Remember the old joke in pre Pc days when the Irish friend was asked to check if the car indicators were working: yes, no, yes, no.
Since day one of Roland Duchatelet's tenure he has been erratic:
Appoints a trainee Lawyer who appeared to be his muse as CEO.
Let's the top striker and talisman leave when a modest increase in wages and an extra year's contract would of sealed the deal (Yann)
Gives long contracts to untried players from foreign leagues and interferes with team selection.
Let's the son of a friend become Chief scout over Phil Chapple because he had one good season on football manager.
Appoints a Sunday League coach from Belgium in Karel Fraeye, Chris Wilder (nearly) Guy Luzon, Lee Bowyer. Don't mention Nobby Vinegar !
So many poor decisions with the odd piece of Luck that Bowyer was in situ after the Scouser went to Oxford to continue his education. Chris Wilder the mastermind behind the blades promotion nearly before he couldn't get guarantees.
Has kept some low price tickets at the valley for his customers.
Doesn't take the 4 million + that was offered for Lyle at the death after Toney bid turned down.
Doesn't help Bowyer/ Gallen in Jan Window so no credit for the promotion back to Championship where we were 5 years ago.
Are the indicators working. No, No, yes,No,No, yes, No, No.
It feels everything is on loan with Duchatelet and this present excitement will be replaced by the eccentric behaviour of a deluded fool.
Enjoy while we can because we need new dynamic owners before it's a constant No.
It's fair to say it's been a considerably better window than I expected.
Bowyer and Gallen and everyone else involved has done very well under the restrictions they work.
but..... it’s a squad built on loans, top players like Taylor will be gone by the summer or earlier as we won’t pay competitive wages. You can’t rely on Bowyer pulling off a miracle every single year, sooner or later he’ll also be gone as his stock rises, then what?
as I started, I’m pleased with how it’s gone so far, but longer term it’s an Elastoplast on a gaping wound.
Roland gets a small amount of credit for letting Bowyer have more depth than we usually have. This is the first time we’re not relying on newly promoted u23s as back up.
But...
RD wasted a great opportunity to sell the club.
Bowyer is only on a 1 year contract.
We still have the lowest or at least one of the lowest budgets in the league.
The budget (or lack of budget) meant risking signings coming in very late, if they fell through where would that have left us?
Bowyer won’t put up with this every summer, we need a takeover by someone who recognises what we have and gets Bowyer and his staff signed up long term.
Had a new owner put together this squad we’d be saying they deserve credit, but we’d be concerned about so many short term deals.
have we really got the lowest budget in the league ??....looking at our squad now.
or is LB just tempering expectations somewhat
I do believe we have. Pleased as I am with the squad, it is all smoke and mirrors to help Rolly sell the club. It is as important as ever that he goes, and very soon. Take out the loan players and those whose contract ends next year, which includes Hemed, then there is bugger all left for next season.
As I said earlier, you cannot keep repeating the trick of bringing in loans. We need a new owner to come in so we can try and get the likes of Taylor to re-sign and to open up discussions with Cullen (who I think is in his last year with WHU), and most importantly, get Bows on a good contract before he is poached.
If we don’t get real stability soon I really think the future is bleak.
I am looking forward to the season and am going to make the most of it.
I wonder if, and its a big wonder, if RD has suddenly got a sniff of the Holy Grail and potential big money after realising that maybe he has stumbled across a management team that provides something bigger and better than others before them?
Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day ... turning down 4 million quid for Taylor was UNPRECEDENTED, a complete switch, a complete change, something totally new and you just never know it could mean we are in with a real chance of mid table...
I wonder if, and its a big wonder, if RD has suddenly got a sniff of the Holy Grail and potential big money after realising that maybe he has stumbled across a management team that provides something bigger and better than others before them?
In my opinion, no. I think if that was the case he would have kept Dyksteele.
If he thought he was in with a chance he would have kept him and chucked in another £2m.
No credit at all to the owner. He could blow the max permitted EFL budget on players and contracts and still be massively in the red with his cynical mismanagement of this club. We know that £3-4M is significant money to him cos he’s scuppered selling CAFC for that much over ‘‘directors’ loans’’. But he didn’t rebuff Brentford for reasons of squad strength. Bowyer somehow got thru to him that selling Taylor would bring direct consequences for the owner himself. The fact that we won’t wait for poor results before ramping up his irritation and disrupting him outside of his London football experiment was successfully communicated. Dijksteel’s departure was the compromise and roly’s latest OS tantrum a telling consequence. Half a mill on transfer fees £500k? Credit? What credit? Best transfer window for years? Yes looks that way but compared to what? Gallen’s scouting and networking is spectacular. Charlton’s reputation for augmenting players is growing all the time. Clubs know CAFC is a place for development between U23 and premier league. Clubs like Brighton and West Brom have got real with arrangements for loaning out players at the fringes of their squads. This squad looks more than decent at the moment. But 5 loans and scant cover for defensive positions it could look very different by January. This situation is very much in spite of roly not thanks to. We need to make sure he gets keener and keener to offload asap less and less inclined to wait quietly for his looney money deal. CAFC needs roly out ‘come what may deal or no deal’ to quote another self-serving cynical crooked crazed shitweasel We need to keep up the brickbats not pander to his malfeasance.
All Roland has done is get us back to what I feel is our minimum position in the football league (mostly by accident), and at best he has sanctioned transfers that will keep our heads above water. He hasnt shown any ambition beyond that. He doesnt deserve any praise for helping us to stand still.
...and lets not forget we are dealing with a lot of loans and 1 year contracts, so we could be back to square 1 next summer.
I still think there is method to his madness. Roland's ego is bigger than the east stand and he wants to sell the club so his cost cuttings would be entirely in line with making the club attractive and, in his mind, justifying his price. In my opinion he held back from selling Taylor because he didn't want the protests at his door and a replacement for Taylor would have a longer and more costly commitment. Back to his ego, he will probably turn up on talk sport at the seasons end declaring that he ran the club at near nothing and declare himself the Messiah or sell the club at his price proving that he knew he was right all along.
Fuck all apart from turning down the bids for Taylor.
The credit for signings goes to Gallen and Bowyer.
The credit goes to everyone involved. None of us know who that is or what the budget implications are.
All we have to work on is Bowyer saying a few weeks ago we have the lowest budget in the league, which may be true or might not be true.
I think you can safely assume he hasn’t spent the extra £8m in revenue that Bowyer had delivered him - pre Dijksteel and Lookman.
According to someone in a position to know, Charlton and Millwall are a long, long way behind every other club in the division in spending, which of course makes Bowyer and Gallen’s achievement all the greater.
It doesn’t yet, we are 3 games in.
Indeed, but the squad we had a week before the deadline was nailed on for relegation IMO. Now, who knows?
We would need some luck, but I thought we were nailed on relegation and now I can't rule out top six after the late additions. Roland needs to go and we can't forget Bowyer still had the lowest budget, but to be fair to Roland, he has let Bowyer turn a sow's ear into a bit of a silk purse which was unexpected. By me certainly. The foundations are very weak though and we still need him out a.s.a.p and I will protest when required, but i'm just making an honest observation. All of the Djiksteel money could have been pocketed and Taylor could have been sold with nothing going to Bowyer.
Fuck all apart from turning down the bids for Taylor.
The credit for signings goes to Gallen and Bowyer.
The credit goes to everyone involved. None of us know who that is or what the budget implications are.
All we have to work on is Bowyer saying a few weeks ago we have the lowest budget in the league, which may be true or might not be true.
I think you can safely assume he hasn’t spent the extra £8m in revenue that Bowyer had delivered him - pre Dijksteel and Lookman.
According to someone in a position to know, Charlton and Millwall are a long, long way behind every other club in the division in spending, which of course makes Bowyer and Gallen’s achievement all the greater.
It doesn’t yet, we are 3 games in.
Indeed, but the squad we had a week before the deadline was nailed on for relegation IMO. Now, who knows?
We would need some luck, but I thought we were nailed on relegation and now I can't rule out top six after the late additions. Roland needs to go and we can't forget Bowyer still had the lowest budget, but to be fair to Roland, he has let Bowyer turn a sow's ear into a bit of a silk purse which was unexpected. By me certainly. The foundations are very weak though and we still need him out a.s.a.p and I will protest when required, but i'm just making an honest observation. All of the Djiksteel money could have been pocketed and Taylor could have been sold with nothing going to Bowyer.
At the cost of £8m in revenue per year and the reduced value of the club in 2020/21 once we had been relegated. Leaving aside the backlash Duchatelet would have faced, it didn’t stack up financially.
Plus I think you have to factor in that even Duchatelet will have worked out that Brentford had had him over in relation to Konsa. I doubt if his inclination was to do them another favour, especially when their tactic was exactly the same and clearly based on the assumption he would fall for it again.
I think we all know that eventually LB will go to a bigger club, that comes with the territory, the alternative is to get a no-mark manager and we all know how that ends .
I think we all know that eventually LB will go to a bigger club, that comes with the territory, the alternative is to get a no-mark manager and we all know how that ends .
If Bielsa doesn't get Leeds promoted this season, there's a high chance he'll go there.
I think we all know that eventually LB will go to a bigger club, that comes with the territory, the alternative is to get a no-mark manager and we all know how that ends .
Unless by a miracle, and despite Roland, the unthinkable happens and we get promoted to the Premier League?
I think we all know that eventually LB will go to a bigger club, that comes with the territory, the alternative is to get a no-mark manager and we all know how that ends .
Unless by a miracle, and despite Roland, the unthinkable happens and we get promoted to the Premier League?
OK, OK, I'll go and take a lie down.
and you know Roland will try and claim it was his genius that got us promoted to the premier league.
Plus I think you have to factor in that even Duchatelet will have worked out that Brentford had had him over in relation to Konsa. I doubt if his inclination was to do them another favour, especially when their tactic was exactly the same and clearly based on the assumption he would fall for it again.
That's very generous AB. You really think he learned that? I'd just about accept that he'd allowed himself to process that they'd got a good deal from him, he'd undervalued EK last time around. Not sure roly's ego is ready to take the hit of having got properly done last time. I'm more inclined to believe that LB finally got through to roly that letting LT go to a rival, without replacing with the same or better, would have visited all manner of direct response on him from we disgruntled irritants. As little as he cares about us, as low as his opinion is of most of us, as much as he identifies certain individuals as blameworthy for his own idiocy, he really doesn't like anything on his own doorstep. I reckon LB convinced him that liquidating to the max, the way he did in previous windows was the surefire way to get hostile sarf londoners right up in his grill - or whatever the colloquial flemish is for that. LB negotiated himself some time, not a change of policy or budget.
In terms of promotion, I think it is hard to find clear contenders outside of Leeds, Derby and Fulham. If one or more of these fail, as is more than possible. we may have as good a chance as anybody else.
In terms of promotion, I think it is hard to find clear contenders outside of Leeds, Derby and Fulham. If one or more of these fail, as is more than possible. we may have as good a chance as anybody else.
I know it’s early days, and only 1 game but Derby look really poor tonight in the game v Bristol City, 2-0 down at home at the moment.
Bielik obviously needs time to settle in , but he looks a shadow of the player we saw last season.
I just don’t understand why it feels like every time we sign a player we have to have a corresponding “yeah but...Roland this” debate to accompany it. Just enjoy the good aspects of the game.
At the end of the day we know he’s not going to be here long term so he is not to be taking on any long term commitments or a speculative approach, or build up further sizeable debts.
There’s definitely a risk we’ll suffer as a club as a result, so to come out of this window with 14 signings of the quality we’ve had, along with rejecting a decent bid for our star striker that seems to have been open to wanting the move, is surely beyond what the vast majority of us expected from this window?
Our squad is in place now. Can’t we just park the periphery stuff and get on with supporting the manager and players who’ve committed to us?
Comments
A combination of players off the wage bill, plus the Dijksteel transfer fee.
Remember the old joke in pre Pc days when the Irish friend was asked to check if the car indicators were working: yes, no, yes, no.
Since day one of Roland Duchatelet's tenure he has been erratic:
Appoints a trainee Lawyer who appeared to be his muse as CEO.
Let's the top striker and talisman leave when a modest increase in wages and an extra year's contract would of sealed the deal (Yann)
Gives long contracts to untried players from foreign leagues and interferes with team selection.
Let's the son of a friend become Chief scout over Phil Chapple because he had one good season on football manager.
Appoints a Sunday League coach from Belgium in Karel Fraeye, Chris Wilder (nearly) Guy Luzon, Lee Bowyer. Don't mention Nobby Vinegar !
So many poor decisions with the odd piece of Luck that Bowyer was in situ after the Scouser went to Oxford to continue his education. Chris Wilder the mastermind behind the blades promotion nearly before he couldn't get guarantees.
Has kept some low price tickets at the valley for his customers.
Doesn't take the 4 million + that was offered for Lyle at the death after Toney bid turned down.
Doesn't help Bowyer/ Gallen in Jan Window so no credit for the promotion back to Championship where we were 5 years ago.
Are the indicators working. No, No, yes,No,No, yes, No, No.
It feels everything is on loan with Duchatelet and this present excitement will be replaced by the eccentric behaviour of a deluded fool.
Enjoy while we can because we need new dynamic owners before it's a constant No.
Kayal is far more likely to replace Pratley.
Bowyer and Gallen and everyone else involved has done very well under the restrictions they work.
but..... it’s a squad built on loans, top players like Taylor will be gone by the summer or earlier as we won’t pay competitive wages. You can’t rely on Bowyer pulling off a miracle every single year, sooner or later he’ll also be gone as his stock rises, then what?
as I started, I’m pleased with how it’s gone so far, but longer term it’s an Elastoplast on a gaping wound.
or is LB just tempering expectations somewhat
But...
RD wasted a great opportunity to sell the club.
Bowyer is only on a 1 year contract.
We still have the lowest or at least one of the lowest budgets in the league.
The budget (or lack of budget) meant risking signings coming in very late, if they fell through where would that have left us?
Bowyer won’t put up with this every summer, we need a takeover by someone who recognises what we have and gets Bowyer and his staff signed up long term.
Had a new owner put together this squad we’d be saying they deserve credit, but we’d be concerned about so many short term deals.
As I said earlier, you cannot keep repeating the trick of bringing in loans. We need a new owner to come in so we can try and get the likes of Taylor to re-sign and to open up discussions with Cullen (who I think is in his last year with WHU), and most importantly, get Bows on a good contract before he is poached.
If we don’t get real stability soon I really think the future is bleak.
I am looking forward to the season and am going to make the most of it.
If he thought he was in with a chance he would have kept him and chucked in another £2m.
Gallen’s scouting and networking is spectacular. Charlton’s reputation for augmenting players is growing all the time. Clubs know CAFC is a place for development between U23 and premier league. Clubs like Brighton and West Brom have got real with arrangements for loaning out players at the fringes of their squads. This squad looks more than decent at the moment. But 5 loans and scant cover for defensive positions it could look very different by January. This situation is very much in spite of roly not thanks to.
We need to make sure he gets keener and keener to offload asap less and less inclined to wait quietly for his looney money deal.
CAFC needs roly out ‘come what may deal or no deal’ to quote another self-serving cynical crooked crazed shitweasel
We need to keep up the brickbats not pander to his malfeasance.
...and lets not forget we are dealing with a lot of loans and 1 year contracts, so we could be back to square 1 next summer.
Plus I think you have to factor in that even Duchatelet will have worked out that Brentford had had him over in relation to Konsa. I doubt if his inclination was to do them another favour, especially when their tactic was exactly the same and clearly based on the assumption he would fall for it again.
Unless by a miracle, and despite Roland, the unthinkable happens and we get promoted to the Premier League?
OK, OK, I'll go and take a lie down.
Bielik obviously needs time to settle in , but he looks a shadow of the player we saw last season.