If TS had said his son was going to be his eyes and ears on the ground, overseeing all aspects of the club (instead of being limited to the football side) then I don't think many people would have had a problem with that.
I have worked in corporate type environments almost all of my career and seen plenty of family members of board or senior management being appointed into roles. I have also worked in roles where appointing family is completely frowned upon and simply doesn't happen and I know which environments I preferred to work in and which were also much better run.
Perhaps this is just my bad luck, and others may have completely different experiences, but having worked with a number of individuals who have had relations at senior or board level I have yet to work with one who would have got anywhere near the role on merit. That is because they haven't got the role on merit, they have got it due to having the good fortune of having a family member who has worked hard and got themselves into a position where they have the clout to appoint their own family in a role. Everyone these relations end up working with knows that and resents it.
I will caveat the above by saying that I'm sure there are many people out there who are very good at their job and just happen to have had a helping hand from relations and fair play to them. It has just been my experience that the majority of people employed because they happen to have a relation in a senior position would never get a comparable job elsewhere if they didn't happen to have a relative calling in a favour for them.
I have had my fill of climbing the ladder at work and am quite happy at the level I'm at now, but for others who have worked hard all their career and have aspirations to move higher then these individuals who somehow get roles given to them and are clearly put on a fast track to the top are just taking a spot from those who feel they have worked hard to earn that spot on merit and just have the bad luck to not have a relation own the business.
I also feel this idea that family members can get an idea of what's happening on the ground a little bizarre. As I said above I'm not interested in getting any higher on the ladder at work and am content at the level I'm at now. However I also value my salary and continued employment and therefore I can guarantee I wouldn't be saying or doing anything in front of the owner's son which jeopardised that employment.
If he asked how I was I'd say fine because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was a miserable git. If he asked how I found the systems and processes I'd say great because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was moaning. If he asked how I liked all the ideas the new owner was coming up with I'd say they were all great because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was stuck in the past.
None of the stuff I tell the owner's son may be true but I'm not going to do or say anything to the owner's son which may damage my reputation at work or put my employment at risk. Neither are most of my colleagues. Therefore the owner is not getting the full picture of what is actually happening, they are just getting a sanitised version of it which could be far removed from the truth.
I posted the same on the thread about Roddy and his son been signed by the club, I have never liked it and I actually think Parents should have more about them than to put their relations in that position. I put no blame on Jacob Roddy for the position he's in, he has been given an opportunity to be a professional footballer and would be crazy to turn it down. However I can guarantee there will be players in the academy who resent the fact he is there and competing for a spot, that is regardless of whether he has the talent or not. If his Dad had a genuine belief that he had the talent to be a professional footballer he should have told him to make his own way independent of him and then nobody could question that he had earned the right to be a professional footballer.
I have children of my own although nowhere near working age yet, and perhaps my view might change as they get older, but i can't ever imagine wanting them to work in the same place of work as me. If they wanted to work in the same sector then I would fully support them and give them as much of my experience and knowledge as I could, but I'd tell them to go and work for a competitor and carve their own path.
Running any type of business is difficult however there are some fairly easy rules to stick to in any business no matter its function or size. You appoint the best people for the roles you need do fill. If you run a building firm and need a builder you find the best builder. If you run a football club and need someone on the board you appoint someone with the experience and expertise to fill that role.
What are the chances that the person most suited to the role just happens to be your Son? I am a huge fan of Sandgaard and everything he has done for the club, and continue to be fully supportive of what he is doing but I do feel this is a mis-step.
I think it's certainly enough to raise an eyebrow or two. Now we know TS is not a Southall, i.e. just trying to get cash out at every opportunity.
However my growing concern is he's more RD than could be comfortable.
I had trials in my younger years and also turned out for similar level teams to Enfield, doesn't mean I should be anywhere near the footballing side of a Professional team. It's frankly insulting if he has any involvement.
Sometimes when you are this far away, on the other side of the ocean, you feel like no-one ever listens to you and everyone goes about their business – regardless of what I tell them to do
He is entirely focused on the football side of things, not the business side of things
He’s a brilliant football player. He reads the game better than anybody. He has an amazing shot. He didn’t end up playing professional football. He got tired of it and a bit lonely in London, he ended up coming back to the United States.
He’s back now and has an amazing understanding of modern football, maybe more than traditional English football.
There's plenty there that at least gets my alarm bell out of the cupboard if not quite ringing yet.
I think - and certainly hope - that this is more cultural difference than something to get too worried about.
Although the gap has narrowed during my lifetime, it is certainly true that the US "style" has long been more "blow your own trumpet" while the British way has often tended towards understatement. Thomas' own personality certainly tends towards trumpet blowing (even if it is done with a guitar!), and in this instance he is doing it on his son's behalf.
Thomas probably thinks bigging up his son's football knowledge and experience will help calm fears about Martin's suitability for the task he has assigned him. Unfortunately (and understandably from the fans' viewpoint) it has had the opposite effect.
Of course, if Martin "does a Roland" and tries to lecture JJ on the benefits of a diamond formation (or any other team matters) that would be totally inappropriate. If he has any sense, he'll spend his time using his eyes and ears, and share his opinions only when asked. Let's hold off with the pitchforks until we have actual evidence of meddling.
I'm as concerned as anyone about the freeholds still being in Roland's hands, but his history with previous would-be buyers, together with the arrangement Roland made with ESI over the debt to be settled before the land could be bought, show that would probably have been a tortuously long and ridiculously expensive negotiation. Thomas simply did not have time available for all of that nonsense in 2020. He had a very short window in which to buy the club from ESI before the November court case. Remember, we were only days from administration when the deal went through. I hope time will provide the solution we all want.
Has Thomas made mistakes? Yes, and it looks as though Adkins was a big one. Is he still in credit? For me, yes. I hope having his son here will help him avoid future banana skins, because after a decade of worsening ownership, I do feel we have turned a corner.
I have worked in corporate type environments almost all of my career and seen plenty of family members of board or senior management being appointed into roles. I have also worked in roles where appointing family is completely frowned upon and simply doesn't happen and I know which environments I preferred to work in and which were also much better run.
Perhaps this is just my bad luck, and others may have completely different experiences, but having worked with a number of individuals who have had relations at senior or board level I have yet to work with one who would have got anywhere near the role on merit. That is because they haven't got the role on merit, they have got it due to having the good fortune of having a family member who has worked hard and got themselves into a position where they have the clout to appoint their own family in a role. Everyone these relations end up working with knows that and resents it.
I will caveat the above by saying that I'm sure there are many people out there who are very good at their job and just happen to have had a helping hand from relations and fair play to them. It has just been my experience that the majority of people employed because they happen to have a relation in a senior position would never get a comparable job elsewhere if they didn't happen to have a relative calling in a favour for them.
I have had my fill of climbing the ladder at work and am quite happy at the level I'm at now, but for others who have worked hard all their career and have aspirations to move higher then these individuals who somehow get roles given to them and are clearly put on a fast track to the top are just taking a spot from those who feel they have worked hard to earn that spot on merit and just have the bad luck to not have a relation own the business.
I also feel this idea that family members can get an idea of what's happening on the ground a little bizarre. As I said above I'm not interested in getting any higher on the ladder at work and am content at the level I'm at now. However I also value my salary and continued employment and therefore I can guarantee I wouldn't be saying or doing anything in front of the owner's son which jeopardised that employment.
If he asked how I was I'd say fine because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was a miserable git. If he asked how I found the systems and processes I'd say great because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was moaning. If he asked how I liked all the ideas the new owner was coming up with I'd say they were all great because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was stuck in the past.
None of the stuff I tell the owner's son may be true but I'm not going to do or say anything to the owner's son which may damage my reputation at work or put my employment at risk. Neither are most of my colleagues. Therefore the owner is not getting the full picture of what is actually happening, they are just getting a sanitised version of it which could be far removed from the truth.
I posted the same on the thread about Roddy and his son been signed by the club, I have never liked it and I actually think Parents should have more about them than to put their relations in that position. I put no blame on Jacob Roddy for the position he's in, he has been given an opportunity to be a professional footballer and would be crazy to turn it down. However I can guarantee there will be players in the academy who resent the fact he is there and competing for a spot, that is regardless of whether he has the talent or not. If his Dad had a genuine belief that he had the talent to be a professional footballer he should have told him to make his own way independent of him and then nobody could question that he had earned the right to be a professional footballer.
I have children of my own although nowhere near working age yet, and perhaps my view might change as they get older, but i can't ever imagine wanting them to work in the same place of work as me. If they wanted to work in the same sector then I would fully support them and give them as much of my experience and knowledge as I could, but I'd tell them to go and work for a competitor and carve their own path.
Running any type of business is difficult however there are some fairly easy rules to stick to in any business no matter its function or size. You appoint the best people for the roles you need do fill. If you run a building firm and need a builder you find the best builder. If you run a football club and need someone on the board you appoint someone with the experience and expertise to fill that role.
What are the chances that the person most suited to the role just happens to be your Son? I am a huge fan of Sandgaard and everything he has done for the club, and continue to be fully supportive of what he is doing but I do feel this is a mis-step.
It is however unusual for the son to be more knowledgeable than the owner, as appears to be the case. Although TS does qualify that it is more based outside of English football. .
We need to remember this isn’t the first time TS has been bullish with his comments and it’s unlikely to be the last. This isn’t his first language so the hyper analysis is likely to throw up the occasional “red flag” but we need to perhaps take some comments with a pinch of salt. there is probably a shed load going on behind the scenes that isn’t for general consumption and TS just wants a trusted source on site so he is comfortable with where he is currently chucking tons of money.
we are cautious because of the succession of charlatans we’ve had in the last few years but I sincerely believe Thomas wants to take us forward and we need to remember he’s wealthier and more successful than any of us on here so he’s no fool. Surely he’s earned/earning the right to make his own decisions about his investment
That is why so many of us could see the wrong in RD and ESI and the off shoots of them and tried to do something about it despite criticism from within our own supporter base.
TS feels a lot different but there is no harm in saying when things look odd we should not ask questions in the right way and in some cases offer support
The (short) article will have cherry picked some quotes and not necessarily reproduced them entirely in the spirit of the conversation / recognising the whole conversation.
At this stage its possible he is really only trying to say my son will stay in the UK on my behalf (because there is a lot going on) and, by the way, he does have some knowledge of UK football so not a complete outsider.
I wouldn't read more into it than Sandgaard owns the club and spends a lot of time away from the club. Most owners do not. The start of the season has been traumatic for him as it has been for us. I'm sure and he has decided the next best thing to him being there on a full time basis is having his son there.
None of the criticism is aimed at Jackson I'm sure and at this time, how could there be any criticism of what he has done? Jackson, Euell and the players are the important things and they are doing the business. But why has he done this? I would imagine, he is not completely happy with Roddy, not through knowledge, but who else is there? Adkins has gone.
- Gallen/Roddy were happy how the transfer window went - NA as Manager (without his coaches) struggled to tactically influence a new squad recruited quite late - NA, despite being a nice guy wasn't having any influence on the Charlton players, fans and media this season sadly. His answers to questions felt like they carried similar gloss to the daily briefings with Hancock and Bozo that we've had to endure for 20 plus months. - NA was likely to have given some areas for improvement in his Exit interview. As he's respected by TS, these areas would have been considered. - JJ and Euell have turned things around more than expected following a "new manager bounce" - The new setup is working, gelling everybody together but we want to keep everybody motivated and aim for targets. Target being in the name of Promotion. - TS is aiming to bridge the gap of the current sublime to the quite frankly genuine concern we could end up in L2. Maybe his dig was at NA constantly saying everything is amazing. Maybe it is Roddy for what nobody has any idea. Kirk and Arter would have been sold to him as players who will have an immediate impact in this league, but instead have been quite costly and collectively have not offered more than 5 minutes worth of good football. These areas need piecing together.
But due to these "maybes", he wants to know where it all went so horribly wrong for us to not just lose 8 games, but get spanked heavily in some.
If we're missing too many penalties this season, we at least know that Marty Sandgaard has a good shot on him!
God help me for having to say this but perhaps Mr. Sandgaard and Charlton Athletic could learn something about running a football club by looking at our neighbours Millwall. Their owner is also based and earns his money in the USA and is not always to hand. What John Berylson has done is appoint an experienced CEO in Steve Kavanagh and I notice his son James Berylson is a Director. I don’t think that Berylson has spoken ambitions for Millwall to be regularly playing in Europe any time soon but there’s no question that Millwall are under his model a very well run and club making steady progress.
We've been shafted enough times to justify the questioning. Not do long ago people were bowing to Southall and thinking we were rich.
We don't know what's happening behind the boardroom doors and so the questions will remain. And that's ok.
Spot on.
So when, in your honest opinion, will it be ok to actually enjoy some of the small steps we now seem to be taking?
When the next manager is appointed, so long as it’s JJ or it’s full on meltdown time?
When we get promoted out of this division?
When TS sacrifices his first born in the centre circle to prove he really is the real deal?
When?
Just so we know 🤔🤷♀️🙏🏻
Same old, same old from you then. How tedious for you to be worked up enough to post about me. Again.
Same old same old avoiding the question, again. I’m not worked up by you, please don’t flatter yourself.
The only tedious thing is the constant over analysing and negativity of some.
Some people are always looking for the next drama. Not saying airman is one of them btw, but there are many especially in the massive world of Twitter.
You are right, but people do listen closely to AIRMAN, I’ve conversed on here with him and respect his views, however every now and then he throws a little cryptic nugget into the conversation, which does make people presume some things aren’t right. For somebody like myself completely not ITK, it’s not the vibe you want to read when all appears good. I’m not having a go at AIrman when I say this, as in the past he has been right to have doubt(thankfully). Just an observation.
Thanks. My ultimate view is that we have a lot to be grateful to Thomas Sandgaard for - although I don’t quite share the apocalyptic view of 2020 - and that he is a genuine individual seeking the best outcomes for the club and its supporters. You should take that as read.
People are quite right to assume I think I know more about ticket promotions at Charlton than the owner - having been heavily involved in designing them for 20 years inside and outside the club it would be surprising if I didn’t. That doesn’t mean TS knows nothing and I defer to his success in what is a very different business, but he does not and cannot have the local knowledge. Since I recognise people wouldn’t want to hear it, I made no comment on Saturday’s promotion in advance and have confined myself to correcting errors of fact subsequently. I would just observe that it was not strategic, it was a late decision and some aspects reflected that. But it was very successful in its own terms. I enjoyed the afternoon.
On the football front, I knew about Hasselbaink, reports of internal resistance to Jackson and Martin Sandgaard at the beginning of last week. I took a decision not to reference any of them in the new VOTV because I thought they would just fuel conspiracy theory without having the substance to say what they mean.
On the business side, there is a very long list of things that are obviously wrong with the way the club is operating and would not have been permitted by the post 1992, pre 2010 board. Many of them are trivial in isolation but cumulatively they add up to a badly run football club. I have resisted listing them because I do not want to “attack” the owner, we are four months into the return of fans and I recognise we have some good staff doing their best. The glaring omission and blame for this sits in my view with the lack of an experienced and present chief executive (and that is way outside my skill set or aspiration, and neither does it need to be one with experience at Charlton, although it would have been sensible to utilise what was available in the latter respect).
I have also tried to point some things out behind the scenes in ways and places that would be helpful and more constructive rather than just sounding off.
In the absence of both a UK-based chief executive and the scrutiny of non-executive directors, it is unsurprising the business is a mess. So yes, Saturday was great. Full credit to the owner and maybe all this gets sorted over time. But I don’t rush in to criticise for the sake of it. At the same time, I won’t pretend all is well when I don’t think it is.
As for people decrying views on Twitter, Facebook, message boards, etc, no one forces you to read them. The club used to receive vitriolic and threatening communications towards its decision makers even at its peak in the Premier League. All that is new is the amplification by the internet, but you won’t change that.
You can imagine that Sandgaard would be asking what is going wrong when we are losing every week. Maybe JJ and the team are showing the answers he got were not convincing or correct in his eyes. He may have made the decision to have his son at the Valley a while back. Almost certainly nothing to see here.
On Mondays, I can be tired and naive. Could you elaborate on why there could be internal resistance to Jackson?
Obviously it's kinda apparent that there is, but for what reason could this be?
Internal resistance to Jackson surely can’t be from Thomas otherwise we would already be talking about a new manager. I can only see it being from the technical director. Who else would hold sway ? If I’m wrong and it is indeed TS not convinced then I can see some very rough water ahead.
I doubt appointing JJ so early was part of any plan. And there did seem to be a plan on the playing side. Have a Charlton way of playing (4-3-3) through all of its teams with an experienced coach guiding us through the early years. There was a lot of talk of a 5 year plan which I have repeatedly said is bollocks in football. Yes, you get your eggs in a row and ensure things are run well and sustainably but to me, that is getting your structures right rather than a plan. It seems JJ's part of this plan was a few years into the future.
This to me is trying to be too clever. Five year plans almost always never work in football. You go from a one year plan to another one year plan. Our five year plan clearly went up in smoke more quickly than a sceptic like me anticipated. Also, I can't believe Adkins was a total idiot and he was probably hamstrung by having to adhere to a way of playing that prevented him adapting as JJ immediately did with fantastic results. You can have an aim to play attractive football but you have to be adaptable with tactics and formations as things can change very quickly and one way may not suit what you have. It might be different if you are PSG or Man City, but we are clearly not those teams.
I would suggest that TS has been receiving contradictory information back from the senior staff and he has therefore tasked his son with sorting through this and reporting back on what he, MS, sees as the best way forward for the football club and to protect his father’s substantial investment, some of which may have been frittered away due to the erroneous appointment of Mr Adkins.
On Mondays, I can be tired and naive. Could you elaborate on why there could be internal resistance to Jackson?
Obviously it's kinda apparent that there is, but for what reason could this be?
Internal resistance to Jackson surely can’t be from Thomas otherwise we would already be talking about a new manager. I can only see it being from the technical director. Who else would hold sway ? If I’m wrong and it is indeed TS not convinced then I can see some very rough water ahead.
If we go back to @Grapevine49’s view about the model being implemented and remove personalities, I would suggest that the concern might be that JJ will want a bigger say in some matters than the model permits.
Although Adkins chaffed about some recruitment issues, he largely went along with it. I am not sure Jackson does/will, plus he doesn’t start from where Adkins did in terms of the fans so has more leverage.
It is blindingly obvious at this point that Jackson must get the job regardless and any other decision will be a massive risk to the whole Sandgaard project.
As for appointing family members. I would imagine somebody acting as your eyes and ears and being somebody you trust would fit a family member pretty well.
I would suggest that TS has been receiving contradictory information back from the senior staff and he has therefore tasked his son with sorting through this and reporting back on what he, MS, sees as the best way forward for the football club and to protect his father’s substantial investment, some of which may have been frittered away due to the erroneous appointment of Mr Adkins.
This seems highly plausible to me. Its quite possible that Sandgaard wasn't actually commenting on any one specific individual when making his remarks about things not being done - but in general terms, he just knows that things he wants to happen, aren't happening but is not 100% on the who and the why.
Thus he has dispatched Martin as an "independent" observer to try and make sense of it. It may very well be that this (hopefully) leads TS to the conclusion that Airman has already suggested - that there needs to be a person who is the recognised authority, the deciding vote.
My own personal view is that while Roddy, Mumford etc are all God at what they do there doesn't seem to be much coordination or a clear structure as to priorities and authority overall. They are all focused on their departments but we need someone looking at the club as a whole - and that needs to be a someone with more experience than Sandy Jr., IMO, though I am hoping his arrival will be a step in the right direction.
Comments
We're not transparent enough.
Sandgaard's too honest.
Which is it?
Perhaps this is just my bad luck, and others may have completely different experiences, but having worked with a number of individuals who have had relations at senior or board level I have yet to work with one who would have got anywhere near the role on merit. That is because they haven't got the role on merit, they have got it due to having the good fortune of having a family member who has worked hard and got themselves into a position where they have the clout to appoint their own family in a role. Everyone these relations end up working with knows that and resents it.
I will caveat the above by saying that I'm sure there are many people out there who are very good at their job and just happen to have had a helping hand from relations and fair play to them. It has just been my experience that the majority of people employed because they happen to have a relation in a senior position would never get a comparable job elsewhere if they didn't happen to have a relative calling in a favour for them.
I have had my fill of climbing the ladder at work and am quite happy at the level I'm at now, but for others who have worked hard all their career and have aspirations to move higher then these individuals who somehow get roles given to them and are clearly put on a fast track to the top are just taking a spot from those who feel they have worked hard to earn that spot on merit and just have the bad luck to not have a relation own the business.
I also feel this idea that family members can get an idea of what's happening on the ground a little bizarre. As I said above I'm not interested in getting any higher on the ladder at work and am content at the level I'm at now. However I also value my salary and continued employment and therefore I can guarantee I wouldn't be saying or doing anything in front of the owner's son which jeopardised that employment.
If he asked how I was I'd say fine because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was a miserable git. If he asked how I found the systems and processes I'd say great because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was moaning. If he asked how I liked all the ideas the new owner was coming up with I'd say they were all great because I wouldn't want him telling the owner I was stuck in the past.
None of the stuff I tell the owner's son may be true but I'm not going to do or say anything to the owner's son which may damage my reputation at work or put my employment at risk. Neither are most of my colleagues. Therefore the owner is not getting the full picture of what is actually happening, they are just getting a sanitised version of it which could be far removed from the truth.
I posted the same on the thread about Roddy and his son been signed by the club, I have never liked it and I actually think Parents should have more about them than to put their relations in that position. I put no blame on Jacob Roddy for the position he's in, he has been given an opportunity to be a professional footballer and would be crazy to turn it down. However I can guarantee there will be players in the academy who resent the fact he is there and competing for a spot, that is regardless of whether he has the talent or not. If his Dad had a genuine belief that he had the talent to be a professional footballer he should have told him to make his own way independent of him and then nobody could question that he had earned the right to be a professional footballer.
I have children of my own although nowhere near working age yet, and perhaps my view might change as they get older, but i can't ever imagine wanting them to work in the same place of work as me. If they wanted to work in the same sector then I would fully support them and give them as much of my experience and knowledge as I could, but I'd tell them to go and work for a competitor and carve their own path.
Running any type of business is difficult however there are some fairly easy rules to stick to in any business no matter its function or size. You appoint the best people for the roles you need do fill. If you run a building firm and need a builder you find the best builder. If you run a football club and need someone on the board you appoint someone with the experience and expertise to fill that role.
What are the chances that the person most suited to the role just happens to be your Son? I am a huge fan of Sandgaard and everything he has done for the club, and continue to be fully supportive of what he is doing but I do feel this is a mis-step.
Although the gap has narrowed during my lifetime, it is certainly true that the US "style" has long been more "blow your own trumpet" while the British way has often tended towards understatement. Thomas' own personality certainly tends towards trumpet blowing (even if it is done with a guitar!), and in this instance he is doing it on his son's behalf.
Thomas probably thinks bigging up his son's football knowledge and experience will help calm fears about Martin's suitability for the task he has assigned him. Unfortunately (and understandably from the fans' viewpoint) it has had the opposite effect.
Of course, if Martin "does a Roland" and tries to lecture JJ on the benefits of a diamond formation (or any other team matters) that would be totally inappropriate. If he has any sense, he'll spend his time using his eyes and ears, and share his opinions only when asked. Let's hold off with the pitchforks until we have actual evidence of meddling.
I'm as concerned as anyone about the freeholds still being in Roland's hands, but his history with previous would-be buyers, together with the arrangement Roland made with ESI over the debt to be settled before the land could be bought, show that would probably have been a tortuously long and ridiculously expensive negotiation. Thomas simply did not have time available for all of that nonsense in 2020. He had a very short window in which to buy the club from ESI before the November court case. Remember, we were only days from administration when the deal went through. I hope time will provide the solution we all want.
Has Thomas made mistakes? Yes, and it looks as though Adkins was a big one.
Is he still in credit? For me, yes. I hope having his son here will help him avoid future banana skins, because after a decade of worsening ownership, I do feel we have turned a corner.
.
TS feels a lot different but there is no harm in saying when things look odd we should not ask questions in the right way and in some cases offer support
...sadly think he might have been injured but playing with the U23.
The (short) article will have cherry picked some quotes and not necessarily reproduced them entirely in the spirit of the conversation / recognising the whole conversation.
At this stage its possible he is really only trying to say my son will stay in the UK on my behalf (because there is a lot going on) and, by the way, he does have some knowledge of UK football so not a complete outsider.
None of the criticism is aimed at Jackson I'm sure and at this time, how could there be any criticism of what he has done? Jackson, Euell and the players are the important things and they are doing the business. But why has he done this? I would imagine, he is not completely happy with Roddy, not through knowledge, but who else is there? Adkins has gone.
- NA as Manager (without his coaches) struggled to tactically influence a new squad recruited quite late
- NA, despite being a nice guy wasn't having any influence on the Charlton players, fans and media this season sadly. His answers to questions felt like they carried similar gloss to the daily briefings with Hancock and Bozo that we've had to endure for 20 plus months.
- NA was likely to have given some areas for improvement in his Exit interview. As he's respected by TS, these areas would have been considered.
- JJ and Euell have turned things around more than expected following a "new manager bounce"
- The new setup is working, gelling everybody together but we want to keep everybody motivated and aim for targets. Target being in the name of Promotion.
- TS is aiming to bridge the gap of the current sublime to the quite frankly genuine concern we could end up in L2. Maybe his dig was at NA constantly saying everything is amazing. Maybe it is Roddy for what nobody has any idea. Kirk and Arter would have been sold to him as players who will have an immediate impact in this league, but instead have been quite costly and collectively have not offered more than 5 minutes worth of good football. These areas need piecing together.
But due to these "maybes", he wants to know where it all went so horribly wrong for us to not just lose 8 games, but get spanked heavily in some.
If we're missing too many penalties this season, we at least know that Marty Sandgaard has a good shot on him!
People are quite right to assume I think I know more about ticket promotions at Charlton than the owner - having been heavily involved in designing them for 20 years inside and outside the club it would be surprising if I didn’t. That doesn’t mean TS knows nothing and I defer to his success in what is a very different business, but he does not and cannot have the local knowledge. Since I recognise people wouldn’t want to hear it, I made no comment on Saturday’s promotion in advance and have confined myself to correcting errors of fact subsequently. I would just observe that it was not strategic, it was a late decision and some aspects reflected that. But it was very successful in its own terms. I enjoyed the afternoon.
On the football front, I knew about Hasselbaink, reports of internal resistance to Jackson and Martin Sandgaard at the beginning of last week. I took a decision not to reference any of them in the new VOTV because I thought they would just fuel conspiracy theory without having the substance to say what they mean.
As for people decrying views on Twitter, Facebook, message boards, etc, no one forces you to read them. The club used to receive vitriolic and threatening communications towards its decision makers even at its peak in the Premier League. All that is new is the amplification by the internet, but you won’t change that.
Obviously it's kinda apparent that there is, but for what reason could this be?
This to me is trying to be too clever. Five year plans almost always never work in football. You go from a one year plan to another one year plan. Our five year plan clearly went up in smoke more quickly than a sceptic like me anticipated. Also, I can't believe Adkins was a total idiot and he was probably hamstrung by having to adhere to a way of playing that prevented him adapting as JJ immediately did with fantastic results. You can have an aim to play attractive football but you have to be adaptable with tactics and formations as things can change very quickly and one way may not suit what you have. It might be different if you are PSG or Man City, but we are clearly not those teams.
It is blindingly obvious at this point that Jackson must get the job regardless and any other decision will be a massive risk to the whole Sandgaard project.
Thus he has dispatched Martin as an "independent" observer to try and make sense of it. It may very well be that this (hopefully) leads TS to the conclusion that Airman has already suggested - that there needs to be a person who is the recognised authority, the deciding vote.
My own personal view is that while Roddy, Mumford etc are all God at what they do there doesn't seem to be much coordination or a clear structure as to priorities and authority overall. They are all focused on their departments but we need someone looking at the club as a whole - and that needs to be a someone with more experience than Sandy Jr., IMO, though I am hoping his arrival will be a step in the right direction.