NEW ARTICLE: Why I Tried to Give you a Leaflet (Nov 2015)

Whilst West Ham may have adopted the ‘more than a football club’ motto, it has always rung pertinently true with regards to Charlton. Our successful supporter involvement shines out in our history and is one of our USP’s as a club. But now I feel there is a complete disregard for supporter feeling, history and engagement. Not just on big issues like the managerial appointments, but right the way down to the tiny ones like knowing only a tiny percentage of the fans want the game on the big screen, or that everyone to a man thinks the pitchside sofa is an embarrassment, yet never acting upon it. Or trying to manipulate a Q+A evening to such an extent by dragging in players and youth coaches.


This is what riles me the most, and drove me to arrive early to hand out leaflets. I love this club and I feel they are taking the p*ss out of it and us collectively as supporters.

No serious consideration has ever been given at any stage as to what this club wants or needs through anybody’s eyes other than Roland Duchatelet. There is simply no logical reason if you were to adopt a multi-million pound business in a foreign country that employees hundreds of people, that you would instil the role of running that company to someone that just two years prior was a trainee with a law firm in a different industry in a different country, and who has never even come close to managing even a much smaller business, or even a small team as far as I can see.

None of this is personal. None of this is based on nationality or gender, and all decisions and mistakes impacting on and off the pitch can be learned from and addressed. Corners undoubtedly can still be turned (unless Ceballos takes them). But what I just don’t like is the complete unwillingness to take on board supporter viewpoints, to laugh (whether intentionally or unintentionally) in the face of supporter (customer) dissatisfaction and to be so dismissive of it.

The supporters, staff and volunteers are the lifeblood for every single football club regardless of whether you are Barcelona or Bromley. A football club will never achieve anything without its supporters. And a football club that sees its supporters mainly as a hindrance is only ever going in one direction. Charlton looks to me a club that is failing both on and off the pitch, and this feels my best way of trying to influence that to change before it has severe long-term consequences.

So was Saturday’s protest a success? Yes and no. The purpose was to try and make a specific point and to try and garner some extra publicity of the growing dissatisfaction, whilst not overtly impacting on supporting the team. That was clearly achieved. However, whilst it made a mockery of the downplaying the regime’s stance on the minimal extent of the discontent, it is equally fair to acknowledge it was not 100% supported, and that the advancement of protest momentum has highlighted a serious split in our support for a multitude of different reasons. I think one way or another people are belligerently nailing their colours to a specific mast, and I can’t really see that changing now. It saddens me to read the external viewpoints such as those in this Ipswich report and think why are some of our fans not similarly seeing the same, whether focused on the failing football strategy / managerial policy, or the Club’s derision of its own supporters, or just by looking around on a matchday and seeing an increasingly sparse ground completely apathetic to yet another home spanking.

Was I glad I got in involved? Yes and no. On one hand, I was proud I didn’t just spout off online or in the pub, and actively did something I believe in. Thousands of others will equal, but very few will love this club more than what I do, and I was proud to stand beside others young and old on Saturday who I know also love the club deeply and don’t like where it is heading. I’m glad I acted on that and did something that took a pigeon step to try and change that, whether it was viewed as successful or not.

But as I defrosted in the car on the journey home, I also sadly realised that that from a Charlton point of view unless those with strong opposing views to the protests start to see things differently, then this will only lead to an unenjoyable division, and that worries me. From a personal point of view as someone who takes ‘being a good dad’ seriously, I also felt a selfish fraud wasting the last five hours on that when I could, and most probably should, have been spending it with my kids. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt the same.

Do I think anything will change as a result of the last few weeks? Sadly not. Whilst Saturday was a next step from the previous Sheffield Wednesday protest, I genuinely am starting to fear that unless there is an ownership change, or a complete turnaround in Roland’s approach that pays more than just lip service to being a traditional Championship club, I think we are in for a very dark few years where Charlton continue to shrink as a club, whether we remain at this level or drop down the leagues.

Defenders will say where will be without Roland’s money?, and the genuine answer is I don’t know. But after sitting through another dismal 0-3 defeat in an empty, apathetic stadium, I think there is a strong possibility that one way or another we are screwed anyway.

I’ve wrote repeatedly over the last 2-3 years of the increased supporter challenges the club faces over the next 5-10 years. That was before taking into consideration Palace’s rise, which will add further pressure to that. Charlton not only faces huge challenges to attract the fans of the future, there are hand over fist losing the one’s they already have, and not just through what will be the natural churn of our considerably older-than-average fanbase.

What chance do we have of attracting the fans of tomorrow if we are losing so many of the fans of today? So many fans so increasingly disconnected to the Club can’t all be wrong, can they?

That special feeling walking down Floyd Road will always be there. But less and less people are now walking it and I fear this will continue to be the case unless there is change.

That is why i tried to give you a leaflet on Saturday.