“What are they doing?” – James Harper criticized Reading FC owner Dai Yongge

The Royals have now been owned by Chinese businessman Dai Yongge for six years since he bought it back in 2017, and despite the fact that he has invested a lot of money in the club over time, the consequences still very negative.

A new training center called Bearwood has arrived, but Reading’s spending breached the EFL’s profits and sustainability rules over a three-year period, leading to them being deducted six championship points in the 2021–22 season, and the same penalty applies. Applicable in the 2021-2022 season. The following season, helping the Berkshire team get relegated to League One.

Since the summer, tax bills have been unpaid on multiple occasions and due to player and staff wages not being paid in full and on time on multiple occasions last season, further points deductions have happened in 2023-24, with fans now desperately protesting for Yongge to leave.

Reports from The Telegraph last week suggested that controversial businessman William Storey had agreed terms on a £50 million deal to secure Reading, pending him getting through the EFL’s Owners’ and Directors’ Tests.

There has always been scepticism though as to where Storey’s money has been coming from, with the report claiming that the 45-year-old has undisclosed backers behind him.

Nevertheless, his ventures into sports have been notorious, as a sponsorship deal in the 2019 Formula One season with Haas Racing, through his Rich Energy drinks company, only lasted half of the year before being terminated.

Having also failed to buy Sunderland and Coventry City in recent years, Storey was set to perhaps go away quietly before he re-emerged to try and get a piece of the Royals, and claims that he would transform their fortunes quickly if successful in his bid.

Reading though have refuted the claims of reports that a deal has been agreed, with a club statement confirming that they were assessing multiple approaches.

For now though, the club remains in the hands of Yongge amid growing talk of potential administration if a buyer isn’t found in the near future.

Club icon James Harper, who played 348 times for the Royals over a period of eight-and-a-half years, has said that Yongge should have taken more care with the club over the years as it is his recklessness that has gotten them into the position they currently find themselves in.

“It was stable, but we’ve gone through a lot of owners and managers and now you’re just like ‘What are they doing?’,” Harper said on BBC Radio Berkshire.

“You hear about the car park and trying to put houses there, the dome and flats, putting multi-storey car park in and you’re like ‘What are you doing?’ New training ground, fair enough – nice.

“I’ve learnt that with a manager – if you make bad decisions and you recruit the wrong players, you get relegated. That goes for the owners now.

“If they make the wrong decisions and muck about, the club just… if you look at Jaap Stam, a kick away from the Premier League, now look. You’ve got to take more care with the club.”