Richard Murray’s role

The Duchâtelet takeover announcement today by the club stated that Richard Murray will stay on at The Valley as non-executive chairman. The announcement stated that Duchâtelet’s Staprix NV now own 100% of the club so seemingly Murray’s Baton 2010 Limited have relinquished their 10%, even though it was thought he was unwilling to do so.

We don’t know if Murray’s loans have been returned to him, I doubt it, under the previous agreement they weren’t repayable until promotion to the Premier League was secured. Although one would have thought that this would’ve been re-negotiable.

The VOTV suggested that Murray and other directors including Bob Whitehand, David White and Derek Chappell would agree to roll their debt over or at least renegotiate its terms for the good of the club.

Murray’s non-exec chairman role lacks any real decision making power and we wait to see who Roland Duchâtelet installs as day-to-day boss, but Richard’s 20+ years at the club, his relationship with supporters and fellow English chairmen, plus the little fact that he is still owed an awful lot of money does give him some license.

In time Murray may well talk of the Jimenez and Slater era, but he has kept a very close counsel. Murray’s time at Charlton has not always been pretty, and he has admitted as much to me personally, but to almost all of us I would say he is still in the black in terms of popularity and trust. He also knows what it means to be a fan of the club, and I for one am pleased that he is sticking around in what might be a very testing time for us.