Your opening piece was well presented, and may have some truth in it. I have difficulty however in believing that a man who obviously has enjoyed creating a fortune and clearly is very intelligent, has purchased a second division Club where the prize for one promotion is £120million a season without being motivated to chase the prize. I think it more likely that he is seeking to prove that there are ways to create a successful Club rather than just throwing money at it a la Chelsea, Man City. Investment in the Academy, the Stadium, and bringing in the right people could make him outstanding as the man who proved that you can run a Club using good business principles.
I also have a theory, its about dinosaurs. Brontosaurus are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and thin at the other end. That is my theory, that I own, and that is mine.
I think any theory is plausible and that is part of the problem. We don’t really know why he bought us and what his ambitions are for us. We have seen some truly terrible decisions since he took over but some good ones too. And people will say we were struggling when he took over and survived and despite a more eventful previous season than 12th place suggests, we survived again. Because there seem to be so many contradictions I have been very cautious this summer. I will wait to see how it pans out before I make a firm judgement. But at the moment I don’t think it looks great - but 3 or 4 decent signings good make it look great.
Probably one thing is for certain, under this regime, we should neither expect them or not expect them. At this point we could mount a challenge or be battling against relegation. It’s the hope that kills you so I have tried not to hope for too much.
My view on Duchatelet is that he doesn’t really know what he is doing, but does have a bit of money to fix problems his broken plan causes. Maybe we should expect the same again this season. We just don’t know and I think he likes it that way, or he might keep us more in the loop.
I recall an intriguing comment was made by Katrien last transfer window ....... something along the lines of:
Roland: "If we spend good money now signing new players, will we be promoted?"
Katrien: "I can't promise you that this season. In fact, I doubt it very much."
As a result, we saw a cooking the books exercise bringing in Tony Watt from SL. And the relatively low cost signing of players who were free agents.
After replacing the manager, naturally the only intent seemed to be stopping the freefall down the division and avoiding relegation.
Katrien admitted fearing for her job if she had given a different answer to Roland. But can we deduce that Roland will spend on quality players, should promotion be a realistic prospect?
agree, an approach similar to throwing all the ingredients up the air and seeing what kind of cake you've made by January. Similar to the just in time model of squad building. The view seems to be that its a waste of resources to throw money at a team that won't get promoted.
The problem with the former is it ignores the value of building team spirit and cohesion before the season starts. Nevertheless, we didn't do too badly to start last season, it did tail off however, but was that because we failed to add, and patch holes adequately - another risk of the thin squad approach.
The problem is that given the challenge of our opening fixtures, we could find ourselves at the bottom of the table after 5 or 6 games and that could be hard to recover from. There are some quality players in the squad – high championship quality but quite a few unknowns too. I would have thought given the situation, it would have been a good idea to get the squad together a.s.a.p. I appreciate it isn’t as easy as that, but it would have shown some intent. I think if you don’t’ have the intent, you are far more likely to leave the division the wrong way.
The problem is that given the challenge of our opening fixtures, we could find ourselves at the bottom of the table after 5 or 6 games and that could be hard to recover from. There are some quality players in the squad – high championship quality but quite a few unknowns too. I would have thought given the situation, it would have been a good idea to get the squad together a.s.a.p. I appreciate it isn’t as easy as that, but it would have shown some intent. I think if you don’t’ have the intent, you are far more likely to leave the division the wrong way.
As for what KM said. I think she led people to believe we would be having a right go so her messages are not consistent. A bit like everything around the club at the moment.
Nevertheless, we didn't do too badly to start last season, it did tail off however, but was that because we failed to add, and patch holes adequately - another risk of the thin squad approach.
I think the impact of a manager/coach really begins to take effect only after he has been in charge for at least 3 or 4 months. Just as a good manager will have a positive impact on performances a poor manager will have a negative effect. I think our decline in performances from the early part of the season was entirely down to the increasing impact of a poor manager/coach rather than any deficiencies in the playing squad.
its an interesting viewpoint but most observers were looking at it and saying we are a couple of players away still, then injuries to veto etc, coquelin comes in, then leaves etc, they fail to land another striker, the goalkeepers aren't good enough to fill Hendersons boots. I can't remember all the details off the top of my head but the squad were doing a lot of work, there was little rotation (possible), and when it was i was substandard - it lead to massive tail off in form. If it weren't for those issues you could blame the coach more easily.
Anyway the point I was making was in reference to the impact if any of the late assembling of the squad
Personally think it is better to have them in as early as possible.
Is there anything they could do that they aren't doing? Line up your targets earlier? Is that doable?
Perhaps our strict policies on what we are prepared to pay means we are missing out on some A targets and reverting to Bs, perhaps some players will always be subject to some kind of bidding war, etc.
Surely all clubs have strict policies on what they are prepared to pay (unless you are Chelsea or Man City). Also there will be competition for most of our targets so we won't be able to land all of them. We are no longer the big team in Lge1 attracting all the best players in that league - we are middle to top half Championship and have clubs with parachute funds competing with us. We literally don't know what is going on behind the scenes re. transfers.
Maybe one of the problems is a blanket dismissal of our English football culture. Take for example the regimes attitude to a lot of non footballing staff which seems to be along the lines of 'we know best, you have nothing to offer, do one'.
Both Riga and Luzon have employed the phrase 'I know football', as if it is a phenomena that exists in a peculiar vacuum, and such knowledge can be applied anywhere with no local knowledge. The attitude is don't worry about the particularities of Charlton Athletic, and the rather crude nature of English football, their players are basically not really of sophisticated enough, we know best, do one.
I believe that British style players are a last resort for them, maybe because they think they are overpriced, but also maybe because they think British style players don't know football as they understand it.
The disconnect between the approach of the new regime and the context of Charlton Athletic seems to be problematic to say the least.
The way I saw it last season, we started well but couldn’t cover injuries and loss of form. Blooding young players is great but when you have too many being blooded at the same time you start to suffer. The strategy was to see where we were in January, but of course without the depth of squad we were never going to be in the desired position – then it was a case of bringing people in to secure our safety. I doubt too many will disagree with what I have said so the question is whether lessons have been learned or whether we see how we go with a small squad and react accordingly in January again. My fear is that Duchatelet may think bringing in a new manager is the magic fix that will always work, but I suspect I won’t and time may be called on that approach sooner rather than later if we rely on it.
The same English football culture that is being chipped away by the likes of Sky and the Premiership - I'm no fan of the new regime but I don't see many other clubs in England succeeding in a sustainable fashion any more - its a nasty industry where the Premiership monopolise all the TV money just to line their own pockets whilst the national team and lower leagues suffer and most home grown U21 talent has to ply its trade on loan in the lower leagues where the clubs are supposed to doff their caps to the likes of Chelsea and be thankful for the scraps offered to them.
RD is trying to keep his costs down and protect his investment like any other businessman would - his methods may not be popular but nor are the money-ball antics of Brentford or the idiocy of kit or name changes attempted at Cardiff and Hull.
Football is in a bad place - just give me 90 minutes of entertaining attacking football please.
I don't think there is much doubt that RD has got rid of Standard Liege following the demonstrations and riots last season. It remains to be seen if he buys a replacement club. There was some talk about taking over a French club . Reims ? Personally I was very pleased to see the back of the Spivs and If we continue on a sound financial basis whats not to like ?
I recall an intriguing comment was made by Katrien last transfer window ....... something along the lines of:
Roland: "If we spend good money now signing new players, will we be promoted?"
Katrien: "I can't promise you that this season. In fact, I doubt it very much."
As a result, we saw a cooking the books exercise bringing in Tony Watt from SL. And the relatively low cost signing of players who were free agents.
After replacing the manager, naturally the only intent seemed to be stopping the freefall down the division and avoiding relegation.
Katrien admitted fearing for her job if she had given a different answer to Roland. But can we deduce that Roland will spend on quality players, should promotion be a realistic prospect?
This seems to be very close to the Glickstein /Seed conversation prior to WW2.
I think there is some evidence that RD has a kind of philanthropic approach but also he is a businessman at heart.
I think that he believes that there is a way to utilise a network of clubs for economies of scale - scouting being one, and pooling playing resources. I think that he feels he can utilise coaches that he knows rather than to pitch into the unknown.
To me this all adds up to trying to make less go further. I do believe his exit strategy for us is about leaving us in a sustainably strong financial position allowing him to get his money out with a return. He is no mug and he will know the best chance will be if we are in the PL.
If you invest to make a return, you can only do that by adding value. Championship clubs like ours will always run at a loss (except if players are sold a significant returns). I don't believe he is expecting to make his money back by selling home grown talent or players bought cheap and developed on, although he will hope to do that as a matter or course. I think he hopes either to have turned a financial basket case around and given it some strength and stability with a decent stadium/training/youth set up leading to selling to somebody to take the club forward or by getting us up. What he us not going to do is a Tony Fernandes etc and throw millions at it.
So yes, he sees Charlton as a community club needing help but his acquisition is rooted in a business deal with risk and reward possibilities.
This is just my opinion.
Is he likely to end up successfully driving the club forward with a return on his investment - who knows? Is his involvement any more doomed to failure than all of the others who have lost their shirts owning our club? Who knows? My guess is that he will achieve some measure of success - just my opinion.
Of course not. The problem is that as a Championship club we are making a £5 to £8m loss per year which is not sustainable and I don't see any fans with deep enough pockets to cover that loss and gamble the extra millions on top to build a team to compete for promotion with no guarantee of success. This means we are at the mercy of (mainly) foreign investors with no affinity to the English game using clubs as an experiment or an egotistical exercise in self promotion. Having said that, it is the ludicrous situation we find ourselves in (with unrealistic player wages caused largely by the Premier league) where running costs are way in excess of income which in any other line of business would be unsustainable and companies would go bust.
It's perplexing, isn't it? I really can't decide if RD knows what he is doing and has a long-term plan, or if he's just making it up as he goes along. He seems like a man of good intentions, but you need so much more than that and a dash of luck to make a football club successful. Stability's one of those important factors - does losing Standard Liege from the network make it unstable?
In the long term, what troubles me is the possibility that he's content with second-tier football. If English football was sane and normal, that'd be fine.
But it's not.
The Premier League is a monster that's killing the rest of the game. It's got all the media attention (and the best TV slots), even more of the money, and it's not finished yet. As East Kent Addick says, second-tier football in England isn't sustainable. How long does he want to stomach £5m-£8m losses for? The only solution is to be part of the Premier League - either by getting promoted, or by achieving some kind of Premier League 2 as a second tier (as in Germany).
Credit to RD and KM for sticking with affordable tickets - but Championship football's a tough sell when even your TV rights partner buys your matches so it has a spoiler to show against the Premier League on the rival network. Even if you think the second tier is a fine, honest and thrilling league, it's a tough shell when it's now so completely overshadowed by the league above, it's practically invisible. Meanwhile, that "fungus from SE25" grows; and state-backed West Ham can offer taxpayer-aided competition. We can't just sit back and wait for one of them to implode, because these are threats to our very future.
Look at a heap of other clubs, and we're lucky. I can swan around non-league grounds and smile at "against modern football" banners, but Charlton aren't the bad guys here - instead we're stuck in a crap soap opera full of them. We're lucky to have a club that still sells competitively-priced tickets. We're lucky to have a club that's not run by a crook. Iffy promo videos notwithstanding, there's still a vague sense of moral purpose about the place. Luck will only take you so far, though.
So... why is he in it? Maybe we'll only find out once he sells up. Perhaps we'll have a better clue by this time next year. Steady improvement, with Guy Luzon still in charge, and people will have far more confidence in RD - even if our promotion chances are limited this time around. If RD wants to be respected, then we need a bit of stability, so we can be more sure he's in it for the long haul and knows what he's doing, because I don't want to think of the consequences of another unstable season of upheavals. Fingers crossed....
Always enjoy reasoned contributions from @bingaddick and @InspectorSands . Please don't be strangers chaps, there are still many of the 'old guard' here :-)
I think sometimes we try to over analyse it. I think he had this ideology of clubs in different leagues working together to help each other. I think he saw picking up 2nd tier clubs that had gone through a few period of no investment as being easily raised with a little investment. I think he thought if you put the ground bricks in properly then football clubs can be self-sustainable. I think he puts a lot of faith in people he believes in to deliver (operations, management, player scouting and analysis).
I think he has simply discovered it's just not as easy as that.
although I have "liked" the Inspector's words I don't like the ramifications of his view on English football although I do agree with his view on the all consuming Premiership assisted by Sky and BT. Let's hope that RD allows us some stability
Can anyone advise how we can advance using the new network of second rate minor league sides? Reams rates striker David Rodriguez who scored one in ten for Brighton and he is possibly the best of the current network outside the UK. At the risk of being boring, the network scouts haven't delivered once you extract SL euro squad overspill.
It is interesting that 18 months into his tenure, we are still talking about theories. Because the truth is that no-one really knows. However the answer is close to hand all you have to do is take The Charlton Life Two Chalets Quiz to form a complete set of opinions about RD. So, here we go:
1. RD is... a) An intelligent man, so everything will be alright b) An intelligent man whose insights may or may not work in another field c) A man with more money than sense
2. RD's interest in Charlton is... a) To make money b) To run the club as a social experiment c) To have a little hobby
3. RD's plan is to... a) Get us promoted by his own methods b) To stabilise us in the Championship c) There is no plan
4. The network is... a) Key to RD's vision for mutual success amongst clubs on an international basis b) Part of an elaborate tax scam that no-one has rumbled yet c) A disparate bunch of clubs that just happened to be available at the time he wanted to buy
5. The scrapping of FFP... a) Is a temporary setback, we can trust RD to find a way b) A disaster as it means RDs plans can no-longer work c) Irrelevant. He's over in Belgium and hasn't got a clue about it
6. RD thinks that British players are... a) Good for the job if we can find the right player at the right price b) Technically lacking and overpriced c) Lompen ezel, snotneus en schijtluis
7. RD sees The Academy as a) The lifeblood of the club producing fresh talent for the first team b) A production line for cash cows c) A good real-estate investment in Woolwich
8. The inability to scure Bulot's signature... a) Is disappointing, but you can't win them all b) An indication of structural dysfunction at the club c) He wasn't much cop anyway, I'd rather have Johnny Robinson back
9. Ben Roberts move to Brighton... a) Is part of a natural progression. His replacement will be an improvment. b) Belies a sense of frustration amongst the playing and coaching staff c) Funny. Ha ha, out of the frying pan into the fire
10. KM is... a) A charming, intelligent woman who will bring great success to the club b) A puppet of RD who is out of her depth c) Phwoarr
Of course you won't really learn anything about RD by taking this quiz, but you might just learn a little about yourself.
Scoring
Mostly 'a's: You are a fully paid up member of the Rose Tinted Goggles club. You are an eternal optimist who believes that RD has the club's best interest at heart, that he has a method to make us highly successful whilst subsidising cheap football and taking on the rest of the football establishment. All the while, the sun rays shining majestically through the crack in his arse. You also believe in unicorns, the Loch Ness Monster and fairies at the bottom of the garden.
Mostly 'b's: You call yourself a realist, but in reality you are an ingrained pessimist whose half-empty glass has been dropped and is lying in a thousand pieces on the floor. You can always manage to see the downside of a situation or the bad-side of a person. You believe that RD is a depraved genius who is probably the bastard child of Josef Fritzl and Dr Evil. You believe that right now he is plotting in his underground lair to have the heart of Charlton surgically removed. The club will then be torn from its South London roots and transported to Belgium to play in the Liège IV Provinciale local leagues.
Mostly 'c's: Congratulations you have been thoroughly Charltonized. Years of hope and disappointment have combined to take you to a place where you can no longer take anything seriously. Everything must be taken as a joke, because if you didn't laugh you'd hang yourself. You believe that RD is is neither good nor bad, but just one of a line of owners who will see Charlton through the current stretch of a long and bumpy ride. There's no point in worrying too much about it though as that bird from Countdown will be on the telly in a minute. You are so Charlton, you've probably counted all the grammatical errors in this quiz.
Cant argue with anyone above, but no one has mentioned future fans. What 10yr old is going to support a championship club intent on staying there and breaking even ? My 30 year old son has had a season ticket for about 20 years, it is his age group that have sustained our crowds since relegation from PL, going forward ?
I don't think that it's really about accepting to just stay in The Championship forever. I think that it's more about being patient and waiting for the right time to mount a challenge. One year we might find that intead of having one or two exceptional youth players, we find ourself with six who make an impact. At that point you can push the boat out a little with a few astute signings and find yourself pushing for 2nd place, or getting to the Play-Off Final.
If younger fans can see this approach I think that many (those that aren't glory hunters) will accept that, but it does need the club to communicate better with these supporters and help them belive that the club is worth supporting
Cant argue with anyone above, but no one has mentioned future fans. What 10yr old is going to support a championship club intent on staying there and breaking even ? My 30 year old son has had a season ticket for about 20 years, it is his age group that have sustained our crowds since relegation from PL, going forward ?
One year we might find that instead of having one or two exceptional youth players, we find ourselves with six who make an impact.
What dream was this in ? Come off it.
It took a period of 20 years to find Bowyer, Parker, Shelvey, Jenkinson & Gomez.
Can anyone advise how we can advance using the new network of second rate minor league sides? Reams rates striker David Rodriguez who scored one in ten for Brighton and he is possibly the best of the current network outside the UK. At the risk of being boring, the network scouts haven't delivered once you extract SL euro squad overspill.
Cant argue with anyone above, but no one has mentioned future fans. What 10yr old is going to support a championship club intent on staying there and breaking even ? My 30 year old son has had a season ticket for about 20 years, it is his age group that have sustained our crowds since relegation from PL, going forward ?
I don't think that it's really about accepting to just stay in The Championship forever. I think that it's more about being patient and waiting for the right time to mount a challenge.
Take your point, and I agree up to a point, but the trouble is that the finances of English football are so utterly screwed, it could be argued that *any* time is the right time to mount a challenge when you're blowing £5m+ a year on just standing still.
That may not be sensible - but it's perfectly understandable that people who turn up to a lovely PL-standard ground to be confronted with loads of empty seats and mediocre opposition on a wet Tuesday night when the Champions League is on the box may start to get impatient after a while. That may be fickle, but being rational is often the first thing out of the door once people set foot inside football grounds.
RD may be a paragon of wise thoughts and common sense - but because he's so quiet, we're all left guessing and wondering.
I wonder if RD's plan for the club (if, and so far as, he has one) is in a state of flux, given the effective demise of FFP and the sale of Standard Liege (which - absent another high level acquisition - undermines the network concept).
I imagine that RD and KM are working hard at getting some new players in as, at present, the squad is, on any view, emaciated. Apart from the importance of getting the vast majority of the squad together early in the pre-season, being unable to have an 11-a-side training match is hardly going to encourage our two best players - JBG and Jordan Cousins - to extend their contracts once the club gets around to opening negotiations with them and their representatives.
There have obviously been some real positives from the current regime and we have to recognise that we can't compete with some if the budgets in the Championship. Ultimately, however, the fortunes of this club will be determined by what happens on the field and my concern on that front is the general lack of continuity, without which, I can never see us achieving success. A 'revolving door' policy also alienates existing and potential supporters and presents an unattractive narrative to actual and potential recruits on the playing side.
By the end of next month, we should have a clearer idea of where we stand.
Comments
I think it more likely that he is seeking to prove that there are ways to create a successful Club rather than just throwing money at it a la Chelsea, Man City. Investment in the Academy, the Stadium, and bringing in the right people could make him outstanding as the man who proved that you can run a Club using good business principles.
Ann Elk (Miss).
Probably one thing is for certain, under this regime, we should neither expect them or not expect them. At this point we could mount a challenge or be battling against relegation. It’s the hope that kills you so I have tried not to hope for too much.
My view on Duchatelet is that he doesn’t really know what he is doing, but does have a bit of money to fix problems his broken plan causes. Maybe we should expect the same again this season. We just don’t know and I think he likes it that way, or he might keep us more in the loop.
Roland: "If we spend good money now signing new players, will we be promoted?"
Katrien: "I can't promise you that this season. In fact, I doubt it very much."
As a result, we saw a cooking the books exercise bringing in Tony Watt from SL.
And the relatively low cost signing of players who were free agents.
After replacing the manager, naturally the only intent seemed to be stopping the freefall down the division and avoiding relegation.
Katrien admitted fearing for her job if she had given a different answer to Roland.
But can we deduce that Roland will spend on quality players, should promotion be a realistic prospect?
The problem with the former is it ignores the value of building team spirit and cohesion before the season starts. Nevertheless, we didn't do too badly to start last season, it did tail off however, but was that because we failed to add, and patch holes adequately - another risk of the thin squad approach.
Anyway the point I was making was in reference to the impact if any of the late assembling of the squad
Personally think it is better to have them in as early as possible.
Is there anything they could do that they aren't doing? Line up your targets earlier? Is that doable?
Perhaps our strict policies on what we are prepared to pay means we are missing out on some A targets and reverting to Bs, perhaps some players will always be subject to some kind of bidding war, etc.
Take for example the regimes attitude to a lot of non footballing staff which seems to be along the lines of 'we know best, you have nothing to offer, do one'.
Both Riga and Luzon have employed the phrase 'I know football', as if it is a phenomena that exists in a peculiar vacuum, and such knowledge can be applied anywhere with no local knowledge. The attitude is don't worry about the particularities of Charlton Athletic, and the rather crude nature of English football, their players are basically not really of sophisticated enough, we know best, do one.
I believe that British style players are a last resort for them, maybe because they think they are overpriced, but also maybe because they think British style players don't know football as they understand it.
The disconnect between the approach of the new regime and the context of Charlton Athletic seems to be problematic to say the least.
RD is trying to keep his costs down and protect his investment like any other businessman would - his methods may not be popular but nor are the money-ball antics of Brentford or the idiocy of kit or name changes attempted at Cardiff and Hull.
Football is in a bad place - just give me 90 minutes of entertaining attacking football please.
It remains to be seen if he buys a replacement club. There was some talk about taking over a French club . Reims ?
Personally I was very pleased to see the back of the Spivs and If we continue on a sound financial basis whats not to like ?
I think there is some evidence that RD has a kind of philanthropic approach but also he is a businessman at heart.
I think that he believes that there is a way to utilise a network of clubs for economies of scale - scouting being one, and pooling playing resources. I think that he feels he can utilise coaches that he knows rather than to pitch into the unknown.
To me this all adds up to trying to make less go further. I do believe his exit strategy for us is about leaving us in a sustainably strong financial position allowing him to get his money out with a return. He is no mug and he will know the best chance will be if we are in the PL.
If you invest to make a return, you can only do that by adding value. Championship clubs like ours will always run at a loss (except if players are sold a significant returns). I don't believe he is expecting to make his money back by selling home grown talent or players bought cheap and developed on, although he will hope to do that as a matter or course. I think he hopes either to have turned a financial basket case around and given it some strength and stability with a decent stadium/training/youth set up leading to selling to somebody to take the club forward or by getting us up. What he us not going to do is a Tony Fernandes etc and throw millions at it.
So yes, he sees Charlton as a community club needing help but his acquisition is rooted in a business deal with risk and reward possibilities.
This is just my opinion.
Is he likely to end up successfully driving the club forward with a return on his investment - who knows? Is his involvement any more doomed to failure than all of the others who have lost their shirts owning our club? Who knows? My guess is that he will achieve some measure of success - just my opinion.
In the long term, what troubles me is the possibility that he's content with second-tier football. If English football was sane and normal, that'd be fine.
But it's not.
The Premier League is a monster that's killing the rest of the game. It's got all the media attention (and the best TV slots), even more of the money, and it's not finished yet. As East Kent Addick says, second-tier football in England isn't sustainable. How long does he want to stomach £5m-£8m losses for? The only solution is to be part of the Premier League - either by getting promoted, or by achieving some kind of Premier League 2 as a second tier (as in Germany).
Credit to RD and KM for sticking with affordable tickets - but Championship football's a tough sell when even your TV rights partner buys your matches so it has a spoiler to show against the Premier League on the rival network. Even if you think the second tier is a fine, honest and thrilling league, it's a tough shell when it's now so completely overshadowed by the league above, it's practically invisible. Meanwhile, that "fungus from SE25" grows; and state-backed West Ham can offer taxpayer-aided competition. We can't just sit back and wait for one of them to implode, because these are threats to our very future.
Look at a heap of other clubs, and we're lucky. I can swan around non-league grounds and smile at "against modern football" banners, but Charlton aren't the bad guys here - instead we're stuck in a crap soap opera full of them. We're lucky to have a club that still sells competitively-priced tickets. We're lucky to have a club that's not run by a crook. Iffy promo videos notwithstanding, there's still a vague sense of moral purpose about the place. Luck will only take you so far, though.
So... why is he in it? Maybe we'll only find out once he sells up. Perhaps we'll have a better clue by this time next year. Steady improvement, with Guy Luzon still in charge, and people will have far more confidence in RD - even if our promotion chances are limited this time around. If RD wants to be respected, then we need a bit of stability, so we can be more sure he's in it for the long haul and knows what he's doing, because I don't want to think of the consequences of another unstable season of upheavals. Fingers crossed....
I think sometimes we try to over analyse it. I think he had this ideology of clubs in different leagues working together to help each other. I think he saw picking up 2nd tier clubs that had gone through a few period of no investment as being easily raised with a little investment. I think he thought if you put the ground bricks in properly then football clubs can be self-sustainable. I think he puts a lot of faith in people he believes in to deliver (operations, management, player scouting and analysis).
I think he has simply discovered it's just not as easy as that.
Let's hope that RD allows us some stability
I make AFKA right, the quality of players fits with that.
Thing is what happens next?
Done well it might be a bad approach, getting the right number of up and coming players, but starve it of numbersand its never going to work.
Lets hope we are now the focus.
Perhaps we will see Roley at some games now
1. RD is...
a) An intelligent man, so everything will be alright
b) An intelligent man whose insights may or may not work in another field
c) A man with more money than sense
2. RD's interest in Charlton is...
a) To make money
b) To run the club as a social experiment
c) To have a little hobby
3. RD's plan is to...
a) Get us promoted by his own methods
b) To stabilise us in the Championship
c) There is no plan
4. The network is...
a) Key to RD's vision for mutual success amongst clubs on an international basis
b) Part of an elaborate tax scam that no-one has rumbled yet
c) A disparate bunch of clubs that just happened to be available at the time he wanted to buy
5. The scrapping of FFP...
a) Is a temporary setback, we can trust RD to find a way
b) A disaster as it means RDs plans can no-longer work
c) Irrelevant. He's over in Belgium and hasn't got a clue about it
6. RD thinks that British players are...
a) Good for the job if we can find the right player at the right price
b) Technically lacking and overpriced
c) Lompen ezel, snotneus en schijtluis
7. RD sees The Academy as
a) The lifeblood of the club producing fresh talent for the first team
b) A production line for cash cows
c) A good real-estate investment in Woolwich
8. The inability to scure Bulot's signature...
a) Is disappointing, but you can't win them all
b) An indication of structural dysfunction at the club
c) He wasn't much cop anyway, I'd rather have Johnny Robinson back
9. Ben Roberts move to Brighton...
a) Is part of a natural progression. His replacement will be an improvment.
b) Belies a sense of frustration amongst the playing and coaching staff
c) Funny. Ha ha, out of the frying pan into the fire
10. KM is...
a) A charming, intelligent woman who will bring great success to the club
b) A puppet of RD who is out of her depth
c) Phwoarr
Of course you won't really learn anything about RD by taking this quiz, but you might just learn a little about yourself.
Scoring
Mostly 'a's: You are a fully paid up member of the Rose Tinted Goggles club. You are an eternal optimist who believes that RD has the club's best interest at heart, that he has a method to make us highly successful whilst subsidising cheap football and taking on the rest of the football establishment. All the while, the sun rays shining majestically through the crack in his arse. You also believe in unicorns, the Loch Ness Monster and fairies at the bottom of the garden.
Mostly 'b's: You call yourself a realist, but in reality you are an ingrained pessimist whose half-empty glass has been dropped and is lying in a thousand pieces on the floor. You can always manage to see the downside of a situation or the bad-side of a person. You believe that RD is a depraved genius who is probably the bastard child of Josef Fritzl and Dr Evil. You believe that right now he is plotting in his underground lair to have the heart of Charlton surgically removed. The club will then be torn from its South London roots and transported to Belgium to play in the Liège IV Provinciale local leagues.
Mostly 'c's: Congratulations you have been thoroughly Charltonized. Years of hope and disappointment have combined to take you to a place where you can no longer take anything seriously. Everything must be taken as a joke, because if you didn't laugh you'd hang yourself. You believe that RD is is neither good nor bad, but just one of a line of owners who will see Charlton through the current stretch of a long and bumpy ride. There's no point in worrying too much about it though as that bird from Countdown will be on the telly in a minute. You are so Charlton, you've probably counted all the grammatical errors in this quiz.
If younger fans can see this approach I think that many (those that aren't glory hunters) will accept that, but it does need the club to communicate better with these supporters and help them belive that the club is worth supporting
It took a period of 20 years to find Bowyer, Parker, Shelvey, Jenkinson & Gomez.
That may not be sensible - but it's perfectly understandable that people who turn up to a lovely PL-standard ground to be confronted with loads of empty seats and mediocre opposition on a wet Tuesday night when the Champions League is on the box may start to get impatient after a while. That may be fickle, but being rational is often the first thing out of the door once people set foot inside football grounds.
RD may be a paragon of wise thoughts and common sense - but because he's so quiet, we're all left guessing and wondering.
I imagine that RD and KM are working hard at getting some new players in as, at present, the squad is, on any view, emaciated. Apart from the importance of getting the vast majority of the squad together early in the pre-season, being unable to have an 11-a-side training match is hardly going to encourage our two best players - JBG and Jordan Cousins - to extend their contracts once the club gets around to opening negotiations with them and their representatives.
There have obviously been some real positives from the current regime and we have to recognise that we can't compete with some if the budgets in the Championship. Ultimately, however, the fortunes of this club will be determined by what happens on the field and my concern on that front is the general lack of continuity, without which, I can never see us achieving success. A 'revolving door' policy also alienates existing and potential supporters and presents an unattractive narrative to actual and potential recruits on the playing side.
By the end of next month, we should have a clearer idea of where we stand.