Good things that Thomas Sandgaard has done

sillav nitram · December 2022

PWR

Has anyone mentioned, saved the club?

fenlandaddick · December 2022

Must be the only owner to have penned a rock song for the club.

swordfish · December 2022

Redrobo said:

swordfish said:

Redrobo said:

CafcSCP said:

ValleyOfTears said:

Stabilising a club just about to go bankrupt. Addressing many concerns the supporters had. Making good decisions - letting Bowyer go after seeing that he had taken the club as far as he could. Sacking Adkins. Sacking JJ. Sacking BG. All correct decisions. I'm a little reticent to say sacking BG was a good decision as I do think he should have at least been given a full window to bring in some forwards. And BG is a likeable guy. But do I think he was ever going to get this club into Championship and challenging for even further glory? Nope. He engaged with the fans. The excellent Charlton tv. The Charlton Ladies team. And his 'vision' for where he wanted to take us. I don't recall RD mentioning such lofty goals. And genuinely loves the club, team and is very proud of his club. He repeatedly listens to supporters and acts.
He had no board or clear team running the football club. He has addressed that this week by hiring a COO, A Finance Director, A Technical Director, A First Team Coach.

We all complain about social media and pile-ons and all the rest of it but WE are the people that do all this. Twenty years ago no-one would have criticised the owners of a football club. Few would have even considered the financial side. Perhaps we are unique in that we were very involved in the running of a football club after the debacle in the mid 1980s but generally speaking if we lost a game our ire never went higher than the First Team coach. We would abuse the player or players having a shocker. Or the tactics they were clearly having to follow by an inept manager. But it never went further than that.

The same should apply today. Thank you Thomas Saandgard for buying our club. Keeping it going. Investing tonnes of cash in it, stabilising the running of this club. Bringing in new players. Firing those persons who needed to be fired. Even your awful Def Leppard-lite guitar riffery has its place!!!!!

Investing cash? It’s all loans that he can call in at any time.
He stopped administration but would admin have been such a bad thing?
Look at Wigan!!

We would have only gone into administration when all the assets had been sold. That means any players of any value. The bank accounts would have been emptied and football debts created so that any buyer would have to pay off the likes of Jones, players and hangers on.
If you think it is hard for TS to find a buyer, what chance of selling a failing club with no players of any value, huge debts and no ground.
IMO, Charlton would have ceased to exist without Sandgaard.

It's a possibility, but maybe just as plausible that RD would have gone to Barclay and said "Ooerrr Mr B.This don't look so good. I don't want to lose £7M and get no rent. How much will you give me for the assets if you buy the Club?"

Even if Rolly accepted less than £20m for the grounds, there would still be the football debts the crooks would have created, players gone and we would probably have been relegated into the bargain.
I think we will look back and conclude that overall we were better off having him own us.

The point is that we're told there were and are now other interested parties around even though we're arguably a less attractive proposition, so someone would have probably have stepped in to save us from oblivion.

TS saved us alright, from ESI, and if that wasn't a good thing, then nothing he's done for us has been. Better off with him than had he not shown up though? Well I do actually agree with you that we were, but I do get why others don't see it that way now.

Stig · December 2022

sillav nitram said:

PWR

Has anyone mentioned, saved the club?

PWR

No

fenlandaddick · December 2022

Didn't we break even?

Blucher · December 2022

On the plus side, there's saving us from ESI, developing Charlton TV, bringing the Women's Team back into the fold, decent levels of communication (at least initially) and signing up our good young Academy players to try and protect those assets.

Overall, I think he's a decent enough guy, with good intentions - save for his ill-considered and counter-productive US-style 'hiring and firing' of staff. You'd have thought that someone in authority at the club would have a vague grasp of our longstanding employment protection legislation.

An unwillingness to take advice proved fatal to Thomas' chances of success at Charlton. In the final analysis, he lacked judgment and, sadly, will be remembered by most as a glossy salesman who failed to deliver.

GenevaCharlton · December 2022

He tried to communicate with the fans and even though much of his rhetoric was misguided and incorrect at least we knew where we stood. I will take that.

Dave2l · December 2022

What im hoping is, there is another potential good thing waiting around the corner.

Probably a bit too hopeful

He's getting potential buyers lined up and secretly advertising us. He's in talks with Roland for him to be apart of the solution to this problem.

They both want rid but they are justing waiting for the money that will return them the money they lost, plus a bit more.

And that's hopefully where it will all end

swordfish · December 2022

CafcSCP said:

ValleyOfTears said:

Stabilising a club just about to go bankrupt. Addressing many concerns the supporters had. Making good decisions - letting Bowyer go after seeing that he had taken the club as far as he could. Sacking Adkins. Sacking JJ. Sacking BG. All correct decisions. I'm a little reticent to say sacking BG was a good decision as I do think he should have at least been given a full window to bring in some forwards. And BG is a likeable guy. But do I think he was ever going to get this club into Championship and challenging for even further glory? Nope. He engaged with the fans. The excellent Charlton tv. The Charlton Ladies team. And his 'vision' for where he wanted to take us. I don't recall RD mentioning such lofty goals. And genuinely loves the club, team and is very proud of his club. He repeatedly listens to supporters and acts.
He had no board or clear team running the football club. He has addressed that this week by hiring a COO, A Finance Director, A Technical Director, A First Team Coach.

We all complain about social media and pile-ons and all the rest of it but WE are the people that do all this. Twenty years ago no-one would have criticised the owners of a football club. Few would have even considered the financial side. Perhaps we are unique in that we were very involved in the running of a football club after the debacle in the mid 1980s but generally speaking if we lost a game our ire never went higher than the First Team coach. We would abuse the player or players having a shocker. Or the tactics they were clearly having to follow by an inept manager. But it never went further than that.

The same should apply today. Thank you Thomas Saandgard for buying our club. Keeping it going. Investing tonnes of cash in it, stabilising the running of this club. Bringing in new players. Firing those persons who needed to be fired. Even your awful Def Leppard-lite guitar riffery has its place!!!!!

Investing cash? It’s all loans that he can call in at any time.
He stopped administration but would admin have been such a bad thing?
Look at Wigan!!!!

Who are in a worse position in the Championship now than they were when they entered admin in the first place, amidst rumours of financial instability again, the owners potentially honoring their promise to return the Club to where it belongs in the football hierarchy, which is L1 or lower IMO.

There are some good examples of Club's having prospered post admin, ourselves under the shrewd management of LL, and more recently Palace, but I remain to be convinced Wigan's was anything other than a short lived bounce back to be followed by more pain. Let's see if they survive the drop this season and then push on before holding them up as a shiny example.

You ask if admin would have been such a bad thing. Well there would have been plenty of guaranteed negatives with no guaranteed positives, so it's more a question of getting lucky. Do you feel lucky?

Dazzler21 · December 2022

carly burn said:

Very little indeed.

There was so many smaller things he could have done. Sorting the shop out. Give the valley a bit of a face lift. A decent ticketing system...there are many more and he chose to do none if very little.
I'm really not sure what he was trying to achieve when he came,but there a big red flags that it was miniscule.
All talk No strides

Why would he give the valley a face lift? It's not his building and adds no benefit to the performance of the club?!

CafcSCP · December 2022

swordfish said:

CafcSCP said:

ValleyOfTears said:

Stabilising a club just about to go bankrupt. Addressing many concerns the supporters had. Making good decisions - letting Bowyer go after seeing that he had taken the club as far as he could. Sacking Adkins. Sacking JJ. Sacking BG. All correct decisions. I'm a little reticent to say sacking BG was a good decision as I do think he should have at least been given a full window to bring in some forwards. And BG is a likeable guy. But do I think he was ever going to get this club into Championship and challenging for even further glory? Nope. He engaged with the fans. The excellent Charlton tv. The Charlton Ladies team. And his 'vision' for where he wanted to take us. I don't recall RD mentioning such lofty goals. And genuinely loves the club, team and is very proud of his club. He repeatedly listens to supporters and acts.
He had no board or clear team running the football club. He has addressed that this week by hiring a COO, A Finance Director, A Technical Director, A First Team Coach.

We all complain about social media and pile-ons and all the rest of it but WE are the people that do all this. Twenty years ago no-one would have criticised the owners of a football club. Few would have even considered the financial side. Perhaps we are unique in that we were very involved in the running of a football club after the debacle in the mid 1980s but generally speaking if we lost a game our ire never went higher than the First Team coach. We would abuse the player or players having a shocker. Or the tactics they were clearly having to follow by an inept manager. But it never went further than that.

The same should apply today. Thank you Thomas Saandgard for buying our club. Keeping it going. Investing tonnes of cash in it, stabilising the running of this club. Bringing in new players. Firing those persons who needed to be fired. Even your awful Def Leppard-lite guitar riffery has its place!!!!!

Investing cash? It’s all loans that he can call in at any time.
He stopped administration but would admin have been such a bad thing?
Look at Wigan!!!!

Who are in a worse position in the Championship now than they were when they entered admin in the first place, amidst rumours of financial instability again, the owners potentially honoring their promise to return the Club to where it belongs in the football hierarchy, which is L1 or lower IMO.

There are some good examples of Club's having prospered post admin, ourselves under the shrewd management of LL, and more recently Palace, but I remain to be convinced Wigan's was anything other than a short lived bounce back to be followed by more pain. Let's see if they survive the drop this season and then push on before holding them up as a shiny example.

You ask if admin would have been such a bad thing. Well there would have been plenty of guaranteed negatives with no guaranteed positives, so it's more a question of getting lucky. Do you feel lucky?

I get where you are coming from but they have survived as a club, and while in the Championship and only a win from safety, I’d say they’re more likely to get a better buyer than us.
Im certainly not feeling positive or lucky following the rumours from today.
Football is imploding from the lower echelons up, and I can only see the current super clubs surviving.
the game may end up having a reset unfortunately.

Airman Brown · December 2022

Redrobo said:

swordfish said:

Redrobo said:

CafcSCP said:

ValleyOfTears said:

Stabilising a club just about to go bankrupt. Addressing many concerns the supporters had. Making good decisions - letting Bowyer go after seeing that he had taken the club as far as he could. Sacking Adkins. Sacking JJ. Sacking BG. All correct decisions. I'm a little reticent to say sacking BG was a good decision as I do think he should have at least been given a full window to bring in some forwards. And BG is a likeable guy. But do I think he was ever going to get this club into Championship and challenging for even further glory? Nope. He engaged with the fans. The excellent Charlton tv. The Charlton Ladies team. And his 'vision' for where he wanted to take us. I don't recall RD mentioning such lofty goals. And genuinely loves the club, team and is very proud of his club. He repeatedly listens to supporters and acts.
He had no board or clear team running the football club. He has addressed that this week by hiring a COO, A Finance Director, A Technical Director, A First Team Coach.

We all complain about social media and pile-ons and all the rest of it but WE are the people that do all this. Twenty years ago no-one would have criticised the owners of a football club. Few would have even considered the financial side. Perhaps we are unique in that we were very involved in the running of a football club after the debacle in the mid 1980s but generally speaking if we lost a game our ire never went higher than the First Team coach. We would abuse the player or players having a shocker. Or the tactics they were clearly having to follow by an inept manager. But it never went further than that.

The same should apply today. Thank you Thomas Saandgard for buying our club. Keeping it going. Investing tonnes of cash in it, stabilising the running of this club. Bringing in new players. Firing those persons who needed to be fired. Even your awful Def Leppard-lite guitar riffery has its place!!!!!

Investing cash? It’s all loans that he can call in at any time.
He stopped administration but would admin have been such a bad thing?
Look at Wigan!!

We would have only gone into administration when all the assets had been sold. That means any players of any value. The bank accounts would have been emptied and football debts created so that any buyer would have to pay off the likes of Jones, players and hangers on.
If you think it is hard for TS to find a buyer, what chance of selling a failing club with no players of any value, huge debts and no ground.
IMO, Charlton would have ceased to exist without Sandgaard.

It's a possibility, but maybe just as plausible that RD would have gone to Barclay and said "Ooerrr Mr B.This don't look so good. I don't want to lose £7M and get no rent. How much will you give me for the assets if you buy the Club?"

Even if Rolly accepted less than £20m for the grounds, there would still be the football debts the crooks would have created, players gone and we would probably have been relegated into the bargain.
I think we will look back and conclude that overall we were better off having him own us.

I don’t think we will. We’ll never be able to test the alternative scenarios but if we’d have gone bust in 2020 RD would have had to come to the table and we’d be two years down the line into recovery. There are no guarantees but there is no likelihood in my view the club would not have been bought out of admin. RD would have been on the hook. It would have been bumpy but done.

I think Sandgaard will look worse in the rear view mirror than close up - just like the spivs, Roland and ESI. At least the first two kept out of the way and were rewarded with a promotion. He’s just taken us backwards.

Great as it has been, Charlton TV won’t survive a takeover. The women’s team won’t be part of things either.

If I had to spend an evening in the pub with any of our last few owners, I’d choose Thomas. I think he’s a genuine character whose goals were aligned with those of the fans, unlike any of the others 2010-20. But his shooting was terrible.

Cafc43v3r · December 2022

Airman Brown said:

Redrobo said:

swordfish said:

Redrobo said:

CafcSCP said:

ValleyOfTears said:

Stabilising a club just about to go bankrupt. Addressing many concerns the supporters had. Making good decisions - letting Bowyer go after seeing that he had taken the club as far as he could. Sacking Adkins. Sacking JJ. Sacking BG. All correct decisions. I'm a little reticent to say sacking BG was a good decision as I do think he should have at least been given a full window to bring in some forwards. And BG is a likeable guy. But do I think he was ever going to get this club into Championship and challenging for even further glory? Nope. He engaged with the fans. The excellent Charlton tv. The Charlton Ladies team. And his 'vision' for where he wanted to take us. I don't recall RD mentioning such lofty goals. And genuinely loves the club, team and is very proud of his club. He repeatedly listens to supporters and acts.
He had no board or clear team running the football club. He has addressed that this week by hiring a COO, A Finance Director, A Technical Director, A First Team Coach.

We all complain about social media and pile-ons and all the rest of it but WE are the people that do all this. Twenty years ago no-one would have criticised the owners of a football club. Few would have even considered the financial side. Perhaps we are unique in that we were very involved in the running of a football club after the debacle in the mid 1980s but generally speaking if we lost a game our ire never went higher than the First Team coach. We would abuse the player or players having a shocker. Or the tactics they were clearly having to follow by an inept manager. But it never went further than that.

The same should apply today. Thank you Thomas Saandgard for buying our club. Keeping it going. Investing tonnes of cash in it, stabilising the running of this club. Bringing in new players. Firing those persons who needed to be fired. Even your awful Def Leppard-lite guitar riffery has its place!!!!!

Investing cash? It’s all loans that he can call in at any time.
He stopped administration but would admin have been such a bad thing?
Look at Wigan!!

We would have only gone into administration when all the assets had been sold. That means any players of any value. The bank accounts would have been emptied and football debts created so that any buyer would have to pay off the likes of Jones, players and hangers on.
If you think it is hard for TS to find a buyer, what chance of selling a failing club with no players of any value, huge debts and no ground.
IMO, Charlton would have ceased to exist without Sandgaard.

It's a possibility, but maybe just as plausible that RD would have gone to Barclay and said "Ooerrr Mr B.This don't look so good. I don't want to lose £7M and get no rent. How much will you give me for the assets if you buy the Club?"

Even if Rolly accepted less than £20m for the grounds, there would still be the football debts the crooks would have created, players gone and we would probably have been relegated into the bargain.
I think we will look back and conclude that overall we were better off having him own us.

I don’t think we will. We’ll never be able to test the alternative scenarios but if we’d have gone bust in 2020 RD would have had to come to the table and we’d be two years down the line into recovery. There are no guarantees but there is no likelihood in my view the club would not have been bought out of admin. RD would have been on the hook. It would have been bumpy but done.

I think Sandgaard will look worse in the rear view mirror than close up - just like the spivs, Roland and ESI. At least the first two kept out of the way and were rewarded with a promotion. He’s just taken us backwards.

Great as it has been, Charlton TV won’t survive a takeover. The women’s team won’t be part of things either.

If I had to spend an evening in the pub with any of our last few owners, I’d choose Thomas. I think he’s a genuine character whose goals were aligned with those of the fans, unlike any of the others 2010-20. But his shooting was terrible.

Wouldn't it have been in Roland's best interests to prevent the club going into admin, effectively putting it under his own protection? Even if it ment him flogging the playing assets, which Thomas did anyway, and flipping it for a quid to the next mug?

Airman Brown · December 2022

Cafc43v3r said:

Airman Brown said:

Redrobo said:

swordfish said:

Redrobo said:

CafcSCP said:

ValleyOfTears said:

Stabilising a club just about to go bankrupt. Addressing many concerns the supporters had. Making good decisions - letting Bowyer go after seeing that he had taken the club as far as he could. Sacking Adkins. Sacking JJ. Sacking BG. All correct decisions. I'm a little reticent to say sacking BG was a good decision as I do think he should have at least been given a full window to bring in some forwards. And BG is a likeable guy. But do I think he was ever going to get this club into Championship and challenging for even further glory? Nope. He engaged with the fans. The excellent Charlton tv. The Charlton Ladies team. And his 'vision' for where he wanted to take us. I don't recall RD mentioning such lofty goals. And genuinely loves the club, team and is very proud of his club. He repeatedly listens to supporters and acts.
He had no board or clear team running the football club. He has addressed that this week by hiring a COO, A Finance Director, A Technical Director, A First Team Coach.

We all complain about social media and pile-ons and all the rest of it but WE are the people that do all this. Twenty years ago no-one would have criticised the owners of a football club. Few would have even considered the financial side. Perhaps we are unique in that we were very involved in the running of a football club after the debacle in the mid 1980s but generally speaking if we lost a game our ire never went higher than the First Team coach. We would abuse the player or players having a shocker. Or the tactics they were clearly having to follow by an inept manager. But it never went further than that.

The same should apply today. Thank you Thomas Saandgard for buying our club. Keeping it going. Investing tonnes of cash in it, stabilising the running of this club. Bringing in new players. Firing those persons who needed to be fired. Even your awful Def Leppard-lite guitar riffery has its place!!!!!

Investing cash? It’s all loans that he can call in at any time.
He stopped administration but would admin have been such a bad thing?
Look at Wigan!!

We would have only gone into administration when all the assets had been sold. That means any players of any value. The bank accounts would have been emptied and football debts created so that any buyer would have to pay off the likes of Jones, players and hangers on.
If you think it is hard for TS to find a buyer, what chance of selling a failing club with no players of any value, huge debts and no ground.
IMO, Charlton would have ceased to exist without Sandgaard.

It's a possibility, but maybe just as plausible that RD would have gone to Barclay and said "Ooerrr Mr B.This don't look so good. I don't want to lose £7M and get no rent. How much will you give me for the assets if you buy the Club?"

Even if Rolly accepted less than £20m for the grounds, there would still be the football debts the crooks would have created, players gone and we would probably have been relegated into the bargain.
I think we will look back and conclude that overall we were better off having him own us.

I don’t think we will. We’ll never be able to test the alternative scenarios but if we’d have gone bust in 2020 RD would have had to come to the table and we’d be two years down the line into recovery. There are no guarantees but there is no likelihood in my view the club would not have been bought out of admin. RD would have been on the hook. It would have been bumpy but done.

I think Sandgaard will look worse in the rear view mirror than close up - just like the spivs, Roland and ESI. At least the first two kept out of the way and were rewarded with a promotion. He’s just taken us backwards.

Great as it has been, Charlton TV won’t survive a takeover. The women’s team won’t be part of things either.

If I had to spend an evening in the pub with any of our last few owners, I’d choose Thomas. I think he’s a genuine character whose goals were aligned with those of the fans, unlike any of the others 2010-20. But his shooting was terrible.

Wouldn't it have been in Roland's best interests to prevent the club going into admin, effectively putting it under his own protection? Even if it ment him flogging the playing assets, which Thomas did anyway, and flipping it for a quid to the next mug?

RD was never going to take the liabilities on again. Maybe he’d have done a deal, maybe he wouldn’t, but TS gave him a way out.