Jun 27
And by all accounts not of their own making. COO Brian Jokat, appointed by Thomas Sandgaard fell on his sword last week because he didn’t play well with interference from Raelynn Sandgaard, allegedly.
Raelynn seems to be ‘lady’ with no portfolio at the club and I’m intrigued seeing her influence grow. Today other members of the commercial team were made redundant, some employed recently by Jokat, others hired by Sandgaard.
Please click for moreA dreadful performance to close a dreadful season. It was a fitting end.
Only an injury time Cheltenham goal meant we finished in 13th, the same as Chris Powell’s 2010/11 season ironically with the same points.
Please click for moreWe should have won the game by four or five after a dominant first half display but in the end we were clinging on and after recent criticism Craig MacGillivray made a terrific save at the death to secure the 3 points.
Doncaster were poor, but this was a much better and more confident performance from the Addicks led by a fantastic display from CBT who caused all manor of problems. Donny even changed their right wing back at the break to blunt his threat, but CBT roasted him too.
Please click for moreWhen Addicks’ fans invaded the pitch at the Jonny Rocks Stadium after Chuks Aneke scrambled in an undeserved equalizer in the 94th minute it kind of summed up where we now stand as a football club.
Ex-Premier League staple, upper end Championship stadium and by most accord a club too big to be playing in the 3rd tier. Well, I think the more we accept where we are the more of a chance the club has to reset and start again.
Please click for moreIt was all about the result this. We are not the best at negotiating banana skins, especially when combined with games being shown live on the box.
I didn’t see the game as I was travelling and working but have caught upoin it. Sounded as if the Heed gave us some wobbles at the back, with Stephen Henderson in what was much needed fine form.
Please click for moreGood morning Addicks. How are we doing?
What a great feeling it is for Addicks’ fans to be back at The Valley, which other than for the odd Covid trial event, has sat ghost like for the past 17 months. It is been a weird time for everyone but routines will return this afternoon as friends and family gather to wake up this historic football stadium.
Please click for moreNot since I was a free and single young man when my brother and I would be chief connoisseurs of Little Chef’s Olympic Breakfasts on the countries motorways have I watched as many Charlton games than I did this past season all courtesy of course to Charlton TV and a global pandemic.
Please click for moreDarren Pratley has announced that he will be leaving the Addicks this summer. The midfielder played over 100 matches for us and scored one very special goal and four others since Lee Bowyer signed him on a free from Bolton in July 2018.
Please click for moreThe announcement of new season tickets not only signals a sign of refreshed hope and ambition, but for next season it means so much more than that.
Thomas Sandgaard’s first proper season (with a pre-season) and hopefully Addicks back in our beloved Valley cheering the boys on. Normality mixed wih optimism and promise
Please click for moreI missed tuning into Thursday’s Bromley Addicks vitual meeting with Thomas Sandgaard as I had to work, but it was interesting reading the meeting notes after no more so because of Thomas’ continual referencing of Charlton’s potential brand internationally.
Overseas fans has been a common theme of Thomas’ interaction with supporters and in set interviews. Obviously he is situated abroad himself, so not an unnatural talking point but as some commented in the CL post meeting notes I’d be a little appehensive of how far he will be able to take the ‘Charlton brand’ overseas.
A year ago Charlton super fan Seb Lewis lost his young life to Covid-19. He was just 38.
Up until the suspension of games Seb had seen 1,076 Charlton games in a row, not missing a game for over 22 years. True Legend and truly missed from The Valley and every away end in the country.
32 years ago tonight there was a warm and expectant air circulating around the Woolwich Town Hall. Spring was around the corner and hundreds of Addicks including my brother and I were stood outside on the steps on Wellington Street pre-mobile phones and texting waiting on word of what was developing in the chamber inside.
Lots of negativity around the selection of Nigel Adkins. Aspirations of Eddie Howe and Chris Wilder were fanciful, and although Thomas has a few bob he is not a Russian oligarch, and last time I looked we are in the 3rd Division.
Sure, I was underwhelmed too, but unless it’s Karel Fraeye, then judging a manager before a ball is kicked is a little premature.
A sad day.
Lee Bowyer gave me one of the best days of my life. 90 +4. Wembley Stadium. Me, my son, my brother, my mates, 39,000 joyous fellow Addicks. Thank you Lee.
This time may well be right for everyone, and although I cringed whenever fellow fans were calling for his head, today’s resignation with a move to Birmingham City expected allows everyone to shake hands turn around, and walk away with a big smile on their faces.
Last March was a pretty uncertain time for everyone, the pandemic was unravelling quickly, as was the ownership situation at Charlton Athletic.
A year ago tonight I wrote that I had just got indoors from having dinner with a client…. probably the last for a while I said. It was.
I love that Alan Curbishley still calls Robert Lee ‘Robert.’ Over the years I have spent a fair bit of time with Rob(ert), I am good friends with his brother and absolutely everyone calls him Rob, accept Curbs and Addicks’ fans of a certain generation.
The turnstile operator, the 17-year old on the back of the programme, the lost contact lense, that was always Robert, but not to anyone else including his Dad who was born in Woolwich.
I’m late with this but a couple of weeks back Charlton owner Thomas Sandgaard put forward a proposal to bring together supporter groups at home and abroad.
It’s been many a year since the club had any interest in working with supporter groups. A few co-exist, some active, some not, but during the Duchatelet and ESI era’s most fan groups were only chartered and fuelled for demonstrations and to grow organized opposition to the owners. They were the polar opposite of celebratory and affiliation.
I am quite a level-headed Addick. There’s thousands of posts below here ⬇️ that would suggest that. What would Curbs say? Don’t over celebrate the wins, nor over scrutinize the losses. Something like that, anyway.
Although it posted on Sunday morning, I did write my post match blog straight after the game against Gillingham. I was frustrated, disheartened and annoyed. Nothing like a good moan in the pub after a defeat with your mates, accept there was no pub, or mates to talk out the sorrow with until you realize there is always next week, and the next pint.
Lee Bowyer touched on a topic many of us have highlighted as a problem today, and that is our miserable home form.
By my calculations under Bowyer at The Valley since he took over with fans in the ground the Addicks won 26 of their 46 league games that were played. That does not include play-off’s, or games this season with a small number of socially distanced fans allowed in.
Jan 31
I was heartened to see a new fanzine appear this month. I ordered a copy and had it sent to my Mum for review, as I can’t get it sent here, but I’ve already read many positive comments on My Only Desire.
There can never be enough independent Addicks content, and from a Blogging perspective there is a just a few of us hardy souls left these days led by the evergreen Wyn Grant, who was tapping on his keyboard way before I started in 2004.
There has been various collections of North American Addicks’ supporters’ groups over the years, some official some not, but recently supported by CAST, a new group has been formed by Portland, Oregon based fan Clare Rathbone.
Clare is a third generation Addick, her son the 4th, and she often wondered, like all of us ‘displaced’ fans do, if there are any others out there. There is a no better feeling than to make contact or bump into fellow fans when living or working overseas. A lifetime of bad decision making is always better shared I have found 😆
The year of all years crawls to a welcome end tonight. Sadly nothing will be much different when the sun rises tomorrow, and it is probably going to get worse before it gets better. Still, a new year brings new dreams and hopes of better times ahead.
We have a Chinese guy in our office, and after he returned to Bermuda from being back in China at the beginning of January he was made to stay at home. When he did come back to the office he wore a mask. It was odd to see him walk around with a mask and no one quite knew how to act around him.
Fast forward 12 months and the entire world has been heavily inflicted by Covid-19. This silent terror of a virus has literally changed the world we live in, a film set only previously in the minds of story tellers.
What a very enjoyable evening in the company of Thomas Sandgaard that was.
The CAST Zoom Q&A with the new Addicks’ owner hosted by Heather McKinlay, Sam Cooke and Andrew Buckland was expertly executed tonight with Thomas resplendent in a dinner jacket sat in his home in Colorado, and boy can that man talk!
With the clock ticking towards 9.30pm and people back at home thinking about their bedtime cocoa, Thomas was more than happy to answer anyone of the endless questions posed to him from what I think was more than 500 people online from around the world.
Only Charlton could play two games with watching fans during a global pandemic with most sports stadia staying empty and play absolute shite in both of them.
And as for creating an atmosphere. 2,000 fans spread out in three vast stands, in the cold, sat miles from each other and wearing a mask, with nothing to cheer and get excited about is not conducive to the craziness of a 94th minute winner at Wembley.
I’d be interested in the view of any Addicks that went tonight of what they thought of the experience.
Great news that 2,000 Addicks can be in attendance tomorrow night at The Valley. I had grave reservations that the 1,000 masked souls that left SE7 disappointed after the Donny match were going to be the last fans able to watch the players on in the flesh this season, so chuffed and very jealous of those that are able to cheer them on.
The club’s ticketing staff, most of whom were on recent furlough, are doing an admirable job of working out all the logistics including not only the ballot, but the timing of arrivals around public transport, and seating allocations plus working around the government restrictions brought in last week with the whole of Kent in tier 3.
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.
Awful news yesterday of the passing of Charlton fan Steve Clarke. Steve was at the core of attempting to right every wrong that was thrown at the club he had loved for almost 60 years from the Valley Party right up this very moment.
Absolutely tragic that he won’t be able to witness the club on a much stabler footing. Steve was more than a fan, always giving, always willing to push back. Intelligent, charming and smart. If he spoke you listened. If he wrote a comment on Twitter, you read it.
What totally unexpected news. I had almost given up believing. Thank your for your perseverance and support Thomas. Together we will get OUR Charlton back.
Welcome to the family Thomas Sandgaard.
A bleak end to an oppressive and very fatiguing week for Addicks’ fans. Typical of course that we’d lose today as a 1,000 spectators were allowed into The Valley to watch their team for the first time since March 7th.
Lee Bowyer saying walking out onto the pitch to those 1,000 supporters gave him goosebumps, gave me goosebumps, and in some positive news it sounded as all went off very well with today’s ‘test case.’
Looks as if 1,000 Addicks will be allowed into The Valley on Saturday.
Charlton are one of 10 teams that will are be given test case status to house fans this coming weekend, although Luton chose to opt out this afternoon.
The game at The Valley will also be attended by members of the local council and Sports Ground Safety Authority to monitor procedures, with the ambition to admit up to 8,000 fans for home games post October.
Devastating news today of the passing of Chris Thompson, the one and only Doctor Kish.
It’s been a truly dreadful year for the Charlton community, and Chris, or Ketts as he was also affectionately known is another very sad loss to the Addicks’ family. My sincerest condolences to his family and friends, one of whom is Phil, who wrote a lovely tribute to Chris here.
More than 500 Addicks took the The Valley today in continued protests at owners East Street Investments (ESI) demanding that in whatever guises they have, they get out of our club.
Charlton fans broke into the ground to create their own Valley open day sitting in the stands, wandering around pitch side taking photos and sharing videos online. They long occupied the club’s boardroom insisting on owners to come and meet them, but strangely enough no one came.
CAST, CARD and Fans4Fans are calling for all Addicks that are able to get themselves down to The Valley this Saturday at 12.00 midday for one hour.
A CAST statement said: “Unnecessary relegation, transfer embargoes, even the failure to meet the extremely low bar of EFL approval – it is fair to say no-one has come out of this insulting sham of ownership with any credit.
“One pound may not go far for most of us, yet ESI’s £1 investment in ‘our club’ has stretched the realms of audacity and credibility.“
There’s been a fair bit of cloak and dagger planning this week as Addicks furiously unsettle and destabilize those pretending to own and care about our football club.
If you are able to I’d recommend getting to The Elephant & Castle Pub in Woolwich Market at 6.30pm tonight to show solidarity and help support action to protect our historic football club from thieves and charlatans.
I had one eye on the League Two Play-Off final tonight. Northampton Town who looked dead and buried after the first leg of their semi, shoved Exeter City’s feeble challenge aside to win 4-0.
Congratulations to the Cobblers and their fans tonight, who I’m sure are running around their gardens popping champagne corks, but my, what a real shame they could not be at Wembley to witness their team’s famous victory.
We have lost a proper football man, and a Charlton man at that. The club sadly announced that Theo Foley has passed aged 83 after a period of poor health.
Theo’s time as a Charlton player and then manager in the late 60’s and early 70’s was before I started going but he left an indelible mark on the next decade and a half at The Valley signing Derek Hales, Mike Flanagan and Colin Powell in his period as manager from 1970 to 1974.
As Charlton Athletic get tossed about like a rag doll between a couple of rabid dogs desperate to wring out some unjust dirty money, today will forever be remembered as, well, that day.
My brother and I got a cab from his house in Stoke Newington to Paddington early on that Sunday morning. We were both jet-lagged and a little quiet as the driver attempted to make conversation.
Please click for moreIt looks as if without putting in one penny of his own money Tahnoon Nimer is close to selling Charlton. Low life Matt Southall, who to be fair, did part with a pound, will also walk away with a bundle of cash.
Rumours that Laurence Bassini is the buyer appear to have been squashed. Thank god. Bassini is Southall’s preferred buyer, the deadbeat attempted to get Bassini to buy Nimer’s ESI shareholding so keeping Southall involved. Thick as thieves is quite an apt idiom.
For all the chaos and deceit and uncertainties, no one can ever take away from us the three play-off games from last season. A year ago tonight was that game at The Valley. We actually lost on the night, but we won memories and photos and videos and soulmates that will stay with us a lifetime.
It was a truly incredible night. Very Charlton of course, but unbelievable all the same.
You’d think Matt Southall might have learnt something if he was watching and listening during his brief unscrupulous period as, what was it now, right, Executive Chairman. He would have seen the power of Addicks’ fans together, committed, empowered and more resilient than any one single individual. Especially him.
And now he wants to sue the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust (CAST) for, well, I’m not entirely sure, but you can read it all here. What a sad and sorry man he really is.
With no football, and this time of year signaling the closing of season’s past I’ve enjoyed isolating over old Charlton memories – games at Stamford Bridge, Twerton Park, Portman Road and Brunton Park of course, but it was a year ago today that gave me one of my favourite away day memories.
The 1st leg play-off tie will always be overlooked because of the remarkable (there will never be a word that will describe the night properly) 2nd leg game, but that Sunday was a corker of a day out.
Maybe I’ve been locked up indoors too long, but I think the first person I may hug after all this is over is Simon Jordan.
In event times the ex-Palace owner and chairman has stood up for Charlton and it’s supporters more than Richard Murray has done for years. The world has changed, a lot, but who would have thought that in 2006?
Before the EFL turned their attentions to us, they issued an open letter to fans of clubs on the 132nd anniversary of league football.
Rick Parry signed the letter, he only took over as chair late last year, but the overriding message was that when football does return it will be without fans. That has sadly become more and more obvious, but there doesn’t seem to be any other safe way.
Tahnoon Nimer and Matt Southall should be shifting uncomfortably today because our football club has never been about them and their bogus duplicity. Really, no one cares about you.
Players and managers come and go and they get paid handsomely to do so. Football is about it’s fans and this morning the country and our football club lost one of it’s greatest. Seb Lewis known to us all was the true legend.
Seb died this morning of COVID-19, just 38 years old.
Disappointing today. Another football for a fiver and another defeat.. that’s six in a row!
We just were not at the races, beaten by a better team who comfortably worked us out and took easy advantage in the first half and put it in cruise control for the second.
What a cracking game. I’ll say it again. What a great division this is. It was fast paced with plenty of blood and thunder, and some really good football played.
WBA have some very classy players, and a deep bench but for the second league match this season we gave them a proper game. Just like at the Hawthorns we never stopped chasing, hustling, snapping at heels and running. Despite being behind twice our heads never dropped.
It was a special atmosphere and I have seen many photos on social media from Addicks who made their way back to The Valley after refusing to attend under the previous owner.
On countless occasions I have been proud to stand amongst Addicks but I am in awe of the tireless and selfless work of those at CARD, as well as other groups that led the fight against Roland Duchatelet’s dictatorship.
ROT, WAR and particularly the B20, who really got under Duchatelet’s skin in his own back yard, have all downed weapons and declared peace.
Add to that the many benevolent supporters who backed the efforts either financially or with their time, it was incredible to see Addicks again mobilized into action to protect our little piece of heritage in London SE7.
Good riddance to old fruit loop rubbish. 6 years to the day that Roland Duchatelet added Charlton to his football club collection, we are rid of the old scroat after the EFL finally ratified East Street Investments purchase for a sum guessed to be in the £50m range.
After the narcissist ownership of Tony Jimenez and Michael Slater backed by the secretive and shall we say complicated assets of Kevin Cash, we were very glad then to see a new owner with fresh ideas take the club on in January 2014. Especially after Cash cut Jimenez’s credit card up and for the longest time the club survived on a shoestring.
It’s hard to even fathom that 20 years ago today we were at work unsure as to whether the computers would even come back on after we came back from the new Millennia celebration. Millennials can look up that near calamity here.
2019 has flown by, work has been the busiest I have known it since I’ve been in Bermuda, the results have been bloody good though, but absolutely exhausting and it didn’t surprise me to just be told I have almost 4 weeks holiday left for the year.
My predilection for travelling has thus taken a backward seat this year, for which I’m very disappointed with myself. Good news though is that after years of attempting to renovate a house in Sarasota, Florida, which has veered from the tortuous to the exorbitant, it may finally become liveable so that is an exciting development and will be a home from home.
Happy birthday to Derek Hales and Allan Simonsen. I don’t think I ever knew they shared a birthday, but Killer is 68 today and Simmo 67. What a pair of legends they were.
The brilliant little Dane only played 16 matches after signing from Barcelona that made the 10 o’clock news. The gladiatorial Hales played in the red shirt 320 times in two different spells scoring 168 goals and is our all time top goalscorer putting him into Addicks folklore. Both played together in that 1982/83 season before Simonsen’s dreamy Addicks career came to an abrupt end as the club started to implode and couldn’t play Simonsen’s wages.
There were many incredible Addicks involved with the various anti-Duchatelet protest groups, which were connected under the umbrella of CARD. I knew a fair few of the volunteers, some better than others, and many can tell some fantastic, funny and enlightening stories of kinship and fortitude.
It wasn’t only a steely determination that struck me about these Addicks, but it was also their creativity and boundless enthusiasm to find time to help in any small way they could to bring the club back from where Roland Duchatelet and his various hangers on were taking it.
It has been some day. I have a glass of champagne in front of me, still processing today’s news that we have finally been released from the nightmare of Roland Duchatelet. I’ve also spent some time toasting those Londoners who showed such incredible instinctive bravery today on London Bridge. Some of the videos and stories coming out of that are inconceivable.
It was a day to sit in pj’s in front of the television, which I did. Although Arsenal insisted on grabbing the football limelight after sacking manager Unai Emery, the excitement oozing through the veins of Addicks was palpable amongst family and friends and online, and I get the impression that I wasn’t the only one popping a cork this evening.
Still necking the espresso’s.
After what seems like a lifetime we have our Charlton back. Roland Duchatelet’s ownership has sucked the life of Addicks fans, had burdened us with debt, made us a footballing laughing stock, and has ridiculed men, women and children who have our little football club in their blood.
A lot of smiling Addicks getting a well earned rest during the international break. The Championship is a great league, one of Europe’s most competitive and it feels good to be back and thus far we have not looked out of place at all.
We have played 4 of the top 7 and lost just once. In only one game did we not do ourselves justice, and that was at Wigan. Yet a week later we bounced back in the best possible way, memorably beating Leeds. I’m still glowing from the Fulham game. We didn’t win, but it was a great advert for the league and we played our part and that away corner was, as someone we know would say, bouncing.
Recently when Lyle Taylor stopped in on Charlton fan Betty Hutchins (watch the video as well), Betty said that these three ‘f’ words were the most important things she had in her life. It’s hard to disagree with that, whatever your faith.
Betty has long been ‘proper Charlton’ and watched the Addicks since 1946. Sadly Betty died yesterday just two days before her 83rd birthday.
We’re on the way, we’re on the way….
Yesterday morning I woke bruised and weary. With a slight headache and a sense of bewilderment, but the red blood in my veins flowed like a gentle river.
Last night was another night of sweet dreams. I flew back to Bermuda yesterday and am back in the office today, and nothing, not nothing will take this massive smile off my face.
You’ll never going to believe us, but the reds are going up. Allez, Allez, Allez.
Well, what a journey that was. What a day. What a team, what heroes Lee Bowyer and Johnnie Jackson are. Yesterday will be a day Addicks, team and supporters as one, will remember for the rest of their lives.
The finer details of the game are a little blurry. It was game that flipped from scrappy to nervy to a finely balanced battle. It’s interesting that reports of the game seemed to think we were deserving winners. I wasn’t so sure from where I sat, but Sunderland are a very functional side, hard to beat, but lacking flair. Meanwhile Bowyer has put together a team that can change a game, be the more adventurous, can play around sides. The first goal, which was pure poetry, a great example.
Well, well. It’s finally Friday, and here it’s Bermuda Day so I get to think about Sunday all day long today as it’s a holiday and I have the day off!
Friday was raw emotion, for every minute I hated it through the game, I treasured the videos, photos and stories from Addicks after. The excitement has built this week, and although I am shielded from most of the media here, I’ve also purposely tried hard to not get too wrapped up in it. Fortunately work has been a bastard.
How we all doing?
My heart rate is a bit more normal, and I’ve spent a large chunk of the day trying to sort out tickets. Although I have dipped back into video clips of Friday. It’s like heroin. And there’s been a fair bit of singing. Just me, on my own, but my voice is a lot better.
Much thanks to various friends for the help with tickets and advice. I’ve spent a lot of the day on the CAFC tickets website, which is pretty easy to navigate, although better I’d think on a computer than an iPad.
At some point this afternoon I had stopped shaking. I have to admit I hated every minute of the game. Watching in a pub with sympathetic work colleagues and random strangers concerned to why this bloke staring at a TV for what seemed hours was going through a somersault of emotions and odd facial expressions, and ended in a tearful heap on a bar stool.
Had a bloody headache this morning though. Jesus what a night, what an achievement and the end, the pitch invasion, the unadulterated joy. The pride. Roland and his evil ownership not even the slightest regard.
It had been a long and nervy day, I didn’t sleep well, but we had the start that we had all hoped for. Bielik heading in a 2 minute free-kick. Game over. Oh no, nowhere near.
I took today of work mostly to look after my daughter who wasn’t well enough to go to school, but it also did me a proper favour as my voice was shot and I am absolutely knackered. That was quite the weekend.
Today the club made a decision to split the Jimmy Seed Stand for the 2nd leg and make available 1,000 tickets to Addicks. These went on sale at 5pm. By midnight 850 of those had been sold. The rest will surely go first thing and over 24,000 Addicks will back Bowyer’s men on Friday night.
Back at Gatwick now with a very croaky voice and a head full of songs and dreams.
These last few years most of us, and very certainly me, have lost and forgotten what it was to be a Charlton fan. The fellowship, the connection, the unerring pride and hope handed down through generations or founded by those new to being an Addick. It was gone, perhaps forever. Don’t get me wrong the old bastard can’t sell the club a day too soon, but Lee Bowyer, his coaching team, and the group of players he has brought together has somehow, in spite of the owner, given us something to cheer and believe in.
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
