Googled him as soon as he took over. Was concerned immediately. A multi-millionaire with fingers in various pies, football being one. A 'side-line', perhaps. A thing to play with. And of the several clubs owned (either by him, or family) CAFC was but one. So.... A part of a part. Where, then, does our famous club figure in his world? Not top of the tree! Sceptical from the outset, with a gut feeling to oppose from the off, I then got increasingly frustrated as things went from bad to worse. And, by crikey, didn't it take a long time for the fan-base to wake up? Months and months of inactivity. The Standard fans didn't dither, did they?
Luzon's poor run of results followed by his sacking and Fraeye's subsequent appointment.
I was quite low during those months up to and January and I think your football club and other hobbies can dig you out of it, but watching everything from afar made me feel worse.
Gave them countless chances - paying £200 to come from Spain to watch us lose pathetically to Sheffield United, Chris Powell getting sacked when I got back, not keeping Riga in the job, selling our best beloved players. Luzon's appointment and the start of the lies but Fraeye was the nail in the coffin.
I was sceptical immediately but the selling of Yann and Stephens and bringing in the dross confirmed it for me. I gave him the benefit of the doubt initially but completely withdrew my support at The Valley after Luzon was appointed.
When he arrived I was very hopeful, the fact he owned other clubs was interesting especially as we may get some good SL players. When the shit started arriving I thought ok, not what I was expecting but maybe they don't understand the league. When SCP was sacked I wasn't happy but understood bringing in his own man. Not renewing Riga's contract at the end of the season was the first real WTF moment. From then on it's was all downhill.
I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt but then came the Sheffield United debacle. Biggest game in years and the body language of SCP said it all. It was a tweet from his good mate Andy Ansah which basically said that Charlton was starting to fall apart which got my alarm bells ringing. Still was prepared to give them the BOTD until the Luzon appointment. But his sacking and KF's appointment was the straw that broke the camel's back.
I publicly backed Duchatelet on Charlton Live though I had my doubts from the start. I kind of guess I was in denial when he sold Yann and got rid of the Gaffer, I took to Riga (not realising what a snake in the grass he was).
The actual moment I thought no, this is wrong, was when he appointed Luzon, who was so clearly out of his depth.
I probably should have walked a lot earlier than I did, in fact Jimmy did text me to say come on Dave, you can't carry on. I wished I had gone then.
The first time there was an anger amongst fans at a game was Watford away, January 2015.
- Peeters sacked - Luzon sitting in the stand with no work permit - A 5-0 thumping - A couple of banners in the away end - The CEO conducts her first supporters meeting on the train back to London.
Was inwardly deeply concerned when CP left, gave them the benefit of doubt over Riga, pissed off with the circus that followed then properly lost it at Colchester on Laundry Basket day, bridges burnt for me now.
When Kermogant left - something felt very wrong in how the club dealt with this. The quality of those coming in - I mean Nego, Thuram and Polish Pete were just not up to it! Going into an FA cup quartyer final where it was clear that Powell would be sacked if he didn't pick the players Roland wanted him to. To undermine that was just not logical and criminal! Then the clincher was Riga not being kept on. When Peeters came in I was quite impressed with him so started to regain a little faith, but to sack him for their own errors - well it was clear they were basket cases.
Was sceptical from the sales of Yann and Dale and the subsequent network dross. The sacking of Powell angered me a lot but I justified or by saying an owner often wants their man to come in (I'd wanted Parky kept on when Jiminez and Slater came in). They made mistakes from that January until the summer but I was willing to give them a chance to learn from those mistakes (yes KM learn from them, and that was the time to do it. 2 years before you even claimed to).
They didn't learn from their mistakes and see if was bemused by the appointment of Bald Bob, but I let the initial results win me over. By the Luzon appointment I was done with them. I agreed with the Woolwich meeting. enjoyed the initial success he brought us on the pitch but it never felt right. Slowly more and more was coming out to the point that by the time Luton was sacked I was incredibly angry and ready for action so the spell it out campaign came at exactly the right time for me.
I remember when Dushithead took over I was worried that we would lose our best players to Standard Liege. That turned out to be the least of our worries! Then he sold our two best players (Yann and stephens) and it was obvious that he didn't have a clue. Why would your first move be one that makes the squad a lot weaker when we were already struggling? Since then it's just been one poor cost cutting decision after another
Tried to give them the benefit of the doubt even after they sold Yann, in a way I was hoping it was Yann that wanted out. But for me has to be when they gave Morrison away for nothing to a rival team in the same league and that stupid cow stating that she didn't want to stand in his way because he wanted to play first team football. Errr no he was our 3rd choice centre back at the time and a bloody good one at that. You don't just give them away because they may have the hump for not playing, you tell them that he is a quality centre back and you have no doubt he will break back into the first team. Obviously now it was a cost cutting exercise. However did the stupid bint never think Bikey or Ben Haim will get injured or lose form in the season.
Can't imagine why he wouldn't go to Romania on loan then if it was all about playing 1st team football
Feel bad that I gave him the benefit of the doubt for a long while, was taken in by the seats, the new pitch etc - elements of doubt started when we sold Yann but even then I wasn't 100% against him - it has been downhill ever since
A few others have mentioned 14-15 when the cracks really started to show. Losing to the nigels the way we did was horrible and showed how small our squad was which has been an ongoing problem with RD running of the club.
We put a good run together in the second half of the season and finished mid-table, and that probably gave RD confidence that his small squad ran on a shoestring with some Liege cast offs would work.
Unfortunately it took the whole of the following season for him to see that it doesnt work. Sacking Luzon and bringing in KF was the final straw for me.
How the hell did it take 14 games for him to realise a manager from the Belgian 3rd division is shit?
I never liked the idea of Charlton being part of his Network. The Regimes incompetence, and worse their dishonesty, was first shown with the replacement of Yann by Polish Pete, and their explanation, and has continued unabated. But whatever happens I'll never be happy with Charlton as part of a Network.
And Fraeye - If there was a doubt - the appointment of the least able coach in English professional football history and not sacking him when that was obvious removed any semblance of confidence remaining. I mean we went off the useless scale there didn't we?
Even looking back, I distinctly remember a conversation between myself and a QPR supporting mate and he was asking if I was happy we'd been bought and I said I didn't trust the guy or his motives. When asked why one of the first things I thought of was how would he feel if QPR had just flogged one of the best strikers outside of the top division for peanuts because he was 32 and that didn't fit in with he profile the nutbag wanted of saleable 22 year old's
It will get messy quickly and I bet they sack Powell (to be fair sacking Mr Powell was on the cards, new chairman, wonky league position as much as I disagreed) said I
Also the gushing way people went on about having a female CEO pissed me off. Like most normal people I couldn't care less about someone's gender but I do care about their ability to do the job. And a 20 something graduate is not that person.
Watching Thuram in the QPR game made my heart sink as I could smell what was happening then. Watching Reza mince about also annoyed me.
Also, and this has been done to death but they are among the thousands of people who rely on data yet are too stupid and ignorant to see their information behind their data. That isn't just exclusive to these morons but applies to all sorts of over promoted cock suckers in all sorts of lines of work
Data has its place and absolutely has a value but is utterly worthless unless you see the information behind the data.
The Luzon press conference was the one for me not just because of the appointment and the Match of the Day quotes but for Katrien, who hadn't really been challenged at that point, coming out with old tripe about lots of applicants before it becoming clear that the former Israeli U21 coach was our man. That really brought home that they were taking us for idiots.....
I publicly backed Duchatelet on Charlton Live though I had my doubts from the start. I kind of guess I was in denial when he sold Yann and got rid of the Gaffer, I took to Riga (not realising what a snake in the grass he was).
The Luzon press conference was the one for me not just because of the appointment and the Match of the Day quotes but for Katrien, who hadn't really been challenged at that point, coming out with old tripe about lots of applicants before it becoming clear that the former Israeli U21 coach was clearly our man. That really brought home that they were taking us for idiots.....
I publicly backed Duchatelet on Charlton Live though I had my doubts from the start. I kind of guess I was in denial when he sold Yann and got rid of the Gaffer, I took to Riga (not realising what a snake in the grass he was).
Care to elaborate? :-)
Nothing that isnt public already - He was approached before Powell was sacked, said he got the call in the morning from the President (his exact words) and flew in.
The Luzon press conference was the one for me not just because of the appointment and the Match of the Day quotes but for Katrien, who hadn't really been challenged at that point, coming out with old tripe about lots of applicants before it becoming clear that the former Israeli U21 coach was clearly our man. That really brought home that they were taking us for idiots.....
I publicly backed Duchatelet on Charlton Live though I had my doubts from the start. I kind of guess I was in denial when he sold Yann and got rid of the Gaffer, I took to Riga (not realising what a snake in the grass he was).
Care to elaborate? :-)
Nothing that isnt public already - He was approached before Powell was sacked, said he got the call in the morning from the President (his exact words) and flew in.
I'm not sure Riga's a snake in the grass, because he was approached before Powell was sacked. I should imagine it's quite common for managers to be approached, before another manager is sacked.
Comments
Sceptical from the outset, with a gut feeling to oppose from the off, I then got increasingly frustrated as things went from bad to worse. And, by crikey, didn't it take a long time for the fan-base to wake up? Months and months of inactivity. The Standard fans didn't dither, did they?
I was quite low during those months up to and January and I think your football club and other hobbies can dig you out of it, but watching everything from afar made me feel worse.
Gave them countless chances - paying £200 to come from Spain to watch us lose pathetically to Sheffield United, Chris Powell getting sacked when I got back, not keeping Riga in the job, selling our best beloved players. Luzon's appointment and the start of the lies but Fraeye was the nail in the coffin.
Not renewing Riga's contract at the end of the season was the first real WTF moment. From then on it's was all downhill.
The actual moment I thought no, this is wrong, was when he appointed Luzon, who was so clearly out of his depth.
I probably should have walked a lot earlier than I did, in fact Jimmy did text me to say come on Dave, you can't carry on. I wished I had gone then.
- Peeters sacked
- Luzon sitting in the stand with no work permit
- A 5-0 thumping
- A couple of banners in the away end
- The CEO conducts her first supporters meeting on the train back to London.
They didn't learn from their mistakes and see if was bemused by the appointment of Bald Bob, but I let the initial results win me over. By the Luzon appointment I was done with them. I agreed with the Woolwich meeting. enjoyed the initial success he brought us on the pitch but it never felt right. Slowly more and more was coming out to the point that by the time Luton was sacked I was incredibly angry and ready for action so the spell it out campaign came at exactly the right time for me.
Then he sold our two best players (Yann and stephens) and it was obvious that he didn't have a clue. Why would your first move be one that makes the squad a lot weaker when we were already struggling?
Since then it's just been one poor cost cutting decision after another
We put a good run together in the second half of the season and finished mid-table, and that probably gave RD confidence that his small squad ran on a shoestring with some Liege cast offs would work.
Unfortunately it took the whole of the following season for him to see that it doesnt work. Sacking Luzon and bringing in KF was the final straw for me.
How the hell did it take 14 games for him to realise a manager from the Belgian 3rd division is shit?
It will get messy quickly and I bet they sack Powell (to be fair sacking Mr Powell was on the cards, new chairman, wonky league position as much as I disagreed) said I
Also the gushing way people went on about having a female CEO pissed me off. Like most normal people I couldn't care less about someone's gender but I do care about their ability to do the job. And a 20 something graduate is not that person.
Watching Thuram in the QPR game made my heart sink as I could smell what was happening then. Watching Reza mince about also annoyed me.
Also, and this has been done to death but they are among the thousands of people who rely on data yet are too stupid and ignorant to see their information behind their data. That isn't just exclusive to these morons but applies to all sorts of over promoted cock suckers in all sorts of lines of work
Data has its place and absolutely has a value but is utterly worthless unless you see the information behind the data.
Care to elaborate? :-)
I should imagine it's quite common for managers to be approached, before another manager is sacked.