I'm still massively uneasy with the whole fact that they didn't give Wilder written assurances over football and the fact that Slade has taken the job. Can't see them changing their mind in the 2 weeks in between, and worry that Slade has accepted knowing he won't have full control. If this is the case then an irrelevant appointment.
Only time will tell. I welcome the fact he's British, I welcome the fact he's had a long career at the lower levels. I just can't trust any act under this regime anymore
Also, for me, massive amount to be done on the playing front. Assuming player departures, this is the team for me next season
Pope
Solly, Bauer, Lennon, Fox
RW, Cousins/Kashi CM LW
CF, CF
I honestly believe it's that bleak in that squad, and that's a lot of positions to fill
Wilder got all he wanted .... his own backroom staff full control and 4x wages........
I'm still massively uneasy with the whole fact that they didn't give Wilder written assurances over football and the fact that Slade has taken the job. Can't see them changing their mind in the 2 weeks in between, and worry that Slade has accepted knowing he won't have full control. If this is the case then an irrelevant appointment.
Only time will tell. I welcome the fact he's British, I welcome the fact he's had a long career at the lower levels. I just can't trust any act under this regime anymore
Also, for me, massive amount to be done on the playing front. Assuming player departures, this is the team for me next season
Pope
Solly, Bauer, Lennon, Fox
RW, Cousins/Kashi CM LW
CF, CF
I honestly believe it's that bleak in that squad, and that's a lot of positions to fill
Wilder got all he wanted .... his own backroom staff full control and 4x wages........
Lisbie has been saddened by the decline of Charlton, whose academy nurtured his talent. “I went to a reunion recently and a lot of people were not happy,” he said.
Thanks for that Kev but a bit too much info...
"... he will always be on the training field even when he has a number two..."
i was going to renew anyway - i've not renewed straight away in protest but i won't have any owner stopping me from going to charlton matches - thats the reality and i don't care how bad it gets, its what i do and always will do.
Don't have to buy a season ticket & commit your money up front to go to matches, Doucher....
That's true FF, but on the flip side, by paying on a match to match basis you're actually giving him a lot more!
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
Exactly Shrew, yet many on here will have you believe it doesn't affect the players!!
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
Exactly Shrew, yet many on here will have you believe it doesn't affect the players!!
That many includes the players who have said it DOESN'T affect them. I think it was Pope who said it affected the other team negatively not the CAFC players.
Yet again when there were protests we often won ie Rotherham away, Boro, Weds and Brum at home so any affect, which I doubt was a positive one.
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
And that is the balancing act. We MUST keep up the protests against the owner/board but also try and support the team (IMHO). That is why I will return to the Valley not only to support the team but I want to recreate that spine-tingling feeling of that first beach ball protest where it really felt like 98% of the crowd were united. I would love to see some delayed starts next season (not every game) but with that passion then transferred to supporting the team for 90 mins and straight out behind the West stand
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
Nonsense.
We sang "how shit must you be, we're winning away" at Leeds.
We won.
By your logic we won BECAUSE we sang that song.
By normal logic we won because we were the better team on the day.
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
Exactly Shrew, yet many on here will have you believe it doesn't affect the players!!
That many includes the players who have said it DOESN'T affect them. I think it was Pope who said it affected the other team negatively not the CAFC players.
Yet again when there were protests we often won ie Rotherham away, Boro, Weds and Brum at home so any affect, which I doubt was a positive one.
Henry, Shrew was also stating that the venom in the crowd was also spilling over and players were getting badly abused which is true. You mention Pope, but at one stage he was the victim of the abusers and his game definitely suffered for it.
Both Shrew and Henry are correct in their own ways, we had fantastic support at Rotherham but Bolton was made dire but the few that Shrew mentioned. You also have to consider that at Rotherham we played some great football but at Bolton it was awful, so is the question which comes first what happens in the crowd or on the pitch? For me it is a bit of both but at Bolton the whole atmosphere of the ground was negative as were bioth teams, but we should not take that as the norm.
There does seem to be a notable element of rushing to judgement here.
We have had the acknowledgement of failure (hard to avoid when you have just been relegated), a less than fulsome apology and now seen the first steps which indicate a change of direction. We are about to find out what this actually means in terms of delivering anything tangible to the club, the manager, the players and supporters.
I do feel many including the club are under estimating the scale of the damage wrought by this regime and the price we will still need to pay going forward. There is a huge amount to be put right within the club on and off the field of play.
In terms of the playing infrastructure there will need to be a major rebuild.
The CEO has publicly indicated we will operate with same level of budget we had for our last League 1 campaign. How many of the current 41/42 professional contracts will fit under that financial cap?.
If the opportunities present themselves I would not be surprised to see up to 12-15 senior players currently under contract depart either permanently or on loan by the close of the transfer window.
At this point any serious debate is simply too soon. I urge people to hold judgement on where this will take us for a considerable while yet. There are any number of key milestones to be "hit" over the coming weeks and months not just in the rebuild but when operationally we hit a glitch "in the programme".
When there is a glaring need to support the manager, the squad and the players will this regime step up to the plate and provide the leadership and the required support or will they scurry away to their ivory tower weakly pointing the finger at anyone but themselves.
To date they have shown no ability to provide the support required. Indeed I would argue the club is not even structured to fulfil the business need in this regard.
Recognise no matter who is sitting in the managers' chair the owners' mind set and agenda operate on a completely different playing field.
Liege fans will recall when RD pulled in circa €28mn over one close season from player sales. I am not sure we have the assets to reach such an amount but have little doubt any and all offers will be considered.
This has been done to death but our entire situation is testimony to this ownership simply not sharing the values nor understanding the nature of the industry they have bought into. Duchatelet as with most overseas owners will have only stepped into the UK football industry because of the revenue potential but as with any executive who does not complete full due diligence/ detailed market research he did not understand, and then refused to meet the cost of the infrastructure needed for normal trading in this market.
Other than the high profile of such failure it is by no way a unique situation. Many of us will have seen any number of projects where the propositions were ill prepared and consequently under capitalised from the outset, with corporations wasting millions in trying to launch major business initiatives, many in new markets, with gaping holes in their understanding of the market and the infrastructure and funding needed to deliver to that market.
Executive eyes may widen at the potential revenue stream but their mind baulks at the cost of doing business.
The catastrophic failure of this regime is not who has sat in the head coach position though certain individuals did not help but its lack of respect for this market with precious little evidence it tried to learn anything "on the hoof". In comparison to the industry norm it has displayed the very definition of being amateurish and small minded in almost every facet of its trading on and off the field of play.
It chose to try to impose its practices and its values on an unknown and very different market. Such practices & values have in large part been challenged to the point of ridicule by the industry.
The regime appears to now positioning itself to launch its "revolutionary" PLAN B which is to buy local market knowledge. In Head and Slade they have bought/ brought in local market knowledge. Whether they will be any more successful in securing support for their ideas than Messrs Powell and Chapple only time will tell.
All trust has long since gone and the fear must remain they will simply try to "leverage in" such expertise into their failed PLAN A.
A player farm is a player farm no matter from where you source the materials (players).
Will this regime really be suitably chastened by their experiences to date.
I have little doubt Ms Meire over recent weeks will have had any number of conversations with any number of prospects and industry "people". She may have outlined or even offered a contract or two but when it gets down to the final terms the fundamental problem remains.
PLAN A was and is badly, badly flawed. "Buying British" only addresses one of the many challenges.
I can almost guarantee someone in the halls of Staprix will be strongly defending their "master plan" and reassuring the owner with this "working with the local knowledge tweak" all will be well.
We could always be sure someone, somewhere at some time would eventually bite the bullet convince themselves, despite all of the challenges they can make it work. Russell Slade will not be alone. Peeters, Luzon, Fraeye and Riga have preceded him.
As I have said before he at least appears to be a very decent safe pair of hands - no more, no less but in our circumstances it is actually probably what we need and the best we could hope for.
In terms of moving forward there will only be two people who will have a gram of market credibility to effect the changes needed. This regime, if it has the gumption to recognise it, is operating in its last chance saloon. If it goes wrong from here I am not sure the consequences bear thinking about.
The club under this regime in professional terms is already virtually untouchable.
In this close season we already appear to have bumbled our way to this point but I accept as Slade was under contract and received approaches from elsewhere, some delay in an appointment will have been inevitable.
Whatever frustrations people feel they need to express on either side of the debate do we not all know in our hearts whoever signed up to this process, no matter their experience, no matter their profile they are on a hiding to nothing?
The coming weeks will see changes, very likely very significant changes. Each will tell us how this regime intends to proceed. Some may need to temper their expectations.
These forthcoming departures and recruitments will tell us all we need to know about the futures of Messrs Slade and Head and indeed our own.
As always I wish the new manager every good fortune in his endeavours on behalf of the club, the team, the squad and the supporters. May the "odds always been in his favour".
Messrs Slade and Head are going to need all the support they can get.
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
Exactly Shrew, yet many on here will have you believe it doesn't affect the players!!
That many includes the players who have said it DOESN'T affect them. I think it was Pope who said it affected the other team negatively not the CAFC players.
Yet again when there were protests we often won ie Rotherham away, Boro, Weds and Brum at home so any affect, which I doubt was a positive one.
Henry, Shrew was also stating that the venom in the crowd was also spilling over and players were getting badly abused which is true. You mention Pope, but at one stage he was the victim of the abusers and his game definitely suffered for it.
I agree with you and Shrew on that. Giving stick to Pope and big Mak did nothing to help and may well have hindered them and the team.
But they were not part of the Protests, no one wore a black and white scarf to get Pope dropped. The banner said "support the team, not the regime" and broadly speaking that is what the majority of fans, both pro and anti RD, did all season.
We lost plenty of games this season before the protests too. The results and the relegation were not caused by the protests.
It's a shame it's taken a completely avoidable and unnecessary relegation to League One for Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire to realise they couldn't keep appointing nobodies from the depths of Belgian football and turn to an average British manager.
One thing it does prove, is that the protests are working.
Exactly. So why take the pressure off by stopping them? I don't believe CARD and the people that support them have gone to all this effort, and expense, to be placated by the arrival of Slade FFS. So we marched to the Valley with the CAFC coffin and then Roland balloon, persuaded sponsors to leave, got 2 games delayed and invaded the pitch all for the long awaited appointment of Slade. I don't think so.
The passion behind the crowd singing 'we want Roland out' when the beach balls were thrown on the pitch for the first game we got delayed will stay with me. We must continue the protests until he's gone, he's destroying our club. It's way way too late for compromise - ROLAND OUT.
Yes the passion was great and when the crowd do get really behind the team it makes a real difference, the majority of matches however was just full of negative, cynical sometime abusive chants. Abusive songs about the sex life of Roland and Katrien, Stand up if you want them out, How shit must you be, We are the Charlton the mighty Charlton we always lose away, just added to the downward spiral of the club we love. The final game at Bolton about 8 very loud drunk supporters spent the whole match shouting abuse at our own players clearly audible to our team as the place was much quieter then a library. Alongside protests there needs to be real pride in our club, and real support for the team or we all get dragged down further and further.
Exactly Shrew, yet many on here will have you believe it doesn't affect the players!!
That many includes the players who have said it DOESN'T affect them. I think it was Pope who said it affected the other team negatively not the CAFC players.
Yet again when there were protests we often won ie Rotherham away, Boro, Weds and Brum at home so any affect, which I doubt was a positive one.
Henry, Shrew was also stating that the venom in the crowd was also spilling over and players were getting badly abused which is true. You mention Pope, but at one stage he was the victim of the abusers and his game definitely suffered for it.
I agree with you and Shrew on that. Giving stick to Pope and big Mak did nothing to help and may well have hindered them and the team.
But they were not part of the Protests, no one wore a black and white scarf to get Pope dropped. The banner said "support the team, not the regime" and broadly speaking that is what the majority of fans, both pro and anti RD, did all season.
We lost plenty of games this season before the protests too. The results and the relegation were not caused by the protests.
I agree with you and never said the results and relegation were down to the protests, but a 'We always lose away' chant started up even before kick off at the start of a vital relegation match is hardly going to help is it ! I think its a downward negative spiral that we need to avoid by finding a balance of supporting the team, and continuing protests.
I really hope that all those who say they will now be travelling away as opposed to getting season tickets, supports the players loudly and proudly and the players respond with some good football.
I have supported CAFC since 1959 and can assure you that players like Roy Matthews (who was nicknamed Jessie) and Dennis Edwards (nicknamed Daisy) got as much stick then as players do today. Anyone in the public eye needs to develop a thick skin, otherwise they will disappear into oblivion.
I cast my mind back to a home game against Cardiff under Peeters - we were behind and down to 10 men. Peeters decided to risk three at the back and go on the attack, hoping Slade was inept enough not to respond. This is an issue with a lot of rubbish managers - when a manager does what Peeters did, you have to go attacking to exploit the weakness, but you have a lead to protect. The cowardly and tactically inept don't respond. Of course Peeters was daring Slade to respond and he didn't. Rubbish manager, but maybe a good match for a rubbish owner.
Comments
It's because Australians can't spell beer.
"... he will always be on the training field even when he has a number two..."
Yet again when there were protests we often won ie Rotherham away, Boro, Weds and Brum at home so any affect, which I doubt was a positive one.
I would love to see some delayed starts next season (not every game) but with that passion then transferred to supporting the team for 90 mins and straight out behind the West stand
We sang "how shit must you be, we're winning away" at Leeds.
We won.
By your logic we won BECAUSE we sang that song.
By normal logic we won because we were the better team on the day.
We have had the acknowledgement of failure (hard to avoid when you have just been relegated), a less than fulsome apology and now seen the first steps which indicate a change of direction. We are about to find out what this actually means in terms of delivering anything tangible to the club, the manager, the players and supporters.
I do feel many including the club are under estimating the scale of the damage wrought by this regime and the price we will still need to pay going forward. There is a huge amount to be put right within the club on and off the field of play.
In terms of the playing infrastructure there will need to be a major rebuild.
The CEO has publicly indicated we will operate with same level of budget we had for our last League 1 campaign. How many of the current 41/42 professional contracts will fit under that financial cap?.
If the opportunities present themselves I would not be surprised to see up to 12-15 senior players currently under contract depart either permanently or on loan by the close of the transfer window.
At this point any serious debate is simply too soon. I urge people to hold judgement on where this will take us for a considerable while yet. There are any number of key milestones to be "hit" over the coming weeks and months not just in the rebuild but when operationally we hit a glitch "in the programme".
When there is a glaring need to support the manager, the squad and the players will this regime step up to the plate and provide the leadership and the required support or will they scurry away to their ivory tower weakly pointing the finger at anyone but themselves.
To date they have shown no ability to provide the support required. Indeed I would argue the club is not even structured to fulfil the business need in this regard.
Recognise no matter who is sitting in the managers' chair the owners' mind set and agenda operate on a completely different playing field.
Liege fans will recall when RD pulled in circa €28mn over one close season from player sales. I am not sure we have the assets to reach such an amount but have little doubt any and all offers will be considered.
This has been done to death but our entire situation is testimony to this ownership simply not sharing the values nor understanding the nature of the industry they have bought into. Duchatelet as with most overseas owners will have only stepped into the UK football industry because of the revenue potential but as with any executive who does not complete full due diligence/ detailed market research he did not understand, and then refused to meet the cost of the infrastructure needed for normal trading in this market.
Other than the high profile of such failure it is by no way a unique situation. Many of us will have seen any number of projects where the propositions were ill prepared and consequently under capitalised from the outset, with corporations wasting millions in trying to launch major business initiatives, many in new markets, with gaping holes in their understanding of the market and the infrastructure and funding needed to deliver to that market.
Executive eyes may widen at the potential revenue stream but their mind baulks at the cost of doing business.
The catastrophic failure of this regime is not who has sat in the head coach position though certain individuals did not help but its lack of respect for this market with precious little evidence it tried to learn anything "on the hoof". In comparison to the industry norm it has displayed the very definition of being amateurish and small minded in almost every facet of its trading on and off the field of play.
It chose to try to impose its practices and its values on an unknown and very different market. Such practices & values have in large part been challenged to the point of ridicule by the industry.
The regime appears to now positioning itself to launch its "revolutionary" PLAN B which is to buy local market knowledge. In Head and Slade they have bought/ brought in local market knowledge. Whether they will be any more successful in securing support for their ideas than Messrs Powell and Chapple only time will tell.
All trust has long since gone and the fear must remain they will simply try to "leverage in" such expertise into their failed PLAN A.
A player farm is a player farm no matter from where you source the materials (players).
Will this regime really be suitably chastened by their experiences to date.
I have little doubt Ms Meire over recent weeks will have had any number of conversations with any number of prospects and industry "people". She may have outlined or even offered a contract or two but when it gets down to the final terms the fundamental problem remains.
PLAN A was and is badly, badly flawed. "Buying British" only addresses one of the many challenges.
I can almost guarantee someone in the halls of Staprix will be strongly defending their "master plan" and reassuring the owner with this "working with the local knowledge tweak" all will be well.
We could always be sure someone, somewhere at some time would eventually bite the bullet convince themselves, despite all of the challenges they can make it work. Russell Slade will not be alone. Peeters, Luzon, Fraeye and Riga have preceded him.
As I have said before he at least appears to be a very decent safe pair of hands - no more, no less but in our circumstances it is actually probably what we need and the best we could hope for.
In terms of moving forward there will only be two people who will have a gram of market credibility to effect the changes needed. This regime, if it has the gumption to recognise it, is operating in its last chance saloon. If it goes wrong from here I am not sure the consequences bear thinking about.
The club under this regime in professional terms is already virtually untouchable.
In this close season we already appear to have bumbled our way to this point but I accept as Slade was under contract and received approaches from elsewhere, some delay in an appointment will have been inevitable.
Whatever frustrations people feel they need to express on either side of the debate do we not all know in our hearts whoever signed up to this process, no matter their experience, no matter their profile they are on a hiding to nothing?
The coming weeks will see changes, very likely very significant changes. Each will tell us how this regime intends to proceed. Some may need to temper their expectations.
These forthcoming departures and recruitments will tell us all we need to know about the futures of Messrs Slade and Head and indeed our own.
As always I wish the new manager every good fortune in his endeavours on behalf of the club, the team, the squad and the supporters. May the "odds always been in his favour".
Messrs Slade and Head are going to need all the support they can get.
But they were not part of the Protests, no one wore a black and white scarf to get Pope dropped. The banner said "support the team, not the regime" and broadly speaking that is what the majority of fans, both pro and anti RD, did all season.
We lost plenty of games this season before the protests too. The results and the relegation were not caused by the protests.
I think its a downward negative spiral that we need to avoid by finding a balance of supporting the team, and continuing protests.
I really hope that all those who say they will now be travelling away as opposed to getting season tickets, supports the players loudly and proudly and the players respond with some good football.