Michael Appleton - March 2025 appointed Shrewsbury manager (p124)

Dazzler21 said:

supaclive said:

May and Leaburn are two of our best players.  Leaving either out when both fit would be a mistake.

Expecting 3-5-2/5-3-2 or the much maligned 4-4-2. 

RonnieMoore said:

JamesSeed said:

We sometimes feel like a doomed club;

Great stadium that we don’t own, that we perhaps can’t afford, and certainly can’t fill right now. 
A succession of owners with a succession of plans for the club that don’t seem to add up. 

Serious potential owners put off by the financial black hole, and the separation of the club from the freeholds. 

A fan base that has run out a patience with League One status, the owners, the management (soon probably), and to some extent the players.
Our nearby rivals are flying, while we are struggling. 

BUT:
We have DLM; Dobbo, Leaburn & May. 

We have various promising young players breaking through, and more potential in the academy. 

Our new manager might improve things, who knows.
We have a more successful history than our nearby rivals. History doesn’t win matches, but it at least winds them up.
We have fans that set up parties and win elections to protect the club’s future. 

And we have a game on Saturday where our allocation has sold out.
Is there a glimmer of hope?

New owners have already said they intend to speak to RD about the valley and TG .. there’s no panic over it at the moment there intentions is to purchase both 

For how much?

Dazzler21 said:

Anyway - Haven't been on here too much lately - but this proved to be as reliable as Ketts @Richard J You certainly proved that @AFKABartram
for Lolling you. 

soapboxsam said:

So how did Coventry return to the Championship and nearly the Premiership after the off field problems they have had.
From League 2 to a Wembley play off.
Can't just be down to Mark Robins 🤔

And Luton obviously but I believe they did it differently from Coventry and they have gone from the Conference to the Premier(for 1 season only)

cafc_se7 said:

The Prince-e-Paul said:

Slightly off topic, but I saw the group of American investers are looking to buy Everton, with a £430m debt. WTF is going on in club ownership. And still they are perennial relegation contenders. They might be Prem league, but the owner losses just get bigger the higher up the ladder you go. 

And this is why we need to let go of finding the dream owners! We are not in as much shit as some of the teams higher up than us are, regardless of their rank.

MarcusH26 said:

The Prince-e-Paul said:

Slightly off topic, but I saw the group of American investers are looking to buy Everton, with a £430m debt. WTF is going on in club ownership. And still they are perennial relegation contenders. They might be Prem league, but the owner losses just get bigger the higher up the ladder you go. 

I believe people did mention on here this 777 group that want Everton did look at buying us maybe 18 months ago and were put off by TS. 

Airman Brown said:

LoOkOuT said:

I think the latest episode of his Where's the money gone? podcast, published yesterday, shows that Charlie thinks he's cracked it by planning on the financial restructuring brought about by impending regulatory reform, including Premier League payments to EFL clubs plugging a lot of the gaps. Even in League One, provided you play the game.

That involves new rules that will bestow a competitive advantage on clubs that bring academy players through (hence the amount of academy players in our squad), allowing more budget (albeit a smaller budget) to be spent on fewer players. One would assume, key players.

Essentially, that all, he seems to be suggesting, protects our investors from the financial risks that plagued all our owners to date (bar the fake sheik and the hair plugs guy, or were just there for the free bitches and bread). 

A sensible gamble? He doesn't say it, but with more showcasing of competent academy graduates in the squad (ie the proverbial shop window), it's likely that any issues to the plan will be further offset by player sales... thus it always was for a club like ours. Another insurance policy, at least as long as the conveyor belt keeps turning. The investors seem to think they've sussed it without having to spunk huge sums (in fact, Charlie says the rules won't let them).

Yes, I gathered that’s what he thinks but it’s just a hypothesis and I still think he hasn’t a clue about the club. He just thinks it’s a set of numbers.

Henry Irving said:

MarcusH26 said:

The Prince-e-Paul said:

Slightly off topic, but I saw the group of American investers are looking to buy Everton, with a £430m debt. WTF is going on in club ownership. And still they are perennial relegation contenders. They might be Prem league, but the owner losses just get bigger the higher up the ladder you go. 

I believe people did mention on here this 777 group that want Everton did look at buying us maybe 18 months ago and were put off by TS. 

Yes, that is what I was told although he might have, inadvertently, done us a favour as a lot of evidence that 777 are dodgy as ****

PeanutsMolloy said:

Henry Irving said:

Like it or not Appleton is the manager/head coach and while there are legitimate concerns and valid skepticism about him and the appointment there are also non-Charlton voices saying he is a good fit.

So while he's the boss I want him to be successful because, as a Charlton fan, he needs to be successful for the club to be successful and I want the team and so the club to be successful.

Success for me isn't winning every game as that is totally unrealistic and setting him up to fail.

But two points a game on average over the remaining 40 games of the season equals, with the six points we already have, 86 points and that should be enough for the play-offs.  Is that possible?  Yes, it is.  Is it likely? I think it's a big ask as there are so many variables, such as injuries, players finding form and Appleton and his coaches finding tactics and a formation that brings out the best of the squad we have.  We shall have to see how it pans out over months, not days or weeks.

There are also very valid concerns over the business plan, the motives of the senior management team and the medium to long term commitment to the club of both the SMT and the beneficial owners.

We all want the club to get promotion and to, at least, re-establish itself in the Championship, why wouldn't we?

But that doesn't mean we should put our hands over our eyes and ears when people warn us that the plan may be built on sand and vague hopes around cutting loses, selling players and proposed but not confirmed changes in EPL/EFL funding rather than sound, long term and realistic investment with a back up war chest of cash if it doesn't work first time around.  Wanting something to happen doesn't mean we should ignore the warnings that it might not.

But for the same reason that I want Appleton to be a success, that I'm a fan, I want their plan to work much as I have my doubts of both the plan and the person who created it.

Indeed, but nobody is putting hands over eyes and ears.
I totally respect the experience, knowledge, concerns and opinions of @AirmanBrown you and other critics of "the Project" and they may be proved 100% right.
I, and from what I see others on here, are simply open-minded about whether the likes of Joshua Friedman and the other large investors are dumb enough to ignore legitimate needs and a sensible case for ad hoc injections of working capital (to enable them to optimise sale value of Academy players and to attempt to seal the deal for promotion) or self-interested pragmatists.
Based on my experience, including of Friedman's hedge fund Canyon and private equity investors generally, suspect that, providing CAFC is shown to be progressing, their self-interest (aka greed) could well prompt them to be pragmatic and depart from a pro-forma budget.
Yes, as Airman points out, they will have the choice to participate or be diluted. But, as in prior days, as you probably recall, such decisions were as much driven as much by self-interest as emotion (there were times when Directors, injecting new capital at 50p a share, actually believed the fair value of CA PLC shares should be north of £1), some will want to maintain or grow their %, others will take the view that 5% of something is better than 7% of nothing. These things can get done despite a club of investors and no prior commitment.
I have no way of knowing how these investors will in fact behave but I remain open-minded and hopeful that, if the CAFC management team get us moving in the right direction, common sense and their greed will prevail.
 

PeanutsMolloy said:

Henry Irving said:

PeanutsMolloy said:

Henry Irving said:

Like it or not Appleton is the manager/head coach and while there are legitimate concerns and valid skepticism about him and the appointment there are also non-Charlton voices saying he is a good fit.

So while he's the boss I want him to be successful because, as a Charlton fan, he needs to be successful for the club to be successful and I want the team and so the club to be successful.

Success for me isn't winning every game as that is totally unrealistic and setting him up to fail.

But two points a game on average over the remaining 40 games of the season equals, with the six points we already have, 86 points and that should be enough for the play-offs.  Is that possible?  Yes, it is.  Is it likely? I think it's a big ask as there are so many variables, such as injuries, players finding form and Appleton and his coaches finding tactics and a formation that brings out the best of the squad we have.  We shall have to see how it pans out over months, not days or weeks.

There are also very valid concerns over the business plan, the motives of the senior management team and the medium to long term commitment to the club of both the SMT and the beneficial owners.

We all want the club to get promotion and to, at least, re-establish itself in the Championship, why wouldn't we?

But that doesn't mean we should put our hands over our eyes and ears when people warn us that the plan may be built on sand and vague hopes around cutting loses, selling players and proposed but not confirmed changes in EPL/EFL funding rather than sound, long term and realistic investment with a back up war chest of cash if it doesn't work first time around.  Wanting something to happen doesn't mean we should ignore the warnings that it might not.

But for the same reason that I want Appleton to be a success, that I'm a fan, I want their plan to work much as I have my doubts of both the plan and the person who created it.

Indeed, but nobody is putting hands over eyes and ears.
I totally respect the experience, knowledge, concerns and opinions of @AirmanBrown you and other critics of "the Project" and they may be proved 100% right.
I, and from what I see others on here, are simply open-minded about whether the likes of Joshua Friedman and the other large investors are dumb enough to ignore legitimate needs and a sensible case for ad hoc injections of working capital (to enable them to optimise sale value of Academy players and to attempt to seal the deal for promotion) or self-interested pragmatists.
Based on my experience, including of Friedman's hedge fund Canyon and private equity investors generally, suspect that, providing CAFC is shown to be progressing, their self-interest (aka greed) could well prompt them to be pragmatic and depart from a pro-forma budget.
Yes, as Airman points out, they will have the choice to participate or be diluted. But, as in prior days, as you probably recall, such decisions were as much driven as much by self-interest as emotion (there were times when Directors, injecting new capital at 50p a share, actually believed the fair value of CA PLC shares should be north of £1), some will want to maintain or grow their %, others will take the view that 5% of something is better than 7% of nothing. These things can get done despite a club of investors and no prior commitment.
I have no way of knowing how these investors will in fact behave but I remain open-minded and hopeful that, if the CAFC management team get us moving in the right direction, common sense and their greed will prevail.
 

Not you @PeanutsMolloy but there are those, and not just our resident troll, saying everything will be fine, that the owners are rich and so can't have made a mistake or been mislead in this instance or that we should all "just get behind the club."

In part, that is because @Airman Brown is not liked by some posters (something I think would be water off a ducks back to him)  but also because it is natural not to want to hear bad news or to have our dreams, and supporting a football club is about dreams, undermined.

Airman might be a bit of Cassandra.  They didn't teach much classical mythology in the SE London comprehensive I went to but I believe that Cassandra was fated both never to be believed but also to always be right. 

You may well be right that Friedman et al will, if required, respond positively to requests for more injections of working capital (you have forgotten far more about the world of investments and hedge funds that I've ever known).  JF and the large shareholders can certainly afford that but then again so could have Kevin Cash but when Slater and Jimenez went back to him for more money as we were about to be promoted he said "that wasn't the deal, I'm out".

Maybe that is an unfair comparison.  I, too, am open minded about the beneficial owners but being open minded means, to me at least, seeing that both good and bad outcomes are possible.

Totally agree.
Spoken like the Oracle of Delphi.

J BLOCK said:

Callumcafc said:

Callumcafc said:

Braziliance said:

Henry Irving said:

CafcSCP said:

Henry Irving said:

Addick_8 said:

Airman Brown said:

I am pretty indifferent to Appleton - which will have no bearing on whether he succeeds or not. He’s here; he’ll either win games or he won’t. 

The “project”, however, can only fail. It involves I understand a two-year fixed funding agreement, which will inevitably be based on over-optimistic revenue projections in order to sell it to investors. This in turn will force early player sales, which are not consistent with getting into / staying in the Championship. 

Charlie has already given the game away - the stated aim is to reduce the operating loss to £1m-£2m and then sell sufficient players to generate an overall profit. Player trading is variable year on year, but operating costs and revenue cannot deliver their bit in this business - barring a major change in the financial structure of the EFL. 

Appleton won’t be the reason it fails whatever he  does.

but If that was the case, why didn't we accept the reported 4m in offers we had for some of our players?

Source?

Cawley in the SLP.
think that was from the club directly.

Did that say £4m offers?

No it didn't, there was no mention on how much the bids were at all, just that there was interest 

The £4m number (£4.25m to be precise) came from Methven in a LinkedIn message posted on here the other day.

Not saying I don’t believe it because that seems like a realistic sort of number for CBT, Dobson, Leaburn to be knocked back but take with a decent pinch of salt.

https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/comment/5080455/#Comment_5080455

What is it about this club and its owners posting on Linkedin. It's beyond unprofessional, it's playground stuff.