There has been plenty of talk about Sandgaard looking to sell, being skint and all of these other rumours, but actually I think Sandgaard did clarify a few things in hes recent interview with Nick on BBC London Sport. Below I have written my conclusion on this and what I believe Sandgaards goal is here in the next few years.
TS - Thomas Sandgaard
BG - Ben Garner
RD - Roland
To state the obvious the whole business model has changed entirely. This is clear to see with Jackson getting the boot. TS has a style he wishes the team to identify with hence the appointment of BG and hes staff. Out of the interviewed candidates TS felt BG was the best match for he's vision.
Money over the summer had been poured into the training ground development by Sandgaard it seems. Is it possible that an agreement was made between TS and RD regards to this hence why it could be possible rent wasn't paid as potentially ruomered. RD would probably profit from this development as he owns the real estate.
In Thomas's recent interview he appeared to state that he wants to make the club more sustainable, more attractive with a clearer identity. The academy teams already have been playing a similar style to TS vision. Developing our own players is a way to make things more feasible financially which is why everything is being interlinked under this new style of play and would explain why Thomas is aiming for Cat1.
Thomas is looking to reduce the costs where possible to fit in with this new business model. Which is why we've seen big changes in staff and why most signings have been free transfers and loans. I do believe youth prospect's will get chances around the first team this season. And I personally do not expect to see any big money transfers. I would be surprised if we spend more then 300k in transfers fee's this season unless players are moved on first. I think our new transfer policy is to bring in hungry player's from the lower leagues who are cheap or available on a free who could suit our style of play. It's then BG job to coach them and get the best out of them.
Do I think this new business plan will work? Long term possibly and we will have to wait a few seasons to prehaps find out. I understand in today's market why TS is setting up things this way. I believe we will be more competitive then last season but I think promotion could be a couple of seasons away. I feel like Thomas will stick with this in the hope it brings success.
I do not think after all these changes its a sign Thomas wants to sell. At least not in the next 3-4 years. And I don't think Thomas is "skint" I think this is he's plan to make the club more sustainable then it has been the past ten years.
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Think we're down here for a good while now based on the transfer activity to date and that's the reality. We're not going to be throwing money at the problem like Derby and Ipswich and are gambling that Garner can do what he failed to do in previous roles and get a side promoted.
Whether you can be sustainable with operating costs of £8m a year, year on year, without income from player sales/ sell on clauses is another question.
But he's definitely downgrading expectations.
Only at Charlton can you go from talk of Europe, Premier League football and "blowing the league out of the water" to setting an expectation for being sustainable in the 3rd tier in 2 seasons.
It is what it is but think we're probably down in this league for a good while unless Garner really is a revelation and the high press ethos makes us League One's Liverpool.
The fact we have a weaker forward line than we ended the season with after Washington's departure and are now banking on an untested Leaburn and uninspiring Josh Davison as key squad players along with injury susceptible key men like Inniss and Aneke along with relatively unknown quantities in our signings so far means it might be a slog.
We will see in 2.5 weeks the strength of the squad and capability of the manager within 10 or so games will be a fair indicator I expect.
Looking forward to the new season and will get behind the manager and lads as always but expecting very little which is grim when we're in a league with Accrington and Cheltenham and Palace and Millwall continue to soar.
There are always counter arguements etc and you have made some clear points.
I think it's time for fans to simply mostly enjoy supporting the club again...instead of always only moaning.
"If you can't beat em, join em"
With songs.
Like RD he thinks he can buck the trend, in a different way, but buck it all the same.
We're a long way from having a team that is going to challenge for the league/automatic promotion. Like those before my gut feel is he hopes we can over achieve and be in or around the play off's due too his astute knowledge of football and league 1........
But just like RD he's finding it's a hell of a lot more difficult than he envisaged and hopefully he'll wake up and smell the coffee that he doesn't know better than seasoned pro's.
You just have to hope, much like RD stumbled on Bowyer and it all fell into place that season, we do the same again. But currently the squad looks woefully short of that play off winning squad in almost every position.
Phillips is as good or better a keeper than what we have.
Bauer, Pearce, Naby I'd say were of a higher calibre
Aribo, Bielik and Cullen 100 times better, Pratley also (hugely underrated in my view that season on and off the field)
Taylor better,
I could go on, but that play off squad is far superior than what we currently have in almost every position.
I really want to be proved wrong and come Christmas we are around the top 6.........
But I have my ST and will be there at home and as many aways as I can get to...........It's the dreams that kill you............
You may not be but I'm excited about this season and hopeful it might just be a good one 😉
What I will say is that I generally believe TS does care about this club, and has become a fan himself.
Rodney was spot on, he's not throwing money at this to a point which we hope we get success sooner but end up in much more debt as a result.
He's taking a risk with this new business plan but it does appear to be the most sustainable way possible at least in TS opinion to get us promoted and who knows what this season will bring. We could still very well bring in 3 to 4 very promising loan signings.
I think we will get a better idea how competitive this squad is currently after tonight's friendly. It's a step closer to the new season and time to step up to another level again.
We will be top six this season. And we’ll do it without spending loads of money.
Thats without factoring in the wage bill that will be bigger than all bar a handful. By league 1 levels he has spent an absolute fortune.
Now the wage bill maybe less than last season, we may spend less on fees this window than last. That doesn't mean it's not a lot.
We have a manager with a plan do we? What is that exactly? And as for his predecessor, he never had an opportunity to prove if he was any good or not, he took over what we all consider a pretty poor squad that was in danger of flirting with relegation.
I agree that we have already paid fees for a number of our better players such as Fraser, Aneke, Stockley and Kirk.
But in my opinion, these concerns about Thomas cutting the spend and 'changing the business model' have only reared their head because we haven't spent money on transfer fees so far this summer. I'll make the point that others already have: if McGrandles had cost 400k from Lincoln, who would be talking about Thomas having a change of heart and tightening the purse strings?
The point of my post is that I believe that there still is money to spend on the right player(s) but having done so for half a dozen or more players over the last two years, it's hardly surprising that we aren't keeping that same pace. And it's nothing to particularly worry about.
Neither option ultimately guarantees promotion.
The comparison in vision and aim has been done before, some accept it some dont. Both have/d the vision of breaking even and sustainability;
RD by -
Playing the transfer market using his network of clubs
Investing in a strong 11 and squad filling with cheap frees, loans and youth prospects
Develop the premier league stars of the future and sell for a tidy profit
Increase the match day expierence, catering, sofas, DJ´s etc.
Target 20k
TS by -
Playing the transfer market by seeking the best deals / friendly neighbourhood agents
Investing in mainly, players that can develop for us/ resale
Squad filling with cheap (but quality) loans and youth prospects
Develop the youth and sell for a tidy profit
Increase the match day expirence with regualr guitar solos (may not be 100% accurate i just dont remember what they said recently )
Fill the valley
Nothing wrong with it, there wasnt anything wrong with Rolands plan other than the fact that he never had the desire to push us on in January´s when the playing side needed it for promotion/ relegation - he then completley gave up out of boredom and spite.
🤷♂️
The worst way is being halfed arsed in the middle somewhere.
Admittedly it’s hard to measure the marginal benefit of the investment, but it is important to remember that we don’t start from a position where the academy doesn’t exist or is failing.
In the meantime, L1 football damages the club’s long-term prospects (by losing fans) and the longer we play at this level the more damage it will do - it’s no good telling people to suck it up or get used to it. It’s clearly not right that a club with Charlton’s resources hasn’t been able to outperform a club like Accrington. It can only be bad management.
The club’s only immediate priority should be promotion back to the Championship. Remaining in L1 is failure of itself and will cost the owner a fortune.
The Bowyer team had them, hence the number of players who left us and are still in the Championship. Indeed the likes of Bauer and Sarr were Championship signings by us on Championship money no doubt. The Powell team had them in spades , hence we had a very decent finish the next season in the Championship with very few additions.
At the moment I don't see that with our side, or our additions so far this summer.
Investing in the academy is great, but any benefits are long term. The promising U18s coming through now would have initially been spotted years ago when Roland still owned us (or even the Spivs). In the meantime we'll be losing significant money every season we're in L1.