I "never" start discussions. Much of this post was meant for the KM thread but I had no wish to detract from the "noise" around her role in recent events.
With the latest "revelations" from Peeters it is debatable as to which particular "executive" Duchatelet, Meire or Peeters is responsible for which particular event. We will all make our subjective judgements on the situation based on the unsubstantiated rumour and questionable comments now in the public domain. What I think we can all agree on is the events of past weeks will go down in the annals of club history for all of the wrong reasons.
Events, no matter the veracity of their reporting, that resemble the proverbial one eyed man stumbling through the valley of the blind rushing ever more desperately to.......... nowhere. It matters not which executive is specifically responsible - collectively they have presided over a shambles.
No matter the securing of a work permit for the new coach, (does it really matter who it is?) none of us know whether the events of the coming days will pave the road to redemption or steer many of us deeper into the throws of despair. I suspect most have a very good idea.
People have the right to be offended, upset and even enraged but it serves no one to abuse others, even the CEO just because she happens to become a convenient target by using public transport. People can and will make their own assumptions on her culpability. She carries the title of CEO. She is no doubt doing the job to the best of her ability. She is an easy target. Ultimately however is she the right target?
No matter her job description, nor who made what decision when, nor who released whatever statement the final responsibility must rest with the owner.
The Duchatelet stance of merely being an "investor" and letting the "individual" clubs in his network do "their" thing with his support, today barely stands scrutiny.
It is an "investor" style akin to investing in a Unit Trust only to continually directly or indirectly instruct Trust Managers on which stocks to buy/ sell. If I extend the analogy by positioning individual "network signings" as investing in individual stocks it would explain much that we have seen in the past 12 months. Whatever the intent or indeed the truth it bears the hallmarks of an "investment & return" program.
If I am happy to accept and respect we are embarked on "revolutionary vision" to provide a sustainable and successful future for the club I have a simple message. In light of recent events M. Duchatelet there is not a person on this planet who is doing more harm to your vision than ............you!.
If you are a leader with a vision you are often open to ridicule
If you are a leader determining your strategy to fulfil the vision you will encounter a host of naysayers
If you are a leader imposing your polices to fit the strategy you will meet negativity in every part of your business
If you are a leader asking "managers";
- to deliver the action plan to meet such policies you cannot fail to support them
- to bring in people to implement such action plans you cannot fail to support them
In the face of any challenge to your vision, as a leader, you can never, never blink first. M. Duchatelet you blinked first.
You blinked first in support of the head coach you selected to implement your vision. No matter his alleged transgressions Peeters was the person you chose, after due diligence, as THE football figurehead of YOUR vision for the club. With injury challenges & a tiny senior squad you failed to support him when a key loan or two was needed. There is a significant difference between balancing a budget and leading a football club.
As results started to turn there was no leadership.
You blinked by failing to support the coach in the face of dressing room unrest at his implementation of your vision. I could argue the entire style of play, team selections, squad arrivals, departures and squad construct was precisely geared to meeting your vision for the progression of young players. At the first sign of trouble "somebody" cut & run. You employed Peeters to do a job specifically tailored to your vision. If he had man management issues, resolve them.
As clubhouse struggles emerge there was no leadership.
In removing Peeters you are now seen to have empowered factions in the dressing room. It was, is and always will be a recipe for anarchy. Workers do not get to choose their boss. Players do not get to choose the coach. A dressing room is not a democracy. At Watford you had your first response. Went well didn't it? What happens if they do not want Luzon? What happens if the second or third response are no better?
You have created an environment for the tail to wag the dog
Was it any real surprise at Watford the lack of leadership off field was finally in evidence on the field?
As the clubhouse under your vision starts to collapse there was no leadership.
You blinked first to either undermine or collude with the CEO you chose to execute the vision by exposing her to a range of knee jerk decisions requiring her to perform written & verbal gymnastics that would grace an Olympics. Whatever her personal qualities her credibility has at best been badly bruised.
As the clamour for clarity and leadership reached unrivalled levels there was no leadership.
To her professional credit the CEO towed the party line with a further entreaty to respect the Duchatelet vision.
It is a request you would do well to respect yourself.
You see I did respect and agree with every syllable of the vision you say you seek to deliver. I respect the strategies and policies you say you seek to use in delivering the vision. I respect(ed) the people you chose to deliver the vision .......... actually, it appears to a greater degree than you do.
Whoevers' thinking in Staprix was behind the delivery strategy & implementation plan to fulfil the vision it gives every impression of being seriously flawed in construct, in market intelligence and market dynamics. As a consequence I can almost guarantee it will be inadequate in budgetary flexibility and contingency. For some reason I cannot lose the image of a team of very qualified strategists, financial analysts, market analysts, performance analysts, lawyers, tax consultants, etc., few of whom had ever previously stepped inside a football club and certainly not one on these shores.
I can but close by mirroring the words of your own CEO to respect the vision of M. Duchatelet and the investment already made in the club.
In my mirror however I see a person who grew up in Bexleyheath, went to school in Dartford, who first went to watch his local senior club play in 1957, whose family had supported the club since the 1930s and who has emotionally invested a notable part of his life, and a modest part of his disposable income, no matter where career and life challenges have taken him, in supporting/ following the club ever since.
May I politely enquire where is the respect for the person in the mirror and the thousands more (figuratively speaking) just like him.
Do C.A.S.T. need us to all wear labels to remind you to respect the people and the community you serve and of THE PRIVILEGE you have in owning the club?
M. Duchatelet there is a huge void in the middle of your plan and in the leadership of the club.
Tomorrow is a new day. M. Duchatelet it is time for you to emerge from the shadows, step up to the plate and lead.
If that is not a role you seek then find someone of stature to do it for you - it is what any credible owner/investor will do. To do any less will be a disservice to us all.
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If you owned CAFC and had the same wealth and portfolio as Roland, how would you do it differently (without putting any of your clubs at risk of breaching FFP etc.)?
I really wish that Duchatelet had stuck to the Semi Conductor business. Football is not Semi Conductors and if he blindly followed a failing strategy then he would have never made his money. I only hope that there is something left of Charlton football club when the he finally acknowledges that the network experiment has failed and Duchatelet decides to cut his loses and sells the club.
Didn't realize how long but you write from the heart and when it flows it's best to keep going.
My family started to support CAFC in the 1930s so can empathize with a lot of your points.
I just can't see Duchatelet stepping up to the plate and lead.
that's just not his style.
I hope we still have some good days ahead being cafc fans?
Well i heard it on the grapevine.
We don't have to accept what we're being served up at the moment. I would be hugely surprised if we are anywhere near breaching FFP regulations and on top of that, money that is spent is often being recklessly spunked left, right and centre on shifting the likes of Nego, Parzyszek and Dmitrovic around Europe on stupidly long contracts.
As a prime example of a club getting it very right, Ipswich have spent under half a million pounds in transfer fees since Mick McCarthy took over in November 2012. Yet they are firing at the top of the league with a great team spirit and playing to a 90% full home stadium week after week.
But will it really resolve the Bovril situation in the East Stand?
Let's hope for the best.
A few weeks on and things look very different. We've got a new striker, but the team to play behind him looks a lot more ragged. And more worryingly, so does the whole club. If Charlton are to have any sort of success over and above the odd sporadic win (and what we'd give for one of those at the moment!) we need some major changes.
Reappraisal of the Network System: I have no idea whether a network system could prove to be a model of success. What I have grave doubts about is that this particular set-up seems to be all set up to be a massive failure. If different clubs are to have any chance of being successful with a set of interchangeable players then the needs of those clubs will necessarily need to be reasonably similar. Similar sized clubs, with similar ethos and similar culture, playing similar styles of football to similar degrees of ability. That way, a shortfall in any one club could be met with a player that's surplus in one of the others. What we have here though is a network where Liege are the biggest most prestigious club, but we seem to be playing in a tougher league – at least physically tougher, if the quality of imports so far is anything to go by. There is no homogeneity between the clubs in our network. No reason to believe that the players form one part of it would be compatible with other parts.
A Chief Executive with Real Executive Powers: No offence to Katriene, but the twists and turns of the last fortnight have left her floundering at times. If we are to be successful, our CEO needs be trusted to make decisions. They should not just be a mouthpiece for a distant puppeteer but someone who is empowered to lead and manage the business. Someone with the clout to make their own decisions, not just somebody who spends their days desperately trying to justify someone else's. Without this it will be increasingly difficult for players, staff or fans to have any faith in the organisation. It is also likely to impact on the quality of people that the club can attract as employees, both on and off of the pitch. As things stand, who in their right mind would want to come to work for Charlton?
A Proper Team Manager: We are now on our fourth “Head Coach” in a year. If nothing else indicates a problem at Charlton, this absolutely screams it from the roof tops. To lose one manager may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness; to lose three shows that there is something fundamentally wrong. Like with the Chief Executive, we need a manager that has the power to do a proper job, including being the most important single person responsible for recruiting new talent. Some of the new faces that have been foist upon us in the last year must have been dying from the inside at the sheer embarrassment of knowing that they were nowhere near good enough to be at our club. If recruitment had been the responsibility of a proper manager these poor souls would have been spared – and so would the rest of us. And of course, it doesn't stop there. Not only do we need a manager who has the power to hire and fire playing staff. We need one with the power to pick the team without fear of reprisals from a meddling owner.
Investment In The Team: The squad that we have is one of the smallest in the league. The players all look jaded and there is not enough cover. A handful of players have got us this far, but some of these badly need support. Investment now would not only enhance our chances of survival, but it would also make the necessary summer rebuild easier.
Respect For Fans & For The Culture of The Club: "He does it his way and they need to accept that", that what we were told last week by our CEO. Only rarely does the board member of a company make such a crass statement, seemingly designed to get up the noses of the people who support that business through their custom. It might be worth remembering that the fans were here before the current owner and they will be around long after he has gone. It might also be worth remembering that whilst the current owner has spent more money on the club than the rest of us, in terms of percentage of disposable income, he doesn't even come close to hundreds, maybe thousands of Charlton fans. And this is not (only) from the perspective of some cheap moralising. When people talk about the desire to make money from a football club, it needs to be remembered that what they really mean is that they want to make money from football fans. It may well prove a worthwhile experience to actually listen to them. If you can find a way to do things the way that your customers like it, you're far more likely to be successful.
This was a journey that started when we were sold to Jiminez and co and its end is not yet foreseeable. The leadership offered was a new vision based on FFP actually working - a foolish premise for a smart guy to fall for and risky even if he had been right about FFP ever having and teeth.
Our culture is something that we as fans understand but being profitable is not part of it and therein lies the problem over our future.
The history of our club, as with most others in the league, is a history of losing money not making it. The list of clubs that have entered administration makes very sobering reading: Charlton Athletic 1984, Middlesbrough 1986, Tranmere Rovers 1987, Newport County 1989, Walsall 1990, Northampton Town 1992, Kettering Town 1992, Aldershot 1992, Maidstone 1992, Hartlepool United 1994, Barnet 1994, Exeter United 1994, Gillingham 1995, Doncaster Rovers 1997, Millwall 1997, Bournemouth 1997, Crystal Palace 1998, Chester City 1998, Portsmouth 1998, Hull City 2001, Queens Park Rangers 2001, Halifax Town 2002, Bradford City 2002, Notts County 2002, Barnsley 2002, Leicester City 2002, Port Vale 2002, York City 2002, Derby County 2003, Ipswich Town 2003, Wimbledon 2003, Darlington 2003, Bradford City 2004, Wrexham 2004, Cambridge United 2005, Rotherham United 2006, Crawley Town 2007, Boston United 2007, Leeds United 2007, Luton Town 2007, Bournemouth 2008, Rotherham United 2008, Halifax Town 2008, Darlington 2009, Southampton 2009, Stockport County 2009, Chester City 2009, Northwich Victoria 2009, Farsley Celtic 2009, Salisbury City 2009, Weymouth 2009, Crystal Palace 2010, Portsmouth 2010, Plymouth Argyle 2011, Rushden and Diamonds 2011, Darlington 2012, Portsmouth 2012, Port Vale 2012, Coventry City 2013, Aldershot Town 2013.
On another thread someone asked the question about fit and proper ownership of a football club. In my opinion, part of the fit and proper test should be that any prospective buyer would have to stand in the centre circle of the club they want to buy. It would be half-time in a league match and they would have to recite the above list to the crowd through a microphone. A representative of the of the Football League, let's call them the Football League Witchfinder, would ask them if having read the list they felt they had a good chance of making money from the club. If they replied that they didn't think it would be likely but that they were prepared to take any financial hit, then they would be declared suitable. If, on the other hand, they read that list and said that they still thought they had a good chance of making money they should be immediately whisked away in a special ambulance to spend the rest of their lives eating soup in a heavily padded room.
I have said for a while now that the priority is what the squad looks like in August 2015. Just as I didn't think Powell would be with us now, I didn't expect Peeters to be here next August. But (most of) the fans and most of the squad need to be united ready to face the challenge of next season, ideally with more quality added.
Statements like "you have to accept how The owner runs it" are not going to unite the club.
Or do you mean two years worth of transfer windows?
Regardless, as you say all Charlton managers/ head coaches should also be given that period of time to stamp their identity on the team - I struggle to understand how RD hasn't failed yet from your point of view seeing we're already on manager/head coach number four in his tenure?
Do you read the things you write???