Yesterday highlighted exactly why the Rat continues to employ her. Why sack her, when she deflects all the hate, vitriol and ridicule away from the Great Leader himself.
“There is so much abusive language now at The Valley – and that’s not part of football. It’s in their interests to try not to have this time of behaviour because now mums with kids won’t come to the games.
“The chants that are going around, it’s not promoting the sport, and the governing bodies have an interest in trying to stop that.”
Katrien Meire 12 May 2016
Dear Katrien,
I hope you are well this morning.
Sadly, I did not sleep at all well last night, worrying that the swearing, and abusive chants are preventing the Club hitting their targets for new 6 year old customers.
So, I had a ring around very early this morning (nothing is too much trouble where you are concerned) and arrived at a consensus that the lyrics to some of the chants you are concerned about should be changed.
For your information for the forseeable future we will have:
'Get out of our Club, get out of our Club, you Belgian tinkers, get out of our Club'
and
'Katrien is our leader, she wears such lovely clothes, and when she's out with Roland, she frets about his toes'. (We know your are concerned that Roly's leaky shoes may result in a foot fungus).
and
'Hey-ay Roland, (ooh-ah), we want to know-ow-ow why you're such a Card' (not a reference to those awful chaps at CARD, but a reflection that Roly makes us smile so much, bless him.
And during the game, when the opposition score at The Valley (as they do frequently these days) we will acknowledge this with shouts of 'Well played sir'.
And when we lose a game at The Valley (as we frequently do these days) we will cheer our forlorn coach/manager, with cries 'Don't worry old chap, better luck next time'.
And on leaving the ground, we will smile to show our contentment just like the ladies in that film, The Stepford (or is it Deptford) Wives.
I hope the above has brightened your day,
Best wishes,
Isawsummersplay (as you can guess by my name, I am one of those aged supporters that you would not wish to see at The Valley, and will be acquiesing to your wishes).
PS: However, if you, Roland and Murray are still here come August 1st, the gloves will be off and you trio of morons won't know what day of the week it is.
I see that the Women In Football twitter feed has retweeted the South London Press story. Using the gender card to try and demonise all of us vile sexist racists, no doubt...
Can't they find her a nice cushy position within their organisation?
I hope someone with Twitter can point out that it is not a sexist thing and that a lot of the protesters are women! It's abuse of a football club!
Yes, it is outrageous and does their worthy cause no good! There are lots of extremely able women who should be working in football if they wish to. But a rubbish one should not have a job because she is a woman!
She says other than us having one of the worst teams in the football league every thing else is great at Charlton. Could some one point out the problems with being able to buy tickets on-line and that the ticket office is closed more than open, that the catering is the worst I have experienced this season in any ground I have been to this season. I have no doubts others will be able to come up with other failings outside of the terrible way thay have run the football team side of the club.
I see that the Women In Football twitter feed has retweeted the South London Press story. Using the gender card to try and demonise all of us vile sexist racists, no doubt...
Can't they find her a nice cushy position within their organisation?
I hope someone with Twitter can point out that it is not a sexist thing and that a lot of the protesters are women! It's abuse of a football club!
Plenty of ladies have replied to the Tweet itself condemning Meire.
If the people behind Women in Football wanted to represent their namesake they would expose KM as someone who is clearly hiding behind her gender and doing more damage to female involvement in football, not as a hero to be idolised as they are currently doing.
I am wondering if this 'outburst' was actually well planned and quite deliberate rather than her just shooting her mouth off again. It avoided her having to answer questions and sought to deflect the news story off her running of the club and onto the behaviour of supporters, a line swallowed unquestioningly by some newspapers (inevitably starting with the Daily Mail). So some will now see her as a victim of a baying mob and she can play the bullied female card she so loves.
Look at the timing of this and then an immediate interview with PA. End of the season (where she has said nothing) so she has three months without protests to distract the media, three months to engage with them and re-build relationships ahead of the new season. Expect a charm offensive from Meire in the coming weeks, and expect a lot more coverage/interviews in the press. If we thought the season was bad, having to put up with the crap likely to be coming out of The Valley between now an August could tip some over the edge.
I am wondering if this 'outburst' was actually well planned and quite deliberate rather than her just shooting her mouth off again. It avoided her having to answer questions and sought to deflect the news story off her running of the club and onto the behaviour of supporters, a line swallowed unquestioningly by some newspapers (inevitably starting with the Daily Mail). So some will now see her as a victim of a baying mob and she can play the bullied female card she so loves.
Look at the timing of this and then an immediate interview with PA. End of the season (where she has said nothing) so she has three months without protests to distract the media, three months to engage with them and re-build relationships ahead of the new season. Expect a charm offensive from Meire in the coming weeks, and expect a lot more coverage/interviews in the press. If we thought the season was bad, having to put up with the crap likely to be coming out of The Valley between now an August could tip some over the edge.
I don't join in to the 'Katrien is a slapper' chants, and only at the one away game I've been to this season (without my son) have I joined in the 'Hey Roland' chants without modifying the c**t at the end to some normal words.
We could easily make the chants swear free but for goodness sake it's football. Personal abuse happens every game and it is a normal part of the game. While for some, it would be preferable if it were not, for others it would blunt the effect and the force of the chants.
If I were the CEO of a business and I was at a conference where those on stage suggested the club was run badly, I would feel the need to respond. Hopefully, I wouldn't get into that position but if I had, I would not respond in a way that reinforced, in front of everyone in my industry, that I had lost the plot and was losing it more second by second.
Her comments were very ill judged, tried to justify the unjustifiable through weak complaints against the minority of protests that have been close to (but not for many over the wire or over the wire enough).
When she looks back on this, it will be another awful day in a career of awful days.
Katrien, it's time to go. Plucky though you undoubtedly are, you are not experienced enough or sufficiently competent in many areas to do the role of CEO of Charlton Athletic successfully. Not now, nor at any point in the future.
Please find a way out so that you are not further embarrassed.
Many thanks
This speaks for me. I don't feel sorry for her because this situation is of her own making, a woman in her dream job but woefully short of the skills and experience to perform it successfully. But I'm not without compassion and it's fair to say part of me wishing she'd resign is to save her from more difficulty. I'm sure she's not a horrible person but she's made a horrible job of just about everything she's done.
She could have stood up and conceded that things haven't gone well and as she's ultimately responsible for that she takes the criticism on the chin. But she's determined to make amends, learn the lessons and take a completely different direction next year to put things right, that it was inexperience rather than wilful recklessness that was at the root of things. She could have stayed on topic by, for example, suggesting how governing bodies could help protect clubs, fans and their owners by establishing a framework of good practice guidance within which new owners could seek to operate.
If she'd have done that she might even have come out with credit, some empathy and even a plan to improve the risks involved in changes of ownership.
Instead she went on the defensive, and tried to deflect responsibility onto just about anyone else - fans, media, players, governing bodies.
There is one person responsible for this mess, if as she insists we're talking to the owner when we're talking to her.
Like Riga's at the POTY do, this should be her parting speech. Do yourself a favour Katrien before you make yourself unwell, unemployable or both.
Out of the whole expensively assembled conference with all its high profile speakers it is Katrien Meire of shambolic, League One Charlton who generates two separate stories in the Daily Telegraph. Nevermind the advice to keep her yap shut, she outdoes World and Olympic champions attracting all the attention as her foul-mouthed, amateurish outburst is splattered all over the papers.
I have just run out of words to describe how stupid, ignorant and offensive she is.
excellent statement, I have put this on Twitter - we definitely should follow this with the FA - its unforgivable putting our supporters, with our background, in such a bad light
Hope they follow thru' with reporting her to the FL for bring the game into disrepute. She might not be so keen on the authorities intervening after that.
I am wondering if this 'outburst' was actually well planned and quite deliberate rather than her just shooting her mouth off again. It avoided her having to answer questions and sought to deflect the news story off her running of the club and onto the behaviour of supporters, a line swallowed unquestioningly by some newspapers (inevitably starting with the Daily Mail). So some will now see her as a victim of a baying mob and she can play the bullied female card she so loves.
Look at the timing of this and then an immediate interview with PA. End of the season (where she has said nothing) so she has three months without protests to distract the media, three months to engage with them and re-build relationships ahead of the new season. Expect a charm offensive from Meire in the coming weeks, and expect a lot more coverage/interviews in the press. If we thought the season was bad, having to put up with the crap likely to be coming out of The Valley between now an August could tip some over the edge.
This is an interesting point. If you put aside the utter nonsense she came up with about blaming fans, etc., the content is "the football hasn't been good, but look at all these fantastic things we are doing away from the pitch"
This has been a theme throughout the tenure of this regime, but I have noticed over the last few weeks a heightening of the message.
I paraphrase, but things I have heard recently: "we know the football has been bad and we have hit rock bottom there, but look at all of these fantastic things we are doing away from the football" "Aren't we good at community projects?" "look at how we want to support kids in our community in lots of ways" "look at all of the investment we are putting into the training ground which will also support the local community". There has been other stuff of a similar nature.
Behind the scenes, they know that the football has been an unmitigated disaster this year. But rather than properly acknowledge that, accept the blame for what has gone on, and present a plan of how things will improve, they seem to be trying to distract people. They think a concerted effort to focus people outside of Charlton on all of these fabulous things they are doing in the community will stop everyone seeing the reality of the situation.
They also had pinned a lot on getting Wilder because they thought that would make a difference. Late on Tuesday afternoon there was much trumpeting of his arrival on Wednesday. "everything starts again tomorrow at 10.30" was the line. They were also making much of the "Wilder is his own man and will be making the decisions around the team and selection" view. Then, as we know, he walked away. Come Wednesday morning and everything is very subdued and almost a denial that a press conference might have been taking place that morning.
The thing that mystifies me is how you can continue to be so naive and continue to make the same mistakes over such a long time. I don't mind someone new coming in and getting things wrong, so long as they learn and change behaviour to something more suitable. But, 30 months in, the current regime still seem to totally believe in their own ability, continue to not listen to any advice given which might help, and firmly hold on to the idea that they are doing a good job, despite the world collapsing around them.
At some point it will have to stop, but I fear it is not any time soon.
Have to pick you up on one of your proposed chants:
'Get out of our Club, get out of our Club, you Belgian tinkers, get out of our Club'
You don't want to make matters worse and I'm afraid the word tinker might offend some members of the wider community . (My tongue is very much in my cheek whilst I write this!)
Found this on the internet though:
3. Schijtluis
Translation: Shit Louse. Meaning: Cowardly, yellow. Pretty much the same thing as when you call someone chickenshit in America.
I think the pronunciation is much the same as the English translation and Katrien is happy to use the word Schijt
Comments
“The chants that are going around, it’s not promoting the sport, and the governing bodies have an interest in trying to stop that.”
Katrien Meire 12 May 2016
Dear Katrien,
I hope you are well this morning.
Sadly, I did not sleep at all well last night, worrying that the swearing, and abusive chants are preventing the Club hitting their targets for new 6 year old customers.
So, I had a ring around very early this morning (nothing is too much trouble where you are concerned) and arrived at a consensus that the lyrics to some of the chants you are concerned about should be changed.
For your information for the forseeable future we will have:
'Get out of our Club, get out of our Club, you Belgian tinkers, get out of our Club'
and
'Katrien is our leader, she wears such lovely clothes, and when she's out with Roland, she frets about his toes'. (We know your are concerned that Roly's leaky shoes may result in a foot fungus).
and
'Hey-ay Roland, (ooh-ah), we want to know-ow-ow why you're such a Card' (not a reference to those awful chaps at CARD, but a reflection that Roly makes us smile so much, bless him.
And during the game, when the opposition score at The Valley (as they do frequently these days) we will acknowledge this with shouts of 'Well played sir'.
And when we lose a game at The Valley (as we frequently do these days) we will cheer our forlorn coach/manager, with cries 'Don't worry old chap, better luck next time'.
And on leaving the ground, we will smile to show our contentment just like the ladies in that film, The Stepford (or is it Deptford) Wives.
I hope the above has brightened your day,
Best wishes,
Isawsummersplay (as you can guess by my name, I am one of those aged supporters that you would not wish to see at The Valley, and will be acquiesing to your wishes).
PS: However, if you, Roland and Murray are still here come August 1st, the gloves will be off and you trio of morons won't know what day of the week it is.
Beachballs, flyers and a banner. She's got off fairly easy, considering Standard Liege stormed the Directors box and smashed it up (ooo-eerrr)
If the people behind Women in Football wanted to represent their namesake they would expose KM as someone who is clearly hiding behind her gender and doing more damage to female involvement in football, not as a hero to be idolised as they are currently doing.
Look at the timing of this and then an immediate interview with PA. End of the season (where she has said nothing) so she has three months without protests to distract the media, three months to engage with them and re-build relationships ahead of the new season. Expect a charm offensive from Meire in the coming weeks, and expect a lot more coverage/interviews in the press. If we thought the season was bad, having to put up with the crap likely to be coming out of The Valley between now an August could tip some over the edge.
She could have stood up and conceded that things haven't gone well and as she's ultimately responsible for that she takes the criticism on the chin. But she's determined to make amends, learn the lessons and take a completely different direction next year to put things right, that it was inexperience rather than wilful recklessness that was at the root of things. She could have stayed on topic by, for example, suggesting how governing bodies could help protect clubs, fans and their owners by establishing a framework of good practice guidance within which new owners could seek to operate.
If she'd have done that she might even have come out with credit, some empathy and even a plan to improve the risks involved in changes of ownership.
Instead she went on the defensive, and tried to deflect responsibility onto just about anyone else - fans, media, players, governing bodies.
There is one person responsible for this mess, if as she insists we're talking to the owner when we're talking to her.
Like Riga's at the POTY do, this should be her parting speech. Do yourself a favour Katrien before you make yourself unwell, unemployable or both.
I have just run out of words to describe how stupid, ignorant and offensive she is.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3587945/Charlton-supporters-crossed-line-criticism-claims-club-chief-Katrien-Meire.html
castrust.org/2016/05/not-acceptable-not-sport/
As has been said on here endlessly, if only the club were half as professional as the various fan groups.
Hope they follow thru' with reporting her to the FL for bring the game into disrepute. She might not be so keen on the authorities intervening after that.
This has been a theme throughout the tenure of this regime, but I have noticed over the last few weeks a heightening of the message.
I paraphrase, but things I have heard recently: "we know the football has been bad and we have hit rock bottom there, but look at all of these fantastic things we are doing away from the football" "Aren't we good at community projects?" "look at how we want to support kids in our community in lots of ways" "look at all of the investment we are putting into the training ground which will also support the local community". There has been other stuff of a similar nature.
Behind the scenes, they know that the football has been an unmitigated disaster this year. But rather than properly acknowledge that, accept the blame for what has gone on, and present a plan of how things will improve, they seem to be trying to distract people. They think a concerted effort to focus people outside of Charlton on all of these fabulous things they are doing in the community will stop everyone seeing the reality of the situation.
They also had pinned a lot on getting Wilder because they thought that would make a difference. Late on Tuesday afternoon there was much trumpeting of his arrival on Wednesday. "everything starts again tomorrow at 10.30" was the line. They were also making much of the "Wilder is his own man and will be making the decisions around the team and selection" view. Then, as we know, he walked away. Come Wednesday morning and everything is very subdued and almost a denial that a press conference might have been taking place that morning.
The thing that mystifies me is how you can continue to be so naive and continue to make the same mistakes over such a long time. I don't mind someone new coming in and getting things wrong, so long as they learn and change behaviour to something more suitable. But, 30 months in, the current regime still seem to totally believe in their own ability, continue to not listen to any advice given which might help, and firmly hold on to the idea that they are doing a good job, despite the world collapsing around them.
At some point it will have to stop, but I fear it is not any time soon.
Good work Trust.
Have to pick you up on one of your proposed chants:
'Get out of our Club, get out of our Club, you Belgian tinkers, get out of our Club'
You don't want to make matters worse and I'm afraid the word tinker might offend some members of the wider community . (My tongue is very much in my cheek whilst I write this!)
Found this on the internet though:
3. Schijtluis
Translation: Shit Louse.
Meaning: Cowardly, yellow. Pretty much the same thing as when you call someone chickenshit in America.
I think the pronunciation is much the same as the English translation and Katrien is happy to use the word Schijt