it was a good evening and Katrien came across well, very relaxed, a couple of times she did appear a bit frustrated, when she was asked questions that she had already at length answered.
More tomorrow after Kings Hill Addick has filed his meeting report. In all,seriousness it was good to see fellow CL's including KHA, His Dad, HI and Fanny.
Yes a good evening and I believe she was open to some reasoned arguments from people.
She also batted away some mildly aggressive statements which she seems to have heard before and she said has answered before.
The guy from the trust that was censored , Athletico , was because he had been invited along on the the basis that ( his words) " he would just observe and would make no comments".
I understand the pride those involved with the Trust must have but they don't need to be represented at every meeting. I think he was asked not to allow a discussion to be side tracked when most of those there had come to hear Katrien speak.
He was told not to speak, sounds like censorship to me.
It was immediately after a question to KM about the Trust when part of her response was effectively that she did not like the way they had organised an anti ownership meeting (not her exact words but that was what she meant). A response I found disappointing as it is not accurate. It was also immediately after someone in the room had stood up to give his own negative slant on the Trust. I think a right of reply would not have been remiss and would not have side tracked the meeting. Personally I thought it was a shame.
Not in order but as the notes came out and what I remember. Lots of other Lifers there so they can chip in
Part one
Asked about herself and how she came to be at Charlton she said that she is a football fan and had worked for "the owner" before. Had lived in London before so happy to come.
Came over on her own but the job is very fulfilling and getting to know lots of people. "fallen in love with Charlton". When we played St Trudian (her original club) in the summer she supported Charlton and her friends called her a traitor (laughed) "Just from first time I saw the stadium and walked out on the the pitch I thought WOW"
JR and Gl fell in love with Charlton too. GL said he wouldn't go back to SL for three times the money, GL said it's a special club, nice, good people working at the club.
Q: Continuity? Four managers in a year?
"Would have been happy for Riga to stay but we thought BP would do a good job but got that wrong. With Guy have a good feeling, will be good for us and will stay a long time I hope". "would have been easier but couldn't let BP carry on"
Q IS it Luzon or Watt that has made the difference? KM "players lacked confidence. Felt that they were the worse team and going down. The new players did help. Now we are winning convincingly which we never did under BP and the team spirit is there. Comes from player and manager" TWWW - came and trained here before he had a contract, very keen, likes it and other clubs have already been asking about him
Riga, "surprised and sad" that he didn't stay but all knew it was only a contract to the summer. Now at SL so shows that "the owner" trusts him and his quality. Now in play-offs. Hold him in high regard. Why not kept in summer "If I try to understand what the owner thinks everyday I'd go crazy"
CP saw him at Wigan when he was scouting us. Great respect and no hard feeling on her part
BP - back in Belgian and working on TV
The Sex tape: Last year sold only half the slots. Rang other clubs and they didn't have prices or only a few slots so saw it wasn't a priority for them so an opportunity for us. Looked at different options for campaign and this was the last resort. "a bit borderline" "far too explicit" "I thought maybe just some kissing and cuddling" They PR firm sent out the teaser without KM knowing and the press team didn't know either. Didn't tell "the owner" and thought she might get fired. It made headlines in Belgium "Sex on the field of Duchatelet" RD was OK about it when he heard how many hits it has had. Would do it again but not in same way. Been a real spike in enquiries. Already sold half the slots and had lots of contact from companies we've not done business with. Usual channels of the website and programme don't get us to city boys etc who want to hire a pitch. Told the commercial manager have to sell all the slots now. One german firm wanted to buy the rights to the video.
The Sex tape: Last year sold only half the slots. Rang other clubs and they didn't have prices or only a few slots so saw it wasn't a priority for them so an opportunity for us. Looked at different options for campaign and this was the last resort. "a bit borderline" "far too explicit" "I thought maybe just some kissing and cuddling" They PR firm sent out the teaser without KM knowing and the press team didn't know either. Didn't tell "the owner" and thought she might get fired. It made headlines in Belgium "Sex on the field of Duchatelet" RD was OK about it when he heard how many hits it has had. Would do it again but not in same way. Been a real spike in enquiries. Already sold half the slots and had lots of contact from companies we've not done business with. Usual channels of the website and programme don't get us to city boys etc who want to hire a pitch. Told the commercial manager have to sell all the slots now. One german firm wanted to buy the rights to the video.
I asked a question about the objectives of "a challenging Championship team" and "Breaking Even" and what was the time frame. I don't feel that the answer was very clear, except that "Break-Even" appears to be more of an aspiration than an objective and there was no specific timeframe.
The club is looking to retain the existing squad, but Eagles and Johnson will have to work to get a new contract, she is looking to bring in 2-3 players over the summer and bring in revenue from player sales, who are not involved in the first team squad. Like me the immediate response from one was that won't amount to much money, but its was then pointed out Polish Pete, Rezza and George (?).
She has a budget target each season for player sales, the budget for player purchases are flexible and next season a decision will be made based on possibility of promotion of what investment in players will be made in January.
Under Bob the players got to feel they were the "worst players in the world" and Bob could not turn the loss of confidence around. Pointed out that we are now winning in a better way than we were at the begining of the season.
Roland decides the transfer price, KM said she negotiates the best price. It did not appear that there is a specific transfer price policy.
She calls Roland to his face but calls him The Owner to "us" because we can't pronounce his name - its a sort of gutteral pronunciation.
I understand the pride those involved with the Trust must have but they don't need to be represented at every meeting. I think he was asked not to allow a discussion to be side tracked when most of those there had come to hear Katrien speak.
I understand the pride those involved with the Trust must have but they don't need to be represented at every meeting. I think he was asked not to allow a discussion to be side tracked when most of those there had come to hear Katrien speak.
I asked a question about the objectives of "a challenging Championship team" and "Breaking Even" and what was the time frame. I don't feel that the answer was very clear, except that "Break-Even" appears to be more of an aspiration than an objective and there was no specific timeframe.
The club is looking to retain the existing squad, but Eagles and Johnson will have to work to get a new contract, she is looking to bring in 2-3 players over the summer and bring in revenue from player sales, who are not involved in the first team squad. Like me the immediate response from one was that won't amount to much money, but its was then pointed out Polish Pete, Rezza and George (?).
She has a budget target each season for player sales, the budget for player purchases are flexible and next season a decision will be made based on possibility of promotion of what investment in players will be made in January.
Under Bob the players got to feel they were the "worst players in the world" and Bob could not turn the loss of confidence around. Pointed out that we are now winning in a better way than we were at the begining of the season.
Roland decides the transfer price, KM said she negotiates the best price. It did not appear that there is a specific transfer price policy.
She calls Roland to his face but calls him The Owner to "us" because we can't pronounce his name - its a sort of gutteral pronunciation.
Morning Kap. Those are the questions that most interest me so thanks for giving it a go.
Re the bit in bold above, does that refer to transfers within the network? Did you understand it to mean that, say, RD sets a price for, say, Tony Watt, and Katrien will try to push him down a bit (of course the quote price for TWWW is currently looking like a bargain, but I'm just trying to understand the system)
She has a budget target each season for player sales, the budget for player purchases are flexible and next season a decision will be made based on possibility of promotion of what investment in players will be made in January. .
Why wait till January every season! Half the season has gone by then. This is exactly what may have cost us a chance of challenging for the play offs this season.
Watt, Eagles, Johnson, Diarra. These type of players should have been brought in last summer/August so you hit the ground running, improve a small squad and can keep a level of consistency throughout the season. The last 6 games have shown what can happen.
If they want a steady Championship football club for the next 10/15 years then they are going the right way about it, however it's very naive to believe you can get promoted by waiting till January. I'm just glad they finally realised we needed the four mentioned above or League One would have been on the cards.
I wasn't there but can't see what the problem is. Someone from from the Trust board said they would attend in a listening capacity. they were then asked not to interject as the organisers didn't want THEIR evening sidetracked by questions about the Trust and issues around it. How is that censorship?
Looks to me as if the Trust with recent actions have just served to alienate KM further. Good work.
Asked why she refers to RD as "the owner" KM said that his name is "rro, laan" but here people call him "Row- lanD". Also at Standard they call him "the President" so she uses "the owner".
rro,laan understans that CA have the biggest potential but SL can get into the Champions league. Clubs are seperate and just have the same owner.
Beam back for Millwall was a "maybe" not a firm plan. having talked about resting players KM was asked to remind GL to play the strongest team on Good Friday. KM said she has told GL he will be legend if we win. "time to change history". Tickets down to them not us.
GL likes to rotate tired players eg Igor in his first season in the Championship, the good run means we can do this.
GL says if players don't do well in training then they aern't in the squad, have to work hard.
When asked about signed players who were unfit due to not playing ie RJ, CE, AD - we went for other players who were playing but ££ too much. RJ was one of two players we were in for. RJ a leader and staff said we need more leaders on the pitch
KM say likes that there are players playing for contracts and to prove a point. Eagles, Diarra, RJ all near end of career but want to play, not just about money with them. They have to stay sharp to impress GL .
Kap10 mentioned the "bumpy ride" (really he did ) and how break even v competitive worked.
KM said she had been at the BBC today debate with Richard Scudamore on Prem v Champ.
Time frame difficult to say and even more difficult with new FFP but other clubs cutting back Forest wage bill to come down from £18m to £12m, cardiff also downsizing. Having SL helps as does academy "we would like to prove we can do it"
Prem stays a gamble. Spoke to palace and they said they were similar that they waited until Jan to see how they were doing and invested more then. Was our plan this year and will be same next. Will invest this summer anyway but will see in Jan but it stays a ganble. Would be another £2 -£3m "there is only one person the owner will come to if it goes wrong. "
We will sell players this summer but not to impact on team. Q do you mean Reza, PP or GT? A Those sort of players
have a list of players we want to keep and extend. that's the easy part. Part of the plan is to have young academy players in the team if we are in the prem. Hard but we do have good young players
"it is still money rroo, laan works for everyday" Never known him to go on hoilday.
Why did RD buys CA and the other clubs
"He finds it fascinating, fast growing part of the economy but still losing money. he has a different way of looking at it"
PSF on 25 July and maybe another in early August. No names.
No SL game. Wanted one but dates don't fit. Wanted a "big" game at the valley and players want to play against better sides but fans told her on train back from Cardiff that crowd would be 6k as summer and only a PSF
Comments
That said, well done KM and those that organised. Not sure why one person was censored though?
A lot more looking forward rather than back.
She enjoyed and she'll be back next season.
raised about 200 quid for the Upbeats and there were about 95 people there.
Anyway, more tomorrow
redactedextensive minutes by 8.00am.Katrien impresses me more each time I hear her interact with supporters.
Very open & sincere in what she says.
Feel she made a lot of friends tonight.
More tomorrow after Kings Hill Addick has filed his meeting report. In all,seriousness it was good to see fellow CL's including KHA, His Dad, HI and Fanny.
She also batted away some mildly aggressive statements which she seems to have heard before and she said has answered before.
The guy from the trust that was censored , Athletico , was because he had been invited along on the the basis that ( his words) " he would just observe and would make no comments".
Another Bromley Addicks success
I wouldn't use the work censored.
It was immediately after a question to KM about the Trust when part of her response was effectively that she did not like the way they had organised an anti ownership meeting (not her exact words but that was what she meant). A response I found disappointing as it is not accurate. It was also immediately after someone in the room had stood up to give his own negative slant on the Trust. I think a right of reply would not have been remiss and would not have side tracked the meeting. Personally I thought it was a shame.
Not in order but as the notes came out and what I remember. Lots of other Lifers there so they can chip in
Part one
Asked about herself and how she came to be at Charlton she said that she is a football fan and had worked for "the owner" before. Had lived in London before so happy to come.
Came over on her own but the job is very fulfilling and getting to know lots of people. "fallen in love with Charlton". When we played St Trudian (her original club) in the summer she supported Charlton and her friends called her a traitor (laughed) "Just from first time I saw the stadium and walked out on the the pitch I thought WOW"
JR and Gl fell in love with Charlton too. GL said he wouldn't go back to SL for three times the money, GL said it's a special club, nice, good people working at the club.
Q: Continuity? Four managers in a year?
"Would have been happy for Riga to stay but we thought BP would do a good job but got that wrong. With Guy have a good feeling, will be good for us and will stay a long time I hope".
"would have been easier but couldn't let BP carry on"
Q IS it Luzon or Watt that has made the difference? KM "players lacked confidence. Felt that they were the worse team and going down. The new players did help. Now we are winning convincingly which we never did under BP and the team spirit is there. Comes from player and manager"
TWWW - came and trained here before he had a contract, very keen, likes it and other clubs have already been asking about him
Riga, "surprised and sad" that he didn't stay but all knew it was only a contract to the summer. Now at SL so shows that "the owner" trusts him and his quality. Now in play-offs. Hold him in high regard.
Why not kept in summer "If I try to understand what the owner thinks everyday I'd go crazy"
CP saw him at Wigan when he was scouting us. Great respect and no hard feeling on her part
BP - back in Belgian and working on TV
The Sex tape: Last year sold only half the slots. Rang other clubs and they didn't have prices or only a few slots so saw it wasn't a priority for them so an opportunity for us.
Looked at different options for campaign and this was the last resort. "a bit borderline" "far too explicit" "I thought maybe just some kissing and cuddling"
They PR firm sent out the teaser without KM knowing and the press team didn't know either. Didn't tell "the owner" and thought she might get fired. It made headlines in Belgium "Sex on the field of Duchatelet" RD was OK about it when he heard how many hits it has had.
Would do it again but not in same way.
Been a real spike in enquiries. Already sold half the slots and had lots of contact from companies we've not done business with. Usual channels of the website and programme don't get us to city boys etc who want to hire a pitch. Told the commercial manager have to sell all the slots now. One german firm wanted to buy the rights to the video.
More later.
In truth he was just reminded of the ground rules that he set when he asked to come along.
The club is looking to retain the existing squad, but Eagles and Johnson will have to work to get a new contract, she is looking to bring in 2-3 players over the summer and bring in revenue from player sales, who are not involved in the first team squad. Like me the immediate response from one was that won't amount to much money, but its was then pointed out Polish Pete, Rezza and George (?).
She has a budget target each season for player sales, the budget for player purchases are flexible and next season a decision will be made based on possibility of promotion of what investment in players will be made in January.
Under Bob the players got to feel they were the "worst players in the world" and Bob could not turn the loss of confidence around. Pointed out that we are now winning in a better way than we were at the begining of the season.
Roland decides the transfer price, KM said she negotiates the best price. It did not appear that there is a specific transfer price policy.
She calls Roland to his face but calls him The Owner to "us" because we can't pronounce his name - its a sort of gutteral pronunciation.
Re the bit in bold above, does that refer to transfers within the network? Did you understand it to mean that, say, RD sets a price for, say, Tony Watt, and Katrien will try to push him down a bit (of course the quote price for TWWW is currently looking like a bargain, but I'm just trying to understand the system)
Watt, Eagles, Johnson, Diarra. These type of players should have been brought in last summer/August so you hit the ground running, improve a small squad and can keep a level of consistency throughout the season. The last 6 games have shown what can happen.
If they want a steady Championship football club for the next 10/15 years then they are going the right way about it, however it's very naive to believe you can get promoted by waiting till January. I'm just glad they finally realised we needed the four mentioned above or League One would have been on the cards.
Anyway there are plenty of meetings they dont attend, like East Kent
Looks to me as if the Trust with recent actions have just served to alienate KM further. Good work.
Asked why she refers to RD as "the owner" KM said that his name is "rro, laan" but here people call him "Row- lanD". Also at Standard they call him "the President" so she uses "the owner".
rro,laan understans that CA have the biggest potential but SL can get into the Champions league. Clubs are seperate and just have the same owner.
Beam back for Millwall was a "maybe" not a firm plan. having talked about resting players KM was asked to remind GL to play the strongest team on Good Friday. KM said she has told GL he will be legend if we win. "time to change history". Tickets down to them not us.
GL likes to rotate tired players eg Igor in his first season in the Championship, the good run means we can do this.
GL says if players don't do well in training then they aern't in the squad, have to work hard.
When asked about signed players who were unfit due to not playing ie RJ, CE, AD - we went for other players who were playing but ££ too much. RJ was one of two players we were in for. RJ a leader and staff said we need more leaders on the pitch
KM say likes that there are players playing for contracts and to prove a point. Eagles, Diarra, RJ all near end of career but want to play, not just about money with them. They have to stay sharp to impress GL .
Kap10 mentioned the "bumpy ride" (really he did ) and how break even v competitive worked.
KM said she had been at the BBC today debate with Richard Scudamore on Prem v Champ.
Time frame difficult to say and even more difficult with new FFP but other clubs cutting back Forest wage bill to come down from £18m to £12m, cardiff also downsizing. Having SL helps as does academy "we would like to prove we can do it"
Prem stays a gamble. Spoke to palace and they said they were similar that they waited until Jan to see how they were doing and invested more then. Was our plan this year and will be same next. Will invest this summer anyway but will see in Jan but it stays a ganble. Would be another £2 -£3m "there is only one person the owner will come to if it goes wrong. "
We will sell players this summer but not to impact on team. Q do you mean Reza, PP or GT? A Those sort of players
have a list of players we want to keep and extend. that's the easy part. Part of the plan is to have young academy players in the team if we are in the prem. Hard but we do have good young players
"it is still money rroo, laan works for everyday" Never known him to go on hoilday.
Why did RD buys CA and the other clubs
"He finds it fascinating, fast growing part of the economy but still losing money. he has a different way of looking at it"
PSF on 25 July and maybe another in early August. No names.
No SL game. Wanted one but dates don't fit. Wanted a "big" game at the valley and players want to play against better sides but fans told her on train back from Cardiff that crowd would be 6k as summer and only a PSF
VG is very good. Sending academy team to Italy.