by stealthpapes »
16 Dec 2025 14:58
Clyde1998 West F Not going to be sacked.
Couhig stated that Richardson was his choice to manage Reading when he first started the process of buying out Dai Yongge. Richardson has been patiently waiting in the wings for this to happen post takeover. The problem that Uncle Bob had, was that Noel had narrowly missed out on the play-offs and had a long standing affiliation with the club and its supporters. It would have been almost impossible for him to sack Noel and put Richardson in place before the start of the season.
Richardson is Couhig’s man. He cannot allow him to fail as this reflects on his own judgement. From what I know and see of Couhig, he does not like being wrong. The whole appointment saga of Richardson and his ‘coach load’ of staff was obviously worked out far in advance of any reactive decision made following some sporadic ‘sacked in the morning’ chants. You could see a situation where they had to sack Noel, not because performances were bad. But, because performances were improving.
They didn’t employ and contract the current coaching team in record time due to their efficiency. They did it weeks beforehand. Everyone needs to realise that Uncle Bob is a successful and wealthy attorney at law. For him to say he is not a ‘strategic guy’ is frankly absurd. We, as a fan base are the jury. We need to be swayed.
I don't think anyone seriously believes he'll be sacked - at least any time soon. Sacking a manager after five or six games would just be stupidity, unless there's something serious going on behind the scenes.
What I worry about is the whole thing going toxic within months, if not weeks. You can already see a fair few willing to go Leam Out over form that's barely different to Hunt's. The cup defeat really doesn't help as a first impression. I really don't think it will take much for him to have fans turn against him.
(And yes, I thought it was mad to get rid of Hunt when we did. Either do it at the end of last season, thanks for the memories, go out on a high or give him this season to start getting a team together than looks beyond more than one season at a time. Just as things were starting to click, we've basically reset the clock and go again.)