Tonight’s online meeting
Well it was less of a meeting and more of a staging. The video can be seen here if you weren’t able to tune in.
In my work career I have sat in a million of these ‘interactive’ meetings where the message is carefully delivered, granting some past mistakes but painting a rosy picture of our future, all the while making sure they shoehorn in the DE&I guy as well.
It was refreshing at least that member’s of the newish management / investor group deigned it important enough to talk to us because that is a major leap forward from previous supposed stalwarts of our great football club.
Jim Rodwell, who also goes by James, has a CV that shows he has failed at most things in his career, but has benefited financially. He can certainly talk the talk but he didn’t ooze warmth or luminosity.
Paul Elliott, Charlton legend (63 appearances), was there it seems to make up the numbers. I have nothing against Paul or his services towards equality and diversity in the game, but he was obviously picked over Charlie Methven, because he could be trusted to talk when spoken to, and not make shit up.
I warmed the most to Gavin Carter, who clearly has the club at heart and despite his investment was not looking for a slap on the back or his ego rubbed. A fellow ex-pat Addick he spoke well and on point.
Timing was interesting, and possibly one of the many consultants they appear to have engaged recommended they get themselves out there before they get completely turned against.
One clear point rammed home was not to get our hopes up for January transfer window, which we all have of course as does Michael Appleton.
Both the head coach and Andy Scott came in for fierce scrutiny from those fans asking the questions, but they were strongly defended by Rodwell. The tone of an answer also suggested that both Dobbo and CBT will leave this month and the signing of Jonson Clarke-Harris is anything but certain.
Recruitment, fan engagement, marketing, match day experience, injuries and the academy were all discussed plus the kooky idea of 8+8+8 squad structure. It was a strange hypothesis and I mean they can’t get a loan right let alone 24 players.
Still, I have long banged on about only ever wanting to hear a sustainable plan of action, but although I was pleased that Rodwell and co fronted up there was a lot of accepting of mistakes, malaise and the large hole we have dug ourselves into, but little to suggest they had any solutions to find a way out.
Still action not words and whilst it is imperative the club is built on better and more trusting foundations, this management group has overseen some of the worst and most depressing football in our history.
A whole generation of fans are about to walk away unless we see improvements on the pitch quickly. This is a very big month for both Appleton and Scott.
Kudos to Charlotte Richardson tonight, I thought she did a great job.
Well it seemed a momentous waste of time.a zoom meeting full to the brim of corporate speak and bullet points, every time Mr Elliot was asked an opinion he was mandated to shoehorn in DEI. There was more fun to be had watching the chat and comment pages whilst this stage managed charade was going on.
Still..I live in hope that the presentation manifests into improvements on and off the pitch.
You did better than me, CA. I managed to watch up to the CAST questions and then gave up. Like you, I’ve been involved in many of these presentations including the nervous laughter.
Don’t know if I learned anything. The previous regime promised the earth and these people guarantee nothing.
By the end of the transfer window things should become clearer.
Also thought that Charlotte Richardson did a good job.
Agree with most things here. It’s true that actions speak louder than words and clearly we will have to be patient. The miracle of eight made me laugh. Talk about reinventing the wheel. Jim Roswell reminds me of many sales managers I have known. And yes, Gavin was the only one by not curating who came across well. These guys have to learn to cut the crap when they speak to us. We are not fools.
To quote the Who…”Meet the new boss,same as the old boss…..we won’t get fooled again !!!! ”
I watched and at the end felt very worried, management are only paying lip-service to the fans and any positive hope was soon drained away.
It was clear they can talk the talk and nothing of any substance was forthcoming,apart from the hint that both Dobbo and CBT could soon leave this January.
It’s a dire situation and Scott has to now deliver and cut the crap we hear.
Big praise to Charlotte and Gavin who did an excellent job.
“We won’t get fooled again…oh no…we won’t get fooled again “
Unless selling Dobbo or CBT generates a 7 figure fee for each of them, considering letting either of them go is dismally stupid
So what if they haven’t yet accepted the club’s offer? Getting a few quid in now isn’t relevant to a club in freefall with the equal worst form in the whole division. Results are everything.
Aside from Alfie May they are the best 2 players by a long chalk
Dobbo is the only player showing any consistency at all
Without him we’ll be shipping half a dozen per match minimum
Without CBT we’ll be without half our assists and a third of our goals
Even £2M inflows is going to be irrelevant when they get us relegated.
Maybe Bakinson and Fiorini are hoped to be like for like replacements but neither has played much lately, Fiorini has moved straight onto the treatment table. By the time they might have bedded in to this crappy squad we’ll be down and gone with Fleetwood.
I got no idea what last night’s show was supposed to achieve – I sincerely hope it wasn’t to prove beyond doubt that the current regime has nothing between the ears at all and are blundering around achieving naff all while collecting a nice salary. Same goes for Appleton too.
Charlotte Richardson did well especially as she didn’t get much if anything by way of meaningful answers amid all the bluster, management speak (BS) and irrelevant repetition
I watched the video on catch up. I found it familiarly depressing. I am all for realistic targets, but the only concrete thing i heard was that in 5 years time we want to be out of League One. (Not overly ambitious) The rest was all just unspecific nonsense in my opinion.
Recruitment, fan engagement, marketing, match day experience, injuries, are all very well, and worthy of mention i suppose. But the basic fact is that all of that sorts itself out if we are a football team that wins more than we lose. If you are looking for an equation then it is not much more complicated than that. Get to the play offs then we will fill The Valley. Get to the final, and we will take 30,000 to Wembley. Get into The Championship and we will regularly get 15 – 18,000 into The Valley every home match. If your ambition is more than that, then significant player investment way above what’s already been spent will be necessary.
I’ve been watching Charlton for 50 years. I really don’t care what the pies or the Bovril are like. I just want my bloody team to beat the other lot. Winning teams fill stadiums. It’s as simple as that – no?
Well said Richard…we just want our team winning and that will bring back fans and income…..its not rocket science !
Or a factor of DI&E..
👍👍👍👍
It is a simple as that. I think Brighton and Brentford would have been mentioned as model clubs if it wasn’t for the fact they have climbed through the leagues by winning games of football.
Helps of course if you have good leadership, a connection with fans and an ability to pick the right manager.
Right on point CA…totally agree
Interesting point here is that both Brighton and Brentford are owned by one person with untold wealth. They’ve both spent a lot getting their clubs to where they are. And as you say CA, they both used the money to win games of football. All the other stuff came as a result of that. Success on the pitch has to be the number one aim.
Totally agree Richard
Winning games will bring income from increased gates and sponsorships
Pretty much this.
Jim Rodwell is a chancer and has snake written all over him, he isn’t as slimy as previous slimers such as Queen Kat and Mouthall, but he’s not to be trusted.
Failed at Boston United, Notts County, Scunthorpe and then Sunderland.
I pay attention to what fans of other clubs said, and it’s bad news.
http://www.bufc.drfox.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=866.0
All of those fan bases can’t stand him, I sense a pattern. All he’s done is avoid difficult questions with generic responses. You can read him like a book. A mate of Charlie Methven who has gifted him a job. That’s all it is, jobs for mates and when they likely fail here, they’ll be off to another club who are in a bad way to take advantage of their situation.
It would be nice for one season to just have people in charge who aren’t utter slimeballs. It’s the exact same as having Appleton as manager, previous history indicates it’s not going to work, so why the time given?
Safe to say, I am not optimistic after a re-listen. Appleton for the rest of the season, do me a favour. !
Rodwell does though have an amazing barnet.
There is so much negativity around at the moment and so much scepticism. I can understand why that would be, after so many very poor owners and the journey of the past years it is understandable.
Like all change it needs to be given time to bed in, time may tell us that the scepticism was well founded or it may tell us that it was kneejerk, either way we will only find out in due course.
We called for engagement with the board and the owners and were given just that. I for one, am grateful that the club put this event on and I hope that it will be the first of many. Understandably it glossed over some issues and gave reasons for others, sometimes legitimately in my view, sometimes not. The two issues not dealt with adequately are Andy Scott’s recruitment and Danny Senda, who it seems, we could have and should have dealt with better and quicker.
I don’t think we should expect too balanced a view from this group however, it is by its very nature intended to paint a positive picture.
So where are we? I think it is clear at this point that the current group are not intent on asset stripping and that has to be a positive, as it has not always been the case. We are half a season into a new ownership and results are not what we expect. The new group have, as we requested engaged with us which has also to be a positive. The new owners have seen that injuries are hurting our first team performances (good) a view on how to deal with that in the long term has been put forward (again good) but nothing that will address the immediate situation (worrying). Not addressing the Andy Scott issue will hurt us in my view but, that is just an opinion QED.
Blaming past problems on too many management changes and loan players (good), by following that with a managerial change and two loan players (very bad).
There is a big mess at Charlton and that mess will unfortunately take time to clean up. All we can expect is that we see progress, I would hope that by the start of next season we are in a much better place. Hope is all that I have!
The obvious person who should have been there was… Andy Scott. He’s the DoF and clearly has an important role in the club – but was either not trusted to speak or as the excuse given he was away negotiating a transfer so clearly doing his job was more vital than explaining what he was doing, in which case the meeting was a bit of a PR exercise.
There were some good points – I’m pleased that the injury record has been tackled and we have got someone in to monitor how the player’s train to prevent injuries.
The other stuff – fan integration, better marketing etc all sounded a bit management consultancy to me, again if you prefer basic common sense that most businesses do as a matter of course. I’m pleased this stuff is being looked at – but we shouldn’t really need a meeting to tell us that the SMT are on the ball with it.
Ultimately we need to win a few games and stop conceding so many goals from basic defensive errors. Do that and we’ll move up the table – building a squad to achieve that is the number one aim. Off the pitch where we’ve struggled is in having a succession of owners and no clear management structure plus a succession of managers coming and then going with a lack of continuity in squad building.
So a worthwhile exercise but not one that was overly illuminating.