I’m finding it all a bit of a catch-22 at the moment to be honest.
One the one hand, from the perspective of a 'disgruntled supporter' it is difficult to have sympathy, warmth with any manager that willingly applies to work under Roland / Meire at this stage.
It’s against a backdrop of knowing there is major discontent surrounding the club and widespread ridicule in the media. Away from the headlines, word in football circles (players, coaches, scouts etc) regarding the running of the club has been incredibly poor for over two years. Everyone in the game knows what they are getting into and when people like Slade arrive at the Club, and probably now Robinson, they do so with their eyes wide open that there are major structural flaws / issues at the Club and deep-rooted division with supporters.
However, on the other hand you can see why it is actually a potentially attractive proposition to out of work managers. Firstly, they need to work, and there are far worse places to be based than the London suburbs. Secondly, their ego will be telling them that they are THE MAN that can make the difference; they don’t fully understand the low-level detail of why supporters are so against Duchatelet / Meire, and they will genuinely believe that they can take what they see as an underperforming squad, lift them higher, and all the off field issues will fade away. Their reputation will be enhanced as the man who turned around / stopped the rot at Charlton.
And if it doesn’t work out? So what, ready-made excuses are already in place; no one in the game will hold it against them like they would with failure at other clubs as everyone knows how difficult things are at Charlton.
As a manager who could potentially bring credibility, you are in a strong bargaining position now when taking the job. Ensure your agent secures the right payout / assurances in your contract and if the worst comes to the worst, you’ll be getting a decent payout. If in the meantime there is an ownership shift then you equally will be getting that payout if the new owners don’t want you, or you could ride on the likely momentum / new budget opportunity with what they would bring.
As fans, you naturally want Charlton to have a good manager and do well, it’s fundamentally what we all want. And Karl Robinson is certainly someone I have always rated as an upcoming manager with potential, and who sets his teams up in an attractive way.
But at the same time if you are determined for ownership change, which thousands of supporters currently are, then part of you does not really want anyone with any credibility bringing credibility to the regime. Particularly if you are convinced that the overriding problems will not go away.
It’s a difficult one, and I suspect I’m not going to be the only one whose views will flip flop about on this.
Thoughts?
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I have also heard that quite a few players want away this coming window as they are unhappy with the regime. If this is the case, any new manager has his work cut out
They can't lose. Only Roland can lose. And he is losing. ..And the score is currently 17-0..
Businessman my ars*!
In the unlikely event of no interference from Duchatelet or Meire then, if successful, they will considerably enhance their reputation.
Win, win.
Do well at a club and maybe get a promotion on your CV and all sorts of chairman around the country are queuing up to throw contracts and money at you.
Do badly and get sacked after 3 months and you walk away with a pay off, however the same chairmen mentioned above are queuing up only this time after you have been out the game for a few months.
And so it goes round.
My worry with the 'let's fall so low that they will walk away' is that we are not as likely, in my view, to get the kind of owner that we want moving forward. The last thing we need (well the second last as what we have is the last) is a chancer that thinks he can throw a few quid at it and then sell for a profit - especially if he doesn't have enough to achieve his goals.
As much as I want Roland to lose money and for KM's reputation to be so damaged that she is finished what I want most is them gone, and as quickly as possible. In reality if I had a hundred million pounds I'd rather give him all the money back just to see the back of the pair of them.
At least part of Robinson's mindset in taking this job must be "worst case scenario I'll be able to go on holiday in February with 3 years wages in my back pocket and my reputation still intact." Hard to get excited about a new manager who takes the job on that basis, particularly when he is apparently very aware that he's walking into a "basketcase of a club" (quote from BDL).
So long-term you are looking at the need for progression against a backdrop of selling your best / emerging talent.
Who knows, perhaps with this league being week, the potential bounce from (another) new manager could get us into the Championship next summer and perhaps the Club does become more viable as a sale with potential TV revenues / only being one step away from the big pay day again being in play.
But its just as likely then that Roland will see us once more looking more attractive as a long-term prospect for his model (that everyone else knows can't succeed) and want to hang on longer. I really don't know.
Although I'm not a fan of Robinson as a bloke, under any other ownership he could be a fairly shrewd appointment. His MK Dons sides were always at the right of the table when in League One and they always tried to pay good, positive football. He is a slight upgrade on Slade.
However, we all know he won't receive sufficient backing by the regime, will have his best players sold off at the first bid, as Lookman will be in January, or just given away as Tex will be in the same month, and then sacked to distract from protests. Repeat cycle.
I usually feel embroiled in the football, and want a win every time whatever the implications of doing so.
I want to encourage the players during play to secure that win, I am lost in the 90 minutes.
If a win validates the regime in the eyes of many, then that is the pay off I suppose, but no way on earth do I want to come away from a match pleased with a defeat, for god sake even draws under this regime piss me off.
That is how I tend to live in the moment of the game, and I feel that if Karl Robinson keeps his focus there, only in the football, then he will be wise to do so.
In a broader sense I want this lot out.
I, like everybody else, have lived through their bull in a china shop approach to all things Charlton. I think I can see a wider picture of things at Charlton than Karl Robinson at the moment, including ways in which this regime can undermine him, which he of course hopes doesn't happen.
So if Karl and I can lose ourselves in the football together, and it is successful, then we have a bond. If Karl wants to lecture the fanbase about how they should be, then the bond is weakened.
I believe most of us will be content to let Karl manage, I hope he is content to let the fans be what they want to be.
Buy enough tickets and you increase your chances of winning.
The law of averages alone means that we will get a successful manager in place at some stage.
This does not mean that Roly should get any credit if and when it happens however.
He did well enough based on his resources at MKD, built sides that played attractive football, getting into the playoffs twice plus a promotion within 4 seasons.
Sure MKD struggled last year but he wasn't given the resources to strengthen his promotion winning side to Championship standards.
Most managers would have struggled in those circumstances.
And the club did target Wilder - he was ready to accept the Charlton job but didn't get the written assurances that they had promised him.
So he walked away.
If not, he could be the kind of manager who might get results without needing you to respect him in the way you may have respected our former managers.
At this stage in proceedings, results would be great, but if you are another apologist for the regime then it really doesn't matter what else you do.
They usually find a way to mess things up. That's a big reason for the protests - how can a manager ever be succesful if we're always selling players, failing to sign enough players and sacking managers.
Unless I am wrong about that, of course.
I am of the view that promotion is more likely to lead to the club being sold than staying in League 1.
I hope he doesn't talk about the protests negatively because that would really get a decent number of fans backs up when he could just avoid the subject.
If not we know what'll happen. The spiral down will continue and a new puppet will eventually be brought in as the correct managerial decision as this one is got rid of.