Rod Liddle's article in Sunday Times 20/11/2016

Excerpt from todays paper:

Meanwhile, the madness continues in the division below, at Charlton Athletic. Incidentally, Jimmy Floyd has already ruled himself out of sipping from that particular smashed up chalice, sensibly enough. I had rather hoped, for reasons of local spite, that the Addicks might end up with Mr Holloway, but it was not to be. Russell Slade was sacked after Charlton’s 3-0 defeat by Swindon Town last week, with the club in 15th position in League One. Holloway and Charlton would have been an excellent match, seeing as the club show every indication of being administered by the inmates of a mental institution. Slade didn’t stand a chance — and I had suspected he would leave before now, as he didn’t fit in with owner Roland Duchatelet’s infamous “network” of appointees, who are generally characterised by their complete and utter lack of knowledge of football.
Slade became Duchatelet’s sixth managerial casualty in less than three years and the fans, while not terribly dispirited at seeing the back of Slade, who is not renowned for the flamboyance of his teams, are still in open revolt. Before a recent game against Coventry, the two sets of fans staged a joint protest march outside the ground — Coventry are also run by people who have absolutely no regard for the club’s history, supporters and future. Then, during the game, plastic pigs were flung onto the pitch. I don’t know why it was pigs. Something to do with pigs might fly?
The likely replacement for Slade is a man called Chris O’Loughlin, who is indeed part of Duchatelet’s inept and hilarious network. Unknown in this country, O Loughlin’s only senior managerial appointment came with a few months at a Belgian club called Sint-Truiden and a couple of years at the might of AS Vita, who play in what we used to call the Belgian Congo and now refer to as the DRC.

Charlton have spent money, but they have clearly not spent it terribly well. They hover three points above the trapdoor to a division in which the club have never in their 111-year history participated. Duchatelet has not attended a game in two years and the club have also distinguished themselves by persecuting outspoken critics of the administration, even forcing one applicant for a season ticket not to slag them off any more.

Katrien Meire, the club’s loathed chief executive, has also had to deny demanding that the radio network TalkSport block calls from fans who are antithetical to the way the club is being run — which, by my reckoning, amounts to pretty much all of them.

The Charlton supporters deserve a medal for their continued objection to the destruction, through ineptitude, of one of the country’s most likeable clubs. There but for the grace of God ... this sort of thing could easily happen to your club, too.