Ipswich Town 0 Charlton Athletic 0
In isolation a decent result, and performance. Tactically we were accomplished, not outplayed in any part of the pitch and we controlled large facets of the game. There were some good performances and we gave it a good go. Yet last night was the game that probably sent us down. Other results went against us and this is all too little too late.
We weren’t relegated last night we were relegated during that 14-game spell under the interim reign of Karel Fraeye. Interim. 3 months. Fraeye, handpicked by Roland Duchatelet. Every decision better than the last and let us not forget Guy Luzon. His bloody hands are all over this disgraceful relegation of our great club.
Jose Riga. Decidedly average ability wise, but with an affection for the club and far more humility than all of the other network puppets put together that have been thrust upon us. Just imagine. Duchatelet had his mind set on Upjest boss Nebojša Vignjevic taking over from Fraeye only to be talked out of it. Vignjevic may have been the next Sir Alex Ferguson. He probably wouldn’t.
I reckon Vignjevic’s name will be in the forefront of summer discussions again with Duchatelet passing blame onto Riga for our relegation.
Thank you Karel. Thank Guy. Thank you Katrien. Thank you Roland. I hope you can sleep at night.
Addick Bloggers at Portman Road: Doctor Kish; Chris Powell’s Flat Cap.
Chicago Addick 
Ofcourse they can sleep at night and you forgot Murray the turncoat. Why can they sleep at night, they have too much money and frankly they have absolutely no consciences whatsoever.
Thanks for kiiling my club and wonder if this time it will come back and we have doneit before, but under different circumstances. I am fearful indeed
We should all be fearful John …. until Duchatelet, Meire and Murray have finally all left the building. Let’s hope that we can force them out before they do even more and permanent damage to OUR club.
Why would you deliberately run down a football club in the way that they have unless you have other plans for it?
Relegation = loss of support. Further relegation = further loss of support.
End game: Valley too big a ground for division 2 or Conference club so sell the ground and move to a smaller ground nearby built as part of the ‘deal’.
Sell Valley for housing – gain hundreds of millions of pounds, not a bad return on an investment of £12-15m is it?
Am I dreaming (or is it merely a night-meire)? Well I damn well hope so….. BUT, the regime have already looked at Orient’s flats built into the corners of their ground – that is probably the start down by the Jimmy Seed stand which is deemed to be “too large an area for away support” (as the regime have already stated).
Once one block of flats goes up the ground will no longer be able to be sold on for football purposes as it is extremely doubtful that the Premier League will sanction the use of a ground that has ‘shared use’ with a third party.
By that stage Duchatelet will have ridden off into the sunset with his profit, Meire will go and write a book about her ‘experiences’, and our mate will have got his investment back with interest whilst we’ll be left with a hybrid football ground at best or at worst a brand new 10,000 seat stadium on the Greenwich Peninsula….
It’s either that scenario or the fact that Duchatelet is a complete and utter delusioned individual who thinks that he knows better than seasoned football professionals in this country or that he thinks Belgian football is on par with the Football League and that a Belgian third division manager (Freye) – whose real level in the UK is probably Southern League level – can be successful in the most competitive second level league in the world. Well, he’s proved that theory doesn’t hold water.
So, it’s either megalomania or a long term investment/profit process….. it really is a frightening prospect, which is why the demonstrations have to continue, culminating with a total boycott of a home game once the inevitable relegation has been confirmed this season.
Rangers FC are coming back from gross mismanagement and others have done it before, but it will take years and we haven’t hit rock bottom yet. I suspect they have bit further to drag us down before this total farce ends. It’s even more frustrating as football wise thanks to C Powell, we were reasonably stable before the RD era began. RD just needed to come in and support the manager in bringing a few new players to improve the squad. Rather than making wholesale changes. He RD thinks he knows better and but they’re totally out of their depth in English football and why shouldn’t they be? I hope the evidence and humiliation of relegation teaches them that, if not Riga will be his fall guy, come May. Riga goes Katrien stays, Katrien goes Riga stays, will tell us everything about Mr RD’s questionable sanity.
Break even, how much money has been wasted. If the owner and CEO weren’t so ignorant of Championship and English football we could have been around the play-offs on what’s been spent. I agree 100% about Murray’s responsibility in all this and his awful recommendation,
As for all this really annoying nonsense that goes on about xenophobia and sexism. Why on earth didn’t we get some competent Belgies and competent women CEO, who knew what the f**k they were doing with our football club. And who employed coaches who knew the league, who might also be English, rather than the last five inexperienced ones who didn’t and weren’t, now isn’t that discrimination?
The only positive thing they do is, remind us that arrogance is often used to hide ignorance and what an asset honesty and humility can be.
Mark
If what you are saying is correct and money is the motivation for running down the club then they could have done it much cheaper. We’ve witnessed so much incompetence we can’t be being run buy clever shrewd people. Not to say your theory about the Valley isn’t correct. It all seems so unbelievable to us our minds naturally look for logical explanations all the time. But history is littered with these kind of rich basket cases.
It would be useful to know the truth about the potential for land re-devopment at the Valley. Others have said that there could be issues due to (a) change of use restrictions (b) main sewer running underneath the ground (c) high cost of demolition. Does anyone have more info about this?
Great comments above. Whilst RD maybe Incompetent in running a football club you don’t amass a fortune of £400 million if you are incompetent in business which is why this guy is dangerous and the selling off of The Valley for real estate cannot be ruled out.
Some great and totally depressing comments above. The depth of feeling amongst us is palpable.
Although I have been suspicious of him since the beginning, my view on RD has changed on many occasions. I can’t believe a man that has amassed so much money in business can be this stupid. Nor am I sure if he is this vindictive. My current view is that he truly thinks he knows better than anybody else. Headstrong, old fashioned, obstinate, arrogant, he refuses to listen and trusts nobody apart from those yes men and women that he has surrounded himself with.
Until he listens to those outside of his circle, takes advice or accepts that he has made a mistake like he did at Standard then he is going to be hard to remove.
But we know he doesn’t like being embarrassed or shown up publicly. His own business is important to him as are his sycophants. He is ageing and is showing signs of cracks in his small minded contemptuous world.
We are getting to him slowly. It’s a long game but in that time we have got further to fall.
Could it be that selling off the Valley is a Plan B, F**k You Barstewards, escape strategy, but it can’t be what they originally bought into. A first rate academy linked to a near non-existent club, where’s the player progression RD is so keen on? Does it not just seem to be a totally convoluted and risky way to make money from real estate?
Interesting that it is thought that construction work has been halted at Sparrows Lane.
The support and betterment of the academy and its facilities is the only thing that has been welcomed by Addicks and has a semblance of good business sense about it, although this has been misted any most of our eyes as it is clearly at the expense of having a competitive league team.
Now that has been stopped. Why?
Sitting in SE7 as we speak and I can hear the sound of very large machinery banging away – and I am so paranoid I have been out to check that he hasn’t already started re-developing or digging up the pitch – yes, I actually persuaded myself he (or she) might be that vindictive. How sad all of this is. And unnecessary. There are parallels in my workplace at the moment so I am convinced the whole world has gone mad.
But lets not forget some of the great football stories – AFC Wimbledon for one – and hang on to the fact that it is OUR club and if necessary we will re-build it once they have gone on their mad way. Painful though relegation is, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world – I’m sure a stato out there could tell me how many relegations I have seen in 47 years, but of course never one quite like this.