I first went to The Valley in the mid-60s, with my Dad and brothers – we beat Preston North End 5-2. I was immediately hooked, hooked by the size of the stadium, hooked by the crowd and passion generated , and also hooked that my brothers were with me and clearly loving every high and low of the occasion.It was a time for family bonding, ii was also a time in everyones lives that was very tough for families generally, but football was an outlet and escape from the austerity we had in those times. In the next five decades, we have had our ups – and -downs, my Dad has passed on, my brothers have moved away, but I have managed to continue the family theme of supporting Charlton, and I have brought up my sons (and daughters) as Charlton fans -and going to the Valley was something we did and loved as a family.
That was, until you arrived.
You have single-handedly brought an atmosphere to the Valley that has made my children no longer want to come, and for me also to decide not to embellish your wallet by attending games any more. You have presided over the worst period in Charltons history – a time where you have decimated the club with your actions. You have done your best to destroy any family atmosphere – an atmosphere and community feel that has been at The Valley for the last 100+ years.It was part of the fabric of loca llife and community. Well done, I hope you feel proud about it. I will go to my grave hating you and everything about you and everyone associated with you. If you want to go to your grave thinking that you did something for Charlton fans – then , sell the club .Please- allow us to get back to where we should be, a club that fans can be proud of again.You have proved that you don’t care about Charlton (you clearly don’t watch the games, either live or by video link) – let someone who does have the chance to build it again to the level that we deserve, a level you clearly do not want to achieve.
Hello Roland So you believe our protests have nothing to do with reason, and that we as "actors" within the protest group will criticise no matter what you do or say. Hmmmm. Here is my personal reason for protesting against your ownership of Charlton Athletic. It seems to me you really don't care for the club, it's fans, it's employees (I even include Katrien in that), it's history and it's reputation going forward. You appear to me, and the wider world now thanks to excellent media coverage, to have bought the club for no particular reason, much like my latest wife (soon to be ex) buying all sorts of stuff on Ebay then not even opening the bloody parcels! As for what you said about us criticising no matter what you say or do, if you say you are going to bugger off and take Katie with you then follow it up by keeping to your word for a change, I for one will not utter one word of criticism. Sooner the better my old son. Sooner the better. Mark
Dear Mr Duchâtelet, You have said that those who protest against you and Katrien Meire are doing so without reason, and have dismissed opposition to Ms Meire as misogynistic bitter ex-employees. I am a woman, and a physicist, and have never been employed by CAFC. I have worked throughout my life to educate women to be confident they are the equals of men, particularly in the realms of science and engineering. However, it does nothing to support this cause when women are “promoted to fail” in high profile positions above their level of experience and expertise, as happened when you made Ms Meire CEO of Charlton. She may be following your instructions, but in such a cack-handed and incompetent way that she has alienated thousands of Charlton fans in the process, and done little to enhance her own reputation. If you wanted a female CEO, why not pick one with some relevant experience of management? Which brings me to your part in this. You, sir, appear a coward, hiding behind this unfortunate woman who you leave in the firing line, refusing to meet yourself with the Supporters’ Trust or other representative bodies of fans. With the support of a knowledgeable Director of Football, who knows – Ms Meire might have been able to learn on the job. It is now too late, as she has lost the confidence of far too many of your “customer base”. As also have you. The money you have loaned to the club has in large part been wasted on sub-standard signings because of your arrogance in assuming you can waltz into a country whose footballing standards and culture are clearly not understood either by you, or your representative, and tinker in the running of the team. And we are left with the debt on which we have the privilege to pay you interest. You have foisted on us far too many under-resourced head coaches. Your actions have brought this club to its lowest league position since the 1920s. Protesting without reason? I think not! Reciting the mantra “we have learned from our mistakes” is not going to end the protests. Many in the wider world of English football and the media recognise that your relationship with the majority of Charlton supporters is now irretrievable. Your only logical solution – and you pride yourself in being a logical man, don’t you? – is to find a buyer for this failed experiment of yours. Sincerely, Marion
I take this opportunity a few weeks short of the 3rd anniversary of your involvement with Charlton Athletic Football Club to challenge the nature of your investment in the companies representing the clubs ownership.
You offered the strength of a pan-European network of clubs, scouts and advisors which coupled with the disciplines of Financial Fair Play would deliver a competitive, sustainable future for the club where the CEO would be challenged to balance the books.
I suggest few envisaged this latter challenge was set for Staprix NV and achieved by the creation of unprecedented debt in the clubs balance sheet.
In truth the value of your unique proposition, with the sale of Standard Liege and the collapse of FFP, disintegrated. Your ownership without the experience, the commitment nor the wit to meet the challenge has struggled ever since.
You have positioned your participation in the club as appropriate for an investment representing 1.5% of your overall asset portfolio. The clubs performance bears witness to such a complete abdication of your responsibility to the club, its staff, its supporters and its community.
In view of the oft quoted advice the club is not for sale your above pronouncement brings into question your understanding of the industry in which you have invested and your aims for the club.
What business would you expect to succeed with such desultory contribution from the primary investor and key decision maker? The most basic industry due diligence will have identified executive commitment would need to expand significantly beyond merely extending the clubs credit limit on a monthly basis.
You continue to assert you act in the best interests of the club. Our current circumstances indicate there is a notable difference of understanding as to what represents the best interests of the club. It is a difference you have failed, over 35 months, to explain with any clarity. Executive statements even assisted by a costly PR machine offer no more than vacuous nonsense.
Your failure to engage with the industry has highlighted your ignorance of the foundations of U.K. professional football, the nature of its origins and the level of executive experience, knowledge & commitment needed to establish a viable, successfully competitive organisation within it.
Your attempts to impose a succession of ill conceived strategies initially based on unrelated European markets and then modified to show a more UK centric focus still show little understanding of the marketplace. They are testimony to the arrogance of the thinking which has pervaded the decisions and actions seen since January 2014.
Such arrogance extends to your and your Senior Management Team attempts to personalise the conflict between the club and so very many of the clubs present and former supporters. To suggest people have nothing to protest about speaks to the complete disrespect of the market in which you chose to "invest". Your positioning of the issues is specious. It insults those who really have nothing but the best interests of the club at heart.
For the vast majority of the thousands who have protested against your ownership and or walked away the debate has nothing to do with your nationality or the gender of the CEO. To suggest they do is intellectually weak and professionally incompetent.
The protests are against the manner in which you have chosen to structure the club and the appalling results arising from a catalogue of errors generated by a Senior Management Team completely unsuited to the industry to which you have appointed them.
I draw your attention to a recent quote from a well known US professional sportsman, Tony Romo, speaking of his changed circumstances; "The NFL is a meritocracy. It is about performance. It is about results." For the NFL please read the EFL please read the EPL.
M. Duchatelet your stewardship offers no discernible merit.
The protests are about your failure;
- in the recruitment & support of Head Coaching & Managerial appointments. You have had 8 senior appointments in 35 months.
- to bring stability to the footballing infrastructure facilitating circa 30 changes in coaching & support staff and employing circa 120 professional footballers in this period. The club has been reduced to a footballing cattle market.
- to recruit a playing staff with the ability, experience, balance & depth to consistently compete successfully with their immediate peers to the consequent detriment of the clubs' financial position
- to retain the first team EFL playing status in the Championship also to the detriment of the clubs financial position
- to retain/expand the supporter base as evidenced by the number of supporters paying to attend first team home games at The Valley and by the loss of 4000 season ticket holders for season 2016/17
- to protect the clubs balance sheet through the unprecedented increase in the clubs debts
- to communicate with any clarity precisely what your executive are trying to achieve in the interests of the club. What is your end game? What exactly are the positive deliverables upon which your SMT focus?
- to provide a gram of Executive Leadership.
You have displayed no respect for the background of the sport in the UK or those whose values are based in such history. Charlton Athletic Football Club is a part of that history. Supporters whose families go back two and three generations in their devotion to the club have walked away. Your response to recent challenges indicating effectively "I am too busy" defines the arrogance of your tenure.
The club, its staff, its supporters and its community are worth significantly more than such a disgracefully dismissive response. My father followed the club from the 1930's, my first game was in 1958. The club has been part of my life ever since.
Fundamental to such support has been the commitment by all of those involved with the club to pursue the achievement of sporting excellence on the field of play with the clubs first team competing at the highest possible level.
Such is the expectation of nearly every supporter of a senior professional football club in the UK football pyramid. There are, of course, financial considerations through every step of the process but to divert the ambition of the club from such focus is a betrayal of a fundamental fabric of the industry.
No matter the recently reported attendance figures take one look at the pictures of The Valley during recent games and you will see the response of the British public to such a fundamental breach of trust.
Recent events confirm the nature of the organisation you have constructed.
You and your Senior Management Team appear incapable of understanding the basic principles of what is required to deliver a viable, sustainable and successful future for the club, let alone actually delivering such an organisation.
After your career in progressing a clearly successful business empire can you recall a more abject corporate performance than the one evidenced under your patronage of the club? There is not one single aspect of the clubs' corporate performance which can stand scrutiny
You have wrought almost irreparable damage on the club and its immediate future. Whatever happens it will be a long road back. In truth many of us are of an age we will likely not the see ultimate fruits of the needed change of direction.
M. Duchatelet, no matter your intellect, your reputation in respect of your dalliance with UK professional football is now writ large across the industry. Few, who no doubt started with the best of intentions can have failed so miserably.
At times in life there are indeed times to move on. I respectfully urge you to reflect on your continued participation with the club and take the earliest possible steps to withdraw.
I first started following Charlton regularly during the 1971/72 season. We were relegated that season, but it did not matter, as I was hooked. I remember my dad being delighted, as he had been going to The Valley since the early 1950s and his father since the 1930s. I felt that same delight in 2011/12 when my son became the fourth generation to become an Addick (just in case you aren't aware that refers to the club's nickname). Unfortunately, not too long after this you bought the club and things have gone downhill ever since. My son no longer wants to go to The Valley and I no longer feel able to attend games (I previously thought nothing about travelling up and down the country in support of our team). Under your ownership and the stewardship of your incompetent CEO, Katrien Meire, Charlton Athletic have become a laughing stock in English football. Your regime has systematically removed all of the goodwill that existed and had been nurtured between the club and its fans over many years. This situation is irretrievable whilst you remain owner. It is clear that you have no interest in the wellbeing of Charlton Athletic as a football club and take no notice of what is happening on a day-to-day basis. If you were aware then surely you would have removed the CEO from her position long ago. Bearing in mind your lack of interest I would ask you if it is really worth the aggravation and irritation that has already come your way and is likely to continue to come your way in ever growing amounts. Please do the decent thing and seek a buyer for the club, as clearly football is not your game.
If I might make a suggestion: I don't know what you've prepared, so it's possible this suggestion isn't adding much at all, but I'd suggest it would be more effective to post these out individually and at a staggered pace so that they aren't as easy to ignore as one big parcel. A drip feed would certainly be harder to ignore and more irritating.
Just one more thing Roland, Selling the club before Episodes 3 & 4 of GTKTheNetwork come out might be the way to go. I imagine if you're no longer involved with Charlton there'd be little media interest in any further embarassing revelations? Yours in hope, WrightCharlie
Roland has recieved one version by hand. Postage is expensive but hey ho, it's Christmas after all.
If it's not too late @Alwaysneil could these be drip fed posted rather than bulk posted. It'll be easy for him to chuck a load away all at once but would be incredibly annoying were he to relieve one or two Christmas cards a day for nearly a month...
Comments
I first went to The Valley in the mid-60s, with my Dad and brothers – we beat Preston North End 5-2. I was immediately hooked, hooked by the size of the stadium, hooked by the crowd and passion generated , and also hooked that my brothers were with me and clearly loving every high and low of the occasion.It was a time for family bonding, ii was also a time in everyones lives that was very tough for families generally, but football was an outlet and escape from the austerity we had in those times.
In the next five decades, we have had our ups – and -downs, my Dad has passed on, my brothers have moved away, but I have managed to continue the family theme of supporting Charlton, and I have brought up my sons (and daughters) as Charlton fans -and going to the Valley was something we did and loved as a family.
That was, until you arrived.
You have single-handedly brought an atmosphere to the Valley that has made my children no longer want to come, and for me also to decide not to embellish your wallet by attending games any more. You have presided over the worst period in Charltons history – a time where you have decimated the club with your actions.
You have done your best to destroy any family atmosphere – an atmosphere and community feel that has been at The Valley for the last 100+ years.It was part of the fabric of loca llife and community.
Well done, I hope you feel proud about it.
I will go to my grave hating you and everything about you and everyone associated with you.
If you want to go to your grave thinking that you did something for Charlton fans – then , sell the club .Please- allow us to get back to where we should be, a club that fans can be proud of again.You have proved that you don’t care about Charlton (you clearly don’t watch the games, either live or by video link) – let someone who does have the chance to build it again to the level that we deserve, a level you clearly do not want to achieve.
So you believe our protests have nothing to do with reason, and that we as "actors" within the protest group will criticise no matter what you do or say. Hmmmm.
Here is my personal reason for protesting against your ownership of Charlton Athletic.
It seems to me you really don't care for the club, it's fans, it's employees (I even include Katrien in that), it's history and it's reputation going forward. You appear to me, and the wider world now thanks to excellent media coverage, to have bought the club for no particular reason, much like my latest wife (soon to be ex) buying all sorts of stuff on Ebay then not even opening the bloody parcels!
As for what you said about us criticising no matter what you say or do, if you say you are going to bugger off and take Katie with you then follow it up by keeping to your word for a change, I for one will not utter one word of criticism. Sooner the better my old son. Sooner the better.
Mark
Canters
You have said that those who protest against you and Katrien Meire are doing so without reason, and have dismissed opposition to Ms Meire as misogynistic bitter ex-employees.
I am a woman, and a physicist, and have never been employed by CAFC. I have worked throughout my life to educate women to be confident they are the equals of men, particularly in the realms of science and engineering.
However, it does nothing to support this cause when women are “promoted to fail” in high profile positions above their level of experience and expertise, as happened when you made Ms Meire CEO of Charlton. She may be following your instructions, but in such a cack-handed and incompetent way that she has alienated thousands of Charlton fans in the process, and done little to enhance her own reputation. If you wanted a female CEO, why not pick one with some relevant experience of management?
Which brings me to your part in this. You, sir, appear a coward, hiding behind this unfortunate woman who you leave in the firing line, refusing to meet yourself with the Supporters’ Trust or other representative bodies of fans. With the support of a knowledgeable Director of Football, who knows – Ms Meire might have been able to learn on the job. It is now too late, as she has lost the confidence of far too many of your “customer base”. As also have you.
The money you have loaned to the club has in large part been wasted on sub-standard signings because of your arrogance in assuming you can waltz into a country whose footballing standards and culture are clearly not understood either by you, or your representative, and tinker in the running of the team. And we are left with the debt on which we have the privilege to pay you interest.
You have foisted on us far too many under-resourced head coaches. Your actions have brought this club to its lowest league position since the 1920s. Protesting without reason? I think not!
Reciting the mantra “we have learned from our mistakes” is not going to end the protests. Many in the wider world of English football and the media recognise that your relationship with the majority of Charlton supporters is now irretrievable. Your only logical solution – and you pride yourself in being a logical man, don’t you? – is to find a buyer for this failed experiment of yours.
Sincerely,
Marion
I take this opportunity a few weeks short of the 3rd anniversary of your involvement with Charlton Athletic Football Club to challenge the nature of your investment in the companies representing the clubs ownership.
You offered the strength of a pan-European network of clubs, scouts and advisors which coupled with the disciplines of Financial Fair Play would deliver a competitive, sustainable future for the club where the CEO would be challenged to balance the books.
I suggest few envisaged this latter challenge was set for Staprix NV and achieved by the creation of unprecedented debt in the clubs balance sheet.
In truth the value of your unique proposition, with the sale of Standard Liege and the collapse of FFP, disintegrated. Your ownership without the experience, the commitment nor the wit to meet the challenge has struggled ever since.
You have positioned your participation in the club as appropriate for an investment representing 1.5% of your overall asset portfolio. The clubs performance bears witness to such a complete abdication of your responsibility to the club, its staff, its supporters and its community.
In view of the oft quoted advice the club is not for sale your above pronouncement brings into question your understanding of the industry in which you have invested and your aims for the club.
What business would you expect to succeed with such desultory contribution from the primary investor and key decision maker? The most basic industry due diligence will have identified executive commitment would need to expand significantly beyond merely extending the clubs credit limit on a monthly basis.
You continue to assert you act in the best interests of the club. Our current circumstances indicate there is a notable difference of understanding as to what represents the best interests of the club. It is a difference you have failed, over 35 months, to explain with any clarity. Executive statements even assisted by a costly PR machine offer no more than vacuous nonsense.
Your failure to engage with the industry has highlighted your ignorance of the foundations of U.K. professional football, the nature of its origins and the level of executive experience, knowledge & commitment needed to establish a viable, successfully competitive organisation within it.
Your attempts to impose a succession of ill conceived strategies initially based on unrelated European markets and then modified to show a more UK centric focus still show little understanding of the marketplace. They are testimony to the arrogance of the thinking which has pervaded the decisions and actions seen since January 2014.
Such arrogance extends to your and your Senior Management Team attempts to personalise the conflict between the club and so very many of the clubs present and former supporters. To suggest people have nothing to protest about speaks to the complete disrespect of the market in which you chose to "invest". Your positioning of the issues is specious. It insults those who really have nothing but the best interests of the club at heart.
For the vast majority of the thousands who have protested against your ownership and or walked away the debate has nothing to do with your nationality or the gender of the CEO. To suggest they do is intellectually weak and professionally incompetent.
The protests are against the manner in which you have chosen to structure the club and the appalling results arising from a catalogue of errors generated by a Senior Management Team completely unsuited to the industry to which you have appointed them.
I draw your attention to a recent quote from a well known US professional sportsman, Tony Romo, speaking of his changed circumstances; "The NFL is a meritocracy. It is about performance. It is about results." For the NFL please read the EFL please read the EPL.
M. Duchatelet your stewardship offers no discernible merit.
The protests are about your failure;
- in the recruitment & support of Head Coaching & Managerial appointments. You have had 8 senior appointments in 35 months.
- to bring stability to the footballing infrastructure facilitating circa 30 changes in coaching & support staff and employing circa 120 professional footballers in this period. The club has been reduced to a footballing cattle market.
- to recruit a playing staff with the ability, experience, balance & depth to consistently compete successfully with their immediate peers to the consequent detriment of the clubs' financial position
- to retain the first team EFL playing status in the Championship also to the detriment of the clubs financial position
- to retain/expand the supporter base as evidenced by the number of supporters paying to attend first team home games at The Valley and by the loss of 4000 season ticket holders for season 2016/17
- to protect the clubs balance sheet through the unprecedented increase in the clubs debts
- to communicate with any clarity precisely what your executive are trying to achieve in the interests of the club. What is your end game? What exactly are the positive deliverables upon which your SMT focus?
- to provide a gram of Executive Leadership.
You have displayed no respect for the background of the sport in the UK or those whose values are based in such history. Charlton Athletic Football Club is a part of that history. Supporters whose families go back two and three generations in their devotion to the club have walked away. Your response to recent challenges indicating effectively "I am too busy" defines the arrogance of your tenure.
The club, its staff, its supporters and its community are worth significantly more than such a disgracefully dismissive response. My father followed the club from the 1930's, my first game was in 1958. The club has been part of my life ever since.
Fundamental to such support has been the commitment by all of those involved with the club to pursue the achievement of sporting excellence on the field of play with the clubs first team competing at the highest possible level.
Such is the expectation of nearly every supporter of a senior professional football club in the UK football pyramid. There are, of course, financial considerations through every step of the process but to divert the ambition of the club from such focus is a betrayal of a fundamental fabric of the industry.
No matter the recently reported attendance figures take one look at the pictures of The Valley during recent games and you will see the response of the British public to such a fundamental breach of trust.
Recent events confirm the nature of the organisation you have constructed.
You and your Senior Management Team appear incapable of understanding the basic principles of what is required to deliver a viable, sustainable and successful future for the club, let alone actually delivering such an organisation.
After your career in progressing a clearly successful business empire can you recall a more abject corporate performance than the one evidenced under your patronage of the club? There is not one single aspect of the clubs' corporate performance which can stand scrutiny
You have wrought almost irreparable damage on the club and its immediate future. Whatever happens it will be a long road back. In truth many of us are of an age we will likely not the see ultimate fruits of the needed change of direction.
M. Duchatelet, no matter your intellect, your reputation in respect of your dalliance with UK professional football is now writ large across the industry. Few, who no doubt started with the best of intentions can have failed so miserably.
At times in life there are indeed times to move on. I respectfully urge you to reflect on your continued participation with the club and take the earliest possible steps to withdraw.
Yours faithfully
Richard Holmes
@Grapevine49 quality post before the 5pm deadline, like that big finale at the end of a firework display.
There are some really good contributions here.
I first started following Charlton regularly during the 1971/72 season. We were relegated that season, but it did not matter, as I was hooked. I remember my dad being delighted, as he had been going to The Valley since the early 1950s and his father since the 1930s. I felt that same delight in 2011/12 when my son became the fourth generation to become an Addick (just in case you aren't aware that refers to the club's nickname). Unfortunately, not too long after this you bought the club and things have gone downhill ever since.
My son no longer wants to go to The Valley and I no longer feel able to attend games (I previously thought nothing about travelling up and down the country in support of our team).
Under your ownership and the stewardship of your incompetent CEO, Katrien Meire, Charlton Athletic have become a laughing stock in English football. Your regime has systematically removed all of the goodwill that existed and had been nurtured between the club and its fans over many years. This situation is irretrievable whilst you remain owner.
It is clear that you have no interest in the wellbeing of Charlton Athletic as a football club and take no notice of what is happening on a day-to-day basis. If you were aware then surely you would have removed the CEO from her position long ago.
Bearing in mind your lack of interest I would ask you if it is really worth the aggravation and irritation that has already come your way and is likely to continue to come your way in ever growing amounts.
Please do the decent thing and seek a buyer for the club, as clearly football is not your game.
Tony W
Just one more thing Roland,
Selling the club before Episodes 3 & 4 of GTKTheNetwork come out might be the way to go. I imagine if you're no longer involved with Charlton there'd be little media interest in any further embarassing revelations?
Yours in hope, WrightCharlie
Roland has recieved one version by hand. Postage is expensive but hey ho, it's Christmas after all.
Already spent time making sure this happens.