He bought the club for serious money. His money that he earn't as a successful entrepreneur. Not some oil/gas billionaire, oligarch or dodgy businessman.
There has been a negative vibe promoted by a sub section of fans ever since he arrived.
His investment in sorting out our pitch, which was a disgrace is ignored.
His investment in the team again is ignored or considered not good enough.
He has been accused of picking the team, buying us to be a feeder team for SL and selling our players to make a profit. (None of which has happened).
I bet a lot of clubs would love to have him as there owner. I think we are very lucky. Especially after Slater & Co.
Personally I am embarrassed by all of this. Especially tonights meeting. Makes us look like a bunch of ingrates.
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For me, I think we deserve better than to be thrust into an experimental network of disparate football clubs to which we have no connection.
If you have the time, I tried to explain some of these feelings here:
http://valleytalkblog.com/2015/02/18/roland-duchatelets-unhappy-congregation/
Of course, he was bullied mercilessly at that comprehensive just because of a problem with his weight.
Thank God standards have risen and it is now Grange Hill Academy...
He is ruthless, clueless and inflexible in equal measures with a stack of cash most us could only earn in centuries.
Poor bloke!
Are we supposed to tug our forelock at him now?!
I'm sure the win at the weekend has pissed off some of tonight's meeting attendees
He has shown how ruthless he can be over and over again - At this club and at others
He is inflexible and seldom changes his mind in response to others ideas which is why the Liege fans call him rain man.
He appears to have no real strategy for this or other clubs as evidenced by the apparent confusion around his strategy.
Source! It's a football forum not at PhD thesis!
Sorry but I can think of lots of people to feel sorry for but this bloke ain't one of them
*What difference does this make?
There has been a negative vibe promoted by a sub section of fans ever since he arrived.
*Do you think that they might have an agenda?
His investment in sorting out our pitch, which was a disgrace is ignored.
*Hardly ignored. I have often seen positive comments about this aspect of his ownership. Most comments also tend to say this pales into insignificance when you see the rest of his ownership.
His investment in the team again is ignored or considered not good enough.
*I have not seen any reliable reports of money spent on getting players. But surely the costs are not the issue, they are how effective have the signings been I would say. Until the last match I would have thought that there is large majority ( my take) that would say that the signings overall have been sadly lacking when tried and trusted players have been let go without any seeming sense, explanation or effective replacements in general.
He has been accused of picking the team, buying us to be a feeder team for SL and selling our players to make a profit. (None of which has happened).
*He has been accused by more than one outgoing 'manager' and a coach of picking the team. Do you not believe them?
I bet a lot of clubs would love to have him as there owner. I think we are very lucky. Especially after Slater & Co.
Personally I am embarrassed by all of this. Especially tonights meeting. Makes us look like a bunch of ingrates.
*I didn't attend the meeting so cannot comment, but I can't think of too many fans who would want RD and would suggest only those who's club is about to go to the wall would say OK, but 'love'?
I am none the wiser after your random opinions.
He hasn't paid off Dowie or some other know nothing and his very well paid agent for a million or two yet we haven't sunk to League 1 like last time.
Sounds like prudent financial management to me.
Which is nice.
I think that we await the proof of the pudding with respect to RD and Charlton Athletic and tbf we all need to take a step back from making snap judgments. Of course it would help if RD felt able to be more open to his customers if he wants to keep all of them as such.
Poor Roland. All he wants to do is help us and make us happy.
I do not have a problem with the network idea on principal, unlike some. I do think we could be doing it better, but that is also partly based on me having to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of its workings through hearsay and educated guess work because no one inside has ever really taken the time to sit down and explain it to me.
I do not have a problem with signing foreign players as long as they are good enough, or are least thought to be at the time based on well informed judgements. I don't even have a problem with signing no one at all if that is all we can afford.
I don't believe that Roland has it in for us, in fact quite the opposite as there seems little value in it for him if we fail as a club and investment in things like the stadium (and players for that matter) do not indicate us being left to rot in the way Mick and Tone (and Kev) were doing. The trouble is I'm not really sure what Roland intends for us because he hasn't really told us. If he just sees us as a mid-table Championship team I can live with that, just as long as I know not to get my hopes up too much for something more.
The thing which moved me into the heavily sceptical camp (I'm not anti-Roland per say but I'm not entirely happy with everything that has happened on his watch) was the Luzon debacle. Not only did I feel like the club were not straight with us in that instance it has made me look back at other communications and cast doubt over how honest some of those were too. KM has now had a few opportunities to address the Luzon situation and other issues and has either clammed up a bit of given pretty thin, superficial answers. I feel a little sorry for her though as its really Roland who should be fielding those questions. I bear Luzon himself no ill will, I may even grow to like the bloke but I think the club put him in a shit situation by trying to make out he was chosen after a thorough process, when he'd probably have been better received if he'd just been announced as manager like Riga was.
It's like the club have started anticipating bad reactions before they have come and are trying to release information in the manner which will least cause controversy, but their ham-fisted attempts are actually creating more controversy than if they just gave us the truth straight, warts and all.
Charlton fans have stuck by this club through some much thinner times than this. We are a loyal and supportive bunch on the whole. We have certainly shown we can stomach watching a shit team as the club disappears up shit creek, but the club are treating us like trouble makers who can't be trusted and I'm afraid that has made a lot of people feel the same about the people in charge of the club.
Actually, Roland probably isn't all bad news and the club probably isn't hiding much from us and the fans will probably not cause a scene every time there is less than positive news but we've got caught in this vicious circle now where the fans don't feel they can trust what the club says and the club doesn't feel it can be open with the fans and each time it happens we all trust each other a little less. But, I'm afraid, Roland started it so no I don't feel sorry for him, but I'll forgive him if he improves his attitude towards us.
Hope that makes you happy.
PS
Sadly I used the voucher for an elderly, vociferous gentleman at the meeting tonight. He was delighted!
But in the VIP meeting yesterday (and to my mind, several times previously), KM was absolutely clear that the ambition was to be an established Championship club, yes she wanted to work towards the Premiership in time, but she wanted to be very realistic and was not going to make wild promises about when that would be.
Isn't that exactly telling you what she intends for the club? What more do you want to know?
So you stick that in the equation, and work out (yes it is an inexact science I know) from the stats how to arrange things just well enough to be one of the 85%. To a mathematician this kind of reasoning may appeal, the kind that says basically there is a good chance each season of being all right without killing yourself trying.
Perhaps an 'established championship club' means not being one of the unfortunate 15% and hey presto you're 'established'. It does not have to mean you strive that hard for promotion, or success, be just about good enough, the Yoni Buyens approach if you like!
I like to feel the club is genuinely going to strive for success in playing and results terms, or at the very least not think that the club doesn't give much of a damn. Now how I 'feel' is also an inexact science, it is not a tangible thing to me, or to other supporters, but how we feel about the ambition of the team will ultimately be reflected in attendances.