I think Roland will be gone within 12-18 months - hopefully sooner. One thing that helps to sustain me is that the crowds in the 70's dropped to terrible levels and still recovered. I remember standing at The Valley when we played Halifax in a crowd of 3,001- the biggest problem is that I am running out of time too !
I think a lot of people on here think that if the club was sold, everything would just return to normal. It won't. The damage isn't being done to our club, it's been done. A whole generation of my family are going elsewhere because I couldn't hook them to Charlton the way I did with my kids. I have two grandchildren who support Spurs and have no interest in attending the Valley. Instead of 5 of us next season there will be two of us. The bloke next to me who used to come with his grandchildren no longer comes. The crowd in front of me who I first met at a pub in Wembley in May 1998 have gone. Good results will help, but we have slipped a long way. I met a bloke at Ascot who knows Katrien. He didn't know I was a long term supporter. He told me she has no idea whatsoever that she has done anything other than run the club successfully. She sees herself as the number one female in a mans world putting up with crap because it goes with the job. Worse still, she doesn't like football. However, she is 100% confident this is our season and promotion is nailed on.
She really is unique, These are some of the things she has said on a thread started by 3blokes a year ago
Can people change? Is a burglar or a violent criminal a burglar or a violent criminal for life. The Owner, CEO and SMT have made so many mistakes and alienated and lost so many supporters. Can they truly change? Some would see that bringing in a British Manager, updating the Training ground, building a new website is change for the better. Bringing in three decent signings is change for the better. Introducing meetings with Meire is change for the better.
But, for me, the same problems persist. The problems are Duchatelet and Meire. Cosmetically it might change a bit, but the root of the problem is still there. I don't think that we will have success until they are gone.
Can people change? Is a burglar or a violent criminal a burglar or a violent criminal for life. The Owner, CEO and SMT have made so many mistakes and alienated and lost so many supporters. Can they truly change? Some would see that bringing in a British Manager, updating the Training ground, building a new website is change for the better. Bringing in three decent signings is change for the better. Introducing meetings with Meire is change for the better.
But, for me, the same problems persist. The problems are Duchatelet and Meire. Cosmetically it might change a bit, but the root of the problem is still there. I don't think that we will have success until they are gone.
If the comment from the person that knows KM is right i.e. She is a success, then she is a deluded fool. I just resent her taking my club away. If only we could get her out.
I think Roland will be gone within 12-18 months - hopefully sooner. One thing that helps to sustain me is that the crowds in the 70's dropped to terrible levels and still recovered. I remember standing at The Valley when we played Halifax in a crowd of 3,001- the biggest problem is that I am running out of time too !
The problem was that many many teams experience low crowds in the 70's & early 80's - since Sky got involved & the onset of The Premiership crowds have increased manyfold. We are in the minority of clubs with dwindleling support (blackpool & Orient spring to mind - which shows that its more to do with badly run clubs that the football served up)
I hate everything about the useless SMT, KM & RD. Eventually the old fool will realise that when it comes to football he is well out of his depth, will lose millions and eventually piss off.
I truely hope that day comes sooner rather than later but if it doesn't, expect to see us in Belgium again and again and again.
Have they changed? Have a read of this Robinson quote from last night.
"I'll be honest with you, I made some big mistakes at MK Dons where I was so eager to bring players in so soon," admitted Robinson. "I did it one year and I didn't bring in the type of player that aided the success of the club. And I learned from that very early on. Sometimes going with what you've got and youth players are sometimes better than who you can bring in immediately.
I get that we're waiting for Dasilva, but three others signings? Last year we waited for Thompson and in the end he didn't sign. Do we have a back up plan other than "play the youth" if we can't sign our first choices?
Every window under them there's always been a reason why we haven't signed enough players. After so many it's hard to believe it's not just down to RD wanting a small squad to ensure academy players get a chance.
This is an awful dilemma and one where I don't feel justified in telling people what to do.
I stayed away last season and hated not going. I don't believe they have changed and am not in any way confident for the season ahead.
That said, my fingering is hovering above the 'buy' button for a ST as my lad is 12 and I do not want to lose another year of father/son football due to my intense dislike and mistrust of the the owners and current SMT.
I am more than likely going to go in spite of them and not because of them, I will continue to protest hard when its needed and party hard when they are gone.
Can people change? Is a burglar or a violent criminal a burglar or a violent criminal for life. The Owner, CEO and SMT have made so many mistakes and alienated and lost so many supporters. Can they truly change? Some would see that bringing in a British Manager, updating the Training ground, building a new website is change for the better. Bringing in three decent signings is change for the better. Introducing meetings with Meire is change for the better.
But, for me, the same problems persist. The problems are Duchatelet and Meire. Cosmetically it might change a bit, but the root of the problem is still there. I don't think that we will have success until they are gone.
The squad so far, lacks the depth to mount a serious challenge. One knock to Solly's knee or Pearce's leg and we will be back to having 16 year olds defending against the likes of Cox, Taylor, etc.
Our final 6 games this year will see us pulling out all the stops and beating decent teams ( like we did under CP against Blades and Wendies) or we will be fighting for our place in poxy L1. The will be no middle ground - unless serious signings are made to shore up a delicate first team.
As for KR, we will start well and this will reflect well on him, but come Feb he will be disposed of - just like all the others unless we are within a handful of points from the top.
There doesn't seems to be a lot of choice. Plus It needs to be a balance with some kind of enjoyment, time off, and letting things take their course and end in yet more inevitable failure due to the severe shortcomings in the way the club is run (sadly).
The one thing that concerns me and has done all along is reducing the fan base (and therefore opposition to an extent) seems to be at best of no concern and at worst an objective.
I therefore applaud any protest that inspires support and long term affinity with the club, but also takes the fight to his doorstep - no hiding place..
Unlike many, I don't blame KM as she is just doing the job she was given at the takeover. RD has his scheme, whatever it actually is. It won't work and at some stage he will go. In the meantime KM will continue to be the pretty face (?) that lies, misleads, says and does anything to promise jam, not today or tomorrow but the end of the week (that never comes).
Obviously we were meant to behave like stupid football fans and sit there and accept their original statement of Premier League ambitions until th RD scheme worked, for him, not us. Unfortunately that was one of RD's first mistakes so they have had to evolve their story, and that's all it is, to placate us season after season, failure after failure.
Sure we are being suckered in, from their perspective, but sooner rather than later they will run out of stories. Then what ?
I am fed up with total negativity, of course we want rid of this owner but he will sell when HE decides. I like Robinsons positivity, I quite like the look of the squad, I want to watch my team so although I will not buy seasons, I am booked for the first game. Hopefully there will be enough of us getting behind the manager and his team of coaches and players to make a good noise. Never mind half full, my glass is overflowing. Stuff negativity, COYR
Ive said this before and I will bore you again...staying away hasnt helped one little bit...being there and showing them our disgust at the way they are ruining the club would have been far more effective....the times the fans have protested in numbers have given them the most grief...they didnt know how to handle it and made one gaff after another. Now they get a relatively quiet home game every couple of weeks in a soul-less Valley. I agree we shouldnt be paying for merchandise, food, programs etc, but being in the ground was and is essential and thats where we as fans should be....
The damage has been done....will we ever recover? personally I think it would take a meteoric rise from mid table obscurity to challenging for the Premier league to get us even half way back to being the club we were. But opinions are like arseholes, we all have one...mine will be planted on a seat somewhere when I return in August, minus food, drink and merchandise.
Great post Stig. The best I've read in ages. Like you I believe the regime has been given much too easy a ride of late,But as lots of posters have said if the squad is not strengthend sufficiently by the start of the season and results have not improved considerably then the protests will return in full. I truly believe this is the last roll of the dice by Roland and this will be his last season in charge of Charlton. If he needs a reminder of how we feel I think another visit to Belgium is in order, I for one will be up for that.
To use an analogy from last weekend's trip, I think we may be in 1917 or early 1918 in what has been a long campaign and may drag out even more. I believe we will win in the end, but I think some more raids on St Truiden will be in order before then. It is sometimes darkest before the victory - but then the German offensive after the Treay of Brest-Litovsk took Russia out of the war was their final throw of the dice. When it was unsuccessful, they ran out of steam and eventually caved in.
Then of course we can start talking about reparations ;-)
I think once we do have the club back many will return though I accept not everyone; but the difference then will be that we as fans will be working to create new fans - to drag along the neutral or armchair supporter. It's in our DNA - there's a reason we can sing "they brought the wrong club" - we have history.
It isn't important whether we like the owner and his CEO or not, but it is important that they are competent. It is very important for the future of the club I love . If they suddenly became competent, then the protests would stop when evidence that is the case becomes apparent. I am very sceptical that will happen as they have continued to make the same mistakes over and over again.
For me, getting promoted won't be the moment I decide they are competent, but it will be half the battle. I think this window will be telling. Like all the other windows have been under this owner. Robinson says he needs four players - if he gets three of them, I think we could have a great season, but I do not expect him to get them and i expect the squad to lack blanace because that is how the owner runs this club.
If the CEO points to the fact that we have failed to get key players over the line at the end of windows, I would question her strategy. I do question why she is in a job. If we had a good CEO who undertsood what was needed and built a relationship with the fans, it wouldn't really matter what Roland did - in fact the less we saw of him the better it would be, as long as he let the CEO (male or female) run things.
I have never had an issue with the money he has invested, but the stupid way he has spent it and the lack of awareness when he is onto a good thing - with Powell and then Riga. I undertsand it, they did not sign up to teh master plan, but that plan is and always was, a load of boll*cks! Also, I feel sorry for Peeters because his issues stemmed from the running of the club rather than his incompetence IMO - and Luzon could make a similar argument. When you decide you know a way that is the right way, you have to be one thing......Right! Duchatelet was wrong. He sends us the signal that he cares more for Meire than the club, as sacking her or moving her to another of his network clubs - maybe the one she supports even, would go a long way to removing the toxicity.
I'm not saying she created it, but her reaction to criticism fuelled it, along with her egocentric stupid comments! She takes justified attacks personally and it is entirely the wrong approach to defend herself in any other way than prove the negative comments wrong. Her immaturity has caused point scoring and an unwillingness to engage and listen. He has alienated the fans defending her, when he has spoken out - but like I said, he should care more about the club than one of his appointees - who has shown herself to be a terrible appointment - on a par with the appointment of Fraeye!
None of us wants to fight against our own club, but we do want our club to be successful and I have always maintained, the fans the club should be worried about, are not the ones that protest - they love the club enough to put themselves out and will quickly return when things improves, but the fans that just don't enjoy watching the crap that get's dished up every week. Those that don't enjoy seeing no ambition. They are the fans we are losing and getting them back won't be easy. That is why we have to fight, and Roland and Meire can walk away at any time, but we can't. What they leave us with is what we are stuck with as we are Charlton till we die! At the moment that phrase seems more like a sentence than anything else, but we can turn this around. Sadly I don't think the CEO is up to it, and if she was, she has burned too many bridges. The owner can get away with it, as long as the club us run in such a way, that people see improvement and nothing to moan about! The fact that he doesn't follow this logical route, but instead calls us idiots, speaks volumes!
I have to say that in my view the club is/has been damaged severely in terms of support as people drift and their affinity weakens. It will not simply be switched back on if and when this guy moves on. Sadly this is the most depressing thing about it all.
The regime must be ended and those fans that work for the regime, give it credence by reporting on its matches or discussing its pathetic transfer dealings, are members of protest groups but still buy tickets or those that just buy tickets etc etc all hinder the chance of protest ridding us of the cancer.
Fully understand why they do as, like holding onto a failing marriage for the sake of the kids, it's hard to step away.
1000s who like the club just as much have though, so this season give it a go. Stay away.
Even if RD sold the club today to responsible and generous new owners, it would literally take years to recover from the damage this man has done to our football club. Never thought I would feel beaten, but beginning to.
This is an awful dilemma and one where I don't feel justified in telling people what to do.
I stayed away last season and hated not going. I don't believe they have changed and am not in any way confident for the season ahead.
That said, my fingering is hovering above the 'buy' button for a ST as my lad is 12 and I do not want to lose another year of father/son football due to my intense dislike and mistrust of the the owners and current SMT.
I am more than likely going to go in spite of them and not because of them, I will continue to protest hard when its needed and party hard when they are gone.
Main reason why I go & why this season will be buying a season ticket. Being divorced & not living with my kids is hard enough but not having our "bonding sessions" on a sat afternoon would kill me. Yes, we could go elsewhere (welling or even W/ham) or do something completely different, but we both love football & as I posted earlier, I don't see why the regime should deprive me of my sat afternoon enjoyment & somewhere I have been going for over 40 years.
I think they have learnt from their mistakes but I also think they are or are likely to make new ones
If we can get these 3/4 players that we need over the line then I will be as happy with the opening day squad as I have been for a long time and keeping Ricky was a massive bonus that I thought was going to be another Yann.
Won't be renewing my ST as they have made the pricing in my normal seat in the East too high so will be buying a ticket in another block and sitting in my usual seat as normal.
Roland won't sell till we go up which is why I think the fans should get behind the team and manager as much as possible, I don't think we will get a better chance with the standard of this league this year.
Like many on here it's not all about the football, it's about seeing friends, family, bonding with sons and daughters, the pub before and after etc and whilst I won't attend every game I would urge people not to cut their nose off this season as on the pitch I think it might be ok.
I passed The Valley today and they were painting the front gates for the start of the new season but secretly I was thinking it would look nice when new owners turned up to check us out. Clutching. At. Straws.
This is an awful dilemma and one where I don't feel justified in telling people what to do.
I stayed away last season and hated not going. I don't believe they have changed and am not in any way confident for the season ahead.
That said, my fingering is hovering above the 'buy' button for a ST as my lad is 12 and I do not want to lose another year of father/son football due to my intense dislike and mistrust of the the owners and current SMT.
I am more than likely going to go in spite of them and not because of them, I will continue to protest hard when its needed and party hard when they are gone.
Main reason why I go & why this season will be buying a season ticket. Being divorced & not living with my kids is hard enough but not having our "bonding sessions" on a sat afternoon would kill me. Yes, we could go elsewhere (welling or even W/ham) or do something completely different, but we both love football & as I posted earlier, I don't see why the regime should deprive me of my sat afternoon enjoyment & somewhere I have been going for over 40 years.
Comments
http://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/74853/the-complete-works-of-katrien-meire-charlton-ceo
But, for me, the same problems persist. The problems are Duchatelet and Meire. Cosmetically it might change a bit, but the root of the problem is still there. I don't think that we will have success until they are gone.
I just resent her taking my club away. If only we could get her out.
I hate everything about the useless SMT, KM & RD. Eventually the old fool will realise that when it comes to football he is well out of his depth, will lose millions and eventually piss off.
I truely hope that day comes sooner rather than later but if it doesn't, expect to see us in Belgium again and again and again.
"I'll be honest with you, I made some big mistakes at MK Dons where I was so eager to bring players in so soon," admitted Robinson. "I did it one year and I didn't bring in the type of player that aided the success of the club. And I learned from that very early on. Sometimes going with what you've got and youth players are sometimes better than who you can bring in immediately.
http://www.kentlive.news/i-made-some-big-mistakes-at-mk-dons-with-signings-reveals-charlton-athletic-boss-karl-robinson/story-30447738-detail/story.html#7EiPmzYpGR5qxsWr.99
I get that we're waiting for Dasilva, but three others signings? Last year we waited for Thompson and in the end he didn't sign. Do we have a back up plan other than "play the youth" if we can't sign our first choices?
Every window under them there's always been a reason why we haven't signed enough players. After so many it's hard to believe it's not just down to RD wanting a small squad to ensure academy players get a chance.
I stayed away last season and hated not going. I don't believe they have changed and am not in any way confident for the season ahead.
That said, my fingering is hovering above the 'buy' button for a ST as my lad is 12 and I do not want to lose another year of father/son football due to my intense dislike and mistrust of the the owners and current SMT.
I am more than likely going to go in spite of them and not because of them, I will continue to protest hard when its needed and party hard when they are gone.
I don't.
One knock to Solly's knee or Pearce's leg and we will be back to having 16 year olds defending against the likes of Cox, Taylor, etc.
Our final 6 games this year will see us pulling out all the stops and beating decent teams ( like we did under CP against Blades and Wendies) or we will be fighting for our place in poxy L1. The will be no middle ground - unless serious signings are made to shore up a delicate first team.
As for KR, we will start well and this will reflect well on him, but come Feb he will be disposed of - just like all the others unless we are within a handful of points from the top.
Roland needs to buy buy or bye bye.
The one thing that concerns me and has done all along is reducing the fan base (and therefore opposition to an extent) seems to be at best of no concern and at worst an objective.
I therefore applaud any protest that inspires support and long term affinity with the club, but also takes the fight to his doorstep - no hiding place..
Obviously we were meant to behave like stupid football fans and sit there and accept their original statement of Premier League ambitions until th RD scheme worked, for him, not us. Unfortunately that was one of RD's first mistakes so they have had to evolve their story, and that's all it is, to placate us season after season, failure after failure.
Sure we are being suckered in, from their perspective, but sooner rather than later they will run out of stories. Then what ?
The damage has been done....will we ever recover? personally I think it would take a meteoric rise from mid table obscurity to challenging for the Premier league to get us even half way back to being the club we were. But opinions are like arseholes, we all have one...mine will be planted on a seat somewhere when I return in August, minus food, drink and merchandise.
Like you I believe the regime has been given much too easy a ride of late,But as lots of posters have said if the squad is not strengthend sufficiently by the start of the season and results have not improved considerably then the protests will return in full.
I truly believe this is the last roll of the dice by Roland and this will be his last season in charge of Charlton.
If he needs a reminder of how we feel I think another visit to Belgium is in order, I for one will be up for that.
JUST SELL THE CLUB.
Then of course we can start talking about reparations ;-)
I think once we do have the club back many will return though I accept not everyone; but the difference then will be that we as fans will be working to create new fans - to drag along the neutral or armchair supporter. It's in our DNA - there's a reason we can sing "they brought the wrong club" - we have history.
For me, getting promoted won't be the moment I decide they are competent, but it will be half the battle. I think this window will be telling. Like all the other windows have been under this owner. Robinson says he needs four players - if he gets three of them, I think we could have a great season, but I do not expect him to get them and i expect the squad to lack blanace because that is how the owner runs this club.
If the CEO points to the fact that we have failed to get key players over the line at the end of windows, I would question her strategy. I do question why she is in a job. If we had a good CEO who undertsood what was needed and built a relationship with the fans, it wouldn't really matter what Roland did - in fact the less we saw of him the better it would be, as long as he let the CEO (male or female) run things.
I have never had an issue with the money he has invested, but the stupid way he has spent it and the lack of awareness when he is onto a good thing - with Powell and then Riga. I undertsand it, they did not sign up to teh master plan, but that plan is and always was, a load of boll*cks! Also, I feel sorry for Peeters because his issues stemmed from the running of the club rather than his incompetence IMO - and Luzon could make a similar argument. When you decide you know a way that is the right way, you have to be one thing......Right! Duchatelet was wrong. He sends us the signal that he cares more for Meire than the club, as sacking her or moving her to another of his network clubs - maybe the one she supports even, would go a long way to removing the toxicity.
I'm not saying she created it, but her reaction to criticism fuelled it, along with her egocentric stupid comments! She takes justified attacks personally and it is entirely the wrong approach to defend herself in any other way than prove the negative comments wrong. Her immaturity has caused point scoring and an unwillingness to engage and listen. He has alienated the fans defending her, when he has spoken out - but like I said, he should care more about the club than one of his appointees - who has shown herself to be a terrible appointment - on a par with the appointment of Fraeye!
None of us wants to fight against our own club, but we do want our club to be successful and I have always maintained, the fans the club should be worried about, are not the ones that protest - they love the club enough to put themselves out and will quickly return when things improves, but the fans that just don't enjoy watching the crap that get's dished up every week. Those that don't enjoy seeing no ambition. They are the fans we are losing and getting them back won't be easy. That is why we have to fight, and Roland and Meire can walk away at any time, but we can't. What they leave us with is what we are stuck with as we are Charlton till we die! At the moment that phrase seems more like a sentence than anything else, but we can turn this around. Sadly I don't think the CEO is up to it, and if she was, she has burned too many bridges. The owner can get away with it, as long as the club us run in such a way, that people see improvement and nothing to moan about! The fact that he doesn't follow this logical route, but instead calls us idiots, speaks volumes!
I for one have not changed my view.
The regime must be ended and those fans that work for the regime, give it credence by reporting on its matches or discussing its pathetic transfer dealings, are members of protest groups but still buy tickets or those that just buy tickets etc etc all hinder the chance of protest ridding us of the cancer.
Fully understand why they do as, like holding onto a failing marriage for the sake of the kids, it's hard to step away.
1000s who like the club just as much have though, so this season give it a go. Stay away.
If we can get these 3/4 players that we need over the line then I will be as happy with the opening day squad as I have been for a long time and keeping Ricky was a massive bonus that I thought was going to be another Yann.
Won't be renewing my ST as they have made the pricing in my normal seat in the East too high so will be buying a ticket in another block and sitting in my usual seat as normal.
Roland won't sell till we go up which is why I think the fans should get behind the team and manager as much as possible, I don't think we will get a better chance with the standard of this league this year.
Like many on here it's not all about the football, it's about seeing friends, family, bonding with sons and daughters, the pub before and after etc and whilst I won't attend every game I would urge people not to cut their nose off this season as on the pitch I think it might be ok.