Our only other option is to attract some egotistical mug to gamble a minimum of £50m to get us into the premiership - Any takers ?
The "egotistical mugs" at QPR wrote off £50 million of debt the club owed them by converting it to equity (i.e. more shares on paper in a club they already owned). The ruthless Leicester owners wrote off £100 million in the same way. There are other examples. Any takers? Yes, there certainly are.
Instead, we have an egotistical mug that gets Charlton to borrow off of another company that he owns. I kind of see Strapix like a loan shark, might not be money owed to a bank but it's still an owed debt
Yes, exactly. In their last season in the Championship, Leicester's wage bill was £31 million. There is no way that the Duchatelet model is going to be truly competitive in the Championship. Instead, we're just racking up debt to him.
Next season in L1 doesn't bear thinking about, but it's unlikely we'll be genuinely competitive on the pitch at that level, either. What it will do is reduce us to a level more suited to the network swaps model (in a network without SL, of course).
I agree it's depressing that having to sell our young players amounts to a lack of ambition in terms of getting into the premiership but the truth is we were technically bankrupt before new owner came in. Our only other option is to attract some egotistical mug to gamble a minimum of £50m to get us into the premiership - Any takers ? Ps just like to post out that after the recent Brentford away win none of the players, other than Sanago really wanted to come and celebrate with the fans - telling don't you think
Lol lol. You and your Belgiums have not got a fucking clue how to run a proper football club. End of. You are failures.
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ? Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
I agree it's depressing that having to sell our young players amounts to a lack of ambition in terms of getting into the premiership but the truth is we were technically bankrupt before new owner came in. Our only other option is to attract some egotistical mug to gamble a minimum of £50m to get us into the premiership - Any takers ? Ps just like to post out that after the recent Brentford away win none of the players, other than Sanago really wanted to come and celebrate with the fans - telling don't you think
On the off chance that this is a genuine post, then I'd like to apologise for the reception you're likely to receive. However, I'd also like to explain it. In the past few days we've had a sharp increase in posters like yourself, who seem to be more supportive of the current owners than the average supporter. Ordinarily, that would be welcomed.
Unfortunately though, and you've done it yourself in this thread, when these posters are questioned and responded too - they don't appear to take part in a healthy discussion. They are very quick to repeat the same platitudes - for example about the only other alternatives being "egotistical mugs". This is why patience wears thin and such posts are viewed with a great deal of suspicion.
For the record, Roland Duchatelet is the definition of an "egotistical mug". When confronted with angry fans in Belgian he implied that they were all unemployed and had nothing better do with their time, more recently he likened himself to Alan Turing during an interview. This guy is incredibly egotistical, so if an "egotistical mug" - your words - owning the club is the worst case scenario, then we're already in that situation.
Your point about Brentford is interesting, and would suggest team morale is at rock bottom: but this isn't news to anyone. I'm not sure if you're inferring that the players are currently angry towards the fans due to protests, but if so - you're wrong. Multiple players have spoke about this - including Jacko on multiple occasions, Henderson on Twitter, Makienok to the NewsShopper etc - and have said the protests don't affect them.
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ? Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
No Duchatalet is hated because he is a football failure. He could spend all his widget profits on the club and it would still fail. He just does not have a clue about competitive sport and why people follow teams. Duchatalet Does Failure.
NO, no we should not make promises that we can't possibly keep! Leave that the the Chelsea 's of this world who are paying kids 17 bags a week just to keep them from other clubs
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ? Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
Rat isn't hated because he won't throw money at the club. What makes you think that Sue?
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ?
Peter Varney has been confirmed to have potential investors. Your very own Katrien Meire has stated that there are always potential buyers. Even Bolton found buyers when their situation is, financially and with regards to quality, much worse than ours.
Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash
He's not though. Many of us welcomed his approach to sustainable football.
He's hated because he has appointed an inept CEO who has repeatedly alienated fans. He's lost the quality of staff - both on and off the pitch - that we possessed, and replaced them with people who haven't been qualified and have failed.
His financial handling of the club isn't ideal either.
Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3
Perhaps. But this isn't about promotion, some of us don't want to be outpriced of our football club - something that is likely with Premier League pricing.
If this was simply about promotion then it would be interesting as a lot of us - including myself - thought our League One season was the best in a long time. There was unity at Charlton and a feel good factor, we had staff and players who were likable and a real team mentality. We had OUR club.
Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Once again, how is this purely about finances? See above.
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can
True, inter-company loans are very common.
Have you seen the effect that Roland's financial management had on Standard Liege post-sale though?
I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
You mentioned this before, and I fail to see what you're getting at. Multiple team members have stated their feelings towards the protests.
I fear you let your mask slip towards the end there. You'd gone from seeming like a well intentioned fan who wasn't quite aware of the reasons we were protesting, then made it clear you were aware of the intricacies that were discussed with regards to our accounts..
Either you read those discussions and understand just how complex the situation is, or your purposefully pretending to know less than you really do. Now why would someone do that...?
The players don't get paid in monopoly money, it is debt by Charlton to Staprix, not Roland shelling out. In addition loads of that debt is down to diabolical player acquisitions sanctioned by, guess who, Roland. Roland is not fannying around with his own money at all but piling on debt to the club chasing his useless vision. Hulyer did it in microcosm signing Alan Simonsen, but at least back then he was a good player, and we were still at least trying to win matches. I wasn't at Brentford, but if the players want to blank the supporters so what? They're simply doing the same thing this regime does in regard to supporters.
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ? Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
So why are they loans, not equity? Why do you does RD want £40/50M ? That's more than he's spent or loaned the club.
If my son grows up to so much as kick a ball one time at the Valley on a match day, wearing the Charlton shirt, even in a competition as basic as the Conference, or as part of some fourth team reserve game, I'd struggle to see past the tears in my eyes.
But not under this regime though. And it would have nothing to do with access to the first team or a pathway to the Premier League. They could offer him the world and I'd advise him to stay clear until we've got them out.
Academic anyway. He wants to be Johnny Cena, not Johnny Jackson. And this regime is on its last legs.
If my son had the talent of Gomez or Lookman then there is no way I would allow him to play at our Academy unless he had a good prospect of first team games and therefore a shop window for the bigger clubs. I know this is a sad reflection on CAFC but its reality. Payments to relegated premiership clubs next year could be as much as £100m - perhaps we all need to wake up a little.
Charlton have always brought players through the youth system, the difference is that in the past, many of them became important players in the first team, and as a result have helped the team progress. A good youth system is a sensible idea. But the main aim must be to benefit the team and contribute to the Club's successes.
The biggest issue we have now, is because of the poor running of the Club over the past couple of years, we will be in the third tier next season (most likely) and we have no carrot to dangle to keep hold of the promising young players. In the Championship we could at least let them know we are building a team in order to make a push for promotion to the Premier League. In League One, you can't sell young players or their representatives that kind of dream so easily.
just to clarify i understand that many of you will not like what I'm saying - no problem with that but for the record i have absolutely no connection with the clubs owners I've supported the club for 40 years like many of you my family has supported the club since the war I've supported valley gold for over 10 years i spend over £1000 a year on season tickets
i also think we should dump that pile of trash from Belgium called Guðmundsson and it was Roland that caused the injury to by our first top class striker for many years -Igor- by kicking him when on a rare visit to the UK
On the one hand I am angered by all these sudden pro-regime posts from strange new posters - undoubtedly from from one person with a limited grasp of the English language!
On the other hand am delighted that Guy Luzon has finally found himself a new Network role as Head of Comms.
@alanalsace Are you going to break the mould then, and be the first one of these new posters to actually hold an adult debate and respond to the responses people have given you?
just to clarify i understand that many of you will not like what I'm saying - no problem with that but for the record i have absolutely no connection with the clubs owners I've supported the club for 40 years like many of you my family has supported the club since the war I've supported valley gold for over 10 years i spend over £1000 a year on season tickets
i also think we should dump that pile of trash from Belgium called Guðmundsson and it was Roland that caused the injury to by our first top class striker for many years -Igor- by kicking him when on a rare visit to the UK
JBG is not Belgian, he is Icelandic. I'm not sure what you mean about Roland kicking Igor.
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ? Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
From what I can tell this is a genuine post so I'll answer it genuinely.
You seem to completely wide of the mark on why people are protesting. We are not protesting because we think he is not throwing money at the club, you could make the arguement we are protesting because he is repeatedly making bad decisions that will, in the long term, lose him money. Player recruitment for instance, we don't have a head of recruitment/scouting working for the club. We are spending money on players that clearly are not up to English or championship football, either in ability or in physical fitness. This means the player's values quickly becoming depreciated and sold/released for far less than they were bought for. A head scout working for the club, or listening to a head scout working for the club would be able to identify English players in league one and the championship that were up to the standard of championship football and even have the ability to improve beyond the championship. Look at players like Ben hamer, yann kermorgant and even Simon Francis. Players who were picked up for pennies playing at league one and went on to have a brief and in Francis' case a decent premier league career.
Instead we're paying millions or hundreds upon thousands on sub par, unfit European players who need time to settle to England and English football.
Giving the youth a chance is all well and good but look at the likes of ahearne grant. He looked shit hot when he first had a few cameos and now couldn't get a game in the conference on loan. Confidence and his development has been destroyed because of poor player recruitment. A potential multi million pound sale for the club may well be released because of this.
Disrespect and lack of communication towards the fans. We buy season tickets. We buy merchandise. We buy food and drinks. We bring our kids, friends and our friends kids along. This cycle of getting and maintaining support and turnover for the club has now been ground to a halt because of repeated PR disasters and disrespectful comments from the CEO.
You say who would be mug enough to invest £50 million in to the club. Let's say, for arguements sake there is a hardcore of 10,000 Charlton supporters who come to every game at home and some away. They must spend upwards of £1,000 each on seeing the team each year. That's on season tickets, travel to the game, a beer at the pub and maybe a pie and drink at the game. Every game. That's 10,000 X 1,000 = £10 million collectively in one season. Now if that is is timed over a lifetime of support amongst 10,000 fans, you're starting to see that's a huge investment from fans, collectively. Even if my figure of £1,000 is more like half, and I know most of that doesn't necessarily go directly to the club, it's still an investment from the fans in seeing their team play With zero expectation of monetary return. For me that's a big reason why the club and the ceo's dismissal of the fans as customers etc is mind boggling. Would you call a investment firm representing thousands of people who invest £10 million per annum customers and refuse to listen to them? No. You quite clearly wouldn't. It screams of incompetence.
As for the players, if they do have a problem with the fans, that has been directly caused by the club. Not the supporters. It's the club's responsibility to build a relationship with the fans and the players, not the other way around.
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ? Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
The last para confirms it for me, you are definitely affiliated to the club in some way.
Every argument you make has been dissected on here for months ...do you really think we are happy having to take action the way we have done? We would far prefer not to, but the owner refuses to acknowledge his innumerable mistakes (not just with us but also with other clubs) and all we can see is a black hole.
He has no vision apart from selling players to survive and break even. Not only can this not work at our level, it will be an impossibility one division further down.
I supported his original aims which were to combine a network with FFP. This is no longer available and any hope that other clubs will follow our approach is pure fantasy.
He is destroying our club ...and we will not allow this.
I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ? Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
"I would love it if someone wanted to gamble their fortune on us for sure but I don't see anyone out there - if you do let's name names ?" I can't name names, but two people that can are Peter Varney and also a former Charlton goalkeeper. Because of his previous work with Charlton, Varney's words carry great weight so if he believes that the current ownership is not good for the club then I think that it is at least worth listening to him.
"Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us I can't speak for "the many", but I can speak for myself. My strong dislike of Roland is not because he doesn't throw money at us, but because we are not Charlton Athletic to him but merely the London branch of his football network which was created purely as a way of proving a fag packet theory about how to take advantage of financial fair play - a theory that left out such important details as not all clubs and leagues are equal, and that with the current implementation of FFP cannot work.
That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash If Roland appointed a CEO who didn't belittle fans, and tell the press that she doesn't care about the history of Charlton because what happened before Roland is irrelevant, and the club began to operate like a football club rather than a Strapix network club (Roland's interview that LuckyRed's references above said that Roland does not believe in buying players from clubs who are in the same league as network clubs, because you are giving financial advantage to other teams - never mind whether getting that player is a big advantage).
The appointment of Karel Fraeye is a big reason for hating Roland, because it shows such disdain and disrespect to the club. It highlights the network nepotism perfectly.
Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3 Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions Can't dispute that at all, but that does not give Roland, katrien, and Tony carte blanche to behave in a manner not befitting a club that has fans that formed a political party to save it?
Anal Al is talking out of his backside. Sonogo went OTT considering we were still well adrift of the 4th from bottom but i saw other players clapping their hands at the fans us they walked pass. Considering that some drunks told the players to fuck off at Fulham. Fox, Solly and ? were given dogs abuse when they tried to clap the fans at the end. (Fulham)
Unless your under 10, everyone knows we have been a selling club, Other than Richard Murray's tenure part 1.
I am so proud of the fans for trying to make a change, not over optimistic, the change will come any time soon. but at least we has shown some spirit that we don't just want to be a club going no where other than down with this useless owner and his female side kick.
I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock Considering it was a rare and very good win.
I'm not saying that you are entirely wrong re Brentford, because I think the players were probably quite bruised by the reception they got at Fulham, in particular, but this has little to do with protests against the owner. It's largely because people get fed up watching rubbish week after week whatever the background. I'm also not sure it was unfair (although credit to Solly, Fox and Harriott for their actions at the end of that game, which may have had their own meaning). I do think the stick Harriott got before he went on loan was OTT.
However, I think you are exaggerating what happened at Brentford so here is some evidence.
i also think we should dump that pile of trash from Belgium called Guðmundsson and it was Roland that caused the injury to by our first top class striker for many years -Igor- by kicking him when on a rare visit to the UK
Not sure if you're taking the piss or not because the whole thread seems like you are but anyway...
I think our differentiator should be that we develop good you players AND offer them chance of first team games, see Gomez, Poyet, Cousins, Shelvey, etc. This is especially true when you look at how many young players have come through and become first team regulars at Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham, and Palace of late. I am also of the belief that promotion to the Premier League for a club of our size and means should be a far lower priority than ensuring Championship safety. I know there are a lot on here who feel we should be pushing for the Premier League year-on-year, but given the number of big money owners who have come in at the Championship level, we are unlikely to do that unless we are bought by one such owner with deep pockets, and joining the arms race can be a long term risk to the club (should said owners lose interest). QPR, Fulham, Forest, and Cardiff have all already massively overspent, and none of them will be promoted this year.
Where I take issue with what Katrien said in Dublin is that simply promoting young players, providing "the future stars of the Premier League," should not be the sum total of our ambition. The ability to bring in and fully develop such players is dependent on the standing of our first team, and it gets harder to attract and keep quality players in the long run if the first team performs poorly. Short of maybe Crewe Alexandria, a club cannot simply be a conveyor belt for producing young talent, especially in our catchment area.
Not trying to be a pain in the arse but who have Crewe produced in the last few years? Since say Platt, Rob Jones era. But I do take your point, just think that the Crewe example is overused.
Seems like there's a lot of thread's lately where I agree with everyone except the original poster. The previous one (by this guy?) suggesting Card were dealing from the wrong deck, dis have the advantage that there are actually people out there who disagree with the protests- I know a couple. While I don't like to go with the crowd digging people out, this one is just rubbish. Who out there would buy Roland out? FFS, this feller purports to be a fna for 40 years and somehow missed the whole Pete Varney email incident? The fans are agry because Roland won't throw his cash after us? After watching the club pay off Luzón, Peeters and the Indecently Un-Interim Fraeye. Personally, I think this is someone at the club taking revenge for Cabbles and his Rolling With Roland film. What it doesn't suggest is someone who follows Charlton from amongst the fans. I've always said there are other viewpoints besides the Roland Out one, but these seem a tad artificial, and I'm not much into conspiacy theories.
The suggestion that it would be a good idea to promise a route to the Premier League is astonishing. Can any football academy promise that its academicians will have a route to the Premier League?
Imagine parents agreeing to send their young son to a football academy on the basis that it would be a promise of a route to the Premier League. And then, imagine those parents deciding to sue the club when they breach their promise because the boy is simply not good enough. How much could they sue for? A million? Ten million? How much would a player earn in a Premier League career - that he had been promised? A hundred million?
How many academicians does Charlton have? Twenty? Thirty? More?
It's a guaranteed way to lose millions and millions. And, of course, it's a guaranteed way to ensure the academy hoovers up all the worst players in the region. If you're good enough, you go to a well-funded, well-run academy; if you're not so sure about your ability, you go to the one, crazy place that - yes! - promised a route to the Premier League.
This idea is so stupid, so ill-thought out, so likely to end in chaos, huge player turnover and massive losses, that I am inclined to think it has come directly from either Katrien or Roland themselves.
Comments
They will be employing Alastair Campbell next.
Next season in L1 doesn't bear thinking about, but it's unlikely we'll be genuinely competitive on the pitch at that level, either. What it will do is reduce us to a level more suited to the network swaps model (in a network without SL, of course).
Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us
That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash
Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted
Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3
Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Just a couple of points of information
Owners of companies make intercompany loans all the time - what ever way he puts money in its mainly his cash that pays the wages etc. Players don't get paid in Monopoly money and losses have to be paid for -there's no magical credit card out there now that the banks avoid football as much as they can
I was at Brentford and the post match player response was a real shock
Considering it was a rare and very good win.
Unfortunately though, and you've done it yourself in this thread, when these posters are questioned and responded too - they don't appear to take part in a healthy discussion. They are very quick to repeat the same platitudes - for example about the only other alternatives being "egotistical mugs". This is why patience wears thin and such posts are viewed with a great deal of suspicion.
For the record, Roland Duchatelet is the definition of an "egotistical mug". When confronted with angry fans in Belgian he implied that they were all unemployed and had nothing better do with their time, more recently he likened himself to Alan Turing during an interview. This guy is incredibly egotistical, so if an "egotistical mug" - your words - owning the club is the worst case scenario, then we're already in that situation.
Your point about Brentford is interesting, and would suggest team morale is at rock bottom: but this isn't news to anyone. I'm not sure if you're inferring that the players are currently angry towards the fans due to protests, but if so - you're wrong. Multiple players have spoke about this - including Jacko on multiple occasions, Henderson on Twitter, Makienok to the NewsShopper etc - and have said the protests don't affect them.
NO, no we should not make promises that we can't possibly keep! Leave that the the Chelsea 's of this world who are paying kids 17 bags a week just to keep them from other clubs
He's hated because he has appointed an inept CEO who has repeatedly alienated fans. He's lost the quality of staff - both on and off the pitch - that we possessed, and replaced them with people who haven't been qualified and have failed.
His financial handling of the club isn't ideal either. Perhaps. But this isn't about promotion, some of us don't want to be outpriced of our football club - something that is likely with Premier League pricing.
If this was simply about promotion then it would be interesting as a lot of us - including myself - thought our League One season was the best in a long time. There was unity at Charlton and a feel good factor, we had staff and players who were likable and a real team mentality. We had OUR club. Once again, how is this purely about finances? See above. True, inter-company loans are very common.
Have you seen the effect that Roland's financial management had on Standard Liege post-sale though? You mentioned this before, and I fail to see what you're getting at. Multiple team members have stated their feelings towards the protests.
I fear you let your mask slip towards the end there. You'd gone from seeming like a well intentioned fan who wasn't quite aware of the reasons we were protesting, then made it clear you were aware of the intricacies that were discussed with regards to our accounts..
Either you read those discussions and understand just how complex the situation is, or your purposefully pretending to know less than you really do. Now why would someone do that...?
In addition loads of that debt is down to diabolical player acquisitions sanctioned by, guess who, Roland.
Roland is not fannying around with his own money at all but piling on debt to the club chasing his useless vision.
Hulyer did it in microcosm signing Alan Simonsen, but at least back then he was a good player, and we were still at least trying to win matches.
I wasn't at Brentford, but if the players want to blank the supporters so what? They're simply doing the same thing this regime does in regard to supporters.
do youdoes RD want £40/50M ? That's more than he's spent or loaned the club.But not under this regime though. And it would have nothing to do with access to the first team or a pathway to the Premier League. They could offer him the world and I'd advise him to stay clear until we've got them out.
Academic anyway. He wants to be Johnny Cena, not Johnny Jackson. And this regime is on its last legs.
The biggest issue we have now, is because of the poor running of the Club over the past couple of years, we will be in the third tier next season (most likely) and we have no carrot to dangle to keep hold of the promising young players. In the Championship we could at least let them know we are building a team in order to make a push for promotion to the Premier League. In League One, you can't sell young players or their representatives that kind of dream so easily.
i have absolutely no connection with the clubs owners
I've supported the club for 40 years
like many of you my family has supported the club since the war
I've supported valley gold for over 10 years
i spend over £1000 a year on season tickets
i also think we should dump that pile of trash from Belgium called Guðmundsson and it was Roland that caused the injury to by our first top class striker for many years -Igor- by kicking him when on a rare visit to the UK
On the other hand am delighted that Guy Luzon has finally found
himself a new Network role as Head of Comms.
You seem to completely wide of the mark on why people are protesting. We are not protesting because we think he is not throwing money at the club, you could make the arguement we are protesting because he is repeatedly making bad decisions that will, in the long term, lose him money. Player recruitment for instance, we don't have a head of recruitment/scouting working for the club. We are spending money on players that clearly are not up to English or championship football, either in ability or in physical fitness. This means the player's values quickly becoming depreciated and sold/released for far less than they were bought for. A head scout working for the club, or listening to a head scout working for the club would be able to identify English players in league one and the championship that were up to the standard of championship football and even have the ability to improve beyond the championship. Look at players like Ben hamer, yann kermorgant and even Simon Francis. Players who were picked up for pennies playing at league one and went on to have a brief and in Francis' case a decent premier league career.
Instead we're paying millions or hundreds upon thousands on sub par, unfit European players who need time to settle to England and English football.
Giving the youth a chance is all well and good but look at the likes of ahearne grant. He looked shit hot when he first had a few cameos and now couldn't get a game in the conference on loan. Confidence and his development has been destroyed because of poor player recruitment. A potential multi million pound sale for the club may well be released because of this.
Disrespect and lack of communication towards the fans. We buy season tickets. We buy merchandise. We buy food and drinks. We bring our kids, friends and our friends kids along. This cycle of getting and maintaining support and turnover for the club has now been ground to a halt because of repeated PR disasters and disrespectful comments from the CEO.
You say who would be mug enough to invest £50 million in to the club. Let's say, for arguements sake there is a hardcore of 10,000 Charlton supporters who come to every game at home and some away. They must spend upwards of £1,000 each on seeing the team each year. That's on season tickets, travel to the game, a beer at the pub and maybe a pie and drink at the game. Every game. That's 10,000 X 1,000 = £10 million collectively in one season. Now if that is is timed over a lifetime of support amongst 10,000 fans, you're starting to see that's a huge investment from fans, collectively. Even if my figure of £1,000 is more like half, and I know most of that doesn't necessarily go directly to the club, it's still an investment from the fans in seeing their team play With zero expectation of monetary return. For me that's a big reason why the club and the ceo's dismissal of the fans as customers etc is mind boggling. Would you call a investment firm representing thousands of people who invest £10 million per annum customers and refuse to listen to them? No. You quite clearly wouldn't. It screams of incompetence.
As for the players, if they do have a problem with the fans, that has been directly caused by the club. Not the supporters. It's the club's responsibility to build a relationship with the fans and the players, not the other way around.
I look forward to your reply.
Every argument you make has been dissected on here for months ...do you really think we are happy having to take action the way we have done? We would far prefer not to, but the owner refuses to acknowledge his innumerable mistakes (not just with us but also with other clubs) and all we can see is a black hole.
He has no vision apart from selling players to survive and break even. Not only can this not work at our level, it will be an impossibility one division further down.
I supported his original aims which were to combine a network with FFP. This is no longer available and any hope that other clubs will follow our approach is pure fantasy.
He is destroying our club ...and we will not allow this.
He picked the wrong club.
I can't name names, but two people that can are Peter Varney and also a former Charlton goalkeeper. Because of his previous work with Charlton, Varney's words carry great weight so if he believes that the current ownership is not good for the club then I think that it is at least worth listening to him.
"Roland is hated by many because he won't gamble his fortune on us
I can't speak for "the many", but I can speak for myself. My strong dislike of Roland is not because he doesn't throw money at us, but because we are not Charlton Athletic to him but merely the London branch of his football network which was created purely as a way of proving a fag packet theory about how to take advantage of financial fair play - a theory that left out such important details as not all clubs and leagues are equal, and that with the current implementation of FFP cannot work.
That's a good reason to be upset but it's a bit rich to tell him to get lost if he won't gamble his cash
If Roland appointed a CEO who didn't belittle fans, and tell the press that she doesn't care about the history of Charlton because what happened before Roland is irrelevant, and the club began to operate like a football club rather than a Strapix network club (Roland's interview that LuckyRed's references above said that Roland does not believe in buying players from clubs who are in the same league as network clubs, because you are giving financial advantage to other teams - never mind whether getting that player is a big advantage).
The appointment of Karel Fraeye is a big reason for hating Roland, because it shows such disdain and disrespect to the club. It highlights the network nepotism perfectly.
Because of the massive relegation payouts the premiership is effectively becoming like the US football leagues i.e. No relegation - just as the American investors have always wanted
Assuming the current bottom three all went down all of them will be back up within 1 or 2 years max 3
Not much room for anyone else unless they can gamble millions
Can't dispute that at all, but that does not give Roland, katrien, and Tony carte blanche to behave in a manner not befitting a club that has fans that formed a political party to save it?
Sonogo went OTT considering we were still well adrift of the 4th from bottom but i saw other players clapping their hands at the fans us they walked pass.
Considering that some drunks told the players to fuck off at Fulham.
Fox, Solly and ? were given dogs abuse when they tried to clap the fans at the end. (Fulham)
Unless your under 10, everyone knows we have been a selling club,
Other than Richard Murray's tenure part 1.
I am so proud of the fans for trying to make a change,
not over optimistic, the change will come any time soon. but at least we has shown some spirit that we don't just want to be a club going no where other than down with this useless owner and his female side kick.
However, I think you are exaggerating what happened at Brentford so here is some evidence.
Not trying to be a pain in the arse but who have Crewe produced in the last few years? Since say Platt, Rob Jones era. But I do take your point, just think that the Crewe example is overused.
Personally, I think this is someone at the club taking revenge for Cabbles and his Rolling With Roland film. What it doesn't suggest is someone who follows Charlton from amongst the fans. I've always said there are other viewpoints besides the Roland Out one, but these seem a tad artificial, and I'm not much into conspiacy theories.
The suggestion that it would be a good idea to promise a route to the Premier League is astonishing. Can any football academy promise that its academicians will have a route to the Premier League?
Imagine parents agreeing to send their young son to a football academy on the basis that it would be a promise of a route to the Premier League. And then, imagine those parents deciding to sue the club when they breach their promise because the boy is simply not good enough. How much could they sue for? A million? Ten million? How much would a player earn in a Premier League career - that he had been promised? A hundred million?
How many academicians does Charlton have? Twenty? Thirty? More?
It's a guaranteed way to lose millions and millions. And, of course, it's a guaranteed way to ensure the academy hoovers up all the worst players in the region. If you're good enough, you go to a well-funded, well-run academy; if you're not so sure about your ability, you go to the one, crazy place that - yes! - promised a route to the Premier League.
This idea is so stupid, so ill-thought out, so likely to end in chaos, huge player turnover and massive losses, that I am inclined to think it has come directly from either Katrien or Roland themselves.