CHARLTON PROTESTS UNAFFECTED BY DUCHATELET’S SIXTH MANAGERIAL APPOINTMENT IN 27 MONTHS
The Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD) welcomes Russell Slade to Charlton Athletic.
Like all Charlton fans we want the team to be successful in the short and long term, so we hope that he will be given the necessary freedom and support to ensure he has a realistic opportunity to make this happen.
However, Slade is the seventh incumbent since the current regime took over in January 2014, and as such we have to regard the owner’s willingness to fulfil any promises made to get him to join the club with substantial scepticism.
We recognise that this is the first of Duchatelet’s appointments not to come via Belgium and that this does represent a shift in policy of itself, as is giving him the title of “manager”.
However, we note that departing head coach Jose Riga identified the “club structure” as his reason to leave and we remain unconvinced this will change materially in the medium term. Had Riga believed that it would change then presumably he would have been willing to continue. In fact, on leaving the club, every one of the previous bosses has criticised the restrictions imposed on them from above.
Specifically, we question the plausibility of any apparent change in direction while chief executive Katrien Meire continues in place. It is difficult to see how the club can regain any credibility as long as someone whose personal performance has been so consistently poor over two and half years remains in such a key post. The fact that she is still there is a clear indication of the owner's lack of judgement.
The club's transfer activity has been a particular disaster, with large sums of money wasted under her authority. Despite recruiting dozens and dozens of new players in two and a half years, Charlton have yet to sign a single experienced British player directly from a British club under this regime other than on a loan basis, something which is clearly untenable as a policy given the differences between the continental European and English leagues.
CARD’s protests will carry on into next season unabated as we continue to push for the owner to sell the club, because we do not believe he is capable of making the changes required, on or off the field.
If we are wrong then it is for him to prove otherwise by his actions over time.
The regime's words no longer carry any weight.
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Comments
As Airman noted a few days ago, this is a war of attrition and we must keep the pressure on the regime until they throw in the towel and bugger off back where they came from.
If we don't get out of the division at the first time of asking we run the risk of staying for a while and nobody wants that.
In the meantime I'll still be protesting against RD.
A massive move forward is RD sells the club to competent owners.
A significant move forward is to take KM away from the club.
The one person above all others who has consistently failed to get behind the team or the manager is Roland Duchatelet.
It's what has lead us to this position of why so many people want him to have nothing more to do with the club.
I don't understand how people cannot see that?
Sorry to nitpick, just not convinced there's much value for money in England at the moment. Goes without saying we needed more English/Championship experience last year. I just fear that when we get caught up on "British," be they managers or players (or players with British experience), we somewhat limit ourselves to what is an overall problem with recruitment and club structure. It feels like the 180 that led to Slade being appointed is a part of a movement toward British, but I'm unconvinced that recruiting British players, particularly the best of the lower leagues, is the way forward for us.
Diarra, Solly, Fox, Bauer, Kashi, cousins, watt...that would do very nicely as a starting point (if a little wishful thinking).
Duchatelet has been attempting to outperform the market without expertise. No wonder he has failed.
Someone above asked at what point do we stop. Well even if we won the league with 101 points I would still not trust them an inch. Not that there is any chance of that happening.
We want Roland Out
I take the point of the statement, and what qualifies good versus bad signings is subjective, complex, and time-based. I get why CARD's statement says what it says, I just try to look for greater nuance so that we don't fall into the trap of "British signings and manager=improvement."