The Trust's January Questions - mostly still unanswered

Weegie Addick

Below is the list of questions CAS Trust put together on January 7th following Richard Murray's staged Q&A.
These were published on the Trust website and reported in the Evening Standard.
They were also sent directly to RD, KM and RM.
I've deleted the one that is no longer relevant and added what I perceive to be a couple of cursory answers.

• Why are the same mistakes still being made in player recruitment and underestimating the Championship two years on?

• We are informed that the wages budget has increased by 40%, yet the league position is worse and the squad seems weaker. What has gone wrong and how will the club address this?

• Why is Karel Fraeye still interim head coach? Does the board genuinely believe that Karel Fraeye has the knowledge and experience to get Charlton out of the relegation zone? If not, what is being done to recruit a permanent manager?

• The stated strategy is to be a financially stable club, who can be competitive in the Championship, but has Premier League ambitions. In our view this is a goal, not a strategy. Katrien Meire described her proposition as being uniquely focused on being able to watch young footballers in the shop window before they’re sold to Premier League clubs and become stars. Is this consistent with Premier League ambition for Charlton?

• What does the Club understand to be the reasons that fans are protesting in large and growing numbers? Because we are bottom of the league (NB, we weren't at the time Q was posed.)

• Why does the Club, contrary to the commitments of the Club’s Charter, repeatedly fail to respond to correspondence from fans politely expressing their concerns?

• What does the club intend to do to rebuild the relationship with fans?

• Why was the recent approach from Peter Varney ignored? We thought he wanted to buy a billboard.

MrLargo

Thanks for posting this. Very helpfully highlights how wishy washy and meaningless RD's interviews on the website and with the SLP were.

Still not sure whether RD and KM are evil masterminds or just totally incompetent, although inclined to stick with the latter. I think RD probably feels that he's put our minds at rest over the last couple of days, despite the fact that he's told us nothing we didn't know already. He made a tiny step in the right direction by acknowledging that a couple of things had been handled badly, but that's ultimately meaningless unless accompanied by a clear statement explaining how things will be done better in future.

Will the Trust be resending these questions to the club, and pointing out that RD has still failed to properly answer any of them, despite waffling on for a good couple of hours during his various interviews?

Weegie Addick

Thanks @MrLargo. We'll be discussing how to respond over next few days. I'll certainly raise the issue of lack of answers with my colleagues on the Trust Board.

MrLargo

Weegie Addick said:

Thanks @MrLargo. We'll be discussing how to respond over next few days. I'll certainly raise the issue of lack of answers with my colleagues on the Trust Board.

Good stuff, well done. For what it's worth, I doubt we'll ever get where we want to be in terms of getting answers to these questions - I get the impression that Roland and Katrien just don't understand, or are unwilling to share, what we are looking for in terms of properly communicating their vision (although it's gradually becoming worryingly apparent). However, that's no reason not to keep pointing out where their going wrong.

Keep up the good work.

Covered End

Have the Trust contacted The Football League to discuss whether RD is fit & proper ?

He may be under the current definition, but will he be investigated, bearing in mind he owns a club, that he doesn't care whether they win football games.

Surely this is against the rules of sport and the fit & proper definition needs to be amended ?