First of all let me say that there is understandably so much on here about our new owner that I have found it impossible to read it all. (But I have read quite a bit.) So if this turns out to be repetitious, then apologies for troubling you.
That said, I was reading the season ticket strike thread and saw some references to what RD said in his interview with the BBC. I thought I should watch it again. I found it useful to listen to him in the light of subsequent events and in case you too find it useful I’ve set down what he said, with some paraphrases and abbreviations, but, I believe, no distortions. I’ve left out the interview with the guy from Standard Liege in order to focus just on RD’s stated views. I’ve added some thoughts on what it might mean.
Q: Where do Charlton fit into your network?
A: As a club in its own right. The benefit to Charlton is that it has some friends in other countries and they can exchange players. Especially for younger players it’s an opportunity to get experience which they could not get immediately at this club.
Q: How do you prioritise between clubs?
A: [Uses analogy of parent and children to say he doesn't, then…] It’s not because I’m a shareholder that I’m going to play a big role in deciding all sorts of things - no. The management here need to take care of themselves - they’re responsible for the success of the club, not me.
Q: Who has the final say about which player goes where?
A: The different people involved talk to each other and decisions are made when everyone agrees.
Q: Can you assure fans that the promising players that come through the academy will get their chance here rather than be taken to SL to help them get into the Champions League?
A: To play Champions League is very interesting; Charlton is the only club in the Championship that can offer this possibility to youngsters that they may play Champions League - with SL. That will depend on whether the player likes it, but this club needs to make some money at some point and it is not to be excluded that some players will be sold from Charlton to SL and play Champions League.
Q: You look at this purely as a business don’t you?
A: Not at all - football is too great to be just a business. Of course there is a business side in that at the end of every season you have to count the money in and see if it is enough to pay for the expenses. Few clubs achieve this - I intend to.
A football club is a place where people from all backgrounds get together and this kind of replaces other meeting places of the past like the church. Football is a very, very interesting phenomenon; it’s just exceptional if you start to think about it.
Q: If you were able to take Charlton into the Premier League that would be worth far more than taking SL into the Champions League. It would make sense to make Charlton your priority would it not?
A: My main concern is not this or that. If it has to be done, it should be done by this management and they must do it in a responsible way, rather than just try to do it with a lot of money - that’s not what we will do.
What is he trying to tell us here? My interpretation would be:
1 He says he is not intending to micro-manage. A club’s management is responsible for its success within the financial parameters he lays down (ie break even as a minimum). For this to mean anything, the club’s management must have a reasonable degree of freedom. This too is promised (next).
2 Players will not be moved around the network without the agreement of the interested parties, ie the player, receiving club, giving club. However, I think it is implicit that club management must buy into the network model and not seek to ignore the scope for cooperation.
3 Some people have interpreted his statement about decisions by agreement to be in contradiction to the statement that has attracted most intention: “it is not to be excluded that some players will be sold from Charlton to SL and play Champions League”. What should we make of this? At one end of the interpretation spectrum some have taken it to be his declaration that Charlton is a feeder club for SL. At the other end, one could say it is just stating the obvious: ie if Charlton have a player capable of performing at Champions League level, then he’s not going to continue playing in the Championship; if he can benefit SL, then better that the network gets this benefit if possible, than his being transferred outside the network. The difference is fundamental and, it seems, at the heart of much of the disagreement among supporters about how we should view RD.
4 The other fundamental question about RD’s motivations that has to be answered is: why is he into football clubs at all? The natural first response is based on the observation that he is a self-made multi-millionaire businessman and so he’ll see football clubs as a business opportunity. His answers suggest not. He talks of football being more than business and I’ve never heard him talk about how Charlton will get into the Premier League.
I could be completely wrong here, but I get the impression that he has done what he wanted to do in business and for the last few years has been looking to make a different mark. There was his political party and now there seems to be some sort of project to show how football clubs can fulfil a social need by being managed on a sustainable financial basis.
My comments don’t mean that I see him as an undiluted force for good. There are important concerns:
* How do his actions fit with his words? His relationship with CP is troubling. It is not obvious that player movements have happened by agreement, and rumours of interference with team selection would, if true, be even more concerning.
* Does he understand well enough what a football club gives to a supporter? His project might have good motives, yet founder on a fundamental misunderstanding of the psychology of being a supporter.
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Comments
First thing he is already making me doubt on. (If) he is taking out the good stuff and giving us back deadwood, it is out of the managements hands to force us up the leagues, HE is responsible for the success of the club because it is simply a non entity to get out of this league without the right quality and experience, except of course the relegation way out. Also HE is the one choosing the management team, which means it's in his hands again. It's a bit like me running a shop, taking away the best selling items and then telling the management team at the store that is their responsibility to make a big profit at the store.
He's toying around in the wrong business and also the wrong league/country, he's got his fingers in too many pies and it will come back and sting us long-term, I'd stick my bottom dollar on it. His whole view is to break even at our club, he achieves this, what is he gaining from the whole thing... FEEDING his network with our clubs products. He is a shrewd businessman, it will be a miracle if we push forward with this man owning us, an absolute miracle. I await the blind optimistic's to tell me to man up and enjoy our new pitch and academy...
The principal is correct, will it work, who knows. I doubt it.
It's not far removed from Jimenez/Slater's plans, apart from the network.
The Kermorgant situation may have been mishandled, but I can see RD's logic even if I disagree with it: you have a striker who is injury prone and approaching the last few years of financial liability. He won't sign on the terms you offer, and a fee is offered by another club, then sell him while you can. It was too soon for RD to back down and offer higher/better terms to any one player, as it would force his hand with other players when it came to renegotiating - if he gave Yann the terms he demanded, other players would expect the same treatment. So from RD's perspective, Yann had to go.
Stephens is even less arguable - he only really showed consistent form this last season, he's been pretty open about wanting to move, so selling him makes logical sense. Personally I would play Cousins and/or Poyet before Stephens on current form anyway, Ajderevic too.
The point about him picking the management team is obvious - that is exactly what every owner of a club in any country in any league does. So far the stories of him dictating what team to play have absolutely no evidence - Thuram and Nego have not played under Riga, Reza has been a squad player not an automatic start, Ajderevic has been used sparingly and effectively for the most part. It does seem that he and Powell just could not reach an agreement - but that does NOT make him a bad chairman, or invalidate other choices he makes. Sometimes that kind of thing happens in football, what is important is how he reacts, and on current evidence Riga is most certainly NOT the disaster many predicted. He may not be our saviour but on what we've seen so far he isn't simply a bumbling yes-man... except when it suits certain poster's agenda to claim so.
These are all signs of the lack of care he has towards the clubs standing in the leagues, why? Because the players he got in were already contracted under his network of clubs, he does not need to pay agent fees so essentially he has made a profit from these "swaps" and they have not helped us on the pitch, however blindly optimistic you want to be about these players none have contributed hugely. It's all business for him, football doesn't work like that and trust me I know..The swaps were all of the Standard Liege out of choice players to come to Charlton, and the money received for YK and Stephens in his pocket. Good swap from a business point of view, hey!? PP is seperate as he is a long term investment, not to do with our short term league standings.
I can see where you are coming from viewing it on a 'current' perspective, it does all look OK, but not when you look into it a shade more imo.
Ambitious and skilled young players would be attracted to Charlton rather than any other Championship teams as we can offer them the prospect of moving direct on loan or sale to a club that's playing in the Champions club which is more possible than moving to a top four club in the premiership with large squads...
If I had the skills this would be more attractive for me and in the meanwhile Charlton benefits from their time in our side...
Cheap players, or unfit players, players not near the first team of other clubs would be the only players we were ever going to sign anyway, that is the nature of the beast for a club in the (league) position we are in. If you are willing to believe the negative rumours, then you owe it to RD and to yourself to believe the positive ones too - and that RD was willing to pay good money for players of the calibre of Shaun Wright Phillips, Gradel or Wickham, a step above what we have at present for sure, even on loan. The fact that we did not manage to sign them is NOT down to RD, certainly not solely and totally down to him at least. If not for "the network" we would be going into the busy run of games with a squad even more threadbare than it is now, of that I am sure.
People point to Powell's achievements in League One, and rightfully so, but that came after a summer of practically rebuilding a squad from the ground up - to expect a similar improvement after a January transfer window is frankly naive, even if Powell had been handed a blank chequebook and let loose unrestricted.
You say that I need to look into it a shade more, I say the exact same to you. Ignore the fallacious and thus far unproven rumours/hysteria of 'we sold our club's soul' and look into what has actually happened in real terms and I think it's fair to say we could be a hell of a lot worse off. People are keen to paint all of RD's actions in the worst possible light, and maybe they will be proved right, or wrong - in time. That time is NOT now, and to make judgements on a chairman's morals, integrity or competence after barely two months in control is foolish at best.
Against who?
"A 5 minute cameo against some team in Sweden"
You have one sexy CV il get Mr Wenger on the phone.