai.

If someone said: "Would you rather be in the same situation but in the Championship or still in League One"
What would you choose?

It's clear to me which is the preferable option

Me too.

League One.

Being bottom 8 of the Championship season on season with no prospect of recovery, never able to attract the quality of players to improve and losing all the time is shit.

Even with all our problems at the moment, in L1 we're still mostly playing at a top half level. Bar a month or two last season. All we need is a takeover from someoje vaguely engaged and competent and its easy to see improvement will come. It's far easier for us to attract good players at this level with potential to improve than mediocre players at Championship level.

If we hadn't got relegated when we did and we had the same issues with Dai, we'd quite possibly already be liquidated. And we certainly would be in L1 this season. And worse off by far.

[Sutekh]

According to the 1871 podcast the reason for the collapse wasn't Dai but the other side.

Seems the parties initially agreed a deal of around £28m but when it came to settling the deal RC, after the loans to keep the club running, wanted to discount the price and only pay £8m up front with the remainder being paid as bonuses, on promotion etc. and as you'd expect Mr Dai told them where to get off.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7aO1py6Ly5Fy8tT5AYGOiv

If true would say that's not an entirely unreasonable outcome.

[katweslowski]

According to the 1871 podcast the reason for the collapse wasn't Dai but the other side.

Seems the parties initially agreed a deal of around £28m but when it came to settling the deal RC, after the loans to keep the club running, wanted to discount the price and only pay £8m up front with the remainder being paid as bonuses, on promotion etc. and as you'd expect Mr Dai told them where to get off.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7aO1py6Ly5Fy8tT5AYGOiv

If true would say that's not an entirely unreasonable outcome.

Read countless posts about this on Twitter, including a couple of by Garath McCleary saying basically "I know who I would believe" (Not the club source in other words). On a side note, I wish he'd just come out and be clear with his comments rather than all this stupid half comments, if he's got something to say, be like Kitson and just say it.

For me, I have a few thoughts:

* The club have not given us much reason to trust them
* The difference between £28m and £8m is huge and seems pretty far fetched to change the deal that much
* Couhig's comments all the way up to the deal failing, plus his presence in town, social media and responses of basically "It should be done by Tuesday" don't really fit
* Also, I believe the updates were that all the paperwork was agreed/signed by Couhig and it was with Dai and waiting signing
* Where is Dai? Has anyone seen him, is he even in the UK? Does he have ANY involvement with the club at all?

In Summary, I can't believe that Couhig would have spent such a long period, including exclusivity, and his time at the club to agree the deal, and then suddenly dropped it down to £8m.

It is funny to see swarms of people on Twitter saying stuff like "Can't believe this, Couhig is such a bellend" and "Good riddance to Couhig". All based on some ridiculous rumour from a podcast.

[MartinRdg]

According to the 1871 podcast the reason for the collapse wasn't Dai but the other side.

Seems the parties initially agreed a deal of around £28m but when it came to settling the deal RC, after the loans to keep the club running, wanted to discount the price and only pay £8m up front with the remainder being paid as bonuses, on promotion etc. and as you'd expect Mr Dai told them where to get off.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7aO1py6Ly5Fy8tT5AYGOiv

If true would say that's not an entirely unreasonable outcome.

Read countless posts about this on Twitter, including a couple of by Garath McCleary saying basically "I know who I would believe" (Not the club source in other words). On a side note, I wish he'd just come out and be clear with his comments rather than all this stupid half comments, if he's got something to say, be like Kitson and just say it.

For me, I have a few thoughts:

* The club have not given us much reason to trust them
* The difference between £28m and £8m is huge and seems pretty far fetched to change the deal that much
* Couhig's comments all the way up to the deal failing, plus his presence in town, social media and responses of basically "It should be done by Tuesday" don't really fit
* Also, I believe the updates were that all the paperwork was agreed/signed by Couhig and it was with Dai and waiting signing
* Where is Dai? Has anyone seen him, is he even in the UK? Does he have ANY involvement with the club at all?

In Summary, I can't believe that Couhig would have spent such a long period, including exclusivity, and his time at the club to agree the deal, and then suddenly dropped it down to £8m.

It is funny to see swarms of people on Twitter saying stuff like "Can't believe this, Couhig is such a bellend" and "Good riddance to Couhig". All based on some ridiculous rumour from a podcast.

But then you have to ask why Couhig has been silent since it collapsed? - you would have thought someone like that would have been on social media and explained what happened

[Snowflake Royal]

According to the 1871 podcast the reason for the collapse wasn't Dai but the other side.

Seems the parties initially agreed a deal of around £28m but when it came to settling the deal RC, after the loans to keep the club running, wanted to discount the price and only pay £8m up front with the remainder being paid as bonuses, on promotion etc. and as you'd expect Mr Dai told them where to get off.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7aO1py6Ly5Fy8tT5AYGOiv

If true would say that's not an entirely unreasonable outcome.

And where are they getting their info?

There seems to be a concerted campaign to make Dai the good guy and Couhig the bad guy.

And I don't trust that at all. Because we know Dai is a pcunt and Couhig is a successful owner

[Brogue]

According to the 1871 podcast the reason for the collapse wasn't Dai but the other side.

Seems the parties initially agreed a deal of around £28m but when it came to settling the deal RC, after the loans to keep the club running, wanted to discount the price and only pay £8m up front with the remainder being paid as bonuses, on promotion etc. and as you'd expect Mr Dai told them where to get off.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7aO1py6Ly5Fy8tT5AYGOiv

If true would say that's not an entirely unreasonable outcome.

And where are they getting their info?

There seems to be a concerted campaign to make Dai the good guy and Couhig the bad guy.

And I don't trust that at all. Because we know Dai is a pcunt and Couhig is a successful owner

normally i'd agree, but the guys who run this podcast are not your usual wum's or fake ITK trolls. and indeed that jonny hunt guy has 31k followers. i just can't see why they would drop this without being pretty certain

[Snowflake Royal]

According to the 1871 podcast the reason for the collapse wasn't Dai but the other side.

Seems the parties initially agreed a deal of around £28m but when it came to settling the deal RC, after the loans to keep the club running, wanted to discount the price and only pay £8m up front with the remainder being paid as bonuses, on promotion etc. and as you'd expect Mr Dai told them where to get off.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7aO1py6Ly5Fy8tT5AYGOiv

If true would say that's not an entirely unreasonable outcome.

And where are they getting their info?

There seems to be a concerted campaign to make Dai the good guy and Couhig the bad guy.

And I don't trust that at all. Because we know Dai is a pcunt and Couhig is a successful owner

normally i'd agree, but the guys who run this podcast are not your usual wum's or fake ITK trolls. and indeed that jonny hunt guy has 31k followers. i just can't see why they would drop this without being pretty certain

Because they require content to keep their podcast going. They don’t have to be wums or fake to put out stuff that's unreliable that some feeds them

[Sutekh]

And where are they getting their info?

There seems to be a concerted campaign to make Dai the good guy and Couhig the bad guy.

And I don't trust that at all. Because we know Dai is a pcunt and Couhig is a successful owner

normally i'd agree, but the guys who run this podcast are not your usual wum's or fake ITK trolls. and indeed that jonny hunt guy has 31k followers. i just can't see why they would drop this without being pretty certain

Because they require content to keep their podcast going. They don’t have to be wums or fake to put out stuff that's unreliable that some feeds them

At the end of the day can anyone prove their rumour is cobblers or that the fault is all on Dai's side? Their rumour is feasible so deserves to be heard. At the end of the day we're in the same place, whatever the cause was, and we'll probably never really know for sure.

[katweslowski]

But then you have to ask why Couhig has been silent since it collapsed? - you would have thought someone like that would have been on social media and explained what happened

Isn't it because there's non-disclosure agreements and legal orders in place? As there would be in any deal, even those which are successful?

[katweslowski]

On a similar note, whether Dai was being the bigger twat on this occasion or Couhig, one thing I am sick to death is us fans being continually kept in the dark.

None of us (once again) know what happened
Once again unfounded, hard to prove rumours are leaked
Once again the fans are used, abused and just expected to stay loyal and keep going

[Forbury Lion]

But then you have to ask why Couhig has been silent since it collapsed? - you would have thought someone like that would have been on social media and explained what happened

Non Disclosure Agreement likely in place, plus he maybe isn't entirely out of the running.

From listening to EPR, the original asking price was £30m, Couhig offered £28m, then it became £8m now and a load of add ons, presumably something like £10m more if the team gets promoted in 2 years and £10m more if the team then stays up for 2 years, that kind of thing.

I do also wonder if the £8m now was made before the Olise deal went though, so he was hoping that sell on money would in effect fund his purchase of the club, either way I guess buying a club that could potentially make £8m from a sell on clause makes it more valuable than one which has already received and banked it.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Not sure I buy the £8m figure as it seems extreme, but let's be honest it's certainly believable that Couhig tried to knock the price down after due diligence. It's how these things work, plus it looked like for all the world that Dai couldn't pay the debt back and Couhig had him by the balls. The biggest shock the day it fell through was that Dai had somehow found c. £5m to pay him back.

With that context, it's to be expected that Couhig would try pushing his luck. Notable that people have reported the "Dai family" paid off Couhig's loans, so perhaps it was Yongge's sister bailing him out of the mess he found himself in.

[Forbury Lion]

Ask yourself this, and I think I mentioned it before the deal collapsed.

Rob Couhig, goes public, talks about the deal being done, teases the fans by being seen around the club etc etc.
Now imagine that was William Storey doing all that, we would have seen right through him in an instant - we let our guard down, Sure I believe Couhig's intentions were honourable, but until the deal is done the deal isn't done.

[Brogue]

, but until the deal is done the deal isn't done.

hark at Michael Owen over here

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Pretty sure Dellor said something on a podcast with TTE soon after it collapsed that the principle reason was a revaluation from Couhig with future performance payments/cut of academy players sales to Dai so could be something in this.

[Hound]

Actually I can believe this. Couhig strikes me as quite a hard nosed business man - he wasn’t taking us over because he loved the club or any of that, solely a business transaction. He was looking for a bargain and can imagine him trying to force the price down

I think all the getting the fans onside was a slightly cynical effort to push it through

I’ve absolutely no doubt at all that Dai isn’t faultless in this but at the same time I didn’t have a huge amount of time for Couhig other than the fact he was getting rid of Dai

Still hearing nothing about any other offers knocking about which is worrying though