Property tycoon who once tried to buy Chelsea planning rescue mission for EFL crisis club
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Sponsored by. READING are in exclusive talks about selling the club to a mysterious property tycoon. SunSport has learned that Paul Taylor - a bricklayer turned banker and financier from South London - has been in secret negotiations to buy Reading for several months.
![[Reading's mysterious new buyer once tried to buy Chelsea]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/general-view-select-car-leasing-947011805.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Taylor once tried to buy Chelsea and came close to pulling off a £10.5billion takeover of supermarket Sainsbury’s for the Qatar royal family. Initial Reading talks involved asset management firm Blue Horizon, but Taylor has now secured funding from elsewhere.
![[Chinese owner Dai Yongge took a majority stake with Reading in May 2017]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/4c2ea697-1780-4f9c-a2f9-18ca1666e760.jpg?strip=all&w=777)
The Reading sale has been shrouded in mystery since Chinese owner Dai Yongge scrapped a £30million deal with former Wycombe owner Rob Couhig in September. The club announced they had entered “exclusive negotiations” with another buyer the following month.
This week Reading claimed “negotiations with the prospective buyer remain ongoing,” whilst insisting “confidentiality must remain in place”. SunSport has been told by multiple sources that Taylor is the mystery buyer. His wife is understood to be a Reading fan, while the land owned by the club makes it an attractive investment.
As well as a hotel at the Select Car Leasing Stadium, 120 acres of land at the club’s Bearwood Park training ground also offers development potential. FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS. The secretive Taylor has enjoyed periods of spectacular success during a colourful property investment career.
