A bit stunned at how CARD have thoroughly dismissed the - seeming - work of a well respected PR agency. That wouldn't be good for business were it more well known... It may even be enough for some places to politely refuse future work.
For what it's worth, and I'm sure this thread will be monitored, I was going to continue my boycott of The Valley vs Coventry. However, due to the underhand manner of this "leak", I will reluctantly purchase a ticket for Coventry tomorrow.
When even the attempts at looking sincere and open-to-engagement rely upon sleight of hand - well timed emails curiously finding their way on the desks of journalists - you can't help but wonder if the tide is turning and we're approaching victory.
Quite frankly i think too many people are placing too much emphasis on this "Leak" to the press.
The majority are giving Katrien and the PR company far, far too much credit for all of this.
Katrien actually done what she normally does, which is to F*** up....
She read the email from CARD and thought that she would forward to Roland as a "for your info".
She put R in her email, pressed send not realising it went straight to Richard Cawley.... noticed this, then panicked, thought "Oh Sh!t, i've effed up again" and then spoke to the PR company.
Having thought a little about the Club's invitation and CARD's response. To me it looks like this was a strategy with three goals:
1. For them to be in a position to saying 'we reached out' , 'we've made every effort' blah blah
2. To put the protest group in a position where whatever its response would be (if the episode became public) it would naturally provide some degree of split of the support base on whether they should / shouldn't talk.
3. To be able to start linking the poor performance on the field to the protests off it I'm assuming there was also a strategy for tipping off the press and providing quotes to then put public pressure on CARD to react quickly, increasing the chance that by doing so it would react ill-considered / poorly.
Looking at the reaction on here, twitter etc it looks like they have failed miserably. I think whoever was responsible for that strategy of pushing this out to the press really dropped the ball here because it made it absolutely clear that this was not a genuine offer but a tactical play, with clear weighting on 'PR exercise'.
And while its natural there are some different views from supporters of whether this protest group should talk to the Club or not (though to answer @Swisdom point, I've looked back over the releases CARD have put out over the last 10 months and I can't see at any stage where they have shown any interest / wish to talk to the Club), I think you have to ask yourselves, why? What realistically could be gained?
Would having spelt out why a huge percentage of supporters think it would in everyone's best interests for Charlton Athletic if she moved on and her boss looked to sell, would she say 'yeah, fair enough' and start packing her desk drawers into a cardboard box? Would having been told 'we've made lots of mistakes, but we are working hard to make them right' rhetoric while the Club sink to the lowest point in its history, would the people involved with the protest group say 'fair enough, have you any season ticket forms?'.
CARD (I think) came together purely for the fact that the time for talking, better communication, better decision making, things that had been repeatedly requested for over a year and half, had been constantly ignored and there was nowhere else to go other than to try and make clear that enough's enough; please for everyone's sake and for the good of the club, cut your losses and let someone else try and run this club. The hiring of an English manager was never going to change that stance, but CARD can only really exist / be effective if its stance reflects a significant view of the Charlton support base.
So personally I think CARD’s stance was the right one; there is just nothing worthwhile that can be said. Things at Charlton will just never ever be the same again under a Roland / Katrien regime, and I think virtually everyone can see that.
Can't agree that the refusal makes any sense or helps the cause of we disaffected Charlton fans. The response is beautifully written and broadly uncontentious but prejudging KM and the meeting is an own goal. KM can now regain some high ground: "I invited them but they don't want to talk, they don't want to listen, they only want to attack me, they want the club to fail." It's mostly nonsense of course but she has a platform, she has an audience and possession is 9 tenths of the law. If the meeting turned out to be as fatuous as many of us believe it might be, she shoots herself in the foot. CARD should attend, record the whole thing, behave impeccably and disseminate the content for all to evaluate. She could only have made an even bigger fool of herself and the regime. She witlessly hoisted herself up for ridicule and self-destruction and you passed it up. It makes no sense. This meeting should have been a massive own goal for the regime but CARD has declined the chance. Gift horse's mouth and all that. KM should be the gift that keeps on giving and CARD just look precious, intransigent and inflammatory. I still want her and Roly to leave as soon as possible but this decision only puts that day further back. Roly gives precisely 1.5% of a damn about anything CAFC, so KM has carte blanche to continue to fiddle, meddle and hobble. Every time she makes a fool of herself there's more chance Roly would act. This was one of those times.
Meire doesn't need CARD to help her self destruct or be ridiculed. She can manage perfectly well herself.
She's sitting behind a computer screen, itching to put together a response to the CARD statement with the PR Company desperately trying to stop her putting her foot in her mouth once again.
Its really no different than CAST inviting Duchatalet to their AGM, fully expecting to be knocked back. Its all a bit of a game to make the other side look bad. The basic fact of the matter is that neither side wants to talk to the other, its too late for that now anyway. The relationship between the club's owner and many of its fans is now broken beyond repair.
I don't understand why Duchatalet wants to carry on flogging this dead horse. If its just to "prove CARD wrong", he is very seriously dumber than I thought.
Its really no different than CAST inviting Duchatalet to their AGM, fully expecting to be knocked back. Its all a bit of a game to make the other side look bad. The basic fact of the matter is that neither side wants to talk to the other, its too late for that now anyway. The relationship between the club's owner and many of its fans is now broken beyond repair.
I don't understand why Duchatalet wants to carry on flogging this dead horse. If its just to "prove CARD wrong", he is very seriously dumber than I thought.
Actually it's very different. The invitation from the Trust was genuine, there was no intent to trap him, even if they didn't expect him to accept.
Its really no different than CAST inviting Duchatalet to their AGM, fully expecting to be knocked back. Its all a bit of a game to make the other side look bad. The basic fact of the matter is that neither side wants to talk to the other, its too late for that now anyway. The relationship between the club's owner and many of its fans is now broken beyond repair.
I don't understand why Duchatalet wants to carry on flogging this dead horse. If its just to "prove CARD wrong", he is very seriously dumber than I thought.
Actually it's very different. The invitation from the Trust was genuine, there was no intent to trap him, even if they didn't expect him to accept.
Having thought a little about the Club's invitation and CARD's response. To me it looks like this was a strategy with three goals:
1. For them to be in a position to saying 'we reached out' , 'we've made every effort' blah blah
2. To put the protest group in a position where whatever its response would be (if the episode became public) it would naturally provide some degree of split of the support base on whether they should / shouldn't talk.
3. To be able to start linking the poor performance on the field to the protests off it I'm assuming there was also a strategy for tipping off the press and providing quotes to then put public pressure on CARD to react quickly, increasing the chance that by doing so it would react ill-considered / poorly.
Looking at the reaction on here, twitter etc it looks like they have failed miserably. I think whoever was responsible for that strategy of pushing this out to the press really dropped the ball here because it made it absolutely clear that this was not a genuine offer but a tactical play, with clear weighting on 'PR exercise'.
And while its natural there are some different views from supporters of whether this protest group should talk to the Club or not (though to answer @Swisdom point, I've looked back over the releases CARD have put out over the last 10 months and I can't see at any stage where they have shown any interest / wish to talk to the Club), I think you have to ask yourselves, why? What realistically could be gained?
Would having spelt out why a huge percentage of supporters think it would in everyone's best interests for Charlton Athletic if she moved on and her boss looked to sell, would she say 'yeah, fair enough' and start packing her desk drawers into a cardboard box? Would having been told 'we've made lots of mistakes, but we are working hard to make them right' rhetoric while the Club sink to the lowest point in its history, would the people involved with the protest group say 'fair enough, have you any season ticket forms?'.
CARD (I think) came together purely for the fact that the time for talking, better communication, better decision making, things that had been repeatedly requested for over a year and half, had been constantly ignored and there was nowhere else to go other than to try and make clear that enough's enough; please for everyone's sake and for the good of the club, cut your losses and let someone else try and run this club. The hiring of an English manager was never going to change that stance, but CARD can only really exist / be effective if its stance reflects a significant view of the Charlton support base.
So personally I think CARD’s stance was the right one; there is just nothing worthwhile that can be said. Things at Charlton will just never ever be the same again under a Roland / Katrien regime, and I think virtually everyone can see that.
I find this all so sad.
Good summary...
Now, I'm not being a pedant (I hope) but I wonder whether these were in fact 'tactics', not a strategy. Because though I do think that the 3 goals outlined above are spot-on, I'm not sure what even their dim minds think could be achieved ultimately.
On #1, I think their credibility is shot to pieces anyway, not just with supporters but also the dwindling band of media figures who are interested in our fate.
On #2 yes it might deepen a split but that could easily backfire, if a high % go with the anti camp. You'll end up with a more docile crowd for sure, but a much smaller one. It doesn't make any real sense either in footballing or business terms.
And on #3 again, so what? What does KM think will happen - we'll call off all protests, get behind the lads, etc. Good luck with that one...
The reality is there is no credible strategy. KM is out of her depth, and RD seems unwilling to sacrifice her, which is 100% required if he wants to build the club & retain ownership (it might not be enough for many, but it would be worth a try from his standpoint). Without that the only strategy is sell, asap.
I think there was a strategy once, flawed in some respects, so badly executed in every respect, and not helped by the shfting goalposts of FFP. RD articulated the strategy well enough at the start, and that's why some of us were not automatically anti - actually it was a relief to have an owner with some vision and deep pockets. But that was then & this is now.
Having thought a little about the Club's invitation and CARD's response. To me it looks like this was a strategy with three goals:
1. For them to be in a position to saying 'we reached out' , 'we've made every effort' blah blah
2. To put the protest group in a position where whatever its response would be (if the episode became public) it would naturally provide some degree of split of the support base on whether they should / shouldn't talk.
3. To be able to start linking the poor performance on the field to the protests off it I'm assuming there was also a strategy for tipping off the press and providing quotes to then put public pressure on CARD to react quickly, increasing the chance that by doing so it would react ill-considered / poorly.
Looking at the reaction on here, twitter etc it looks like they have failed miserably. I think whoever was responsible for that strategy of pushing this out to the press really dropped the ball here because it made it absolutely clear that this was not a genuine offer but a tactical play, with clear weighting on 'PR exercise'.
And while its natural there are some different views from supporters of whether this protest group should talk to the Club or not (though to answer @Swisdom point, I've looked back over the releases CARD have put out over the last 10 months and I can't see at any stage where they have shown any interest / wish to talk to the Club), I think you have to ask yourselves, why? What realistically could be gained?
Would having spelt out why a huge percentage of supporters think it would in everyone's best interests for Charlton Athletic if she moved on and her boss looked to sell, would she say 'yeah, fair enough' and start packing her desk drawers into a cardboard box? Would having been told 'we've made lots of mistakes, but we are working hard to make them right' rhetoric while the Club sink to the lowest point in its history, would the people involved with the protest group say 'fair enough, have you any season ticket forms?'.
CARD (I think) came together purely for the fact that the time for talking, better communication, better decision making, things that had been repeatedly requested for over a year and half, had been constantly ignored and there was nowhere else to go other than to try and make clear that enough's enough; please for everyone's sake and for the good of the club, cut your losses and let someone else try and run this club. The hiring of an English manager was never going to change that stance, but CARD can only really exist / be effective if its stance reflects a significant view of the Charlton support base.
So personally I think CARD’s stance was the right one; there is just nothing worthwhile that can be said. Things at Charlton will just never ever be the same again under a Roland / Katrien regime, and I think virtually everyone can see that.
I find this all so sad.
Good summary...
Now, I'm not being a pedant (I hope) but I wonder whether these were in fact 'tactics', not a strategy. Because though I do think that the 3 goals outlined above are spot-on, I'm not sure what even their dim minds think could be achieved ultimately.
On #1, I think their credibility is shot to pieces anyway, not just with supporters but also the dwindling band of media figures who are interested in our fate.
On #2 yes it might deepen a split but that could easily backfire, if a high % go with the anti camp. You'll end up with a more docile crowd for sure, but a much smaller one. It doesn't make any real sense either in footballing or business terms.
And on #3 again, so what? What does KM think will happen - we'll call off all protests, get behind the lads, etc. Good luck with that one...
The reality is there is no credible strategy. KM is out of her depth, and RD seems unwilling to sacrifice her, which is 100% required if he wants to build the club & retain ownership (it might not be enough for many, but it would be worth a try from his standpoint). Without that the only strategy is sell, asap.
I think there was a strategy once, flawed in some respects, so badly executed in every respect, and not helped by the shfting goalposts of FFP. RD articulated the strategy well enough at the start, and that's why some of us were not automatically anti - actually it was a relief to have an owner with some vision and deep pockets. But that was then & this is now.
The reality is that PR only works long term when the product/service/organisation/person who is being promoted can live up to the PR promises.
Yes, it can lessen damage, put another side of the story etc but narrative of "we'e changed, things are getting better" needs to happen.
The regime got a lot of good PR from appointing Slade. A lot of core customers (what we used to call fans) thought "we'll at least he's English and I've heard of him, maybe things will improve." The outside media thought the same.
And if we were top of the league there would be far less interest in a demo v Coventry.
Only it hasn't worked and it hasn't worked for the same reasons as before ie lack of funding, lack of support for the manager, Driesen interfering, lack of real or even pretend ambition, blaming others, not really learning from mistakes.
So the PR can't work with the bulk of the target audience which is the 80% of fans who are somewhere between the "everything is wonderful" and "Everything is terrible" camps.
They think they are winning because the 10% of everything is wonderful ie John Commerford, SE7 Valiants tell them it is but they no longer convincing the people in the middle because they can see the poor performances and poor results.
The PR people did a reasonable job here and laid a trap.
They screwed up leaking the email to the press before any response could have feasibly been given, either acceptance, or refusal.
The trap has been sidestepped but the divisive tactic will persist.
The more you see of them, the more you dislike them.
I don't necessarily agree. I think they have a win-win here. They leak it, someone runs with it (in this case it was the Mail and it was buried below a long list of issues with the regime). They leak it and CARD turn it down, well they've still won the previous news cycle and it's less likely (to an outsider) someone will run a full story on CARD than one from the club. Plus in the future they can now say "we tried to meet with CARD they turned us down."
As for going after them for using a PR firm, I don't know that that has a lot of traction. If this company does work with other football clubs, they'll have ties within the media that journalists won't necessarily want to break. And also, if I were advising the SMT, the first thing I'd tell them to do is hire a PR team and put together exactly this--a meeting with boycotting fans.
I don't feel like we can criticize them for running a business poorly and then when they make a step toward running it correctly (too late, and not enough of course), we then hold that up as being rubbish. I think it's a narrative for those of us engaged in this every day, but not so much for external sources e.g. the media.
KM: let's make it look like we want to talk, as I don't like the idea of having so many of those weird customers, sitting around our box. Oh, and brief the press to try and make them look like the bad guys.
We stand ready to assist any incoming regime in any way we can, but we do not believe that meeting you at this stage would serve any constructive purpose for the well-being of the club. We have no doubt that any meeting would feature the same empty rhetoric from you as your various previous public interventions, but regardless of what you say the outcomes remain dismal. Even your email is doubtless intended as a public relations initiative aimed at supporters who may be inclined to join the protests at the Coventry City match and the media who will report what happens.
CARD therefore endorses the view previously put forward by the supporters' trust that the situation is irretrievable under your management and under Roland Duchatelet's ownership.
You had two years to talk and you declined to do so. Now it is time for you to go.
CARD
I'm tearing up.
For gods sake. Just leave Jeremy Corbyn out of this.
The PR people did a reasonable job here and laid a trap.
They screwed up leaking the email to the press before any response could have feasibly been given, either acceptance, or refusal.
The trap has been sidestepped but the divisive tactic will persist.
The more you see of them, the more you dislike them.
I don't necessarily agree. I think they have a win-win here. They leak it, someone runs with it (in this case it was the Mail and it was buried below a long list of issues with the regime). They leak it and CARD turn it down, well they've still won the previous news cycle and it's less likely (to an outsider) someone will run a full story on CARD than one from the club. Plus in the future they can now say "we tried to meet with CARD they turned us down."
As for going after them for using a PR firm, I don't know that that has a lot of traction. If this company does work with other football clubs, they'll have ties within the media that journalists won't necessarily want to break. And also, if I were advising the SMT, the first thing I'd tell them to do is hire a PR team and put together exactly this--a meeting with boycotting fans.
I don't feel like we can criticize them for running a business poorly and then when they make a step toward running it correctly (too late, and not enough of course), we then hold that up as being rubbish. I think it's a narrative for those of us engaged in this every day, but not so much for external sources e.g. the media.
What the Mail did with it was turn it into criticism of the club, almost tacked the leaked email onto panning the regime. Not sure they expected the Mail to do that with it.
Let's be honest - they're not making a step toward running it correctly. They're making a step towards trying to make it look like it's being run correctly. Quote only the positive things coming out of meetings, pretend they represent a dialogue when they're no more than a box ticking exercise because they simply don't listen to fans, as even the scoreboard and sofa proved last year.
I'd go further - the Pie Man has drawn up battle lines and is determined to win a 'war' with the club's 'customers'. Notwithstanding an argument won is a customer lost, that attitude has shown no signs of allaying, and Katrien will fool no-one until she shows a little humility and accepts she's been shite up until now.
The PR people did a reasonable job here and laid a trap.
They screwed up leaking the email to the press before any response could have feasibly been given, either acceptance, or refusal.
The trap has been sidestepped but the divisive tactic will persist.
The more you see of them, the more you dislike them.
I don't necessarily agree. I think they have a win-win here. They leak it, someone runs with it (in this case it was the Mail and it was buried below a long list of issues with the regime). They leak it and CARD turn it down, well they've still won the previous news cycle and it's less likely (to an outsider) someone will run a full story on CARD than one from the club. Plus in the future they can now say "we tried to meet with CARD they turned us down."
As for going after them for using a PR firm, I don't know that that has a lot of traction. If this company does work with other football clubs, they'll have ties within the media that journalists won't necessarily want to break. And also, if I were advising the SMT, the first thing I'd tell them to do is hire a PR team and put together exactly this--a meeting with boycotting fans.
I don't feel like we can criticize them for running a business poorly and then when they make a step toward running it correctly (too late, and not enough of course), we then hold that up as being rubbish. I think it's a narrative for those of us engaged in this every day, but not so much for external sources e.g. the media.
What the Mail did with it was turn it into criticism of the club, almost tacked the leaked email onto panning the regime. Not sure they expected the Mail to do that with it.
Let's be honest - they're not making a step toward running it correctly. They're making a step towards trying to make it look like it's being run correctly. Quote only the positive things coming out of meetings, pretend they represent a dialogue when they're no more than a box ticking exercise because they simply don't listen to fans, as even the scoreboard and sofa proved last year.
I'd go further - the Pie Man has drawn up battle lines and is determined to win a 'war' with the club's 'customers'. Notwithstanding an argument won is a customer lost, that attitude has shown no signs of allaying, and Katrien will fool no-one until she shows a little humility and accepts she's been shite up until now.
Pigs will fly before any of that happens.
I agree with just about everything you've said, the only place where I'd differentiate is "looking like a business is being run better" is oftentimes a step in running a business better. It's not substantive, lasting, or sincere in my experience from having been a part of all kinds of re-brandings/badgings and the like, but PR is rarely about winning a battle of substance or context.
I completely agree with your take from the Mail article, it was the same as mine.
My original post was in response to someone saying it's "a trap," when I don't really think it is, I think it's just PR 101, but PR 101 is a step up from where they were.
I've not posted on this thread yet because I would only be repeating what others have said. The big thing for me is that it is making me angry. I'm not prone to bursts of anger but the whole thing reminds me of dealing with stupid kids. The pathetic "plans" that come from our SMT and CEO and the playground antics of inviting CARD to meet are actually worse than the behaviour of immature kids. At least, kids have an excuse as they are kids.
I have to admit that the summer break and relegation had sapped most of my fight but KM has managed to rekindle it, so I should thank her for that at least.
CARD needs to remain adult and not be like the stupid kids. So far, everything has been well managed but keep it up!
Let's get these buffoons out of our club. I'll be there against Coventry and let's hope we can not just send RD and his cronies to Coventry but much further away. For. Ever.
Comments
The majority are giving Katrien and the PR company far, far too much credit for all of this.
Katrien actually done what she normally does, which is to F*** up....
She read the email from CARD and thought that she would forward to Roland as a "for your info".
She put R in her email, pressed send not realising it went straight to Richard Cawley.... noticed this, then panicked, thought "Oh Sh!t, i've effed up again" and then spoke to the PR company.
FACT
1. For them to be in a position to saying 'we reached out' , 'we've made every effort' blah blah
2. To put the protest group in a position where whatever its response would be (if the episode became public) it would naturally provide some degree of split of the support base on whether they should / shouldn't talk.
3. To be able to start linking the poor performance on the field to the protests off it
I'm assuming there was also a strategy for tipping off the press and providing quotes to then put public pressure on CARD to react quickly, increasing the chance that by doing so it would react ill-considered / poorly.
Looking at the reaction on here, twitter etc it looks like they have failed miserably.
I think whoever was responsible for that strategy of pushing this out to the press really dropped the ball here because it made it absolutely clear that this was not a genuine offer but a tactical play, with clear weighting on 'PR exercise'.
And while its natural there are some different views from supporters of whether this protest group should talk to the Club or not (though to answer @Swisdom point, I've looked back over the releases CARD have put out over the last 10 months and I can't see at any stage where they have shown any interest / wish to talk to the Club), I think you have to ask yourselves, why? What realistically could be gained?
Would having spelt out why a huge percentage of supporters think it would in everyone's best interests for Charlton Athletic if she moved on and her boss looked to sell, would she say 'yeah, fair enough' and start packing her desk drawers into a cardboard box? Would having been told 'we've made lots of mistakes, but we are working hard to make them right' rhetoric while the Club sink to the lowest point in its history, would the people involved with the protest group say 'fair enough, have you any season ticket forms?'.
CARD (I think) came together purely for the fact that the time for talking, better communication, better decision making, things that had been repeatedly requested for over a year and half, had been constantly ignored and there was nowhere else to go other than to try and make clear that enough's enough; please for everyone's sake and for the good of the club, cut your losses and let someone else try and run this club. The hiring of an English manager was never going to change that stance, but CARD can only really exist / be effective if its stance reflects a significant view of the Charlton support base.
So personally I think CARD’s stance was the right one; there is just nothing worthwhile that can be said. Things at Charlton will just never ever be the same again under a Roland / Katrien regime, and I think virtually everyone can see that.
I find this all so sad.
The response is beautifully written and broadly uncontentious but prejudging KM and the meeting is an own goal.
KM can now regain some high ground: "I invited them but they don't want to talk, they don't want to listen, they only want to attack me, they want the club to fail." It's mostly nonsense of course but she has a platform, she has an audience and possession is 9 tenths of the law.
If the meeting turned out to be as fatuous as many of us believe it might be, she shoots herself in the foot. CARD should attend, record the whole thing, behave impeccably and disseminate the content for all to evaluate. She could only have made an even bigger fool of herself and the regime. She witlessly hoisted herself up for ridicule and self-destruction and you passed it up. It makes no sense.
This meeting should have been a massive own goal for the regime but CARD has declined the chance. Gift horse's mouth and all that. KM should be the gift that keeps on giving and CARD just look precious, intransigent and inflammatory.
I still want her and Roly to leave as soon as possible but this decision only puts that day further back.
Roly gives precisely 1.5% of a damn about anything CAFC, so KM has carte blanche to continue to fiddle, meddle and hobble. Every time she makes a fool of herself there's more chance Roly would act. This was one of those times.
She's sitting behind a computer screen, itching to put together a response to the CARD statement with the PR Company desperately trying to stop her putting her foot in her mouth once again.
"Don't do it Katrien, they're not worth it"
#wrongclub
I don't understand why Duchatalet wants to carry on flogging this dead horse. If its just to "prove CARD wrong", he is very seriously dumber than I thought.
Now, I'm not being a pedant (I hope) but I wonder whether these were in fact 'tactics', not a strategy. Because though I do think that the 3 goals outlined above are spot-on, I'm not sure what even their dim minds think could be achieved ultimately.
On #1, I think their credibility is shot to pieces anyway, not just with supporters but also the dwindling band of media figures who are interested in our fate.
On #2 yes it might deepen a split but that could easily backfire, if a high % go with the anti camp. You'll end up with a more docile crowd for sure, but a much smaller one. It doesn't make any real sense either in footballing or business terms.
And on #3 again, so what? What does KM think will happen - we'll call off all protests, get behind the lads, etc. Good luck with that one...
The reality is there is no credible strategy. KM is out of her depth, and RD seems unwilling to sacrifice her, which is 100% required if he wants to build the club & retain ownership (it might not be enough for many, but it would be worth a try from his standpoint). Without that the only strategy is sell, asap.
I think there was a strategy once, flawed in some respects, so badly executed in every respect, and not helped by the shfting goalposts of FFP. RD articulated the strategy well enough at the start, and that's why some of us were not automatically anti - actually it was a relief to have an owner with some vision and deep pockets. But that was then & this is now.
Yes, it can lessen damage, put another side of the story etc but narrative of "we'e changed, things are getting better" needs to happen.
The regime got a lot of good PR from appointing Slade. A lot of core customers (what we used to call fans) thought "we'll at least he's English and I've heard of him, maybe things will improve." The outside media thought the same.
And if we were top of the league there would be far less interest in a demo v Coventry.
Only it hasn't worked and it hasn't worked for the same reasons as before ie lack of funding, lack of support for the manager, Driesen interfering, lack of real or even pretend ambition, blaming others, not really learning from mistakes.
So the PR can't work with the bulk of the target audience which is the 80% of fans who are somewhere between the "everything is wonderful" and "Everything is terrible" camps.
They think they are winning because the 10% of everything is wonderful ie John Commerford, SE7 Valiants tell them it is but they no longer convincing the people in the middle because they can see the poor performances and poor results.
As for going after them for using a PR firm, I don't know that that has a lot of traction. If this company does work with other football clubs, they'll have ties within the media that journalists won't necessarily want to break. And also, if I were advising the SMT, the first thing I'd tell them to do is hire a PR team and put together exactly this--a meeting with boycotting fans.
I don't feel like we can criticize them for running a business poorly and then when they make a step toward running it correctly (too late, and not enough of course), we then hold that up as being rubbish. I think it's a narrative for those of us engaged in this every day, but not so much for external sources e.g. the media.
KM: Can we talk?
CARD: Fuck off!
KM: let's make it look like we want to talk, as I don't like the idea of having so many of those weird customers, sitting around our box. Oh, and brief the press to try and make them look like the bad guys.
CARD: [excellent response penned, and published]
Let's be honest - they're not making a step toward running it correctly. They're making a step towards trying to make it look like it's being run correctly. Quote only the positive things coming out of meetings, pretend they represent a dialogue when they're no more than a box ticking exercise because they simply don't listen to fans, as even the scoreboard and sofa proved last year.
I'd go further - the Pie Man has drawn up battle lines and is determined to win a 'war' with the club's 'customers'. Notwithstanding an argument won is a customer lost, that attitude has shown no signs of allaying, and Katrien will fool no-one until she shows a little humility and accepts she's been shite up until now.
Pigs will fly before any of that happens.
I completely agree with your take from the Mail article, it was the same as mine.
My original post was in response to someone saying it's "a trap," when I don't really think it is, I think it's just PR 101, but PR 101 is a step up from where they were.
I have to admit that the summer break and relegation had sapped most of my fight but KM has managed to rekindle it, so I should thank her for that at least.
CARD needs to remain adult and not be like the stupid kids. So far, everything has been well managed but keep it up!
Let's get these buffoons out of our club. I'll be there against Coventry and let's hope we can not just send RD and his cronies to Coventry but much further away. For. Ever.
Yes I think that's possible.
CAS Trust are trying to find out if there is anyone still alive who saw Charlton in a lower league position
castrust.org/