Letter to Charlton and response
As you are aware Charlton are currently in a precarious position whereby to maintain their Championship status they must win nearly all of their remaining games and hope others lose.
The last time the board publicly engaged in dialogue with supporters in November fans were told that: appointments had been "proved correct" as the team had "always improved their ranking and results". We were told that the club's objective was to be "an established Championship club with Premier League ambitions". It was also said that the club had no contingency plans for relegation.
Before renewing my season ticket I would like to see an honest assessment from the club's leadership team, and an update on objective and strategy, as these messages are no longer appropriate. Each managerial appointment can not have been correct as the team are now in such a difficult position. Even if the team stay up we can not improve upon our ranking from last season - or even any of the last three seasons. The facts are that the season before this leadership team arrived the club missed out on the Championship play offs by just 3 points! The team are now far from being an established Championship club, and therefore the strategies in place to meet this objective can not be working.
There appears to be a lack of ambition for footballing success, which is what ultimately compels supporters to come to matches, emphasised by the consistent high turnover of managers and players with both a lack of pedigree and experience for the Championship - regardless of their continual failure.
Chairman Richard Murrary openly admitted this in his statement, and said that the club had "underestimated the Championship". This is a terrible mistake that has been allowed to continue over the entire Duchâtelet ownership. If this same underestimation of the league the club is in continues how can fans expect to see a competitive Championship club. Can we even expect to survive in League One with this approach?
I would like to see the board honestly address these concerns before fans, such as myself, are expected to renew their tickets. I think, if you look at the history of the club, an ambition for midtable Championship ranking is the very least that supporters expect and deserve. What is happening to change the existing failing policies to allow the club's own objective (to be established in the Championship) to happen?
CARD have clearly explained to supporters why they shouldn't renew. They make a convincing case. If the club valued their fanbase they should respond with why we should.
...........................................................................
Hello David,
Thank you for your email.
We understand your concerns and value the fact of the huge part our supporters play in the running of the club. We obviously are disappointed to hear that you and your family may not be renewing your season tickets, but we understand and please consider our plans below to help determine your decision. And we know we have a major job to do to bring back fans like yourself to The Valley, and the staff here are trying hard to improve things at the club for the future.
In order to improve current situation our plans are as follows: Our immediate priority is to try and improve recruitment, which is why we are currently interviewing for a Chief Scout – the Head Coach is involved in this appointment because the scout will be supplying players for his team. The club has admitted that recruitment has not been good enough. We have shown some stability of late in picking up 10 points from 15. We hope we can continue to pick up points to remain in the Championship.
We want to keep on developing and playing Academy talent because it’s something this club has a proud tradition of. It’s why we are investing in the training ground and Academy – we want to keep on attracting the best talent. And we want that talent to first and foremost be having long and prosperous careers with Charlton. Some players do move on, some of their own choosing, but it’s why we have worked hard over the last couple of years to get our young talent on long-term deals.
Importantly we know that we have to rebuild bridges with supporters. That is going to require some hard work from all of us at the club over the coming months but we will of course do that. We are trying to communicate more, the Richard Murray Q&A and Roland Duchatelet interviews were part of that, as is this new email – we know we need to have more conversations. Something like the change of the scoreboard to team sheets as opposed to live feed came about through conversations with fans, as did making the North Lower our most affordable area.
We will keep on trying and we hope that you stay with us.
Best regards
The Supporter Relations Team
Comments
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Forwarded mail from Katrien.
Dear Customer Placation Squad,
Another weirdo. Please deal with this.
Do you know when IT are changing my email address? I'm sick of hearing from these people.12 -
after the thank you
paragraph 1-grammatically awful
paragraph 2-not much better, bit of flannel
paragraph 3-mention of player farm
paragraph 4-bullshit
paragraph 5-makes it sound like you're on a life support machine10 -
I thought it had a conciliatory air around it. I doubt it was from the Kat.0
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It appears that they have developed an almost standard reply to any questions about season ticket renewal. At least the response was quick albeit that it was exactly what I expected.
Good Afternoon Katrien,
As a long standing season ticket holder who has supported Charlton for over 50 years I feel I must ask a few questions as to why I should renew my season ticket for next season. This season has been another where despite efforts by "the management team" and the ever missing "Owner" the team has failed spectacularly to achieve any hope of progress. We are told that the Owner "does not do failure" but I can no longer see how this can be possible when we are about to almost certainly drop into League One. We are also told that Charlton is a team with "Premier League ambitions" which again is now something that appears less likely as with the probability of a substantial number of current players either wanting to leave or being made available for transfer in an attempt to balance what will be a large drop in income especially in terms of season ticket sales (even though this is suggested as 1/3 rd of the clubs revenue stream) we can expect to see a team made up of young players from the development squad along with others who have passed their best (Roger Johnson for example).
You have in the past described fans as "customers" and questioned if we were to go to a restuarant would we complain to the management in the same way we do at a football club. I suggest to you that if CAFC were a restuarant then currently we could consider that we are being served not haute cuisine standard food (reserved for Premier League customers) but probably Table d'hote style food yet when we are likely relegated and are at best served with a fast food dish yet you are intending for us to pay the same price as before. How can you justify no decrease in price for what will be much less quality fare. As you ought to be aware C.A.R.D have laid out good reasons for fans (customers) not to renew their season ticket and I would like you to provide me with your reasons as to why I should renew.
I look forward to your considered response.
Hello Graham,
Thank you for your email.
We are disappointed that you feel this way at the moment but we do understand why. We value the fact of the huge part our supporters play in the running of the club. As requested, here are our plans for you to consider in regards to making your decision whether to renew.
In order to improve current situation our plans are as follows: Our immediate priority is to try and improve recruitment, which is why we are currently interviewing for a Chief Scout – the Head Coach is involved in this appointment because the scout will be supplying players for his team. The club has admitted that recruitment has not been good enough.
We want to keep on developing and playing Academy talent because it’s something this club has a proud tradition of. It’s why we are investing in the training ground and Academy – we want to keep on attracting the best talent. And we want that talent to first and foremost be having long and prosperous careers with Charlton. Some players do move on, some of their own choosing, but it’s why we have worked hard over the last couple of years to get our young talent on long-term deals.
Importantly we know that we have to rebuild bridges with supporters. That is going to require some hard work from all of us at the club over the coming months but we will of course do that. We are trying to communicate more, the Richard Murray Q&A and Roland Duchatelet interviews were part of that, as is this new email – we know we need to have more conversations. Something like the change of the scoreboard to team sheets as opposed to live feed came about through conversations with fans, as did making the North Lower our most affordable area.
We know we have a major job to do to bring back fans like yourself to The Valley, and the staff here are trying hard to improve things at the club for the future.
We will keep on trying and we hope that you stay with us.
Best regards
The Supporter Relations Team1 -
Still taking us for fools.0
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Do they honestly think we're going to stay up? Deluded.1
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Noooooo! They haven't got a template where they choose relevant paragraphs to use, have they? Genius absolute genius, real personal touch,
0 -
Considering most of the emails in probably read as follows I think it's a decent attempt actually.Macronate said:after the thank you
paragraph 1-grammatically awful
paragraph 2-not much better, bit of flannel
paragraph 3-mention of player farm
paragraph 4-bullshit
paragraph 5-makes it sound like you're on a life support machine
"Dear Charlton
Your well shit. When are you gonna fuck off you belgiummers.
From
Mike Hunt"
10 -
Thankyou for your quick response.
I sent my polite e-mail with genuine questions that I would have liked the club to have taken seriously before I made my decision about renewing. As you see it fit to send me a generic response, without answering the questions that I asked, using a copy and paste model (I have seen an almost completely identical response from you to another Charlton fan) I, regretfully, don't feel that I will be able to renew.
I believe that whilst the club are neglecting their duty to communicate honestly with their fanbase (one scripted message from Roland Duchâtelet, not an interview as you wrongly suggested, does not suffice) they will continue to lose more fans. You completely ignored my request for an update on strategy (we were told in November that the each appointment had been "proven correct" as the club "always improved their ranking and results [under the ownership of Duchâtelet]" which is now completely incorrect) and until I am clear on the direction of the club I am no longer willing to financially support it.
David Jarvis.25 -
to the point, probably the best letter yet.Swisdom said:
Considering most of the emails in probably read as follows I think it's a decent attempt actually.Macronate said:after the thank you
paragraph 1-grammatically awful
paragraph 2-not much better, bit of flannel
paragraph 3-mention of player farm
paragraph 4-bullshit
paragraph 5-makes it sound like you're on a life support machine
"Dear Charlton
Your well shit. When are you gonna fuck off you belgiummers.
From
Mike Hunt"5 -
Sponsored links:
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*You'reSwisdom said:
Considering most of the emails in probably read as follows I think it's a decent attempt actually.Macronate said:after the thank you
paragraph 1-grammatically awful
paragraph 2-not much better, bit of flannel
paragraph 3-mention of player farm
paragraph 4-bullshit
paragraph 5-makes it sound like you're on a life support machine
"Dear Charlton
Your well shit. When are you gonna fuck off you belgiummers.
From
Mike Hunt"8 -
You sent an email with very good reasons why you're unhappy that dealt directly with questions that needed addressing by the leadership of the club. Their PR/Customer Relations team sent an email back explaining at a high level what they're trying to do to remedy the situation. You clearly feel it's not enough, so don't renew. I think it's silly to expect Katrien or Richard Murray or Roland to be sat round responding to your email complaints.
I know that you're unhappy, most of us are unhappy, but I can't think of any decently sized football club or business where, if you sent them an email saying what their leadership was doing wrong, that you'd get one back from said leadership with specific points addressed to your concerns.
Genuinely, I mean no offense by this, and I get that this is the only means you have to individually communicate with the club and express the anger you feel toward something that has been such an important part of your life being ruined, but in the list of bad things this regime has done, "Not responding to emails personally" is pretty far down the list.9 -
Still cut and paste ...they have stopped trying ...not even thinking about it now. Pathetic approach.0
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Dear Mr Duchatelet,
Driving back to England through France last Sunday, my son noticed that there were only two lanes on most of the Autoroutes.
He pointed out that this mostly appeared adequate as the French drivers pulled out to overtake and then immediately back in. They also appeared aware of the other road users so if, as we were, you come steaming up the back of them, they immediately took action to remove themselves from the lane we wanted to travel in.
I then taught him the EU designated letters on the number plates.
He pointed out that 80% of the time, if there was a hold up, it was caused by Belgian drivers with the other 20% being mostly GB drivers as we got closer to the UK.
I am interested to know whether you think there is some national trait evidencing itself here? Is it a common feature of Belgian driving tuition that sitting calmly in the fast lane ignoring everything around you is considered acceptable?
I am asking you particularly as a man who sees that which few else see.
Unfortunately my son then started singing 'we want Roland out' every time we came up behind a Belgian car hogging the fast lane slowly. I have tried to explain that there are many worthy, clever and visionary Belgians and the antics of these drivers should not be linked to the Belgian ownership and management of our club Charlton.
He's only 6 though and he didn't quite get it. I tried explaining what the Belgians have done for us but it fell a little flat I fear. Grateful for any help you can give here (I already tried the new pitch, the red seats, the potential training ground).... He just kept saying, but we aren't any good dad, and the players haven't seemed to care all season. Does ceballos even play for us any more. 600 miles I had this for.
So Roland, any new insights would be gratefully received.
A loving father
Neil28 -
Also, a comma after off and a question mark at the end instead of a full stop.Brendan_O_Connell said:
*You'reSwisdom said:
Considering most of the emails in probably read as follows I think it's a decent attempt actually.Macronate said:after the thank you
paragraph 1-grammatically awful
paragraph 2-not much better, bit of flannel
paragraph 3-mention of player farm
paragraph 4-bullshit
paragraph 5-makes it sound like you're on a life support machine
"Dear Charlton
Your well shit. When are you gonna fuck off you belgiummers.
From
Mike Hunt"1 -
If you're going to leave in 'belgiummers' you might as well forget the rest of the corrections.2
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I don't care what their first language is. That sentence is terrible. ...bring back fans like you to The Valley. Was this written by a fourteen school girl?sarge1g said:It appears that they have developed an almost standard reply to any questions about season ticket renewal. At least the response was quick albeit that it was exactly what I expected.
Good Afternoon Katrien,
As a long standing season ticket holder who has supported Charlton for over 50 years I feel I must ask a few questions as to why I should renew my season ticket for next season. This season has been another where despite efforts by "the management team" and the ever missing "Owner" the team has failed spectacularly to achieve any hope of progress. We are told that the Owner "does not do failure" but I can no longer see how this can be possible when we are about to almost certainly drop into League One. We are also told that Charlton is a team with "Premier League ambitions" which again is now something that appears less likely as with the probability of a substantial number of current players either wanting to leave or being made available for transfer in an attempt to balance what will be a large drop in income especially in terms of season ticket sales (even though this is suggested as 1/3 rd of the clubs revenue stream) we can expect to see a team made up of young players from the development squad along with others who have passed their best (Roger Johnson for example).
You have in the past described fans as "customers" and questioned if we were to go to a restuarant would we complain to the management in the same way we do at a football club. I suggest to you that if CAFC were a restuarant then currently we could consider that we are being served not haute cuisine standard food (reserved for Premier League customers) but probably Table d'hote style food yet when we are likely relegated and are at best served with a fast food dish yet you are intending for us to pay the same price as before. How can you justify no decrease in price for what will be much less quality fare. As you ought to be aware C.A.R.D have laid out good reasons for fans (customers) not to renew their season ticket and I would like you to provide me with your reasons as to why I should renew.
I look forward to your considered response.
Hello Graham,
Thank you for your email.
We are disappointed that you feel this way at the moment but we do understand why. We value the fact of the huge part our supporters play in the running of the club. As requested, here are our plans for you to consider in regards to making your decision whether to renew.
In order to improve current situation our plans are as follows: Our immediate priority is to try and improve recruitment, which is why we are currently interviewing for a Chief Scout – the Head Coach is involved in this appointment because the scout will be supplying players for his team. The club has admitted that recruitment has not been good enough.
We want to keep on developing and playing Academy talent because it’s something this club has a proud tradition of. It’s why we are investing in the training ground and Academy – we want to keep on attracting the best talent. And we want that talent to first and foremost be having long and prosperous careers with Charlton. Some players do move on, some of their own choosing, but it’s why we have worked hard over the last couple of years to get our young talent on long-term deals.
Importantly we know that we have to rebuild bridges with supporters. That is going to require some hard work from all of us at the club over the coming months but we will of course do that. We are trying to communicate more, the Richard Murray Q&A and Roland Duchatelet interviews were part of that, as is this new email – we know we need to have more conversations. Something like the change of the scoreboard to team sheets as opposed to live feed came about through conversations with fans, as did making the North Lower our most affordable area.
We know we have a major job to do to bring back fans like yourself to The Valley, and the staff here are trying hard to improve things at the club for the future.
We will keep on trying and we hope that you stay with us.
Best regards
The Supporter Relations Team0 -
The whole construct is laughable.
''We are disappointed that you feel this way at the moment but we do understand why'...Who understands? What is their understanding in relation to this supporter and their particular reasons for writing in? Why the reference to 'at the moment' unless you think it's a results/relegation issue? It isn't.
So that's the first sentence. Does not get better.0 -
3
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Compare that to what we receive with this current lot, shows how lucky we had it with a more understanding and knowledgeable regime.Weegie Addick said:This is how the Spivs did it:
https://chicagoaddick.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/a-letter-to-supporters/
No way were they the best, and ultimately money ran out. But they stuck by Powell and delivered exactly what they aimed to achieve that season. Had the money not ran out/Cash pull out of funding, we may have pushed on further when we finished 9th back in the Championship.
Whilst we are under this current regime, I can't ever see us being in a similar position to what we were back then, only a lot, lot worse.
Simple opinion is I just don't think the club care about us or the playing side half as much as it used to, and nothing like it should.3 -
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I think the response in the OP is fine and suitable. The issue is that nothing they say would have changed anyone's mind as it has gone too far and they have systematically burnt all bridges. This is RD, KM and RM's fault and there is no coming back no matter how many comms staff they employ.2
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Better communications with the fans like Richard Murray Q & A and Roland's videos? Murray told us we were panicking about relegation and it was all bad luck due to injuries but with January investment and recoveries we would stay up. Roland, on the other hand, issued his rant against the best advice of his new Head of Communications who promptly resigned (constructive dismissal case surely). Yeah, dream on The Supporters Relations Team.1
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The difference in the Slater letter is not just the honesty of the content. It is written in an adult to adult tone of voice, not in a condescending and patronising way to a stupid child who just refuses to accept what he/she is repeatedly being told.22
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Charm offensive or yet another PR disaster?
Crisis what Crisis get Uncle Phil involved!
Oh bugger they already did, didn't they!
Keep up the good work they are indeed "under pressure".0 -
Whatever comes out of the club is hot air. I don't take any notice of what s*** they spout now.Athletico Charlton said:I think the response in the OP is fine and suitable. The issue is that nothing they say would have changed anyone's mind as it has gone too far and they have systematically burnt all bridges. This is RD, KM and RM's fault and there is no coming back no matter how many comms staff they employ.
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They copy and paste a message which would be questionable written english from a 10 year old. It's also a load of boring meaningless repetitive drivel.
Utterly pathetic.
The most lazy unprofessional thing I have ever seen. They must think all Charlton fans have interlinked robotic brains that all think exactly alike.
Charlton fans are infact people.
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Am I getting deja?
Why start another thread?2 -
I just got my copy and paste response "Mr Duchatelet has no plans to sell the club"0
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So glad the response mentioned the 'scoreboard'. Eight months to take action and even then it wasn't great - thought they would have kept quite about that one. Again a poorly constructed and grammatically incorrect document. I realise I am a stickler for grammar and punctuation and appreciate not everyone finds it easy or important. However this is supposedly an official document and should be perfect. One bright point the sign- off "The Supporter Relations Team" does indicate to me they acknowledge Charlton does have only one supporter left so perhaps CARD are getting through to them2
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Thought I was going mad...AFKABartram said:Am I getting deja?
Why start another thread?0
