Running CAFC to the budget

”Apparently in common with every other transfer window since the idiot Belgians arrived we are working hard to identify the new players who will bring success next season.  Well Karl we can tell you from bitter experience that it never happens. All of your predecessors said the same thing and got short changed. The promised players never quite arrive for a whole variety of reasons –.We always run out of time or money or both and are left woefully short”

That’s what I said in my blog last December as the January window opened. We are now 2 weeks away from the opening fixture and currently lack ( at minimum) a Goalkeeper and a Striker who is going to score some goals. You only need to compare our League One winning side strike force of Wright Phillips and Kermogant to the current strikers and you know that we are desperately short of firepower. Despite the club’s best efforts to ship out Sarr and Watt, they are still here and lets hope they can fulfil their promise but their continuing presence means that the problem is that Katrien has hit the budget for staff wages and so there is no further room.

Katrien undoubtedly runs the club to an agreed budget with Roland. Annual losses sit at around £6-7m so in order to keep the house vaguely in order a decent player gets sold – this year at some point, its likely to be Konsa for £3-4m.

The obvious problem with this strategy is that we are stuck in League One Groundhog Day – but Roland apparently isn’t that bothered about losing a couple of million a year or indeed whether we get promoted or not, but he doesn’t want to lose £5-7m. You can understand his position – but then why bother buying a football club ……………..and so it goes on and on. We seem to be stuck in this loop until he departs.

Finally – Well Done Charlton

After 3 years of driving customers away with stupid statements and half baked ideas , someone at Charlton has suddenly realised that they are important and the box of goodies which arrived with my season tickets today is an excellent innovation.

Well done to whoever came up with that idea- it is certainly a great shame that there will be fewer season tickets going out than ever since we moved back to The Valley 25 years ago , but hey these are steps in the right direction. There have been big improvements to the website and the newly launched Valley Pass which I have subscribed to. We kept Holmes and Da Silva has arrived, without getting carried away (not sure who is going to score the goals) there are grounds for some optimism.

If you are still boycotting , please reconsider and come again – its your club, not the clueless Belgians and we need you, your passion and support. They will be gone in the next 12 months or so and we can look back on them as a bad dream.

To quote a famous chef turned football Chairwoman ‘ Come on where are you , where are you – lets be aving you ‘