My name is Brad and my 1st match at the Valley was the 4-1 thrashing of Cardiff City on 3rd February 1967. So I have been a supporter for over 50 years but never an employee. I shall be in St Truiden on 4th March to urge you to fuck right off and do it quick.
Hi Roland, I'm Neil, we've met before when Charlton fans asked us to bring you some Christmas messages. It was good to meet you and thank you for accepting the messages of a mixed group of fans.
I have only started supporting Charlton fairly recently as my, now 6 year old son became old enough to start following a team.
Neither of had any association with Charlton prior to becoming season ticket holders.
Charlton are our local side and had a reputation at that time (just into your owenership) of being a good family club with aspirations.
We held three season tickets for the two years prior to this one and attended nearly every home game.
Unfortunately it became very clear that the club we thought we joined, was being destroyed, by you and your employees.
We became ardent protesters, because we wanted to have what all the long standing supporters whose messages surround this have had supporting Charlton.
I recall Tony Keohane telling me that the children are the future of the club, they are, but fun days and bouncy castles are not what is required. It is a fully functioning football club where a desire for success, whether achieved or not, is central to being a member of that club.
I do not believe you have ever been a part of such a club, you have no idea how to achieve this and I do not believe your staff have either.
Without this, you will never have success at Charlton and nor at your other football clubs.
My son emplores you to sell so that he can support club that is is home. And so do I.
Fir the sake of all young supporters, many of whom I have seen stop coming, please reconsider your position and sell.
I cannot see new fans coming to as, as I did, while you operate the club as now.
Roland fuck off you stubborn old belgium bastard. Your mad experiment is ruining peoples life's. Do the right thing sell up get out of football and if you still feel the need to prove something to your egotistic self, do it in your own fucking country not ours.
Hi Roland, I'm Neil, we've met before when Charlton fans asked us to bring you some Christmas messages. It was good to meet you and thank you for accepting the messages of a mixed group of fans.
I have only started supporting Charlton fairly recently as my, now 6 year old son became old enough to start following a team.
Neither of had any association with Charlton prior to becoming season ticket holders.
Charlton are our local side and had a reputation at that time (just into your owenership) of being a good family club with aspirations.
We held three season tickets for the two years prior to this one and attended nearly every home game.
Unfortunately it became very clear that the club we thought we joined, was being destroyed, by you and your employees.
We became ardent protesters, because we wanted to have what all the long standing supporters whose messages surround this have had supporting Charlton.
I recall Tony Keohane telling me that the children are the future of the club, they are, but fun days and bouncy castles are not what is required. It is a fully functioning football club where a desire for success, whether achieved or not, is central to being a member of that club.
I do not believe you have ever been a part of such a club, you have no idea how to achieve this and I do not believe your staff have either.
Without this, you will never have success at Charlton and nor at your other football clubs.
My son emplores you to sell so that he can support club that is is home. And so do I.
Fir the sake of all young supporters, many of whom I have seen stop coming, please reconsider your position and sell.
I cannot see new fans coming to as, as I did, while you operate the club as now.
Many thanks
Neil
I didn't know that supporting Charlton was recent to you Neil. Having seen you in the video handing Roland the leaflets and guessed your age range from your posts on here I would've just assumed you had been a fan from a young age like most of us.
The fact that you've gone to the lengths you have re: helping with the protests, I think that's massively commendable in the short time you've supported us. Good stuff mate
Hello Roland, I'm Mark, never employed by the club, a supporter for 42 years. I have experienced good and bad both on and off the pitch in that time but always believed that things would improve the next week/season (well maybe not 79/80).
My kids have only started following Charlton in the past three years, so they have never known the club as I have, with everyone on and off the pitch pulling in the same direction, respected in both the local community and the football community as the perfect example of how a club should be run. You have dismantled much of that reputation, built over a generation, yet you have the cheek to call those of us who protest against this destruction "Stupid people." Me and the kids are protesting. I don't mind you calling me stupid, but you have insulted my children. If I see you on 4th March, I will be asking for, and expecting, an apology. From you, not one of your lackeys. See you then.
Roland, I have supported my team regularly since 1983 and in fact take pride in going AWOL from the British Army in Germany to watch us lose the Full Members Cup Final at Wembley.
I followed us at Selhurst, Upton Park and back to the Valley where I introduced my son and the next generation to our famous football club. My Valley Gold number is 58, it retain for nostalgia more than faith. Yet I was one who was willing to give you a chance and wrongly opposed the initial Woolwich meeting.
I used my contacts as a military historian to source, collect, store and unveil the clubs war memorial at zero cost to ensure the history of our club is not forgotten, I assisted in the initial set up, alongside a group of committed supporters of our museum, a shrine to our past and signpost to our hoped future, yet against this our CEO, without a care cast aside 112 years of community engagement and shared history.
I am neither a bitter ex employee nor rebel rouser, I have served both my country and community, and I implore you to look at the damage your ill fated plan has inflicted on families, friends and supporters of a once great club.
I can only hope that my son can experience a small percentage of the memories that the addicks have given me, sadly, under your stewardship that seems an impossible dream.
Roland, I'm Mike and I first visited The Valley in 1966. I have lots of credentials to demonstrate my support which remains less avid than some but until fairly recently, more faithful than many. I have this season surrendered season tickets that were held for the same East Stand seats since 1994. In common with the vast majority of protestors I have never been employed by CAFC. I could tolerate a wealthy, remote and disinterested owner as sadly many clubs suffer a similar fate. What I cannot accept is your judgemental arrogance, your hostile soundbites and your continued support of KM, whom I completely despise. She represents everything that is tawdry and shameful about football in this era. I appreciate that from your perspective at least she remains both stubborn and cheap. I might pop along to the occasion match this season but fundamentally I'm boycotting Charlton Athletic whilst it remains in your ownership. That is my prerogative, it hurts me but hopefully it hurts you more despite the fact that you continue to burden our Club with the debt incurred under you abysmal reign. Please sell your interest in our beloved football club. I shall be in Belgium on 4th March to express these views. Please just go away and note that I would rather support a stuggling CAFC in the Conference than a CAFC in the Premier League under your ownership and I won't be coming back until you (and her) have gone!!!!!
Hi Roland (not that you're reading this but it's quite cathartic nonetheless).
My name's Rich. I feel much younger than my 48 years and trust me it's not because the majority of them have been spent supporting Charlton.
I remember taking my then girlfriend to see the dilapidated Valley in the late 80s and I'm not ashamed to say I cried as I walked round that place. You might find this hard to imagine but my dreams of a return weren't about dancing after a game. They weren't even about footballing success, but the reuniting of the club and its spiritual home, where the spirits of heroes past play freely and the heartbeat of the fans is strongest.
Somehow in just 3 years you and those you appointed to manage the club have driven a wedge between the club and the fans that ensured there was a Charlton Athletic for you to purchase. Last week Ian Holloway said that owners have the right to do what they want with a club, but that that doesn't mean they should. It doesn't mean that you should.
It took 7 years for the fight to get the club back to the Valley to succeed, with some of the most creative and astonishing accomplishments along the way. You'll have noticed by the increasing coverage of protests in your own media that the fans are no less effective today.
And next week you will discover - if you really didn't suspect it already - that there are large numbers of independently minded Charlton fans who don't accept your ownership and will battle for their club for as long as it takes.
And no, I'm not an ex employee (and I've never wanted to work for the club either). Mind you, my doing nothing would seem to be a lot more successful than your strategy and your CEO's execution judging by the results. Not sure I can make the trip to Belgium, but if I do I'm more than happy to talk you through how the club can succeed with your full detachment too.
Maybe if you were part of that period when all of the club pulled together for success, you would understand what a fantastic resource you had at your disposal. It is unique from my experience. Chris Powell understood what it was, and that is a major reason why he was loved by fans. You would have been well served talking to him about it. He still had a lot to learn about being a football manager, but he was embarking on the journey with the fans. If I had bought the club, I would have seen the fantastic opportunity this provided.
You are only as good as the advice you get and the people around you. Sadly, your CEO has shown herself to be out of her depth. You sack managers very quickly - some rightly, some who like Powell, Riga and Peeters who did not have the support they deserved Managers like Fraeye and Slade were incredibly stupid decisions. Your experts, do not understand balance so you spend money in the wrong way. Your CEO is more interested in trying to make herself look good than enaging fans and many of the things she has said have been outrageous.
We don't demand success, but we expect inclusion, we expect respect and we expect competence. A football club has to feel like your club. I shop at Tesco but I don't have Tesco images on my walls, a Tesco tatoo and I certainly would never have christened my son there. Football is more than a business to fans and that is why people get involved in it. You had a fantastic opportunity for success at Charlton, but you came in with the wrong plan, for the wrong club in the wrong league. The divisions your approach have created are not possible to heal in my opinion.
In business, some things work and some things don't. This hasn't. Surely, you have to accept that.
Im Terry, my friends know me as Tel. I've never done any paid work for the club. I even rejected the match ticket payment for cleaning seats and clearing snow in the past along with dedicating many hours in setting up and running Addicksdownunder in its formative years and also being part of the first Fans Forum, which is a far cry from the one currently in existence.
Hence Ive never been formally employed or sacked from a position within Charlton Athletic.
Ive been a supporter of CAFC since 1964 and seen many highs and lows over the years. Even in the darkest times the club was still run in a professional manner, even though many of us didnt agree with the way the ship was being steered.
However, you have surpassed them all with the total incompetence shown by the inadequate unqualified CEO and those she has recruited into positions that they should never be considered for...
You have learnt nothing about the club, because of course you know better than the 20,000+ people who used to assemble regularly at OUR Valley.
You may well be the incumbent owner, but you will never own the "club".
Sadly I cant be in Belgium on the 4th March as I live over 10,000 miles away, but as always, I will be with my fellow supporters in spirit and once again in person when I return to the UK on the 27th March.
I doubt sincerely you have the balls to meet the fans of either side in Belgium....but who knows, it might just snow in Sydney in summer.
I'm 33, so I wont compete with some of the lifetimes of supporting Charlton described above.
I'll just say that as a small child in my primary school, you had two options - Millwall or Charlton. Once you had chosen, that was your lot for life.
Please stop ruining this for us. This 'customer' can't go elsewhere for what is now a completely awful 'product', and I have no alternative but to sit in a virtually empty East stand watching the club deteriorate with each passing week.
Roland and Meire, I have never worked for Charlton. But Ihave been a supporter since my Dad took me to the Valley in 1961. I took my daughters in 1996. We then all had season tickets ( daughters only now attending selected game- married children etc) I hoped that very soon we would be taking my Grandson. 4 generations! But I will not take him all the time Roland and Meire are there. Meire is just hopeless, and has alienated supporters by her lies and incompetence. Roland, must be able in some ways as he has a successful business, but maybe he is now misguided or so stubborn that his mind has gone. He has ruined the club, and continues his disgraceful ownership. Make the protest effective. Get this rubbish regime out.
My name is Tony and I have been supporting Charlton since 1971/72, a season in which we were relegated. That relegation, nor subsequent relegation seasons, did not stop me from attending The Valley or from travelling up and down the country in support of my team. Do you hear what I said then? My team. You may own the club but without the fans a football club is simply an empty stadium and a few buildings on a bit of land. Football clubs belong to the fans.
As I have said relegation has not stopped me from attending games but your ownership has. For the last year or so I have refused to give you any more money. The incompetents that you have placed in the positions of importance at the club have made Charlton a laughing stock in the world of football.
It breaks my heart that I am unable to take my son to support Charlton, in the same way that my father did with me and his father did with him. My son started attending games in 2011/12, a season when we won the League One title with a record number of points. You may recall that our manager in that record-breaking season was Chris Powell, a respected former player, England international player and a respected manager. According to you he is a stupid person. It would appear that, in your opinion, anybody that doesn't agree with you is stupid. That would appear to include the thousands of fans that your septic regime has alienated. The fans of Charlton are not unrealistic; we do not expect our owner to be like Roman Abramovitch or Sheikh Mansour. All we ask is for the owner to look after the best interests of the club and to hold normal ambitions for success on the pitch. You are failing on both counts.
I have never been employed by Charlton Athletic Football Club but would gladly have given my time free of charge if needed.
I will be in Sint-Truiden next weekend but, being the coward that you are, I expect you to find some excuse to be elsewhere.
If you had undertaken proper due diligence when buying the club you would have realised that the fans of Charlton would not stand idly while you dismantle something that they hold so dear. You have no interest in Charlton so is it really worth the aggravation? Just sell the club.
Hi Roland, I'm Neil, we've met before when Charlton fans asked us to bring you some Christmas messages. It was good to meet you and thank you for accepting the messages of a mixed group of fans.
I have only started supporting Charlton fairly recently as my, now 6 year old son became old enough to start following a team.
Neither of had any association with Charlton prior to becoming season ticket holders.
Charlton are our local side and had a reputation at that time (just into your owenership) of being a good family club with aspirations.
We held three season tickets for the two years prior to this one and attended nearly every home game.
Unfortunately it became very clear that the club we thought we joined, was being destroyed, by you and your employees.
We became ardent protesters, because we wanted to have what all the long standing supporters whose messages surround this have had supporting Charlton.
I recall Tony Keohane telling me that the children are the future of the club, they are, but fun days and bouncy castles are not what is required. It is a fully functioning football club where a desire for success, whether achieved or not, is central to being a member of that club.
I do not believe you have ever been a part of such a club, you have no idea how to achieve this and I do not believe your staff have either.
Without this, you will never have success at Charlton and nor at your other football clubs.
My son emplores you to sell so that he can support club that is is home. And so do I.
Fir the sake of all young supporters, many of whom I have seen stop coming, please reconsider your position and sell.
I cannot see new fans coming to as, as I did, while you operate the club as now.
Many thanks
Neil
I didn't know that supporting Charlton was recent to you Neil. Having seen you in the video handing Roland the leaflets and guessed your age range from your posts on here I would've just assumed you had been a fan from a young age like most of us.
The fact that you've gone to the lengths you have re: helping with the protests, I think that's massively commendable in the short time you've supported us. Good stuff mate
Hear! Hear! Neil, your love of Charlton and your 'hands on' involvement with protests , despite having a young family, puts paid to the theory that the driving force behind the various campaigns is fuelled by a load of miserable old codgers and biddies. Yours is the definitive posting on this thread.
I'm carter and I have never worked for the club in any capacity paid or voluntary
The duchatalet model of football will never work, as much as players are assets and commodities you can never, ever overlook the human element.
To create success you have to get everyone pulling in the same direction and facilitate an environment where this can happen. The biggest part of this is bringing together a group who all can interact and have a relationship, fight for each other and follow their leader knowing they all have each others back.
Can't do that by shifting and shuffling human beings like moving numbers on a database.
I could go on and pick apart the other failings but I'll then be creating a 1500 word diatribe which everyone else has covered in some part.
I'm SA. I started going to Charlton at the start of the 85/86 season, and was hooked straight away. We beat Barnsley on the opening day of the season in front of just over 4,000, with one side of the ground closed off. These were not great days for the club. And it got worse. Less than two months later I was standing in someone else's ground watching Charlton.
Fortunately, there were quite a few stupid people around who thought this was wrong. Seven years later, we were back at The Valley.
Education, work and family has taken me away from South London, but I still love this club.
I don't know what you are doing here. It seems to be some sort of socio-economic experiment. It's not working.
There are still, thank god, stupid people around. Remarkably, despite their lack of intelligence, they have worked you out, and they have worked out how to go after you.
I thank each and every one of them, and I'd thank you to go.
Hi Roland, I'm RMN and I've never worked for the club.
I'd been a season ticket holder since just before the move to Croydon and stood as a Valley Party candidate to fight for our return home. I don't have a ticket this season, and nor do the rest of the family. We go to the odd away game but it's fair to say you have failed to keep us enthusiastic enough to attend home games regularly. And failure sums up your not-brief-enough time in charge of our club. If we look at the usual metrics of League or Cup success then relegation followed by failure to get out of the group stage of the EFL Trophy is a failure in anyone's book. You have lost half the regular supporter base - another failure. You have lost a lot of money, which you have helpfully loaded back on the club so you are now failing to find anyone to buy it at the price you want. How are the sales of replica shirts and match programmes going? Match-day income must be at an all-time low. A more pertinent failure for a successful businessman like yourself to reflect on.
But for me, your biggest failure is to be prepared to take advice from people who know what they are doing. You appear to be a classic megalomaniac, always doomed to fail when trying something outside your direct sphere of experience. Simply hoping that friends and acquaintances will be able to step up to the challenge of running a large organisation in a foreign country, or scouting players from their laptop was always going to be risky. When it was obviously failing you failed to react as a successful businessman would, and consequently we are all suffering the consequences.
I'll be in Belgium with my son and some friends for the protest because this is something we Charlton fans do well - we get organised and we let the club know when it is not working in our best interests. If you didn't know that when you bought the club, you certainly do now. Time to man-up, admit your failure and move on.
Great post @RodneysMiddleName . Cannot guess who you are but looking forward to meeting you there. Wonder how many other VP candidates will be there. @Alex Wright is one, I think
Raplh (an yes I bloody know that's not how you spell it !) but like being a Charlton supporter, once you have committed there is no going back. Been coming to the valley for 54 years, bringing my son for the last 22. My extended family is also full of Charlton fans. It was our club, and through premiership to Division 3 we were proud of it, and felt part of a community with the club as our hub. Thanks so much for destroying that !
Mr Duchatelet, my name is sralan but you can call me Sir. I first attended the Valley in 1963 which was my first ever live game, brought along by my Grandad. I have been supporting the club ever since, through thick and thin. I loved the atmosphere, getting off the train and walking with the crowds down Floyd Road. Since you and your cronies have taken over the club, you have steadily ripped the life and soul out of our great and proud club. You have divided supporters and have created a toxic atmosphere around the club. I am sad to tell you that my love for Charlton is waning fast, entirely due to yourself and puppets. Please go before it's too late. I should also state that I have never been employed by the club which just shows from a host of other posts on here that you are a deluded old fool and totally out of your depth. JUST GO !!!!
Why do you persist with this absurd lie when it's been repeatedly exposed as complete and utter nonsense? Are you incapable of admitting the latest of your many catastrophic errors, or is your CEO feeding you this inaccurate offensive guff? Look at the empty stands at The Valley - have 10,000 disgruntled ex-employees been driven away? YOU are responsible.
Like almost every other poster I am not an ex-employee, although I am becoming increasingly rowdy! I am part of a Charlton family and have had a season ticket for most of the last 42 years but cannot consider bringing my two children while your sickening management continues to destroy our club.
We have given you a chance but your model has failed. Your CEO has failed. Your succession of ill-considered coaches and managers have failed. And you have failed. Stop lying and leave us alone.
I can`t remember my first game, I do however remember taking a waz in a stinky trough behind the west stand.
I saw that goal scored by Allan Simonsen I travelled to Man Utd for that cup game the playoff final amongst other things, but no where near what some did to keep this great Club alive who you seem to dismiss as the 2%.
You have sat back and allowed KM to go on some crusade to prove she can do it differently you have allowed her to destroy the club, you have alienated my family and friends, they don't want to come and be part of your experiment, they are people who have supported CAFC for what it was then not what it is now.
KM is IMHO trying to use CAFC as a means to take on football as we know it, you are allowing her to do this, using CAFC as a platform to engage.
Oh and I am not an ex employee.
You might think all the goings on as insignificant......................let me tell you that is your problem Roland!!
My name is Peter now aged 70. I lived in Charlton from the age of 4 and my father first took me to The Valley in 1953 to see us play the mighty Wolves. I was hooked.
As you have stated, our history means nothing to you. Well it does to me, so let me highlight some of my experiences through the times:
Sometimes bunking over the walls to get in free as a kid because I didn't have the old 8 pence to pay the entrance fee (paid back many times since supporting the club).
Being at the 7-6 game against Huddersfield in 1958?
Travelling to Bristol City ( for first solo away trip) in 1960 for a third round FA Cup game. 0-2 down at half time and in the second half, Sammy Lawrie scored a hat-trick to secure a victory.
The proudest day of my life - 5 December 1992, our first game back at The Valley. I was the fourth (match) official for that game. I arrived so early I was on the pitch hours before helping Paddy Powell put the finishing touches together, such as putting in the corner flags. I witnessed grown men entering the ground crying - we were back! Nobody jumped higher than me when we scored the only goal to secure victory - I forgot momentarily that I was supposed to be neutral!
Despite moving 80 miles away through work commitments, I still regularly visited The Valley and was a season ticket holder until last year. Enough is now enough until you sod off.
I even converted my (then) 9 year old stepson and his similarly aged friend from being Manchester United fans to Charlton fans - no mean achievement. Sadly they both also failed to renew their season ticket this season.
So there we go, a Charlton-related history lesson. Many on here can tell many similar stories.
Supporting Charlton Athletic is a way of life, more than just a Saturday afternoon dance. Or put another way, men are more likely to divorce their wife than their football team. You could say I am in a period of separation and I hope that period ends very shortly so that I can return to former enjoyable habits.
I shall hopefully see you on the 4th of March and I hope we give you hell!!!!!!
Comments
My first game was against Ipswich in 1986, I think, at Selhurst, I've been to hundreds of Charlton games.
I and my family have supported Charlton since the 1920's.
You have systematically destroyed the club, you have brought out extreme feelings of anger, hatred, frustration in myself, my family, and my friends.
I have no idea of your plan other than to push all the fans away and sell the land, that is the only thing that adds up, I wouldn't if I were you.
I find myself desperate for your death grip to release my club.
Relief, please come quickly.
I have only started supporting Charlton fairly recently as my, now 6 year old son became old enough to start following a team.
Neither of had any association with Charlton prior to becoming season ticket holders.
Charlton are our local side and had a reputation at that time (just into your owenership) of being a good family club with aspirations.
We held three season tickets for the two years prior to this one and attended nearly every home game.
Unfortunately it became very clear that the club we thought we joined, was being destroyed, by you and your employees.
We became ardent protesters, because we wanted to have what all the long standing supporters whose messages surround this have had supporting Charlton.
I recall Tony Keohane telling me that the children are the future of the club, they are, but fun days and bouncy castles are not what is required. It is a fully functioning football club where a desire for success, whether achieved or not, is central to being a member of that club.
I do not believe you have ever been a part of such a club, you have no idea how to achieve this and I do not believe your staff have either.
Without this, you will never have success at Charlton and nor at your other football clubs.
My son emplores you to sell so that he can support club that is is home. And so do I.
Fir the sake of all young supporters, many of whom I have seen stop coming, please reconsider your position and sell.
I cannot see new fans coming to as, as I did, while you operate the club as now.
Many thanks
Neil
The fact that you've gone to the lengths you have re: helping with the protests, I think that's massively commendable in the short time you've supported us. Good stuff mate
I'm Mark, never employed by the club, a supporter for 42 years. I have experienced good and bad both on and off the pitch in that time but always believed that things would improve the next week/season (well maybe not 79/80).
My kids have only started following Charlton in the past three years, so they have never known the club as I have, with everyone on and off the pitch pulling in the same direction, respected in both the local community and the football community as the perfect example of how a club should be run. You have dismantled much of that reputation, built over a generation, yet you have the cheek to call those of us who protest against this destruction "Stupid people." Me and the kids are protesting. I don't mind you calling me stupid, but you have insulted my children. If I see you on 4th March, I will be asking for, and expecting, an apology. From you, not one of your lackeys. See you then.
I followed us at Selhurst, Upton Park and back to the Valley where I introduced my son and the next generation to our famous football club. My Valley Gold number is 58, it retain for nostalgia more than faith. Yet I was one who was willing to give you a chance and wrongly opposed the initial Woolwich meeting.
I used my contacts as a military historian to source, collect, store and unveil the clubs war memorial at zero cost to ensure the history of our club is not forgotten, I assisted in the initial set up, alongside a group of committed supporters of our museum, a shrine to our past and signpost to our hoped future, yet against this our CEO, without a care cast aside 112 years of community engagement and shared history.
I am neither a bitter ex employee nor rebel rouser, I have served both my country and community, and I implore you to look at the damage your ill fated plan has inflicted on families, friends and supporters of a once great club.
I can only hope that my son can experience a small percentage of the memories that the addicks have given me, sadly, under your stewardship that seems an impossible dream.
I'm Mike and I first visited The Valley in 1966. I have lots of credentials to demonstrate my support which remains less avid than some but until fairly recently, more faithful than many. I have this season surrendered season tickets that were held for the same East Stand seats since 1994. In common with the vast majority of protestors I have never been employed by CAFC.
I could tolerate a wealthy, remote and disinterested owner as sadly many clubs suffer a similar fate. What I cannot accept is your judgemental arrogance, your hostile soundbites and your continued support of KM, whom I completely despise. She represents everything that is tawdry and shameful about football in this era. I appreciate that from your perspective at least she remains both stubborn and cheap.
I might pop along to the occasion match this season but fundamentally I'm boycotting Charlton Athletic whilst it remains in your ownership. That is my prerogative, it hurts me but hopefully it hurts you more despite the fact that you continue to burden our Club with the debt incurred under you abysmal reign.
Please sell your interest in our beloved football club.
I shall be in Belgium on 4th March to express these views.
Please just go away and note that I would rather support a stuggling CAFC in the Conference than a CAFC in the Premier League under your ownership and I won't be coming back until you (and her) have gone!!!!!
My name's Rich. I feel much younger than my 48 years and trust me it's not because the majority of them have been spent supporting Charlton.
I remember taking my then girlfriend to see the dilapidated Valley in the late 80s and I'm not ashamed to say I cried as I walked round that place. You might find this hard to imagine but my dreams of a return weren't about dancing after a game. They weren't even about footballing success, but the reuniting of the club and its spiritual home, where the spirits of heroes past play freely and the heartbeat of the fans is strongest.
Somehow in just 3 years you and those you appointed to manage the club have driven a wedge between the club and the fans that ensured there was a Charlton Athletic for you to purchase. Last week Ian Holloway said that owners have the right to do what they want with a club, but that that doesn't mean they should. It doesn't mean that you should.
It took 7 years for the fight to get the club back to the Valley to succeed, with some of the most creative and astonishing accomplishments along the way. You'll have noticed by the increasing coverage of protests in your own media that the fans are no less effective today.
And next week you will discover - if you really didn't suspect it already - that there are large numbers of independently minded Charlton fans who don't accept your ownership and will battle for their club for as long as it takes.
And no, I'm not an ex employee (and I've never wanted to work for the club either). Mind you, my doing nothing would seem to be a lot more successful than your strategy and your CEO's execution judging by the results. Not sure I can make the trip to Belgium, but if I do I'm more than happy to talk you through how the club can succeed with your full detachment too.
You are only as good as the advice you get and the people around you. Sadly, your CEO has shown herself to be out of her depth. You sack managers very quickly - some rightly, some who like Powell, Riga and Peeters who did not have the support they deserved Managers like Fraeye and Slade were incredibly stupid decisions. Your experts, do not understand balance so you spend money in the wrong way. Your CEO is more interested in trying to make herself look good than enaging fans and many of the things she has said have been outrageous.
We don't demand success, but we expect inclusion, we expect respect and we expect competence. A football club has to feel like your club. I shop at Tesco but I don't have Tesco images on my walls, a Tesco tatoo and I certainly would never have christened my son there. Football is more than a business to fans and that is why people get involved in it. You had a fantastic opportunity for success at Charlton, but you came in with the wrong plan, for the wrong club in the wrong league. The divisions your approach have created are not possible to heal in my opinion.
In business, some things work and some things don't. This hasn't. Surely, you have to accept that.
Im Terry, my friends know me as Tel. I've never done any paid work for the club. I even rejected the match ticket payment for cleaning seats and clearing snow in the past along with dedicating many hours in setting up and running Addicksdownunder in its formative years and also being part of the first Fans Forum, which is a far cry from the one currently in existence.
Hence Ive never been formally employed or sacked from a position within Charlton Athletic.
Ive been a supporter of CAFC since 1964 and seen many highs and lows over the years. Even in the darkest times the club was still run in a professional manner, even though many of us didnt agree with the way the ship was being steered.
However, you have surpassed them all with the total incompetence shown by the inadequate unqualified CEO and those she has recruited into positions that they should never be considered for...
You have learnt nothing about the club, because of course you know better than the 20,000+ people who used to assemble regularly at OUR Valley.
You may well be the incumbent owner, but you will never own the "club".
Sadly I cant be in Belgium on the 4th March as I live over 10,000 miles away, but as always, I will be with my fellow supporters in spirit and once again in person when I return to the UK on the 27th March.
I doubt sincerely you have the balls to meet the fans of either side in Belgium....but who knows, it might just snow in Sydney in summer.
I'm 33, so I wont compete with some of the lifetimes of supporting Charlton described above.
I'll just say that as a small child in my primary school, you had two options - Millwall or Charlton. Once you had chosen, that was your lot for life.
Please stop ruining this for us. This 'customer' can't go elsewhere for what is now a completely awful 'product', and I have no alternative but to sit in a virtually empty East stand watching the club deteriorate with each passing week.
Just go.
Meire is just hopeless, and has alienated supporters by her lies and incompetence. Roland, must be able in some ways as he has a successful business, but maybe he is now misguided or so stubborn that his mind has gone. He has ruined the club, and continues his disgraceful ownership.
Make the protest effective. Get this rubbish regime out.
My name is Tony and I have been supporting Charlton since 1971/72, a season in which we were relegated. That relegation, nor subsequent relegation seasons, did not stop me from attending The Valley or from travelling up and down the country in support of my team. Do you hear what I said then? My team. You may own the club but without the fans a football club is simply an empty stadium and a few buildings on a bit of land. Football clubs belong to the fans.
As I have said relegation has not stopped me from attending games but your ownership has. For the last year or so I have refused to give you any more money. The incompetents that you have placed in the positions of importance at the club have made Charlton a laughing stock in the world of football.
It breaks my heart that I am unable to take my son to support Charlton, in the same way that my father did with me and his father did with him. My son started attending games in 2011/12, a season when we won the League One title with a record number of points. You may recall that our manager in that record-breaking season was Chris Powell, a respected former player, England international player and a respected manager. According to you he is a stupid person. It would appear that, in your opinion, anybody that doesn't agree with you is stupid. That would appear to include the thousands of fans that your septic regime has alienated. The fans of Charlton are not unrealistic; we do not expect our owner to be like Roman Abramovitch or Sheikh Mansour. All we ask is for the owner to look after the best interests of the club and to hold normal ambitions for success on the pitch. You are failing on both counts.
I have never been employed by Charlton Athletic Football Club but would gladly have given my time free of charge if needed.
I will be in Sint-Truiden next weekend but, being the coward that you are, I expect you to find some excuse to be elsewhere.
If you had undertaken proper due diligence when buying the club you would have realised that the fans of Charlton would not stand idly while you dismantle something that they hold so dear. You have no interest in Charlton so is it really worth the aggravation? Just sell the club.
The duchatalet model of football will never work, as much as players are assets and commodities you can never, ever overlook the human element.
To create success you have to get everyone pulling in the same direction and facilitate an environment where this can happen. The biggest part of this is bringing together a group who all can interact and have a relationship, fight for each other and follow their leader knowing they all have each others back.
Can't do that by shifting and shuffling human beings like moving numbers on a database.
I could go on and pick apart the other failings but I'll then be creating a 1500 word diatribe which everyone else has covered in some part.
I'm SA. I started going to Charlton at the start of the 85/86 season, and was hooked straight away. We beat Barnsley on the opening day of the season in front of just over 4,000, with one side of the ground closed off. These were not great days for the club. And it got worse. Less than two months later I was standing in someone else's ground watching Charlton.
Fortunately, there were quite a few stupid people around who thought this was wrong. Seven years later, we were back at The Valley.
Education, work and family has taken me away from South London, but I still love this club.
I don't know what you are doing here. It seems to be some sort of socio-economic experiment. It's not working.
There are still, thank god, stupid people around. Remarkably, despite their lack of intelligence, they have worked you out, and they have worked out how to go after you.
I thank each and every one of them, and I'd thank you to go.
I'd been a season ticket holder since just before the move to Croydon and stood as a Valley Party candidate to fight for our return home. I don't have a ticket this season, and nor do the rest of the family. We go to the odd away game but it's fair to say you have failed to keep us enthusiastic enough to attend home games regularly. And failure sums up your not-brief-enough time in charge of our club. If we look at the usual metrics of League or Cup success then relegation followed by failure to get out of the group stage of the EFL Trophy is a failure in anyone's book. You have lost half the regular supporter base - another failure. You have lost a lot of money, which you have helpfully loaded back on the club so you are now failing to find anyone to buy it at the price you want. How are the sales of replica shirts and match programmes going? Match-day income must be at an all-time low. A more pertinent failure for a successful businessman like yourself to reflect on.
But for me, your biggest failure is to be prepared to take advice from people who know what they are doing. You appear to be a classic megalomaniac, always doomed to fail when trying something outside your direct sphere of experience. Simply hoping that friends and acquaintances will be able to step up to the challenge of running a large organisation in a foreign country, or scouting players from their laptop was always going to be risky. When it was obviously failing you failed to react as a successful businessman would, and consequently we are all suffering the consequences.
I'll be in Belgium with my son and some friends for the protest because this is something we Charlton fans do well - we get organised and we let the club know when it is not working in our best interests. If you didn't know that when you bought the club, you certainly do now. Time to man-up, admit your failure and move on.
Raplh (an yes I bloody know that's not how you spell it !) but like being a Charlton supporter, once you have committed there is no going back. Been coming to the valley for 54 years, bringing my son for the last 22. My extended family is also full of Charlton fans. It was our club, and through premiership to Division 3 we were proud of it, and felt part of a community with the club as our hub. Thanks so much for destroying that !
Why do you persist with this absurd lie when it's been repeatedly exposed as complete and utter nonsense? Are you incapable of admitting the latest of your many catastrophic errors, or is your CEO feeding you this inaccurate offensive guff? Look at the empty stands at The Valley - have 10,000 disgruntled ex-employees been driven away? YOU are responsible.
Like almost every other poster I am not an ex-employee, although I am becoming increasingly rowdy! I am part of a Charlton family and have had a season ticket for most of the last 42 years but cannot consider bringing my two children while your sickening management continues to destroy our club.
We have given you a chance but your model has failed. Your CEO has failed. Your succession of ill-considered coaches and managers have failed. And you have failed. Stop lying and leave us alone.
I can`t remember my first game, I do however remember taking a waz in a stinky trough behind the west stand.
I saw that goal scored by Allan Simonsen I travelled to Man Utd for that cup game the playoff final amongst other things, but no where near what some did to keep this great Club alive who you seem to dismiss as the 2%.
You have sat back and allowed KM to go on some crusade to prove she can do it differently you have allowed her to destroy the club, you have alienated my family and friends, they don't want to come and be part of your experiment, they are people who have supported CAFC for what it was then not what it is now.
KM is IMHO trying to use CAFC as a means to take on football as we know it, you are allowing her to do this, using CAFC as a platform to engage.
Oh and I am not an ex employee.
You might think all the goings on as insignificant......................let me tell you that is your problem Roland!!
My name is Peter now aged 70. I lived in Charlton from the age of 4 and my father first took me to The Valley in 1953 to see us play the mighty Wolves. I was hooked.
As you have stated, our history means nothing to you. Well it does to me, so let me highlight some of my experiences through the times:
Sometimes bunking over the walls to get in free as a kid because I didn't have the old 8 pence to pay the entrance fee (paid back many times since supporting the club).
Being at the 7-6 game against Huddersfield in 1958?
Travelling to Bristol City ( for first solo away trip) in 1960 for a third round FA Cup game. 0-2 down at half time and in the second half, Sammy Lawrie scored a hat-trick to secure a victory.
The proudest day of my life - 5 December 1992, our first game back at The Valley. I was the fourth (match) official for that game. I arrived so early I was on the pitch hours before helping Paddy Powell put the finishing touches together, such as putting in the corner flags. I witnessed grown men entering the ground crying - we were back! Nobody jumped higher than me when we scored the only goal to secure victory - I forgot momentarily that I was supposed to be neutral!
Despite moving 80 miles away through work commitments, I still regularly visited The Valley and was a season ticket holder until last year. Enough is now enough until you sod off.
I even converted my (then) 9 year old stepson and his similarly aged friend from being Manchester United fans to Charlton fans - no mean achievement. Sadly they both also failed to renew their season ticket this season.
So there we go, a Charlton-related history lesson. Many on here can tell many similar stories.
Supporting Charlton Athletic is a way of life, more than just a Saturday afternoon dance. Or put another way, men are more likely to divorce their wife than their football team. You could say I am in a period of separation and I hope that period ends very shortly so that I can return to former enjoyable habits.
I shall hopefully see you on the 4th of March and I hope we give you hell!!!!!!
Peter