Exciting Reading FC takeover development emerges amid new Rob Couhig era | OneFootball

What a few weeks this has been for the Royals and their supporters.

Reading are reportedly set to bring a billion-dollar investment fund on board following Rob Couhig's takeover of the club.

The messaging coming out from the Royals' new hierarchy, whether it be the former Wycombe Wanderers owner himself, his business partner Todd Trosclair, or the new CEO Joe Jacobson, has consistently been about openness, transparency and financial responsibility.

Reading do now have the ability to buy players after a ban from the EFL that had been in place since 2020 was lifted following the American takeover of the club, but Couhig has admitted that most of their activity is likely to be in the free agent market this summer.

His initial frugality shouldn't be a bad thing for a club that had been run with such a lack of financial responsibility in the Dai Yongge years. At the same time, though, Couhig seems to have some big, bold plans for Reading, which have been further bolstered by the latest bit of investment news.

Bloomberg have reported that Aliya Capital Partners, a US investment firm, are set to become investors in the Royals.

They manage a fund of more than $1 billion (£760 million), as per the BBC, and were previously reported to be part of John Textor's attempt to takeover Everton. They also helped Tesla owner Elon Musk with his 2022 purchase of Twitter, now X. They have backed a number of famous tech companies too, including Airbnb, OpenAI, SpaceX, Uber.

Aliya are set to make a significant investment in the Berkshire club, as per Bloomberg, but it is subject to league approval.

Part of their goal as an investment fund is to help American athletes "achieve liquidity when traditional financing is not available." This could mean we may see people in the ilk of Tom Brady or JJ Watt, two of American football's greatest ever players who have respectively invested in Birmingham City and Burnley, become partners with Couhig at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.

The new owner had hinted that an exciting announcement was to come soon. "A series of announcements coming that should make fans even more excited about being season ticket holders," said the lawyer and entrepreneur on X. "We are going to succeed with integrity, transparency, and financial sustainability. And we won’t back down."

Everything is pointing in the right direction for Reading

Who'd have imagined all this happening a few months ago? There's no doubt that this is a serious move by Couhig to get such a mega entity like Aliya on board.

The names that they are associated with prove the serious business operators that they are. People like that are what the Royals had been screaming out for prior to the takeover, which was confirmed on the final day of the League One season, when Reading missed out on a play-off spot.

If some more prominent names than Aliya, like some of the athletes they work with, start to become more associated with the club, we've seen examples of how beneficial that can be for EFL teams.