Sep 4
Apparently there was a game tonight, and apparently Tarique Fosu didn’t play. So far so good. And we drew, well lost. On penalties. And, as it turns out, in the most ridiculous rule of all off football time, Fosu was banned from playing, but it didn’t count towards his three-match ban. Yep, EFL you really are..
I know some people don’t get the protests and there is still a small camp that think CARD are purely trouble makers and throwing things on the pitch is a childish waste of time. However the latest crisps stunt last Saturday reached an extraordinary amount of press and media outlets here and in Belgium, and gave our adversity a huge audience. Yes, throwing a crisp packet, or a pig, or a taxi onto a pitch will not singularly see the club sold, but it raises awareness, and will rattle that old bastard like nothing else.
Heck even the EFL woke from it’s slumber. “Following a number of discussions dating back a number of weeks, the EFL plans to meet with both Charlton Athletic and the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust to gain a full understanding of the current situation that surrounds the club.”
Vitally, this media antagonism of Duchatelet knocks him sideways. It’s the only thing that brings him out of his bunker and he hates it. The Belgian press have also jumped on the bandwagon this week after the crisp protest and Trump-like (come on there is a likeness) he took a swipe at the “unscrupulous media” and of course neither his employees nor us customers have a clue about what happens at the club. This from a man who last watched a Charlton game in 2014.
Roland Duchatelet’s arrogance took on an even more evil turn today. Yesterday it came to light that the clubs’ administrative staff had been told that they would not be getting their promised “incentivised bonuses.” They were due 3 weeks ago and were told nothing of what had happened to them until they were informed by the HR department that they would not be forthcoming. Some poor sod in the HR department doing Duchatelet’s dirty work this time.
The club refused to comment until after employees received this email from Duchatelet this morning. Written or at least re-drafted by PR puppet Tom Rubashow, confirming that Duchatelet will renege on his bonus promises.
The misery continued for Addicks tonight. After the Daily Mail carried a story that Roland Duchatelet is refusing to pay a 10% bonus on salaries to certain staff if specific cross-cutting targets, put in place by the Belgian, were met. Those targets driven home by latest puppet Lieven de Turck have been achieved amongst job losses and a hard restructuring of expenditures across the whole club.
These normal hard working people have worked in a rudder-less and depressing environment for a long time, but have had promises broken by a multi-millionaire pocketing any incoming cash he can and notably refusing to give academy players, lauded by him initially, bottled water and taking out paper towels from the dispensers.
Now we know what a c*** Duchatelet is, but.. Richard Murray. Hold your sorry head in shame.
If only CAFC would have given us this interview with Lee this morning, could have saved a lot of frantic refreshing and roaming charges. You are not the only one on cut backs you know Charlton.
By the way did you see CARD’s latest stunt was to deliver 100 bottles of water to the academy team at Sparrows Lane this morning. Brilliant, and it really caught the imagination of the nation’s media.
Lied to again by the club it seems. Patrick Bauer wasn’t offered a new contract, just an extension on his new one, which he has refused, or in fact Duchatelet offered nothing at all. Judging by his Tweet today to 4,700 followers he may not be sticking around until Saturday. And who can blame him?
“Charlton say that austerity is necessary to “restore the financial health of the club”. But Duchatelet has brought Charlton Athletic to its knees over the last four years, demeaning the club with every misjudged cut, sale, sacking and bad appointment. Staff that leave now are rarely replaced and the whole club is desperate for profound change and renewal. For the long-term survival of Charlton Athletic, all that matters is Duchatelet finally selling this club on to people who can take better care of it.”
From the excellent article in today’s Independent written by Jack Pitt-Brooke.
So where are we..
4 days left before we kick off at Sunderland, and we waved farewell to Josh Magennis today who signed for Bolton Wanderers. The fee is said to be £200,000, a severe haircut on the £500,000 offered to Duchatelet in January. Discounts for cash. The Belgian continues to dismantle our football club in front of our very eyes.
He asset stripped Standard Liege and he is asset stripping Charlton Athletic. Nicky Ajose is also been touted to anyone who has got a penny. Coventry City are interested but the cancerous owner thinks he can get more from overseas. Ajose will be gone by week’s end.
Lee Bowyer talked today about a potential “big loan” signing, which sounds promising accept the Belgian football genius is in charge of proceedings.
He also talked of ongoing interest in Patrick Bauer and Josh Magennis. Remember Bowyer said he accepted that Duchatelet would sell five players in the summer, if he could bring in four. A little lopsided mathematics if you ask me. Harry Lennon and Ezri Konsa have already gone. Possibly Magennis and Bauer will follow with I suspect Igor Vetokele going out on loan again due to his high wages.
Seems like about 100 years ago that chant cannoned out of the away end at Brentford. It is coming up 4 years to be exact, but Igor Vetokele this week will make his umpteenth re-appearance at Sparrows Lane for pre-season training on Wednesday.
Lee Bowyer has never seen him play, in fact most of us have only seen a snippet of the 26-year old, who played 25 times for Sint Truiden last season. I will repeat what has been said by Addicks a thousand times – a fit Igor with the right attitude should score buckets of goals in League One….
Another less than straight forward day for us Addicks.
I woke to an article from Rich Cawley saying that Duchalelet was preparing the sale of Patrick Bauer to Blackburn for as little as £400,000. A deal attractive to the Belgian as the cash would all be upfront.
Rich followed this by suggesting that Duchatelet is also planning to cash in Tariqe Fosu and Joe Aribo, and that he will not sanction a pre-season tour. This because he refuses to pay for anything other than the operating costs, which he will fund with a fire-sale.
There were some not pleasant stories coming out of SE7 today. Roland Duchatelet has been at the The Valley this week and Rich Cawley has just confirmed that the Belgium is making plans for the new season as if he is still the owner. His first decision was to offload Ezri Konsa to Brentford yesterday with other cost saving plans to come shortly involving player sales and staff cuts.
Honestly is there no end to this man’s derangement?
“The fans missed a big chance. I would have been able to bring the club into the Premier League.” (more)
These quotes came from a meeting that Roland Out Today (ROT) had with Duchatelet whilst they were in Sint Truiden recently and bumped into him when they went to RD’s hotel construction site. A full transcript can be found on here.
Quite ironic isn’t it that we still have the crackpot nutty professor in charge yet new owners wait on passing the EFL’s ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test. Andrew Muir’s Australian group plan to complete the takeover of the club within the next couple of weeks, all depending on how long the EFL take to do whatever it is they do.
Undercover work by one Addick has unearthed a newly established UK company called Echidna Acquisitions registered by expected CEO Gerard Murphy on April 30th with Australian Football Consortium as shareholder. Two plus two would tell us that this is the vehicle the Aussies will use to acquire the club.
Charlton fan James Dutton, who is Jimmy Seed’s grandson has added some more, seemingly positive vibes, on his Blog here.
The sadly anticipated morning after the evening before. I hope Addicks’ fans all got home safe and sound, I understand it was a bit hairy during and after the game. Superb support from Charlton fans again though, a resurrection of pride that can be put solely at the feet of Lee Bowyer, who spoke again very well after the game.
It continually surprised me that we clung on to any play-off hopes during Karl Robinson’s reign. We didn’t win from the middle of November through to January and when the season hotted up in February and March we won just once, away at relegated MK Dons. It was pretty desperate at times as Robinson stuck to a plan that clearly wasn’t working and although the finger should always be pointed at Duchatelet and ex-CEO Meire for not giving any manager or head coach a base or confidence to which to build from, Robinson was given a lot more to work with than his predecessors.
We just weren’t good enough were we?..
Charlton ended the season how they started it back in August. Short on options, quality and goals. Lee Bowyer and Johnnie Jackson brought back togetherness, spirit and pride, but they had no way to address the continuous issues that Roland Duchatelet has besieged every single manager or head coach that has taken the team since the old bastard walked into our lives.
Shrewsbury over-powered us, roughed us up and played to a style that they have perfected under one manager for almost two seasons. We can bemoan that their goalscorer should have been sent off, and we were refused a blatant penalty, but the best team won over two games.
Struggled today after last night’s disappointment. Hopefully the players are thinking more positively but Sunday is going to need a top Charlton performance, one not just of steely determination and passion, but from somewhere we have to get goals. Pearce’s backside and an Amos big goal kick have provided our only goals in the last 4 games.
On the flip side, it was only a perfect strike from Nolan that broke our defensive stronghold, and Amos again looked confident in goal. We all know what it takes, and I am sure 1,500 noisy Addicks will provide tremendous backing on Sunday afternoon in Shropshire.
Sky Sports ran a story yesterday and I had heard it myself from a very reliable source that the vindictive old bastard had stalled takeover talks to wait and see how we fair in the play-offs. It is what we have come to expect from the egotistical lunatic.
This of course could end two ways, well four. We get promoted and he pushes the price up. We get promoted and he convinces himself that he is a football club owning genius and decides to carry on with his project.
It may be considered a bit of a distraction currently with the team’s surge into play-off contention, but for the huge majority of us the end of Roland Duchatelet’s cancerous ownership of the club cannot come quick enough.
It’s May tomorrow, just the 9 months since the first whispers of Australians descending on our small corner of London. It is believed there has been more than one interest from Australia, and certainly others from both home and abroad, but for reasons only obvious to a stubborn old man in Belgium we remain in his spell. No magic, no plan, no leadership, just a plain speaking ex-midfielder thrown into a caretaker role bringing some pride and excitement back.
Who knows what marketing brains trust at CAFC decided last week to announce that if the potential takeover doesn’t happen by tomorrow then the club will put the 2018/19 season tickets on sale. Meantime they will put their feet on their desk and wait and watch it being finalized. The Charlton takeover soap opera longer than Emmerdale Farm.
As expected Karl Robinson’s time as Charlton manager is over. He left the club by mutual consent this morning.
Mutual consent being that both Duchatelet and Robinson agreed to tear up his contract with some compensation paid to the manager. Some, if not all of which Duchatelet may well be reclaim from Oxford United, where Robinson is expected to turn up.
This story will clearly develop over the next 24 to 48 hours but it is now known that Karl Robinson tendered his resignation to owner Roland Duchatelet before the Blackpool game. The Belgian refused to accept his resignation, but Robinson has since offered again.
Following absolute silence on the takeover front on the back of a couple of positive Richard Murray proclamations, that have frankly been pointless. Then with Karl Robinson after the Blackpool game saying that any takeover is nowhere near and it could be next season CARD have called for a day of protests at the Rotherham game on Easter Monday and will follow that up with action at the other 3 home games in April.
On the heels of Richard Murray giving a takeover update to the Fans Forum last night, Rick Everitt today tweeted just two words “Done Deal.”
Maybe a time to hold one’s breath and wait to see what the next few days bring us as a few last items are finalized, such as the long outstanding directors’ loans.
I orginally began this Blog on Blogger in June 2004. After 1,892 posts and 350,000 visits I switched over to WordPress in August 2010, and today the WordPress stat counter passed the 1,000,000 page views mark, which I admit made me feel very proud.
I’ve written 1,778 posts since moving here in the summer of 2010, clearly less prolific than I was in those early days, but the individual posts get a lot more traffic and that has been increasingly true in recent years.
Making a point..
Pre-game Karl Robinson was again chatting to Addicks outside Gigg Lane and told a fan that Ricky Holmes has been sold from under him by Roland Duchatelet for “debt management.” Afterwards to the press he said that Duchatelet refused to sanction a part exchange with Sheffield United getting Samir Carruthers plus cash for Holmes as Duchatelet just wanted the money.
Duchatelet is taking his last kicks in the stomach of our proud club, which is already doubled up in pain following the Belgian’s 4-year ownership. Just 5 players on the bench today including two long term injuries, an academy player and a goalkeeper.
Looks like Roly will get to put more money in his pocket as it seems inevitable now that Ricky Holmes will leave us this transfer window.
Rich Cawley is running an exclusive that Holmes has made it clear that he wants to take the opportunity to go to Sheffield United to finally challenge himself in the Championship. The Blades sit just a point outside of the play-offs and have already invested heavily this window.
Eh? What? No. Can’t be. Can it?
Peter Varney is stepping down as vice-chairman of Ebbsfleet United. He will no longer sit on the Fleet’s board of directors and will be replaced as vice-chairman by former player Dean Pooley.
Charlton fan Varney has been heavily involved with Ebbsfleet since 2013 when they were taken over by KEH (Kuwaiti European Holdings), for whom Peter is CEO of their sports arm. Varney led and managed all of Fleet’s off field activities but has never been far away from the alarming goings on at The Valley.
Rats and ships.
Rick Everitt has heard what I heard yesterday (from a fellow Blogger) that Charlton CFO David Jones has resigned. Possibly he has a job elsewhere lined up, like Meire apparently.
I’m a little bit late with this but wanted to expose it to a wider audience and add my kudos. I have been a big advocate of hitting Roland Duchatelet hard on his own soil and now Addicks have set up a political party to contest local elections in Sint Truiden in October, 2018.
Two media outlets carried quotes today from his royal loony tunes, who has finally managed to manoevre his head out of his arse. The Times ran a story (behind pay wall) which was repeated in the News Shopper:
Happy anniversary to Karl Robinson. After the disappointing draw at home to MK Dons he talked about how far we have come as a team since last time we played Franchise in April. I would rather look at how far we have come in the past year.
In fact just over a year ago I was at, what turned out to be Russell Slade’s last game, Swindon. It was truly demoralizing, and the road down and down under Duchatelet appeared to have no turning points or crossroads. The incompetence of Meire and the vindictiveness of Duchatelet apparently knew no bounds.
According to sources of respected Belgian journalist John Chapman Roland Duchatelet appeared tired and is looking to concentrate his 71-year old mind on other things. This came after he sold his remaining shares in Belgian side Sint-Truiden (STVV), always considered to be his favourite ‘child.’
Duchatelet and his partner Marieke Höfte have been involved with Sint-Truiden on and off, but mostly on since 2003. He only bought back the club last year after selling up in 2011 but this week he sold STVV to DMM, a diversfied Japanese electronics and online shopping company. I don’t know, but I suspect the amount of the sale was ‘undisclosed.’
I’m late with this mostly because I haven’t had a chance to type a few words, but secondly also because we have had so many false dawns and I don’t want to get over excited.
However Rick Everitt has further added to his piece on the VOTV website to which ends “with certainty that the due diligence is at an advanced stage. While that does not guarantee a deal will be concluded or any timeline, it will necessarily have required extensive co-operation from the football club, which is unlikely to have been forthcoming without significant proof of funds and an indicative agreement on price. In short, the approach has to be a credible one and of interest to Duchatelet simply to have got this far.” more
CARD issued a statement today which states that there will be no in match protests that could detract from a potentially successful promotion campaign, however other plans are being made.
Possibly the other plans could mean further protests in Duchatelet’s home country and town, which I personally feel at this stage make more of an impact.
I think CARD’s approach is sensible and underscores the mantra of supporting the team (and manager) but not the regime. However everything is still not rosy behind the scenes and I think the inability to bring in another striking option other than an untried Rangers’ reserve shows how much Duchatelet is still stifling ambition at the club. Not for the first time we’ve started well, and possibly have the best looking first XI we’ve seen since Powell left, but again we enter the autumn and winter and the long slog of three games a week with a paper thin squad lacking in experience, depth and options.
Is it too early to be cynical?..
Our first defeat at The Priestfield in 88 years. Robinson is big on records, and it doesn’t get much bigger than that. Mind you we haven’t had the misfortune to play our Kent neighbours that many times over the decades but in recent years we have not played well there. Yesterday was no different.
We lost to a 2nd half goal from Tom Eaves, similar to one we conceded at home to Wigan in the week and we had no answer save for loads of balls pumped into the box. We huffed and puffed against a team that specialise in huffing and puffing, and we weren’t good enough. Sure we had hundreds of shots at goal, and apparently their ‘keeper was man of the match, but he hardly put in a Nick Pope type performance.
Like a broken record, with 7 days left until deadline day, judging by Karl Robinson’s comments this morning it is looking more and more likely that the owner will leave his manager with another unbalanced and incomplete squad. Not for the first time, the first eleven looks very competitive and Robinson to his credit has created a playing system and a spirit which could take this team a long way towards the goal of promotion, except beyond the first team and three or four others it falls off a cliff.
In the Karl Robinson house, but of course all football fans understand that analogy very well.
This is easily the most positive pre-season we have had in the Duchatelet-Meire era, not that it’s difficult, but keeping faith in Robinson was a positive. He is marmite of course and can’t stop talking, but one can’t fail to see his commitment to the club and his passion and energy.
Words are easy, and actions do speak louder, but when we’ve been used to a complete lack of communication and when we were spoken to, we were given mostly lies, or we had head coaches not able to make any connection with fans whatsoever.
They are only friendlies. As the old optimistic football saying goes. Also odd to play 3 games in as many days, the middle one a 6-hour round trip away, and the players all forced to go home for the weekend in between a week of intensive training in Ireland and 3 pre-season games in, er, Ireland. Katrien involved in that planning by chance?
We beat the amateur team, lost after being 2-0 up against the Premier League side and were thrashed by the University students that play in Irish 2nd tier. It is worth noting that the Irish teams are all mid-season and goes without saying, far more match fit than our lot.
Three games in three days, with the U23’s also in action on the mainland, meant that the squad was horribly stretched, although Robinson tried to play two different XI’s in all three games.
So while Katrien Meire still denies that the club is for sale the Daily Mail have told the world that in fact we are.
The first name to appear behind the curtain is Australian Football Consortium (AFC). A consortium attempting to engage investors to help “acquire an under-performing English football team and elevate it to the English Premier League.” It says here for which Henslow are listed as the transaction advisors.
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After a few days in New York working, or as my daughter calls it, on work vacation, I headed south for the rest of the week to Miami where I met up with the family.
New York was good, and I particularly liked staying across the river in Brooklyn, although at certain times of the day the Brooklyn Bridge bore close resemblance to the Dartford Bridge in rush hour. On my last night I met up with old mate New York Addick, where we talked Charlton and the unmitigated disaster of Duchatelet’s ownership.
After many pints we came to the conclusion that Duchatelet hasn’t purposely tried to kill the club, but rather mass incompetence, utterly poor management and sheer stubbornness has resulted in the diabolical situation the club finds itself in. NYA’s most recent analysis of the club’s accounts are well worth a read by the way.
If Dave’s list of Katrien Meire’s ‘accomplishments’ was not enough, yesterday the club announced that the CEO has now presided over another loss making year for the football club.
Charlton reported a £13.5m loss for the 2015-16 season, up by £9.5m on the 12 months previous. The club claimed that there were increased costs of nearly £4m, which largely went on January transfers and salaries. Charlton Athletic’s total debt now stands at £65.2m and total staff costs were £14.06m, which was scarily 116% of turnover.
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As a mysterious for sale sign in Dutch appeared on a wall outside The Valley, the VOTV has disclosed that a secure data room was created within The Valley 2 weeks ago and has since been in use by an unknown female lawyer. Not Pinocchio.
Of course this is what one would expect at the outset of a due-diligence process or an external audit. Any potential and qualified buyer who has agreed to sign an NDA would need to have ready access to a whole range of financial data, and that is what I assume this lawyer is putting together. Word is also that a price has been agreed in principle.
The Duchatelet to sell rumour mill has been amped up around SE7 the last few days and at yesterday’s game it was a topic that appeared to carry a lot more water than just plain wishful thinking amongst Addicks. Katrien Meire was also absent yesterday but that is thought to be a coincidence.
Post match both Rick Everitt and Rich Cawley tweeted that there is strong takeover talk, wth Chinese money thought to be in the mix and on that note I want to direct you to Wyn’s Blog for some really good insight into Chinese football ownership.
First things first before we get over excited. The game is littered with bad owners it should be a football league condition that any sale passes a detailed due diligence test and any prospective owner is thoroughly scrutinized.
The Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD) wants to thank the hundreds of Charlton supporters who made the 500-mile round trip to Sint-Truiden to join Saturday’s Unity Protest march through the town, as well as the many other fans who spontaneously demonstrated their own feelings about the owner and his regime during the team’s 2-1 defeat at Northampton Town
On my way back to Bermuda now and having time to reflect on a historic weekend in Charlton’s history.
Roland Duchatelet would not have liked the fact that 300 ordinary men, women and children, not louts and irate ex-employees demonstrated against him alongside STVV fans on Saturday in the sleepy town of Sint Truiden, where the 70-year old has always felt he had some kind of power over the people of the town and it’s football club.
Stories and tales from those that made the trip out to Belgium are both heartwarming and of legend and memories made will last a lifetime, especially once we rid ourselves of Duchatelet and Pinocchio. There has been much media coverage both at home and in Belgium and the whole thing was beautifully organized, and perfectly executed and makes me proud to be an Addick. And the lazy and misguided PR men at the club should be embarrased.
I am back in the UK down at my parents in East Sussex arriving early yesterday morning to a grey but promising South Downs day (photo). My trip back was to see family and join hundreds of other Addicks in Belgium this coming weekend, as it turns out it is now one of convalescing after recent surgery which came about very suddenly.
Belgium is still on my and my brother’s mind but we will make a late decision and as an alternative may go to Northampton instead. If my surgeon is reading this then I am at home in Bermuda, sat on the couch reading a book.
I expect the numbers going to Sint-Truiden to swell this week beyond the already committed 250. We were always going to go under our own steam and I expect many others will join up in the Grote Markt on Saturday unannounced.
Whilst I stared into the abyss rubbing my eyes after listening to Karl Robinson’s on pitch press conference last night pondering if I could somehow put my dumbfounded words into a post, I was beaten to it as I tried to draw words together in my mind by Dave and Rick.
I will not be able to put as much colour and significance around Robinson’s rant as those two gents did, so please read them first and then come back here for an attempted epilogue.
Feb 20
Throwing beach balls, pigs and taxis on the pitch captured the media attention and wound Katrien Meire up into a complete fluster, and now to complete silence, muffled at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds by numerous PR so called experts. The prolonged and creative demonstrations made their point loud and clear and with it brought the football world to take notice of our desparate plight under an owner seemingly running our historic football club off a cliff.
Pitch invasions, game interruptions, joint fan demonstrations, mock funerals, banners, songs, sit-in’s, airplane protests, you name it has done nothing really to shake Roland Duchatelet from his make believe world of how customers of professional football clubs should not aspire to success but dance and eat together, and applaud young players farmed off for the highest amount of money that is not reinvested for the betterment of the club.
I have said for a long while now that we have to take the protests to Duchatelet, to his own turf, on his doorstep face to face. He patently hasn’t really given a monkeys about The Valley demonstrations as Meire alongside an attempted PR machine allied to that of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have shielded him from it and sugar coated any messaging.
I’m not really on board with those that have declared today a good point. I may be living in the dark ages but a last minute equalizer at Rochdale in front of 2,842 is hardly the start of a new dawn. Rochdale had failed to score in their last 5 games!
We did score 3 goals which is pleasing but according to the commentary our defending was woeful especially for Dale’s 3rd. We were also ahead but somehow should be pleased with a point, although to his credit Robinson wasn’t. 3 points from 12 and another game is ticked off from a monotonous season with our mid table mediocrity looking intact.
Another timid performance from Karl Robinson’s Addick’s last night. Lots of possession, lots of corners, plenty of pot shots but no substance, a bit like the manager’s rhetoric.
A snapshot of Roland Duchatelet and the almost forgotten Katrien Meire’s Charlton legacy. Losing to a relegation threatened fourth from bottom team in front of two thousand odd people. Every decision better than the last.
No disrespect meant towards the Latics, who we have spent big chunks of a century following around the divisions. John Sheridan has given them a real new manager (for the third time) bounce with five wins in eight. Meanwhile under Robinson we have won three in thirteen. A record worse than Luzon and Peeters.
Just two days to go before the bloke from Sky Sports wets himself on national telly.
January is notoriously a tricky month to improve squads for the long term. Robinson has consistently talked a long term strategy flying in the face of anything we have witnessed under this regime. “In an ideal world I want to buy a player that’s ours, is under 24 years of age and can drive us forward. Not an older player, we’ve got enough older players with quality. I want to add someone who can give us some longevity.” (more)
Yep, in a ideal world Uncle Roly will allow you that marquee signing that you enthused about last week Karl, but it’s unlikely isn’t it. Just like installing the underground heating with no heating, Duchatelet will do the bare minimum to take the club forward, all the while selling young prospects of any value, loading the club with debt, and making empty promises, some of which are downright lies.
When the mad professor and his useless lackey finally jack it in and leave us to pick up the pieces, there won’t be a book written about their days of yore, or a movie, or a television series. No, there will be a west end show, a proper comedy romp. Oh how we will laugh….
It was great to see Ademola Lookman score for Everton yesterday. I was thrilled for the lovely young man. Every Addick can be rightly proud that he was ‘Made in Charlton’. It was equally as good to see Joe Gomez return from his long term injury for Liverpool last week in the FA Cup, and he too was on the bench yesterday at Old Trafford. It can be impossible to keep these players from moving to the next level, particularly when Charlton appears to be low on ambition, and the reality is that we have become a middling League One club.
I think under Robinson, if he is allowed a longer term to influence young prospects, we may see academy players stay to play closer to a century of games. Of course we know Katrien Meire’s view on moving our best young players on, and for Roland Duchatelet, it is just a way to make money for his network project.
I wish Ade well at Everton, and I’m pleased that he has signed for a ‘proper club’ with no disrespect to the Chelsea’s of the world, where he would just populate their burgeoning unused or pawned out talent pool.
We saw it coming so it is no surprise, nor is it that the fee is “undisclosed,” although thought to be £7.5m up front rising to £11m. Question now is how much will go into Duchatelet’s pocket and how much will be given to Robinson for his mid-season rebuilding quest. If rumours are true it is only thought to be a single digit percentage.
Katrien Meire, who has kept a low profile recently said: “We have a fantastic academy here and it is testament to everyone at the club that Charlton continues to develop high-quality young players.” She did not add this time that it’s great that we can watch them for a handful of months before watching them on MOTD in the Premier League playing for someone else. Welcome to Roly’s player farm.
As I sit here in my pyjamas with a beer with far too long to wait until midnight I feel content that I don’t have to go out and pretend tonight will be the best night of my life. Movies are downloading, my daughter sits at my feet and we have a fridge full of snacks. Good enough for me.
I turned 50 this year and we spent a couple of memorable weeks in Rio at the Olympics to celebrate it, although I’ll be honest I’ve struggled moving into the next decade of my life. Not physically, I feel good and I think I look alright but it has made me very introspective and I question myself a lot, especially when I wake in the middle of the night, which happens more and more. Must be old age and my eyes are going and my ears are getting bigger as well….
My 2016 had its challenges. Personally and professionally. Questions without answers. Vacillant sometimes, headstrong other times.
Charlton are no longer an escape for me or sadly for the majority of us. I never ever thought my love for them would wane, but incredibly it has and it breaks my heart.
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Wyn Grant found these quotes this morning and thanks to some good work by one of Charlton Life’s finest the whole interview with Duchatelet and his partner Mareike Höfte, who is the president and the front person of STVV, can be found here in two parts. Click part 1 and part 2.
I have paid close attention to Duchatelet and his family since they bought ‘my’ football club almost to the day 3 years ago, and I am convinced that they, more so him, are completely cuckoo.
He really has no concept of sporting integrity or ambition and the ultimate dream of any human being that has ever pulled on a pair of football boots or walked into a professional football club’s stadium for the first time.
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Tom Rubashow must be rubbing his hands at getting his feet under the desk at Charlton. He is set to start work for the club on January 2nd. If I was him I wouldn’t bother.
The mad crackpot Roland Duchatelet has opened his mouth again:
“He (Chris Powell) is not a clever person and those who think the same are also not clever. In principle we were giving them the advice so they had responsibility and could take responsibility and that is how we work. I find it very stupid that a person who is getting help, an important person for the club, does not accept it. I also find that the activists, some activists at the club, who from their reactions think the coach was right, well they are just stupid people too.”
Dave has it all here.
The video interview is here starting at 1.08.30. Watch him squirm.
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I’m a bit late with this but it is most definitely worth a plug and over 10,000 people have already listened to them I believe but as the pro-Duchatelet brigade get louder and the splits amongst the fan base get a little wider I implore all Charlton fans to listen to the recently released Getting to Know The Network. Whatever your view of how Duchatelet and Meire are running the club these two initial podcasts of an eventual set of four are required listening.
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It now all makes sense. A top 6 budget does not necessarily mean on midfielders or goalscorers, it means on specialised marketing and communication staff.
After Mel Baroni walked out 46 days into her new job following Roly’s {…} rant in March, Meire attempted to steady the sinking ship by hiring specialist sport and entertainment PR firm Pitch at I expect great ongoing expense.
If that wasn’t enough Meire has now hired full time, Tom Rubashow from Pitch PR as Head of Communications. This story had already been broken by Matt Wright in the last VOTV. Tom is so communicative that after word got out of his impending move to Charlton, he made his Twitter account private.
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After a week of plenty of talking Karl Robinson’s team were rather mute on the pitch today in front of less than 5,000 supporters of Robinson’s new and old clubs. It was a lackluster performance that delivered none of the promise of goals, buckling up, entertainment and on the edge of your seat. Not much of any new manager bounce either.
But the Karl Robinson revolution is going to take time, and a few different players. Maybe more than a few. Neither of which Roland Duchatelet has been keen on giving Robinson’s umpteen predecessors.
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“Charlton Athletic Assistant Manager Kevin Nugent will take on the role of Caretaker Manager until a permanent replacement for Russell Slade is appointed. Nugent will be supported by Simon Clark and Chris O’Loughlin, a new addition to the club’s coaching staff who, contrary to reports, will not become the club’s new Manager.” (more)
Contrary to reports….. You have to laugh. Bit like contrary to reports that Russell Slade is the way forward. I’ll tell you what, let’s wait and see shall we.
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Sarasota, Florida
