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New Article: Roland Duchatelet - A theory.

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  • Your opening piece was well presented, and may have some truth in it. I have difficulty however in believing that a man who obviously has enjoyed creating a fortune and clearly is very intelligent, has purchased a second division Club where the prize for one promotion is £120million a season without being motivated to chase the prize.
    I think it more likely that he is seeking to prove that there are ways to create a successful Club rather than just throwing money at it a la Chelsea, Man City. Investment in the Academy, the Stadium, and bringing in the right people could make him outstanding as the man who proved that you can run a Club using good business principles.
  • edited July 2015
    I also have a theory, its about dinosaurs. Brontosaurus are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and thin at the other end. That is my theory, that I own, and that is mine.

    Ann Elk (Miss).
  • I recall an intriguing comment was made by Katrien last transfer window ....... something along the lines of:


    Roland: "If we spend good money now signing new players, will we be promoted?"

    Katrien: "I can't promise you that this season. In fact, I doubt it very much."



    As a result, we saw a cooking the books exercise bringing in Tony Watt from SL.
    And the relatively low cost signing of players who were free agents.

    After replacing the manager, naturally the only intent seemed to be stopping the freefall down the division and avoiding relegation.


    Katrien admitted fearing for her job if she had given a different answer to Roland.
    But can we deduce that Roland will spend on quality players, should promotion be a realistic prospect?





  • agree, an approach similar to throwing all the ingredients up the air and seeing what kind of cake you've made by January. Similar to the just in time model of squad building. The view seems to be that its a waste of resources to throw money at a team that won't get promoted.

    The problem with the former is it ignores the value of building team spirit and cohesion before the season starts. Nevertheless, we didn't do too badly to start last season, it did tail off however, but was that because we failed to add, and patch holes adequately - another risk of the thin squad approach.
  • The problem is that given the challenge of our opening fixtures, we could find ourselves at the bottom of the table after 5 or 6 games and that could be hard to recover from. There are some quality players in the squad – high championship quality but quite a few unknowns too. I would have thought given the situation, it would have been a good idea to get the squad together a.s.a.p. I appreciate it isn’t as easy as that, but it would have shown some intent. I think if you don’t’ have the intent, you are far more likely to leave the division the wrong way.
  • edited July 2015

    The problem is that given the challenge of our opening fixtures, we could find ourselves at the bottom of the table after 5 or 6 games and that could be hard to recover from. There are some quality players in the squad – high championship quality but quite a few unknowns too. I would have thought given the situation, it would have been a good idea to get the squad together a.s.a.p. I appreciate it isn’t as easy as that, but it would have shown some intent. I think if you don’t’ have the intent, you are far more likely to leave the division the wrong way.

    As for what KM said. I think she led people to believe we would be having a right go so her messages are not consistent. A bit like everything around the club at the moment.
  • razil said:

    .........

    Nevertheless, we didn't do too badly to start last season, it did tail off however, but was that because we failed to add, and patch holes adequately - another risk of the thin squad approach.

    I think the impact of a manager/coach really begins to take effect only after he has been in charge for at least 3 or 4 months. Just as a good manager will have a positive impact on performances a poor manager will have a negative effect. I think our decline in performances from the early part of the season was entirely down to the increasing impact of a poor manager/coach rather than any deficiencies in the playing squad.
  • edited July 2015
    its an interesting viewpoint but most observers were looking at it and saying we are a couple of players away still, then injuries to veto etc, coquelin comes in, then leaves etc, they fail to land another striker, the goalkeepers aren't good enough to fill Hendersons boots. I can't remember all the details off the top of my head but the squad were doing a lot of work, there was little rotation (possible), and when it was i was substandard - it lead to massive tail off in form. If it weren't for those issues you could blame the coach more easily.

    Anyway the point I was making was in reference to the impact if any of the late assembling of the squad

    Personally think it is better to have them in as early as possible.

    Is there anything they could do that they aren't doing? Line up your targets earlier? Is that doable?

    Perhaps our strict policies on what we are prepared to pay means we are missing out on some A targets and reverting to Bs, perhaps some players will always be subject to some kind of bidding war, etc.

  • Surely all clubs have strict policies on what they are prepared to pay (unless you are Chelsea or Man City). Also there will be competition for most of our targets so we won't be able to land all of them. We are no longer the big team in Lge1 attracting all the best players in that league - we are middle to top half Championship and have clubs with parachute funds competing with us. We literally don't know what is going on behind the scenes re. transfers.
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  • Maybe one of the problems is a blanket dismissal of our English football culture.
    Take for example the regimes attitude to a lot of non footballing staff which seems to be along the lines of 'we know best, you have nothing to offer, do one'.

    Both Riga and Luzon have employed the phrase 'I know football', as if it is a phenomena that exists in a peculiar vacuum, and such knowledge can be applied anywhere with no local knowledge. The attitude is don't worry about the particularities of Charlton Athletic, and the rather crude nature of English football, their players are basically not really of sophisticated enough, we know best, do one.

    I believe that British style players are a last resort for them, maybe because they think they are overpriced, but also maybe because they think British style players don't know football as they understand it.

    The disconnect between the approach of the new regime and the context of Charlton Athletic seems to be problematic to say the least.
  • The way I saw it last season, we started well but couldn’t cover injuries and loss of form. Blooding young players is great but when you have too many being blooded at the same time you start to suffer. The strategy was to see where we were in January, but of course without the depth of squad we were never going to be in the desired position – then it was a case of bringing people in to secure our safety. I doubt too many will disagree with what I have said so the question is whether lessons have been learned or whether we see how we go with a small squad and react accordingly in January again. My fear is that Duchatelet may think bringing in a new manager is the magic fix that will always work, but I suspect I won’t and time may be called on that approach sooner rather than later if we rely on it.
  • In League One?
  • I don't think there is much doubt that RD has got rid of Standard Liege following the demonstrations and riots last season.
    It remains to be seen if he buys a replacement club. There was some talk about taking over a French club . Reims ?
    Personally I was very pleased to see the back of the Spivs and If we continue on a sound financial basis whats not to like ?
  • Oggy Red said:

    I recall an intriguing comment was made by Katrien last transfer window ....... something along the lines of:


    Roland: "If we spend good money now signing new players, will we be promoted?"

    Katrien: "I can't promise you that this season. In fact, I doubt it very much."



    As a result, we saw a cooking the books exercise bringing in Tony Watt from SL.
    And the relatively low cost signing of players who were free agents.

    After replacing the manager, naturally the only intent seemed to be stopping the freefall down the division and avoiding relegation.


    Katrien admitted fearing for her job if she had given a different answer to Roland.
    But can we deduce that Roland will spend on quality players, should promotion be a realistic prospect?





    This seems to be very close to the Glickstein /Seed conversation prior to WW2.

    I think there is some evidence that RD has a kind of philanthropic approach but also he is a businessman at heart.

    I think that he believes that there is a way to utilise a network of clubs for economies of scale - scouting being one, and pooling playing resources. I think that he feels he can utilise coaches that he knows rather than to pitch into the unknown.

    To me this all adds up to trying to make less go further. I do believe his exit strategy for us is about leaving us in a sustainably strong financial position allowing him to get his money out with a return. He is no mug and he will know the best chance will be if we are in the PL.

    If you invest to make a return, you can only do that by adding value. Championship clubs like ours will always run at a loss (except if players are sold a significant returns). I don't believe he is expecting to make his money back by selling home grown talent or players bought cheap and developed on, although he will hope to do that as a matter or course. I think he hopes either to have turned a financial basket case around and given it some strength and stability with a decent stadium/training/youth set up leading to selling to somebody to take the club forward or by getting us up. What he us not going to do is a Tony Fernandes etc and throw millions at it.

    So yes, he sees Charlton as a community club needing help but his acquisition is rooted in a business deal with risk and reward possibilities.

    This is just my opinion.

    Is he likely to end up successfully driving the club forward with a return on his investment - who knows? Is his involvement any more doomed to failure than all of the others who have lost their shirts owning our club? Who knows? My guess is that he will achieve some measure of success - just my opinion.
  • In League One?

    Of course not. The problem is that as a Championship club we are making a £5 to £8m loss per year which is not sustainable and I don't see any fans with deep enough pockets to cover that loss and gamble the extra millions on top to build a team to compete for promotion with no guarantee of success. This means we are at the mercy of (mainly) foreign investors with no affinity to the English game using clubs as an experiment or an egotistical exercise in self promotion. Having said that, it is the ludicrous situation we find ourselves in (with unrealistic player wages caused largely by the Premier league) where running costs are way in excess of income which in any other line of business would be unsustainable and companies would go bust.

  • although I have "liked" the Inspector's words I don't like the ramifications of his view on English football although I do agree with his view on the all consuming Premiership assisted by Sky and BT.
    Let's hope that RD allows us some stability
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  • affordable tickets or empty stadium?

    I make AFKA right, the quality of players fits with that.

    Thing is what happens next?

    Done well it might be a bad approach, getting the right number of up and coming players, but starve it of numbersand its never going to work.

    Lets hope we are now the focus.

    Perhaps we will see Roley at some games now

    :)

  • Can anyone advise how we can advance using the new network of second rate minor league sides? Reams rates striker David Rodriguez who scored one in ten for Brighton and he is possibly the best of the current network outside the UK. At the risk of being boring, the network scouts haven't delivered once you extract SL euro squad overspill.
  • Excellent stuff, Stig - many a true word and all that!
  • All b's for me
  • Cant argue with anyone above, but no one has mentioned future fans. What 10yr old is going to support a championship club intent on staying there and breaking even ? My 30 year old son has had a season ticket for about 20 years, it is his age group that have sustained our crowds since relegation from PL, going forward ?

    I don't think that it's really about accepting to just stay in The Championship forever. I think that it's more about being patient and waiting for the right time to mount a challenge. One year we might find that intead of having one or two exceptional youth players, we find ourself with six who make an impact. At that point you can push the boat out a little with a few astute signings and find yourself pushing for 2nd place, or getting to the Play-Off Final.

    If younger fans can see this approach I think that many (those that aren't glory hunters) will accept that, but it does need the club to communicate better with these supporters and help them belive that the club is worth supporting
  • edited July 2015

    Cant argue with anyone above, but no one has mentioned future fans. What 10yr old is going to support a championship club intent on staying there and breaking even ? My 30 year old son has had a season ticket for about 20 years, it is his age group that have sustained our crowds since relegation from PL, going forward ?

    One year we might find that instead of having one or two exceptional youth players, we find ourselves with six who make an impact.
    What dream was this in ? Come off it.

    It took a period of 20 years to find Bowyer, Parker, Shelvey, Jenkinson & Gomez.
  • Can anyone advise how we can advance using the new network of second rate minor league sides? Reams rates striker David Rodriguez who scored one in ten for Brighton and he is possibly the best of the current network outside the UK. At the risk of being boring, the network scouts haven't delivered once you extract SL euro squad overspill.

    Vetokele? Gudmundsson?
  • Cant argue with anyone above, but no one has mentioned future fans. What 10yr old is going to support a championship club intent on staying there and breaking even ? My 30 year old son has had a season ticket for about 20 years, it is his age group that have sustained our crowds since relegation from PL, going forward ?

    I don't think that it's really about accepting to just stay in The Championship forever. I think that it's more about being patient and waiting for the right time to mount a challenge.
    Take your point, and I agree up to a point, but the trouble is that the finances of English football are so utterly screwed, it could be argued that *any* time is the right time to mount a challenge when you're blowing £5m+ a year on just standing still.

    That may not be sensible - but it's perfectly understandable that people who turn up to a lovely PL-standard ground to be confronted with loads of empty seats and mediocre opposition on a wet Tuesday night when the Champions League is on the box may start to get impatient after a while. That may be fickle, but being rational is often the first thing out of the door once people set foot inside football grounds.

    RD may be a paragon of wise thoughts and common sense - but because he's so quiet, we're all left guessing and wondering.
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Roland Out Forever!