Thomas Sandgaard week one
The dark clouds lifted in SE7, the sky cleared and in walked Thomas Sandgaard. Guitar, sunglasses and all.
It was still the dead of night in Castle Rock, Colorado but a man slept in his bed knowing that the next day he would be the owner of Charlton Athletic Football Club.
It was no dream, Sandgaard had finally closed the deal after getting EFL approval and OADT sign off. With no shortage of help from top law firm Freshfields Druckhaus Deringer, the Dane had navigated the shark infested waters of ESI and claimed ownership of our historic club.
I for one was getting a little nervous and was getting wary of the noise and would have been happier for a more discreet approach, but this is the rockstar CEO and it’s showtime.
Us Addicks fans are deep thinking souls and Sandgaard is an open book and there is no doubting that Thomas brings genuine excitement and a palpable understanding of our history and how much this little football club means to families and the community.
Sandgaard is infectious. I rewound those video clips a few times just to catch that huge grin.
There’s a lot more to Sangaard though than sunglasses and rock music. Even before he built his company, he had am academic and street smart business background in sales, mergers & acquisitions and negotiation. His Danish values of tolerance and trust, hygge they call it, would have given him a clear line of sight through all of the drama and bullshit.
He also got an audience with master party pooper Roland Duchatalet and was able to negotiate a longer lease, and the loony tune Belgian will I am sure be hearing from the great Dane again soon.
Sandgaard trusted his instincts, would not be distracted and preservered like Peter Shirtliff to make it happen, and we should be happy he did. Again Thomas, thank you and welcome.
Sandgaard flies over today for the Sunderland game Saturday, and it’s beyond sad that 20,000 odd Addicks can’t welcome him for what should be one of the biggest games of the season.
Sandgaard fully expects to dedicate a lot of time to Charlton and will act as CEO. Next week he plans to spend time working with and getting to know the people behind the scenes at the club. We’ll see what that means for the existing senior management team, Richard Murray and Tony Keohane for example.
One person he can’t fail to be impressed with thus far is Steve Gallen, Three players have signed for the club in the last week, six altogether, and instrumental in all of that is Gallen. Thomas could do a lot worse than elevate Steve within his trusted decision makers going forward.
Those decisions are for Thomas to make, enjoy your stay and we look forward to week two.
Chicago Addick 
One week into the Thomas Sandgaard tenure and the smile on my face since the announcement of his takeover is still broad. TS is a breath of fresh air and l cannot wait until fans are allowed to return to games so that he can receive a proper hero’s welcome. I believe TS’s positivity, coupled with the passion of the fans, will drive the Club forward and start to right so many of the wrongs unjustly inflicted on the football club in recent years. This is now a great opportunity for the fans to unite behind a fantastic club structure ranging from TS as owner, SG in his recruitment role, LB & JJ on the playing side and, a very loyal and dedicated admin support working away behind the scenes. We can now start to grow the club, increase attendances when Covid rules are relaxed, and all pull in the same direction to return the Club to better days. I see so many parallels with the way the Club was run after its return to the Valley which culminated in PL football. I am genuinely excited for the club’s future. Onwards and upwards…..
Excellent words CA. You have nurtured my thoughts exactly.
Thanks Mick. It took me a week. Wanted to sit on my own words for a while.
Wow! I used to live in Castle Rock. I now live in Highlands Ranch which is about 10 miles away. My first Charlton game was Sam Bartram’s 500th game. Best of luck to you and Charlton Athletic.
Good to hear from you Gerry. You and Thomas may have been neighbours. Hope you are well.
There’s much work to be done on and off the park, but after a decade or so of dodgy owners, conmen and absentee landlords maybe we’ve finally got lucky? Personally I’m not looking for revolution, just clear headed management, some sensible ambition backed financially and above all stability. The wage cap in any case will stop us from becoming the league’s big spenders and maybe we will need to tread water for awhile longer, our squad is pretty thin – we need defensive numbers especially and a couple of strikers and things need to bed down. It’s almost as though this is our pre-season and we have to pick up points before we lose touch with the top few clubs.
As for TS he seems a blast of fresh air – the players will understand his ambition and he has already set a target of the play-offs this season.
The real hard work starts now.