By that I mean not only the spin being flung in our general direction; the key question it seems to me is this - are Charlton fans going to keep buying the "product" that RD and KM are in the process of transforming into something ...erm...or other.
You see, I'm not sure I actually know what they are trying to do with the club. The obvious answer would presumably be make it successful and profitable, but it is here that I suspect his interpretation of what that means may be at odds with his valued customers' perspective.
And I think this is the crux of the problem and where it starts to get dangerous for him and this club.
Most Charlton fans are a fairly down to earth sensible lot who have seen enough grim times and good times to know that with football you have to sometimes take the rough with the smooth, that it often all ends in tears, in either direction on the scale of joy and pain.
We like to feel a bit of kinship with the players, the manager, and the board in the sense that we like to believe that we all want the same thing - good entertaining football on the pitch if the playing staff can manage it ( ok not every week, we are experienced enough with the Charlton Way to know this does not always happen) ; we want a shared understanding that success for this club is aiming for the top half of the Championship, with half an eye on top six/ automatic promotion. We like watching football and that is our yardstick for success. We know it may not happen but that's the sphere of operation where most of us would like to see Charlton as generally being or where we are heading.Or better if, surprise surprise, all goes well.
We are not a stupid lot, we like to be shown a little respect, because the supporters of this club have a unique and remarkable history. We do not like receiving economy class truths. We prefer a little honesty and even harsh truths, if it helps us understand the difficulties and complexities.Then you get our support, full on. We're with you, we're in it together.
We know football finances are a mess and largely unsustainable as they stand. We know this club probably runs at a loss in the Championship and that a new owner needs to address this somehow.
But the critical thing here, I believe, is that the club take its supporters with them into this brave new world. The Network has been presented as promising so much to us but the Network is inexplicable to me. What is it? It seems like it is all a big secret, and I am not worthy enough to be in on it. I cannot buy into your vision Roland because I do not really understand what it is, and to be honest, I am not sure you really want me to know anyway.
But we are your fan base, without your customers returning, and their revenue, this club is lost.
Roland, when people who love Charlton are losing the desire to go, you are doing something wrong.
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Well said, young man.
When the likes of Dick plumb stops going the Network Project(what else can you call it) has lost the hearts and mind of it's fans,
Once you want customers not fans you will lose loyalty and end up with selling tickets for one off games to different Europeans on vacation who on the morning of the game would come to the valley because they can't get into a prem game in London. This should be as well as not instead of fans who have been coming for generations.
Once the baton is dropped from parent to child at the valley we might lose that link for ever.
That line is, for me, the stumbling block. With no real knowlege of the financial side of the "business", I really can't imagine any club being successful and profitable outside of the premier league and going by what we've seen over the past 12 months, RD isn't prepared to spend the money to get us there............
I don't see how RD can have a proper formulated plan about what he intends to do with the club because he doesn't seem to understand what he has bought. He seems to think that the Championship is just another tin pot European second tier competition, when we know that simply isn't the case. It's puzzling to me that someone with so much money who has been so successful in business over the years, could buy a product without first realising what that product is. More than that, he doesn't seem to be learning too much about it either. I think because of that, he is loathe to share his vision with the fanbase.
Unless there is some kind of lightbulb moment, I don't think he will rethink his plan until we are actually relegated from the division. At that point it's possible that he will take note of the situation but what then? Does he start putting money into a club that is haemorrhaging money or does he try to offload us because he doesn't have the wherewithal to continue with his experiment? Of course it's just as likely that he will go on to underestimate League One in the very same way, another very competitive division which is extremely difficult to get out of without the right investment.
Completely baffled - I don't know exactly how much Duchatelet paid for the club in the end, but however much it was, we'll be worth a hell of a lot less as a League 1 club that's alienated a significant proportion of its supporters.
So the resale value will drop significantly, and the overall cost of owning the club will presumably increase - lower running costs yes, but less tv income, less sponsorship money and significantly less ticket revenue to pay those costs with. The player values will drop as well, transfer fees for League 1 players are lower than those for Championship players. Don't get it at all. The fact that Roland's made a managerial change (albeit a ridiculous one) suggests that he doesn't want us to get relegated, but the lack of satisfactory transfer activity suggests that he wants to get us relegated to the Dog and Duck Sunday League as quickly as possible. I initially thought that Roland was some sort of evil genius who had a masterplan that would work for him but be hated by us. I am now starting to think that he's just a clueless tit.
So here we are the transfer window is closed and we don’t have any additions to a meagre squad that is struggling despite assurances to the contrary from Duchatelet and Katrien. So where does that leave us? Well firstly we have an owner with an agenda that is based on his core business practices that bears no resemblance to how a Football club should be run. Clearly from other posts what he creates is moving all the clubs in his network to the lowest common denominator by diluting the playing and dare I saw coaching talent without any regard to the effects of this policy. Indeed if you were a conspiracy theorist it is possible he only views CAFC as an asset in terms of the position and size of the plot of land the club stands on, and that is really worrying because that implies that ultimately all he is really interested in is cashing in the asset which in fact would be easier to do if the club had slipped down the leagues and had sparse support, wouldn’t be so easy if we were in the Premier league with 28,000 in every home game.
Of course some argue that he actually saved us from relegation last season by getting rid of a manager who appeared to have lost his way (CP) and appointing someone who led us to safety and at the same time also getting rid of Slater and Jimenez who were completely disinterested in the club. He also gave us a new pitch (paid for by the Kermogant transfer fee) a bunch of promises and yet another new manager (BP) to start the season. Of course all that is true but now what is being been done appears to be 100% at his behest with no discussion or flexibility of approach “My Club my rules” applies here and that kind of dogma does not work long term. I also believe that he has completely underestimated the quality and competitiveness of The Championship this isn’t the Belgium second division it’s a proper Football league, with proper players and good managers but then why would he realise that he knows shag all about Football?
Like all very successful people he has an expertise in his business arena but that doesn’t make him an expert on everything and clearly he knows sweet FA about Football but who’s going to challenge him? and as for Katrien well she is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard, what is her role? How can she advise anyone on Football matters?. What make the whole situation worse is that this dysfunctional system will be known around the game pretty quickly, I know from my own industry how quickly bad news travels, and decent players will never want to come here. Dissatisfied players, a coach nobody wants or believes in and form that has relegation written all over it is the order of the day at the moment and honestly it is hard to see how that will change now.
The best we can look forward to now is a struggle to the end of the season with the vain hope that we can stay up but with no fresh injection of talent and energy that is looking seriously doubtful. Still you never know Luzon might wake up one morning and realise that you need to play two up top to give Vetokele some help, that we can play midfielders who will move the ball forwards instead of sideways and that Gomez may be worth starting as he can actually play football. You can only hope.
I leave you with the quote from Albert Einstein “The true definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” Sound familiar Roland?
wait til mehmet reads this
3 blokes hitting fannys spot , it has to be on video