Standard Liege | Chicago Addick

Jan 4

Finally. Good riddance

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.

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Jun 13

No end to this nightmare

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.

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Jan 18

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Will we ever learn?

Charlton have said to bid £380,000 for Standard Leige defender Jorge Teixeira according to Belgium newspaper Le Soir.

The 29 year old from Portugal who came through Sporting’s youth system is available for transfer and the more cynical amongst us would say that Roland needs to pay his old club some money as the Tony Watt transfer fee won’t be initially forthcoming.

Teixeira will be the 4th centre half that the club has signed (under three head coaches) as they attempt to find someone half as good as Michael Morrison!
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Sep 14

Travelogue – Brussels

My only ever visit to Belgium had been a day trip to Ostende to break up a drunken boys weekend in Ramsgate many moons ago. My Mum’s bucket list had for the longest time had a trip on the Eurostar listed on it, so I decided this was one she should tick off and my son and I took her to Brussels in August for an overnight trip.

The only way to get the Eurostar from their home near Eastbourne was to get up at the crack of dawn and drive the country roads to Ashford International. The one Brussels train of the day departed at 7.28am, but we hardly saw another car and took our window seats and were soon in the tunnel and on our way to Calais.

Noticeably in both directions the train was 15 minutes late arriving as it slowed through Calais due we suspected to the illegal immigration problems at the French side of the tunnel, but despite bouncing forward an hour we were in Brussels at just after 10am.
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Jun 24

Duchâtelet sells Standard Liege

Standard Liege announced that Roland Duchâtelet has sold the club today for, you’ve guessed it, an undisclosed fee. What this means for Charlton is any bodies guess.

Bruno Venanzi, who owns Belgium utility company Lampiris and is a life-long fan, has taken over Standard with immediate effect.

The Standard fans unsurprisingly are rejoicing at the sudden news of Duchâtelet’s departure, brought on if I got the translation correct of his difficult relationship with the supporters and the fact that the 68-year old is not getting any younger. “The quality of my life, my personal happiness play an important role in my life” Duchâtelet said.
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May 6

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The season in one post

9 months ago 1,600 Addicks welcomed Bob Peeters’ new look team with 7 new signings at Griffin Park, and most left with a positive feeling. It was a gritty Charlton performance that Charlton fans could relate to. Yet the biggest reservations pre-season were over the unknown head coach and the lack of obvious goals in the side. Roland Duchatelet had added some much needed quality, but on the face of it, Peeters’ squad was thin and lacking in Championship experience.

Nonetheless by the time pre-season promotion favourites Derby came to The Valley we were three games unbeaten and Peeters had warmed the Addicks’ fans with his over enthusiastic tête-à-tête with then Wigan boss Uwe Rosler the game before.

The Derby game was a little surreal if we are honest. Peeters’ passing game, still a work in progress, was some of the best I had seen for a long time, but the Valley crowd came across as unsure to what they were witnessing. However it was a great 3 points won at a spruced up Valley and with two away draws following we sat happily in 6th place at the end of the opening month. Please click for more

Mar 6

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Luzon – from Manuel to Mourinho?

I watched Guy Luzon’s press conference yesterday and noticed how he had morphed from a rabbit caught in the headlines to an assured and relaxed football head coach.

It is amazing what a couple of wins can do, good ones at that, and three in front of your own public, a public that were screaming “you don’t know what you’re doing” just a few weeks back.

The bitterness of Luzon’s arrival may still be lingering but the man himself, clearly at the first interview a combination of uneasy and unprepared, can afford to smile and he does, quite often.

Interesting also how his accent and command of the English language has gone from Manuel to Mourinho, at least in our perception anyway.
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Feb 19

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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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Feb 12

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Luzon the will to live

I have no idea if Guy Luzon is a good coach/manager or not, and I have already made my mind up that I don’t want to find out. Harsh on the Israeli I know, but when one gives up professional pride and nails their colours to a mast of a man, so clearly bonkers, then what are you to expect.

Equally there is no evidence in the month since he was been appointed that he has any man-management skills, an ounce of tactical invention or an actual game plan. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on his ludicrous rabbit in the headlights press conferences because he is not speaking in his first language.

Unfortunately in the dressing room only Tal Ben Haim speaks in the same tongue and the centre back hates him.
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Feb 4

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Duchâtelet to increase network

It really is no wonder Charlton were not within a sniff of buying a player on transfer deadline day, our industrious leader was doing something else. Not only did he replace the manager at Standard, he also entered into negotiations to buy Ligue 1 club RC Lens.

France has long been on Roland Duchâtelet list, and after a dalliance with Tours, he may well have turned his attention to Lens. Just like with Tours, it was a potential transfer target that turned the conversation onto something bigger. Duchâtelet was attempting to buy Lens’ young midfielder Wylan Cyprien for Standard, just like Andy Delort and Charlton, Standard didn’t reach agreement on Cyprien, but it now appears the Belgian may have ended up with a bigger fish.
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Feb 2

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Beyond parody

If only the makers of Spitting Image were still about, they would have an absolute field day with Roland Duchatelet and his crazy network of ~~puppets~~ characters…. actually I think I was right first time….

Is this really for real? Someone please wake me from this very strange dream I am having.

Standard, who won yesterday in an eventful game at bottom place Lierse, have already fired Guy Luzon and Duchatelet appointed his number two Ivan Vukomanovic in November.
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Jan 15

10 Comments

Penny for a Guy

He may well not turn out to be the next Alex Ferguson, but perhaps we have a budding Ronald Koeman on our hands, or Marc Wilmots, or a young Avram Grant. Hey, a young José Riga would satisfy me.

Known by Standard fans and most of the Belgium sports media as a clown, who brought some strange touch-line antics and the long ball to the Belgium’s Jupiler League that had along with the Belgium FA developed some excellent academies and talented young players in less than a decade, we will find out soon enough whether keeping Guy Luzon on the payroll was one of Roland Duchâtelet’s more insightful decisions or one of that of a madman.

The name Guy Luzon first came into our sightline when he was sacked by Standard Liege in October, and I wrote then with an element of surprise that Luzon would remain in the network.
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Oct 20

Guy Luzon to remain in network

As expected Standard’s Guy Luzon stood down as head coach this morning after the debacle of yesterday. Standard sit in the bottom half of the Jupiler League 3 points above the relegation zone. Remember Standard fans have the expectations of a Man Utd fan.

Interesting that the official Standard announcement said “Luzon is no longer head coach of Standard, but will remain active inside the network of partner clubs.” Quite what that means I am unsure.
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Oct 19

Trouble brews in Liège

Whilst Addicks grow to accept, maybe even like Roland Duchâtelet, mostly I would say due to the industry of Katrien Meire, over in Belgium sister club Standard Liege are having a few problems, and Roland is getting the blame.

Today in the Jupiler League bottom-placed Zulte Waregem, who had not won all season, went 2-0 up away at Standard Liege sparking near riots in the stands that forced the referee to abandon the match on 79 minutes, incidentally just after Standard had pulled a goal back.
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Jul 14

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George Țucudean

André Bikey-Amougou plays the ball into Reza Ghoochannejhad, who lays the ball out wide to Jóhann Berg Gudmundsson, who crosses for Igor Vetekole to head back across the goal for George Țucudean to fire home.

Who’d be a commentator eh? Poor old Peter Finch must be waking up in cold sweats!

The reliable Doctor Kish has posted that the striker Bob Peeters mysteriously talked about yesterday after losing to Welling for the first time since 2006, was George Țucudean (pronounced zz-ucu-dean).
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