"Beggars can't be choosers" - Reading FC takeover claim made as ex-Wycombe owner Rob Couhig eyes deal | OneFootball

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…

The former owner and chairman of Wycombe Wanderers, Rob Couhig, has reported interest in buying Reading FC.

The 75-year-old is interested in the League One club, as first reported by the Daily Star (Print edition 10/6; page 44), and since then, the Reading Chronicle have claimed that he is leading the way in the battle to purchase the troubled Berkshire outfit.

Couhig sold his stake in Wanderers to Kazakhstani billionaire Mikheil Lomtadze in the summer, but stayed on as chairman until he left that role last week.

He tried to buy the Royals' state-of-the-art training facility at Bearwood in March. That deal ended up not getting done, but Reading fans certainly weren't happy with Wycombe and their American businessman owner, and he criticised some of the Royals' fans for their protests over the potential purchase.

Relations between Couhig and the Reading faithful are frosty to say the very least, but speculation over his interest in the club began to increase towards the end of May when he was said to have been seen at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on more than one occasion.

Rob Couhig would be controversial potential owner at Reading FC

The opinion of Football League World's Royals fan pundit Johnny Hunt is that, even though some Reading fans won't like Couhig's attempt to buy the club, if he is going to run the club well, then they have to look past their grievances with him.

"I think it's a case of beggars can't be choosers at the minute," Johnny told FLW.

"The previous deal seems to have fallen through recently, which was a set-back and delayed what was hopefully going to be a positive summer, which is what we said last summer too.

"With Couhig, obviously the training ground stuff was a disaster for him, publicity-wise. Positives - he knows how to run a club and run it well.

"If he did take over, the backlash from fans would probably last for a while, but then it's a case of moving on. We need someone to run the club and run it properly.

"That's the safe option, the stable option, the easy option. The new (US-Saudi Arabian) consortium sounds exciting, it sounds positive. Having a football person like Marc Bircham involved in it is good.

"It brings investment but it's not about the money, as has been proven with Dai Yongge. It's about sensible business people running the club properly and getting things right. Things like recruitment, having the right people behind the scenes, being sensible with contracts.

"It needs to start again. I personally don't have a preference, I'm just at the point where we need to have our club run properly. Hopefully the checks are done better than they have been done, and hopefully Yongge is actually going to sell.

"I'm worried that he's holding onto the club because of his ego. He said that he wants to sell. Are we getting our hopes up? I hope not. I'm being positive and just waiting to see what happens. Either of the models could be successful for different reasons."

Reading FC fans can't afford to be bitter about Rob Couhig's attempted Bearwood purchase

The move to try and acquire the training facility for Wycombe was a blunder by Couhig. It looked so callous and lacking emotion that it not only angered Royals supporters, but other fans across the EFL.

The American was putting himself in a position that would have allowed Yongge to strip the club of its assets before having to sell, earning himself more money, not the club.

It was miscalculated by Couhig, to say the least, but his track record with Wycombe shows that he knows how to successfully run a team in this country.

If Reading fans want to look at what he tried to do and say 'I never want him near my club', that is justified. The retort to that would then be, is the attempted purchase of Bearwood enough to put you off him so much that you would continue to have the current owner for even longer.

Couhig isn't the only option, but he certainly looks a much better one that Yongge, if it comes down to a choice between the two.