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A very stupid question

Fortunately or unfortunately, due to my age, I was only really watching Charlton for about a year or two under Roland Duchatelet, and I wasn’t interested or intelligent enough to have a look at what went on behind the scenes. 

So my question is: What did Roland actually do?

If I recall he tried to exert some influence over the on-pitch side of things, didn’t show up to games and I presume there was a monetary issue too.

I’m looking for some really concrete examples that could be used to disprove those that think we were better off with him.

Cheers!
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Comments

  • Foxycafc said:
    Fortunately or unfortunately, due to my age, I was only really watching Charlton for about a year or two under Roland Duchatelet, and I wasn’t interested or intelligent enough to have a look at what went on behind the scenes. 

    So my question is: What did Roland actually do?

    If I recall he tried to exert some influence over the on-pitch side of things, didn’t show up to games and I presume there was a monetary issue too.

    I’m looking for some really concrete examples that could be used to disprove those that think we were better off with him.

    Cheers!
    He employed people to run the club that probably shouldn’t have been let anywhere near it. It’s a common problem with a lot of businesses, not just football; and to make it worse he picked the wrong club to do it. Ironically, it almost paid off when Bowyer got the team promoted and started the next season really well. A bit of backing then and he could have had a club knocking on the door of the PL to sell
  • You had to live in those times to understand the full story. You had to have seen him spoken with him and then maybe thought wtf.

    He is our worst nightmare and I long for us to be his worst nightmare.
  • Welcome to Charlton. I hope you enjoy your time here and look forward to reading your posts in the future. I will leave it to others to post replies to your questions. 
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  • He continuously disrupted matches by arranging for beach balls, pigs, taxis and crisp packets to be thrown onto the pitch.

    Many said he couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery (you are too young to know what either of these things are) but he was pretty good at the whole "interrupt the game" thing. 
  • Sold Kermorgant 
    Told SCP what team to pick
    who was refusing to play...
  • edited April 2023
    You could also ask what he is currently doing as he owns The Valley and Sparrows lane and asking for a ridiculous selling price which is in effect he’s holding the club to ransom. 
  • edited April 2023
    Sold Kermorgant 
    Told SCP what team to pick
    who was refusing to play...

    Did he? I wasn't aware of that, but if he did then this is his context - frankly he was obviously more clued up than most of the fans at that time...


    "When I was there I didn’t really want to leave. At first I wanted to sign a new deal and spend a longer time with the club.

    “But in my first meeting with the new owners I found out things were really different - they had a vision which for me was completely deluded.

    “They didn’t know too much about football. I felt like they were wrong and the club would be in trouble because that’s not how football works.”

    Kermorgant added: “It’s different to run a business and a football club. It looked to me like their position was a bit weird.

  • He wanted to run a business, and a multi-club model. Neither of which are particularly bad things, unfortunately not many people have made either work, and his model certainly didn't.

    The big issues were interfering in team selection, and forcing players on the manager e.g. Thuram-Ulien 
    Sacking Powell, who had orchestrated our promotion, and had us on the brink of an FA Cup Semi-Final.
    Then there were all the Katrien issues, crazy business ideas, calling fans customers, and saying why do they think they have a say in the club.
    A lot of say one thing in the media, do another, e.g. Luzon appointment.

    The network model provided a few good players, and he signed Gudmundson, however there were a lot of terrible signings of players with no English football experience and coming from lower league football abroad.

    Most lamentable was the short-term thinking and lack of offering contracts to promising young players and our better players, that meant they could be ransacked. By the end there was a clear lack of vision, and lack of any connection with the fans.

    Promotion to the Championship covered over a lot of cracks, we were incredibly reliant on loan signings (a short-termist plan), lost players such as Bauer, Aribo etc. as a result of not planning around contracts, and despite a great start, even if we stayed up the following season would have almost certainly meant relegation.
  • He wanted to run a business, and a multi-club model. Neither of which are particularly bad things, unfortunately not many people have made either work, and his model certainly didn't.

    The big issues were interfering in team selection, and forcing players on the manager e.g. Thuram-Ulien 
    Sacking Powell, who had orchestrated our promotion, and had us on the brink of an FA Cup Semi-Final.
    Then there were all the Katrien issues, crazy business ideas, calling fans customers, and saying why do they think they have a say in the club.
    A lot of say one thing in the media, do another, e.g. Luzon appointment.

    The network model provided a few good players, and he signed Gudmundson, however there were a lot of terrible signings of players with no English football experience and coming from lower league football abroad.

    Most lamentable was the short-term thinking and lack of offering contracts to promising young players and our better players, that meant they could be ransacked. By the end there was a clear lack of vision, and lack of any connection with the fans.

    Promotion to the Championship covered over a lot of cracks, we were incredibly reliant on loan signings (a short-termist plan), lost players such as Bauer, Aribo etc. as a result of not planning around contracts, and despite a great start, even if we stayed up the following season would have almost certainly meant relegation.
    Don’t like the idea of a network. Sounds like a polygamous relationship where only one person wants to f*ck someone else…
  • Duchatelet was a misery, of course. His model wasn't great and senior management choices were particularly crap. And while Brexit completely and utterly fucked what he was trying to do, what he was trying to do wasn't great in the first place, and the vote happened after we'd already been disastrously relegated, so he'd already failed.

    That said, football is impossible and every club is in crisis, so it wasn't a case of him being particularly bad, it was a case of him being particularly unwilling to make a loss, which is impossible
  • Foxycafc said:
    He wanted to run a business, and a multi-club model. Neither of which are particularly bad things, unfortunately not many people have made either work, and his model certainly didn't.

    The big issues were interfering in team selection, and forcing players on the manager e.g. Thuram-Ulien 
    Sacking Powell, who had orchestrated our promotion, and had us on the brink of an FA Cup Semi-Final.
    Then there were all the Katrien issues, crazy business ideas, calling fans customers, and saying why do they think they have a say in the club.
    A lot of say one thing in the media, do another, e.g. Luzon appointment.

    The network model provided a few good players, and he signed Gudmundson, however there were a lot of terrible signings of players with no English football experience and coming from lower league football abroad.

    Most lamentable was the short-term thinking and lack of offering contracts to promising young players and our better players, that meant they could be ransacked. By the end there was a clear lack of vision, and lack of any connection with the fans.

    Promotion to the Championship covered over a lot of cracks, we were incredibly reliant on loan signings (a short-termist plan), lost players such as Bauer, Aribo etc. as a result of not planning around contracts, and despite a great start, even if we stayed up the following season would have almost certainly meant relegation.
    Don’t like the idea of a network. Sounds like a polygamous relationship where only one person wants to f*ck someone else…
    Ew, foxy
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  • Sold Kermorgant 
    Told SCP what team to pick
    who was refusing to play...

    Did he? I wasn't aware of that, but if he did then this is his context - frankly he was obviously more clued up than most of the fans at that time...


    "When I was there I didn’t really want to leave. At first I wanted to sign a new deal and spend a longer time with the club.

    “But in my first meeting with the new owners I found out things were really different - they had a vision which for me was completely deluded.

    “They didn’t know too much about football. I felt like they were wrong and the club would be in trouble because that’s not how football works.”

    Kermorgant added: “It’s different to run a business and a football club. It looked to me like their position was a bit weird.

    if he had played another x amount of games it would have triggered an extra year on his contract, something he wanted and signed.

    Bournemouth had reached out offering him more money so he wanted a new contract, when he wasn't offered the contract and time was running out to sign for Bournemouth he threw his snails out the garlic butter sauce 
  • Nug said:
    I’ve never seen that before and found myself getting more upset as it progressed. Seeing @Addickted near the end there has left me in tears. 
    Yes, I saw him at the end too, very sad. The video was made for a fans summit at Wembley if I remember right. Seems ages ago now, but here we are still trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
  • Had never seen that either

    A great, yet terrible video.

    Really does bring a lump to your throat
  • I’ve never seen that before. A really good video but a depressing watch. Add to this now Thomas Sandgaard and it’s just an ongoing cycle. Get these fuckers out of our club. 
  • Sadly we are known more for our bad owners nowadays rather than any exploits on the pitch...sad state of affairs
  • Nug said:
    I’ve never seen that before and found myself getting more upset as it progressed. Seeing @Addickted near the end there has left me in tears. 
    What a guy he was, always prepared to get out from behind his keyboard and follow his ideals through face to face, quite apart from being a top man.
    Certainly someone you wanted in the trenches…..and at any time too.
  • Needed more people like him. 

    Many good days and nights spent with him.

    Seen the film before and yes I was protesting back in 1990.
  • Long story short, he brought in a lot of guff that has nothing to do with running a good football club, including but not limited to:

    Installing a cringe worthy fan sofa in one corner of the ground for select fans to sit on for a game

    Trying to implement European style things in the ground like goal music

    Hiring Katrien Miere and giving her free reign in a job she was clearly clueless and out of her depth in

    Referring to fans as customers

    Selling our better players at key moments and bringing in players from the network of clubs to cover them, at significantly lower wages, and skill

    Trying to pick the team and influence the squad

    Sacking Chris Powell when he decided not to follow what RD wanted

    The subsequent hiring and firing of a multitude of coaches, all useless and with no idea what they were getting into

    Trying to use the network of clubs as a threat to players, like telling Poyet he'd be loaned out to one of the Belgian clubs

    General disdain for the club, the supporters and it's long serving members of staff

    Changing the club mascots for the worse

    I'm sure there's a hell of a lot more that hasn't been covered
  • sam3110 said:
    Long story short, he brought in a lot of guff that has nothing to do with running a good football club, including but not limited to:

    Installing a cringe worthy fan sofa in one corner of the ground for select fans to sit on for a game

    Trying to implement European style things in the ground like goal music

    Hiring Katrien Miere and giving her free reign in a job she was clearly clueless and out of her depth in

    Referring to fans as customers

    Selling our better players at key moments and bringing in players from the network of clubs to cover them, at significantly lower wages, and skill

    Trying to pick the team and influence the squad

    Sacking Chris Powell when he decided not to follow what RD wanted

    The subsequent hiring and firing of a multitude of coaches, all useless and with no idea what they were getting into

    Trying to use the network of clubs as a threat to players, like telling Poyet he'd be loaned out to one of the Belgian clubs

    General disdain for the club, the supporters and it's long serving members of staff

    Changing the club mascots for the worse

    I'm sure there's a hell of a lot more that hasn't been covered
    Stupid enough to let the Contracts of Grant and Aribo to run down, so we got a pitance for them

    Trousered the transfer fee for Ademola Lookman
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Roland Out Forever!