Dear Thomas ………………………….

Please can you let us know what is going on with our beloved football club ? I am sure most of us appreciate that you rescued the club from Matt Southall and the other ESI crooks and we know that you tried hard at the start to invest in the team and communicate with the fan base.

Football in the UK is a bottomless money pit and none of the economics below the Premiership work for anyone. UK football is also very tribal and I have no doubt that you will be fed up with some of the abuse you have received- although I can assure you that Charlton fans are at the lowest end of the nasty league.

It is entirely understandable if you are looking for investors to share the financial burden or to exit completely. All of us make investments from time to time that lose money or don’t turn out as hoped- that’s life !

The club forms an important part of our lives and for many of us over several decades, its 55 years for me since I saw my first game. Admittedly, its been a tough watch for a lot of the time , particularly the last 15 years as we’ve slipped behind other London teams like Fulham, Watford, Palace , Brentford and even Millwall all of whom, we had historically viewed as direct competitors or smaller.

Anyway, what’s my question ? ……………….

Can you please show us the respect of a direct communication to tell us what is going on at the football club and your plans for ownership because the current decline without meaningful hope is heartbreaking

Huge player investment required at Charlton

For the first time in the last 100 years Charlton will be playing a 4th consecutive season in the 3rd division.
That assumes we will scrape enough points to avoid the drop

For a London club of our size that is a disaster. The current owner has proved to be hopelessly inept and unable to invest properly in the team.
The team is clearly 2nd rate and does not look capable of competing with the teams at the top of this division. A positive result against Sheff Weds is highly unlikely.
In order to challenge next season a huge investment in playing talent will be required. With the exception of Dobson and potentially Leaburn there isn’t a single midfield or forward player who is good enough. A big clear out.will be needed in the summer and Thomas’s normal ragbag of free transfers, lower league wannabes and loan players won’t get us promoted.

The Academy is great and can be relied upon to add one or two decent first team ready prospects every year, like Ness and Leaburn but more than that is wishful thinking.

Sandgaard hasn’t got the funds to get us promoted so where is the investment going to come from ?

Charlton appoint Senior Citizen as CEO

Don’t get me wrong- I’m still working at 65 so it would be a bit hypocritical for me to criticise the appointment of septuagenarian Peter Storrie to the post of CEO but it’s not really building for the future is it ?
I guess it’s possible that Peter could be the Warren Buffett of football but given Thomas ‘ short term contract’ Sandgaard’s track record of managerial appointments he’s more likely to be Warren Buffoon although looking at his photo side on maybe Buffet is a good name for him.
The team continue to play mostly badly but are getting results so well done to Dean Holden.
Thomas Sandgaard has proved himself to be a clueless idiot when it comes to football but maybe he got lucky with Holden. The ownership circus continues with dodgy Charlie Methven out of the picture to be replaced by some new American ‘ investors’ who’ve offered Thomas more money than Methven

Meantime we have to put up with fixtures like Fleetwood and Forest Green Rovers ( whooooo?)

Thomas please give us all a break and bugger off and sell us to an owner with money and common sense and do it quickly

Andy Scott talking nonsense

https://www.charltonafc.com/news/andy-scott-reflects-transfer-window

Andy Scott seems like a knowledgeable, articulate nice guy but in this interview he talks a fair bit of nonsense.

So we got rid of lots of fringe players who weren’t playing or good enough – no argument with that, its sensible.

Apparently, we “improved”the squad with Bonne ( maybe) Penney ( not on the basis of his debut), Todd Kane ( injured on debut), Michael Hector ( 8 games played in the last 2.5 years) and Gavin Kilkenny ( 18 games in the last 2 seasons). If Kilkenny or Hector are fit enough to play, then maybe they will be an improvement.

But basically, we spent no money, reduced the wage bill significantly and probably haven’t improved the team.

If Ness, Inniss, Leaburn or Bonne get injured in the 2nd half of the season, there is no cover now and we will be in big trouble.

We limp along from one crap owner to the next with potentially yet another waiting in the wings. The team will need very heavy invesment in the summer and history suggests it won’t happen and we will remain disappointed and marooned in Div 3 or worse ……….. HELP !!!

Charlton won’t cost cut their way to success

On the positive side, I don’t think any of the players that left yesterday would be players who could get us promoted out of this division. I include O’Connell in that who we acquired from a relegated Rochdale and is a bit slow and not dominant in the air.

The obvious problem is that firstly we have to accumulate enough points to actually stay in this division, which has just become more challenging, given that any injury now to Inniss or Ness, Leaburn or Bonne will be catastrophic.

Over the years I have run bigger businesses than Sandgaard and maybe someone needs to tell him or indeed whoever he is trying to clear the decks to sell to that you don’t cost cut your way to success.

If this is genuinely a clear out and prelude to a summer of player and club investment ( The Valley is generally falling apart), then they need to tell us that, although Sandgaard has told us so many lies it will be difficult to believe anything he says.

Andy Scott for one should be hanging his head in embarrassment this morning having claimed that he had money to spend in the window and we spent nothing. I like Dean Holden, he has stopped the tippy tappy nonsense of Garner and plays 2 up front, but I hope he doesn’t come out and feel like he has to lie to us today to truly join the Charlton management team.

Does anyone know what is going on at Charlton ?

What is it about football clubs and particularly Charlton that the people who actually matter, for whom the club exists and was originally formed for. ie the paying customers or fans as they are traditionally known , have absolutely no sensible information about their football club’s ownership or future.

It is scandalous and wrong.

Is Thomas Sandgaard selling the club or not ? Charlie Methven, who has a reputation in business and football clubs as an aggressive bully says he isn’t buying the club and hasn’t got any money but has appeared at every game for the last 2 months.Who on earth is he representing ? Have they got any money,- why buy Charlton when it’s a money pit – maybe it’s a property play, but Roland owns all the property so that would be very long term and probably impossible.

The club is selling or giving away a lot of the senior players, JFC, Gilbey, Stockley, Kirk, Macgillivray and replacing them with a few short term loans. Andy Scott was supposedly on a 6 week contract to get us players, presumably his main job was to get rid rather than acquire, is he even still in the building ? As an aside Fleetwood have now acquired a decent strike pairing for this division with Stockley and Marriott- how can they afford that on crowds of 3,000. Its a mystery.

Why is the whole situation so opaque. Thomas and whoever, you might own the football club’s shares but all of you are just temporary, we are the real owners- the fans and we want to know what is going on NOW !!!!

Being a Charlton fan

Wasn’t last night just fantastic ? Its really special when we get a gathering like that together. It makes you proud and its tribal and awe inspiring.

Our end was a wall of noise from start to finish. How many rounds of Valley Floyd Road is it possible to sing in 90 minutes- plenty is the answer. I absolutely loved it and if you were there, I’m sure you did too. What we need is more nights like that. Who knows what is going on with the ownership and potential transfers but the support is there if we can improve the performances on the pitch.

I thought we played really well particularly in the 2nd half and had enough chances to get an equaliser before the 90th minute.

Dean Holden has steadied the ship and he is playing the right formation with the players he has available. Getting the ball forward quicker makes a big difference.

We need to protect The Valley

No one seems to know what exactly is going on with the ‘takeover’ bid at Charlton. However we do know that Charlie Methven and his team have signed an exclusivity clause with Sandgaard to get a deal done. This doesnt mean they will get a deal done but probably gives them until the end of Jan to complete the transaction. We know that Duchatelet wont accept anything less than £50m for The Valley and Sparrows Lane so you can be pretty sure that Methven & Co are not going to buy those.

Most of the potential buyers of Charlton including Southall before and probably Methven & Co now see it as a property play in some way to make money. Maybe they think we could ground share or build a smaller ground somewhere else. Maybe they want to plough lots of money in to get us into the Premier League – BUT I THINK THAT OPTION IS VERY UNLIKELY.

Even if a richer ‘white knight’ like Andrew Barclay arrives and acquires the Valley, when he gets fed up, he would pull the same property card as Glikstein and Duchatelet have before him.

The news this week that Rishi Sunak has signed off on the new Football Regulator role, one of whose principal jobs is to safeguard the stadia for clubs presents a fantastic new opportunity for us to lobby to render The Valley in particular of no value for development for 100 years or in perpetuity if you prefer. How this is done whether through strengthening of existing Community Value Asset rules or new legislation doesn’t matter, but until we resolve this ground separated from club issue, the future of our club will always be under threat.

We aren’t the only club where this presents a problem and it will be a populist policy to safeguard stadia in our national sport. It has the added advantage of buggering up Duchatelet and other potential scavengers and would be property developers all around the UK

This should become a Lobbying issue for CAST and all of us. Now is the time.

Is Dean Holden an idiot ?

What on earth was that starting line up ? The minute I saw the line up, I posted on Charlton Life that it was the worst I’d ever seen. The result was a forgone conclusion. I could have saved Sandgaard 2 managers salaries this season. Firstly Garner insisted on playing tippy tappy football playing across the back 4 without having the talent to do it successfully. He also played Stockley up front on his own while he waited for the ball to appear which it never did.

Now we have a bloke who realises you have to play 2 up front but plays Kanu who is not ready and Stockley who is presumably leaving and disillusioned. In the middle he plays Henry who is not good enough or not ready yet. Chin is not good enough or not ready yet. Lavelle is not good enough and has to be partnered with someone experienced, ie not Thomas returning from injury or Ness who also may not be good enough or ready yet.. Payne and Henry are not strong enough to support Dobbo.

It’s a shambles and if Holden didn’t realise that before kick off – presumably he does now.

Fantastic night at The Valley

Isn’t football great ? If I’m honest, I’ve been so fed up with Charlton recently that I only went last night because Peter Varney told us to !! What a reward I got, it was a buzzing atmosphere. Only football can take you to the (many) lows and then the highest high. Brighton are obviously a class side and the differential in class was there for all to see, but we found a way to win. Who would have thought that was possible. Wonderful stuff.

The team put in a lung busting shift and great credit must go to Anthony Hayes and Pearcey for the way they set the team up. Hayes has had great success with the younger age teams at Charlton and I think he has every chance of becoming an excellent 1st team manager in time. Obviously tippy tappy football wasnt going to work against this lot so Inniss, Lavelle and Ness defended properly and when necessary launched it into Row Z. Everyone played well but special mention goes to the youngsters. Maynard Brewer who will soon become 1st choice goalie, Ness and Chin , who defended heroically and of course Captain Fantastic, George Dobson.

They need to find a way to translate this to League form and ending tippy tappy, telling the back 4 to clear it quicker and going direct with both Leaburn and Stockley would get my vote. We are in the 3rd division not the Premier League. One sour note was the sight of Aneke limping off with what looked like a hamstring pull.What is it with him ? When the warm ups take place he hardly does a stroke either in the running or passing drills. Only the club will know his full medical issues but if ever there was a case for a static bicycle warm up on the sideline, its him.

I cant claim to be ‘in the know’ on the club’s future but I think there are some grounds for optimism. I understand there are definitely 2 parties interested and that some investment has already been made hence the appointments of Andy Scott and the COO ad CFO. Aopparently, Dean Holden was Sandgaard’s choice but he has a good reputation . Lets hope we get lucky on a new owner ( for a change)