I like the cut of KM's jib. She seems honest and open. No outlandish promises, but a general sense that she will work hard to improve Charlton.
Murray is perhaps the slicker and more engaging public speaker but I can't help but see a politician when he is interviewed these days and I'm never convinced we're getting the full story from him even though I think he would like to present the opposite impression. The response to the question about who picks the team seemed a bit of a party line to me, not that I know anything of the ins and outs behind the scenes. That said, when you have two sides to a story like this the truth often lies somewhere in the middle and for someone like me who only has other people's, often second and third hand, word to go on, Murray's explanation seems as plausible as anything else. Murray seemed keen to jump in and field some of the more politically sensitive questions and I'd have liked to hear a bit more of what KM had to say on some of those subjects, perhaps one of the supporters groups can try and setup a Q&A with just her in attendance.
I found KM's explanation of the scouting structure very interesting and the idea we can use other network club's 'experts' to get second opinions on players and also bring players to our attention seems very advantageous.
Overall, I'm still more optimistic/hopeful than pessimistic about the club's current direction. Let's hope time and familiarity with RD and his cronies leads to admiration and not contempt.
Just cant understand the KM worship on here. She gets lauded and is accepted more than RD when she is just relaying his ideas and it's his money after all.
She has, IMO, no insight or knowledge of football to any level above the average pub man. In fact it seems a lot less.
If that's who RD likes to work with then so be it, but all these plaudits are totally unjustified.
I'm not saying she has done anything dreadful just dont see how the praise has been earnt yet.
Peeters himself has said RD had a big input in player selection this Summer.
To be fair KM doesn't pretend she knows everything about football in general, nor tactics or players.
She stated the player recruitment process, from scouting to Bob Peeters. Katrien negotiates deals and contracts, in line with the budget set by RD, and asset building, younger players longer contracts.
Whilst she has been at the club, she shows a passion for us to do well, on and off the pitch. More passion I saw from TJ & MS In their whole tenure.
My only concern is how RD leans on the manager. Murray’s explanation was hardly satisfactory over Powell. Win, lose or draw the unused players were not good enough, a fact that was substantiated by Riga and the coaches.
Just cant understand the KM worship on here. She gets lauded and is accepted more than RD when she is just relaying his ideas and it's his money after all.
She has, IMO, no insight or knowledge of football to any level above the average pub man. In fact it seems a lot less.
If that's who RD likes to work with then so be it, but all these plaudits are totally unjustified.
I'm not saying she has done anything dreadful just dont see how the praise has been earnt yet.
Peeters himself has said RD had a big input in player selection this Summer.
Katrien runs the club, RD is the owner and has a say on big transfers, managers and the general direction the clubs going in, but everything else is katrien. A good managing director can make a world of difference, remember the difference between how Prothero ran the club and Varney?
Just cant understand the KM worship on here. She gets lauded and is accepted more than RD when she is just relaying his ideas and it's his money after all.
She has, IMO, no insight or knowledge of football to any level above the average pub man. In fact it seems a lot less.
If that's who RD likes to work with then so be it, but all these plaudits are totally unjustified.
I'm not saying she has done anything dreadful just dont see how the praise has been earnt yet.
Peeters himself has said RD had a big input in player selection this Summer.
An interesting and informative interview. Katrien does come across as pretty straightforward and realistic, which is infinitely better than someone who makes over-optimistic statements and promises that can't be met. She's also a lawyer and so is used to picking her words carefully. I think that most of us will be happy with steady, incremental progress, both as a matter of general principle and by virtue of the fact that well over half the teams in the Championship have substantially larger turnovers than us. A significant number of them are in receipt of parachute payments and, as one of the first questioners said, the three smallest clubs in the division last year all went down. Those slots are now probably filled by Millwall, Blackpool and Brentford, although the latter have invested heavily in advance of their move to the new ground at Kew.
Most of the key points for CAFC were covered, or at least touched upon, during the interview and it was good to have confirmation of the Poyet sell-on fee and, inferentially, that they are working to try and tie up Joe Gomez for more than two years (not that either of those matters could seriously be in doubt).
It seems that season ticket sales are down on last year. That is disappointing in view of the very competitive pricing but perhaps not surprising in view of the trauma and disruption of last season and the general downward trend. Hopefully, we'll sell a few more in the run up to the Derby match. It's hard to see that the Board could have done more to get additional supporters along to the Valley but, not unreasonably, people need convincing before making the commitment. As ever, what happens on the pitch will be determinative, although we seem to be creating the right environment off it in order to encourage success.
Another, if clearly not disinterested, point of view
Barry Nevill @Bazzanev 14h What a shame that Richard Murray continues to spout rubbish about Chris Powells dismissal at the Clubs open day!
In case you were wondering Barry Nevill is the agent to Alan Pardew, Simon Khan, Phil Parkinson, Kevin Keen, Teddy Sheringham, Charlie Sheringham, Dean Bowditch, Martin Allen and more importantly Chris Powell.
Just cant understand the KM worship on here. She gets lauded and is accepted more than RD when she is just relaying his ideas and it's his money after all.
She has, IMO, no insight or knowledge of football to any level above the average pub man. In fact it seems a lot less.
If that's who RD likes to work with then so be it, but all these plaudits are totally unjustified.
I'm not saying she has done anything dreadful just dont see how the praise has been earnt yet.
Peeters himself has said RD had a big input in player selection this Summer.
Chris Parkes has been working closely with her, he has watched 'em come and go for twenty five years, he is impressed with the lady. That'll do for me.
Agree with Blucher's take above. I detected a bit of bafflement in the responses on season tickets along the lines of "we've slashed the prices and still no bugger wants to come. Let's hope we play well. Err, that's it guv". A bit of a head scratcher and I suspect a bit of a gamble if we end up losing revenue from sales over a prolonged period. It will be difficult to increase prices much in future now that we have set the bar low in the event that we just bumble along in the lower reaches of the league (or worse!). Fingers crossed we avoid that.
With apologies for being inappropriate, I suspect that a lot of us are subconsciously cutting Katrien a lot of slack because she's nice. However, I have to say that I am quietly impressed by her so far. Careful and measured in her responses. I'm yet to be convinced that she knows as much as she needs to about football to make a really telling contribution over time but so far so good.
Just cant understand the KM worship on here. She gets lauded and is accepted more than RD when she is just relaying his ideas and it's his money after all.
She has, IMO, no insight or knowledge of football to any level above the average pub man. In fact it seems a lot less.
If that's who RD likes to work with then so be it, but all these plaudits are totally unjustified.
I'm not saying she has done anything dreadful just dont see how the praise has been earnt yet.
Peeters himself has said RD had a big input in player selection this Summer.
Chris Parkes has been working closely with her, he has watched 'em come and go for twenty five years, he is impressed with the lady. That'll do for me.
Until Chris Parkes wife puts it on Facebook I won't believe it.
Agree with Blucher's take above. I detected a bit of bafflement in the responses on season tickets along the lines of "we've slashed the prices and still no bugger wants to come. Let's hope we play well. Err, that's it guv". A bit of a head scratcher and I suspect a bit of a gamble if we end up losing revenue from sales over a prolonged period. It will be difficult to increase prices much in future now that we have set the bar low in the event that we just bumble along in the lower reaches of the league (or worse!). Fingers crossed we avoid that.
What a shame there isn't a group of people who have spent 20 years analysing these issues at Charlton and might be able to offer some advice.
Another, if clearly not disinterested, point of view
Barry Nevill @Bazzanev 14h What a shame that Richard Murray continues to spout rubbish about Chris Powells dismissal at the Clubs open day!
In case you were wondering Barry Nevill is the agent to Alan Pardew, Simon Khan, Phil Parkinson, Kevin Keen, Teddy Sheringham, Charlie Sheringham, Dean Bowditch, Martin Allen and more importantly Chris Powell.
So this guy has represented 3 of our managers - he is probably pissed as he is not getting a cut from us anymore!
Agree with Blucher's take above. I detected a bit of bafflement in the responses on season tickets along the lines of "we've slashed the prices and still no bugger wants to come. Let's hope we play well. Err, that's it guv". A bit of a head scratcher and I suspect a bit of a gamble if we end up losing revenue from sales over a prolonged period. It will be difficult to increase prices much in future now that we have set the bar low in the event that we just bumble along in the lower reaches of the league (or worse!). Fingers crossed we avoid that.
What a shame there isn't a group of people who have spent 20 years analysing these issues at Charlton and might be able to offer some advice.
If they'd behaved themselves / carried out jobs that needed doing then some of them might still be there
Agree with Blucher's take above. I detected a bit of bafflement in the responses on season tickets along the lines of "we've slashed the prices and still no bugger wants to come. Let's hope we play well. Err, that's it guv". A bit of a head scratcher and I suspect a bit of a gamble if we end up losing revenue from sales over a prolonged period. It will be difficult to increase prices much in future now that we have set the bar low in the event that we just bumble along in the lower reaches of the league (or worse!). Fingers crossed we avoid that.
What a shame there isn't a group of people who have spent 20 years analysing these issues at Charlton and might be able to offer some advice.
KM did say they have employed a Club Development Officer which is a good thing and something that we've not had before : - )
I think she said it was her 30th while the pre season tour was in Belgium.
I must say she is an impressive woman. She has received plaudits from respected people at the club, she comes across well in these interviews and I was lucky to have a chat for about 10 minutes a couple of months ago and can confirm she is very passionate about the club and taking us forwards.
The fact she is extremely attractive doesn't come into it - she is intelligent, knows what she wants and is very well educated too. I am glad she is running the club and look forward to the new season
Comments
Keep up the great work!
Looking forward to the playoffs lol
Now... where's the Bob and Jacko one? :-)
Murray is perhaps the slicker and more engaging public speaker but I can't help but see a politician when he is interviewed these days and I'm never convinced we're getting the full story from him even though I think he would like to present the opposite impression. The response to the question about who picks the team seemed a bit of a party line to me, not that I know anything of the ins and outs behind the scenes. That said, when you have two sides to a story like this the truth often lies somewhere in the middle and for someone like me who only has other people's, often second and third hand, word to go on, Murray's explanation seems as plausible as anything else. Murray seemed keen to jump in and field some of the more politically sensitive questions and I'd have liked to hear a bit more of what KM had to say on some of those subjects, perhaps one of the supporters groups can try and setup a Q&A with just her in attendance.
I found KM's explanation of the scouting structure very interesting and the idea we can use other network club's 'experts' to get second opinions on players and also bring players to our attention seems very advantageous.
Overall, I'm still more optimistic/hopeful than pessimistic about the club's current direction. Let's hope time and familiarity with RD and his cronies leads to admiration and not contempt.
Can't wait for Saturday, COYR!
She has, IMO, no insight or knowledge of football to any level above the average pub man. In fact it seems a lot less.
If that's who RD likes to work with then so be it, but all these plaudits are totally unjustified.
I'm not saying she has done anything dreadful just dont see how the praise has been earnt yet.
Peeters himself has said RD had a big input in player selection this Summer.
She stated the player recruitment process, from scouting to Bob Peeters. Katrien negotiates deals and contracts, in line with the budget set by RD, and asset building, younger players longer contracts.
Whilst she has been at the club, she shows a passion for us to do well, on and off the pitch. More passion I saw from TJ & MS In their whole tenure.
My only concern is how RD leans on the manager. Murray’s explanation was hardly satisfactory over Powell. Win, lose or draw the unused players were not good enough, a fact that was substantiated by Riga and the coaches.
Most of the key points for CAFC were covered, or at least touched upon, during the interview and it was good to have confirmation of the Poyet sell-on fee and, inferentially, that they are working to try and tie up Joe Gomez for more than two years (not that either of those matters could seriously be in doubt).
It seems that season ticket sales are down on last year. That is disappointing in view of the very competitive pricing but perhaps not surprising in view of the trauma and disruption of last season and the general downward trend. Hopefully, we'll sell a few more in the run up to the Derby match. It's hard to see that the Board could have done more to get additional supporters along to the Valley but, not unreasonably, people need convincing before making the commitment. As ever, what happens on the pitch will be determinative, although we seem to be creating the right environment off it in order to encourage success.
Barry Nevill @Bazzanev 14h
What a shame that Richard Murray continues to spout rubbish about Chris Powells dismissal at the Clubs open day!
In case you were wondering Barry Nevill is the agent to Alan Pardew, Simon Khan, Phil Parkinson, Kevin Keen, Teddy Sheringham, Charlie Sheringham, Dean Bowditch, Martin Allen and more importantly Chris Powell.
With apologies for being inappropriate, I suspect that a lot of us are subconsciously cutting Katrien a lot of slack because she's nice. However, I have to say that I am quietly impressed by her so far. Careful and measured in her responses. I'm yet to be convinced that she knows as much as she needs to about football to make a really telling contribution over time but so far so good.
Meaning: Impatience
Now slept on it.
Mick Jagger! Mannerisms the lot. Stick a wig on him and away you go...
I must say she is an impressive woman. She has received plaudits from respected people at the club, she comes across well in these interviews and I was lucky to have a chat for about 10 minutes a couple of months ago and can confirm she is very passionate about the club and taking us forwards.
The fact she is extremely attractive doesn't come into it - she is intelligent, knows what she wants and is very well educated too. I am glad she is running the club and look forward to the new season
PS - She's miles better than Karren Brady