The Biggest Kick In The Teeth Yet

With Rob Couhig’s takeover bid seemingly in tatters, has there ever been less hope among Reading fans?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this club never fails to find new ways to hit rock bottom.

Although the Rob Couhig takeover saga was dragging on, I personally never had any inkling that there was a hitch. Just that these things take time.

Couhig posted photos of himse;f at the training ground, seemingly mic’ed up for an interview with the club. He attend numerous games, one with a camera man following his every move. He visited the Purple Turtle donning club merch. Surely, surely this was it. We were being saved. The Dai Yongge nightmare was over.

But no. Couhig’s exclusivity period is over after failing to reach an agreement. How naive were we? Why did we ever think we were allowed to start building some hope, any kind of faith that we were finally out of this mess? Did we forget who ultimately makes the decision on whether we get sold? Did we forget we support Reading Football Club?

I struggle to even know where to begin. I feel numb and lost. It leaves so many unanswered questions, but most of all: where on earth do we go from here?

Naturally, there has been a fresh call for Sell Before We Dai to start planning some more action. But, genuinely, will anything make a difference at this point? We’ve marched the streets of RG2, we’ve got the attention of the national media, we’ve literally forced a game to be abandoned.

It’s getting to the point where I feel like nothing is going to force Dai into swallowing his pride and selling up. He’s been a complete failure of an owner and it seems he can’t face up to admitting that. Either that or a something a whole lot sinister is going on that we don’t know about.

That of course could well be the case. Because we know absolutely nothing.

We have been left in the dark from the very beginning of this process - barring the same rehashed statement every time things go to the dogs again, reiterating Dai’s ‘commitment’ to selling the club. At this point it’s just offensive. It’s an insult to every single hard-working member of staff who just wants a job, every player who has pulled on the shirt since this mess began, and every manager who has been asked to front the media while this disastrous process continues to rumble on.

The fact that no one involved in the takeover talks has come and faced the music, answered some questions or given any kind of insight or update, is scandalous. We’re not asking for NDAs to be broken, access to meeting minutes or a weekly zoom call with Nigel Howe so he can update us all on everything.

We just want something other than the regurgitated, meaningless statements we’ve been getting. We don’t really want a look behind the curtain, we just want to be let into the theatre. We don’t know anything at all.

One thing I do know is that I have never seen this fanbase so dejected, so sapped of energy, optimism and hope. And that’s saying something after the seven or so years we’ve had to put up with. I can't even imagine how the staff and players are feeling - particularly Ruben Selles.

I would not resent any of these players or coaching staff just throwing the towel in after this latest development. They simply do not deserve it. For them to continue performing like they have been on the pitch, and for Selles to have acted with the professionalism and stoicism he has, while continuing to build a genuinely good team with a tactical ideology, is genuinely astounding. It’s unfathomable and they all deserve statues.

I feel drained. Like that may be that. If this bid didn’t go through, what makes us think any others will? Everything seemed to be progressing as it should.

But while the barrels of hope are very much down to the dregs, they can’t be allowed to dry out completely. However much we have succumbed to the seemingly inevitable, we have to keep fighting for the future of our club - because it seems no one else really is at the moment.

We go to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, Huddersfield Town the week after. Then the game after that, and the game after that. And we get behind these players, this group of staff, because my God don’t they deserve it? And we pray, we keep faith, that one day this hell might be over.