Melancholy
I’m looking forward to seeing the new Back to The Valley memorial next time I’m at the ground.
CAST should take credit again for another enterprising idea which they took from blueprint to fruition.
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Oct 6
Sunday pint
It is said that in American politics voters often cast their vote based on who they’d like to share a pint with.
As it’s Sunday, I’d like to share my lunchtime pint with the brilliant Lauren Kreamer, the Addicks’ most famous barrister. She appeared on the Charlton Live podcast today and talked eloquently again of the current issues, legal and otherwise.
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More lies and BS. But, what now?
I was considering what my final thoughts were on the January transfer window following on from the speedy but worthy comments from Albury and Drinking.
It is noticeable that every player we released went to clubs below us, O’Connell to Wrexham being the oddity. They were replaced by players that have played at a higher level, ignoring whether they are anywhere near fit to play.
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Time is up for the Sandgaard’s
Time is being called on Thomas Sandgaard’s reign as Charlton’s owner. His support network diminishing rapidly as focus turns to Sandgaard and his family’s mismanagement of the football club and ill-treatment of it’s employees.
On Monday at 7pm UK time CAST are holding an online meeting with a goal of bringing the fanbase together to agree how supporters proceed from here. The Zoom call is open to all supporters and you can register here.
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Tails are up in spite of Sandgaard
I’m still pumped after Saturday. Very memorable day, even for those who attended but were on their way to their cars when Dobbo looped that header in.
Sunday’s Charlton Live is well worth a listen this week, as is the podcast Not The Top 20, who spend plenty of time in homage to the game.
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Knowing math, and knowing football
This Blog has often questioned Thomas Sandgaard’s grasp of football club ownership. It’s never questioned his intentions, his enthusiasm nor his business acumen. I would also say too much communication is far better than none at all. Thomas meet Roland.
If you listened to Zynex’s recent investor call (I did as I am a shareholder, which so far hasn’t proven to be one of my most astute investments), then Thomas can come across as a driven single minded head of a company and entrepreneur.
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Adkins Q&A
I signed up to listen to Nigel Adkins CAST Q&A yesterday. It was a fast paced 90 minutes, better than many our games this season to be fair, and I’d like to thank the Trust team for setting the whole thing up and bringing Nigel from his Hampshire country home into our computers.
Thomas Q&A
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.
Protesting Addicks occupy Valley
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.
Bring a £1 protest
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.“
Southall threatens to sue CAST
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.
The fight to save our club
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?
Marian Mihail Speaks
If you haven’t seen it click here for an interview that the good peeps at CAST had with new director Marian Mihail yesterday.
Words as Addicks know only so well are easy. It’s actions and doing rather than words that we need right now.
Sense of dread
I woke up uneasy. Feeling a sense of dread and deja vu, or whatever the Flemish equivalent is.
Yesterday was disappointing, very. Blackpool are decent but it was another missed opportunity. No win in four, and a creeping impression that we are suddenly easier to play against and we haven’t any solutions. Or goals.
Three points behind 2nd and four behind 1st as we approached the end of the January transfer window. Since then we have fallen away badly thanks to one man. The richest, most obtuse and neglectful owner in our history.
Paperwork
Duchatelet mouthpiece Lieven de Turck gave us a takeover update during the week. I don’t know about you but we have very little paper in our office, but the Aussies are cutting down trees as quick as you can say Yvonne Goolagong.
It sounds to me that this is now practically a completely different group. Anyway, fueled by Castlemaine XXXX and a lot of paper the Aussies are still hopeful. In your time Bruce, in your own time.
In the meantime there’s a game
Another crazed week at work with no respite, which at least had taken my mind of checking constantly for news of a Charlton takeover. Suddenly though we are at Friday evening with a crucial game tomorrow.
Shrewsbury have had a wonderful season, which is analyzed very well here by the CAS Trust. Paul Hurst has done superb job, and is an outstanding young manager. Last season after arriving in October the first thing he did was shore up the defence and they continue to be very frugal, especially on the road. As the Trust article says he has also dipped into the lower league and loan market very expertly.
February
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.
Lip service
Cynicism comes easy when you have been a Charlton supporter for 40 years and sadly I read this morning’s announcement of a planned meeting with fan’s representatives through a lens of mistrust. No sign of his lordship getting on the Eurostar of course, but I am sure he will send his apologies with a message to like it or lump it.
It seems strange to me that the CEO continues to avoid direct communication with the Supporter’s Trust. I know it doesn’t represent everybody, but what would? But it is the largest organised group of supporters that has over 1,000 paid up members. It will contain a broad mix of supporters and includes many bright minds that can only contribute to the future well being of the club.
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Thoughts post CAST meeting
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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Addicks fan’s public meeting to be held on Feb 18th
From the CAST website:
This meeting is intended to be an opportunity to bring together as many as possible of the various organisational, internet and publication elements of the Charlton family, as well as individual supporters, and to secure the widest possible mandate for any approach we jointly decide to adopt. We will also seek input via the CAS Trust website from those who cannot attend the meeting. Based on conclusions from the meeting, we plan to agree a unified and appropriate supporters’ response at the earliest opportunity.
The meeting will be held at The Woolwich Grand Theatre, 38 Wellington St, SE18 6PE on Wednesday 18th February at 7.30pm. The building is the old ABC cinema (which later became Flamingo’s night club). It is next to the Town Hall.
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Trust calls for fan’s public meeting
Following the rapidly worsening relationship and the continuing lack of any fan engagement by owner Roland Duchatelet and CEO Katrien Meire, the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust (CAST) have this evening issued the following statement:
“Further to the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust (CAST) statement of 14th January 2015, the CAST wrote to the club’s CEO Katrien Meire to follow up our offer to discuss the growing anxiety of supporters about the direction of the club, and how they might be better involved.
We have received a disappointing response. Whilst Ms Meire has suggested that we meet with a colleague to discuss what the club needs to do to maintain and grow the fanbase, she declined any dialogue on the vital matter of where the club is heading.
Her explanation – that she had nothing more to tell supporters regarding the direction of the club – reminds us of her words in the London Evening Standard, when she insisted that fans would just “need to accept” the owner’s way. We respectfully but strongly disagree with her. We continue to hear daily from supporters of a growing discontent at the inconsistency between the club’s words and actions, and a frustration with a lack of true engagement.
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