I'm still trying to get my head round all that has happened. Modern football is clearly a very different animal to that which I grew up with. It's big business now with obscene money and management structures have to presumably be very different and adaptive. I understand that player managers should be allowed to get on with their jobs, but, post Curbs, that has clearly not worked for us. I started thinking after Harry Arter had told me that he had never met any of the board members. Is this the norm? When I think back, player de-motivation was evident over three years ago, so how come this situation was allowed to continue? Exactly how does our board get to know what is going on in the dressing room, academy and training ground? It seems to me that such information is vital but the board appears to rely on the words of the manager. No modern company does this, its generally recognised that the greatest asset is the workforce and there are various strategies in place to obtain feedback from its employees, if only to flag up problem areas and weaknesses. Are we outdated, out of touch, are there communication problems within the club? If so, is there anything we can do to try and improve things? Or is it just a matter of sitting tight now and seeing what happens?
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Charlton are an employee with only a relatively small number of employees. Seems odd to me that a player albeit junior but at one point highly rated has never met a board member.
I think the question to Arter or whoever would be "have you ever met Steve Waggott/Peter Varney or Mick Everitt or Steve Sutherland?"
They are/were the operational directors. Most of the board are non-executive directors.
Not the same though is it ? Board members are supposed to be fans as well.
Apart from small owner managed businesses not many in my experience although a few do have a CEO or director do a spot in the company induction.
They are so do they speak to players as directors or as fans. Should they ask for autographs and pictures?
I do know that Richard Murray has spoken to players individually and as a group on occasions. Maybe Harry Arter should take more of an interest in the club outside of the bubble many pro players live in where only them and the other players matter.
Martin Christensen. It's the only explanation for why we signed him on such a silly deal.
PV told me he once was shopping and walked past Ambrose and family, was going to say hello, then realised he wouldn't have known him and he didn't want to explain so left it.
"Don't you know who I am?"
The man buying the club? ;-0)
All good management involves putting trust, faith and the right responsibilities in the staff underneath you. And that involves leaving people to do the jobs relevent to their skillsets. I don't want chairman and board members interferring in football affairs. Let them get on with their jobs and either back them or sack them.
PV told me he once was shopping and walked past Ambrose and family, was going to say hello, then realised he wouldn't have known him and he didn't want to explain so left it.[/quote]
PV shouldn't feel rude, plenty of opposition players walked past Ambrose in the last 4 years and didn't say hello either....
I spoke to a very prominent member of the staff who is awaiting key talks with the club that have a huge bearing on his future (and would be of great interest to most supporters) and he'd had no contact with directors either. It's not strictly significant, but it doesn't sound like the kind of thing any management text would be advocating.
As Curbs put it RM left him to do the job he was paid to do and, although some fans didn't like it, that strategy worked as Curbs did his job very well.
RM has probably had to become more "hands on" because of the incompetents appointed subsequently.
Works for me, it's what I've always thought.
Interesting the comparisons that are being made here between football and general business. We're always hearing how unique football is and how it can't be compared but on this one Ii think the comparisons are fair, that football (and players in particular) could - and should - learn something from business...
IE GET ON WITH WHAT YOU'RE PAID TO DO AND STOP MAKING EXCUSES!!
(i think this will get pulled quite quickly).
Is that what David White said to Boothroyd?
I think you are at risk of spreading confusion with that post. Mick Everett, Steve Sutherland and I have all been described by the club as directors in the past, but none of us were ever board members or directors in the legal sense. Indeed, the word "director" was simply used to differentiate these posts from those of "managers".
Steve Kavanagh is managing director, but he is a not a member of the board (to my knowledge). Steve Waggott is a member of the FC board, as is Nigel Capelin. All three are likely to attend board meetings.
I wouldn't favour board members getting too involved with the playing side and that has never been an issue to my knowledge, but the gap between members of the plc board and senior is unhealthy. Board members have very little involvement the day-to-day running of the business and I would suggest most of them did not join the board to get involved in it.
The majority of staff at The Valley would never have met any or spoken to any board directors, other than in some cases Waggott and Capelin, and probably Martin Simons, because other than matchdays they are very rarely on site.