It looks like the valley of no return for Charlton
Charlton Athletic are one of the favourites to be promoted from League One this year — the odds presumably drawn up by people who have never heard of Roland Duchatelet. Once the epitome of the well-run, overachieving family club, they now more closely resemble the owner’s country of birth, Belgium: divided, fractious, home to nobody famous, on the slide and so on (fill in more Belgian jokes here please, ed).
Duchatelet’s regime has overseen six managerial changes in two years and relegation from the Championship.
He has enraged the supporters — most recently by insisting that one chap who wanted a season ticket should sign an “Agreed Behavioural Contract (ABC)” promising he wouldn’t slag the owners off any more on social media.
Charlton’s team, comprised of people whose mums still buy them clothes from Mothercare, lost their first league game last weekend at Bury, were dumped out of the League Cup and squeezed a draw against Northampton yesterday.
I have racked my brains, much as have Charlton’s fans, trying to work out what Duchatelet is trying to achieve, what his plan is
They have the look of a Blackpool about them — despite having, in Russell Slade, one of the best managers of the lower divisions. Slade isn’t sounding confident right now and one wonders how long it will be before he, too, effects a swift Brexit.
Charlton’s fans are in ferment. It is less the relegation that offends them — after all, they are not unfamiliar with their current surroundings — simply the epic mismanagement, the undoing of so many years of good work.
I have racked my brains, much as have Charlton’s fans, trying to work out what Duchatelet is trying to achieve, what his plan is. “Nothing” and “there isn’t one” is the best I can come up with. I hope Charlton do challenge for promotion this season — it’s a great club with a huge fanbase, especially in Kent. But I wouldn’t bet on it right now.
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