He's remote in Belgium and not really interested in results. Do the protests really bother him that much. He's not there to see or suffer them and I already think that he's used to being viewed in Belgium as an oddball character. Do we really think that the Belgians are that bothered or interested by his antics at a third teir English football club.
It's precisely for this reason why i think any future protests need to hit him closer to home (ie. In Belgium). I fully appreciate that's expensive and a lot trickier than simply protesting at the Valley but as you say, he quite likely doesn't give a shit about match day protests when he never comes to our matches.
There is so much debt owed to him that I can imagine him seemingly "selling" but keeping his claws in...we could be a long, long way from getting rid.
The debt, or interest, is the only reason he's in football. Whoever buys us will have to pay off or take on the debt. He hasn't invested the money he's lent it to us at an interest rate he sees fit.
The bank gives him 0.5% on his savings, Charlton give him say 5% in interest. He then puts his own CEO in place to make sure budgets are cut so he's protecting his money.
Charlton means nothing to him, it's just a financial investment.
A agree with Chris that we need to get to him in Belgium somehow. We also need to make life as difficult as possible for Daisy. If she gets fed up it could be the trigger for him to sell. Keep the pressure on but we do need to keep the whole supporter base with us.
Football-related issues would be of little interest in Belgium, agreed, but if the Charlton "virus" were spread to his other activities the fear of embarrassment and ridicule could be a serious motivator. And how will KM fare without the constant and staunch support of RM ?
I think it's way too early this season to tell what Roland might do. If Russell Slade turns things around enough to see us be really competitive I'd be surprised if he sells - he may feel he has got more of a winning formula on his hands and can see that he may make some money out of CAFC. If we bomb out of League one this season he is far more likely to sod off. If we float around the middle then, well, who knows, eh?
And like at least one person (@Carly Burn) has said in this thread that who he sells to is a worry - and that's a spot on concern. First we had the Spivs and then this current pack of utter c***s - and given that trouble always comes in threes, we could be shafted again. We have absolutely no say in who we are sold to, and there are a lot of people (just like Roland) who think that a football club is just another money-making business and fail to balance the amount of money they need to invest against how much money they will (eventually) get out.
There is so much debt owed to him that I can imagine him seemingly "selling" but keeping his claws in...we could be a long, long way from getting rid.
The debt, or interest, is the only reason he's in football. Whoever buys us will have to pay off or take on the debt. He hasn't invested the money he's lent it to us at an interest rate he sees fit.
The bank gives him 0.5% on his savings, Charlton give him say 5% in interest. He then puts his own CEO in place to make sure budgets are cut so he's protecting his money.
Charlton means nothing to him, it's just a financial investment.
SO much truth in this. Can't believe some still think he has ambitions for the club itself.
He's using our academy so that he doesn't have to buy players. If he's over budget then he sells a few to balance it. If we're not doing well he buys in some players on the cheap to make sure we're not relegated.
The only reason for a change in strategy is because it's not possible to balance the losses in L1 through the options he has (player sales, tickets etc.).
At the end of the day he can sell us for more than he paid due to his investment in the facilities and with an interest rate that he sees fit.
He's obviously a clever man in regards to economics. Some may think he doesn't know how to run a football club and that is true, but he doesn't want to know either, he doesn't care.
We may all be able to see through this, but even so, there's nothing we can do aside from show our dissatisfaction via protests and hope the financial reprocussions are enough to see him leave.
If our relegation has the biggest reprocussion of them all then we might have more to thank Fraeye for than first thought.
That sounds like a vastly complicated and risky way of achieving loan income. He could buy government bonds for a decent return on his original £18million, or he could buy property in the SE which has been growing at around 8% a year since he took over the club. There are far far easier ways of achieving a 5% interest rate than buying a football club in England.
In the thirty months we've been acquainted with the gentleman, it's become no easier to second-guess him - in fact, most of us can't even manage a first guess. We know he's got a lot of money, a lot of (remarkable) ideas and for a man of nearly 70 an enviable vigour, but sadly these assorted attributes are outweighed by a disturbing absence of common sense. Why he chose to go about his CAFC business the way he did will forever be a mystery. The amount of fans' goodwill and support casually and needlessly squandered over the past year particularly is simply inexplicable. So to apply any form of logic to the Taped Crusader and his next moves is none too easy.
It's been said many times that in CAFC RD bought the wrong club; however, since no-one knows his true motivation, who can really say ? Without doubt, though, we have been a stone in his famous shoe from the very beginning, starting with the very first home game called off at 1.30 on match-day due to a deficient pitch, a pretty basic issue. The protests of last season - astonishingly, for their scale, frequency and intensity, achieved with minimal damage, injury and criminal charges, must have been exceedingly uncomfortable for him, especially when brought home to his own back-yard in Sint-Truiden.
To sell up, if seen as the result of failure, would not have been a ready course of action for someone convinced of his own unerring infallibility. However, two events might well have persuaded him to cut his losses, pull up the steps and move on. In May and distinctly not in the planning came relegation, and a few weeks later came Brexit.
Although our current lowly status is not exactly impressive, it does mean that a prospective buyer looking for an under-priced bargain, a.k.a. fire sale, could do worse. After all, in Germany RB Leipzig and TSG Hoffenheim, both now in the Bundesliga, started out from much lower levels but had all the financial blessings of respectively Red Bull and SAP. Furthermore, CAFC has the benefit of a decent location in London, with some tasty real estate in SE7 and SE9. Also of no little interest would be the sharp post-Brexit fall in the value of Sterling (the currency, not the winger).
At present English football is (selectively) awash with money as never before; part is TV money, of course, but also there has been significant investment from overseas. That Wolves can be preparing a 20 million pound bid for a player shows that even the underrated and stodgy old EFL is a hot ticket.
The club's charm/smarm offensive of late will have fallen on deaf ears if addressed purely to the faithful, but could well be a hasty attempt at window-dressing, in the same way that no opportunity is lost to connect the club with the peerless CACT.
RD must sell this autumn because any new owner will want/need the January window either to capitalise on a good start to the season or to recover from a bad one. A failure to sell will expose The Shareholder to growing and totally irrecoverable losses and even greater difficulty in finding an exit strategy that will not bruise too much a very delicate ego.
So, Guv'nor, if you're at home in Belgium-land carefully counting and polishing your centjes, you can be assured in due course of the fervent support of countless thousands of Addicks world-wide if the next few months will indeed be the last we all spend together. Come on, you know you want to ....
CTID
I think you're clutching at straws but let's hope you're right.
There is so much debt owed to him that I can imagine him seemingly "selling" but keeping his claws in...we could be a long, long way from getting rid.
The debt, or interest, is the only reason he's in football. Whoever buys us will have to pay off or take on the debt. He hasn't invested the money he's lent it to us at an interest rate he sees fit.
The bank gives him 0.5% on his savings, Charlton give him say 5% in interest. He then puts his own CEO in place to make sure budgets are cut so he's protecting his money.
Charlton means nothing to him, it's just a financial investment.
SO much truth in this. Can't believe some still think he has ambitions for the club itself.
He's using our academy so that he doesn't have to buy players. If he's over budget then he sells a few to balance it. If we're not doing well he buys in some players on the cheap to make sure we're not relegated.
The only reason for a change in strategy is because it's not possible to balance the losses in L1 through the options he has (player sales, tickets etc.).
At the end of the day he can sell us for more than he paid due to his investment in the facilities and with an interest rate that he sees fit.
He's obviously a clever man in regards to economics. Some may think he doesn't know how to run a football club and that is true, but he doesn't want to know either, he doesn't care.
We may all be able to see through this, but even so, there's nothing we can do aside from show our dissatisfaction via protests and hope the financial reprocussions are enough to see him leave.
If our relegation has the biggest reprocussion of them all then we might have more to thank Fraeye for than first thought.
There is so much debt owed to him that I can imagine him seemingly "selling" but keeping his claws in...we could be a long, long way from getting rid.
The debt, or interest, is the only reason he's in football. Whoever buys us will have to pay off or take on the debt. He hasn't invested the money he's lent it to us at an interest rate he sees fit.
The bank gives him 0.5% on his savings, Charlton give him say 5% in interest. He then puts his own CEO in place to make sure budgets are cut so he's protecting his money.
Charlton means nothing to him, it's just a financial investment.
SO much truth in this. Can't believe some still think he has ambitions for the club itself.
He's using our academy so that he doesn't have to buy players. If he's over budget then he sells a few to balance it. If we're not doing well he buys in some players on the cheap to make sure we're not relegated.
The only reason for a change in strategy is because it's not possible to balance the losses in L1 through the options he has (player sales, tickets etc.).
At the end of the day he can sell us for more than he paid due to his investment in the facilities and with an interest rate that he sees fit.
He's obviously a clever man in regards to economics. Some may think he doesn't know how to run a football club and that is true, but he doesn't want to know either, he doesn't care.
We may all be able to see through this, but even so, there's nothing we can do aside from show our dissatisfaction via protests and hope the financial reprocussions are enough to see him leave.
If our relegation has the biggest reprocussion of them all then we might have more to thank Fraeye for than first thought.
There is so much debt owed to him that I can imagine him seemingly "selling" but keeping his claws in...we could be a long, long way from getting rid.
The debt, or interest, is the only reason he's in football. Whoever buys us will have to pay off or take on the debt. He hasn't invested the money he's lent it to us at an interest rate he sees fit.
The bank gives him 0.5% on his savings, Charlton give him say 5% in interest. He then puts his own CEO in place to make sure budgets are cut so he's protecting his money.
Charlton means nothing to him, it's just a financial investment.
While it's possible, that's not normally how it works. He can either keep losing money or sell for the best price he can get. No buyer, apart from an underfunded vanity purchaser, will pay for the club and assume the debt Roland has lent to himself. They'll either agree to pay him everything, or they will insist on him writing off some of it. Maybe they do a Murray type deal, where he gets something extra if the get to the Premier. But nothing that gives him any say in the club management.
There is so much debt owed to him that I can imagine him seemingly "selling" but keeping his claws in...we could be a long, long way from getting rid.
I think this is the most likely scenario. He sells and stays involved with The Valley or training ground or shares in players like he's done after he 'sold' Standard Liege. Pretty sure his reported stake in Michy Batshuayi counts as third party ownership if he really has sold Standard, but as usual FIFA and UEFA have done nothing about it.
With Roland, it's not about the money so much as his ego. He was determined to prove that his revolutionary style of a self sufficient club is the way forward, the network knows best etc. Given this, I find it hard to believe the change of approach in transfers this summer, basically admitting his way was wrong, would have been an easy pill for him to swallow. The only way I see it is he's trying to get us back up the Championship to sell us for however much he can. We can but dream.
There is so much debt owed to him that I can imagine him seemingly "selling" but keeping his claws in...we could be a long, long way from getting rid.
The debt, or interest, is the only reason he's in football. Whoever buys us will have to pay off or take on the debt. He hasn't invested the money he's lent it to us at an interest rate he sees fit.
The bank gives him 0.5% on his savings, Charlton give him say 5% in interest. He then puts his own CEO in place to make sure budgets are cut so he's protecting his money.
Charlton means nothing to him, it's just a financial investment.
If all Charlton Athletic are to Roland is a financial investment then he's a complete idiot. Who on earth buys a football club in order to make money. It's not money that motivates his involvement with us. It's a toy not bought to massage his ego but simply to prove his theory that you can own a football club and not lose money. Eventually he will come to accept that it can't be done and bail out but I don't see that occurring any time soon. He must have envisaged it would take upwards of seven to ten years to implement his plan and see it fruit.
If all Charlton Athletic are to Roland is a financial investment then he's a complete idiot. Who on earth buys a football club in order to make money. It's not money that motivates his involvement with us. It's a toy not bought to massage his ego but simply to prove his theory that you can own a football club and not lose money. Eventually he will come to accept that it can't be done and bail out but I don't see that occurring any time soon. He must have envisaged it would take upwards of seven to ten years to implement his plan and see it fruit.
It's a financial investment to massage his ego and prove his 'theory' - unfortunately I doubt he will be leaving for some time as he needs us to go back up first and then spend more time 'proving' he is right ... before coming to the inevitable conclusion that we just don't understand him and he sells up.
Although, as a contrary view, maybe the financial shortcomings of this division will make him re-consider. My problem with that is that if we do well, he may decide to wait and see.
We are in the midst of the worst possible 'Catch-22' situation - we want to win but that might help him. I just cannot bring myself to want to lose even though it may hurt him in the pocket.
I would expect Meire to try and torpedo any sale if she can manage it (as VOTV suggests). The minute the club is sold she is back to being a nobody (where she really belongs).
Comments
The bank gives him 0.5% on his savings, Charlton give him say 5% in interest. He then puts his own CEO in place to make sure budgets are cut so he's protecting his money.
Charlton means nothing to him, it's just a financial investment.
Keep the pressure on but we do need to keep the whole supporter base with us.
Football-related issues would be of little interest in Belgium, agreed, but if the Charlton "virus" were spread to his other activities the fear of embarrassment and ridicule could be a serious motivator. And how will KM fare without the constant and staunch support of RM ?
And like at least one person (@Carly Burn) has said in this thread that who he sells to is a worry - and that's a spot on concern. First we had the Spivs and then this current pack of utter c***s - and given that trouble always comes in threes, we could be shafted again. We have absolutely no say in who we are sold to, and there are a lot of people (just like Roland) who think that a football club is just another money-making business and fail to balance the amount of money they need to invest against how much money they will (eventually) get out.
Hopefully PV is still in with a chance ....
Can't believe some still think he has ambitions for the club itself.
He's using our academy so that he doesn't have to buy players. If he's over budget then he sells a few to balance it. If we're not doing well he buys in some players on the cheap to make sure we're not relegated.
The only reason for a change in strategy is because it's not possible to balance the losses in L1 through the options he has (player sales, tickets etc.).
At the end of the day he can sell us for more than he paid due to his investment in the facilities and with an interest rate that he sees fit.
He's obviously a clever man in regards to economics. Some may think he doesn't know how to run a football club and that is true, but he doesn't want to know either, he doesn't care.
We may all be able to see through this, but even so, there's nothing we can do aside from show our dissatisfaction via protests and hope the financial reprocussions are enough to see him leave.
If our relegation has the biggest reprocussion of them all then we might have more to thank Fraeye for than first thought.
Although, as a contrary view, maybe the financial shortcomings of this division will make him re-consider. My problem with that is that if we do well, he may decide to wait and see.
We are in the midst of the worst possible 'Catch-22' situation - we want to win but that might help him. I just cannot bring myself to want to lose even though it may hurt him in the pocket.