Reading hit with winding-up petition by former chief executive

[Snowflake Royal]

I hate to say I told you so ( not you personally SP) there is more to come btw. No one listened. He’s not the messiah. The stuff going on behind the scenes is certainly not going well at all. Couhig is a snake. #couhigout Howe is not the bad guy.

So what is Howe’s play here? Because on the surface, given everything the club and all connected with it have been through, he certainly looks like the bad guy.

He’s owed 100k

Then he should sue Dai for it.

[Scutterbucketz]

I hate to say I told you so ( not you personally SP) there is more to come btw. No one listened. He’s not the messiah. The stuff going on behind the scenes is certainly not going well at all. Couhig is a snake. #couhigout Howe is not the bad guy.

So what is Howe’s play here? Because on the surface, given everything the club and all connected with it have been through, he certainly looks like the bad guy.

He’s owed 100k

From Couhig?

[72 bus]

I hate to say I told you so ( not you personally SP) there is more to come btw. No one listened. He’s not the messiah. The stuff going on behind the scenes is certainly not going well at all. Couhig is a snake. #couhigout Howe is not the bad guy.

So what is Howe’s play here? Because on the surface, given everything the club and all connected with it have been through, he certainly looks like the bad guy.

He’s owed 100k

From Dai,

Good luck Nige taking Cohig on in court, the bloke knows his way around a court room, you will blow a 100K and walk away with nothing.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

You'd like to be paid for services rendered in selling the club?

You were hired by Dai, and you knew exactly what he was like, take it up with him... oh you can't? Tough.

You didn’t manage to sell the club. Couhig forced the sale that you failed to achieve through the Courts. Tough.

Good summing up.

As 72bus says, couhig knows what he’s doing legally so I’m not worried.

Just boring to have more off pitch drama but then we are all numb to it all.

[Scutterbucketz]

So what is Howe’s play here? Because on the surface, given everything the club and all connected with it have been through, he certainly looks like the bad guy.

He’s owed 100k

From Dai,

Good luck Nige taking Cohig on in court, the bloke knows his way around a court room, you will blow a 100K and walk away with nothing.

Desperate stuff from Howe then.

[Vision]

He’s owed 100k

From Dai,

Good luck Nige taking Cohig on in court, the bloke knows his way around a court room, you will blow a 100K and walk away with nothing.

Desperate stuff from Howe then.

Depends on what Howe’s contract was really. It’s not likely Dai was directly paying him from his own pocket to broker any deal. If he’s owed by Reading FC then he’s owed by Reading FC regardless of owner.

I suspect where Howe will struggle is in proving he got the deal done in the first place.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

It saddens me the grief Nigel gets, he was after all the key decision maker when getting us to the top flight twice - despite SJM signing the cheques.

Couhig took exception to Nigel not wanting him to buy the club, Nigel’s rationale was that Couhig didn’t have the funds - and so far it seems like that’s a justified worry.

One of the fist things RC do when he bought the club was banish Nigel from the club, despite all he’s done. It Nigel wants his money AND some retribution, I can see why personally.

[rabidbee]

There was a segment on Radio Berks with Kieran Maguire tonight. Basically, don’t lose any sleep over this.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up settling out of court.

[Snowflake Royal]

It saddens me the grief Nigel gets, he was after all the key decision maker when getting us to the top flight twice - despite SJM signing the cheques.

Couhig took exception to Nigel not wanting him to buy the club, Nigel’s rationale was that Couhig didn’t have the funds - and so far it seems like that’s a justified worry.

One of the fist things RC do when he bought the club was banish Nigel from the club, despite all he’s done. It Nigel wants his money AND some retribution, I can see why personally.

That's a very generous take.

When Madejski went tax dodging, Howe's running of the club was an utter shambles with Burns spending loads on shit wasters and not performing.

The good times had more to do with Coppell, McDermott, Hammond and Madejski than Howe.

Couhig clearly has the funds to buy the club and run it as he did and is. If Howe had his way the club would be dead or in the hands of a dodgy hedge fund

[windermereROYAL]

It saddens me the grief Nigel gets, he was after all the key decision maker when getting us to the top flight twice - despite SJM signing the cheques.

Couhig took exception to Nigel not wanting him to buy the club, Nigel’s rationale was that Couhig didn’t have the funds - and so far it seems like that’s a justified worry.

One of the fist things RC do when he bought the club was banish Nigel from the club, despite all he’s done. It Nigel wants his money AND some retribution, I can see why personally.

Hi Nigel, how`s it going ole fella?

[Sutekh]

So what is Howe’s play here? Because on the surface, given everything the club and all connected with it have been through, he certainly looks like the bad guy.

He’s owed 100k

From Couhig?

Presume he was contracted by the club, therefore he has to seek recourse from the club in order to get anything that might be due, plus getting Dai to face up would possibly be a little challenging at best.

Wouldn’t worry about it, it’s just a method to concentrate the current owner’s mind and show he’s serious, the legal reps will talk about it and hopefully come to an arrangement out of court.

Why this wasn’t properly resolved to everyone’s satisfaction when the club was sold though is anyone’s guess.

[Dirk Gently]

It saddens me the grief Nigel gets, he was after all the key decision maker when getting us to the top flight twice - despite SJM signing the cheques.

Couhig took exception to Nigel not wanting him to buy the club, Nigel’s rationale was that Couhig didn’t have the funds - and so far it seems like that’s a justified worry.

One of the fist things RC do when he bought the club was banish Nigel from the club, despite all he’s done. It Nigel wants his money AND some retribution, I can see why personally.

That's a very generous take.

When Madejski went tax dodging, Howe's running of the club was an utter shambles with Burns spending loads on shit wasters and not performing.

The good times had more to do with Coppell, McDermott, Hammond and Madejski than Howe.

Couhig clearly has the funds to buy the club and run it as he did and is. If Howe had his way the club would be dead or in the hands of a dodgy hedge fund

And that's an extremely ungenerous take.

As always, I think the reality is somewhere in the middle. At the time, Burns seemed a decent choice - I don't think you can directly blame the CEO for how things went wrong after that, and he needs credit for the fact that things were changed pretty quickly and Pards & Allen were brought in.

Those "good times" were also under Howe's leadership, so you can't talk so highly of those without crediting the person who brought those people in.

I think Howe performed his role well enough through the time he was here - he certainly needs credit for keeping the club in business once the Zingarevich money failed to materialise (that was wholly down to SJM, not NH) because that was a really difficult time.

My one criticism of NH was that when the time came to push on in 2007 he couldn't really think big enough - but that's also something to be held against SJM, especially as there wasn't the money to do what they needed due to the latter's publishing and property failures.

[Sutekh]

It saddens me the grief Nigel gets, he was after all the key decision maker when getting us to the top flight twice - despite SJM signing the cheques.

Couhig took exception to Nigel not wanting him to buy the club, Nigel’s rationale was that Couhig didn’t have the funds - and so far it seems like that’s a justified worry.

One of the fist things RC do when he bought the club was banish Nigel from the club, despite all he’s done. It Nigel wants his money AND some retribution, I can see why personally.

Hi Nigel, how`s it going ole fella?

Generally no problem with Nigel, if he’s legally owed something then he should take the relevant action to try and recover it, hopefully they can just talk it through via their reps and reach a reasonably amicable agreement.

It’s difficult to know about funds the club have available, there’s also added investment since RC took over but club is still reasonably hand tied over spending via the FL’s profit & sustainability rules and I think still have to meet some additional budgetary demands for having been in trouble so it’s a very delicate business but the new owners are meeting their responsibilities with seemingly no issues which is the important improvement.

[Dirk Gently]

From Dai,

Good luck Nige taking Cohig on in court, the bloke knows his way around a court room, you will blow a 100K and walk away with nothing.

Desperate stuff from Howe then.

Depends on what Howe’s contract was really. It’s not likely Dai was directly paying him from his own pocket to broker any deal. If he’s owed by Reading FC then he’s owed by Reading FC regardless of owner.

I suspect where Howe will struggle is in proving he got the deal done in the first place.

All depends on the specific terms of contract - it may be something like a "Sole Selling Rights" contract with an estate agent, which says that even if you find a buyer yourself the estate agent is still entitled to their commission.

[Sutekh]

It saddens me the grief Nigel gets, he was after all the key decision maker when getting us to the top flight twice - despite SJM signing the cheques.

Couhig took exception to Nigel not wanting him to buy the club, Nigel’s rationale was that Couhig didn’t have the funds - and so far it seems like that’s a justified worry.

One of the fist things RC do when he bought the club was banish Nigel from the club, despite all he’s done. It Nigel wants his money AND some retribution, I can see why personally.

That's a very generous take.

When Madejski went tax dodging, Howe's running of the club was an utter shambles with Burns spending loads on shit wasters and not performing.

The good times had more to do with Coppell, McDermott, Hammond and Madejski than Howe.

Couhig clearly has the funds to buy the club and run it as he did and is. If Howe had his way the club would be dead or in the hands of a dodgy hedge fund

And that's an extremely ungenerous take.

As always, I think the reality is somewhere in the middle. At the time, Burns seemed a decent choice - I don't think you can directly blame the CEO for how things went wrong after that, and he needs credit for the fact that things were changed pretty quickly and Pards & Allen were brought in.

Those "good times" were also under Howe's leadership, so you can't talk so highly of those without crediting the person who brought those people in.

I think Howe performed his role well enough through the time he was here - he certainly needs credit for keeping the club in business once the Zingarevich money failed to materialise (that was wholly down to SJM, not NH) because that was a really difficult time.

My one criticism of NH was that when the time came to push on in 2007 he couldn't really think big enough - but that's also something to be held against SJM, especially as there wasn't the money to do what they needed due to the latter's publishing and property failures.

Would actually say that that is nothing to do with NH - he wouldn’t scout players or define the budget - and more down to failings of the manager in deciding to be too loyal and having no real plan B after Scott Brown decided he he’d shockingly prefer the safe predictability of European football and winning things with Celtic rather than the likely unrewarding challenge of replacing Steve Sidwell.

[Uke]

This is the same Nige who was instrumental in selling the club to Zingarevich, the Thais and then Dai…

His track record speaks for itself

[Snowflake Royal]

This is the same Nige who was instrumental in selling the club to Zingarevich, the Thais and then Dai…

His track record speaks for itself

And who came in to 'save', the club by finding a new owner, when he was actually just lining his own pocket and did a shit job of it

[From Despair To Where?]

Is this the same Nigel Howe who was banned from all footballing activities earlier this year for offering illegal payments to agents?

[Dirk Gently]

...
My one criticism of NH was that when the time came to push on in 2007 he couldn't really think big enough - but that's also something to be held against SJM, especially as there wasn't the money to do what they needed due to the latter's publishing and property failures.

Would actually say that that is nothing to do with NH - he wouldn’t scout players or define the budget - and more down to failings of the manager in deciding to be too loyal and having no real plan B after Scott Brown decided he he’d shockingly prefer the safe predictability of European football and winning things with Celtic rather than the likely unrewarding challenge of replacing Steve Sidwell.

Absolutely agree on that point - I was thinking more about overall ambitions and the club infrastructure. The stadium expansion would have allowed us to push on and put us on a different level (as well as shown the likes of Scott Brown what we were all about), but NH & SJM wimped out of committing to it.

Ditto renewing the contract of Catalyst, who'd been so integral to the promotion and first PL year. Yes, Catalyst had bumped up their price massively, but NH's attitude was that we'd seen the "magician's trick" and didn't need them any more. We did.

[Sutekh]

...
My one criticism of NH was that when the time came to push on in 2007 he couldn't really think big enough - but that's also something to be held against SJM, especially as there wasn't the money to do what they needed due to the latter's publishing and property failures.

Would actually say that that is nothing to do with NH - he wouldn’t scout players or define the budget - and more down to failings of the manager in deciding to be too loyal and having no real plan B after Scott Brown decided he he’d shockingly prefer the safe predictability of European football and winning things with Celtic rather than the likely unrewarding challenge of replacing Steve Sidwell.

Absolutely agree on that point - I was thinking more about overall ambitions and the club infrastructure. The stadium expansion would have allowed us to push on and put us on a different level (as well as shown the likes of Scott Brown what we were all about), but NH & SJM wimped out of committing to it.

Ditto renewing the contract of Catalyst, who'd been so integral to the promotion and first PL year. Yes, Catalyst had bumped up their price massively, but NH's attitude was that we'd seen the "magician's trick" and didn't need them any more. We did.

Forgot about Catalyst, yes they should have been retained but it’s an easier decision with hindsight plus I’m sure that if the manager had very definitely said he wanted them then they would have been retained but perhaps thought that the effect would wear thin into a third year.

Perhaps RC should look at asking Martin Allen back for the rest of the season