Roland Duchatelet is a complicated character. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. One time student activist, hugely successful businessman who Wiki describes as billionaire. Senator in Belgium for three years and one time leader of his own political "social liberalist" party Vivant.
I seem to remember that around the time of his takeover of Charlton he was quoted as saying "communities need football clubs and that football is an important part of social fabric" or at least words to that effect.
I don't think Mr. Duchatelet is bothered whether or not Charlton are playing in the Premier League.
Why then did he buy the football club ? So here's my theory.
I think we are part of a philanthropic social experiment. I think he bought us because under the last ownership we were in serious financial trouble and he saw us as a needy, albeit timely for his purposes cause rather than as either a toy or an investment opportunity. He doesn't seem at least to me like he has an ego that he wants to flaunt to the footballing world.
I don't think he wants to spend fortunes but feels able to spend enough on infrastructure like pitch , training ground facilities and ground maintenance in order to put us on a stable footing going forward with the potential to be more self financing than ever before. He's doing the groundwork. A successful academy attracting good young players who see Charlton as a way of breaking through where year on year as the success of the academy grows we produce more players able to progress into the first team and yes, sold to help the club pay its way. Supplemented by astute foreign signings that are showcased in the Championship and short term improve the team but can also be sold for a profit. The greater that success then the greater the clubs.
I believe he sees his network idea as an aid to making his clubs able to break even. A network of friendly clubs able where possible to help each other out. Not a pyramid of clubs in the competitive sense but by nature of the network some clubs are higher up the football food chain than others. Polish Pete an example of a player brought in in the hope of success at Charlton but his failure was St. Truidens success. Better than him sitting in our reserves or being sold at a great loss.
He sees his role is streamlining the football clubs providing a legacy of sustainability and perhaps if there is an ego involved at all then it is to prove to himself that football can be run and sustained by community clubs like Charlton whilst remaining competitive in or around their natural level. Should success breed success then all well and good.
I don't think he will or has any intention of selling Charlton until he sees it all come to fruition or that is patently obvious that it cannot work. How long that takes is anyone's guess but looking at his model succeeding would surely take ten to fifteen years.
During that time I think we are as a football club likely to be frustrating and exciting in equal measure. Financially secure and building towards a sustainable future rather than either short or long term success on the pitch. We know from the early Murray years that a well run second tier club can punch above its weight. Get the financial support structure right and progress can be made.
It's a theory that I'm fairly sure will attract a lot of ridicule and perhaps that's justified. In support of it I can see no other really plausible reason for a slightly eccentric billionaire that doesn't actually like football much buying a football club in another country that he rarely visits without either wanting to hit the Premier League jackpot of which I see no real evidence. How easy would it be for a man of his wealth to "go for it" ?
I'll get my tin hat and wait for the inevitable.
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Just as possible, RD may decide that with the FFP not working as he thought, that the football model is unsustainable. He did not get very wealthy by throwing his money away on loss making outfits. He is getting on, and thinking about what time he has left and does he want to do that banging his head against the footballing brick wall. He may be fixing up the ground, getting the Academy underway and preparing the sale to someone prepared to take on the job and put in the investment needed for a challenge to the premiership.
The hope is that (in the selling of the club situation) similar to Standard that he will find a decent owner prepared to / having the funds to take on the job.
None of us knows what is going to happen. Charlton at present are 6 players short of a competitive squad, that will allow for injuries, suspensions and loss of form. Like the ownership of the club, reasons for owning the club and the strategy used, we will wait and see as to what will happen. We will find out by the close of the transfer window whether there is a competitive squad, and in a bit more time whether RD wants to continue to be owner and what exactly he has in store for the club.
Our signings thus far are admittedly gambles, but that has been the way for a long time now. Even in the latter Premiership days there were as many signings that failed as succeeded, it has always been the way - but we forget those who never made it.
My own personal theory is that Roland will gladly sell to anyone who matches the valuation he puts on Charlton, but that he's looking to make the majority if not the totality of his investment back and even a profit if possible - not many are going to pay that for a Championship club now. Until then he's got the time and money that he's willing to continue with his own experiment but without any real burning passion to succeed. It's become something of an ego project/intellectual exercise I feel.
so what "type" of owner do you want FFS ???? QPR get slagged off for spending cart loads of dosh, when Zebble where gona buy us "we had sold our soul" , yet when we try some sort of "sustainable model" its all doom and gloom.
Lets be 100% honest most only support CAFC to moan and bleat
That is largely because he offers little or no such evidence himself and only tiny snippets via others such as KM.
My own view, based on very little evidence also, remains that he thought that he could create a new way of making football clubs "work" ie that they could be profitable or at least break even without having to invest hugely in advance. KM had said as much.
In the case of Charlton that was presupposed on two factors.
The network would provide greater efficiencies and savings based on scale.
Financial fair play in England would drive down spending by other clubs to a level closer to that of CAFC.
Both now appear to have been false suppositions imho.
FFP is a good as gone and the network, without Liege, is considerably weaker not that it consistently enough benefited us in any case.
Where that leaves us I'm not sure but I'm concerned that RD doesn't have a coherent plan.
The strategy, if you can call it that, seems to be to buy as yet unfulfilled potential such as Ba, Simon and Bauer and hope that enough come good to get us up. Or if you are being harsh "buy them cheap and hope we get lucky". I'm hopeful that they are good buys but we have to wait and see.
And if and when things go awry because the squad is too thin or just not good enough we'll find some short term solutions such as Johnson, Eagles and Riga to hold it together until the next summer when there is another massive clear out of players and hopes of a fresh start with a new squad.
Maybe it will work, maybe the players we've signed will do the business and maybe those yet to sign this summer will make the difference.
But that is a lot of maybes with far fewer signs of stability and forward momentum, of a long term plan to build a squad.
When you say, SHG, "frustrating and exciting in equal measure" do you mean "bumpy ride"?
Because I still think that is what we are on with Roland. Only I'm no longer as confident that despite all the good things he had done and has planned such as the training ground development that it will all turn out well for him or Charlton.
If RD sold, I don't think he would sell to anyone, who weren't up for the job. RD sold Liege to someone who looks like they will be pretty good for the club. It should not be assumed that a sale is going to be someone like the Oyston family at Blackpool or some other dodgy characters. Why bother to put the club on a better footing, just to throw it away to someone, who would do the club ill ? IMO that does not make sense.
Excellent analysis. I think eccentric is a little harsh, but unorthodox certainly, and by nature he sees an interest in going against the flow. His business success is self-made, and whilst gratitude is not a common attribute of football fans Mr D might have thought his personal accomplishments, and the fact that he was the only one to put down his hard-earned to save us, might have earned him some respect, manifestly absent from his compatriots in Liege.
His many interests must slice up his time wafer-thin. He must therefore rely on a sturdy control structure, doubtless heavy on statistical method, in which the loyalty and obedience of his lieutenants is a core feature. Mavericks are only tolerated while they are successful - that is why SCP ran out of road in Sheffield. His short-term successor JR was already lined up, and next-in-line BP was already in the pipeline. When GL left Standard Liege he was still kept on the Network's payroll as a safety net should BP fail, and that's exactly what transpired. Sound preparation by Mr D.
One major casualty of the Network system is communication, or at least so far, so it would appear. If Mr D can solve this problem it will be to his enormous advantage. We have also to battle the stripey fungus spreading from SE25, or at least until Palace go broke again, but I think that Mr D has long recognised the many USPs that Charlton can claim.
Mutual trust and understanding is what's shortest in supply - the emotions released by the Woolwich meeting might well have dismayed Network insiders. However, it is to be hoped the invaluable part that CAST will play in the fight for OS justice will alleviate any lingering suspicions on KM's part, and there are many other ways bridges can be rebuilt.
KM refers to her boss as The Owner, and that is perfectly true. Nonetheless, Mr D owns only the shares (and, lucky him, the cheque book) of this special club. He does not possess its heart, its soul, its traditions nor its unique spirit. A rapprochement is surely only a matter of time but is already overdue.
Mr D is an energetic 68-year-old and his rather strange comment during the SL disposal simply implied that he has given himself until he's 75 to stay active and achieve whatever his goals are, signifying that the grief he got from Les Rouches at his time of life was just not worth the ag. Let's not fall into the same trap as those lunatics, eh?
The dilemma will come if/when RD loses patience and gets fed up with losing money, as eventually I am sure he will. For now, we'll get by. No more, no less. But unless he discovers a sudden burning desire for success at Charlton then long term I fear we may stagnate, and stand still. And in this division, that's tantamount to going backwards by default, unfortunately.
He built up the youth system and invested in the ground and hospitality etc... unfortunately he died with Cancer before he could see the fruits of his labor but his son took over and has really carried the baton. we sold about 7 million pounds worth our players that we either got cheap or brought up through the youth system, many fans still moan and complain, but true fans realize we will have a club that will be around for years to come.
Do you want short term sucess or do you want your grandchildren to have a team to grow up with and support like Charlton. the fact is that football is more and more turning into a rich mans sport, some paying a premium to see teams like Man united, Man city etc... and the smaller teams are slowly dieing off.
One day all these foreign investors that spend £300 million every summer on transfers will get bored of burning money and they will walk away.
I think although it is frustrating at times i would rather have Rolland as an owner than someone like that.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Rolland and Katrien in Belgium last year and I'm 100% certain that they both want whats best for Charlton.
That said they need to learn that sometimes the fans do indeed know best and they should actively engage at every opportunity with them. i feel they are learning this slowly, but it has to be a bit of give and take.
We will see what this season holds, but as always regardless win loose or draw i will be there cheering on the RIP ROARING REDS!!
COYR!
I can see why people are moaning about Roland we all want CAFC to be the best they can be. No one ever said it's going to be easy supporting them but that's why we do
now no one know what the fk is really going on, we are the play thing of billionaire with very shallow pockets, a social or football experiment, massive turn off in my book
You CAN'T guarantee getting into the Premiership by any other method than chucking cash at a club. Sometimes a club will get lucky and unearth a particular combination of players and managers that allow a (relatively) lower spending club to sneak in amongst the big spenders. But sustaining a promotion bid takes money, lots of money. That's just the nature of the beast.
You can have prudence and patience and hope you'll get lucky. You can spend your way to success and suffer the financial losses along the way. But to expect success as a direct result of low spending? Never going to happen, doesn't matter how smart or rich you are. And I suspect Roland's only just now realising what a massive and costly exercise actually getting the club into the Premiership and keeping it there (the better to sell it on) would be.
So there is consternation that our owner is secretive and dictatorial. I guess this is in contrast to the famously democratic Glikstens, the man of the people Mark Hulyer and his sole director the Nigerian guy, the ever-attentive John Fryer and, by no means least, Mr D's immediate predecessors the well known Trappists.
Well, democracy in football is pretty much governed exclusively by the pound note, as it ever was, and right now Mr D is about £29,999,000 ahead of me (allowing for my grand's worth of valueless shares). The keyboard may have energised the public voice but it certainly hasn't yet brought empowerment.
Mr D will find his way through the present maze, if only because he will not allow himself to be beaten by it. His methods he chooses not to reveal publicly to his competitors, which is certainly frustrating for the rest of us, but I'm certain that in due course he will begin to open up. In the meantime, there's that awkward issue of trust - it cuts both ways.
There have been instances, some unresolved over the summer, which signify if not necessarily malice then certainly the club's ongoing failure to fully comprehend what this club is about. I have watched several times Ms Meire's appearance on Belgian TV, and it is disquieting that she is seemingly conducting a one-woman vigil over the silent summer Valley. No matter how thoroughly and deeply she has been Charltonised, her role is as High Priestess who runs the temple, whilst we are the ones who carry the true faith in our hearts. Fortunately, though, this is a religion which has room for all.
How do you know this Colin? Are you in daily contact with him? Your thoughts are based on hearsay, Supposition and the fact you have decided that everything in the Charlton garden is rosy post Powell. Just because you want it to be so doesn't mean it is so.