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Q & A with Christian Dailly and Gary Doherty - 14/9/10

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    [cite]Posted By: Airman Brown[/cite]

    The point about Bromley, City Addicks, etc, is that there is a club-type atmosphere because people know each other. It's a slightly different situation in Greenwich and Bexley because the audience is drawn from a much bigger group of supporters, although of course the fact that meetings aren't held regularly reinforces that. In my view, the branch should meet in Bexley.

    In the case of Bromley at least people know each now, they didn't before. I certainly didn't.

    We have always sold the meetings as an opportunity to meet other Addicks and I believe that City Addicks is similar in that people have met other Addicks there for the first time. Have I ever told you the story of how I introduced AFKA to Lookie? The rest is history but I digress : - ) A club-type atmosphere has to be developed over time with regular meetings and venue. Word of mouth and sites like this then spread the news.

    A 120 to 200 capacity venue in Bexley or Eltham willing to host 70+ people on a quiet week night can't be that hard to find
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    Curbit did the city tavern ever fail to achive in excess of that on previous ocassions?

    can't you use your headlock technique on the new? management
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    [cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]Curbit did the city tavern ever fail to achive in excess of that on previous ocassions?

    can't you use your headlock technique on the new? management

    Dont know as before the new owners it was never mentioned thats why we arent keen. tho i have found another venue which is still a minimum spend but I am hoping we could achieve that. Come back with some more info shortly. The railway tavern by liverpool street just told me they want a grand too.
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    B, There are some pubs in the City that host the Quiz nights but none are huge as I remember. Sekford Arms is one. Afternoon Delight or Rock Spectacle may remember some others.

    Might be more welcoming to a football event.
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    Hear, hear AFKA. You've taken the time and the trouble to say exactly what I wanted to. I agree with every word.
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    I think Large has given a good explanation of why people don't want to come out in the evening to go to events at The Valley. The reality is that our ground is on the edge of our catchment area. It would be very difficult to change that because the factors that drive it are much deeper than can be influenced by a football club. We need to focus on deepening and entrenching our position in the territory where we are currently strong, including Greenwich borough. But Q&As are only a small part of that and they are a minority interest, as the numbers consistently show.

    So too, incidentally, is participation in Charlton Life, subscription to Charlton Player and even reading the programme. That doesn't mean they aren't worthwhile in themselves, but most Charlton fans do not partake of them. They only come to matches.

    I am working with Wendy on developing a more substantial programme of player appearances and Q&A sessions, some of which have been announced and more of which will follow. We are working to develop more active supporter groups.

    As a fan I am not interested in spending time attending these events, but of course if you are involved with Charlton seven days a week and required to work six of them most weeks then you do develop a different attitude to spending further time around the club. That has no impact on my commitment to setting them up for people who do.

    I am not particularly concerned with the balance sheet, but obviously the club as a whole will look at whether an event makes money and seek to minimise its losses. It would be daft to spend hundreds of pounds on staging events that few people wish to attend. But the event took place and there will be more.

    It simply isn't any kind of surprise to me that only 50 people wished to come on Tuesday. If people want to make a case that we didn't publicise the event properly, shouldn't have made it all ticket or should have done something differently then I'm happy to engage with that. Simply stating that it's a shame or a disgrace it wasn't better attended is almost completely meaningless, in my view. All it tells us is that there is not a great audience for Q&As at The Valley, which I could have told you at any point over the last 20 years. Beyond that it is of no significance whatsoever.
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    The Supporters Club AGM at The Valley Club in 1986 had a decent turnout!
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    Airman, I did make a comment that I felt it could have been more prominently promoted in the programme, to which you responded about there being no need to have "rousing calls to action". Was it mentioned over the tannoy on Saturday at all? That doesn't cost anything. Were there posters up about it in the Club shop or by the ticket office? (Only the cost of ink to run them out on an in-house printer...) I bet most people at the game on Saturday didn't know about it, and all I'd suggest is that perhaps 1 in 100 of them might have been up for attending if they had known.

    If you have a fixed view that only c 50 will turn up, then there is a risk that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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    edited September 2010
    I am struggling to understand about why it matters that only 50 people turned up? I'm trying not to sound stupid by saying that!
    [cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]If, as you imply, our fanbase are unwilling to go to The Valley, then that is something we should all be concerned about, shouldn't we?

    One of the factors from my point of view is the success of Charlton Life itself. You could put it down to laziness, and obviously it's not as good as the real thing, but I know I can pick up some of what goes on in these meetings without going at all as Henry/Kap10/Curb_It have written up summaries in the past. I understand the CL argument does not apply to a large percentage of our fan base though as Airman has mentioned above.
    [cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]If the supporters go away feeling more positive and closer to the players wearing the shirt, and the players go away from an evening having positively engaged with supporters and feeling more engaged with the club, surely there must be some long-term benefits in that ?

    I guess this is what I'm trying to understand, are there any tangible long-term benefits.
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    I don't edit the programme or control the public address, but I will say that in general we will put resources (including time and effort) into things that drive revenue and are likely to affect significant numbers of people. An extra ticket sale is potentially worth £25 less the VAT. An extra person at a Q&A might or might not buy a pint of beer, which is in itself a cost to us. Therefore we will always focus on selling the extra ticket.

    I make this as a general argument rather to suggest we go into every consideration armed with a calculator, but to give an obvious example the ticket above the commercial centre is a prime advertising space. We would not use it to promote a free event over ticket information/sales. Even posters have to be produced using staff time. People at the club aren't sitting around looking for things to do, so that work displaces other activity that may be more useful. In any case, it was strictly speaking a fans' forum event and for them to promote, even if that's unrealistic at present.

    I don't honestly think if we'd have plastered the place with publicity we'd have got another dozen people, but I could be wrong. Most people will have seen some of the trails on the website, which is by far the most effective way to get messages across. I still believe that the main reason no more people attended is that no more people wished to attend.
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    Just one idea but has the club thought of holding a Q&A at Sparrows Lane?

    I know this still has the problem of being out of the way but it does have the added pull of being somewhere that most fans don't get to see. People could be allowed the chance to look around while they're there. And it is the players 'real' home - in that it is the place they spend most of their time, so that might feel more comfortable as well.
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    Not wishing to appear ungrateful but I recall when running CA we weren't offered any current players, and indeed on some ocassions it was very difficult to get anyone, as the club lost interest for some reason (this was why I eventually handed the reigns over to Curbit who has done a fine job) although prior to that we had Mr Varney himself, and Mr White came on board as compere.

    As for the G&B 'branch' I don't see why these can't be held all over the geographical area
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    [cite]Posted By: Harveys Trainer[/cite]Just one idea but has the club thought of holding a Q&A at Sparrows Lane?

    I know this still has the problem of being out of the way but it does have the added pull of being somewhere that most fans don't get to see. People could be allowed the chance to look around while they're there. And it is the players 'real' home - in that it is the place they spend most of their time, so that might feel more comfortable as well.

    Can't speak for the Club but Bromley Addicks had an early evening tour last season as a test to see if it was worth offering.

    The view of those who went (many of whom post on here so can add their own comments) was that while of interest it wasn't worth repeating.

    It's not ideal for Q & As IMHO as there is no bar, not sure there is an area suitable for a q & A and for security the numbers allowed in at anyone time were quite low (15 - 20 if I remember rightly).

    The Club are holding a Young Addicks event there in October.
    [cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]Not wishing to appear ungrateful but I recall when running CA we weren't offered any current players, and indeed on some ocassions it was very difficult to get anyone, as the club lost interest for some reason

    There was a period when we were in the Prem when it got very difficult to get current players. IMHO some of the players thought it was too much effort and some of the people at the Club seem too wary of pushing players and management to make things happen.

    IMHO again that has changed recently both in terms of the willingness of players to do events and the Club Development Staff pushing it a lot more.
    [cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]

    As for the G&B 'branch' I don't see why these can't be held all over the geographical area

    There is no good reason why not IMHO. Just needs people to get involved and offer/find venues.
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    The Young Addicks event is six-a-side tournament and is taking place outside. In general I don't think the training ground is suitable for Q&A events and there would be security and lighting issues.

    The player appearance question has been a thorny one for many years, but in the PL you were dealing with a different kind of footballer to the players we have now and for that matter a different manager. Both are big factors. The players were nearly always good value when they actually got to events, but getting them there was another matter.

    We've now got a good system, we are well supported by Kins and the players are also co-operative. But it never was a question of staff being "too wary" of pushing players and management; it's important to remember that the only people with authority over the players are the playing management and providing guests for public meetings is never going to be their priority. Non-football staff had/have no authority whatsoever in this area.
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    edited September 2010
    Whenever my son has been to weekly Half Term Courses at the training ground the Club always send up one or two players to sign autographs though I did have to explain to the boy exactly who Leon McKenzie, Ben Davisson and Moutu were ;-)
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    I'm a bit late on this due to the dodgy internet connection at my holiday campsite and my father in law falling off a bungalow roof on Wednesday morning, meaning a premature end to our hols and a lot of rushing around to hospitals etc over the last couple of days and not much time for CAFC message boards! Anyway for what it's worth here's my recollections/thoughts on the night.

    Firstly, this was my first time at one of these events - I was a bit surprised at what seemed a small turnout, but having found it a bit of a rush to get there even when I was on holiday I can understand why people maybe didn't feel it was worth the bother. Thanks to those who organised it though, me and the Missus enjoyed it, and thanks to whoever it was suggested, the other week, that we go to the Old Brewery for dinner - our meals were delicious!

    I think other people who were there have covered the main things that came out of the meeting and I'd agree with what others have said. Dailly comes across extremely well, he's articulate, intelligent and a clear and natural captain, even next to a former captain of other clubs in Docherty. He spoke highly of Parky and the club in general - one particular comment that stuck in my head was that "this is a great place to send your kids" with reference to our academy. He also said (and the other two concurred) that training is particularly enjoyable thanks to the programmes that Parky and his coaching staff have devised. Lee Martin is apparently the trickiest forward to play against in training because he has "some ability" and Dailly feels that there will be games where someone like Martin will play particularly well and we'll win a few games 3 or 4-0 as a result. He thinks Benson will at the very least have a purple patch at somepoint and score a lot of goals in that spell because he's a clever player who gets in good positions - hopefully it'll be a long purple patch. Overall he feels this season's squad is stronger than last season's and that Parky did a great job to reassemble such a strong squad after so much unheavel - he highlighted Doc as being a particular transfer coup. He likes the fans at Charlton and felt we'd been particularly patient given how far and quiclky we'd fallen - he said sometimes you'd be booed if it was still 0-0 after 10 minutes at Upton Park. CD seems really at home here, it suits his family life as he lives in Essex and it was never in doubt he wouldn't sign - he said he felt it was important that at least a couple of senior pros remained from last season to provide some semblance of stability. He said he felt he wanted to be one of those which shows real commitment as he can't have really known what he'd think of the new squad at that point, seeing as was, at best, only part assembled.

    Doc came across well too, although much squeakier than I expected! He said he did his homework on the club before he joined and he heard lots of good things - so far he feels they were right. I asked how they found playing at the Valley and Doc said he "loves it here" and had always enjoyed playing at The Valley, he said it's a better stadium than Carrow Road in his opinion and that our training facilities were better than Norwich's too. He likes what he's seen of Parky too and he's here to get promoted - as with Dailly he feels we can do it. He said that he felt the managerial change was the major factor in Norwich's success last year, along with the purchase of a quality keeper - who he said was great all season although particularly "on fire" when we "battered" them at The Valley. He said he'd been impressed with Elliot though, which drew appreciative nodding from Dailly.

    Jenkinson seems a decent kid who's well grounded. He's made his Mum very proud by choosing to play for Finland's youth teams and he feels he's learning a lot from doing so. He hopes to one day emulate JJ and play for the full Finland team whilst at Charlton. Right back is his preferred position "but he just wants to play football". When asked if versality could be a hinderance as managers might sometimes take liberties, Dailly said it was a good point and that it could be difficult if you kept getting switched around (which he knew from experience). Solly was mentioned and Dailly said he had a terrific attitude and that it was very hard to be asked to play away from your best position when you weren't even established in the first team yet but you never heard him complain, even after being dropped earlier in the season. He felt that ultimately managers love versatile players and later in your career it was a definite advantage.

    As and aside, Dailly also said he felt Wagggy was "coming along great".

    I couldn't help coming away feeling positive, largely thanks to CD's enthusiam although by his own admition he's "always really optimistic" - even having to share a train with a few hundred happy Palace fans after their 4-1 win wasn't enough to dampen my spirits!
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    Interesting. I thought our training was meant to be boring. Were they suggesting training is different from last season, or it just being enjoyable in general?
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    [cite]Posted By: Scoham[/cite]Interesting. I thought our training was meant to be boring. Were they suggesting training is different from last season, or it just being enjoyable in general?

    I think in general
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    [cite]Posted By: Kap10[/cite]
    [cite]Posted By: Scoham[/cite]Interesting. I thought our training was meant to be boring. Were they suggesting training is different from last season, or it just being enjoyable in general?

    I think in general

    Yeah, that was the impression I got, CD said something like "I come in every day with a spring in my step because training is so enjoyable". I think it was the variety as much as anything but I'm struggling to remember the specifics if I'm honest.
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    I recommended old brewery exiled! Did you eat in the back restaurant or the bar? Anyway good review of the meeting you got it pretty much on. Was a good night.
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    Cheers Curb_It! We sat in the back restaurant - bit trendier than we're used to, but in a good way. The Missus reckons she had the best Scollops she'd ever tasted. Where were you sat at the Q&A? I'd have said hello if I had clue what any of the lifers looked like - but thought it would be a bit strange if I just stood up and asked the room if anyone used Charlton Life!
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    Not yet eaten in the back. But plan to soon. Did yo see the page 3 model lookalike at the back ? well err..i was sat at the second to back row on the left as you looked at the head table, sat with ian. And AFKA was stood at the bar at the back in an orange jumper.
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    A few random points arising from this thread speaking purely for myself but others may or may not think similarly.

    A) As stated The Valley is the heart of Charlton. If we were to leave again that could well be the end of my interest in the Club. I probably barely achieved double figures for match attendance during our last exile.

    B) That said I believe that Airman has told us previously that 10% plus of season ticket holders (a possible indicator of committed fans likely to attend such Q&A sessions) come from Medway, Maidstone and all points East.

    I fall into that category and it is difficult and requires a lot of planning, with work commitments, to get to The Valley for an evening match let alone other events where you quite probably won't know anybody and can't use the bar because of the 35 mile drive home. If you don't have the car then you have the vagaries of public transport to negotiate in, at the risk of inflaming the Guardianistas, a dodgy area on a work night. At least on match nights there is an element of "safety in numbers."

    I therefore don't think it is lack of interest that prevents people like me from attending such functions but rather logistical difficulties and a reluctance, on ones own, to risk feeling like a pork sausage in a synagogue.
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    I think there is a lot to the argument that people don't go because they don't know other people who attend and have the impression that the events are not for "people like me". Even tagging them fans' forum will make some people think they need to belong to something.

    About 25 per cent of our season-ticket holders live in Greenwich and Lewisham boroughs. While some people will come from further afield, you'd probably look at them as the core audience for a Q&A at The Valley.
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    [cite]Posted By: Curb_It[/cite]I would like to just have problems with a decent venue.
    I even asked the Market Porter last week and they also want 500 quid minimum spend for their upstairs room.

    anyone in the city run a pub with a function room???

    Have you tried the Shipwright Arms on Tooley Street? I know they've got a function room but have never been there so dunno what it's like. It's handy for LB station though, and they've given it a lick of paint recently.

    Landlady comes across as pretty fierce at first, but she's a pussycat really. Told me that she hated Millwall fans once - can't think why!!!
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    I will check my list at work. I know i have rung a few round LB last week but some had size issues!!

    The counting house has an upstairs room but its 600 quid also minimum spend. I would need you to turn up if i had any chance of reaching that.
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    Or The Bunch of Grapes just off Borough High Street maybe - they've got an upstairs that they hire out. Don't know if they charge or how much though.
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    Really interesting to read such positive views the players have of Parkinson. I only get my opinion of Parkinson from results and making up my own opinion based on what i dont really have a lot of insight into.

    Good to get an insight from 2 experienced time- served pros who work so closely with him and if they really rate him so positively then makes me think I should give the manager a fairer chance.

    Seems to be a lot more spirit at the club this season and it is great having players like Dailly who really seem to care about Charlton leading the cause.
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    has a player at any of these events ever come out and said the manager is wank
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    Probably not, but Dailly could have left in the summer if he didn't want to play for Parky.
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