Joachim Sandgaard

Ironically Joachim is probably correct. The price reduction is not going to cause a massive upsurge of fans at games. It’s too late for that. The appalling football has driven many away.
Build a winning team playing exciting football and the fans WILL come back.

Has anyone ever considered that recruitment-of ‘quality’ players and club staff- is the cause of all the woes. Very few would be saying very much if we were up the top end, winning games and fighting for promotion. Those who are working, or may be let go, in the offices at the Valley, wouldn’t have very much bearing on the average fan at the club, who just wants success on the pitch, unless they were personally related or a close friend of someone who got sacked. If we were at or near the top of the league, getting results and performing well,  would there be uproar? Maybe, but nowhere near as much.as a good turnout of fans would be coming to the Valley. Period.
The ownership has to deal on a daily basis with administration, clerical, finance/budgeting, many off and on field contracts, recruitment of staff via HR, which doesn’t really exist at CAFC, among other, sometimes tedious, areas of business. However, many companies in all industries hire and fire due to, at times, incompetent interviewing or exit filtering policies, or indeed the fact that they have to look at spending, expenses and costs, so can’t hire the people they would like to because ultimately saving money on wages, and everything else from the electric bill to the kit washing powder  ….especially if your losses are unsustainable,, is paramount. I would say 99% of all fans don’t have a clue about CAFC’s weekly expenses, (including me) fixed or otherwise, of running the club. We would probably be shocked. All you get to see are the end of year P/L and asset/liabilities from companies’ house, and that is usually only the tangible numbers.

This applies to any industry and in this case players and all staff at a football club who are in the lower leagues. If you or I were forking out loads of cash each week, we’d want to save where we could, especially if we weren’t winning games as expected, wouldn’t we?. TS, had every right to think what he did. When he came in and bought the club, he said Charlton ticked all the boxes, player production, community schemes, location, venue and training facilities among others. I am sure he meant it and was excited.
He has weaknesses, we all do, and now he needs help to find a way through the weeds. He is hearing a lot of noise, some of it valid, some from people who may be passionate and have an opinion, and sometimes from those who don’t know what they are talking about and don’t have facts. Oh and by the way, he has the right to sell the club, if he wishes, without telling a soul, whether it upsets you or not. Those that serve at a company or business understand NDA’s, LOI’s and POF’s among other documents. If it upsets you then you need to ask yourself why?If he decides to, then he will time the statement appropriately at his discretion, not ours. Note: How many player agents would divulge their player transfers and show you the contract terms, before they wanted to. They wouldn’t.

He doesn’t know who he can trust as he has his weekly financial meetings (with his accountants/bookkeepers) checks the bank balance each week and realises how much more money it’s going to take, and then thinks either I accept it, and keep the risk going or OMG I need to get out quick.. He had every right to expect more, but forgot it’s FOOTBALL, a totally different animal, not a company that deals in unique holistic medical appliances.

Unfortunately some ‘good employees have to be let go when cost cutting. It’s sad but it has to be done. 
However, I, even as a CAFC fan, would look to clear out and/or replace, whether I had money, or not, with people who were not needed and or were not doing their jobs effectively. Who, in their right mind,would continue to keep staff who when they came in each morning were incompetent or didn’t get things done or didn’t get results. Be honest! That includes any players not putting in a shift on the pitch or senior directorship.at board level or a manager who’s only won 5 league games in 22 and told us how wonderful the tactical strategy would be. Well, it weren’t…why? because we don’t have the players. You can say whatever you like at an interview so you get the job, doesn’t mean you can do it, even if you intend to or believe you can.

Every individual who has a modicum of intelligence  and responsibility, will be looking at how much they have to spend, if they don’t have bucketloads.
If it was you ‘personally’ i.e. just living (buying food at sainsbury’s or paying their mortgage or rent, or filling up the car) would they not understand this? Of course they would. Everything costs, period, and now it’s even worse with inflation.
So what makes you think running a business is any different? It would be great if I said to my mate each week, can you go out and pay for my shopping and oh, could you fill my car up while you’re at it. What do you think your mate would say (if he still remained one)?

Now, in football the major link between ownership and staff recruitment is who is appointed football manager and possibly CEO (worth their weight in gold if you can find a really good one) and some senior director positions at the club….i’ll say it again, if you could afford to. Sorry, but passion doesn’t pay bills.
Ownership/management (should) then leave football policy down to who is appointed as the head, all the way down to youth level. Top executives usually do, because they know they don’t have the skill sets necessary. If owners interfere (sometimes, but not always, due to ego at worst or naievity at best) they should look at why they think they would know better. which is highly unlikely, unless they were a pro player/coach at a top club once themselves, and even that doesn’t hold good at times. I would also add that the real fear of losing more money is an owner’s nightmare, unless they have an abundance, then yes, it could be written off as a loss against other profits depending on the business structure.They are also  football fans (maybe not their club specifically) so  who would you put in charge if you couldn’t be there yourself and didn’t know who you could trustimplicitly….your kids, your wife, maybe? My guess would be you would do the same. And, if some of your family are at ‘Head Office’ everyday looking at operations, logistics and budget and cash flow forecasts, then we all know they will have an opinion, and of course the fact is they have the right. Why? Because right now, at this moment, they are paying the bills even while running at a loss.

So, let’s look at what Charlton has excelled at. The only successful football execution area’s worth their salt – (recent past and present, and even taking account of dropping down divisions) – is the Community Trust with Jason Morgan (who knows his stuff inside out and has done a fantastic job to the extent he has a Royal award) and the Academy under Steve Avory-who has always managed to create that ‘Culture of Excellence’ at that level which is why we produce consistently and are able to sustain transfer values for the club…..as much as we don’t like selling our best players.
We owe an indebtedness to Steve via excellent leadership and loyalty and a great example of a good academy player / coach recruitment policy and a scouting department that tries its best to bring in/find the most talented youth players. Remember, it’s not a level playing field anymore, like in the EPL days. The scouts have to compete in ‘London’ and the SE and generally have no chance at all against the top boys and on top of that it’s almost impossible to hold on to your best talent each season even at U8 if a big club comes calling. Thank God they both hung around. We are very fortunate.

Chris Powell was the last good manager who had enough knowledge of the game, the club, clout and contacts who could bring in decent players to give us a chance.
Lee Bowyer was able to get us up in a play-off and had access to players but, in spite of that, was IMO an ineffective/incapable coach, and doubt will be offered any further jobs in football management, after Birmingham City, albeit he may try and could possibly get lucky. Track record is everything at the end of the day in this game, and more than two management/coaching failures leaves you with not much hope. Jonny Jackson may have been worth sticking with. Had a good run of initial results, but longevity would have been the issue for me relative to lack of experience. Karl Robinson isn’t worth discussing. Ben Gardner seemed to be an up and coming coach, done well at Swindon Town, but the results were not there after 22 games in charge. Was he given long enough? Who knows but nowhere is it written that Charlton Athletic have a divine right to go up, or owners can’t make changes. Personally, I think it was the right decision. Your philosophy on how to play football in league one isn’t always right. Again, I reiterate…recruitment is the key. I would add there are better players in lower leagues including amateur if you have the right experience and knowledge and people in place who know what they are looking at when watching a player.

Let me ask you a question: Do you think Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, etc would start losing games if ‘You’ took over as manager tomorrow? Of course they wouldn’t…initially, but eventually they would start to, if you didn’t have the background/pedigree, know how to coach an elite group and manage young and senior talented players, But where do you think those players came from? Who watched them at 8, 9, 10 years old and up. or, who saw players like Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand, and Jamie Vardy from non league and knew they were better than what they had….and that’s only in England let alone abroad.And finally…if you did get relegated and had to sell your best players what would happen?. Everyone else’s salary would drop by up to  50% or let go as free agent players. Parachute payments are your only saviour in the first few seasons of dropping out of the EPL, you keep the majority of your best and if you can afford a very good manager if you find the right one, than great, you’ve hit the jackpot. Hence, Burnley.

There are not enough people in ownership who understand the intricacies of having the right staff in place to find the best players they can get their hands on.That’s where they should be able to trust people who are at the club already.
But unfortunately, many times that is not a true reflection of reality.
All managers rely on colleagues in scouting to offer up players. Sometimes the skulduggery and shenanigans that take place are beyond belief. Like it or not the ‘brown envelope’ still exists. At this point, IMHO Loans are our best bet using the best Championship and Premiership clubs we can talk to.
However , we don’t have a manager in place who can really do that…..in fact we don’t even have a manager. Anthoney Hayes, (poor kid) has no major contacts in the top tier, and can’t even pick up the phone because someone on the other end won’t even know who he is, even if he called to speak to one. Deer in headlights comes to mind. Not his fault. Steve Gallen is probably our only chance, but I personally think he has been there too long now, he talks well, but seems very rigid in approaching recruitment. Being set in your ways is usually a recipe for disaster. Adaptability /flexibility and ‘thinking outside the box/creative’ as well as logical thought is far more important. We need an ex player or even an agent ( who has extensive contacts) and who has the capability to bring in better players (from abroad also, as was done at Wolves just a few seasons back using Gestifute/Jorge Mendes….remember they were at or near the bottom of the Championship at the time and got to Premiership within two more seasons. He had access to talented  Portuguese players and many others) Problem there is the money again.
The owners, who came in from China, were Billionaires not Millionaires. Ours has a net worth of around 80M and most of that is tied up in investments. He has had to sell shares to keep the club going, as well as to buy it. The reality is that they are seeing their bank accounts getting lower and their accountants and legal advisors telling them if things don’t change soon (Results) they need to get out.
If another group comes in, agency, or whatever, whoever it is….they need MONEY and LOTS of it. Otherwise, nothing changes……unless God himself looks down and takes the same players and team himself. He’d probably do it for nothing, Hmmmm, there’s a thought.! 

SIDE NOTE: It’s fortunate that TS’s company has risen recently in it’s stock price, but if that changes and we have a market crash, then he will definitely look to exit because it will have an impact on him and his families normal pleasant life, I think anyone would do the same relatively, penny poor or rich as a Prince (but not a King as usually they can print more money and don’t really care how it would impact inflation…even if they pretend to, and anyway their Central Banks have that responsibility, which allows leaders off the hook if it gets worse)

I promise you the transfer window will go with hardly any new players coming in as they won’t have anyone in place by the beginning of January, and even if they did, they will need time to evaluate and assess the player pool and the contracts in place. In fact they will be looking at those documents now for the summer. It’s not going to be enough time next month and the money won’t be there. So, what do we do in the meantime? Get loans and look at the U23 leagues in the Premiership. The clubs will not give you their very best and most talented, but there will be gems there. Then look at your own U23’s and under. Combine both and bring at least half a dozen, or more in, including your best U18’s to work with the seniors. Then look abroad, you’ll find them. We still have access to work permits for some Europeans (even though we are out re Brexit) or those that can get a WP even on other continents. Understanding FIFA RSTP rules should be a requirement for any owner who hires a new manager. I won’t say more on that.

Charlton will be in league one next year. The club ownership have to review and re-evaluate if they remain in charge. If not, and they sell, then there are business decisions that are beyond most people’s understanding, including debentures still owed, lease reassignments, option to purchase the entire club as a whole, Valley and Sparrows Lane, or not (Remember who the Landlord is, that’s why someone with a ton of money would be better),among many other timeline discussions that will have an effect.
The model will probably be based on a debt buyout, and then a multitude of other factors including how much money is available as a buyer(s), investment, understanding of player and broadcasting contracts (which is so minimal right now it won’t make a difference), infrastructure at the club, including (player) assets and many others. Maybe more questions than answers but hope you’ve enjoyed the read. Please share with anyone you like.

FYI: For transparency purposes and full disclosure, I  do have a thorough understanding of the club inside and out. I will leave it to you to think about my comments, some subjective and others based on fact. I hope it gives all CAFC fans or otherwise the ability to have a rational and intelligent discussion from both sides of the fence to mutually help the club achieve, if not short, then medium term success.