Can I just say I'm in no way related to any of the people at Charlton, at least not that I know of, so I don't want that levelled that at me whenever I express an opinion at odds with most others.
Fair enough. No need to get your salmon trousers in a twist.
Methven said himself that he didn’t want to be involved in the day to day running of the club, that he realised that it wasn’t one of his strengths, that’s why Scott is here, to run the footballing side. Yes, it will take a while to turn the club around but 3 managers and the lowest finish since 1926 is a woeful performance. We could not buy a win towards the end of Appleton’s reign. We looked certain to go down. We’re led to believe the owners personally intervened with the recruitment of Jones, and just before that Scott failed to secure a deal to keep one of our better players and club captain at the club. A player that Jones seems to rate highly. It’s rubbish to say we offered Dobbo what he wanted, if they’d done that he would’ve signed, the fans are not stupid. A utterly miserable first full season in charge, littered with bad decisions but Scott has to own it, he’s in charge, we can’t make excuses for him. We hear messages from the SMT via posters here that they are learning, that’s worrying when we were told the SMT were supposed to be the professional option after Sandgaard’s family thinking it was like playing FIFA. But despite the calamitous season Scott is still here, explaining how he’s still involved in player decisions. Other clubs wouldn’t have been so accommodating, he would’ve been fired long ago.
Methven has a terrible record of involvement in football, we were warned about this, everything he touches seems to turn to crap, and he is still here too. If Jones is to achieve anything next season I think it will be in despite of these two. Jones has in the past been guilty of accepting jobs where the odds were stacked against him succeeding (Stoke and Southampton). I sincerely hope he hasn’t done the same with Charlton.
a fair chunk of our shitshow of a season is having to deal with the train wreck left to them by multiple irresponsible and incompetent previous owners. Cuts to budgets and staffing and pruning of the scouting network by successive regimes (Chapple left because Roland Rat ignored him and listened to poxy Mowgli and NightMeire) meant we had to slip into the merky waters of damaged goods with injury records/players on the way down long before Scott arrived.
Both those incompetent owners managed to do better than this lot have so far. In what is a remarkably weak league this year, this team have overseen our worst season in 98 years. How do you take over from such 'incompetent' owners and manage to do worse than them?
I agree that Dutchatelet cut every department to the bone - but let's not forget that it was Sandgaard left to pick up the pieces. He reinvested into the infrastructure, particularly in rebuilding the medical and coaching departments and redeveloped the training ground (in the failed attempt to gain category one status). Before him, I think the player's gym was in a tent. He still finished higher up the league than this gang.
So he inherited far worse, and yet did better. This current SMT have walked into a club with a more stable infrastructure and yet managed to perform worse than both Sandgaard and Dutchatelet.
Think the playing squad alone was a train wreck inherited that hamstrung us. Legacy contracts we had to/couldn't shift and/or had to loan out the majority of (Kirk/McGrandles x2 loans/DJ x2 loans/Payne/Fraser/O'Connell etc). Sandgaard bought the portercabins from Reading, but allegedly didn't get enough coaches and support staff to gain Cat 1 (the whole politics of not wanting to give a L1 club Cat 1 status is another debate). Then they're was the culture (or lack thereof) that was documented with allegations of bullying and constructive dismissals etc.
Certain parts of the fanbase have said numerous times that they would accept (almost welcome) relegation to aid the removal of whatever Mickey Mouse operation was currently doing us wrong and not looking after the club with the correct amount of care, attention and support. It is possible to judge last season as our lowest point and we would've been in SERIOUS trouble if we haven't got NJ in. If we had gone down then they're would have been zero chance of getting Jones, and we would've probably slipped even further.
People saying 'just words' and 'actions matter' are correct. If we don't get players in early, have a professional and productive preseason that puts the club in the right place to sustain a credible promotion campaign, then you can bet Jones/the ownership will do something about it. Think the SMT definitely know that what has gone on before is unacceptable, they know it's not good enough for the fan base and the owners and ultimately their own positions. Jones is no mug, neither are the owners. None of them would've signed up for this (Jones' reputation has already taken a battering from Stoke/Southampton) if they didn't believe in the club and the journey we need to go on.
I agree with much of what you say but would add that if I was buying a company I would do proper diligence (these guys seemed to). For a football team that would have included assessing the existing player base. This lot paid £12M for the Charlton brand and squad (assets all still owned by RD). Any fan could have told them they needed to set aside enough to pay off Kirk/Aneke and enough to subsidise loan wages of DJ, McG, Payne etc.
The issue was the SMT persuaded the owners to overpay for an empty box and then tried to run it on a shoestring and when they couldn't had to get the begging bowl out.
Scott must have been a big part of the existing player DD prior to purchase.
Methven said himself that he didn’t want to be involved in the day to day running of the club, that he realised that it wasn’t one of his strengths, that’s why Scott is here, to run the footballing side. Yes, it will take a while to turn the club around but 3 managers and the lowest finish since 1926 is a woeful performance. We could not buy a win towards the end of Appleton’s reign. We looked certain to go down. We’re led to believe the owners personally intervened with the recruitment of Jones, and just before that Scott failed to secure a deal to keep one of our better players and club captain at the club. A player that Jones seems to rate highly. It’s rubbish to say we offered Dobbo what he wanted, if they’d done that he would’ve signed, the fans are not stupid. A utterly miserable first full season in charge, littered with bad decisions but Scott has to own it, he’s in charge, we can’t make excuses for him. We hear messages from the SMT via posters here that they are learning, that’s worrying when we were told the SMT were supposed to be the professional option after Sandgaard’s family thinking it was like playing FIFA. But despite the calamitous season Scott is still here, explaining how he’s still involved in player decisions. Other clubs wouldn’t have been so accommodating, he would’ve been fired long ago.
Methven has a terrible record of involvement in football, we were warned about this, everything he touches seems to turn to crap, and he is still here too. If Jones is to achieve anything next season I think it will be in despite of these two. Jones has in the past been guilty of accepting jobs where the odds were stacked against him succeeding (Stoke and Southampton). I sincerely hope he hasn’t done the same with Charlton.
a fair chunk of our shitshow of a season is having to deal with the train wreck left to them by multiple irresponsible and incompetent previous owners. Cuts to budgets and staffing and pruning of the scouting network by successive regimes (Chapple left because Roland Rat ignored him and listened to poxy Mowgli and NightMeire) meant we had to slip into the merky waters of damaged goods with injury records/players on the way down long before Scott arrived.
Both those incompetent owners managed to do better than this lot have so far. In what is a remarkably weak league this year, this team have overseen our worst season in 98 years. How do you take over from such 'incompetent' owners and manage to do worse than them?
I agree that Dutchatelet cut every department to the bone - but let's not forget that it was Sandgaard left to pick up the pieces. He reinvested into the infrastructure, particularly in rebuilding the medical and coaching departments and redeveloped the training ground (in the failed attempt to gain category one status). Before him, I think the player's gym was in a tent. He still finished higher up the league than this gang.
So he inherited far worse, and yet did better. This current SMT have walked into a club with a more stable infrastructure and yet managed to perform worse than both Sandgaard and Dutchatelet.
Think the playing squad alone was a train wreck inherited that hamstrung us. Legacy contracts we had to/couldn't shift and/or had to loan out the majority of (Kirk/McGrandles x2 loans/DJ x2 loans/Payne/Fraser/O'Connell etc). Sandgaard bought the portercabins from Reading, but allegedly didn't get enough coaches and support staff to gain Cat 1 (the whole politics of not wanting to give a L1 club Cat 1 status is another debate). Then they're was the culture (or lack thereof) that was documented with allegations of bullying and constructive dismissals etc.
Certain parts of the fanbase have said numerous times that they would accept (almost welcome) relegation to aid the removal of whatever Mickey Mouse operation was currently doing us wrong and not looking after the club with the correct amount of care, attention and support. It is possible to judge last season as our lowest point and we would've been in SERIOUS trouble if we haven't got NJ in. If we had gone down then they're would have been zero chance of getting Jones, and we would've probably slipped even further.
People saying 'just words' and 'actions matter' are correct. If we don't get players in early, have a professional and productive preseason that puts the club in the right place to sustain a credible promotion campaign, then you can bet Jones/the ownership will do something about it. Think the SMT definitely know that what has gone on before is unacceptable, they know it's not good enough for the fan base and the owners and ultimately their own positions. Jones is no mug, neither are the owners. None of them would've signed up for this (Jones' reputation has already taken a battering from Stoke/Southampton) if they didn't believe in the club and the journey we need to go on.
I agree with much of what you say but would add that if I was buying a company I would do proper diligence (these guys seemed to). For a football team that would have included assessing the existing player base. This lot paid £12M for the Charlton brand and squad (assets all still owned by RD). Any fan could have told them they needed to set aside enough to pay off Kirk/Aneke and enough to subsidise loan wages of DJ, McG, Payne etc.
The issue was the SMT persuaded the owners to overpay for an empty box and then tried to run it on a shoestring and when they couldn't had to get the begging bowl out.
Scott must have been a big part of the existing player DD prior to purchase.
He would have been asked to assess the squad we had and how close it was to promotion level. He massively over-estimated what we had
He was also behind hiring Holden and Appleton
The recruitment of players and managers did improve from January onwards though, so I have some hope that with an improved budget and manager, our recruitment will continue to improve
Comments
No need to get your salmon trousers in a twist.
I agree with much of what you say but would add that if I was buying a company I would do proper diligence (these guys seemed to). For a football team that would have included assessing the existing player base. This lot paid £12M for the Charlton brand and squad (assets all still owned by RD). Any fan could have told them they needed to set aside enough to pay off Kirk/Aneke and enough to subsidise loan wages of DJ, McG, Payne etc.
The issue was the SMT persuaded the owners to overpay for an empty box and then tried to run it on a shoestring and when they couldn't had to get the begging bowl out.
Scott must have been a big part of the existing player DD prior to purchase.
He was also behind hiring Holden and Appleton
The recruitment of players and managers did improve from January onwards though, so I have some hope that with an improved budget and manager, our recruitment will continue to improve