Jun 13
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.
Well, that was my initial reaction, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me if I was Ezri Konsa. I suspect there was no real Premier League interest, at least those willing to meet an asking price or a timing. So Ezri, unlike many young ambitious footballers, decides that the next step on the ladder is a move up to somewhere he can be a regular, stay in London and be in a more populous shop window.
Not sure about you but I had forgotten all about it. Just when I was wondering why I had a boomerang and painted the front of the house green and gold Rich Cawley has given us an update.
Widely expected to become Charlton’s new CEO, which frankly almost anyone could fill the seat better than the last person in that role, I thought I’d snoop around a bit to see what we can find out about the prominent Australian sports consultant Gerard Murphy.
Murphy has specialized in turning around and shaping businesses with a sports bent for almost 20 years and has his own consultancy business and has past involvement in a wide range of sports teams down under. He has been recognized as being a catalyst for success for sporting organisations such Aussie Rules clubs Geelong, Hawthorn, Sydney and Richmond plus rugby union teams Wellington Hurricanes and Melbourne Rebels, who high compete in the high profile Southern Hemisphere tournament Super 15.
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.
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.
“The club are currently in takeover discussions with two separate parties and while the sale of the club has not been finalised, it has been confirmed that one of the conditions of the sale, agreed by both parties interested in purchasing, will be that Bowyer is kept on as Caretaker Manager, with Johnnie Jackson continuing as his assistant, until the end of the season.” (more)
Great news that allows both Bowyer and the players space and encouragement to continue their recent revival under Bowyer and Jacko and importantly boosts the new wave of energy this past week or so has created amongst the fanbase.
Lee, what have you done with our Charlton..
I was at Sixfields last season, it was one very depressing afternoon. It was last March, but it isn’t what difference a year makes, it’s what difference one man makes. The Lee Bowyer show blew through Sixfields this afternoon like a tornado. It was a performance of total domination and attacking devastation. Those there and from the radio said that 8-0 wouldn’t have been unrealistic.
As I sit here like the rest of you looking at my watch move forward without any announcement of the ‘imminent’ takeover, I started to think how enthused I am, at least for the moment, that Lee Bowyer and Johnnie Jackson are at the wheel.
Charlton is one of those clubs that has had much success when Charlton people have been in charge. I am sure there are many other examples but a club like Charlton needs people that understand the fabric of the club, it’s history and it’s community.
Here is an excellent outside prognosis of the current state of Charlton written by the excellent Twohundredpercent website.
The article is called the ‘Forgotten club’ and within the article the Addicks are described as a ‘ghost club.’
The forgotten club line rings true, long gone are the days when we can say to strangers “you know Charlton Athletic, we were in Premier League a couple of years back.” We are a forgotten club to most football fans and media that only concentrate on the Premier League and upper echelons of The Championship.
Two years ago Lee Bowyer was fishing carp out of a lake in France, his own lake in fact. One of the many keen fisherman that would visit Bowyer at his two lakes just over 3 hours from Calais was his former Leeds’ team mate Harry Kewell.
Whilst Bowyer was enjoying his time away from the game, Kewell began the long journey into coaching initially in Australia before becoming Watford’s U21 coach in July 2015. In October of that same year Kewell offered Bowyer a chance to join him. In a wild quirk of fate they may be re-united next week.
After what has seen like a length of a James Cook expedition the Aussies are apparently finally coming. We have seen plenty of false dawns but word is that next week we may eventually get rid of the Belgian poison and have new owners.
According to the sage Richard Murray there were two bids accepted. One was obviously the Aussies, and the other may have been an Arab consortium, or was it English or was it the Scots, and someone said today there was some American interest. Who the hell knows, except that we finally rid ourselves of Roland Duchatelet.
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.
Despite snow covering SE7 and it’s surrounds Richard Murray put the sun back in the sky this afternoon when he gave a takeover update to supporters.
“I said in January that negotiations with two parties on the takeover were continuing well and I hoped a deal would be concluded in February of this year. Although the takeover has not yet been completed, the good news is the terms of the deal, including the price, have now been agreed between the parties and we are now just waiting for their respective lawyers to finalise the sale and purchase agreement.”
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.
Probably to help balance the wage bill a little 20-year old Karlan-Ahearne Grant went on loan to Crawley today for the rest of the season.
With Mavididi, Kaikai and Zyro, KAG was expendable and a run in a lower division will hopefully see him find his feet, and possibly his level. Harry Kewell’s Crawley are on a good run and have moved to 7 points off the play-off’s and play at lowly Chesterfield tomorrow.
I don’t know what people expected from yesterday’s CAST meeting with Richard Murray, but it did instil us with more information and background and importantly final evidence that Duchatelet is going to the sell the club.
CAFC and CAST’s accounts of the 50-odd minute were very similar which is good, with February appearing the date that a transaction may happen.
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.
Andrew Muir is a name linked with a takeover of Charlton back to last October. More recently it was thought that an Australian bid was still very much in the picture, albeit balking at Duchatelet’s inflated price.
Today Rick Everitt produced an excellent investigative piece for VOTV giving not only a much desired ‘takeover update’ but also gave us some explanation to why ex-Rangers director and turnaround businessman and accountant Donald Muir (photo) was at the Oldham game on Saturday sat next to Alex McLeish.
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.
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
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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I heard a lot of good things about last night. The fan’s meeting was expertly arranged by CAST and it sounded constructive and, importantly, respectful, with the overriding agreement from those present that we need much more engagement from the owner.
My hope was that a plan of intention was scoped out by the end, but that was probably asking for too much, and I support the view that we need to be ready for the long game by being organized, smart, rational and lucid. We also need to separate results from fan actions and back Luzon and the team.
I won’t dwell on the meeting because I wasn’t there, but these people were – Dave, Kyle, Blackheath and Ted. Video’s of the opening speeches are on VOTV, including Rick Everitt’s impassioned address to the 400 or so that were at the Woolwich Grand Theatre, a very impressive number that tells it’s own story.
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“What gives me pleasure is that it’s happened here in our home, in The Valley.”
Bugger me, as I said after QPR, if there was ever a best way to win a game, then make it in the last minute in front of the Covered End.
It has been an emotionally charged week and if I was there tonight I’m not sure how I would have reacted to Jose Riga’s name being sung by the Covered End, yet equally I feel it is most definitely time to move on.
None of ‘this’ is Jose’s fault, and he has my total backing as I said the day he got appointed. People change, times change, but Addick blood does not fade very easily.
It looks as if Roland Duchâtelet is close to adding an Italian club to his footballing stable, the famous AS Bari, currently lounging in the lower reaches of Serie B.
Italian football has been beset with all sorts of trials and tribulations in recent years, and Bari are said to be €30m in debt and close to bankruptcy. One would assume that Duchâtelet would be able to pick up the club for a song if he clears the debt that the family owned club has amassed.
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Belgium newspaper ‘Le Soir‘ is reporting that Roland Duchâtelet is in possession of a €50m bid from a foreign investment fund for Standard Liege.
Duchatelet is said to want €60m, particularly since Standard’s stock is currently so high. Nevertheless after buying the club for €40m in 2011, €50m would still represent a 25% profit.
Duchâtelet threatened to sell the club last summer after Standard fans interrupted a board meeting and invaded his office, this followed the sacking of popular manager Mircea Rednic.
Things have calmed down though in Liege, as they ride high at the top of the Belgium Pro League 10 points clear of nearest rivals Club Brugge and although Les Rouches have to navigate an end of season play-off system, one would have to think that a Champions League spot beckons.
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Today both Chris Powell and Michael Slater took to the media to tell their stories. Slater turned again to his pet, the South London Press and like his partner, Tony Jimenez, Michael decided now was a good time to write his own fairytale chronicle of their time at The Valley.
“People may complain about the management style and the staff overhaul. But sometimes, tough decisions have to be made. There is no getting away from it – there is a real need to drag the club, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century.”
He wouldn’t remember of course what happened at the turn of the century because Slater was busily watching Manchester City brushed aside by a tatty old Charlton as we lifted the Division One trophy aloft.
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AD Alcorcón announced today in a statement that, “pending some legal formalities, the Belgian businessman Roland Duchatelet has become the largest shareholder” of the Madrid club.”.
So, I make that number 8 in the Pan European football network. Excited or nervous?
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Roland Duchâtelet first statement today included a welcome to Katrien Meire, who one assumes will be Roland’s eyes and ears at The Valley.
“Richard (Murray) will act as the spokesperson for the board, just as Chris Powell will represent the first team, and both men are hugely respected by our fans. I would also like to introduce Ms Katrien Meire who has been appointed onto the board and will be working at The Valley from now on.”
Ms Meire is currently the Legal and International Relations Manager at Standard Liège, which roughly translates into business leader with a legal background.
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So, what next?
On Friday Charlton became the 7th football club that Roland Duchâtelet owns or has an interest in. In 2003 Duchâtelet took over at Sint-Truidense, where he was originally encouraged to get involved as a sponsor. The then commercial manager had written to some of the wealthiest men in Belgium, and living locally Roland got his first introduction to football ownership.
He had to relinquish ownership of Sint-Truidense when he bought Standard de Liège in 2011 as both teams were in the same division at the time, and like only a man can, Roland gave it to his second wife.
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The Duchâtelet takeover announcement today by the club stated that Richard Murray will stay on at The Valley as non-executive chairman. The announcement stated that Duchâtelet’s Staprix NV now own 100% of the club so seemingly Murray’s Baton 2010 Limited have relinquished their 10%, even though it was thought he was unwilling to do so.
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“So, finally, I’d like to thank the fans for their unwavering support of the team and the manager during my time at The Valley, and for all of the kind messages and emails. I am sure that they will provide the new owners with the same levels of warmth and support that we have received during our tenure.” more
You have to give it to him, almost within hours of Roland Duchâtelet officially taking over the club our Tony has knocked out a near 1,000 word blog post for the Huffington Post. Not a dickie bird for 3 years, then with his bags packed Tony is thanking all of the supporters for kind messages and emails.
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According the Richard Cawley at the South London Press the club have told the paper that Roland Duchâtelet has completed his takeover of Charlton Athletic for £20m, £6m more than originally thought.
“Belgian millionaire Roland Duchâtelet has completed his takeover of Charlton Athletic. The South London Press understands from sources on the Addicks board that they are now under new ownership. And Duchatelet has paid nearer to £20million for the club – not the £14m that has been widely reported. It ends an uncertain period for the Championship club, with the promise of player arrivals to boost Chris Powell’s squad.” more
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Tonight, 3 years ago Charlton’s Official Site burst into life announcing that the club had come off the life support machine and been bought by Michael Slater and Tony Jimenez, with a clandestine third party rumoured to be sat behind the scenes.
24 months later, no one can be surprised at the shroud of confusion that exists over another proposed takeover. Stories are circling that Roland Duchâtelet has pulled out of a £14m deal, whilst the official word is that negotiations continue. There may also be other suitors sitting in the wings watching the currents owner’s negotiating power getting weaker by the day.
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Charles Sale of the Daily Mail was first out of the traps again with a Charlton takeover story this morning suggesting that Standard Liège owner Roland Duchatelet has bought the club for £14m. The OS later issued a short statement in which Michael Slater was quoted as saying that the current owners are in “very constructive discussions that we hope to conclude soon.”
Since The Mail’s latest tip off the proposed takeover has been widely reported in many media outlets both here and in Belgium, although a later online edition of Flanders News said that there was still a number of conditions to be met, which sounds eerily similar to the Josh Harris offer.
According to the South London Press Josh Harris has pulled out of the bid to buy the Addicks. Toby Porter was the same journo that originally declared that a British property compnay were involved in talks to acquire us, which may have been a plant of just factually wrong, but Porter has now been given information that Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersery Devils owner would not meet Jimenez and Slater’s valuation.
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The same Daily Mail journalist that reported Big Dave Lockwood’s demise as The Valley pitch announcer, has today written that we are set to become the latest American sports franchise.
Josh Harris is worth $2.5bn, according to Forbes, and ranks him as number 222 on their rich list, and is the co-founder of private equity investment bank Apollo.
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Just when you thought it was safe to go out in the knowledge that we won’t be signing any one, the ever reliable Daily Mail informs it’s readers that a “Russian group of investors want to buy Charlton.” And why wouldn’t they?
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If it was strange that the Daily Mirror bothered themselves with the Paul Elliott to be the new Charlton chairman story, it is perhaps even stranger that Michael Slater has used the mostly worthless News Shopper to deny it. Slater has usually turned to the South London Press for his sound bites and as has been par for the course steers clear of the Official Site.
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An interesting scoop if true by the Daily Mirror announcing that Paul Elliott is set to return to The Valley as it’s next chairman with Michael Slater taking a “more hands off role.”
Michael Slater I would have said will have no role soon enough at The Valley once Tony Jimenez finds new investment to replace that of Kevin Cash’s. Slater will be free then to be Cash’s front man someone else, get proper value out of his Manchester City season-ticket and pursue his complaint against Spanish police.
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The eagle eyed of you or those that have read Wyn’s blog, will have seen a change in the ownership structure stealthily tucked away within the club’s website underlying the lack of transparency in place under this ownership.
Tony Jimenez now owns 47.6% (an increase of 19.6%) of CAFC Holdings Limited shares, which in turn owns 90% of the club. Richard Murray owns the remaining 10%.
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I’ve sat on this for a few days now, as like other Addicks I search around in the dark for clues. The euphoria of winning, sorry walking the League One title after many years of hurt, is suddenly becoming a distant statistic as once again the team we love enters into the murky world of boardroom mistrust and rumour.
For those of you that don’t follow Charlton Life, their forum is awash with scaremongering and unanswered questions. Yet amongst the thousands of comments a couple stand out. Three or four posters, each one I recognise as having some good connections within the club have sources they say, each one different, that suggest that all is not well behind the scenes.
The main source of rumour is that we offered a deal to a potential new signing (I believe a current Premiership player) but then we reneged on the deal. Others suggest that all is not well in the boardroom, with potentially Slater and Jimenez wanting the club to go in different directions and an unknown backer pulling out his investment.
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After today’s pitch inspection at Chesterfield was declared inconclusive, another inspection will take place in the morning as once again the UK struggles with another dash of snow. The games at Brentford, MK Dons, Stevenage, Rochdale and Walsall have already succumbed. Sadly the 1,300 or so travelling Addicks will already be en route tomorrow when the pitch inspection takes place and many might have to end up at Bramall Lane to cheer on Wycombe.
An interesting titbit of news today tucked away on the Official Site was the announcement of new board member Alex Newall.
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Quite a day. Phil Parkinson was indeed a good bloke, decent and hard working but after yesterday evening the writing was on the wall and the difference between this week and last, is that the board could afford to pay him, Breacker and Kinsella off.
Let’s deal with the backroom staff first. It is sad to see Kinsella go, but as a coach, I don’t think he has anywhere near the qualities he had as a player. Very different skills of course. As for Breacker, well he was a Parkinson appointee and as in 99% of cases a new broom sweeps every corner of the room as it probably should have done two years ago. I wonder how long Phil Chapple will last when a new managerial team come in?
As for Parky, many Addicks will point to our league position, last season’s play-off finish and a 39% win rate, but despite the club’s ongoing financial situation, he’s still had one of League One’s largest budgets and free-reign and support in the transfer market from his chairman.
But for me and a growing band of other Addicks it was the dour style of play (and I mostly only get to listen to it on the radio), lack of ambition in games, especially at The Valley plus more and more glaringly obvious, Parky’s tactical limitations. Sadly too many times he has stood on the side lines and been out-thought by his fellow managers, some or most of whom, have a fraction of the resources that he has had.
Sky and the South London Press are reporting that Parky and the whole backroom staff have been sacked by the new board.
Some Addicks will be thrilled by that news. I’m not sure what kind of light this puts the new owners in after backing him just a couple of days ago. Nonetheless football is a cruel game and Parky, Breacker and Kinsella are now all jobless.
Who do you fancy to takeover?
UPDATE: Now official. Michael Slater: “The team has not won in the league since November and recent performances have simply not been good enough. Last night’s defeat convinced us as a board that change is required now we are still in the hunt for promotion, and that we must appoint a new manager to give us every chance of going up.”
“As the new owners, we are both football fans and businessmen. Today’s acquisition brings much-needed financial stability to the club. Our plan for Charlton is to run the club on a sensible financial footing and develop a commercial plan to ensure we make progress on and off the pitch to meet the expectations of our fans.
What we won’t do is create unrealistic pie in the sky expectations.”
Comments from new Charlton chairman Michael Slater, who is described as co-owner alongside property developer (those two words always worry me) Tony Jimenez, once of Newcastle ‘fame’. There also appears to be an unnamed 3rd party, whom I wondering maybe the money behind the transaction because I don’t think Jimenez or Slater have the funds themselves. Slater did say that Dennis Wise is not in the new owners’ plans.
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Another sleepless night. The family are ill, and the little ‘un was up all night so it gave me plenty of time to think about the impending takeover. I mean there are now only 3 shopping days to go before t-day.
So what do we think? I see Charlton Life has had a stab in the dark at potential buyers, but honestly there is not a dickie bird of gossip out there and really it could be anyone couldn’t it?
The club have been busying itself clearing the decks, we know that much. They settled with Iain Dowie before the planned date of a Premier League tribunal hearing. Shame in many ways, because how much fun would we have had finding out about all the Dowie stories?
Peter Varney has indicated that he doesn’t yet know if he will be asked to continue with the new ownership, but one would have thought he would like to. Richard Murray may well have seen his last game as owner, but most of us hope and expect him to still be involved, maybe as chairman.
Let’s be honest if someone had told me before I went to bed Wednesday night that today Richard Murray and Charlton Athletic would accept an offer from a Peter Varney led consortium to purchase and invest in the club but England would not even make the 2nd Round of the 2018 World Cup host bid then I would have been absolutely delighted.
Peter Varney is what they call in London, SE7 ‘proper Charlton.’ A lifelong fan who in the past had worked tirelessly and unselfishly for the good of the club.
There is a strange but compulsive magnetism about being a Charlton supporter. Those that live far away or those that live across the street are emotionally drawn to the club in way that only those that have been introduced or inflicted will ever understand. Simply Peter Varney is one of us, as is Richard Murray.
One hopes that Murray and Varney can overcome any recent differences and can again work together with others to take us, if not once again to the promised land, then at least on a hopeful and exciting journey.
The rollercoaster ride of being a Charlton Athletic supporter eh? Yesterday morning we awoke to news that serial football club killer Peter Risdale was bidding for the club (later denied), then early this morning BBC journalist know-it-all Dan Roan tweets that an announcement is imminent and then Richard Murray responds via the Official Site stating that nothing is imminent at all!
So what can we make of these latest developments on a saga that has been a constant in our minds for a couple of years now, and who are the key characters involved in these latest rumours.
Firstly it was the BBC’s Dan Roan who while we were up in arms about Parky, tweeted out of the blue on October 18th that news of a Charlton takeover was due soon. For a journo who from what I can see has only ever been interested in the ups and downs of Manchester United, Liverpool and England’s national team it sure was a perplexing outpouring of a maximum of 140 characters. Why us? What is his connection and frankly why does the ex-Setanta presenter give a toss?
Since the original tweet, Roan offered up a couple of more along the lines of ‘I know something you don’t but all will be revealed’ format. Er, thanks for nothing.
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Sarasota, Florida
