Reading FC chairman has reflected on the appointment of new manager Leam Richardson and believes the team still has a shot at promotion this season.
Despite currently being in 19th position in League One, Couhig has given his full backing to Richardson and believes he will build a squad to help the club compete for promotion.
Speaking to Royals TV, he said: “I’ve got someone in Leam (Richardson) that I can trust. He’s going to help us build a squad to help us compete to get to the Championship. I’m not discounting it for this year, I know people think I’m crazy.
“I met him back when he was with Wigan. I watched him get that team promoted, I’ve watched what has happened in his career. We’ve kept in contact.
“When Joe (Jacobson) and I thought last year about who we would have come in he was always on that shortlist. We had two or three others. Obviously once the decision was made that we would replace Noel we had some interim discussions with these three or four people.
“The players will respond to him differently, hopefully for the better.
“I wanted that fresh, tough look. I think the mistake I made is that I usually go into a new organisation and decimate the top because we want to put in our philosophy which is ‘you’ve got to be smart, you’ve got to be strong, you can’t be afraid to make hard decisions and there’s a certain edge required to winning.’
“It was so much a relief to get the club after fighting for it after a year and half that we got it so late so that we inherited people and they were all great people which made it hard. If they were jerks it would have made it easy so there was a tendency to go along.
“I am confident under this new crew that there will be a certain drive to it.
“Bringing in a new coaching staff with a new attitude is a long term improvement.”
Couhig also spoke about some of the criticism which he and the club’s hierarchy have received form certain sections of the fanbase since taking over the club.
He continued: “The local BBC guys started it by echoing the words of the former owner’s people by saying ‘Rob didn’t have the money or was chipping away’. It’s just stupid, absolutely stupid.
“So when people go on their social media rants about the club spending money, ask them one time ‘what player didn’t we get? How much did we offer that player? How much should we have paid for them?
“But It’s easier just to rant and rave about things you don’t know about because we can all ride the same sort of hype wave.”
