Not sure who edits the BBC Sport website these days, but a nice mail to Ben Gallop, BBC Sport's radio and digital head (who used to have that role - BBC mails go firstname.surname@bbc.co.uk) might help CARD redress the balance.
Just tried to send an email about the lazy reporting of this and it failed delivery. Did I understand you correctly: gallop.ben@bbc.co.uk ?
Not sure who edits the BBC Sport website these days, but a nice mail to Ben Gallop, BBC Sport's radio and digital head (who used to have that role - BBC mails go firstname.surname@bbc.co.uk) might help CARD redress the balance.
Just tried to send an email about the lazy reporting of this and it failed delivery. Did I understand you correctly: gallop.ben@bbc.co.uk ?
The seriously misleading BBC Article and the mixed up exaggerated club / Met statement shows that the link for this is likely to be Phil Dorward. It is a completely counterproductive approach. On one level the club wants our season ticket money and responds with email complaints that they are listening and want to improve things, whilst continuing to mislead and attempt to undermine the protests / criticisms at the same time.
For me it shows a mindset that Duchatelet and Meire have not moved an inch from their position that they are right and protesting supporters are wrong. Charlton supporters are something to be managed rather than any of the coherent and clear criticisms acknowledged and acted upon. They are still considering it to be a public relations problem that will be managed by a bit of spin and campaign management.
The continuing worst thing (apart from the rubbish team on the pitch) is the lack of accountability and acknowledgement of mistakes. You get an occasional general, 'we have made mistakes' but without admitting what any of them are.
Duchatelet and Meire have broken the relationship with the supporters and it is too late for them to bring it back. The rubbish statements and the apparent background spin of BBC stories / misleading club statements are just further nails in the coffin.
Stig's "bullshit bingo" comment summed it up for me. He might be replying to some fans email (not mine so far) but he obviously couldn't prevent Meire's insistence on a meeting with Plod that lead to her attack on the club's supporters yesterday in a bid to out-do Roland's Rant { }. PR fail.
If you're told to release a statement you think is wrong you can refuse and walk away. Or shrug and say 'on your head be it' and do it. If asked later you declare 'I told them not to'. Your decision may well impact either on your reputation, or your mortgage.
He will just dress up the incompetencies of the owner and his cronies to portray CAFC as a well run club. The truths will be more skilfully hidden as we sink down the leagues.
The regime will throw money at him to protect their reputations and RD will just increase the debt already owed by the club.
I hope he enjoys his stay, however long that might be.
The thing is that Roland Duchatelet 's football strategy sucks and is a failure for any kind of success on the pitch. You can get Communication professional disaster manager consultants in, but basically a turd is still being dressed up as fine dining and ultimatley there is no disguising it. The league position, losses and dwindling crowds are evident proof of that. Alongside all the general club mismanagement. Blaming the supporters whilst extorting them to blindly support a clearly failing strategy is clearly not going to work
Add in Duchatelet's general King Canute intransience over strategy, control over major decisions, interference in the running of the club and overriding and undermining of his employees then Phil Dorward has got his work cut out for him. This is one of the reasons why Mel Baroni left. The product and the working remit sucks.
The bottom line amongst all that is that you can't polish a turd. That's the ultimate problem with the Roland Duchatelet project that is irresolvable.
At the end of the day, Phil is there to do his job of making it look like the club is doing well and CARD et al are clearly bonkers.
The BBC coverage of the CAFC/MPS statement is, whilst intriguing, probably not down to him entirely as his involvement at the BBC was rather short lived. I dare say he does have contacts and the likes of Jo Tongue were also able to put in a few words.
Ultimately he's a third party in the business of selling good news for his clients, and negating the bad news. It's frustrating for us and it does put his position directly at odds with our own.
As a man who clearly loves the sport, you can't help but ponder how he justifies his participation in enabling the dismantling of a community's football club and the active attempt at eroding its fanbase whilst destroying its history. Roland and Katrien know nothing about the sport, let alone its importance in the UK, this man however seems to pride himself on his knowledge and passion - he's made a career out of it after all.
I do wonder what kind of effect it would have on the reputation of the likes of Jo Tongue - who tries to sell her clients as respectable individuals in the industry - and Phil - who sells himself as a football man - were it to be known exactly the kind of people they were supporting. (And in Phil's case, enabling.)
Interesting stuff. The recent reply I received from the club in response to my email was clearly different in a) it was actually a reply b) it did not suggest I was likely to be arrested if I did something Tony does not like c) it was well written and seemed to acknowledged the recent PR gaffes without actually saying so directly - no mean feat as a piece of writing.
The problem for Phil, and anyone else now managing the PR is 1) it is all too late. We know the gang hate us. 2) whilst Phil is trying to put out fires with some spin, someone else at CAFC, meanwhile, would clearly prefer to tie several protesters to stakes, and solve the matter in a more "traditional" way. And this person, or persons, clearly outrank Phil and don't mind expressing their Trumpesque views on the OS.
So we are getting conflicting attitudes coming out of CAFC, on one side you have experienced PR, trying to present a more positive light on previously disastrous PR, and on the other we have Punish The Infidels. It is all a terrible mess, Phil, all over the club, and with respect, you are very unlikely to be able to fix this with well chosen words.
Good morning Philip. Any work to do today? It's press day isn't it? Have you been giving Jose media training to justify your pay? If you get frustrated polishing a turd, you can always roll it in glitter. Use those politics and modern history skills.
Reading that Linkin profile makes me roll my eyes, (in the top ten of thing I want eliminated from the world). I know what the site exists for but really this goes to prove , there is no praise like self praise. They will have widen the doors to get his head through them. Great, they have employed a top draw guy for a position that obviously needs filling. I don't see how he is going to make things better between us and the current regime by just getting very wordy. Also employing him isn't addressing the problem of conceding 3+ goals per game, no matter what spin he puts on Roly's master plan. If they the scatty owner and CEO (and lap dog) can see the need for quality staff, in this area, why can they not see the need for a coach that has coached, players that can play and back room staff that have needlessly left should have been retained. Surely in a professional football club, first and foremost, is the organisation and success of the 1st team. Everything else supports the 1st team. I think these idiots are putting the cart in front of the horse.
Us Interim Managers will sell our souls for a " bag of cash and some good French porn" much as The Cardinal suggests ! When I'm back from hols I'll try to contact him via LinkedIn see he will bite
@Cardinal Sin All PR people argue that everybody has the right to be represented to the public ( in return for payment) , in the same way that even a murderer has a right to a competent lawyer. However in much the same way that even the best lawyers lose cases, PR cannot disguise a company's fundamental problems. The turd polishing analogy is indeed relevant, as is your point that essentially many PR people will give it a go, if the money is right.
I can see the picture now, Riga is pleading with KM to get him a goal-scoring striker. "What do they call them in English, ah, yes, I need a forward on loan, a fill-in forward". KM wasn't really listening, so got a Phil Doward instead.
Says it all that the the club are willing to pay top money for a spin doctor but are quite happy with the bottom of the barrel scraping of an under qualified lawyer as CEO and a bloke that used to shout at minimum wage serving staff at as the COO
If you get your senior manager right you don't need to spend a massive chunk of money to try and spin cock ups.
At the end of the day, Phil is there to do his job of making it look like the club is doing well and CARD et al are clearly bonkers.
The BBC coverage of the CAFC/MPS statement is, whilst intriguing, probably not down to him entirely as his involvement at the BBC was rather short lived. I dare say he does have contacts and the likes of Jo Tongue were also able to put in a few words.
Ultimately he's a third party in the business of selling good news for his clients, and negating the bad news. It's frustrating for us and it does put his position directly at odds with our own.
As a man who clearly loves the sport, you can't help but ponder how he justifies his participation in enabling the dismantling of a community's football club and the active attempt at eroding its fanbase whilst destroying its history. Roland and Katrien know nothing about the sport, let alone its importance in the UK, this man however seems to pride himself on his knowledge and passion - he's made a career out of it after all.
I do wonder what kind of effect it would have on the reputation of the likes of Jo Tongue - who tries to sell her clients as respectable individuals in the industry - and Phil - who sells himself as a football man - were it to be known exactly the kind of people they were supporting. (And in Phil's case, enabling.)
The good thing is that Roland and KM are incompetent at every level, with every move they make. Incompetence that will defeat even Phil's experience
Comments
For me it shows a mindset that Duchatelet and Meire have not moved an inch from their position that they are right and protesting supporters are wrong. Charlton supporters are something to be managed rather than any of the coherent and clear criticisms acknowledged and acted upon. They are still considering it to be a public relations problem that will be managed by a bit of spin and campaign management.
The continuing worst thing (apart from the rubbish team on the pitch) is the lack of accountability and acknowledgement of mistakes. You get an occasional general, 'we have made mistakes' but without admitting what any of them are.
Duchatelet and Meire have broken the relationship with the supporters and it is too late for them to bring it back. The rubbish statements and the apparent background spin of BBC stories / misleading club statements are just further nails in the coffin.
Second, where was he when the awful, finger-pointing, supporter-hating MPS joint statement went out?
Seems this bloke, rather than being part of the solution is already proving to be adept at exacerbating the disastrous situation.
Or shrug and say 'on your head be it' and do it. If asked later you declare 'I told them not to'.
Your decision may well impact either on your reputation, or your mortgage.
He will just dress up the incompetencies of the owner and his cronies to portray CAFC as a well run club. The truths will be more skilfully hidden as we sink down the leagues.
The regime will throw money at him to protect their reputations and RD will just increase the debt already owed by the club.
I hope he enjoys his stay, however long that might be.
Add in Duchatelet's general King Canute intransience over strategy, control over major decisions, interference in the running of the club and overriding and undermining of his employees then Phil Dorward has got his work cut out for him. This is one of the reasons why Mel Baroni left. The product and the working remit sucks.
The bottom line amongst all that is that you can't polish a turd. That's the ultimate problem with the Roland Duchatelet project that is irresolvable.
The BBC coverage of the CAFC/MPS statement is, whilst intriguing, probably not down to him entirely as his involvement at the BBC was rather short lived. I dare say he does have contacts and the likes of Jo Tongue were also able to put in a few words.
Ultimately he's a third party in the business of selling good news for his clients, and negating the bad news. It's frustrating for us and it does put his position directly at odds with our own.
As a man who clearly loves the sport, you can't help but ponder how he justifies his participation in enabling the dismantling of a community's football club and the active attempt at eroding its fanbase whilst destroying its history. Roland and Katrien know nothing about the sport, let alone its importance in the UK, this man however seems to pride himself on his knowledge and passion - he's made a career out of it after all.
I do wonder what kind of effect it would have on the reputation of the likes of Jo Tongue - who tries to sell her clients as respectable individuals in the industry - and Phil - who sells himself as a football man - were it to be known exactly the kind of people they were supporting. (And in Phil's case, enabling.)
The recent reply I received from the club in response to my email was clearly different in
a) it was actually a reply
b) it did not suggest I was likely to be arrested if I did something Tony does not like
c) it was well written and seemed to acknowledged the recent PR gaffes without actually saying so directly - no mean feat as a piece of writing.
The problem for Phil, and anyone else now managing the PR is
1) it is all too late. We know the gang hate us.
2) whilst Phil is trying to put out fires with some spin, someone else at CAFC, meanwhile, would clearly prefer to tie several protesters to stakes, and solve the matter in a more "traditional" way. And this person, or persons, clearly outrank Phil and don't mind expressing their Trumpesque views on the OS.
So we are getting conflicting attitudes coming out of CAFC, on one side you have experienced PR, trying to present a more positive light on previously disastrous PR, and on the other we have Punish The Infidels.
It is all a terrible mess, Phil, all over the club, and with respect, you are very unlikely to be able to fix this with well chosen words.
It's press day isn't it? Have you been giving Jose media training to justify your pay?
If you get frustrated polishing a turd, you can always roll it in glitter.
Use those politics and modern history skills.
Great, they have employed a top draw guy for a position that obviously needs filling. I don't see how he is going to make things better between us and the current regime by just getting very wordy. Also employing him isn't addressing the problem of conceding 3+ goals per game, no matter what spin he puts on Roly's master plan.
If they the scatty owner and CEO (and lap dog) can see the need for quality staff, in this area, why can they not see the need for a coach that has coached, players that can play and back room staff that have needlessly left should have been retained.
Surely in a professional football club, first and foremost, is the organisation and success of the 1st team. Everything else supports the 1st team.
I think these idiots are putting the cart in front of the horse.
Us Interim Managers will sell our souls for a " bag of cash and some good French porn" much as The Cardinal suggests ! When I'm back from hols I'll try to contact him via LinkedIn see he will bite
If you get your senior manager right you don't need to spend a massive chunk of money to try and spin cock ups.
It's too late for that.