Dear Katrien,
As you are aware Charlton are currently in a precarious position whereby to maintain their Championship status they must win nearly all of their remaining games and hope others lose.
The last time the board publicly engaged in dialogue with supporters in November fans were told that: appointments had been "proved correct" as the team had "always improved their ranking and results". We were told that the club's objective was to be "an established Championship club with Premier League ambitions". It was also said that the club had no contingency plans for relegation.
Before renewing my season ticket I would like to see an honest assessment from the club's leadership team, and an update on objective and strategy, as these messages are no longer appropriate. Each managerial appointment can not have been correct as the team are now in such a difficult position. Even if the team stay up we can not improve upon our ranking from last season - or even any of the last three seasons. The facts are that the season before this leadership team arrived the club missed out on the Championship play offs by just 3 points! The team are now far from being an established Championship club, and therefore the strategies in place to meet this objective can not be working.
There appears to be a lack of ambition for footballing success, which is what ultimately compels supporters to come to matches, emphasised by the consistent high turnover of managers and players with both a lack of pedigree and experience for the Championship - regardless of their continual failure.
Chairman Richard Murrary openly admitted this in his statement, and said that the club had "underestimated the Championship". This is a terrible mistake that has been allowed to continue over the entire Duchâtelet ownership. If this same underestimation of the league the club is in continues how can fans expect to see a competitive Championship club? Can we even expect to survive in League One with this approach?
I would like to see the board honestly address these concerns before customers (fans), such as myself, are expected to renew their tickets. I think, if you look at the history of the club, an ambition for midtable Championship ranking is the very least that supporters expect and deserve. What is happening to change the existing failing policies to allow the club's own objective (to be established in the Championship) to happen?
CARD have clearly explained to supporters why they shouldn't renew. They make a convincing case. If the club valued their fanbase they should respond with why we should.
73
Comments
Could be a long wait for an answer.
As an aside, I don't want to be that person but "irregardless" is one of those blend words that really grinds my gears. It's irrespective or regardless, not both. :-)
And we know we have a big job to bring back fans like yourself to The Valley, but the staff here are trying hard to improve things at the club.
Good letter. Not sure if you have actually sent this to the club? If not, worth doing as they are then obliged to respond - and it deserves more than the usual cut and paste platitudes their "
customer avoidancesupporter relations" team comes up with.Roland knows best.
However, I have enclosed a taped up shoe and a picture of a sofa which will hopefully alleviate any concerns you might have and act as a fond reminder of our time in the Championship under Roland.
Love
Kat
x
A while back I used the restaurant analogy suggesting that no one in their right mind would pay for a meal 4 months in advance without knowing what was on the menu, whether the items on the menu would be "off" or whether, despite reserving a prime window seat, you'd end up at the back next to the gents' bogs.
Setting aside the organised boycott, I can see no reason why anyone would buy a season ticket on these terms.
However, as the summer progresses, I suppose I might start trying to haggle down the price. So, offer to pay £50 less in May, when I hear nothing, offer to pay £75 less in June and so on. (Just for my own amusement you understand.)
Going back to their very first managerial appointment, 2 years after they first hired him, shows that statement to be the utter rubbish it is.
We clearly don’t want to hear that you are considering not renewing you season ticket but we do understand the reasons for it. We know we have a major job to do to keep fans like yourself at The Valley, and the staff here are trying hard to improve things for the future.
I suspect your response will be along these lines!
RD will shuffle KM away at the end of the season and get a new puppet. Her position is totally untenable, having failed in most aspects of running the business:
Results on-pitch = failed
Manager recruitment = failed
Attract sponsors = failed
Staff retention = failed
Increase turnover = failed
Increase player value = failed
Advance ST sales = failed (? TBA)
Customer relations = failed
The headache for RD is CARD. If RD removes KM from the job then that could be seen as a victory for the protesters.
As for renewing ST's - everyone in the North Lower will renew, and the empty spaces there will be filled by the £175' ers from elsewhere in the ground (probably the £150'ers from the East stand last season).
I would expect you get a standard copy/paste response as I did...
Hello Rich,
Thank you for your email.
We are disappointed that you feel this way but we are all working hard to upturn the fortunes of CAFC.
We can also inform you that Mr Duchatelet has no plans on selling the club at present.
Also, we are not happy to hear that you will not be renewing your season tickets but we do understand why. We would like to thank you for your loyalty over the years and we do not want to lose any of our family of supporters. We know we might, which means we will have to work even harder to bring them back to The Valley.
We are all aware of the current situation and upset amongst some so we are working hard to rectify this.
Thank you again for your support.
Kind Regards
The Supporter Relations Team
They can reply with something like......
Who are "CARD" ?
Who are they to say, organise and disrupt games at the Valley ?
Who do they represent ?
Who knows if Ms Meire has been successful in her job ?
Who knows if the Sparrows Lane project with be viable ?
You know which side of the fence I'm on, but I feel that unless we are open and HONEST about all WE do, we will never get honesty from "Them".
Thank you for your letter which, quite frankly, we don't give a flying .... about. You, as a customer and obviously one of the 2%, should not be bothering me or Mr D about menial, irrelevant matters such as these.
I have a job to do and do not have time to respond to customers of this club so leave me alone.
Yours
Katy
Yours
Katrien (meaning incompetent, arrogant, egotistical fool)
Mustn't misquote her.
A great letter that deserves a better response than you will probably get. To be honest though what can they say, other than yes, it is one almighty eff up.
That's why a reply will fall short and result in meaningless platitudes.