i think it's just new season excitement. i have a season ticket again (and the boy has his first) and am actually looking forward to the first games. but this does not in anyway mean i condone good health upon Roland. far from it.
The Club does bear more of a resemblance to its old self than at any time since the end of the 2013-14 season - from our point of view (on the outside looking in). But for me there is still a long way to go. What is really going on in the board room and offices behind those closed blinds is still anybody's guess. It will feel more like Charlton again once Championship status has been regained, but even then the transfer activity in the summer following promotion will allow us to tell substance from appearance. The question is - do our changes of direction since that relegation two seasons ago have us on the road back to what Charlton Athletic used to be, or are we just heading in a different unknown direction?
At least it signifies an admission of failure by Roland that his attempts to run Charlton as a Network club with a computer geek as Chief Scout are finished. The days of Network players and managers being parachuted in are gone. Roland clearly has zero interest in our club, which suggests to me that he would happily sell if the price was agreeable.
His reason for buying Charlton was to run CAFC as part of a network. He's now ditched all Belgian connections except for the CEO, He's hired an English manager who doesn't give priority to Academy products, and he didn't sack him when he had a run of poor results. And I was told by a friend of a CAFC employee in June that he was pi55ed off with Charlton, in particular the protests in Belgium. My guess is that he'll hold off selling for the time being in order to get a better price IF we go up. Just a guess.
Tbf on the pitch things are getting back to normal, BUT anything is possible with these clowns in charge.
That's right, you can't judge Roland by normal standards, he's a one-off. One thing we do know is that he likes making money (don't we all) and that we don't have another Lookman or Gomez (or Pope, JBG, THD, Fox) left to cover his losses, and he must have realised that by now. All logic says that he'd want shot of a loss-making venture he's got no interest in. BUT...as you say, anything is possible..............
there's a strange article been written by someone on the newsshopper about how roland and katrien have got it right and how they should be forgiven. i think the writer is on drugs or something. we wouldnt need a promotion winning team if the useless fools didnt get us relegated in the first place
Something feels different somewhere - but the Lookman money situation still leaves s sour taste in my mouth. I'm also not convinced the team is as good as some think, but I'm here to be proved wrong on that.
Now is naturally the time of maximum optimism. A few days to go until the new season kicks off, some new players signed up, and so far none of our best four or five from last season gone. It's looking like Charlton will do better than the nothing season of 2016-17. But I'm not expecting anything other than more disappointment. Better than 13th place after a few late results pulled us up from the fringes of a relegation scrap is not cause for celebration in my opinion. To do any worse would be a scandal, and to spend this whole season a few points and a few places better off than we were last year will be nowhere near good enough. Some good players have been signed, but do Charlton fans really believe we are on the verge of a return to the Championship? Look at the form shown by Sheffield United last season, and the runs of wins that Bolton, Bradford and Fleetwood went on. Remember the kind of football they were playing. I'm confident that Charlton will pull off some memorable wins this season. We will likely dish out some Ipswich style beatings to a few vulnerable League One opponents. But can we really win four or five league games back-to-back several times during the campaign? Go 15, 18, 20 games unbeaten? That's what it is going to take if we are aiming for one of the automatic promotion places. If we cannot do that, then it's the lottery of the play-offs if we're lucky. Now I'll take finishing 6th in the league over finishing 7th all day long, but a play-off place should not be regarded as an acceptable target before a ball has even been kicked. Has the Club done enough, invested enough during this summer transfer window to make automatic promotion a likely possibility? To strengthen our squad enough that a return to the Championship is something we can expect, rather than just hope against hope for? No. Of course not. If Charlton secure automatic promotion this season, it will be a stunning achievement for Karl Robinson - even more impressive than Chris Powell's 101 point triumph, because of the dead weight of an incompetent administration that KR is having to drag in his wake, and the deeply divided fan base. Personally I'm way past putting any faith in the current regime at CAFC. The future is something filled with their empty promises, and the past is proof of their inability to turn words into deeds. It's time to deliver now, in the present. I'll believe it when I see it, and not before.
I think the author wrote that article during injury time for the Ipswich game. It's a long season, lot's can change. But let's at least let Roland have a gut-shot. He doesn't come , clearly knows he is despused, and ant money from Lookman has gone. He has lifted two devent looking players for his preferred team in Belgium (albeit removing Tex's wages from the club- amd who agreef them Katy?). There ARE signs of a small change. If beating Ipswich actually turns out to be a sign of things to come, it'll be welcome news. But these blogs inviting champagne before we've played a single fixture? Weird!!
I'm not optimistic about the team based purely on what I saw at Welling, but I do feel optimistic that this could be the last season we start with Roland. Of course that may be wishful thinking.
I am totally drained by these Belgian pricks. I have no enthusiasm/excitement/interest in the forthcoming season, I have given up until they go. Saturday the Elf sees Welwyn Garden City v North Greenford, this I am looking forward to immensely. Along with the rest of the season non-league groundhopping.