Monthly Archives for May 2016

Charlton has lost its soul

As I was watching the wombles celebrating their victory today and in particular the players embracing the owners, directors and management as they stood on the Wembley gantry , my mind wandered as to what would the scene be in the highly unlikely event of Charlton winning a Wembley play off final next year .

The players reaching the gantry to be congratulated by exactly who ??? I think we can be sure that our insane owner will not be there . Katrien Meire and Richard Murray might be and if they are , they will be cowering and surrounded by security men protecting them from their own fans who will be chanting abuse at them. Who else is there ??? Maybe Chris Parkes & Richard Collins , at least they have been there forever . Prominent fans and ex directors like John Hayes, David White , John & Jill Humphries , Jim Davidson are all great supporters but alienated from the regime . Roger Alwen , Maurice Hatter and Michael Grade rarely attend these days .

The management and ownership  of the club is completely disengaged from all levels of its fanbase , supporters and stakeholders. There is no feeling of togetherness , there is only bitterness and acrimony.

Football is above all else a team game and success will never be achieved whilst the ownership have no understanding of how to create a team, both on and off the pitch.

 

Exclusive: Charlton owner confirmed as clinically insane

Roland Duchatelet’s comments to the Belgian press today about foreign owners not understanding local football cultures which was one of the reasons that he decided that St Trudien should remain in Belgian ownership are only predictable to Charlton fans because we all know that our owner is completely insane.

The Football League may do a financial health check on prospective owners but they obviously don’t do a mental health check which Roland Duchatelet would comprehensively fail .

Why oh why did his advisers persuade him that his first choice Crystal Palace wasn’t actually made of  crystals ?

Culture

Successful businesses have very strong positive cultures. Staff buy into a team culture where there is a vision that everyone believes in. Management’s job is to create a passionate empowering culture where there is nowhere to hide for underachievers and their is a shared responsibility for success or failure.

This is what Chris Powell , Alan  Curbishley and Lennie Lawrence did. Mike Bailey , Eddie Firmani and Andy Nelson did it for a while . We need another manager who can create that passion and shared positive culture.

It will be very difficult because our current CEO has absolutely no idea at all of how to build or manage a successful business or how to create any kind of culture other than negative and violent.

Honestly , how on earth is she still in charge ?

It really is a total disgrace to the whole Charlton community and shameful for the club.

They own it but we love it

My wife came back tonight and said this to me , she was talking about the Saxon Church in our village which the locals in our village cherish and look after but the CCT (Churches Conservation Trust) own in absentia and therefore make lots of silly decisions about its use and future.

Ring any bells with another institution that we love and someone else owns ???

Katrien’s blame game

following on from this afternoon’s blaming of the fans , Katrien followed up this evening in a talksport interview by blaming the managers ( too many in a short time) and the players ( so many moments of poor discipline amongst the players) .

Apart from us , the managers and the players , the sporting authorities, and the press , is there anyone else left to blame ?

Meire attacks Charlton fans again

You would have thought that having subjected the Charlton fan base to the torture of complete mismanagement and abject failure over the total period of her stewardship , Katrien Meire would have either resigned or been fired by now , which would have happened in any other business in the world. After all she has managed to sack 6 managers during her reign , so she definitely gets the link between failure and tenure of appointment. However , our owner Mr Duchatelet prizes loyalty and the ability to take orders over competence . Consequently , she is somehow still at the helm , portraying herself as the victim of all us nasty Charlton fans .

Rather than do something to try and repair the relationship with the fan base like hire a good manager , speak sensibly , apologise profusely  or resign with a massively humble and heart rending apologetic letter to all fans , Ms Meire has decided to follow up last months spurious linking of the hooliganism at Crystal Palace with the CARD regime , inviting a Scotland Yard investigation into the club’s own fans !! – with a further rant at a conference where Charlton were formally identified as a poorly run football club ( no S–t Sherlock , to quote Ms Meire’s expletives today ) . Ms Meire has ‘allegedly’ been the victim of criminality and she quotes the particularly dastardly deed perpetrated by the fan who resigned her from Companies House. She omits to mention that had Charlton subscribed to the on line Companies House service , this would not have been possible . I would remind you, she is a lawyer. If she has experienced criminal acts against her ( she didn’t actually tell the audience  what these were ) that is despicable and rather than asking the sports bodies to intervene , as she did today , you would think that as a lawyer , she would know that criminal acts are a matter for the police.

I am sure Ms Meire is a lovely person , very talented , personable and intelligent . I am sure that she would be a very good employee.

She is , however, a totally hopeless CEO of our football club and needs to go now.

Finally , she seems to think Charlton fans are extremists. That’s not the Charlton I have known for the last 50 years. Imagine what she would be dealing with if Roland had bought Millwall or West Ham ?

The relentless shambles at Charlton

I ran out of adjectives a long time ago to describe the incompetence of the people running Charlton football club. We endured a further example of their ineptitude today as Chris Wilder , the instantly recognisable ,  hugely famous and massively successful manager of 4th division Northampton Town turned down the opportunity to be the manager.

Here , I’ve got an idea – why don’t they just pick up the phone to that bloke who got us promoted with a record points tally from this Division last time and who got us to an FA Cup quarter final and then got sacked because the team struggled after two of its best players were sold against his wishes and he had to play Churchy and Reza up front. His name was Chris , he’s also English , he’s got a better record in football management than Chris Wilder.

No , that won’t happen , its far too easy  and sensible, much more likely that Nobby, the Serbian, is just nailed on to be the next network patsy…..

Welcome to Charlton, Chris

The  Management Structure :

Owner                 = imbecilic and in charge

Chairman            = ineffective and impotent

CEO                     = incapable and incompetent

COO                    = incoherent and incompetent

Chief Scout                            = invisible

Director of Football             = invisible

Head of Communications   = invisible

Chief Safety Officer             = invisible

Ticket Office                         = inoperable & incapacitated

Fan Base                               = incandescent

Fan’s Sofa                             = in pieces

Your Role …………………..Interim

Charlton is a cause not a football club

We haven’t been a very successful football club in the 50 years I have been going to the Valley , but supporting Charlton is tribal,  it’s in your blood , it’s who you are , it was your grandfather , your father , your aunts and uncles, it’s what you believe in, it’s not popular , it’s not for people who just see football as an expensive day out .

It’s much stronger than that – it’s a cause and these clueless incompetent Belgians are trying to take that away from us.

Lets get rid of them