I work with a girl who is married to a Belgian. Duchatelet is very well known and is generally considered to be smart and a good guy - only surprise is he wants to buy an English football club, but hopefully he sees our potential.
If this happens sounds better than a lot of the other options previously rumoured/discussed.
As someone who normally tries to put a positive spin on things, and is thoroughly fed up with the negativity which usually pervades this site, I hate to put a dampener on things, but I have a really bad feeling about this.
None of us can truly know Duchatelet's motives for wanting to buy the club. It appears he is a successful and sensible businessman, and it might give us the financial stability we need - but at what cost? I would absolutely hate us to become the next Watford, merely a feeder team for another European club, despised by most English football fans, with owners who have no long-term interest in the future of our club.
Ask yourself this, would you rather be supporting Charlton Athletic in League 1 next season, or Standard Liege B in the Premiership with all of our players on loan contracts, looking for their opportunity to leave?
Please, somebody tell me I'm just being paranoid...!
I wouldn't say Standard liege are the size of Udinese, and what with the new loan rules we wouldn't be able to sign too many players from the same club
Well there is no chance youth players from the Belgian League would be enough to survive in the Premiership so I wouldn't worry about it. If we were stabilised in the Premier League we would probably be a higher priority because of the huge amount of TV money compared to the Belgian League. If an influx of these players helped us get to the Premier League though, and we shared a similar scouting network to them I wouldn't mind at all.
I would imagine the plan will be to get us up - that is the only realistic plan you can have. It will be a case of assessing what we have got and what we need and doing it within a reasonable budget and taking FFP into account I expect.
I wouldn't say Standard liege are the size of Udinese, and what with the new loan rules we wouldn't be able to sign too many players from the same club
That's the one thing that makes me think that perhaps this wont turn out to be a Watford/Udinese type thing - didn't the FL bring in rules in response to Watford's nonsense last season that made it much harder to have a squad of loan players ?
However, if you look at his other main two clubs, Standard and Ujpest - Ujpest have a few Belgians in their squad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Újpest_FC#Current_squad) all on loan from Standard and Sint Truiden. I'm not sure what his involvement with Sint Truiden is - he definately used to own them, I think he gave up direct control when he bought Standard however given Sint Truiden is the town he was senator for he may still have some involvement hence their players going on loan to his Hungarian team so I wouldn't be suprised if we see players coming here and perhaps some of our players going to one of his other clubs.
I really hope we don't see us become part of a Pozzo family system, that just feels so in-authentic.
As someone who normally tries to put a positive spin on things, and is thoroughly fed up with the negativity which usually pervades this site, I hate to put a dampener on things, but I have a really bad feeling about this.
None of us can truly know Duchatelet's motives for wanting to buy the club. It appears he is a successful and sensible businessman, and it might give us the financial stability we need - but at what cost? I would absolutely hate us to become the next Watford, merely a feeder team for another European club, despised by most English football fans, with owners who have no long-term interest in the future of our club.
Ask yourself this, would you rather be supporting Charlton Athletic in League 1 next season, or Standard Liege B in the Premiership with all of our players on loan contracts, looking for their opportunity to leave?
Please, somebody tell me I'm just being paranoid...!
I don't believe there'd be any announcement from the club unless it were a "done deal". There's probably some tax advantage to getting it done before year-end.
It's not a "done deal" as the club statement makes clear.
The year end is not relevant to tax as the club's tax year is july to june
That is a bit of a red herring though as many of those involved with the club could have a year end in December. We need to remember that we know very little about the. British Virgin Island companies. They could have implications with the end of December. Did the current owners not buy the company between Christmas and New Year three years ago?
As for peoples concerns about it being 'in-authentic' or 'doing a Watford', I really am not fussed by any of that at all.
Every club needs help to get out of this league, and we are not in a position to be picky.
For what is sacrificed in 'tradition' or 'authenticity' we are gaining by having an owner who actually does know about football and can stabilize the club without us completely selling out.
As for peoples concerns about it being 'in-authentic' or 'doing a Watford', I really am not fussed by any of that at all.
Every club needs help to get out of this league, and we are not in a position to be picky.
For what is sacrificed in 'tradition' or 'authenticity' we are gaining by having an owner who actually does know about football and can stabilize the club without us completely selling out.
Be happy!
Fair enough, each to their own, there were probably Cardiff fans who were happy with what Tan has done/is doing to their club - we each have our own opinion, I slated Watford for what they did last year and I wouldn't like to see us as part of that sort of system.
Why are we worried about being a Watford? I doubt if the Belgian league is a better standard than the championship so we won't be taking Liege's youngsters, especially if the goal is to push on towards the Prem!
The main thing you have to hope for is that these guys are real football fans and not just looking for a quick buck or two like so many seem to be and they let the management get on with their own jobs.
Here is a translated Liege view from one of their forums:
"Doesn't, as it keeps the cash to invest in us when necessary. In addition, Charlton could be very useful for some of our players who need to harden, it's still a whole new level as Sint-Truiden or Ujpest"
As someone who normally tries to put a positive spin on things, and is thoroughly fed up with the negativity which usually pervades this site, I hate to put a dampener on things, but I have a really bad feeling about this.
None of us can truly know Duchatelet's motives for wanting to buy the club. It appears he is a successful and sensible businessman, and it might give us the financial stability we need - but at what cost? I would absolutely hate us to become the next Watford, merely a feeder team for another European club, despised by most English football fans, with owners who have no long-term interest in the future of our club.
Ask yourself this, would you rather be supporting Charlton Athletic in League 1 next season, or Standard Liege B in the Premiership with all of our players on loan contracts, looking for their opportunity to leave?
Please, somebody tell me I'm just being paranoid...!
Why are we worried about being a Watford? I doubt if the Belgian league is a better standard than the championship so we won't be taking Liege's youngsters, especially if the goal is to push on towards the Prem!
Maybe we will get their better players!!
This, really don't know the answer to this, but, are Standard Liege bigger than us in terms of crowds, turnover ? Would suspect that Udinese are miles bigger than Watford.
£300m for Fulham or £14m for Charlton - no brainer. Used to live in Belgium, they are not as soppy as they look
Standard Liege have been in the Champions League in recent years and won the Belgium championship 10 times, so their profile is much much bigger than ours.
Stadium only holds 30,000 though and average attendance is about 22k/23k, so their turnover is likely to be slightly higher.
Standard Liege have been in the Champions League in recent years and won the Belgium championship 10 times, so their profile is much much bigger than ours.
Stadium only holds 30,000 though and average attendance is about 22k/23k, so their turnover is likely to be slightly higher.
Cheers Tom, didn't realise they played CL footie, thought that was reserved for Anderlecht. Given that they must be "bigger" than us
A european takeover of Charlton Athletic is preferable to some far east businessman with f***all knowledge of football but with a penchant for "playing" at being a owner/manager/technical coach to the detriment of club and supporters.
Standard Liege have been in the Champions League in recent years and won the Belgium championship 10 times, so their profile is much much bigger than ours.
Stadium only holds 30,000 though and average attendance is about 22k/23k, so their turnover is likely to be slightly higher.
Cheers Tom, didn't realise they played CL footie, thought that was reserved for Anderlecht. Given that they must be "bigger" than us
I don't think they've been past the group stages though ? If not, then a Charlton in the Premier League - even finishing just above relegation - would be bringing in more money than Standard would make getting knocked out of the group stages and winning the Belgian league.
Who knows what his plan is, I just don't fancy being part of a set up where Charlton players really belong to a multi-team franchise rather than us, but I guess all will be revealed soon.
Comments
If this happens sounds better than a lot of the other options previously rumoured/discussed.
None of us can truly know Duchatelet's motives for wanting to buy the club. It appears he is a successful and sensible businessman, and it might give us the financial stability we need - but at what cost? I would absolutely hate us to become the next Watford, merely a feeder team for another European club, despised by most English football fans, with owners who have no long-term interest in the future of our club.
Ask yourself this, would you rather be supporting Charlton Athletic in League 1 next season, or Standard Liege B in the Premiership with all of our players on loan contracts, looking for their opportunity to leave?
Please, somebody tell me I'm just being paranoid...!
Non-EU players can get one in two years and are then eligible to play anywhere n the EU.
However, if you look at his other main two clubs, Standard and Ujpest - Ujpest have a few Belgians in their squad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Újpest_FC#Current_squad) all on loan from Standard and Sint Truiden. I'm not sure what his involvement with Sint Truiden is - he definately used to own them, I think he gave up direct control when he bought Standard however given Sint Truiden is the town he was senator for he may still have some involvement hence their players going on loan to his Hungarian team so I wouldn't be suprised if we see players coming here and perhaps some of our players going to one of his other clubs.
I really hope we don't see us become part of a Pozzo family system, that just feels so in-authentic.
Every club needs help to get out of this league, and we are not in a position to be picky.
For what is sacrificed in 'tradition' or 'authenticity' we are gaining by having an owner who actually does know about football and can stabilize the club without us completely selling out.
Be happy!
Maybe we will get their better players!!
"Doesn't, as it keeps the cash to invest in us when necessary.
In addition, Charlton could be very useful for some of our players who need to harden, it's still a whole new level as Sint-Truiden or Ujpest"
£300m for Fulham or £14m for Charlton - no brainer. Used to live in Belgium, they are not as soppy as they look
Stadium only holds 30,000 though and average attendance is about 22k/23k, so their turnover is likely to be slightly higher.
Who knows what his plan is, I just don't fancy being part of a set up where Charlton players really belong to a multi-team franchise rather than us, but I guess all will be revealed soon.