Firstly, thanks @PragueAddick and the Dossier Team for the interview. I read through this morning & have now read through the responses here.
We’d swapped messages before about Methven’s views on football CEOs. I understand where he’s coming from now and I certainly like the unveiled digs at Duchatelet & Sandgaard at the start (successful businessmen in their own fields thinking they can do the same in a sector completely outside their experience/expertise) 😉
He’s going to be more invested in this, because it seems he’s literally invested his own money this time. With purchase and running costs, he’s probably in for at least £2.1m over the next 2 years. I totally understand his comments that this is small fry for the major investors. BUT…it was for Duchatelet too. He was earning c.€40m a year just from his dividends in Melexis. I’d normally say that a successful businessperson wants to be successful in anything they invest in, but RD & TS were both abysmal in the end. Having an experienced management & structure in place can only help…even Storrie has shown that in the short time he’s been here.
Methven seems to have acknowledged his own shortcomings in management. So long as he lets the others get on with their jobs and sits back as the UK liaison with the other shareholders then that feels more positive than what he did at Sunderland (I’ve never watched the documentary).
The comments about fan engagement sound positive. I took it that the intention would be to have equivalent of a fan director again. Likewise, the comments about selling players at their peak worth, rather than too early are a plus. BUT…Murray famously said the same with Roland and Katrien in the room and they obviously had other ideas!
The additions to the squad, including retaining Hector, are the best we have managed in many, many transfer windows already. We’re starting from a lower base, so we need more than should be ideal, but it’s certainly made me feel better about our prospects.
A long way to go. It’s a positive interview, but those previous 4 owners would make even the most positive person wary (and positivity isn’t a well known trait for the majority of Charlton fans 😉).
Christ Airman, how about an ounce of positivity for once?
See also Spivs, Duchatelet, Southall and Sandgaard. It’s always the same - why don’t we just discount the evidence and pose for selfies? Anyone who doesn’t is “negative”. Then people are surprised when it all turns to shit.
If it doesn’t appear to stack up, the chances are it won’t. I’m just asking the questions.
It's not a case of discounting evidence, or being surprised, or not willing to ask the questions. The vast majority of us are just normal fans, we have zero control over the ownerships of the club, or how it's run. The means when new owners come in we really only have 2 choices, be positive and hope for the best, or walk away.
The third option is accept it's going to be a shit and waste or time and money suffering week after week, an unhealthy and masochistic choice.
That being the case most of us choose to hope for the best and continue to support the club season after season. I don't think anybody has the right to judge us for that, not to be surprised when we don't want to hear an unending list of negatives. We've made our choice, we don't need the choice questioned over and over again.
I think it’s those who object to the questions being asked who are the issue. Being disengaged with the situation off the pitch is an option for all of us and a perfectly reasonable choice.
Questions are being asked before they have even step foot in the door though?
Think majority of us have some relative scepticism about any new owners but like it or not, they need to be given a chance before a witch hunt starts.
So questions are not allowed then. Thanks for clarifying.
Before we all dig Rick out (I’m not saying he’s right or wrong here), please remember that if we need to protest again, mobilise or take action in future, he’ll be the first one there making sure all runs smoothly and we’ll be relying on his experience once again. The man is Charlton through and through.
Okay, that makes it all okay. My problem with airman is that today, he has not been prepared to take other peoples views on board, he is right regardless and when people challenge him, he was rude, abrupt and very much glossed over other posters comments.
Inevitably the interview and the motivations behind it are already being slagged off in certain quarters in the usual style, so I'm posting as a reminder the original intro article which explains that this was all CM's own initiative, The link to the main article is at the bottom of that one. When you get to it, you'll see the banner image is a mess, bear with us, I may need techie help with that.
I think the main benefit is an insight into how the structure will work (assuming he is still able to speak for all significant consortium members). There's more than will be possible to put into a club PR statement even if they wanted to. But there were interesting things he asked to keep off the record, and other things we had no time for, such as the future of the real estate. As you will see, he really wanted to talk about him at Sunderland which I managed to avoid until we got to the end of the designated running time, and Zoom terminated that abruptly
Looking forward to see what people make of it
Thanks Prague - interesting.
I guess my more emotional reaction is one of mild disappointment although I'm not sure what else I was expecting. Maybe it's because a lot of this has leaked already and I was hoping for something extra. Maybe I was hoping for a clearer statement of ambitious intent but, again, that is probably an unrealistic expectation. The rest of this transfer window and the next will tell us more.
My head has some concerns:
- I'm worried that there will be no one Head of Charlton - we'll have Rodwell, Scott and Warwick all having seemingly equal status but potentially different visions, missions, objectives - whatever you want to call it - with great potential for core disagreements - who pulls the whole thing together? CM paints a picture of himself as some sort of Walsingham type character whispering in the investor's ears which, again, has the potential for major disruption going forward
- Would like to know a LOT more about Global Football Partners Ltd. Is this just a CAFC vehicle or does it have a wider remit and where does CAFC fit into it?
- CM himself says that GB & JF's investments are relatively small beer for them so that would make it very easy for these individuals to walk away yet I guess we are hugely/solely reliant on them to fund short/medium term losses.
So, my jury is still out, partly driven by our painful experiences in recent years. I'm not in the Airman camp of saying it will fail but I would want to understand a lot more before I adorn my bedroom with Gabriel Brener/Josh Friedman duvets and pillows.
It would be helpful to understand what people think “success” looks like.
I think for the vast majority of us success would be building a squad capable of a minimum top 6 finish this year, with the aim to get promoted next year if we don't win the play offs this season. Once promoted, steady and intelligent investment to establish us as a Championship team with an outside shot at the playoffs over the few years after that.
If we can do the above whilst attaining category one status for the academy I think that is a very successful 4-5 years of ownership without needing gamble astronomical sums.
I know it sounds easy written down and no doubt there will be big challenges along the way to achieve it, but having at the right senior management team in place and astute investment in the playing side should make it a real possibility.
Sounds fine but will probably require, shall we say, £100m net investment?
Is that how much Plymouth have spent on the last two seasons?
You see the more I read posts from Airman, the more I dismiss it. Sorry but it just comes across as bitter old man angry at everything.
I get it, I really do, you know more than almost everyone on here about the plight our club has been through, and the huge amount of work put in to get us back to our home and The Valley Party doesn't go away, and I'd like to think is appreciated by all connected to our great club, but at the same time it's starting to look like you have a vendetta against. ANY new group of people coming in.
Riddle me this, if this lot weren't here and PV and his backers took over.... What would be different? Wouldn't they have to try and find a bottomless pit of money and spend "£100m" too? What makes you so sure that they would be successful in that? I look forward to your answers, and until then, paint you as an angry old man clouded by the mists of the past
Not sure how I’ll cope, to be honest.
Until and unless someone commits the money required to sort the club out things won’t change. You will just get a procession of people who close the gap with pipe dreams, from a variety of motives, none of whom have any emotional commitment to Charlton.
As I’ve consistently said, you can easily run the business better and improve its performance. The club should not be in L1 and having been relegated there it should not remain there - because it has competitive advantages over most other clubs in the division. It has failed because it has not been managed or the people involved have not been good enough.
It should be obvious to almost anyone that Varney would have done better than Duchatelet, Meire, Keohane, Southall and Sandgaard, but it’s too late now. Along with everything else they neither understood nor respected the culture of the club and they didn’t play to its strengths, which are there but will not significantly increase the revenue in the medium term..
So the questions are about competence and financial commitment. Both remain open.
I am really keen to know whether Dean will be allowed to choose who he wants in his squad, within a specified budget or will there be Sandgaard like interference from Andy Scott or shareholders? If the former, I am giving the new owners the benefit of doubt and hope Dean gets his targets. Was told explicitly that over the summer so far, those signed or re-signed have been DH’s choices (whether 1st, 2nd etc., not as clear). Have agreed new ST, just need to pay for it and then choose a player shirt to sponsor when we see the squad settle down.
Miss Ravi, but got to say Arnie and the Commercial team have been as great to deal with thus far 👏👏👏👏 Come on you Reds!!!🔴⚪️
Absolutely no idea whether these people are going to be good for the long term of our club, but I’m equally sure that unless something changed to improve the prospects of the short-term, there increasingly might not be a long term of our club (well, a meaningful one). If this wasn’t going through, I dread to think what sort of season we were about to have.
So its not ideal but I’ve long realised with our current situation, there is no ideal ownership situation with Charlton. So it’s more a case of hoping we avoid the seriously unpalatable.
I go into this season now more optimistic, hopeful that we are better run and that we get a bit of luck along the way. If that doesn’t happen, if results don’t improve, the infrastructure shrinks further, if signs emerge it’s a ruse for ‘consultants’ to take a packet out the club, or it’s some form of play that destabilises our club, then I’ll start thinking about the long term impacts then.
History repeats itself. Airman points out some potential problems, maybe more heavy on the doom than most would like, and the tantrums start. I see his posts as like a house survey; you don't get one to tell you everything is hunky-dory, you get one to tell you the problems that might come up and you take from it what you think it's pressing and urgent. Not everyone likes it but what inevitably happens at this point is that the people who want to be positive about the new dawn start lashing out because they've seen negativity from a source that would generally know what he's talking about and start getting upset and calling him an angry old man and a bitter ex-employee. It's stupid though, you don't have to like what he says and you don't have to believe it all, but claiming he's wrong from a position of ignorance and blind optimism is just stupid. If you don't want to hear some dark possible futures from him then skip past. History sadly tells us though that there will be a lot of truth in the warnings, it's not like billionaire philanthropists are buying our shitty League One club is it? Chill out.
History repeats itself. Airman points out some potential problems, maybe more heavy on the doom than most would like, and the tantrums start. I see his posts as like a house survey; you don't get one to tell you everything is hunky-dory, you get one to tell you the problems that might come up and you take from it what you think it's pressing and urgent. Not everyone likes it but what inevitably happens at this point is that the people who want to be positive about the new dawn start lashing out because they've seen negativity from a source that would generally know what he's talking about and start getting upset and calling him an angry old man and a bitter ex-employee. It's stupid though, you don't have to like what he says and you don't have to believe it all, but claiming he's wrong from a position of ignorance and blind optimism is just stupid. If you don't want to hear some dark possible futures from him then skip past. History sadly tells us though that there will be a lot of truth in the warnings, it's not like billionaire philanthropists are buying our shitty League One club is it? Chill out.
Not true, a house survey provides a purchaser with peace of mind and identifies any potential risks. Airman goes into every takeover as if there are major structural problems with the house not being able to get a mortgage. Airman is a) a journalist and b) well connected at the club. If you or I posted what airman posts about the club, most of it would be ignored but because of a) and b) people take note and are interested. I'm interested to know whether airman has any information from either a) or b) to be so negative or whether Sams view is the correct one.
I don't see why we can't support the new owners and if they give us reason not to stop doing so. Why should we automatically move to the latter position? I hope Airman understands the respect than I and many others hold for him, but part of the rationale for caution applies to many clubs who have gone on to be successful. CM seemed to me to accept the issues in his interview with Prague and some of the accustations like the quick flip etc... just don't match up with the words.
But words are just words at the end of the day and in the coming weeks we will see the initial stages of the plan and we can judge those on what we see. We do need to make some decent signings and we have already made some. I am expecting us too and will take it from there.
You see the more I read posts from Airman, the more I dismiss it. Sorry but it just comes across as bitter old man angry at everything.
I get it, I really do, you know more than almost everyone on here about the plight our club has been through, and the huge amount of work put in to get us back to our home and The Valley Party doesn't go away, and I'd like to think is appreciated by all connected to our great club, but at the same time it's starting to look like you have a vendetta against. ANY new group of people coming in.
Riddle me this, if this lot weren't here and PV and his backers took over.... What would be different? Wouldn't they have to try and find a bottomless pit of money and spend "£100m" too? What makes you so sure that they would be successful in that? I look forward to your answers, and until then, paint you as an angry old man clouded by the mists of the past
Not sure how I’ll cope, to be honest.
Until and unless someone commits the money required to sort the club out things won’t change. You will just get a procession of people who close the gap with pipe dreams, from a variety of motives, none of whom have any emotional commitment to Charlton.
As I’ve consistently said, you can easily run the business better and improve its performance. The club should not be in L1 and having been relegated there it should not remain there - because it has competitive advantages over most other clubs in the division. It has failed because it has not been managed or the people involved have not been good enough.
It should be obvious to almost anyone that Varney would have done better than Duchatelet, Meire, Keohane, Southall and Sandgaard, but it’s too late now. Along with everything else they neither understood nor respected the culture of the club and they didn’t play to its strengths, which are there but will not significantly increase the revenue in the medium term..
So the questions are about competence and financial commitment. Both remain open.
So the current group can’t succeed because of the amount of money they’d to invest is too high, yet only an owner willing to invent c.50% more, with no real benefit to the playing squad will be able to succeed?
The system is broken but I take some encouragement that these guys have had to spend a lot to buy us and there’s no obvious ulterior motive.
Everyone will have a degree of concern after our history with owners but if we can’t have optimism as football fans then I don’t really get the point in carrying on, it’s what football is built upon.
Ok but why is Varney better than the new lot @Airman Brown you still haven't answered that.
What makes you so adamant that they'll be a failure and Varney a success?
How much would Varney have pumped into the club over the next 5 seasons?
You seem to have an inside track to him and his supposed backers, perhaps you can put out an interview with him like Prague did with CM?
Like it's been said before you seem very dismissive of anyone and anything that doesn't align with your viewpoint, and hark back to old ownership regimes as apparent evidence that CM & co won't do well. Surely we can tar PV with the same brush if he became owner, based on the previous owners too?
Absolutely no idea whether these people are going to be good for the long term of our club, but I’m equally sure that unless something changed to improve the prospects of the short-term, there increasingly might not be a long term of our club (well, a meaningful one). If this wasn’t going through, I dread to think what sort of season we were about to have.
So its not ideal but I’ve long realised with our current situation, there is no ideal ownership situation with Charlton. So it’s more a case of hoping we avoid the seriously unpalatable.
I go into this season now more optimistic, hopeful that we are better run and that we get a bit of luck along the way. If that doesn’t happen, if results don’t improve, the infrastructure shrinks further, if signs emerge it’s a ruse for ‘consultants’ to take a packet out the club, or it’s some form of play that destabilises our club, then I’ll start thinking about the long term impacts then.
Up the reds
Excellent post. Sums up exactly what my thoughts are.
Ok but why is Varney better than the new lot @Airman Brown you still haven't answered that.
What makes you so adamant that they'll be a failure and Varney a success?
How much would Varney have pumped into the club over the next 5 seasons?
You seem to have an inside track to him and his supposed backers, perhaps you can put out an interview with him like Prague did with CM?
Like it's been said before you seem very dismissive of anyone and anything that doesn't align with your viewpoint, and hark back to old ownership regimes as apparent evidence that CM & co won't do well. Surely we can tar PV with the same brush if he became owner, based on the previous owners too?
Curious post since PV isn’t an owner, never has been one and has never aspired to be one, because obviously he doesn’t have the funds.
Interesting interview, it’s good insight to see at the outset what the approach is intended to be, and a good reference point for the future if they actually follow it.
A lot of what he says is rationale and reasonable and hard to disagree with.
The clubs not a sustainable business at this level, and at the same time there’s commercial avenues under exploited for the club.
I think the key point is resilience of the investors, which is why the question asked on have they done their due diligence on the costs is critical.
And will be tested if investors have paid out significant funds in an attempt to get out of league one 2 or 3 years running and failed.
He seems to suggest they have done that and they will be patient and prepared, but everyone has a limit and hopefully they’ve been as realistic as he suggests, but at least the recent ownerships failures does sign post this pitfall to the new ownership so would expect experienced investors would stress test any numbers and put a contingency on it.
But ultimately we need to buy well, get results on the pitch, get promoted and these problems may never materialise. Big season or two ahead, which I will approach with cautious optimism. We as fans must check and challenge them for sure but as of today there’s not a lot of other options on the table.. let get behind the team on the pitch and see how it evolves.
Ok but why is Varney better than the new lot @Airman Brown you still haven't answered that.
What makes you so adamant that they'll be a failure and Varney a success?
How much would Varney have pumped into the club over the next 5 seasons?
You seem to have an inside track to him and his supposed backers, perhaps you can put out an interview with him like Prague did with CM?
Like it's been said before you seem very dismissive of anyone and anything that doesn't align with your viewpoint, and hark back to old ownership regimes as apparent evidence that CM & co won't do well. Surely we can tar PV with the same brush if he became owner, based on the previous owners too?
Ok but why is Varney better than the new lot @Airman Brown you still haven't answered that.
What makes you so adamant that they'll be a failure and Varney a success?
How much would Varney have pumped into the club over the next 5 seasons?
You seem to have an inside track to him and his supposed backers, perhaps you can put out an interview with him like Prague did with CM?
Like it's been said before you seem very dismissive of anyone and anything that doesn't align with your viewpoint, and hark back to old ownership regimes as apparent evidence that CM & co won't do well. Surely we can tar PV with the same brush if he became owner, based on the previous owners too?
Varney not and never will be the answer .. his mate Barclay run a mile when he realised he could not get his hands on the valley or TG .. not interested in the football side …
Maybe I read too much into it, but the tone that comes across in ABs posts always seems to be overly negative.
There is always an implicit statement of fact, without actually claiming things are true. The overall impression I get from Rick is they WILL fail because they HAVEN'T employed a competent management team and WON'T fund losses and build a challenging squad - when in fact we don't know if any of the capitalised bits are true purely because we haven't yet seen the SMT nor the colour of their cash.
I agree that that approach would fail and in fact there are many more ways of messing this up than succeeding and we should be cautious - and be prepared to ask searching questions from day one.
I've not sat in on any of their meetings so I have no idea if they are aware that this will cost 10's of millions nor who their management team will be (not just COO and Tech Director) so I will wait before I get the pitchfork out (admittedly the waiting time has got progressively shorter with every set of recent owners....)
Possibly it's because I am the eternal pessimist and need a more positive approach but I'm trying to stay neutral this time
In some ways sad to see Sandgaard sell up as (at first) he meant well & was nice to see an owner taking an interest for once. But 2nd season syndrome struck & he thought he knew best. And then there was that goddamn song.......
Far too early to judge the new owners & having read some of Methven's interview (sorry Richard, too busy to read it all today) we can only watch & wait. Good to read that there will be some experienced members of the SMT & hopefully they can make some decisions without having to have a zoom meeting with half of the USA.
All I do ask is that they realise success comes at a price & to get promoted (usually) means spending money to bring in quality players. Good start with May & Camara but a few more will be needed rather than trying to rely on the yoof too much.
Still wont be buying a ST but will be there against the Orient and then see how the season pans out.
I am really keen to know whether Dean will be allowed to choose who he wants in his squad, within a specified budget or will there be Sandgaard like interference from Andy Scott or shareholders? If the former, I am giving the new owners the benefit of doubt and hope Dean gets his targets. Was told explicitly that over the summer so far, those signed or re-signed have been DH’s choices (whether 1st, 2nd etc., not as clear). Have agreed new ST, just need to pay for it and then choose a player shirt to sponsor when we see the squad settle down.
Miss Ravi, but got to say Arnie and the Commercial team have been as great to deal with thus far 👏👏👏👏 Come on you Reds!!!🔴⚪️
With the best will in the world there will rightly be limits on what Holden wants. Even perhaps within budget. I’m sure there will be players Holden would like to talk to but don’t fit in not only with the budget but with things like resale value and the like. Andy Scott looks like the effective DoF so between him and DH.
Ok but why is Varney better than the new lot @Airman Brown you still haven't answered that.
What makes you so adamant that they'll be a failure and Varney a success?
How much would Varney have pumped into the club over the next 5 seasons?
You seem to have an inside track to him and his supposed backers, perhaps you can put out an interview with him like Prague did with CM?
Like it's been said before you seem very dismissive of anyone and anything that doesn't align with your viewpoint, and hark back to old ownership regimes as apparent evidence that CM & co won't do well. Surely we can tar PV with the same brush if he became owner, based on the previous owners too?
Curious post since PV isn’t an owner, never has been one and has never aspired to be one, because obviously he doesn’t have the funds.
Skirting the question again, I use Varney's name as he would appear to be the frontman for investors that haven't been named at this point. If you want, re-read the questions and insert "Varney's moneymen" wherever you see "Varney"
I suspect you don't actually know who they are and therefore cannot be certain they would be more successful than CM & his army of backers, but because they are different to what you want/hope for, you are all too eager to post disparaging comments about them and their chances of making it work.
Ok but why is Varney better than the new lot @Airman Brown you still haven't answered that.
What makes you so adamant that they'll be a failure and Varney a success?
How much would Varney have pumped into the club over the next 5 seasons?
You seem to have an inside track to him and his supposed backers, perhaps you can put out an interview with him like Prague did with CM?
Like it's been said before you seem very dismissive of anyone and anything that doesn't align with your viewpoint, and hark back to old ownership regimes as apparent evidence that CM & co won't do well. Surely we can tar PV with the same brush if he became owner, based on the previous owners too?
Mate, just leave it. There's enough in house fighting, the pitchforks are out for Ronnie and Reams is Marmite.
Let's all be nice, you can all come round my house for a group cuddle, the moany ones like Golfie, the cynical ones like Seth Plum, hell even the Millwall contingent that frequent CL, all are welcome..
Ok but why is Varney better than the new lot @Airman Brown you still haven't answered that.
Is it because he is a lifelong CAFC fan, like his Dad? Or because as CEO 1997-2008 he grew turnover from £4m to £42m? Launched Valley Express, Target 10,000, Kid for a Quid, Valley Gold, developed and expanded the Valley repeatedly, selling out at every step until we had a full house 27,000 Premiership Stadium? Did I mention over-seeing set-up and development of CACT? Oh, and he returned as Exec Vice Chairman in 2011, recruited Chris Powell and got backing for him to win promotion with 101 points?
I get that Charlton have been depressing for many years now I really do. But they are backing the manager and want to do well, these lot are serious and even if they're just trying to line their pockets, that at the very least means short term success and likely promotion to the championship this season or next. For our own mental healths sake let's get behind them and the team. Come on you fucking reds.
Having a dig at fellows supporters for their negative view is never a good thing. CAFC fans have earned the right to be negative. However to be negative towards new ownership because they haven’t set aside £100m in cash or because of the school one of them attended is also not good. We are all negative but some are prepared to give the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise whilst others will not give an inch. Both views are relevant and only time will tell. I suspect a few are hoping it all goes pear though so they can proclaim they were right all along 😂 in terms of what would be a success imo that would be promotion and a stable well run club that I can get back to supporting on the pitch without all the drama
Comments
He’s going to be more invested in this, because it seems he’s literally invested his own money this time. With purchase and running costs, he’s probably in for at least £2.1m over the next 2 years. I totally understand his comments that this is small fry for the major investors. BUT…it was for Duchatelet too. He was earning c.€40m a year just from his dividends in Melexis. I’d normally say that a successful businessperson wants to be successful in anything they invest in, but RD & TS were both abysmal in the end. Having an experienced management & structure in place can only help…even Storrie has shown that in the short time he’s been here.
A long way to go. It’s a positive interview, but those previous 4 owners would make even the most positive person wary (and positivity isn’t a well known trait for the majority of Charlton fans 😉).
Not sure how I’ll cope, to be honest.
Until and unless someone commits the money required to sort the club out things won’t change. You will just get a procession of people who close the gap with pipe dreams, from a variety of motives, none of whom have any emotional commitment to Charlton.
As I’ve consistently said, you can easily run the business better and improve its performance. The club should not be in L1 and having been relegated there it should not remain there - because it has competitive advantages over most other clubs in the division. It has failed because it has not been managed or the people involved have not been good enough.
It should be obvious to almost anyone that Varney would have done better than Duchatelet, Meire, Keohane, Southall and Sandgaard, but it’s too late now. Along with everything else they neither understood nor respected the culture of the club and they didn’t play to its strengths, which are there but will not significantly increase the revenue in the medium term..
So the questions are about competence and financial commitment. Both remain open.
be allowed to choose who he wants in his squad, within a specified budget or will
there be Sandgaard like interference from Andy Scott or shareholders? If the former, I am giving the new owners the benefit of doubt and hope Dean gets his targets. Was told explicitly that over the summer so far, those signed or re-signed have been DH’s choices (whether 1st, 2nd etc., not as clear). Have agreed new ST, just need to pay for it and then choose a player shirt to sponsor when we see the squad settle down.
So its not ideal but I’ve long realised with our current situation, there is no ideal ownership situation with Charlton. So it’s more a case of hoping we avoid the seriously unpalatable.
I go into this season now more optimistic, hopeful that we are better run and that we get a bit of luck along the way. If that doesn’t happen, if results don’t improve, the infrastructure shrinks further, if signs emerge it’s a ruse for ‘consultants’ to take a packet out the club, or it’s some form of play that destabilises our club, then I’ll start thinking about the long term impacts then.
Up the reds
It's done
Let's all hope for the best.
Well, you can't blame me.
I'm a Charlton Supporter and I always look on the good side of life
But words are just words at the end of the day and in the coming weeks we will see the initial stages of the plan and we can judge those on what we see. We do need to make some decent signings and we have already made some. I am expecting us too and will take it from there.
Im baffled.
Everyone will have a degree of concern after our history with owners but if we can’t have optimism as football fans then I don’t really get the point in carrying on, it’s what football is built upon.
Which do you think we are doomed to repeat?
I really Hooe its the ups.
What makes you so adamant that they'll be a failure and Varney a success?
How much would Varney have pumped into the club over the next 5 seasons?
You seem to have an inside track to him and his supposed backers, perhaps you can put out an interview with him like Prague did with CM?
Like it's been said before you seem very dismissive of anyone and anything that doesn't align with your viewpoint, and hark back to old ownership regimes as apparent evidence that CM & co won't do well. Surely we can tar PV with the same brush if he became owner, based on the previous owners too?
Interesting interview, it’s good insight to see at the outset what the approach is intended to be, and a good reference point for the future if they actually follow it.
A lot of what he says is rationale and reasonable and hard to disagree with.
The clubs not a sustainable business at this level, and at the same time there’s commercial avenues under exploited for the club.
I think the key point is resilience of the investors, which is why the question asked on have they done their due diligence on the costs is critical.
And will be tested if investors have paid out significant funds in an attempt to get out of league one 2 or 3 years running and failed.
He seems to suggest they have done that and they will be patient and prepared, but everyone has a limit and hopefully they’ve been as realistic as he suggests, but at least the recent ownerships failures does sign post this pitfall to the new ownership so would expect experienced investors would stress test any numbers and put a contingency on it.
But ultimately we need to buy well, get results on the pitch, get promoted and these problems may never materialise. Big season or two ahead, which I will approach with cautious optimism. We as fans must check and challenge them for sure but as of today there’s not a lot of other options on the table.. let get behind the team on the pitch and see how it evolves.
Every supporter matters, no matter how they choose to support our mighty club, imho.
There is always an implicit statement of fact, without actually claiming things are true. The overall impression I get from Rick is they WILL fail because they HAVEN'T employed a competent management team and WON'T fund losses and build a challenging squad - when in fact we don't know if any of the capitalised bits are true purely because we haven't yet seen the SMT nor the colour of their cash.
I agree that that approach would fail and in fact there are many more ways of messing this up than succeeding and we should be cautious - and be prepared to ask searching questions from day one.
I've not sat in on any of their meetings so I have no idea if they are aware that this will cost 10's of millions nor who their management team will be (not just COO and Tech Director) so I will wait before I get the pitchfork out (admittedly the waiting time has got progressively shorter with every set of recent owners....)
Possibly it's because I am the eternal pessimist and need a more positive approach but I'm trying to stay neutral this time
In some ways sad to see Sandgaard sell up as (at first) he meant well & was nice to see an owner taking an interest for once. But 2nd season syndrome struck & he thought he knew best. And then there was that goddamn song.......
Far too early to judge the new owners & having read some of Methven's interview (sorry Richard, too busy to read it all today) we can only watch & wait. Good to read that there will be some experienced members of the SMT & hopefully they can make some decisions without having to have a zoom meeting with half of the USA.
All I do ask is that they realise success comes at a price & to get promoted (usually) means spending money to bring in quality players. Good start with May & Camara but a few more will be needed rather than trying to rely on the yoof too much.
Still wont be buying a ST but will be there against the Orient and then see how the season pans out.
I suspect you don't actually know who they are and therefore cannot be certain they would be more successful than CM & his army of backers, but because they are different to what you want/hope for, you are all too eager to post disparaging comments about them and their chances of making it work.
Let's all be nice, you can all come round my house for a group cuddle, the moany ones like Golfie, the cynical ones like Seth Plum, hell even the Millwall contingent that frequent CL, all are welcome..
And as you say yourself, we’re all entitled to an opinion.
Which, in this instance, is most definitely the point.
Or because as CEO 1997-2008 he grew turnover from £4m to £42m? Launched Valley Express, Target 10,000, Kid for a Quid, Valley Gold, developed and expanded the Valley repeatedly, selling out at every step until we had a full house 27,000 Premiership Stadium? Did I mention over-seeing set-up and development of CACT? Oh, and he returned as Exec Vice Chairman in 2011, recruited Chris Powell and got backing for him to win promotion with 101 points?
in terms of what would be a success imo that would be promotion and a stable well run club that I can get back to supporting on the pitch without all the drama