This "Yes Man" that everyone's talking about. Surely RD could have found someone for free who could say yes to everything?
Was RD in Belgium's answer to The Venue sipping a pint of Stella when he over hears the manager of Waasland laughing about how his new manager says yes to everything?
I'm sure a man as wealthy as Roland could find a thousand yes men if he wanted, I'm sure he knew that Riga wasn't a yes man from their previous time working together.
I'm surprised if people still think that CP was sacked for refusing to play Thuram etc.
Personally I'm quite excited about a young Belgium manager who's known for developing youth, Belgium seems to be doing something right when it comes to young players at the moment and would feel more "underwhelmed" if we were looking at one of these highly rated English managers that everyone's so keen on.
Think Riga deserved a crack at he job but RD thinks otherwise, after slaughtering RD for his last managerial change - I'm giving him every chance to get it right again.
I'm sure he cares, but you can't announce something until it's done. It doesn't help get it done or the Club's credibility if work in progress is leaked. It's irresponsible. Just my opinion.
I suspect the leak has come from someone at Peeters current club. Who appear rightly peeved off that there was no official approach to speak to him.
If that's the case RD doesn't really have much to argue about.
I'm sure he cares, but you can't announce something until it's done. It doesn't help get it done or the Club's credibility if work in progress is leaked. It's irresponsible. Just my opinion.
In some cases yes but the Bloom, Roberts, Matthew and Dyer deals are done. Why not annouce them?
Riga seems pretty clear that he has been told he isn't staying. Sky are ringing him up and he's going on the TV to say so and tout himself for another job. Which he has every right to do and is to be expected. He wants a job so he's not going to say no to some free advertising.
Peeters isn't done and there maybe another candidate or two so yes quite right to not say much yet but they could easily have said "We've decided not to retain JR, he was great for us, we thank him loads but going forward we need something different blah blah". We're currently considering our options and will make an annoucement when we have appointed a new head coach" Job done.
It doesn't help the Club's credibility, I agree, and is what I have been saying all along. So what are they doing about it? Be pro-active and manage the news as far as you can.
There will always be leaks and rumours and there will always be stories they can't comment on until they are done but the rest they can manage and influence. As long as they leave a vacuum the void will be filled with rumour and gossip, most of it at best partially true.
I tend to agree with you rather than @Mundell Fleming on this. Any businessman whose business employs people in senior and important roles (which applies to RD but probably not to Kevin Cash), would surely know that if you have a manager who is coming to the end of a certain project, and has done it well, this manager wants to know, and deserves to know what comes next. If the answer is "nothing", then its good practice to tell the manager, personally, in a timely fashion, and leave the manager feeling good about the time he spent in the company. In Riga's case I'd have thought a fat financial bonus would not have been undeserved.
I think that the way Riga (a measured and gracious public speaker) has come out in the media to discuss his situation, shows that this did not happen. Really I find this a bad mistake by RD, and one that on a human level I would find hard to forgive. But why would a successful businessman make such a mistake?
Well actually a while back Mundell described his impression of RD as someone who is "ever so slightly barking". Look at the nature of his political programme. Look at the entertaining story about the dishwasher from one of our Belgian friends. None of us have met him, but when I described him to my wife and mentioned his background in maths and stats, she reminded me of what we had learnt from the film "A Beautiful Mind". Follow that clue and we might come to the conclusion that he is indeed smarter, as well as richer, than all of us; however his weak spot may be understanding how people respond at an every day human level. And in football, that may be relatively more important than in microelectronics.
The club could and should be a lot more proactive with its comms - perhaps this will improve later? Right now we can only guess but it looks like Riga has been informed in advance of an announcement this week. Football clubs have issues all the time with leaks, particularly listed ones - it's part of the territory. As long as a coach signs on the dotted line then it's a bump in the road.
Selecting network players just doesn't stack up with RD's supposed masterplan. I am im no way a fan of his but he has invested in the academy and training ground and has repeatedly spoke of our good reputation in developing young players. We had seven academy players in the squad at Blackpool. All British. Where do foreign rejects from his other clubs fit into that? Surely they'll hinder the progress of Charlton's own players? I can only think Duchatelet wants a mix of young Charlton and Liege players in the match day squad in order to sell them on for a profit.
Obviously RD should have spoken to Riga and explained his decision etc. If he did not do so or even intend to then that's unforgivable in my view.
However, the nature of the information "released" yesterday was very confusing. My interpretation, which could easily be wrong, was that Duchatelet had a preferred candidate, but with Riga still an option. In that situation it would be rational for Duchatelet to keep Riga on hold - that happens all the time in business - until he knew where he was with Peeters, or whoever.
Then the Peeters news is leaked and there's a shit storm. Peeters' current Club is up in arms, understandably, Riga feels betrayed and so on. All could have been avoided if private discussions had been kept private until all was concluded.
I'm not defending Duchatelet or the Club's communication strategy, but I stand by the point I made, the only point I was trying to make, that leaking information of this kind is disruptive and irresponsible.
I take your main point. However having read Riga's words I have a different interpretation of how RD has treated him. It would be perfectly normal for RD to say "Great JR, you did the job I asked you to do, but the job going forward (aaaaargh!) is a different one, and there will be a selection process, which I'd like to include you in". That does not seem to be what happened, and that is poor.
Not easy to understand how this stuff gets into the media before its done and dusted, everyone impacted has been informed (which might include Riga) and an announcement has been prepared. Guess its the world we're in today, but I'd be absolutely furious if I were Duchatelet.
I don't find it surprising at all. There is an intense media focus on football and an army of people involved in any deal. This isn't the electronics business and none of the people reporting it will be remotely interested in whether RD is furious or not.
I'm not referring to who is reporting it. Whoever leaks this kind of information must be very well aware that they are being mischievous at best and vindictive at worst. There won't be an army of people involved in a discussion between Duchatelet and two or three Managers he's interviewing.
By contrast, in the commercial environment it appears possible to keep things under wraps until its appropriate to make the information public. That's not because the information isn't of interest, it's because the immediate reaction of the many people involved isn't to think "I've got an interesting titbit, this will make somebody look bad or embarrass them, I'll, ring a friendly Journo". I guess it says something about the integrity of the people involved.
To me it does matter whether Duchatelet is furious of Peeters or Riga embarrassed for example, but then again I've never leaked information.
If RD is furious (and we don't know that he is or even cares) then it makes his failure to manage communications even more bizarre.
He has been in football long enough now to have realised that, as Airman says, it isn't electronics, there are numous parties involved (agents, family, other clubs' staff) not just the coach himself so it is not surprising that the media run the stories.
People are interested in what is happening at Charlton as the traffic on this site proves. Of course the SLP and the rest of the media will run stories that will get them hits or sell papers, it's their primary function.
If RD doesn't like it then rather than trying to plug the leaks he should take a pro-active stance and run the stories himself. Didn't he just appoint a new media director?
We had the news on Paul Hart. Where is the story on Dyer leaving or Matthew, Bloom and Roberts staying.
Where is the news on the players coming and going already annouced by those players on twitter?
Where is the "Thanks Jose" story?
It's up to RD. He might not care but the speed in which he recorded a second video interview after the first was misinterpreted as suggesting that we were Standard's feeder club, tells me that he does.
Surly it's up to the people below rd to release those stories ?
Once they are told to by their line managers
I'm not saying the comms team I'm just saying surly it ain't Roland who has to tell them to put it on the website , katrien or whoever.
Obviously RD should have spoken to Riga and explained his decision etc. If he did not do so or even intend to then that's unforgivable in my view.
However, the nature of the information "released" yesterday was very confusing. My interpretation, which could easily be wrong, was that Duchatelet had a preferred candidate, but with Riga still an option. In that situation it would be rational for Duchatelet to keep Riga on hold - that happens all the time in business - until he knew where he was with Peeters, or whoever.
Then the Peeters news is leaked and there's a shit storm. Peeters' current Club is up in arms, understandably, Riga feels betrayed and so on. All could have been avoided if private discussions had been kept private until all was concluded.
I'm not defending Duchatelet or the Club's communication strategy, but I stand by the point I made, the only point I was trying to make, that leaking information of this kind is disruptive and irresponsible.
This latest communications / management fiasco is not providing any evidence of competency within the Duchatelet management team.
Johan Walem (born 1 February 1972, in Soignies, Belgium) is a former football midfielder who works as head coach of the Belgium national under-21 football team. He was considered one of the best Belgian midfielders of his generation, but gained only a few caps (36) for the national team, scoring two goals.
His former clubs are Molenbeek (as a youngster), Anderlecht, Udinese, Parma (on loan), Standard Liège, Torino and Catania. At Udinese, he was nicknamed Il Geometra (The Geometer) as he was very precise in his passes. His partnership with German striker Oliver Bierhoff was also praised at that time. After he retired he has worked as TV consultant for Belgacom TV and as youth-coach at Udinese Calcio. Walem took over the job as head coach of the Belgium national under-21 football team after the 2011-12 season.
I think we have to remember that although Charlton is for all of us a passion, an important part of our lives, for Roland (if we believe what has been extensively reported about him) it is just part of his business. For that reason, given his dispassionate nature, he will make the appointment based on who he thinks is best placed to take the club forward in terms of performance, results and the commercial and financial perspective set against, of course, who is reasonably available and interested in the job.
It may be that when he appointed Jose Riga he was both available and perceived as someone who could grind out enough results to keep us in the Championship, which he duly did - and great credit to him for that. But it might also be argued that Jose was in a no-lose situation. We were bottom of the league, we had just lost to a league one side in the FA Cup quarter finals, we were playing some dire football. If we ended up going down, well then it was Chris Powell's fault, If we stayed up, Jose was a hero. In some ways, the pressure was off - he tackled the job as a short term project and achieved the objectives. But, in business, the person who might be best placed to lead a short-term turnaround is not necessarily the best placed to then build on that and create a healthier steady-state organisation. In my many years in business I have often seen senior executives confuse the skills sets needed for different tasks - lots of interims they wanted made permanent, for example - and that is often a mistake. It may well be that Roland approached this appointment with all that in mind, and could well be right - he does seem to have a good track record in his business decisions.
That is not to excuse though, for one second, the appalling way this seems to have been handled. Jose deserved at the very least to be treated with the utmost respect and, if he was to leave, with appreciation and warmth. Nothing went at all wrong during his tenure so there is no possible excuse for the cold and callous way it seems to have been managed. However, in my experience, not all senior executives see the value in handling the people side of things well and this is probably seen as more important in the UK than in the USA or some european countries.
In short, not necessarily the wrong decision - only time will tell, but Roland does himself and our club no good at all by being so cavalier with people's lives and feelings.
My initial reaction was huge disappointment, and some anger towards Duchatalet. On the face of it, Riga appears to have been treated in a shabby and disrespectful way. My gut feeling is that Riga would have taken us to the play-offs next season, given some backing (which may or may not have been forthcoming). Was Riga let go because of his reluctance to play the dross from the network? Possibly.
But the other half of me thinks that Duchatalet is no fool, and for him to have let Riga go, he must be absolutely confident that his chosen candidate will do even better. He must have a definite path in mind for Charlton, one which is not completely obvious to us yet. One thing is clear - he wants to develop young talent and add value to the club that way. But he must also surely know that young talent playing at a higher level has much greater value, as we've seen recently in the case of Luke Shaw. Likewise, promising youngsters are much more likely to want to join the academy of a successful or improving club rather than one which is on the wane. So it makes sense for him, in terms of what we believe to be his long-term ambitions for Charlton, for the club to attain a decent level in the Championship, or better still achieve promotion to the Premiership, sooner rather than later. It doesn't make sense for us to have a great academy nurturing young talent, only for that talent to leave before signing a professional contract because the parent club is such a shambles.
We don't know the full story about Riga's departure yet, and perhaps we never will. I hate the way that this is playing out, but ultimately I think we have to be confident that our hopes and ambitions for Charlton are also Duchatalet's. We might always be a selling club, but hopefully one that plays good football at a respectable level, and produces future England (and other) internationals.
The problem with the often repeated claim that Duchatelet “is not a fool” so he must know what he’s doing is that while he is clearly not stupid in the conventional sense he comes across as a bit of an obsessive and controlling ‘man with a plan’ when it comes to football.
There’s a big difference between creating a successful electronics company and putting into practice a scheme to ‘make football pay’ (or at least break even) – however desirable such a development might be in theory. And at the moment we may be the lab rats…..
Comments
Was RD in Belgium's answer to The Venue sipping a pint of Stella when he over hears the manager of Waasland laughing about how his new manager says yes to everything?
I'm sure a man as wealthy as Roland could find a thousand yes men if he wanted, I'm sure he knew that Riga wasn't a yes man from their previous time working together.
I'm surprised if people still think that CP was sacked for refusing to play Thuram etc.
Personally I'm quite excited about a young Belgium manager who's known for developing youth, Belgium seems to be doing something right when it comes to young players at the moment and would feel more "underwhelmed" if we were looking at one of these highly rated English managers that everyone's so keen on.
Think Riga deserved a crack at he job but RD thinks otherwise, after slaughtering RD for his last managerial change - I'm giving him every chance to get it right again.
If that's the case RD doesn't really have much to argue about.
In some cases yes but the Bloom, Roberts, Matthew and Dyer deals are done. Why not annouce them?
Riga seems pretty clear that he has been told he isn't staying. Sky are ringing him up and he's going on the TV to say so and tout himself for another job. Which he has every right to do and is to be expected. He wants a job so he's not going to say no to some free advertising.
Peeters isn't done and there maybe another candidate or two so yes quite right to not say much yet but they could easily have said "We've decided not to retain JR, he was great for us, we thank him loads but going forward we need something different blah blah". We're currently considering our options and will make an annoucement when we have appointed a new head coach" Job done.
It doesn't help the Club's credibility, I agree, and is what I have been saying all along. So what are they doing about it? Be pro-active and manage the news as far as you can.
There will always be leaks and rumours and there will always be stories they can't comment on until they are done but the rest they can manage and influence. As long as they leave a vacuum the void will be filled with rumour and gossip, most of it at best partially true.
I tend to agree with you rather than @Mundell Fleming on this. Any businessman whose business employs people in senior and important roles (which applies to RD but probably not to Kevin Cash), would surely know that if you have a manager who is coming to the end of a certain project, and has done it well, this manager wants to know, and deserves to know what comes next. If the answer is "nothing", then its good practice to tell the manager, personally, in a timely fashion, and leave the manager feeling good about the time he spent in the company. In Riga's case I'd have thought a fat financial bonus would not have been undeserved.
I think that the way Riga (a measured and gracious public speaker) has come out in the media to discuss his situation, shows that this did not happen. Really I find this a bad mistake by RD, and one that on a human level I would find hard to forgive. But why would a successful businessman make such a mistake?
Well actually a while back Mundell described his impression of RD as someone who is "ever so slightly barking". Look at the nature of his political programme. Look at the entertaining story about the dishwasher from one of our Belgian friends. None of us have met him, but when I described him to my wife and mentioned his background in maths and stats, she reminded me of what we had learnt from the film "A Beautiful Mind". Follow that clue and we might come to the conclusion that he is indeed smarter, as well as richer, than all of us; however his weak spot may be understanding how people respond at an every day human level. And in football, that may be relatively more important than in microelectronics.
As long as a coach signs on the dotted line then it's a bump in the road.
You heard any more names , I still wouldn't be surprised if it was Riga .
LOL if true , 20 pages ...............only Charlton
Obviously RD should have spoken to Riga and explained his decision etc. If he did not do so or even intend to then that's unforgivable in my view.
However, the nature of the information "released" yesterday was very confusing. My interpretation, which could easily be wrong, was that Duchatelet had a preferred candidate, but with Riga still an option. In that situation it would be rational for Duchatelet to keep Riga on hold - that happens all the time in business - until he knew where he was with Peeters, or whoever.
Then the Peeters news is leaked and there's a shit storm. Peeters' current Club is up in arms, understandably, Riga feels betrayed and so on. All could have been avoided if private discussions had been kept private until all was concluded.
I'm not defending Duchatelet or the Club's communication strategy, but I stand by the point I made, the only point I was trying to make, that leaking information of this kind is disruptive and irresponsible.
I take your main point. However having read Riga's words I have a different interpretation of how RD has treated him. It would be perfectly normal for RD to say "Great JR, you did the job I asked you to do, but the job going forward (aaaaargh!) is a different one, and there will be a selection process, which I'd like to include you in". That does not seem to be what happened, and that is poor.
I think we're agreeing.
It may be that when he appointed Jose Riga he was both available and perceived as someone who could grind out enough results to keep us in the Championship, which he duly did - and great credit to him for that. But it might also be argued that Jose was in a no-lose situation. We were bottom of the league, we had just lost to a league one side in the FA Cup quarter finals, we were playing some dire football. If we ended up going down, well then it was Chris Powell's fault, If we stayed up, Jose was a hero. In some ways, the pressure was off - he tackled the job as a short term project and achieved the objectives. But, in business, the person who might be best placed to lead a short-term turnaround is not necessarily the best placed to then build on that and create a healthier steady-state organisation. In my many years in business I have often seen senior executives confuse the skills sets needed for different tasks - lots of interims they wanted made permanent, for example - and that is often a mistake. It may well be that Roland approached this appointment with all that in mind, and could well be right - he does seem to have a good track record in his business decisions.
That is not to excuse though, for one second, the appalling way this seems to have been handled. Jose deserved at the very least to be treated with the utmost respect and, if he was to leave, with appreciation and warmth. Nothing went at all wrong during his tenure so there is no possible excuse for the cold and callous way it seems to have been managed. However, in my experience, not all senior executives see the value in handling the people side of things well and this is probably seen as more important in the UK than in the USA or some european countries.
In short, not necessarily the wrong decision - only time will tell, but Roland does himself and our club no good at all by being so cavalier with people's lives and feelings.
Bob's just the job for Charlton
Bob the builder
(when he signs a few players and builds a team)
Bobbins
(after a bad defeat)
Peeters and Lee out of tune
(after a drab 0-0 draw with Brum)
Charlton's season Peeters out
Peeter panned
According to Het Nieuwsblad, Bob Peeters should be on the Eurostar from Brussels to London today. Destination The Valley. #cafc
There’s a big difference between creating a successful electronics company and putting into practice a scheme to ‘make football pay’ (or at least break even) – however desirable such a development might be in theory. And at the moment we may be the lab rats…..