Why would he have then spent so much in stadium improvements if the plan is to move!
How much has he spent ?
I think £2m was mentioned by KM at the fans meeting. I would imagine a large chunk of that would be the pitch.
Wasn't there a rumour that the cost of upgrading the pitch was included in the price RD paid for the club ?
Can't remember if it came from a viable source but it stands to reason that the state of the pitch would have come up during due diligence phase and would therefore have been addressed during the negotiations to buy the club.
I don't know to be honest, but I think it's fair to say that there was no choice but to get it done. It's not like they did it out of the goodness of their hearts.
I look at it this way, if I were buying a property and a major part of it needed to be ripped out and put back together, I'd expect that to be reflected in the price and I'd use it as a bargaining chip.
Precisely, I think crediting Roland for saving our pitch might possibly be being too kind to him.
Surely there are better (and faster) ways of making money then going through a multi-year protracted plan to ruin the club and sell the stadium for a few quid? Like promotion maybe?
Surely there are better (and faster) ways of making money then going through a multi-year protracted plan to ruin the club and sell the stadium for a few quid? Like promotion maybe?
Does anybody else find that interview a little disturbing? He comes across a bit like some sort of Bond villain.....all he needs is a swimming pool with a shark in it, a cat on his lap and he's almost there. Palace get 50m and we get Blofeld, Oddjob and Nick Nack.
At the moment this does seem like roly's plan , The valley would be prime building land and the goverment would welcome it. Sending us down to div 1 or 2 in his mind would then have a reason to send us to some new small stadium for 10k fans at the most. The academy would produce young players for roly 2 sell on to championship or prem teams. roly does not care about Charlton or our history. It really is tragic. Just hope all the hostility gets to KM and him and sells soon.
The Daily Mirror reports: 'The struggling Addicks, second-bottom in the Championship, want to raise at least £2m in January and prepared to sacrifice some of their stars to bring in some much-needed money. Though the Charlton board risk further angering their fans, who are already protesting against owner Roland Duchatelet and the current regime, with their fundraising plans.
They are desperate for striker Tony Watt’s loan move to Cardiff to become a permanent one, bringing in around £1m. Highest earner and winger Johann Gudmundsson, in-demand teenage starlet Ademola Lookman and striker Igor Vetokele are among those who could go too.
Charlton are bracing themselves for January bids for Lookman from Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea and could now cash in to ease their money worries. But the sale of the 18 year-old academy product in particular would be an especially controversial decision and crank up the animosity towards the board from Charlton fans.'
At the moment this does seem like roly's plan , The valley would be prime building land and the goverment would welcome it. Sending us down to div 1 or 2 in his mind would then have a reason to send us to some new small stadium for 10k fans at the most. The academy would produce young players for roly 2 sell on to championship or prem teams. roly does not care about Charlton or our history. It really is tragic. Just hope all the hostility gets to KM and him and sells soon.
Duchatelet is okay sat in another country, so leaves squirrel face to take the flak.
RD's problem (and ours) is that he doesn't accept that the survive, yet alone compete successfully, in the UK Championship you need a bigger squad than he (and his unknown back room advisers) have determined we - and each of his other clubs - should have. The bottom line isn't necessarily that he has a sinister plan, more likely that he doesn't understand and won't seek advice on what he needs to do. He's obstinate; some might say ill informed and arrogant. However, at present we are the only one of his five teams that isn't performing well. From his point of view he might try and salvage the position in January, or, he might decide he's done quite enough for now (given his theories) and just let Charlton float down to whatever level it ends up at.
Assuming the worst, and no sale to new owners, and given his indifference in dealing with ordinary supporters, the question arises at what point should heavier artillery try and reason with Duchatalet? By this I would mean local MPs demanding explanations and guarantees from him and the local authority making it clear that they are not up for the club being shipped off to another area in a mini-stadium, and won't agree any plan to do this and redevelop the Valley......unless he delivers stability, a successful side and a good level of community engagement, at the broadest level.
In other words - should we take our concerns to a higher level?
His plan is to stamp his feet at the financial "silliness" of this game called football and try and fundamentally change it based on an algorithm he developed in his mums loft in Brusselwaft...
He tried this approach at a club in his home country and it failed so he has now tried it here... and when it fails again I not sure what will happen...
But I trust in the power of the supporters of this club and finally we seem unified.... it may mean a trip to the lower leagues... but it most also have a huge galvanising affect on the club, when he leaves many would return I feel... So often in life our biggest nightmares turn out to be our greatest gifts...
Duchie boy is clearly highly ideological. He just wants to prove that you can make a profit in the English leagues and believes that the way to do so is with youth. Young players, young CEOs and young managers. This is all well and good until shit hits the fan and you realise you need experienced heads to help. However he won't change until he succeeds. We won't protest against him though, our best hope is that he pops his clogs.
Much as I loathe Duchatelet (almost as much as his puppet Meire) I find it hard to believe he would go through all this, and spend so much money and time, to acquire a few acres of land in SE7. If he was into property and wanted to develop in London then there's a lot of other sites in similar areas he could have piled his brilliance and cash into. I suspect amid all the conspiracy theories, the answer is simpler and more frightening. He has a massive ego, supreme arrogance and money. he tried to bulldoze his way and this thinking into Belgian politics and failed miserably. He is trying to show he can succeed in football with a new approach. he won't, of course ...
People should note too that the Valley is not that great a development site.......firstly the council would need to be squared (which they may string out for years) secondly the planning regime in the UK is not like that in Europe - we have a system whereby every local resident can object AND the application is decided, at least initially by local councillors - and thirdly, I did some work for Greenwich 10+ years ago looking at their housing estates in SE7 and found out that the Valley was originally infilled and leveled by spoil from the South Metropolitan Gas Works. In other words the soil beneath the pitch is highly contaminated and would need to be removed prior to any redevelopment, thus greatly increasing the costs.
The view I've arrived at is that our plight isn't down to a shortage of ok players particularly (we surely have enough to survive in the Championship) nor down to inadequate managers (though the latest is the weakest so far) but down to RD being obstinate and insisting that with his football theories he can drive Charlton into the UK Premiership in the same way that he could pick a club from a market town in Flanders, Spain or Hungary and get them promoted to the top flight.
I guess we could all agree that arrogant is a good single word description.
People should note too that the Valley is not that great a development site.......firstly the council would need to be squared (which they may string out for years) secondly the planning regime in the UK is not like that in Europe - we have a system whereby every local resident can object AND the application is decided, at least initially by local councillors - and thirdly, I did some work for Greenwich 10+ years ago looking at their housing estates in SE7 and found out that the Valley was originally infilled and leveled by spoil from the South Metropolitan Gas Works. In other words the soil beneath the pitch is highly contaminated and would need to be removed prior to any redevelopment, thus greatly increasing the costs.
The view I've arrived at is that our plight isn't down to a shortage of ok players particularly (we surely have enough to survive in the Championship) nor down to inadequate managers (though the latest is the weakest so far) but down to RD being obstinate and insisting that with his football theories he can drive Charlton into the UK Premiership in the same way that he could pick a club from a market town in Flanders, Spain or Hungary and get them promoted to the top flight.
I guess we could all agree that arrogant is a good single word description.
Lets hope 2016 isn't a complete disaster
You was doing alright until you mentioned The Prem.
If his ambition was The Prem, he wouldn't be selling our better players consistently and replacing them with kids and foreign crocks.
Comments
He comes across a bit like some sort of Bond villain.....all he needs is a swimming pool with a shark in it, a cat on his lap and he's almost there.
Palace get 50m and we get Blofeld, Oddjob and Nick Nack.
The Daily Mirror reports: 'The struggling Addicks, second-bottom in the Championship, want to raise at least £2m in January and prepared to sacrifice some of their stars to bring in some much-needed money. Though the Charlton board risk further angering their fans, who are already protesting against owner Roland Duchatelet and the current regime, with their fundraising plans.
They are desperate for striker Tony Watt’s loan move to Cardiff to become a permanent one, bringing in around £1m. Highest earner and winger Johann Gudmundsson, in-demand teenage starlet Ademola Lookman and striker Igor Vetokele are among those who could go too.
Charlton are bracing themselves for January bids for Lookman from Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea and could now cash in to ease their money worries. But the sale of the 18 year-old academy product in particular would be an especially controversial decision and crank up the animosity towards the board from Charlton fans.'
Assuming the worst, and no sale to new owners, and given his indifference in dealing with ordinary supporters, the question arises at what point should heavier artillery try and reason with Duchatalet? By this I would mean local MPs demanding explanations and guarantees from him and the local authority making it clear that they are not up for the club being shipped off to another area in a mini-stadium, and won't agree any plan to do this and redevelop the Valley......unless he delivers stability, a successful side and a good level of community engagement, at the broadest level.
In other words - should we take our concerns to a higher level?
He tried this approach at a club in his home country and it failed so he has now tried it here... and when it fails again I not sure what will happen...
But I trust in the power of the supporters of this club and finally we seem unified.... it may mean a trip to the lower leagues... but it most also have a huge galvanising affect on the club, when he leaves many would return I feel... So often in life our biggest nightmares turn out to be our greatest gifts...
The view I've arrived at is that our plight isn't down to a shortage of ok players particularly (we surely have enough to survive in the Championship) nor down to inadequate managers (though the latest is the weakest so far) but down to RD being obstinate and insisting that with his football theories he can drive Charlton into the UK Premiership in the same way that he could pick a club from a market town in Flanders, Spain or Hungary and get them promoted to the top flight.
I guess we could all agree that arrogant is a good single word description.
Lets hope 2016 isn't a complete disaster
If his ambition was The Prem, he wouldn't be selling our better players consistently and replacing them with kids and foreign crocks.
"Better seeking alternatives then doing nothing in Apathy"