said Jose Riga, Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon , and now Karel Fraeye.
Anyone spot the common theme ?
I guess Katrien and Karel just want to keep their jobs and get paid every month and therefore don’t want to tell the owner the truth.
I suppose that’s understandable , but depressing for the fans who know its not true.
I am all in favour of the 2% protest on Saturday and will be joining in by holding up 5 of 6 printed sheets to represent the other season ticket holders who don’t bother going now – maybe that makes 12% just where I am. I don’t think getting rid of the owner ( just yet) is likely or possibly even desirable, but I do think we should be campaigning for the replacement of the CEO.
Im not a fan of the black & white scarves idea , my team play in red & white and the idea that I should wear black & white seems a bit silly to me.
Finally to Tony Watt , from a review of the outraged comments on Twitter , I’m in the minority , but I think letting him go is the right move. He is immensely talented but he’s not a team player. There’s something else going on in his head, I remember in the league cup game this season , after we beat Dagenham 4-1 at the valley , where he scored and was generally fantastic, Luzon was trying to get a team huddle after the game and Watt deliberately walked around to every Dagenham player to slowly shake their hands just so he could irritate Luzon by making him and his teammates wait for him.
However, bearing in mind how thin the squad already is, he needs to be replaced and it would be sensible if the club told its customers that either he won’t be ( because we can’t afford it ) or he will be . – but that sort of straightforward communication is not in the current regime’s kitbag.
The main points from katrien meire’s statement to fans .
We all want to work together to make Charlton a successful club and We want to get 20,000 people watching Charlton (again) and generally increase the numbers of all sorts of disparate groups of people watching Charlton. – although I notice no mention of OAP’s , probably our biggest existing group – how about a weekly bingo after games or a beetle drive.
Not much to argue with there. I am certainly happy to give Ms Meire my pledge – if the ownership agree to put together a decent team with a nucleus of proper experienced championship players managed by someone who is appropriately qualified and experienced and they start to look like a decent team who win more games than they lose and become a team who could get to the play offs , then not only will I come happily every week ( instead of coming and often dreading it) , but I will also bring my 19,999 mates along
There – I’ve said it ……
A Personal View from Albury
Open Letter to Charlton CEO Katrien Meire
Dear Ms Meire
I am writing this letter asking you to resign your position as Chief Executive of Charlton Athletic Football Club.
When you arrived as CEO, the club was struggling through lack of funds, but it had an excellent young committed manager in Chris Powell with a core of talented, experienced players and some exciting young talent emerging. It also had a passionate and committed fan base.
Since your arrival, we have sold or given away our best players, Yann Kermogant, Dale Stephens, Michael Morrison, Rhys Wiggins, Ben Hamer, Joe Gomez and Diego Poyet nearly all of whom now play for clubs either in the Premiership or in the upper reaches of the Championship.The players that have arrived to replace them ( on whom we have incredibly spent £9million pounds !!) have been largely foreign imports with no experience of Championship football or its physical demands and have mostly failed. Over this short period, you have also presided over the dismissal of 4 team managers and have either dismissed or lost a huge range of backroom staff, many of whom had many years service to the club, Alex Dyer, Ben Roberts, Damian Matthew, Nathan Jones, Phil Chapple, Paul Hart, to name a few.
The fan base is withering before your eyes with continuing and rapid crowd decline – these are your paying customers, these are the business stakeholders who are voting with their feet. It might interest you to know that of the 11 season ticket holders who sit with me, only 1 turned up for the Sheffield Wednesday game. Obviously, the results are paramount in football and much of the disenchantment stems from that. However, club loyalty is tribal and belonging is essential and you have managed to alienate the supporter base and greatly weaken the sense of belonging through lack of sensible communication and poor decision making. The embarrassing ‘score on the pitch’ video was a particular example of poor judgement, which reflected badly on the club and your leadership.
Under any measure of organisational performance, I do not think it would be possible for you to argue that the club is successful.Having worked for many years in a series of Chief Executive positions, it has always been my understanding that the buck stops with the Chief Executive for the failure of an organisation. Furthermore, football is a particularly precarious profession to earn your living as your own swift response to failing managers clearly demonstrates.
I am sure that you have worked hard to achieve success and that your intentions are genuine but sometimes it just doesn’t work out and on this occasion you have palpably failed
The honourable and appropriate action for you to take therefore is to resign your position immediately and for the club to seek an experienced and competent replacement who has sufficient gravitas and determination to deal with the club’s absentee owner and re-establish a productive dialogue with all Charlton supporters.
Yours Sincerely
Albury Addick
Albury Addick 