They can control results by buying some decent fucking Championship players and stop appointing Belgian pub league managers to run the joint!
This, on a nice long banner.
KM can buy in all the PR advice she likes, but at some point she'll need to listen to that advice - and if we know one thing for sure about Katrien Meire, it's that she doesn't listen very well.
They can control results by buying some decent fucking Championship players and stop appointing Belgian pub league managers to run the joint!
This, on a nice long banner.
KM can buy in all the PR advice she likes, but at some point she'll need to listen to that advice - and if we know one thing for sure about Katrien Meire, it's that she doesn't listen very well.
I agree I just don't understand why Murray isn't saying this, he surely must see it, it's beyond belief really.
All of this about KM not understanding how fans feel about their club, but I thought her and RD met because she was a fan of St Truiden FC, so surely she should be aware how a fan feels
Depends how much of a 'fan' she really is. I've always thought that clubs have fans and followers. She's probably a follower more than a fan, hence why she just doesn't get it.
I'd say she's a big fan of Katrien Miere and struggles to grasp anything beyond her fandom
Happened to be watching Prime Minister's Questions today when Clive Efford tabled a question about football. Thought for a brief moment he was going to question the invasion of foreign incompetents into the club that's in his constituency. No, he jumps on the debate about rising ticket prices. What a waste!
Even more, this makes our owners look like numpties. Wonder what a letter from our owner would read like? Doubt it would list a single one of the mistakes he's made!
Even more, this makes our owners look like numpties. Wonder what a letter from our owner would read like? Doubt it would list a single one of the mistakes he's made!
Your more likely to admit mistakes or be honest when your lawyer is not around to stop you
Even more, this makes our owners look like numpties. Wonder what a letter from our owner would read like? Doubt it would list a single one of the mistakes he's made!
Your more likely to admit mistakes or be honest when your lawyer is not around to stop you
Katrien Meire - Lawyer
And according to Katrien, the club is well run - as per the meeting with the MPs
Valley of despair: Charlton Athletic fans share their views on troubled times
Tom Stevens
Thursday 11 February 2016 12.32 GMT
With things going desperately wrong in SE7 this season, supporters Chris Burton and Shane Kelly explain why their club is in such a sorry state
With just the one win from their last 13 games, Charlton Athletic have slipped to the bottom of the Championship. Protests at The Valley against owner Roland Duchâtelet and Katrien Meire, the club’s chief executive, have had little effect so far. Since taking over the club in January 2014, Duchâtelet has overseen five managerial changes. This alarming lack of consistency is a far cry from the stability at Charlton during Alan Curbishley’s Premier League reign a decade ago.
‘We are protesting at the disassembly of the very soul of our club’
Chris Burton has been supporting Charlton Athletic since the late 1980s. “I was brought up in Norwood, and because Charlton were groundsharing with Crystal Palace at the time, I became attached to the club. But the real influence in choice of team was my dad. My grandfather took him to The Valley in the 1940s.” Chris and his son Jack are season ticket holders in the West Stand and attend every home game. Jack’s first game at The Valley was Chris Powell’s final appearance as a Charlton player, a fine 4-1 win against Coventry City on 4 May 2008. “I’m proud that Jack is a fourth-generation supporter. While I was the main influence, he’d seen his grandparents as season ticket holders and my wife Jane successfully converted from being a Manchester United supporter.”
Chris singles out Charlton’s epic 1998 play-off final victory at Wembley, a 7-6 penalty shoot-out victory over Sunderland after a pulsating 4-4 draw as a memorable moment, but there’s a more recent one he shares with his son. “Since inflicting the decline of the club on Jack, I think our favourite shared moment was when pitchside announcer Dave Lockwood declared us League One champions in 2012. And one of Jack’s proudest moments was walking out as a mascot with his favourite player Yann Kermorgant. He was one of the first players our current owner allowed to leave the club.”
Like many Charlton fans, Chris is concerned about how the club is run these days. “The problem with Duchâtelet is that he is perceived to be conducting an experiment with our club. Just a few months after buying the club, he sacked club legend Chris Powell and immediately lost the support of a lot of loyal fans. He has undoubtedly invested some money at Charlton, but has rarely watched the team play. Jack’s League One heroes were sold off one by one, and they’ve been replaced by inadequate players from Duchâtelet’s network of European clubs. The experiment just hasn’t worked.”
Chris is also wary of the managerial merry-go-round that has starved the club of stability. “Since Powell we’ve had José Riga, Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon, Karel Fraeye and now Riga again. The fact that they are head coaches rather than managers suggests that decisions about recruitment and the sale of players are completely out of their hands.”
Duchâtelet’s appointment of Katrien Meire as the club’s CEO is another unpopular decision. Meire, a 30-year-old lawyer, has attracted fans’ ire by referring to them as “customers” and Chris is scathing of her performance at the club. “Many of us think Katrien treats Charlton fans with an arrogant disdain and her prime concern is how the club can be marketed. Her quotes about football being a loyalty brand, is just one example of the corporate nonsense that has driven a wedge between the fans and the club.”
Despite the turmoil, Chris remains firmly loyal to the club. “I became a Charlton fan after the financial difficulties of the early 1980s and the move away from The Valley. So we were always on the up during my first 20 years of supporting the club. The last couple of years have been really depressing. Results on the pitch haven’t been entirely uplifting but that isn’t why we are protesting.
“We are protesting at the disassembly of a thing we love, not necessarily bricks and mortar, but the very soul of our club. The fans have on the whole carried out their promise to support the team, not the regime but I can’t see the 12th man being enough to keep Charlton in the second tier. And part of me fears that relegation would be another nail in the coffin of a club already reeling from regular poor decisions. At least another stint in League One might finally make Duchâtelet declare his experiment with the club a failed one.”
‘The fans’ drive is needed with the club facing relegation and years of decline’
Shane Kelly has also passed the Charlton Athletic baton to his son Oisín. “I was born in Woolwich and raised in south east London. My son was thrown straight into a Charlton Athletic baby grow when he was born in 2007.”
Shane has supported Charlton for nearly 25 years and is deeply concerned about the plight of the club. “I was in my early twenties when Charlton returned to The Valley in 1992, and that’s when I really started supporting them regularly. For the club to return to their home ground was an incredible achievement. Without the dedication, drive and stubbornness of the fans to overcome a hostile local council, it’s difficult to imagine the club ever returning to SE7. There’s always been intelligence behind the club’s support and that was born out of the battle for The Valley. That drive and stubbornness is needed once again this season with the club facing relegation and years of decline.”
While losing to Millwall is always a low point in the life of any Charlton supporter, Shane acknowledges that many of his worst moments as a fan have come under the current ownership. He fears for Charlton’s future and especially the club’s younger fans. Despite recent travails, Oisín has remained loyal. "It seems to me that the current owner cares very little about what makes a football club special to its supporters and community. As crowds plummet it will be harder and harder to convince the next generation of supporters to walk through the turnstiles. Sadly that could include my son.”
So is there any way that Duchâtelet and Meire can redeem themselves and get back into the fans’ good books? “Our CEO’s arrogance, incompetence and ignorance is well documented, and available for all to see. Supporters are ‘weird’ for daring to have a sense of ownership of the club. We go through head coaches like a knife goes through butter, yet each of our five appointments in the last two years have apparently improved the football. The protests at The Valley are genuine expressions of anger, frustration and a complete lack of faith in those currently running the club. The owner’s bizarre ‘Euro-network’ experiment has shown no sign of working, but more alarmingly he shows no sign of learning.”
Despite everything Shane suggests a majority of supporters still back the team and sympathise with the players. “There are some players with the old Charlton spirit and there’s no better example than our captain Johnny Jackson. But most of the team is made up of poor imports and promising youngsters who are being exposed to Championship football far too early. That’s not their fault. The fault lies entirely at boardroom level.”
Absolutely fantastic article, but what really makes it (apart from the willingness of the Guardian to report it) is the articulate viewpoints put across by Mssrs. Burton and Kelly. I really think they captured the perspective of the 2% brilliantly.
Well said. Chris is not a relation but has said it perfectly for me. My biggest worry about this whole sorry business is the effect it's having on my son, a 4th generation Addick like Jack. I'm too far down the road of course, but I wouldn't blame him at all if he decides he has had enough (which was the impression he gave at 5pm last Saturday).
Charlton Athletic Valley of despair: Charlton Athletic fans share their views on troubled times With things going desperately wrong in SE7 this season, supporters Chris Burton and Shane Kelly explain why their club is in such a state.
With just the one win from their last 13 games, Charlton Athletic have slipped to the bottom of the Championship. Protests at The Valley against owner Roland Duchâtelet and Katrien Meire, the club’s chief executive, have had little effect so far. Since taking over the club in January 2014, Duchâtelet has overseen five managerial changes. This alarming lack of consistency is a far cry from the stability at Charlton during Alan Curbishley’s Premier League reign a decade ago.
‘We are protesting at the disassembly of the very soul of our club’ Chris Burton has been supporting Charlton Athletic since the late 1980s. “I was brought up in Norwood, and because Charlton were groundsharing with Crystal Palace at the time, I became attached to the club. But the real influence in choice of team was my dad. My grandfather took him to The Valley in the 1940s.” Chris and his son Jack are season ticket holders in the West Stand and attend every home game. Jack’s first game at The Valley was Chris Powell’s final appearance as a Charlton player, a fine 4-1 win against Coventry City on 4 May 2008. “I’m proud that Jack is a fourth-generation supporter. While I was the main influence, he’d seen his grandparents as season ticket holders and my wife Jane successfully converted from being a Manchester United supporter.”
Chris singles out Charlton’s epic 1998 play-off final victory at Wembley, a 7-6 penalty shoot-out victory over Sunderland after a pulsating 4-4 draw as a memorable moment, but there’s a more recent one he shares with his son. “Since inflicting the decline of the club on Jack, I think our favourite shared moment was when pitchside announcer Dave Lockwood declared us League One champions in 2012. And one of Jack’s proudest moments was walking out as a mascot with his favourite player Yann Kermorgant. He was one of the first players our current owner allowed to leave the club.”
Like many Charlton fans, Chris is concerned about how the club is run these days. “The problem with Duchâtelet is that he is perceived to be conducting an experiment with our club. Just a few months after buying the club, he sacked club legend Chris Powell and immediately lost the support of a lot of loyal fans. He has undoubtedly invested some money at Charlton, but has rarely watched the team play. Jack’s League One heroes were sold off one by one, and they’ve been replaced by inadequate players from Duchâtelet’s network of European clubs. The experiment just hasn’t worked.”
Chris is also wary of the managerial merry-go-round that has starved the club of stability. “Since Powell we’ve had José Riga, Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon, Karel Fraeye and now Riga again. The fact that they are head coaches rather than managers suggests that decisions about recruitment and the sale of players are completely out of their hands.”
Duchâtelet’s appointment of Katrien Meire as the club’s CEO is another unpopular decision. Meire, a 30-year-old lawyer, has attracted fans’ ire by referring to them as “customers” and Chris is scathing of her performance at the club. “Many of us think Katrien treats Charlton fans with an arrogant disdain and her prime concern is how the club can be marketed. Her quotes about football being a loyalty brand, is just one example of the corporate nonsense that has driven a wedge between the fans and the club.”
Despite the turmoil, Chris remains firmly loyal to the club. “I became a Charlton fan after the financial difficulties of the early 1980s and the move away from The Valley. So we were always on the up during my first 20 years of supporting the club. The last couple of years have been really depressing. Results on the pitch haven’t been entirely uplifting but that isn’t why we are protesting.
“We are protesting at the disassembly of a thing we love, not necessarily bricks and mortar, but the very soul of our club. The fans have on the whole carried out their promise to support the team, not the regime but I can’t see the 12th man being enough to keep Charlton in the second tier. And part of me fears that relegation would be another nail in the coffin of a club already reeling from regular poor decisions. At least another stint in League One might finally make Duchâtelet declare his experiment with the club a failed one.”
‘The fans’ drive is needed with the club facing relegation and years of decline’ Shane Kelly has also passed the Charlton Athletic baton to his son Oisín. “I was born in Woolwich and raised in south east London. My son was thrown straight into a Charlton Athletic baby grow when he was born in 2007.”
Shane has supported Charlton for nearly 25 years and is deeply concerned about the plight of the club. “I was in my early twenties when Charlton returned to The Valley in 1992, and that’s when I really started supporting them regularly. For the club to return to their home ground was an incredible achievement. Without the dedication, drive and stubbornness of the fans to overcome a hostile local council, it’s difficult to imagine the club ever returning to SE7. There’s always been intelligence behind the club’s support and that was born out of the battle for The Valley. That drive and stubbornness is needed once again this season with the club facing relegation and years of decline.”
While losing to Millwall is always a low point in the life of any Charlton supporter, Shane acknowledges that many of his worst moments as a fan have come under the current ownership. He fears for Charlton’s future and especially the club’s younger fans. “Despite recent travails, Oisín has remained loyal. It seems to me that the current owner cares very little about what makes a football club special to its supporters and community. As crowds plummet it will be harder and harder to convince the next generation of supporters to walk through the turnstiles. Sadly that could include my son.”
So is there any way that Duchâtelet and Meire can redeem themselves and get back into the fans’ good books? “Our CEO’s arrogance, incompetence and ignorance is well documented, and available for all to see. Supporters are ‘weird’ for daring to have a sense of ownership of the club. We go through head coaches like a knife goes through butter, yet each of our five appointments in the last two years have apparently improved the football. The protests at The Valley are genuine expressions of anger, frustration and a complete lack of faith in those currently running the club. The owner’s bizarre ‘Euro-network’ experiment has shown no sign of working, but more alarmingly he shows no sign of learning.”
Despite everything Shane suggests a majority of supporters still back the team and sympathise with the players. “There are some players with the old Charlton spirit and there’s no better example than our captain Johnny Jackson. But most of the team is made up of poor imports and promising youngsters who are being exposed to Championship football far too early. That’s not their fault. The fault lies entirely at boardroom level.”
You can view all the football contributions or add your own via GuardianWitness
Roland Duchatelet: Charlton owner has 'empathy' for supporters
2 hours ago
Charlton Athletic owner Roland Duchatelet says he understands why fans are unhappy with him, but he is not prepared to sell the Championship club.
The Addicks are bottom of the table and supporters have held protests in recent weeks aimed at Duchatelet and chief executive Katrien Meire.
"I have a lot of empathy for what they feel," the Belgian businessman told the South London Press.
"But the conclusion that I should sell is a bit too quick."
Duchatelet bought Charlton in January 2014, adding the south-east London side to his network of clubs around Europe - which includes teams in Belgium, Spain, Germany and Hungary.
A section of supporters have questioned the 69-year-old's motives and expressed their anger at the turnover of managers, the club's recruitment strategy and the role of Meire in running of the club.
Fans have formed a group called Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD), which has organised a series of protests at matches at The Valley.
"I fully understand that people are unhappy, so I don't take things personally, and I try to do something about it," Duchatelet added in a wide-ranging interview.
"I still believe we can make a big success out of this and that Charlton can regain importance in London.
"Two years in such an adventure is not a long period. I still feel I have the ability to be a very big asset to the club."
Duchatelet also defended Meire, describing the 31-year-old as possessing "a huge heart for Charlton", and said one of the reasons for appointing head coaches Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon and Karel Fraeye was their previous experience of working with young players.
Jose Riga was reappointed Charlton head coach last month - for his second spell in charge at The Valley under Duchatelet - and the club are currently four points from safety.
Curbs speaking about us on 5. Oh dear. Clearly not supportive/ totally unclear of what the protests are about telling the fans to get behind the club and sort the issues out on this summer. Disappointing.
Curbs speaking about us on 5. Oh dear. Clearly not supportive/ totally unclear of what the protests are about telling the fans to get behind the club and sort the issues out on this summer. Disappointing.
I agree with him... Need to get behind the team and concentrate on making the Valley the fortress of noise it was of old.
Curbs speaking about us on 5. Oh dear. Clearly not supportive/ totally unclear of what the protests are about telling the fans to get behind the club and sort the issues out on this summer. Disappointing.
Well if he doesn't know what it's all about, maybe he should take the time to find out and pass comment once he knows the facts.
Curbs speaking about us on 5. Oh dear. Clearly not supportive/ totally unclear of what the protests are about telling the fans to get behind the club and sort the issues out on this summer. Disappointing.
I agree with him... Need to get behind the team and concentrate on making the Valley the fortress of noise it was of old.
Once were safe the protests can restart!!
Creating a fortress of noise at The Valley is far from easy when thousands of the faithful are boycotting under the current owner whilst the Club has sought to fill some of the yawning gaps with free tickets to schools etc.
The latter may well have a degree of success when the entertainment on the pitch is end to end football and full of exciting forwards runs & goal mouth activity.
Alas, there is a dearth of this kind of action at present as the team struggles to keep a clean sheet and to score and whilst the regulars appreciate the reasons why, it is becoming ever more difficult to "make some noise".
More urgency and energy from our lads as in the last 20 mins or so today goes a long way towards the fans getting truly behind he home team.
Curbs speaking about us on 5. Oh dear. Clearly not supportive/ totally unclear of what the protests are about telling the fans to get behind the club and sort the issues out on this summer. Disappointing.
I agree with him... Need to get behind the team and concentrate on making the Valley the fortress of noise it was of old.
Once were safe the protests can restart!!
Except, given the "searching" interviews conducted with The Shareholder this week, it is clear that he really just doesn't get what is needed to survive and thrive in the Championship, never mind get promoted (not that he's interested in that).
If we shut up, and only offer unquestioning support for the team, this summer will be like last summer and the summer before that. I enjoyed Groundhog Day as much as the next man, but I really don't see it as a blueprint by which the club should be run. There is no evidence from what the regime has done to date that indicates any real willingness to engage with either us or the realities of football in the second tier in England.
Results on the pitch are important, and I do want us to stay up, but making Charlton unworkable for Roly boy is essential.
Comments
KM can buy in all the PR advice she likes, but at some point she'll need to listen to that advice - and if we know one thing for sure about Katrien Meire, it's that she doesn't listen very well.
Katrien Meire - Lawyer
Valley of despair: Charlton Athletic fans share their views on troubled times
Tom Stevens
Thursday 11 February 2016 12.32 GMT
With things going desperately wrong in SE7 this season, supporters Chris Burton and Shane Kelly explain why their club is in such a sorry state
With just the one win from their last 13 games, Charlton Athletic have slipped to the bottom of the Championship. Protests at The Valley against owner Roland Duchâtelet and Katrien Meire, the club’s chief executive, have had little effect so far. Since taking over the club in January 2014, Duchâtelet has overseen five managerial changes. This alarming lack of consistency is a far cry from the stability at Charlton during Alan Curbishley’s Premier League reign a decade ago.
‘We are protesting at the disassembly of the very soul of our club’
Chris Burton has been supporting Charlton Athletic since the late 1980s. “I was brought up in Norwood, and because Charlton were groundsharing with Crystal Palace at the time, I became attached to the club. But the real influence in choice of team was my dad. My grandfather took him to The Valley in the 1940s.” Chris and his son Jack are season ticket holders in the West Stand and attend every home game. Jack’s first game at The Valley was Chris Powell’s final appearance as a Charlton player, a fine 4-1 win against Coventry City on 4 May 2008. “I’m proud that Jack is a fourth-generation supporter. While I was the main influence, he’d seen his grandparents as season ticket holders and my wife Jane successfully converted from being a Manchester United supporter.”
Chris singles out Charlton’s epic 1998 play-off final victory at Wembley, a 7-6 penalty shoot-out victory over Sunderland after a pulsating 4-4 draw as a memorable moment, but there’s a more recent one he shares with his son. “Since inflicting the decline of the club on Jack, I think our favourite shared moment was when pitchside announcer Dave Lockwood declared us League One champions in 2012. And one of Jack’s proudest moments was walking out as a mascot with his favourite player Yann Kermorgant. He was one of the first players our current owner allowed to leave the club.”
Like many Charlton fans, Chris is concerned about how the club is run these days. “The problem with Duchâtelet is that he is perceived to be conducting an experiment with our club. Just a few months after buying the club, he sacked club legend Chris Powell and immediately lost the support of a lot of loyal fans. He has undoubtedly invested some money at Charlton, but has rarely watched the team play. Jack’s League One heroes were sold off one by one, and they’ve been replaced by inadequate players from Duchâtelet’s network of European clubs. The experiment just hasn’t worked.”
Chris is also wary of the managerial merry-go-round that has starved the club of stability. “Since Powell we’ve had José Riga, Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon, Karel Fraeye and now Riga again. The fact that they are head coaches rather than managers suggests that decisions about recruitment and the sale of players are completely out of their hands.”
Duchâtelet’s appointment of Katrien Meire as the club’s CEO is another unpopular decision. Meire, a 30-year-old lawyer, has attracted fans’ ire by referring to them as “customers” and Chris is scathing of her performance at the club. “Many of us think Katrien treats Charlton fans with an arrogant disdain and her prime concern is how the club can be marketed. Her quotes about football being a loyalty brand, is just one example of the corporate nonsense that has driven a wedge between the fans and the club.”
Despite the turmoil, Chris remains firmly loyal to the club. “I became a Charlton fan after the financial difficulties of the early 1980s and the move away from The Valley. So we were always on the up during my first 20 years of supporting the club. The last couple of years have been really depressing. Results on the pitch haven’t been entirely uplifting but that isn’t why we are protesting.
“We are protesting at the disassembly of a thing we love, not necessarily bricks and mortar, but the very soul of our club. The fans have on the whole carried out their promise to support the team, not the regime but I can’t see the 12th man being enough to keep Charlton in the second tier. And part of me fears that relegation would be another nail in the coffin of a club already reeling from regular poor decisions. At least another stint in League One might finally make Duchâtelet declare his experiment with the club a failed one.”
‘The fans’ drive is needed with the club facing relegation and years of decline’
Shane Kelly has also passed the Charlton Athletic baton to his son Oisín. “I was born in Woolwich and raised in south east London. My son was thrown straight into a Charlton Athletic baby grow when he was born in 2007.”
Shane has supported Charlton for nearly 25 years and is deeply concerned about the plight of the club. “I was in my early twenties when Charlton returned to The Valley in 1992, and that’s when I really started supporting them regularly. For the club to return to their home ground was an incredible achievement. Without the dedication, drive and stubbornness of the fans to overcome a hostile local council, it’s difficult to imagine the club ever returning to SE7. There’s always been intelligence behind the club’s support and that was born out of the battle for The Valley. That drive and stubbornness is needed once again this season with the club facing relegation and years of decline.”
While losing to Millwall is always a low point in the life of any Charlton supporter, Shane acknowledges that many of his worst moments as a fan have come under the current ownership. He fears for Charlton’s future and especially the club’s younger fans. Despite recent travails, Oisín has remained loyal. "It seems to me that the current owner cares very little about what makes a football club special to its supporters and community. As crowds plummet it will be harder and harder to convince the next generation of supporters to walk through the turnstiles. Sadly that could include my son.”
So is there any way that Duchâtelet and Meire can redeem themselves and get back into the fans’ good books? “Our CEO’s arrogance, incompetence and ignorance is well documented, and available for all to see. Supporters are ‘weird’ for daring to have a sense of ownership of the club. We go through head coaches like a knife goes through butter, yet each of our five appointments in the last two years have apparently improved the football. The protests at The Valley are genuine expressions of anger, frustration and a complete lack of faith in those currently running the club. The owner’s bizarre ‘Euro-network’ experiment has shown no sign of working, but more alarmingly he shows no sign of learning.”
Despite everything Shane suggests a majority of supporters still back the team and sympathise with the players. “There are some players with the old Charlton spirit and there’s no better example than our captain Johnny Jackson. But most of the team is made up of poor imports and promising youngsters who are being exposed to Championship football far too early. That’s not their fault. The fault lies entirely at boardroom level.”
The Guardian are covering the story well.
Charlton Athletic
Valley of despair: Charlton Athletic fans share their views on troubled times
With things going desperately wrong in SE7 this season, supporters Chris Burton and Shane Kelly explain why their club is in such a state.
With just the one win from their last 13 games, Charlton Athletic have slipped to the bottom of the Championship. Protests at The Valley against owner Roland Duchâtelet and Katrien Meire, the club’s chief executive, have had little effect so far. Since taking over the club in January 2014, Duchâtelet has overseen five managerial changes. This alarming lack of consistency is a far cry from the stability at Charlton during Alan Curbishley’s Premier League reign a decade ago.
‘We are protesting at the disassembly of the very soul of our club’
Chris Burton has been supporting Charlton Athletic since the late 1980s. “I was brought up in Norwood, and because Charlton were groundsharing with Crystal Palace at the time, I became attached to the club. But the real influence in choice of team was my dad. My grandfather took him to The Valley in the 1940s.” Chris and his son Jack are season ticket holders in the West Stand and attend every home game. Jack’s first game at The Valley was Chris Powell’s final appearance as a Charlton player, a fine 4-1 win against Coventry City on 4 May 2008. “I’m proud that Jack is a fourth-generation supporter. While I was the main influence, he’d seen his grandparents as season ticket holders and my wife Jane successfully converted from being a Manchester United supporter.”
Chris singles out Charlton’s epic 1998 play-off final victory at Wembley, a 7-6 penalty shoot-out victory over Sunderland after a pulsating 4-4 draw as a memorable moment, but there’s a more recent one he shares with his son. “Since inflicting the decline of the club on Jack, I think our favourite shared moment was when pitchside announcer Dave Lockwood declared us League One champions in 2012. And one of Jack’s proudest moments was walking out as a mascot with his favourite player Yann Kermorgant. He was one of the first players our current owner allowed to leave the club.”
Like many Charlton fans, Chris is concerned about how the club is run these days. “The problem with Duchâtelet is that he is perceived to be conducting an experiment with our club. Just a few months after buying the club, he sacked club legend Chris Powell and immediately lost the support of a lot of loyal fans. He has undoubtedly invested some money at Charlton, but has rarely watched the team play. Jack’s League One heroes were sold off one by one, and they’ve been replaced by inadequate players from Duchâtelet’s network of European clubs. The experiment just hasn’t worked.”
Chris is also wary of the managerial merry-go-round that has starved the club of stability. “Since Powell we’ve had José Riga, Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon, Karel Fraeye and now Riga again. The fact that they are head coaches rather than managers suggests that decisions about recruitment and the sale of players are completely out of their hands.”
Duchâtelet’s appointment of Katrien Meire as the club’s CEO is another unpopular decision. Meire, a 30-year-old lawyer, has attracted fans’ ire by referring to them as “customers” and Chris is scathing of her performance at the club. “Many of us think Katrien treats Charlton fans with an arrogant disdain and her prime concern is how the club can be marketed. Her quotes about football being a loyalty brand, is just one example of the corporate nonsense that has driven a wedge between the fans and the club.”
Despite the turmoil, Chris remains firmly loyal to the club. “I became a Charlton fan after the financial difficulties of the early 1980s and the move away from The Valley. So we were always on the up during my first 20 years of supporting the club. The last couple of years have been really depressing. Results on the pitch haven’t been entirely uplifting but that isn’t why we are protesting.
“We are protesting at the disassembly of a thing we love, not necessarily bricks and mortar, but the very soul of our club. The fans have on the whole carried out their promise to support the team, not the regime but I can’t see the 12th man being enough to keep Charlton in the second tier. And part of me fears that relegation would be another nail in the coffin of a club already reeling from regular poor decisions. At least another stint in League One might finally make Duchâtelet declare his experiment with the club a failed one.”
‘The fans’ drive is needed with the club facing relegation and years of decline’
Shane Kelly has also passed the Charlton Athletic baton to his son Oisín. “I was born in Woolwich and raised in south east London. My son was thrown straight into a Charlton Athletic baby grow when he was born in 2007.”
Shane has supported Charlton for nearly 25 years and is deeply concerned about the plight of the club. “I was in my early twenties when Charlton returned to The Valley in 1992, and that’s when I really started supporting them regularly. For the club to return to their home ground was an incredible achievement. Without the dedication, drive and stubbornness of the fans to overcome a hostile local council, it’s difficult to imagine the club ever returning to SE7. There’s always been intelligence behind the club’s support and that was born out of the battle for The Valley. That drive and stubbornness is needed once again this season with the club facing relegation and years of decline.”
While losing to Millwall is always a low point in the life of any Charlton supporter, Shane acknowledges that many of his worst moments as a fan have come under the current ownership. He fears for Charlton’s future and especially the club’s younger fans. “Despite recent travails, Oisín has remained loyal. It seems to me that the current owner cares very little about what makes a football club special to its supporters and community. As crowds plummet it will be harder and harder to convince the next generation of supporters to walk through the turnstiles. Sadly that could include my son.”
So is there any way that Duchâtelet and Meire can redeem themselves and get back into the fans’ good books? “Our CEO’s arrogance, incompetence and ignorance is well documented, and available for all to see. Supporters are ‘weird’ for daring to have a sense of ownership of the club. We go through head coaches like a knife goes through butter, yet each of our five appointments in the last two years have apparently improved the football. The protests at The Valley are genuine expressions of anger, frustration and a complete lack of faith in those currently running the club. The owner’s bizarre ‘Euro-network’ experiment has shown no sign of working, but more alarmingly he shows no sign of learning.”
Despite everything Shane suggests a majority of supporters still back the team and sympathise with the players. “There are some players with the old Charlton spirit and there’s no better example than our captain Johnny Jackson. But most of the team is made up of poor imports and promising youngsters who are being exposed to Championship football far too early. That’s not their fault. The fault lies entirely at boardroom level.”
You can view all the football contributions or add your own via GuardianWitness
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3443978/Charlton-owner-Roland-Duchatelet-accepts-unpopular-fans-plot-protest-insists-going-nowhere.html
Roland Duchatelet: Charlton owner has 'empathy' for supporters
2 hours ago
Charlton Athletic owner Roland Duchatelet says he understands why fans are unhappy with him, but he is not prepared to sell the Championship club.
The Addicks are bottom of the table and supporters have held protests in recent weeks aimed at Duchatelet and chief executive Katrien Meire.
"I have a lot of empathy for what they feel," the Belgian businessman told the South London Press.
"But the conclusion that I should sell is a bit too quick."
Duchatelet bought Charlton in January 2014, adding the south-east London side to his network of clubs around Europe - which includes teams in Belgium, Spain, Germany and Hungary.
A section of supporters have questioned the 69-year-old's motives and expressed their anger at the turnover of managers, the club's recruitment strategy and the role of Meire in running of the club.
Fans have formed a group called Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD), which has organised a series of protests at matches at The Valley.
"I fully understand that people are unhappy, so I don't take things personally, and I try to do something about it," Duchatelet added in a wide-ranging interview.
"I still believe we can make a big success out of this and that Charlton can regain importance in London.
"Two years in such an adventure is not a long period. I still feel I have the ability to be a very big asset to the club."
Duchatelet also defended Meire, describing the 31-year-old as possessing "a huge heart for Charlton", and said one of the reasons for appointing head coaches Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon and Karel Fraeye was their previous experience of working with young players.
Jose Riga was reappointed Charlton head coach last month - for his second spell in charge at The Valley under Duchatelet - and the club are currently four points from safety.
https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://www.rtbf.be/sport/football/etranger/angleterre/detail_duchatelet-potentiellement-charlton-est-le-meilleur-club-de-londres?id=9211917&prev=search
Apparently sympathetic/uncritical article on Belgian French language tv/radio website (RTBF). Based on RD's interview by the club channel.
---
Supporters demands resignation of Duchatelet: "I am actually a supporter myself"
https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.voetbalnieuws.be/news/204517/Supporters_eisen_ontslag_van_Duchatelet:_Ik_ben_eigenlijk_zelf_ook_een_supporter&prev=search
Belgian football news website based on SLP interview. Neutral, but includes fans' twitter responses.
Disappointing.
Once were safe the protests can restart!!
The latter may well have a degree of success when the entertainment on the pitch is end to end football and full of exciting forwards runs & goal mouth activity.
Alas, there is a dearth of this kind of action at present as the team struggles to keep a clean sheet and to score and whilst the regulars appreciate the reasons why, it is becoming ever more difficult to "make some noise".
More urgency and energy from our lads as in the last 20 mins or so today goes a long way towards the fans getting truly behind he home team.
If we shut up, and only offer unquestioning support for the team, this summer will be like last summer and the summer before that. I enjoyed Groundhog Day as much as the next man, but I really don't see it as a blueprint by which the club should be run. There is no evidence from what the regime has done to date that indicates any real willingness to engage with either us or the realities of football in the second tier in England.
Results on the pitch are important, and I do want us to stay up, but making Charlton unworkable for Roly boy is essential.
We need him out, it's as simple as that.