Ged Roddy appointed as Technical Director
Possibly the first long term visionary move the football club have made in a decade. Thomas Sandgaard has hired Ged Roddy as the club’s Technical Director.
Roddy has a very impressive CV, and this role points to future plans and ambitions that Sandgaard has. The Dane has said he will be the only director of the club, which put a little bit of concern in my head bearing in mind where he lives and being CEO of a $80m company and growing.
Yet, the key is to surround yourself with good people, build a trusted and connected team, and establish a plan and a strategy, and keep as close to it as possible.
Charlton Athletic as a business has had no conceivable strategy since Peter Varney left the club. We have meandered from abrupt decisions, poor hires, and a myriad of short-term actions such as the revolving door of players, cutting corners on contracts and player wellbeing. The dreamers, the idiots, the cowboys and the charlatans had left us on the verge of going to the wall.
I suspect Roddy will be charged with overseeing the infrastructure, the academy, and player and management well-being as well as developing a culture and a framework to take the club to where Sandgaard wants it.
I hope and expect that Bowyer, Gallen and AvOry have all bought into that (I really hope so) and been part of the decision. It’s hard to know how Sandgaard would ever have heard of Roddy without consulting other leaders in the game, and we know he has done that, but Steve Avory would be very aware of Roddy’s background for example.
Roddy has done many things including building the Elite Player Performance Plan, developing players, associations, building strategy, working at FIFA, the Premier League, Reading FC, Bath University and has worked across many sports.
We badly needed a vision. Incredibly Bowyer, Gallen, Avory and one or two others such as Tracey Leaburn have kept this club on life support, but now it is about the future.
Chicago Addick 
Seems a sensible move by TS who continues to impress with his style of management of our club – long may it continue.
Step by step we will get back on track. TS does worry me with his showmanship but this is a good strategic move. We build the academy, make sensible signings, go close this year, go up the next. Build for 2 years then have a run at the prem. Go back 4 weeks and we thought we would be done so key that we keep calm and measured. Patience will swiftly expire but this is a long term project, there are no instant fixes to many years of neglect and I will be happy with many years of decent football in the Championship seeing talented kids develop rather than boom n bust.
CA all I want now is to get back to seeing games at the Valley. It is so exciting now with the prospect of watching it all build back up and I am more than happy for that to be a slow, sensible growth. I wanted to renew my season ticket to show support of the new owner now that the thieves and conmen have gone (not that he needs my piddling amount of money) but I imagine it would be administratively difficult to have loads of people doing that when we can’t go to see games. Please God it will be soon.
(And Simon – build for 2 years then have a run at the prem?? I hope not – I’m looking forward to being back in the championship and staying there for a bit and having a bit of continuity with the players. I’m sick of having to have a list of new names/numbers in front of me at the start of every season while I sort out who the hell they all are, and then a whole procession of loan players)
We need to build up the off -pitch team as much as the playing squad and Roddy, who basically wrote the Elite Player Performance Plan in 2012 fits our vision for identifying and training up young talent. We need some experienced heads who have worked in and understand football and these days with the academy sides you need someone with the ability to look after a long roster of players.