If you pop your head over the parapet you get shot at. When Rick brought out the megaphone and took over the protests he was putting himself in the firing line. Threatening to "make the club unmanageable" on live radio was a silly bit of bragging. I don't know or care about his agenda, but I wouldn't go out of my way to defend him. I quite like VOTV btw.
The West Stand car park protests were building up real momentum until Everitt barged in & tried to take control. Will never forget him with that megaphone
Thanks chippy, and apologies if I sounded too hostile. I cannot deny that we are too divided, which is a terrible pity. One of the problems I think is that the Club has been suffering a longer term decline, ever since Curbishley left. After several poor seasons and three years in League One, it looked as if the Club's fortunes were finally turning around after Chris Powell got us back into the Championship. For two consecutive seasons our attendance rose rather than fell. But unfortunately the 2013-14 season was going wrong on the pitch as well as off it when Duchatelet bought CAFC. I have never claimed that all of our current troubles can be laid at RD's door. But at first he seemed to offer so much potential for stability and gradual recovery, despite all the unwanted association with playing second fiddle to Standard Liege. He is easily the wealthiest owner in our history, but he is also the least interested and the least knowledgeable about the ways of the EFL. And frankly, he has treated fans with contempt from day 1. Personally I have tried not to become too much part of one single camp, as fan groups have split apart. I find all the sniping between the competing forums very frustrating sometimes. It is regrettable that so many of us seem to despise each other more than we object to Duchatelet.
Whatever the rights and wrongs, Rick is and always will be a divisive figure. IMO he has been psychologically damaged by his sacking by the club for Gross Misconduct. He talks at people, not to them, and tends to surround himself only with what could politely be described as the meek & the mild. He is also a hypocrite - remember 2 years ago he urged at ST boycott - then it emerged he had already renewed his 3 to qualify for the early discount.
People are passionate - some express themselves in the right way, some not. I'm not sure where Rick sits within that analogy. He clearly loves Charlton but some of his methods are questionable - but before you jump the gun to defend him, I'm sure he knows that himself. He's played the journalistic and political game, he wouldn't have been able to had he not have that ''divisive'' personality, but you make it sound like he's a victim elfs. He's not. He's climbed over people to get... well, to where he is minus a full time job now. An example is that he clearly wanted Waggotts job, and got the fans to turn on him by providing a bogus annual salary on another forum. So please, before we get emotional about people not adhering to his rules, lets look at the bigger picture. P.S Nick makes a valid point about being scarred. Think there is credence in that.
We're bound to have disagreements on Not606, we don't have a party line like CL or ITTV. The most pathetic example was when Coventry announced a boycott for the Charlton match, and all the REams accolytes rushed to their keyboards to say "I'm going to this match!"
I am sensing that my trying to pour oil on troubled waters isn't going to help. I love reading your spats but when you look how many threads are anti this group or anti that group it does reflect prroly on all of you. You need to stop squabbling with each other. Two camps is bad enough but you guys seem to have at least five camps with your own agendas. ITTV, CAST.CARD, VALIANTS and NOT606ers
All a bit People's Front of Judea, is it not. Don't forget B20. I've supported CARD's protests except for the silly wee taxis, I'm a member of CAST, and went to B20's Belgium protest. I'm against the pro-Roland splinter groups though.
Nice attempt but my feel is it really isn't quite as bad as it looks. There is a small group on ITTV who loathe CARD, CAST and anyone except the other posters on there, but even ITTV has a vocal group who are fairly anti Roland (the last few months results have probably fired this up). Then there is the SE7 Valiants group, which are to be cheerfully compared to the flat earth society (and sorry to say Chippy that simply by reading threads on here means you are already banned there and probably despised too!), but we are talking about a handfull of nutters who have been reduced to hiding every trace of their group and it's opinions because of the hilarity it provokes every time their quotes get aired. Then there's the rest, ourselves, CL, WAR, CARD and various bloggers who tend to be very anti regime. The actual crowd in the stadium may be a different variant, but really, the same sort of numbers go on there. And you have to admit, while it's dangerous to be pro CARD or protest on there, the forum with both sides posting is ITTV.