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VOTV article: A poisonous end to a once resilient community

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Comments

  • Is the link working??? Must be if 4 people have liked. I can't access
  • cabbles said:

    Is the link working??? Must be if 4 people have liked. I can't access

    Just type link
  • edited May 2016
    Must admit I sat at my desk welling up when I read those final couple of paragraphs earlier. Tomorrow is going to be a sad, sad day.
  • I can't get the link of the page by typing it.
  • That is a superb article Rick. You speak for so many of us.
  • Good write up.

    I'm not there tomorrow - first home game I've missed in 5 seasons, but please give them hell.
  • Well said, keep the faith these twats can't win!
  • So sad to read but sums up what so many of us feel and are experiencing. This kind of slow death of a club and community should be a crime!
  • N01R4M said:
    This link works. @Airman Brown, can you fix the link in your original post? Well written article, by the way.
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  • Well written Rick, it makes for painful reading but it could be for any of us.
  • Sums up my own feelings perfectly. Will I ever return?
  • LordDofB said:

    Sums up my own feelings perfectly. Will I ever return?

    Course you will, just not with this lot pulling the strings.

  • N01R4M said:
    This link works. @Airman Brown, can you fix the link in your original post? Well written article, by the way.
    Thanks. Should work now.
  • It's a bloody well written but totally depressing piece.
  • Rick,

    Thanks fella brilliant!
  • There will be so many pockets of similar friendships across the East Stand and in all corners of our home that will be broken, hopefully temporarily, tomorrow. If our absent clueless owner had regularly graced us with his presence he may just have understood this but I doubt it. Instead he relies on a video link (don't believe he ever watches it) and feedback from his toadies and concludes we are the problem. The man is a laughable idiot - how the hell did he ever make his money?

    Rick, I don't know you but know of you and I guess our East Stand experiences are all too similar. Your article sums up perfectly the emotions that will be shared in Block E tomorrow. It promises to be a sad day.
  • Wow thanks for that, I couldn't have been more depressed, but it's reached a new low.

    I am sitting in a bar in Dubai (not with KM) about to embark on a new life and career, but it's tinged with such sadness that I may never see MY Charlton again.

    It will take a lot for me not to go when I pop over, but I can't with these people in charge.

    I won't be there tomorrow but I will be in a bar drinking over priced beer in my charlton shirt ( case is full of them) knowing the real fans will do me proud.

  • Spot on as always, Airman.

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  • Brilliant article. Sums up the wonderful ethos they have destroyed.
  • Pretty much nails it.
  • LordDofB said:

    Sums up my own feelings perfectly. Will I ever return?

    Course you will, just not with this lot pulling the strings.

    After Roland's stranglewank incident (yes, some cross-referenced, multi sheet .xls files were involved), the heart and soul of the club will be restored and everything will be back to normal. The last couple of years will seem a surreal, disturbing interlude before the restoration of what should be
  • RobRob
    edited May 2016
    Very nice article. The last sentence sums it up for me. You can write with as much eloquence as you like and with as much flowery prose as possible but, sometimes, the blunt statement says it all. That last sentence did it for me and made me laugh. When it comes down to it, that's all that matters.
  • You know if you're not careful, they may think you don't like them :worried:
  • An excellent piece.

    My worries on this began 2-3 years ago as inappropriate price hikes in the central blocks of the East hit not only adults but kids too in a bonkers policy which has been partially reversed. The damage was done however and many holes have appeared

    The triple whammy of hikes for a family in that area ripped apart some of the communities (including my own) that Rick mentions rightly make up the backbone of this club, unlike the bizarre weird fickle image the management seem to have of its actual and potential customers. In those days a fan would buy as many season tickets as he could afford - hard to believe now.
    More damage is being done to that loyalty as the trickle becomes an avalanche.

    It's difficult to see a way back, not just because the damage may or may not be irrevocable to those groups, but also that the special nature of the club will likely never return in the modern era even if better owners came back, due to commercialisation and a homogenising franchise apathy effect. Charlton has now been surgically separated from its fans and its past which we should also remember witnessed major success.

    I have no doubt that the club will remain precious to many but it is a memory, and sadly no longer a reality that may never return unless fans can regain some form of ownership implied or actual.

    You never know where this path may lead though. Perhaps something new will be reborn out of this impending disaster, that is my hope.
  • razil said:

    An excellent piece.

    My worries on this began 2-3 years ago as inappropriate price hikes in the central blocks of the East hit not only adults but kids too in a bonkers policy which has been partially reversed. The damage was done however and many holes have appeared

    The triple whammy of hikes for a family in that area ripped apart some of the communities (including my own) that Rick mentions rightly make up the backbone of this club, unlike the bizarre weird fickle image the management seem to have of its actual and potential customers. In those days a fan would buy as many season tickets as he could afford - hard to believe now.
    More damage is being done to that loyalty as the trickle becomes an avalanche.

    It's difficult to see a way back, not just because the damage may or may not be irrevocable to those groups, but also that the special nature of the club will likely never return in the modern era even if better owners came back, due to commercialisation and a homogenising franchise apathy effect. Charlton has now been surgically separated from its fans and its past which we should also remember witnessed major success.

    I have no doubt that the club will remain precious to many but it is a memory, and sadly no longer a reality that may never return unless fans can regain some form of ownership implied or actual.

    You never know where this path may lead though. Perhaps something new will be reborn out of this impending disaster, that is my hope.

    Deliberately ..........as Meire specifically outlined in her half-hidden ('I really shouldn't say this')
    .....but I don't care about the history of the Club.

    I know its been said before but the regime are quite content to set about creating an alternative freshly created fanbase with no previous attachment which would welcome new customers but will callously discard older long-term supporters as collateral damage if they don't come on board.

    They will today will see the depth of the rejection of their flawed thinking.


  • Deliberately ..........as Meire specifically outlined in her half-hidden ('I really shouldn't say this')
    .....but I don't care about the history of the Club.

    I know its been said before but the regime are quite content to set about creating an alternative freshly created fanbase with no previous attachment which would welcome new customers but will callously discard older long-term supporters as collateral damage if they don't come on board.

    They will today will see the depth of the rejection of their flawed thinking.

    Superb and desperately sad article to end an appalling season. As for their freshly created fanbase ... not much sign of it, is there! All but the worst-run business know that you have to value your customers. Not to do so is to commit commercial suicide. Well done Roland and Katrien.
  • A well written piece @Airman Brown , the absent owner and his board (shame on you Murray) do not have an inkling of the special bond CAFC supporters have with the club. There are 91 other league clubs, but I doubt any of them have the bond we have, with their respective clubs. Yes, we aren't the biggest club (far from it in reality) but we are a community made up of many different ages, opinions, political views, gender and wealth. A community that fought to get our club, who were exiled from their spiritual home, back to The Valley, a fight we all took to a successful end. We now face a different challenge, and one that may take sometime to win, a long game if you like, but we must look for some small wins along the way. If RD is not for selling at the moment, then we have to encourage him (couldn't think of another word) to change tack and listen to experienced football people. A UK manager, a UK experienced team and to leave team matters to those that know best. I hope that during the closed season that some sense begins to descend onto this discredited board. We have to hope that small wins will lead to a successful 16/17, we cannot let our hope be killed!! However a warning to RD/KM/RM if you continue along your discredited and failed plan, the supporters- the community -
    the ones that took on the local council and won, will win and you will be long gone, but the group of friends that Rick so eloquently speaks about across all areas of The Valley, will be back, of that I promise you!!
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Roland Out Forever!