"Let's be honest" - Reaction given to new Reading FC, Rob Couhig takeover update | OneFootball

The Royals may have finally found their new owner.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Reading are slowly running out of time to save their club from being expelled from the EFL, but it sounds as if they may have found their saviour.

Former Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig has reportedly agreed a £25 million deal to take over the Royals from their current Chinese owner Dai Yongge. The club were previously in talks with another American businessman, Robert Platek, before he pulled out of the negotiations.

Couhig has been looking to buy the Berkshire club for a while now. He has already had one takeover deal agreed but it collapsed back in September. Now, according to Matt Hughes, he is paying over the odds to Yongge on the up-front fee in order to get the deal done before 22nd April - the EFL's deadline for Yongge to divest his interests in Reading.

Reading must give Rob Couhig a fair crack at the whip if he takes over

The American's first impression with many Royals supporters wasn't great. While still in charge of Wycombe, he tried to buy Reading's Bearwood training ground - a move that was not received well by the Reading faithful.

But now he is giving them a potential lifeline, and Football League World's Reading fan pundit, Johnny Hunt, believes that fans need to look past that.

"It does look like it's going to be Rob Couhig, after all the dramas of last year," said Hunt. "The worst part is that it's just a shame that it has taken the best part of seven months of a lot of stress for the fan base, and a lot of ups and downs, for them to go back and get that deal done when it could have been done there and then. But hey-ho, hindsight and all that.

"We were hoping for the other American guy to come in (Platek). There is a bit of skepticism amongst Reading fans about Couhig and his manners and the way that he has done things. But let's be honest, anyone is better than Dai Yongge; it's not that difficult.

"The positives are that he's done it with Wycombe and he's done it properly. He knows how to run a club and he knows to run it well, and that's what we need for the short-term future. Whether he sticks around long-term, we don't know, but we need to get the club run properly again so that we can start looking forward to transfer dealings and contracts.

"Dai has done so much damage that it's going to take a while for us to recover from it, but we'll see. You have to give him a chance to prove to us that he is the right man for the job."

Rob Couhig should be a good thing for Reading if the deal gets done

As is the case with pretty much everything in football, it's hard to know exactly how something is going to go before it happens. All you can go off, in this case, is history, and Couhig has a reputation for being a solid football club owner. Wycombe went up to the Championship and made the League One play-offs one other time during his reign at Adams Park.

Without all the off-the-pitch troubles, Reading would be in a similarly ambitious position in the third tier this season. To be fair, they are in that position. It's just the threat of expulsion that almost makes it feel not real that they could have a chance at becoming a Championship club and a non-league club in a matter of weeks.

Like Hunt said, anything will be better than Yongge. Him being gone would be a win in itself for Reading, but Couhig doesn't seem like a half-bad option to replace him.