For me Bowyer plus Curbs as director of football would be marvellous. Would also like to think there would be a place for Varney and or Steve Sutherland with Susie Sausage back at the secretarial helm as well....if she was interested that is.
would Bowyer want someone (even curbs) overseeing him? to my mind he's very much his own man and not sure how this would fit.
Lee Bowyer has never signed or sold a player, never negotiated a signing, never dealt with players' agents' demands over salary and bonuses, never dealt with ambitious youth team players demanding a first team guarantee, never had to rebuff other teams making offers for players, never dealt with players demanding an immediate sale. He's never planned a pre-season schedule, hired an assistant, sacked a coach or managed the first team in a friendly or chosen a team for cup match. That's not to say he couldn't do all these things in time, it's just to demonstrate he has no relevant experience in any of them.
Like every other Duchatalet appointment, he failed to get promoted. But, unlike most of them, he bettered his predecessor's record and improved the team's record (although not sufficiently). He could make a good manager. And if he were appointed, it would be welcomed by a lot of people. But if he were to claim he could do everything required as part of a five-year plan to reach the Premier League, single handed, I don't think that would be seen as credible.
Hang on, I thought every appointment proved to be the right decision and our league ranking improved every time?
For me Bowyer plus Curbs as director of football would be marvellous. Would also like to think there would be a place for Varney and or Steve Sutherland with Susie Sausage back at the secretarial helm as well....if she was interested that is.
would Bowyer want someone (even curbs) overseeing him? to my mind he's very much his own man and not sure how this would fit.
Lee Bowyer has never signed or sold a player, never negotiated a signing, never dealt with players' agents' demands over salary and bonuses, never dealt with ambitious youth team players demanding a first team guarantee, never had to rebuff other teams making offers for players, never dealt with players demanding an immediate sale. He's never planned a pre-season schedule, hired an assistant, sacked a coach or managed the first team in a friendly or chosen a team for cup match. That's not to say he couldn't do all these things in time, it's just to demonstrate he has no relevant experience in any of them.
Like every other Duchatalet appointment, he failed to get promoted. But, unlike most of them, he bettered his predecessor's record and improved the team's record (although not sufficiently). He could make a good manager. And if he were appointed, it would be welcomed by a lot of people. But if he were to claim he could do everything required as part of a five-year plan to reach the Premier League, single handed, I don't think that would be seen as credible.
As a former player though, he would know how all this stuff should work, more than our previous manager could say.
For me Bowyer plus Curbs as director of football would be marvellous. Would also like to think there would be a place for Varney and or Steve Sutherland with Susie Sausage back at the secretarial helm as well....if she was interested that is.
would Bowyer want someone (even curbs) overseeing him? to my mind he's very much his own man and not sure how this would fit.
Lee Bowyer has never signed or sold a player, never negotiated a signing, never dealt with players' agents' demands over salary and bonuses, never dealt with ambitious youth team players demanding a first team guarantee, never had to rebuff other teams making offers for players, never dealt with players demanding an immediate sale. He's never planned a pre-season schedule, hired an assistant, sacked a coach or managed the first team in a friendly or chosen a team for cup match. That's not to say he couldn't do all these things in time, it's just to demonstrate he has no relevant experience in any of them.
Like every other Duchatalet appointment, he failed to get promoted. But, unlike most of them, he bettered his predecessor's record and improved the team's record (although not sufficiently). He could make a good manager. And if he were appointed, it would be welcomed by a lot of people. But if he were to claim he could do everything required as part of a five-year plan to reach the Premier League, single handed, I don't think that would be seen as credible.
Of course he is inexperienced and would need support - but most of the list in your first paragraph is the domain of the CEO. That’s where we need a strong candidate. I know of one who would fit the bill!
She’s not coming back. We’ve been happily building a life in Sheffield together and we’ve got massive plans for the future
I would love LB to get the gig. I believe he's one of us, straight talking, take no prisoners grafting type of man. Certainly not the type who wouldn't listen to Curbs advice, but would take it all onboard and make a 60/40 decision with his assistant manager JJ. Under a win at all costs type of owner, as I believe that's what the Aussies could bring to the club, with a mentality of building something great, not wanting it after 5 minutes. I would be very excited if this all comes together, LB &JJ, Curbs upstairs and the Aussies backing the manager over the next three years with the required funds to just get into and stabilise in the Championship. Who knows from there on in, the occasional foray into the Prem, maybe, but just give me my Charlton back.
Just had a brief conversation with Igor Vetokele. He said he wants to come back to us but it is up to the new owners, he said he'd been told there will be new owners this coming week.
Fantastic news, I’d love to have Igor back as I’ve said before I really think he could do well in League One.
Don’t doubt you at all, but how did you manage to have a conversation with him?
Some of our group spoke with him in the Rvue bar at Stayen after STVVs game on Saturday night.
Having only very recently come onto this page its been a bit of an eye opener and with fresh eyes I might be able to give a little bit of feedback on what I see. Being Australian I'm somewhat biased as to how I would see an Aussie takeover of the club. However not living in London now i have no ability to get the benefits of an Aussie takeover. To be sure if I was living in London I would become a season ticket holder. However there are people on the forum who look at things in a way that I don't and I'd like to put forward some alternative viewpoints.
1. A common theme I'm seeing is the Aussies don't have the money and are pretty much full of sh.t. If they had the money the sale would have already gone through. Alternative View The current owner is stalling putting forward statements like there are 2 bidder etc waiting to see whether you were going to be promoted to The Championship where the club's valuation would have gone up significantly overnight.
2. There appears to be a general vibe of not being at all keen on Australian ownership and seeing the Australian consortium as fly by nighters or bounders. There is a bit of a "racist like" undercurrent to it. My View I know from having lived in London that Australians fit into your PATHETIC class system as inferior and as convicts blah blah blah - its so pathetic I'm not even going to go on any further. In this instance you need to realise that Charlton are a smaller entity to the club Muir is currently on the board of, that get smaller crowds, and turns over less money. The thing that they will find most difficult is finding people that they can trust, not getting the money to buy the club, although I will say each person in the consortium would be trying to limit their own personal risk because I can see plenty of risk involved.
3. There appears to be plenty of people who want someone to come in handover a truckload of money and then appoint the same faces, doing the same things, who have run the club for the past 20 years. And what you actually want is someone to come in and underwrite the club but have little input and have no decision making capacity. Alternative View If you do the same thing that has lead to failure and expect a different outcome then you are delusional. Having an owner emailing a manager asking for team changes is completely outrageous, but if a group buy a club that has given them the right to make their own decisions on the way the club is run. The people who maybe coming in, have a lot of skills in high performance sport and also in managing a brand. What they don't have is actual football management skills and that is what they would be expecting from people within the club to complement the skills of the Australians coming in. So far they have been advised by other Australians such as Mark Schwartzer as they need people with football expertise to guide them who they can trust. Because trust is a major issue. As supporters of the club you will need to trust the ownership and board that they are doing what's best going forward. And if the fact that being Australian is an issue maybe you need to raise the money yourselves and buy the club as a community of supporters - or should have done that many years ago. I'm not sure how you can achieve getting to the Premier League but not have any change to people who run the club, players, structure or finances.
4. Hardly anyone on this thread has said anything positive about what the Australian consortium would bring to the table except getting rid of the current owner and money.
My View
If the expertise and skills of the Australians are discounted you will end up in the same place you are now with a protest movement against the owners. I guess if you got immediate results there might not be as bad a backlash. Be sure of one thing Australians generally won't take a step back and will combative to break through obstacles to success. It's the Australian psyche to do that.
5. Having Australian players at the club and even the ground being used for Australian National Team games is almost universally seen as a bad thing with the term Australian feeder club used.
Alternative View
If you can get better players through having an expanded scouting network in Australia how can that be a bad thing when your local players get poached by bigger clubs repeatedly. You need to accept that you are a League One club and if you can get better players from a different source then that's what you need to do. How much would it cost to get a team of players from the Championship to play League One? While I say that I'm not advocating that all the players would be Australian but you build your squad to ensure that you get the best 11 on the park whether they are from your local academy, Australia or Mongolia.
6 There is some issue as to Australian consortium looking at Fulham or Charlton.
My View
You need to realise that buying into a club is not on this occasion an act of charity or some act to big note themselves as a business tycoon. I have intimated some of the reasons why Australians would see Charlton as a good prospect and here are the reasons 1 In London As has been said there are well over 100,000 Australian who mainly live in south west London. Fulham would be the ideal club in location but to buy, with the right sized stadium but would cost more. 2 Decent Stadium Need a good size stadium for the membership model to succeed. Most AFL stadium are 50,000 all seater with one able to seat 100,000 3 Right Size and price The other club they looked at was Coventry - Australian's are not Arabs with plenty of oil money and of the clubs in London which is preferred location all others are too big or too small. Charlton is just right and managed so badly that they are under-performing to an extent that the club is under-valued.
Anyway plenty of people will hate that assessment but there you go bring it on haters.
@ozziedave before you get pelters for some of the above assertions, it seems you had a bad experience in the UK and I'm sorry that's tarnished your view of UK culture. A lot of the Aussies I know in London don't feel the same way as you but that probably won't provide you with any more comfort.
Reference to things like convicts is seen as a running joke but is light hearted. I'm sure you've referred to Brits as pomms etc. before.
A lot of what you say makes sense, but we're a cynical bunch and with a lack of factual information coming out of the takeover process a lot of people have speculated on the worst case scenario. I don't think that is the majority view on here - this is an internet forum where people are discussing something very close to their heart, and the only thing everyone here has in common.
Finally, I think you've failed to show any understanding or appreciation for what the last 4+ years have been like under Duchatalet, so to provide some persepctive: - bought the club and installed a senior management team with no experience which have relegated the club. - hired and fired more managers in the last 4 years than we've had in the last 20+ years - Used Charlton as fodder to palm his network rejects onto at the expense of senior established players, hugely contributing to our relegation - publicly said he doesn't care about the success of the club but sees it as a way to compliment his existing network - doesn't turn up (says we're only worth 1.5% of his time)
There is plenty more but you can read through the many threads on here yourself. Hopefully though this has given you some perspective (an alternate view) on why we are naturally so concerned with any takeover and new owners.
And, for the record, if the Aussie bidders prefer Fulham, or if it's their number one choice, then frankly I don't want them at Charlton. It's not unreasonable to want the club to be the owner's first choice. Australian, British or Belgian.
If the aussies can prove they have the cash and just get on with buying the club and stop the charade and look at me circus I am wearing one of your scarves of course we are serious
(Reminds me of when Michael knighton done keepy uppy at old Trafford currently )
Then all well and good
If they think owning Charlton can mean there is a club in Europe that they can move Australian talent into as part of their experiment then they can fuck off as quick as they arrived because then they are just a sunnier version of the Belgian master plan
And, for the record, if the Aussie bidders prefer Fulham, or if it's their number one choice, then frankly I don't want them at Charlton. It's not unreasonable to want the club to be the owner's first choice. Australian, British or Belgian.
What you say there is fair enough and you're right when you are in Australia I don't have an idea of what its been like there for the past 10 or so years. My club in Australia has had poor owners as well - not as bad as yours to be granted but I understand your concern. As for my experience in London I was in an Australian Bar that got raided by some off duty Queens Guards the night of the Paul Keating Lizard of Oz debacle and that wasn't pleasant and we lost the cricket around the same time so took plenty of stick and a beating for being Aussie- some of it good natured, some most certainly not. Still made plenty of friends there and had a great time but that was the general undercurrent I found at times. Understand the good natured part of that and what you say is true that it also goes both ways. As for if they would prefer Fulham - I would say they don't, although South West London is better for most Aussies to watch games that's where I lived when I was living there too. For reference sake my family is London origin Stepney/Mile End and emigrated to Australia in the 1830's to South Australia - and no convicts in South Australia before you start. I really think that we would have something to offer and in general Aussies are pretty decent people and if you are going to find an ownership group that will be inclusive to the supporters there will plenty who would do a worse job.
@Beardface thanks for taking the time to type that all up as it is exactly my thoughts too (but put far more eloquently than I could have)
Think your last paragraph in particular sums up a lot of peoples feelings on here (mine certainly).
Only thing I would add is I couldn't give the tiniest shit what nationality the new owners are, or if they are billionaires or where the players come from - I want my club to go back to being a sensibly run, community focussed family club, with maybe a hint of ambition for the future but built on a solid base of bringing in youth players to actually get us somewhere, not just a player farm, and not part of some mad experiment. Also I want to be treated with respect as a supporter, not like a disposable customer who can "just go elsewhere if you don't like it".
Having only very recently come onto this page its been a bit of an eye opener and with fresh eyes I might be able to give a little bit of feedback on what I see. Being Australian I'm somewhat biased as to how I would see an Aussie takeover of the club. However not living in London now i have no ability to get the benefits of an Aussie takeover. To be sure if I was living in London I would become a season ticket holder. However there are people on the forum who look at things in a way that I don't and I'd like to put forward some alternative viewpoints.
1. A common theme I'm seeing is the Aussies don't have the money and are pretty much full of sh.t. If they had the money the sale would have already gone through. Alternative View The current owner is stalling putting forward statements like there are 2 bidder etc waiting to see whether you were going to be promoted to The Championship where the club's valuation would have gone up significantly overnight.
2. There appears to be a general vibe of not being at all keen on Australian ownership and seeing the Australian consortium as fly by nighters or bounders. There is a bit of a "racist like" undercurrent to it. My View I know from having lived in London that Australians fit into your PATHETIC class system as inferior and as convicts blah blah blah - its so pathetic I'm not even going to go on any further. In this instance you need to realise that Charlton are a smaller entity to the club Muir is currently on the board of, that get smaller crowds, and turns over less money. The thing that they will find most difficult is finding people that they can trust, not getting the money to buy the club, although I will say each person in the consortium would be trying to limit their own personal risk because I can see plenty of risk involved.
3. There appears to be plenty of people who want someone to come in handover a truckload of money and then appoint the same faces, doing the same things, who have run the club for the past 20 years. And what you actually want is someone to come in and underwrite the club but have little input and have no decision making capacity. Alternative View If you do the same thing that has lead to failure and expect a different outcome then you are delusional. Having an owner emailing a manager asking for team changes is completely outrageous, but if a group buy a club that has given them the right to make their own decisions on the way the club is run. The people who maybe coming in, have a lot of skills in high performance sport and also in managing a brand. What they don't have is actual football management skills and that is what they would be expecting from people within the club to complement the skills of the Australians coming in. So far they have been advised by other Australians such as Mark Schwartzer as they need people with football expertise to guide them who they can trust. Because trust is a major issue. As supporters of the club you will need to trust the ownership and board that they are doing what's best going forward. And if the fact that being Australian is an issue maybe you need to raise the money yourselves and buy the club as a community of supporters - or should have done that many years ago. I'm not sure how you can achieve getting to the Premier League but not have any change to people who run the club, players, structure or finances.
4. Hardly anyone on this thread has said anything positive about what the Australian consortium would bring to the table except getting rid of the current owner and money.
My View
If the expertise and skills of the Australians are discounted you will end up in the same place you are now with a protest movement against the owners. I guess if you got immediate results there might not be as bad a backlash. Be sure of one thing Australians generally won't take a step back and will combative to break through obstacles to success. It's the Australian psyche to do that.
5. Having Australian players at the club and even the ground being used for Australian National Team games is almost universally seen as a bad thing with the term Australian feeder club used.
Alternative View
If you can get better players through having an expanded scouting network in Australia how can that be a bad thing when your local players get poached by bigger clubs repeatedly. You need to accept that you are a League One club and if you can get better players from a different source then that's what you need to do. How much would it cost to get a team of players from the Championship to play League One? While I say that I'm not advocating that all the players would be Australian but you build your squad to ensure that you get the best 11 on the park whether they are from your local academy, Australia or Mongolia.
6 There is some issue as to Australian consortium looking at Fulham or Charlton.
My View
You need to realise that buying into a club is not on this occasion an act of charity or some act to big note themselves as a business tycoon. I have intimated some of the reasons why Australians would see Charlton as a good prospect and here are the reasons 1 In London As has been said there are well over 100,000 Australian who mainly live in south west London. Fulham would be the ideal club in location but to buy, with the right sized stadium but would cost more. 2 Decent Stadium Need a good size stadium for the membership model to succeed. Most AFL stadium are 50,000 all seater with one able to seat 100,000 3 Right Size and price The other club they looked at was Coventry - Australian's are not Arabs with plenty of oil money and of the clubs in London which is preferred location all others are too big or too small. Charlton is just right and managed so badly that they are under-performing to an extent that the club is under-valued.
Anyway plenty of people will hate that assessment but there you go bring it on haters.
I know from having lived in London that Australians fit into your PATHETIC class system as inferior and as convicts blah blah blah - its so pathetic I'm not even going to go on any further.
Thanks for your assessment and 'alternative view' OzzieDave; interesting read. I don't make you right in your Para 2 though. Seems like you had some bad experiences as an Aussie in London(?). I'm working with a few aussies out here in the Middle-East and they are great company and great to be around. In my experience, they also give as good as they get (and some!) when it comes to banter. I think you're a bit wide of the mark fella when insinuating that some of the comments articulate a 'racist undercurrent'!? After the 4+ years that we've had with the Wallonian buffoon, you'll afford us the luxury of being a little bit sceptical and pessimistic; irrespective of the creed, race, culture, colour of any prospective new owners That's all.
@ozziedave despite your best efforts to provoke us, I for one, won't rise to the bait. In fact, I offer a hand of friendship and if you ever venture back to see an Australian backed Charlton Athletic, I'll buy you a pint ..
I know from having lived in London that Australians fit into your PATHETIC class system as inferior and as convicts blah blah blah - its so pathetic I'm not even going to go on any further.
Thanks for your assessment and 'alternative view' OzzieDave; interesting read. I don't make you right in your Para 2 though. Seems like you had some bad experiences as an Aussie in London(?). I'm working with a few aussies out here in the Middle-East and they are great company and great to be around. In my experience, they also give as good as they get (and some!) when it comes to banter. I think you're a bit wide of the mark fella when insinuating that some of the comments articulate a 'racist undercurrent'!? After the 4+ years that we've had with the Wallonian buffoon, you'll afford us the luxury of being a little bit sceptical and pessimistic; irrespective of the creed, race, culture, colour of any prospective new owners That's all.
Fair enough I'm exaggerating a bit to get point across but I've generally found the attitude to be far too negative. From the minute Scott Parker walked out of the door Charlton have been going down the tubes and really need to find another way. I challenge you with this question would you be as negative if Mike Ashley was the buyer?
@ozziedave despite your best efforts to provoke us, I for one, won't rise to the bait. In fact, I offer a hand of friendship and if you ever venture back to see an Australian backed Charlton Athletic, I'll buy you a pint ..
I know from having lived in London that Australians fit into your PATHETIC class system as inferior and as convicts blah blah blah - its so pathetic I'm not even going to go on any further.
Thanks for your assessment and 'alternative view' OzzieDave; interesting read. I don't make you right in your Para 2 though. Seems like you had some bad experiences as an Aussie in London(?). I'm working with a few aussies out here in the Middle-East and they are great company and great to be around. In my experience, they also give as good as they get (and some!) when it comes to banter. I think you're a bit wide of the mark fella when insinuating that some of the comments articulate a 'racist undercurrent'!? After the 4+ years that we've had with the Wallonian buffoon, you'll afford us the luxury of being a little bit sceptical and pessimistic; irrespective of the creed, race, culture, colour of any prospective new owners That's all.
Fair enough I'm exaggerating a bit to get point across but I've generally found the attitude to be far too negative. From the minute Alan Curbishley walked out of the door Charlton have been going down the tubes and really need to find another way. I challenge you with this question would you be as negative if Mike Ashley was the buyer?
Fixed for you.
Also I don't think you'll find much love on here for Mike Ashley with his track record at Newcastle.
@ozziedave despite your best efforts to provoke us, I for one, won't rise to the bait. In fact, I offer a hand of friendship and if you ever venture back to see an Australian backed Charlton Athletic, I'll buy you a pint ..
And I'd buy you 2 back. Thanks, I'm not intentionally trying to be a prick, I'm just trying to put across another perspective whether I'm right or not. You have to challenge the status quo.
@ozziedave despite your best efforts to provoke us, I for one, won't rise to the bait. In fact, I offer a hand of friendship and if you ever venture back to see an Australian backed Charlton Athletic, I'll buy you a pint ..
And I'd buy you 2 back. Thanks, I'm not intentionally trying to be a prick, I'm just trying to put across another perspective whether I'm right or not. You have to challenge the status quo.
I know from having lived in London that Australians fit into your PATHETIC class system as inferior and as convicts blah blah blah - its so pathetic I'm not even going to go on any further.
Thanks for your assessment and 'alternative view' OzzieDave; interesting read. I don't make you right in your Para 2 though. Seems like you had some bad experiences as an Aussie in London(?). I'm working with a few aussies out here in the Middle-East and they are great company and great to be around. In my experience, they also give as good as they get (and some!) when it comes to banter. I think you're a bit wide of the mark fella when insinuating that some of the comments articulate a 'racist undercurrent'!? After the 4+ years that we've had with the Wallonian buffoon, you'll afford us the luxury of being a little bit sceptical and pessimistic; irrespective of the creed, race, culture, colour of any prospective new owners That's all.
Fair enough I'm exaggerating a bit to get point across but I've generally found the attitude to be far too negative. From the minute Scott Parker walked out of the door Charlton have been going down the tubes and really need to find another way. I challenge you with this question would you be as negative if Mike Ashley was the buyer?
@ozziedave despite your best efforts to provoke us, I for one, won't rise to the bait. In fact, I offer a hand of friendship and if you ever venture back to see an Australian backed Charlton Athletic, I'll buy you a pint ..
And I'd buy you 2 back. Thanks, I'm not intentionally trying to be a prick, I'm just trying to put across another perspective whether I'm right or not. You have to challenge the status quo.
Comments
Perhaps Two Shats would like to sign him up as our newest manager then.Oops, due to a total hand-mouse coordination fuck up, I managed to post on completely the wrong thread.
Certainly not the type who wouldn't listen to Curbs advice, but would take it all onboard and make a 60/40 decision with his assistant manager JJ.
Under a win at all costs type of owner, as I believe that's what the Aussies could bring to the club, with a mentality of building something great, not wanting it after 5 minutes.
I would be very excited if this all comes together, LB &JJ, Curbs upstairs and the Aussies backing the manager over the next three years with the required funds to just get into and stabilise in the Championship.
Who knows from there on in, the occasional foray into the Prem, maybe, but just give me my Charlton back.
However there are people on the forum who look at things in a way that I don't and I'd like to put forward some alternative viewpoints.
1. A common theme I'm seeing is the Aussies don't have the money and are pretty much full of sh.t. If they had the money the sale would have already gone through.
Alternative View
The current owner is stalling putting forward statements like there are 2 bidder etc waiting to see whether you were going to be promoted to The Championship where the club's valuation would have gone up significantly overnight.
2. There appears to be a general vibe of not being at all keen on Australian ownership and seeing the Australian consortium as fly by nighters or bounders. There is a bit of a "racist like" undercurrent to it.
My View
I know from having lived in London that Australians fit into your PATHETIC class system as inferior and as convicts blah blah blah - its so pathetic I'm not even going to go on any further.
In this instance you need to realise that Charlton are a smaller entity to the club Muir is currently on the board of, that get smaller crowds, and turns over less money. The thing that they will find most difficult is finding people that they can trust, not getting the money to buy the club, although I will say each person in the consortium would be trying to limit their own personal risk because I can see plenty of risk involved.
3. There appears to be plenty of people who want someone to come in handover a truckload of money and then appoint the same faces, doing the same things, who have run the club for the past 20 years. And what you actually want is someone to come in and underwrite the club but have little input and have no decision making capacity.
Alternative View
If you do the same thing that has lead to failure and expect a different outcome then you are delusional. Having an owner emailing a manager asking for team changes is completely outrageous, but if a group buy a club that has given them the right to make their own decisions on the way the club is run. The people who maybe coming in, have a lot of skills in high performance sport and also in managing a brand. What they don't have is actual football management skills and that is what they would be expecting from people within the club to complement the skills of the Australians coming in. So far they have been advised by other Australians such as Mark Schwartzer as they need people with football expertise to guide them who they can trust. Because trust is a major issue. As supporters of the club you will need to trust the ownership and board that they are doing what's best going forward. And if the fact that being Australian is an issue maybe you need to raise the money yourselves and buy the club as a community of supporters - or should have done that many years ago.
I'm not sure how you can achieve getting to the Premier League but not have any change to people who run the club, players, structure or finances.
4. Hardly anyone on this thread has said anything positive about what the Australian consortium would bring to the table except getting rid of the current owner and money.
My View
If the expertise and skills of the Australians are discounted you will end up in the same place you are now with a protest movement against the owners. I guess if you got immediate results there might not be as bad a backlash. Be sure of one thing Australians generally won't take a step back and will combative to break through obstacles to success. It's the Australian psyche to do that.
5. Having Australian players at the club and even the ground being used for Australian National Team games is almost universally seen as a bad thing with the term Australian feeder club used.
Alternative View
If you can get better players through having an expanded scouting network in Australia how can that be a bad thing when your local players get poached by bigger clubs repeatedly. You need to accept that you are a League One club and if you can get better players from a different source then that's what you need to do. How much would it cost to get a team of players from the Championship to play League One? While I say that I'm not advocating that all the players would be Australian but you build your squad to ensure that you get the best 11 on the park whether they are from your local academy, Australia or Mongolia.
6 There is some issue as to Australian consortium looking at Fulham or Charlton.
My View
You need to realise that buying into a club is not on this occasion an act of charity or some act to big note themselves as a business tycoon. I have intimated some of the reasons why Australians would see Charlton as a good prospect and here are the reasons
1 In London
As has been said there are well over 100,000 Australian who mainly live in south west London. Fulham would be the ideal club in location but to buy, with the right sized stadium but would cost more.
2 Decent Stadium
Need a good size stadium for the membership model to succeed. Most AFL stadium are 50,000 all seater with one able to seat 100,000
3 Right Size and price
The other club they looked at was Coventry - Australian's are not Arabs with plenty of oil money and of the clubs in London which is preferred location all others are too big or too small. Charlton is just right and managed so badly that they are under-performing to an extent that the club is under-valued.
Anyway plenty of people will hate that assessment but there you go bring it on haters.
Reference to things like convicts is seen as a running joke but is light hearted. I'm sure you've referred to Brits as pomms etc. before.
A lot of what you say makes sense, but we're a cynical bunch and with a lack of factual information coming out of the takeover process a lot of people have speculated on the worst case scenario. I don't think that is the majority view on here - this is an internet forum where people are discussing something very close to their heart, and the only thing everyone here has in common.
Finally, I think you've failed to show any understanding or appreciation for what the last 4+ years have been like under Duchatalet, so to provide some persepctive:
- bought the club and installed a senior management team with no experience which have relegated the club.
- hired and fired more managers in the last 4 years than we've had in the last 20+ years
- Used Charlton as fodder to palm his network rejects onto at the expense of senior established players, hugely contributing to our relegation
- publicly said he doesn't care about the success of the club but sees it as a way to compliment his existing network
- doesn't turn up (says we're only worth 1.5% of his time)
There is plenty more but you can read through the many threads on here yourself. Hopefully though this has given you some perspective (an alternate view) on why we are naturally so concerned with any takeover and new owners.
And, for the record, if the Aussie bidders prefer Fulham, or if it's their number one choice, then frankly I don't want them at Charlton. It's not unreasonable to want the club to be the owner's first choice. Australian, British or Belgian.
(Reminds me of when Michael knighton done keepy uppy at old Trafford currently )
Then all well and good
If they think owning Charlton can mean there is a club in Europe that they can move Australian talent into as part of their experiment then they can fuck off as quick as they arrived because then they are just a sunnier version of the Belgian master plan
As for my experience in London I was in an Australian Bar that got raided by some off duty Queens Guards the night of the Paul Keating Lizard of Oz debacle and that wasn't pleasant and we lost the cricket around the same time so took plenty of stick and a beating for being Aussie- some of it good natured, some most certainly not. Still made plenty of friends there and had a great time but that was the general undercurrent I found at times. Understand the good natured part of that and what you say is true that it also goes both ways.
As for if they would prefer Fulham - I would say they don't, although South West London is better for most Aussies to watch games that's where I lived when I was living there too.
For reference sake my family is London origin Stepney/Mile End and emigrated to Australia in the 1830's to South Australia - and no convicts in South Australia before you start.
I really think that we would have something to offer and in general Aussies are pretty decent people and if you are going to find an ownership group that will be inclusive to the supporters there will plenty who would do a worse job.
Think your last paragraph in particular sums up a lot of peoples feelings on here (mine certainly).
Only thing I would add is I couldn't give the tiniest shit what nationality the new owners are, or if they are billionaires or where the players come from - I want my club to go back to being a sensibly run, community focussed family club, with maybe a hint of ambition for the future but built on a solid base of bringing in youth players to actually get us somewhere, not just a player farm, and not part of some mad experiment. Also I want to be treated with respect as a supporter, not like a disposable customer who can "just go elsewhere if you don't like it".
It's not a big ask is it?
My personal view ozziedave is. Brush that chip off your shoulder.
Also I don't think you'll find much love on here for Mike Ashley with his track record at Newcastle.