Rob Couhig - New Interview

[From Despair To Where?]

There was an interview that Couhig did with a podcast where he specifically said that Dellor was just repeating whatever the club fed him.

[Reading4eva]

There was an interview that Couhig did with a podcast where he specifically said that Dellor was just repeating whatever the club fed him.

The problem is as a journalist in this sort of situation, he shouldn't be taking the clubs word for it without referencing that the club or the person has told him XYZ. Its been clear for so long that certain people in the club haven't been 100% factual.

[Meatwad]

There was an interview that Couhig did with a podcast where he specifically said that Dellor was just repeating whatever the club fed him.

The problem is as a journalist in this sort of situation, he shouldn't be taking the clubs word for it without referencing that the club or the person has told him XYZ. Its been clear for so long that certain people in the club haven't been 100% factual.

Call me crazy but Couhig really needs to scrap a lot of people in a lot of different areas tbh. We need a fresh start in more ways than one.

[Greatwesternline]

Tim Dellor is a BBC presenter not a producer. He interviews who is put in front of him.

It's not his job to go looking for interviews and do investigative journalism. It's a producers job to do that.

So if people are looking to criticise, I'm not entirely sure why people are, who cares where interviews come from, the person to criticise is BBC Berks producers who haven't secured an interview.

It's possible Couhig is giving them some distance as he has openly said media is something he'd like to do differently.

[From Despair To Where?]

In that case, Dellor shouldn't be allowed to go to air swallowing the club line and repeating it as fact, especially when those in charge of the club have repeatedly proved to be unreliable with the truth.

There is clearly an issue with local broadcast media. They're meant to be independent, not the club's own version of Pravda. Couhig has publicly called out Dellor on this and some of the statements he has made live on air have fueled anti Couhig sentiments on social media. It's no wonder Couhig doesn't like him.

[Sutekh]

There was an interview that Couhig did with a podcast where he specifically said that Dellor was just repeating whatever the club fed him.

Dellor is the BBC Berks sports editor I believe, it’s up to him to source and investigate the sporting news stories in the region either himself or by appointing others to do it.

At the end of the day though the BBC is mainstream media so they’ll just parrot the club official narrative, always been that way.

However repeating official narratives ad infinitum the purpose of mainstream media?

If you query him on it he’ll just say he has to otherwise the club will start withdrawing access from the BBC and thus we’ll all lose out

[From Despair To Where?]

Not if you're independent. Couhig is basically accusing Dellor of becoming Lord Haw Haw. He clearly expected more editorial scrutiny from the BBC.

I'd rather Dellor asked tricky questions and lost access to a notoriously reticent ownership than just parrot them. As sports editor for BBC Berkshire, Reading FC are the big story. If supporters can dig around the details, why can't he or at least follow up what supporters dig up?

[Orion1871]

So now he's owner Couhig shouldn't have a problem with someone who will supposedly just "parrots" the line of the club.

[Snowflake Royal]

So now he's owner Couhig shouldn't have a problem with someone who will supposedly just "parrots" the line of the club.

Unless he holds a grudge or thinks independent journalism is important.

[traff]

Just sounds like RC is on his first steps to becoming a fully fledged Reading fan.
Step 4: Reading fans understand that Deller is a bit of a dick.

[Brogue]

I don’t see why the sports desk should be any different to the rest of the bbc.

Thames water CEO - yeah we don’t pump sewage into water ways -

BBC - ok the ceo has said they don’t pump sewage into water ways so that must be true.

Now the bbc wouldn’t have taken the ceo on theirr word and would have done their own research.

Why should the sports desk not do the same investigative journalism and actually find out what they are being told is true or not.

[Snowflake Royal]

I don’t see why the sports desk should be any different to the rest of the bbc.

Thames water CEO - yeah we don’t pump sewage into water ways -

BBC - ok the ceo has said they don’t pump sewage into water ways so that must be true.

Now the bbc wouldn’t have taken the ceo on theirr word and would have done their own research.

Why should the sports desk not do the same investigative journalism and actually find out what they are being told is true or not.

Investigative journalism is a specific subset of journalism, not all journalism is investigative. Some is to try to investigate the truth and some is to report what's said/known.

Although both should be transparent. Sports journalism isn’t really investigative journalism.

And Dellor is shit.

[Reading4eva]

I love asking the tough questions myself and finding out more about something I've discovered. I'm not a journalist but thats what I expect a journalist to do - be that someone reporting from a warzone or someone reporting on Reading FC. And Dellor just didn't do that with the old ownership. He just fed their soundbites as if they were fact to a fanbase who were already panicking.

As said, I posed the question when he said on the Friday about the Escrow account and 12 million if he was sure it was correct with the knowledge I'd spoke with Rob the evening before. Mainly so Tim could turn around and correct his mistake. Don't get me wrong I don't think Tim has made this up off the top of his head, but Tim has most definitely fed the line back to the fans as if it was fact.

I did try and get Nigel Howe to come on for a video. He ignored the email. I wonder why?

Not saying this is the case in this situation but its easy to feed soundbites that a journalist then repeats on the radio or puts into press which then they become liable for. If someone is on a video, saying something which is rubbish, its far harder to avoid legal action.

[Royal Rother]

Couhig contradicted himself when he said he wants to keep cat 1 but also said Brentford and Wycombe can bring good young players into their first team squad without an academy.

I wonder which opinion he actually holds.

.

That's not a contradiction, it's an acknowledgement there's more than one approach to bringing through young players....

That's certainly how my ears received what he said.

Not sure this is entirely accurate but my recollection is that he effectively said there are plenty of good young players cast off by other clubs and there is some good value to be had out there. Buy for £300k, sell for a couple of million (as he said they did at Wycombe) and it would be silly not to be on the look out for those as well as what is coming through the Academy, as they may well be more ready for 1st Team football.

[From Despair To Where?]

I love asking the tough questions myself and finding out more about something I've discovered. I'm not a journalist but thats what I expect a journalist to do - be that someone reporting from a warzone or someone reporting on Reading FC. And Dellor just didn't do that with the old ownership. He just fed their soundbites as if they were fact to a fanbase who were already panicking.

As said, I posed the question when he said on the Friday about the Escrow account and 12 million if he was sure it was correct with the knowledge I'd spoke with Rob the evening before. Mainly so Tim could turn around and correct his mistake. Don't get me wrong I don't think Tim has made this up off the top of his head, but Tim has most definitely fed the line back to the fans as if it was fact.

I did try and get Nigel Howe to come on for a video. He ignored the email. I wonder why?

Not saying this is the case in this situation but its easy to feed soundbites that a journalist then repeats on the radio or puts into press which then they become liable for. If someone is on a video, saying something which is rubbish, its far harder to avoid legal action.

The way I see it, all Dellor, or anyone had to do is ask Couhig for comment and declare that they have extended the right to reply. That at least creates the idea that there are 2 sides to the story.

[Stranded]

Couhig contradicted himself when he said he wants to keep cat 1 but also said Brentford and Wycombe can bring good young players into their first team squad without an academy.

I wonder which opinion he actually holds.

.

That's not a contradiction, it's an acknowledgement there's more than one approach to bringing through young players....

That's certainly how my ears received what he said.

Not sure this is entirely accurate but my recollection is that he effectively said there are plenty of good young players cast off by other clubs and there is some good value to be had out there. Buy for £300k, sell for a couple of million (as he said they did at Wycombe) and it would be silly not to be on the look out for those as well as what is coming through the Academy, as they may well be more ready for 1st Team football.

It wouldn't surprise me if we see more deals such as the Savage/Elliott deals whereby we go to a Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool type of club and say, we'll take player X off your hands for nothing now on a 3 or 4 year deal. He'll be in or near to the first team immediately and if we sell him at any point during his time with us, you get 50 or 60% of any fee (less any agreed training costs etc).

May block some players coming out of our Academy but if the player we bring in is better at the same age, it would make sense.

[tidus_mi2]

That's not a contradiction, it's an acknowledgement there's more than one approach to bringing through young players....

That's certainly how my ears received what he said.

Not sure this is entirely accurate but my recollection is that he effectively said there are plenty of good young players cast off by other clubs and there is some good value to be had out there. Buy for £300k, sell for a couple of million (as he said they did at Wycombe) and it would be silly not to be on the look out for those as well as what is coming through the Academy, as they may well be more ready for 1st Team football.

It wouldn't surprise me if we see more deals such as the Savage/Elliott deals whereby we go to a Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool type of club and say, we'll take player X off your hands for nothing now on a 3 or 4 year deal. He'll be in or near to the first team immediately and if we sell him at any point during his time with us, you get 50 or 60% of any fee (less any agreed training costs etc).

May block some players coming out of our Academy but if the player we bring in is better at the same age, it would make sense.

I agree but I think without the embargo restrictions we'll definitely look to negotiate deals that lower the sell-on %.

[East Grinstead Royal]

Would it be fair to say that Dellor’s fall-out with Brendan Rodgers is the reason he is somewhat less confrontational than we might hope? I can’t imagine that didn’t have some consequences.

[Stranded]

That's certainly how my ears received what he said.

Not sure this is entirely accurate but my recollection is that he effectively said there are plenty of good young players cast off by other clubs and there is some good value to be had out there. Buy for £300k, sell for a couple of million (as he said they did at Wycombe) and it would be silly not to be on the look out for those as well as what is coming through the Academy, as they may well be more ready for 1st Team football.

It wouldn't surprise me if we see more deals such as the Savage/Elliott deals whereby we go to a Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool type of club and say, we'll take player X off your hands for nothing now on a 3 or 4 year deal. He'll be in or near to the first team immediately and if we sell him at any point during his time with us, you get 50 or 60% of any fee (less any agreed training costs etc).

May block some players coming out of our Academy but if the player we bring in is better at the same age, it would make sense.

I agree but I think without the embargo restrictions we'll definitely look to negotiate deals that lower the sell-on %.

Potentially but I don't think the embargo makes much difference there - it is about selling it as a risk/reward to the selling club. If they think a player may develop into a top player but not one they will use over the course of the contract then if they can be persuaded to release his registration for nothing, they will want to see a high potential reward.

We may try and negotiate it down but it will be down to tempting them club. Lets take Savage as an example, Utd could have had a choice between selling him to another club for 500k with a 20% sell on or to us for nothing with a 50% sell on.

If he goes for say 2m - then under the first deal they would see 900k but in the second 1m. Double that to 4m and the difference is a total of 1.3m to 2m etc, etc. So they are giving up 500k now for a potentially much larger sum later - whatever we negotiate would need to be more attractive than taking cash now.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Would it be fair to say that Dellor’s fall-out with Brendan Rodgers is the reason he is somewhat less confrontational than we might hope? I can’t imagine that didn’t have some consequences.

In that case it felt vey much like it, at the very least, helped Rodgers out of the door, even if he was going that way anyway.

Dellor usually says sources in the club have told him something. He can't really be expected to be sceptical about everything he is told from theoretically reliable sources, but not in any way be sceptical about one of several potential owners, just in case he one days becomes the actual owner.

Couhig seems sensible enough to realise people speculate, when information is scare people will jump on what little they know.

Hopefully he'll sit down with Dellor and clear the air. That'll be a fun listen; like when Tommy Holmes put him right about things in an interview last season.