It's an odd mix of investors, CM's clearly been a busy boy pulling that lot together, so fair play.
It reads more like a random collection of individuals thrown together in some sort of disaster movie but rather than building a raft to escape from their desert island they instead decide to buy an underperforming lower league football club and sail it through the choppy waters of league one towards the warm, calm seas of the champ and premier league. Let's hope it has a happy ending...
you have to wonder if a guy like a Boyan had some interesting ideas and plans, particularly given the obvious success of Wrexham. Obviously CM has experience of that with Sunderland till i die. I wonder if he had something to do with that. Also worth noting the connection between Boylan and Lord Grade..
Media entrepreneur Marc Boyan, a pal and business partner of Gary Neville and the film star Idris Elba, has entered the star-studded world of football ownership.
Boyan, the boss of the marketing firm Miroma Group, is part of a consortium that completed the takeover of Charlton Athletic on Friday. Global Football Partners, which acquired the League One club from Danish businessman Thomas Sandgaard, also includes Gabriel Brener — who already owns a stake in the US team Houstoba n Dynamo — and former Sunderland AFC director Charlie Methven.
Idris Elba and Marc Boyan are partners in an ad agency
Joshua Friedman, boss of the US hedge fund Canyon Partners, Warren Rosenfeld, owner of US recycling firm Calbag Metals, Sahana Capital founder Munir Javeri and Singapore-based ACA Football Partners make up the rest of the consortium.
It’s understood Boyan has lost no time in inviting Elba and Neville to pop down to The Valley, where Charlton romped to, er, 10th place in League One last season. It’ll be hard for them to say no. Boyan has a majority stake in Buzz 16, Neville’s marketing business, and recently set up the ad agency SillyFace with Elba. All together now: come on the Addicks!
With Idris Elba coming to the Orient match will it be a close contest and go down to the wire ?
Orient will bring a huge support buoyed by their recent success, and like nearly every other team in our division won’t roll over for us, and they have players and a manager who are no mugs. We must overcome that, because the game is a must win. Dropping two or three points at home is a disaster and requires a couple of away wins to compensate. The new owners must aim for 92 points next season. Sod feeling our way into the season, sod time to gel, win.
I'm.hoping we'll get some sort of statement from 1 or 2 of the investors or maybe even a full interview on the OS before long. It may help all of us understand the short/medium term goals and we can finally get back to watching and talking football. Then all the versions of the takeover threads can be consigned to history for at least a couple if years! I'm quite excited by the coming season and slightly optimistic of success.
I don't think that will happen as they are strictly hands off.
So not really bothered then. Hope they realise that owning a League 1 club doesn't stop with the initial investment. I wonder how much they have put by for transfer windows & to cover the £8m loss we generally make being in this division. I feel Methven has sold them a pup....
I'm.hoping we'll get some sort of statement from 1 or 2 of the investors or maybe even a full interview on the OS before long. It may help all of us understand the short/medium term goals and we can finally get back to watching and talking football. Then all the versions of the takeover threads can be consigned to history for at least a couple if years! I'm quite excited by the coming season and slightly optimistic of success.
I don't think that will happen as they are strictly hands off.
So not really bothered then. Hope they realise that owning a League 1 club doesn't stop with the initial investment. I wonder how much they have put by for transfer windows & to cover the £8m loss we generally make being in this division. I feel Methven has sold them a pup....
Very different to Wrexham.
@golfaddick none of us have any idea what the initial plans are, or that CM has sold them a pup! They are all rich men in their own right, I doubt if they got their money by being gullible to someone like CM. The question I was asking if they might give an interview or statement, @redbuttle thinks maybe not....he didnt say they won't be! The takeover happened about 72 hours or so ago, I'm certainly not going to prejudge. Whilst an interview or statement might be a nice to have, in my mind, it's not compulsory! Just sit back and see what happens in the next few days, you never know we might all be pleasantly surprised.
I'm.hoping we'll get some sort of statement from 1 or 2 of the investors or maybe even a full interview on the OS before long. It may help all of us understand the short/medium term goals and we can finally get back to watching and talking football. Then all the versions of the takeover threads can be consigned to history for at least a couple if years! I'm quite excited by the coming season and slightly optimistic of success.
I don't think that will happen as they are strictly hands off.
So not really bothered then. Hope they realise that owning a League 1 club doesn't stop with the initial investment. I wonder how much they have put by for transfer windows & to cover the £8m loss we generally make being in this division. I feel Methven has sold them a pup....
Very different to Wrexham.
I know you’re our resident doomsayer but I couldn’t go through life with your attitude to things. Supporting Charlton is hard enough without seeing disaster at every turn.
ACA Football Partners Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, CEO: Hiroyuki Ono, hereinafter ACAFP) is delighted to announce that it has reached an agreement to join Global Football Partners (GFP), the new ownership group of English League 1 club Charlton Athletic. ACAFP will be one of seven minority shareholders in the London-based former Premier League club, and CEO Hiroyuki Ono will join the Board of GFP alongside other experienced football club owners.
The acquisition of a stake in Charlton Athletic is Stage three of the ACAFP project since it launched in July 2021 to form a multi-club ownership model from Asia. First ACAFP bought Belgian 2nd division club KMSK Deinze in February 2022, and then Juventud Torremolinos CF, a Spanish fifth division club, in February 2023.
Having a solid base in Belgium and Spain, ACAFP has been building its borderless network and developing projects globally by collaborating with clubs from Asia such as PVF Football Academy (Vietnam), Albirex Niigata Singapore (Singapore), and Imabari FC (Japan), to provide opportunities especially for promising young players from these geographies.
The signing of 18 year-old Indonesian international Marselino Ferdinan to KMSK Deinze, is an example of this strategy: giving an opportunity for a young player from East Asia to develop his career in Europe from an early age, and then bringing the value of those experiences back to his national team. The Indonesian national team won the gold medal after 32 years at the SEA Games in 2023.
Gaining a place in the world-leading English football market is a major milestone for ACAFP. Charlton is a historic, central London club established in 1905. After a lengthy stay in the Premier League, the club has had a less successful last decade at first team level, but its youth academy has remained one of the leading such institutions in the UK, providing a stream of major international players. It is envisaged that by Charlton becoming part of the ACAFP family, further opportunities for the development of Charlton youngsters will open up, through access to the Belgian and Spanish leagues. Meanwhile, in reverse, players from ACAFP’s system will have a clear opportunity to move to the English leagues, if they are suitably proficient.
Work is already underway between ACAFP executives and the prospective Charlton Athletic management team to share Scouting networks, data systems and coaching structures/ techniques. Likewise, on the media side discussions are occurring about the sharing of audio-visual and other content through ACAFP’s OTT platform Playsia TV and Charlton TV.
Comment from Charlie Methven, Global Football Partners BoD We at GFP are delighted to welcome ACA as a partner in our project. The two main challenges of modern football clubs are the increasingly global search for talent and the growth of a worldwide digital audience to complement the local fans who attend the stadium. After many months of detailed discussions with Hiro Ono and his executives, our Senior Management Team felt that ACA would be a perfect strategic fit in helping GFP achieve its objectives for Charlton Athletic in these two critical areas. We look forward to working intensely with ACA to make the partnership work for both parties and to create success across all our clubs.
Comment from Hiroyuki Ono, ACAFP CEO We are very pleased to be a part of the club which is composed of a rich history and passionate fans, and I would like to show my deep gratitude to Charlie Methven and Jim Rodwell, who welcomed us to the group. You may be skeptical about who we are and what strategies we have. Over the past year, we have focused on connecting Asia and Europe with football through the multi-club ownership model, but we are also aiming for releasing the value of sports and create a borderless community. Our door is always open, we want to learn a lot from England, the home of football, and also to expand Charlton’s appeal more globally.
I'm.hoping we'll get some sort of statement from 1 or 2 of the investors or maybe even a full interview on the OS before long. It may help all of us understand the short/medium term goals and we can finally get back to watching and talking football. Then all the versions of the takeover threads can be consigned to history for at least a couple if years! I'm quite excited by the coming season and slightly optimistic of success.
I don't think that will happen as they are strictly hands off.
So not really bothered then. Hope they realise that owning a League 1 club doesn't stop with the initial investment. I wonder how much they have put by for transfer windows & to cover the £8m loss we generally make being in this division. I feel Methven has sold them a pup....
Very different to Wrexham.
If they came out with a 20 minute interview and waffled on about how great the club is, promotion is the aim this season and PL football in 5 years you’d have been one of the first to say it’s all talk, put their money where their mouth is by signing a couple of top strikers etc.
Encouraging to see Holden in his post Wealdstone interview look so positive and confident in his talk of knowing where he needs to strengthen and being excited by the future. Can’t happen soon enough for us supporters but I’m certain we’ll see a couple at least in this week.
Pleased the takeover has completed but Rosenfeld concerns me a little as Calbag Metals are quoted as a major US recycling firm yet are regional at best. That's fine except for if that's being spun what else is?
This is Calbag's website, more specifically their about us page:
They are north-west US based with factories in Portland,Oregon and Tacoma, Washington state and do business along the Pacific rim. They have another division - Calbag Resources which claims to specialise in the demolition of dams, factories, power plants etc - how big this division is I can't tell.
This reports suggests their annual revenue is between US$ 100m and US$ 500m - which is pretty wide and could be an estimate based on companies of that size and nature:
I'm.hoping we'll get some sort of statement from 1 or 2 of the investors or maybe even a full interview on the OS before long. It may help all of us understand the short/medium term goals and we can finally get back to watching and talking football. Then all the versions of the takeover threads can be consigned to history for at least a couple if years! I'm quite excited by the coming season and slightly optimistic of success.
I don't think that will happen as they are strictly hands off.
So not really bothered then. Hope they realise that owning a League 1 club doesn't stop with the initial investment. I wonder how much they have put by for transfer windows & to cover the £8m loss we generally make being in this division. I feel Methven has sold them a pup....
Very different to Wrexham.
If they came out with a 20 minute interview and waffled on about how great the club is, promotion is the aim this season and PL football in 5 years you’d have been one of the first to say it’s all talk, put their money where their mouth is by signing a couple of top strikers etc.
Yes, I probably would.
But that is completely different to not even acknowledging that they are owners. I see the "minows" have made statements but nothing from the big hitters.
Also love how ACA are coming out with statements around "partnerships" and "borderless networks"......as if Roland never existed.
But I'll leave you to your love-ins and go to watch the rain fall in Manchester.
If our investors choose to be 'hands off' and leave the running of the club to experienced professionals, then that to me is a massive plus.
Both Roland and Tommy couldn't resist interfering because of their self-perceived business genius and it didn't bloody help, did it?
As others have said; the most important incomings to the club will be the aforementioned 'experienced professionals' as we haven't had enough of them in our recent history to give us even a remote chance of being successful.
Hopefully that will now change. As we now appear to have owners who know that you have to 'speculate to accumulate', that means that I am much more optimistic for our future than I have been for years.
There is no guarantee of success, but at least we now have a fighting chance.
I'm.hoping we'll get some sort of statement from 1 or 2 of the investors or maybe even a full interview on the OS before long. It may help all of us understand the short/medium term goals and we can finally get back to watching and talking football. Then all the versions of the takeover threads can be consigned to history for at least a couple if years! I'm quite excited by the coming season and slightly optimistic of success.
I don't think that will happen as they are strictly hands off.
So not really bothered then. Hope they realise that owning a League 1 club doesn't stop with the initial investment. I wonder how much they have put by for transfer windows & to cover the £8m loss we generally make being in this division. I feel Methven has sold them a pup....
Very different to Wrexham.
If they came out with a 20 minute interview and waffled on about how great the club is, promotion is the aim this season and PL football in 5 years you’d have been one of the first to say it’s all talk, put their money where their mouth is by signing a couple of top strikers etc.
Yes, I probably would.
But that is completely different to not even acknowledging that they are owners. I see the "minows" have made statements but nothing from the big hitters.
Also love how ACA are coming out with statements around "partnerships" and "borderless networks"......as if Roland never existed.
But I'll leave you to your love-ins and go to watch the rain fall in Manchester.
What love-ins?
The point is after everything Roland, Southall and Sandgaard have said words are meaningless and they’ll struggle to come up with anything we haven’t heard before.
From their point of view what good can come from it? They’ll either be accused of having no ambition or over promising.
Slight tanget but I think these types of take overs will be a lot more common in the future. Ie lots of smaller shareholders even if some of the big players are "heavy hitters". There is an ever decreasing numbers of people both willing and able to spunk 10s of millions on anything.
If the new ownership structure proves suboptimal due to its complexity, there's enough pooled nous to realise that quickly and react accordingly. Provided they can pay the bills between them and the SMT can support those with nous on the footballing side, we'll have no cause to complain. I'm not worried. Yet.
We’ve not had much luck with one single owner, so having several might see an improvement without being at the behest of one individual, like RD and TS, who get bored after a while when things don’t go their way.
I can see a few dropping out over the next couple of years and we might be under one ownership again if things go well or perhaps more will join?
If our investors choose to be 'hands off' and leave the running of the club to experienced professionals, then that to me is a massive plus.
Both Roland and Tommy couldn't resist interfering because of their self-perceived business genius and it didn't bloody help, did it?
As others have said; the most important incomings to the club will be the aforementioned 'experienced professionals' as we haven't had enough of them in our recent history to give us even a remote chance of being successful.
Hopefully that will now change. As we now appear to have owners who know that you have to 'speculate to accumulate', that means that I am much more optimistic for our future than I have been for years.
There is no guarantee of success, but at least we now have a fighting chance.
Strap yourselves in, lads and lasses.
The problem is we are a loss making club.
Will they have the patience to back off and stay in the background when we are 12th in the table and have lost three games on the trot and then the board/SMT ask for another £500K to cover that month's deficit?
That was where things went wrong under Tommy...
I could understand his frustration when the management team asked him to sanction transfer fees for say Charlie Kirk only to see him go on loan as JJ didn't want to play him. Or for the six figure sum for DJ who managed to run down cu de sacs rather than into opponents penalty boxes and so on.
That is when we'll get to see the mettle of the new owners.
If our investors choose to be 'hands off' and leave the running of the club to experienced professionals, then that to me is a massive plus.
Both Roland and Tommy couldn't resist interfering because of their self-perceived business genius and it didn't bloody help, did it?
As others have said; the most important incomings to the club will be the aforementioned 'experienced professionals' as we haven't had enough of them in our recent history to give us even a remote chance of being successful.
Hopefully that will now change. As we now appear to have owners who know that you have to 'speculate to accumulate', that means that I am much more optimistic for our future than I have been for years.
There is no guarantee of success, but at least we now have a fighting chance.
Strap yourselves in, lads and lasses.
The problem is we are a loss making club.
Will they have the patience to back off and stay in the background when we are 12th in the table and have lost three games on the trot and then the board/SMT ask for another £500K to cover that month's deficit?
That was where things went wrong under Tommy...
I could understand his frustration when the management team asked him to sanction transfer fees for say Charlie Kirk only to see him go on loan as JJ didn't want to play him. Or for the six figure sum for DJ who managed to run down cu de sacs rather than into opponents penalty boxes and so on.
That is when we'll get to see the mettle of the new owners.
This.
Owning a hedge fund company which earns millions by simply existing is rather different to a loss making football club which needs half a million pounds of funding month after month with nothing to show for it. And then being asked for another half a million in January to buy a player that no one outside of League 1 has heard of.
I doubt Brener or Friedman can even find Charlton if you gave them a London A--Z.
If our investors choose to be 'hands off' and leave the running of the club to experienced professionals, then that to me is a massive plus.
Both Roland and Tommy couldn't resist interfering because of their self-perceived business genius and it didn't bloody help, did it?
As others have said; the most important incomings to the club will be the aforementioned 'experienced professionals' as we haven't had enough of them in our recent history to give us even a remote chance of being successful.
Hopefully that will now change. As we now appear to have owners who know that you have to 'speculate to accumulate', that means that I am much more optimistic for our future than I have been for years.
There is no guarantee of success, but at least we now have a fighting chance.
Strap yourselves in, lads and lasses.
The problem is we are a loss making club.
Will they have the patience to back off and stay in the background when we are 12th in the table and have lost three games on the trot and then the board/SMT ask for another £500K to cover that month's deficit?
That was where things went wrong under Tommy...
I could understand his frustration when the management team asked him to sanction transfer fees for say Charlie Kirk only to see him go on loan as JJ didn't want to play him. Or for the six figure sum for DJ who managed to run down cu de sacs rather than into opponents penalty boxes and so on.
That is when we'll get to see the mettle of the new owners.
This.
Owning a hedge fund company which earns millions by simply existing is rather different to a loss making football club which needs half a million pounds of funding month after month with nothing to show for it. And then being asked for another half a million in January to buy a player that no one outside of League 1 has heard of.
I doubt Brener or Friedman can even find Charlton if you gave them a London A--Z.
Yeah you're probably right. Brener and Friedman obviously never look into anything they invest in. They just chuck money about and no nothing about the company or where the money is going. No wonder they have built up a large personal fortune.
If our investors choose to be 'hands off' and leave the running of the club to experienced professionals, then that to me is a massive plus.
Both Roland and Tommy couldn't resist interfering because of their self-perceived business genius and it didn't bloody help, did it?
As others have said; the most important incomings to the club will be the aforementioned 'experienced professionals' as we haven't had enough of them in our recent history to give us even a remote chance of being successful.
Hopefully that will now change. As we now appear to have owners who know that you have to 'speculate to accumulate', that means that I am much more optimistic for our future than I have been for years.
There is no guarantee of success, but at least we now have a fighting chance.
Strap yourselves in, lads and lasses.
The problem is we are a loss making club.
Will they have the patience to back off and stay in the background when we are 12th in the table and have lost three games on the trot and then the board/SMT ask for another £500K to cover that month's deficit?
That was where things went wrong under Tommy...
I could understand his frustration when the management team asked him to sanction transfer fees for say Charlie Kirk only to see him go on loan as JJ didn't want to play him. Or for the six figure sum for DJ who managed to run down cu de sacs rather than into opponents penalty boxes and so on.
That is when we'll get to see the mettle of the new owners.
This.
Owning a hedge fund company which earns millions by simply existing is rather different to a loss making football club which needs half a million pounds of funding month after month with nothing to show for it. And then being asked for another half a million in January to buy a player that no one outside of League 1 has heard of.
I doubt Brener or Friedman can even find Charlton if you gave them a London A--Z.
I financial advisor that doesn't know how hedge funds work?
If our investors choose to be 'hands off' and leave the running of the club to experienced professionals, then that to me is a massive plus.
Both Roland and Tommy couldn't resist interfering because of their self-perceived business genius and it didn't bloody help, did it?
As others have said; the most important incomings to the club will be the aforementioned 'experienced professionals' as we haven't had enough of them in our recent history to give us even a remote chance of being successful.
Hopefully that will now change. As we now appear to have owners who know that you have to 'speculate to accumulate', that means that I am much more optimistic for our future than I have been for years.
There is no guarantee of success, but at least we now have a fighting chance.
Strap yourselves in, lads and lasses.
The problem is we are a loss making club.
Will they have the patience to back off and stay in the background when we are 12th in the table and have lost three games on the trot and then the board/SMT ask for another £500K to cover that month's deficit?
That was where things went wrong under Tommy...
I could understand his frustration when the management team asked him to sanction transfer fees for say Charlie Kirk only to see him go on loan as JJ didn't want to play him. Or for the six figure sum for DJ who managed to run down cu de sacs rather than into opponents penalty boxes and so on.
That is when we'll get to see the mettle of the new owners.
This.
Owning a hedge fund company which earns millions by simply existing is rather different to a loss making football club which needs half a million pounds of funding month after month with nothing to show for it. And then being asked for another half a million in January to buy a player that no one outside of League 1 has heard of.
I doubt Brener or Friedman can even find Charlton if you gave them a London A--Z.
I financial advisor that doesn't know how hedge funds work?
The point being is that I doubt they have to stump up ££££ every month just to keep the business going.
But I see I'm swimming against the tide. Don't get me wrong, I really do hope they are a success and in a years or twos time we are singing their praises when we are in the Championship. I'm just a bit sceptical when none of the "big 3" seem to have made any sort of statement acknowledging their ownership.
As others have said, it isn't always who owns us, but who does the day to day running of the club. All the mistakes made by previous owners who thought they knew how to run a football club
Comments
With Idris Elba coming to the Orient match will it be a close contest and go down to the wire ?
We must overcome that, because the game is a must win. Dropping two or three points at home is a disaster and requires a couple of away wins to compensate.
The new owners must aim for 92 points next season.
Sod feeling our way into the season, sod time to gel, win.
Very different to Wrexham.
They are all rich men in their own right, I doubt if they got their money by being gullible to someone like CM.
The question I was asking if they might give an interview or statement, @redbuttle thinks maybe not....he didnt say they won't be!
The takeover happened about 72 hours or so ago, I'm certainly not going to prejudge.
Whilst an interview or statement might be a nice to have, in my mind, it's not compulsory!
Just sit back and see what happens in the next few days, you never know we might all be pleasantly surprised.
https://t.co/hET6qnblAL
ACA Football Partners Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, CEO: Hiroyuki Ono, hereinafter ACAFP) is delighted to announce that it has reached an agreement to join Global Football Partners (GFP), the new ownership group of English League 1 club Charlton Athletic. ACAFP will be one of seven minority shareholders in the London-based former Premier League club, and CEO Hiroyuki Ono will join the Board of GFP alongside other experienced football club owners.
The acquisition of a stake in Charlton Athletic is Stage three of the ACAFP project since it launched in July 2021 to form a multi-club ownership model from Asia. First ACAFP bought Belgian 2nd division club KMSK Deinze in February 2022, and then Juventud Torremolinos CF, a Spanish fifth division club, in February 2023.
Having a solid base in Belgium and Spain, ACAFP has been building its borderless network and developing projects globally by collaborating with clubs from Asia such as PVF Football Academy (Vietnam), Albirex Niigata Singapore (Singapore), and Imabari FC (Japan), to provide opportunities especially for promising young players from these geographies.
The signing of 18 year-old Indonesian international Marselino Ferdinan to KMSK Deinze, is an example of this strategy: giving an opportunity for a young player from East Asia to develop his career in Europe from an early age, and then bringing the value of those experiences back to his national team. The Indonesian national team won the gold medal after 32 years at the SEA Games in 2023.
Gaining a place in the world-leading English football market is a major milestone for ACAFP. Charlton is a historic, central London club established in 1905. After a lengthy stay in the Premier League, the club has had a less successful last decade at first team level, but its youth academy has remained one of the leading such institutions in the UK, providing a stream of major international players. It is envisaged that by Charlton becoming part of the ACAFP family, further opportunities for the development of Charlton youngsters will open up, through access to the Belgian and Spanish leagues. Meanwhile, in reverse, players from ACAFP’s system will have a clear opportunity to move to the English leagues, if they are suitably proficient.
Work is already underway between ACAFP executives and the prospective Charlton Athletic management team to share Scouting networks, data systems and coaching structures/ techniques. Likewise, on the media side discussions are occurring about the sharing of audio-visual and other content through ACAFP’s OTT platform Playsia TV and Charlton TV.
Comment from Charlie Methven, Global Football Partners BoD
We at GFP are delighted to welcome ACA as a partner in our project. The two main challenges of modern football clubs are the increasingly global search for talent and the growth of a worldwide digital audience to complement the local fans who attend the stadium. After many months of detailed discussions with Hiro Ono and his executives, our Senior Management Team felt that ACA would be a perfect strategic fit in helping GFP achieve its objectives for Charlton Athletic in these two critical areas. We look forward to working intensely with ACA to make the partnership work for both parties and to create success across all our clubs.
Comment from Hiroyuki Ono, ACAFP CEO
We are very pleased to be a part of the club which is composed of a rich history and passionate fans, and I would like to show my deep gratitude to Charlie Methven and Jim Rodwell, who welcomed us to the group. You may be skeptical about who we are and what strategies we have. Over the past year, we have focused on connecting Asia and Europe with football through the multi-club ownership model, but we are also aiming for releasing the value of sports and create a borderless community. Our door is always open, we want to learn a lot from England, the home of football, and also to expand Charlton’s appeal more globally.
@DamoNorthStand any updates mate ?
This is Calbag's website, more specifically their about us page:
About Us | Calbag Metals - Portland and Tacoma
They are north-west US based with factories in Portland,Oregon and Tacoma, Washington state and do business along the Pacific rim. They have another division - Calbag Resources which claims to specialise in the demolition of dams, factories, power plants etc - how big this division is I can't tell.
This reports suggests their annual revenue is between US$ 100m and US$ 500m - which is pretty wide and could be an estimate based on companies of that size and nature:
Annual Report on Calbag Metals's Revenue, Growth, SWOT Analysis & Competitor Intelligence - IncFact
I assume they are profitable...
A coalition? A consortium? Or a junta?
But that is completely different to not even acknowledging that they are owners. I see the "minows" have made statements but nothing from the big hitters.
Also love how ACA are coming out with statements around "partnerships" and "borderless networks"......as if Roland never existed.
But I'll leave you to your love-ins and go to watch the rain fall in Manchester.
Both Roland and Tommy couldn't resist interfering because of their self-perceived business genius and it didn't bloody help, did it?
As others have said; the most important incomings to the club will be the aforementioned 'experienced professionals' as we haven't had enough of them in our recent history to give us even a remote chance of being successful.
Hopefully that will now change. As we now appear to have owners who know that you have to 'speculate to accumulate', that means that I am much more optimistic for our future than I have been for years.
There is no guarantee of success, but at least we now have a fighting chance.
Strap yourselves in, lads and lasses.
The point is after everything Roland, Southall and Sandgaard have said words are meaningless and they’ll struggle to come up with anything we haven’t heard before.
From their point of view what good can come from it? They’ll either be accused of having no ambition or over promising.
The problem is we are a loss making club.
Will they have the patience to back off and stay in the background when we are 12th in the table and have lost three games on the trot and then the board/SMT ask for another £500K to cover that month's deficit?
That was where things went wrong under Tommy...
I could understand his frustration when the management team asked him to sanction transfer fees for say Charlie Kirk only to see him go on loan as JJ didn't want to play him. Or for the six figure sum for DJ who managed to run down cu de sacs rather than into opponents penalty boxes and so on.
That is when we'll get to see the mettle of the new owners.
Owning a hedge fund company which earns millions by simply existing is rather different to a loss making football club which needs half a million pounds of funding month after month with nothing to show for it. And then being asked for another half a million in January to buy a player that no one outside of League 1 has heard of.
I doubt Brener or Friedman can even find Charlton if you gave them a London A--Z.
Brener and Friedman obviously never look into anything they invest in.
They just chuck money about and no nothing about the company or where the money is going.
No wonder they have built up a large personal fortune.
But I see I'm swimming against the tide. Don't get me wrong, I really do hope they are a success and in a years or twos time we are singing their praises when we are in the Championship. I'm just a bit sceptical when none of the "big 3" seem to have made any sort of statement acknowledging their ownership.
Ryan Reynolds they ain't.