Rob Couhig And Co, One Year On: Reflections And Approval Rating

“Above all else, owners will be judged on the performance of the manager”

There has been some revisionism in this opinion from more fans of late, but I still believe this was the correct decision. However, the Leam Richardson appointment… so far, it hasn’t panned out well.

In theory, it made sense. While not a name to excite fans, he’s a manager with experience, particularly at this level, and also with a record of promotion from League One. Giving him a two-year contract seemed to say: that’s how long you have got to get this team up to the Championship.

The problem here is that, above all else, owners will be judged on the performance of the manager. I’ve said before, but Liverpool pre-Jurgen Klopp was not a happy place and fans wanted FSG out. Similarly, Arsenal pre-Mikel Arteta with the Kroenke family. Getting the right manager is the most important decision owners can make.

Richardson has a clear idea of what he wants, and he has a clear idea of the remit of the job. He speaks well, or at least it seemed at first, until it became clear it was rehearsed and then came across as oblivious to reality. He did correctly call out the fitness issues though, as well as stabilising the club after the poor start and very briefly getting a playoff push going. It hasn’t all been bad.

However, the fans are very disengaged with his personality, his style of football, his apparent ignorance of the academy and lack of responsibility. Football is fickle and, if the owner has to come out and write an open letter to back the fans against the backdrop of unrest (and later, chants for the manager’s removal), you know starting the season well is absolutely pivotal.

The ownership have handled this well. They listen, they back the manager because they should do and, behind the scenes, the open letter surely would have preceded a direct conversation about the need to start the season well.

Some may have argued against the appointment in the first place, but there wasn’t much better and/or established available at the time. Also, the aim to stabilise the club was achieved and we are in a position to possibly/hopefully kick on for the new season, with the owners showing support to the manager vocally and giving him what he has asked for.

Recruitment

The summer looked good on paper. Not “spectacular” (more on this later) but decent enough. That it turned out not to be is a disappointment, but one that isn’t necessarily on the ownership. The model they work with is that the manager has the final say – Rob Couhig confirmed as much in the recent TTE podcast.

This suggests we stumbled in the summer due to Hunt not being ready for the rebuild required. Given the circumstances, it’s understandable for someone with not much experience and a co-CEO (Joe Jacobson) similarly inexperienced.

However, the January window was better. It’s famously a difficult window to operate in but, on paper, the strategy was clearer and the quality of player looked promising. Will Keane didn’t work out, but before his arrival, he looked like a coup and likely the best available in his position to come in on loan at that point.

Benn Ward and Haydon Roberts were excellent pick-ups. Ryan Nyambe started well and wobbled towards the end, but was a regular. Kadan Young, again, was a second-choice option but came with a good reputation and was unfortunate to not get the minutes.

Randell Williams and Andy Rinomhota arriving before January were also good additions – the former performed better than we all expected and Rinomhota, for reasons outside of the ownership’s control, was largely injured or unavailable.

This at least offers a promising insight into how the summer could look. While we primarily looked for established quality in loans to get us to the end of the season, Ward and Roberts are also ones for the future. Bringing in a similar calibre of player for the summer would be welcomed by most.

The outgoings have been managed much better too. Yes, we lost players in the summer, but we got good money for Harvey Knibbs and were able to fight to get compensation for Amadou Mbengue going too.

Getting money for players is something Reading had been famously bad at, and the ownership have supported and helped continue some improvement. They’ve even managed to get academy players out on loan to gain more first-team experience.

Communication

Well… the owners certainly talk! After years of silence, it was so refreshing to see our owners and board actually say things, make promises and just seem engaged and present.

In hindsight, Couhig especially probably went a bit too strong too early. The supposed promise for a “spectacular” summer transfer window was misinterpreted (he said it has “the potential to be”), but also you must be media-savvy enough to know that people will take things out of context.

There were a lot of promises to fix certain things, some of which have been (the food is getting better, WiFi has got a bit better too and the toilets are improving) but there remains a lot of work to be done.

This can/could partially be attributed to the fact that things weren’t disclosed by the previous ownership when the sale was made, and the new ownership have had to find out the hard way. The issue is, however, despite being told that one day he will be able to talk about this, to this day that all still remains a mystery as to what exactly wasn’t disclosed and why it’s caused problems for them.

The club website has more regular updates, the media team has expanded and is able to put more content out into the world, and we even get treated to a newsletter now. It hasn’t always been perfect, it hasn’t always been done the right way, but it’s hard to fault the intentions. And the owners do show they listen, which is huge for a fanbase that was ignored for so long.

Backroom and board structure

When Richardson was brought in, he got to appoint five coaches as part of his backroom team, as opposed to the three Hunt had – including the goalkeeping coach. He later was also able to appoint a new strength and conditioning coach.

It won’t have been cheap for the club to employee these coaches, but they have seen the need to flesh out the backroom team to support Richardson and help give the club the best chance of getting success on the field.

It’s not just on the football side of things that we’ve seen an improvement, or a difference. Rick Catania coming in to join the board has been excellent – indeed, he’s even done some podcasts with TTE and you can see he is a man who cares. Alec Lundberg has also come in behind the scenes.

They’ve taken over the club shop – or, rather, Rob’s wife Missy has. We have a head of AI. We have a big media team now, with the likes of the excellent James Earnshaw and TTE favourite Ryan Jefferiss being brought in, and Phil Catchpole doing the interviews and game commentary for Royals TV.

These are all examples of positive moves to address gaps in the structure of the club, and also show a statement of intent that the ownership wants what is best.

Not to mention, they are doing this against sound financial planning by seeking out and finding more new sponsors for the team. Most have been received well, but there was some controversary with having an official betting partner as a sponsor. It’s a difficult line to tread in football.

The women’s team

Catania and Lundberg do seem to have a real passion for the side and want to be involved with it, which is great. However, Couhig and Trosclair have both seemingly been a bit more keen to put some distance between them and the women’s team.

This remains an opportunity. We are a community club and the women’s team is as much a part of Reading FC as the men’s side. Steps must be taken to get the women’s side more involved with the day-to-day of the club. Simple, quick wins such as playing games at the SCL, getting information about the squad and matches on the website and being visible and present for games occasionally would be big steps to helping to rectify this.

We have been teased an announcement related to the women’s side in the near future, so let’s see what that brings. However, while it’s great to see Catania and Lundberg drive this, I want to see more from Couhig and Trosclair too.

Stadium experience

They have tried. And it does show – more beers available, a better and bigger selection of food available. These are good steps and should be noted as positive. However, speaking as a connoisseur of Spanish beer, Cruzcampo wouldn’t have been my go-to (Mahou or Estrella Galicia, in case you’re wondering).

I digress. Besides, we’re hearing talk of catering improvements for the new season. As well as this, the toilets are cleaner, but still not great. The taps are still overpowered. The speaker is still difficult to hear, and the Wifi has definitely gotten better but still isn’t quite where it needs to be.

“They also can’t help that Richardson’s football doesn’t necessarily inspire fan… but they’re trying”

However, these are all things the ownership clocked immediately and have tried to do something about, which is difficult during the course of the season.

The big announcement also came recently that £5 million will be invested in the summer to fix all of these things, as well as either repainting or replacing the faded seats. Not just this, but more work is planned to improve the quality of the pitch.

That’s a huge investment that is largely being done for the benefit of the fans. The owners don’t really see the benefits from this personally, so it’s to their credit to take such serious steps to fix things that have been an issue for a long time.

They have also tried to organise events – 106 Day, Louisana Day and Christmas celebrations are three that I remember, but there are more. The Purple Turtle stage always has good music on, and they regularly wheel out the TV for fans to watch a Premier League early kick-off, sometimes post-match too. These are all good things.

They can’t help the rain, so that obviously doesn’t help the events. They also can’t help that Richardson’s football doesn’t necessarily inspire fans to flock to the stadium to enjoy these things. But they’re trying.

Fireworks haven’t been so well received by all, but they are visually nice and there is a point around the fun it brings for kids. Like them or not, the fireworks are here to stay and again, at least it’s with good intention for the purposes of family value entertainment.

Fan engagement

They really do listen. There was an open Q&A with Couhig last year at the stadium and even a STAR-organised meeting with the manager. Couhig has been on the podcast twice this year and has been on other outlets too – the same for Catania.

They don’t have to do this stuff. And they certainly don’t have to have to listen to questions about the manager and why aren’t they getting rid of him (true of both Hunt and Richardson at various stages of the season).

But they do listen, and they respond thoughtfully and positively. Indeed, Couhig actively challenges fans to contact him with difficult questions.

Anything else?

One Royal was also launched, which was a good idea in principle. The loyalty points thing has been a bit of a miss but I’m encouraged that the ownership will review this and likely change it in future iterations.

But being able to pay in instalments for the season ticket is a huge plus to make things more affordable, and with the added bonus of getting some goodies too if you pay a little extra.

Poll

What do you make of the job the owners are doing so far? You can find our 1-5 approval rating poll just below. If it doesn’t display on your device, try this link right here.