It is highly unlikely that Charlton will cross paths with the perfect buyer. But let's not fool ourselves into believing that Duchatelet is somehow a 'safe pair of hands' or a least worst option. Apart from paying the bills on time (a basic obligation for any business, rather than something to crow about) RD has done nothing but harm to Charlton Athletic. Competitiveness, pride, ambition to play better football - none of these most basic values mean anything to him. Look where we are today, after four years of his policies and his cronies and his regime. No chance of promotion from the third tier. No support for the first team. A nearly empty stadium with sections closed on match days. This is not safety, it is a slow death by neglect.
The name Red Bull is being bandied about in a more positive way now. Fans can see just how precarious our situation is. Our squad needs a major rebuilding operation, Roland wants the new buyer to pay for his own incompetence, although he is apparently prepared to drop his asking price from £50m. By how much we have no idea, but the idea that his loans are some sort of "friendly debt", as described on ITTV, seems ludicrous now. Common sense says the club is actually worth less now than when he bought it, due to relegation, attendances being halved, assets being sold. And Roland still has us by the throat, so expectations are dropping about what will happen after the take-over, the euphoria over Wednesday head-hunting our brilliant CEO has gone.
I think the point David Smith was making is beware a new owner who buys the club but only has 10p left after. A bit like Slater & Jiminez. There are all sorts of challenges to be faced including paying off the dead weight of the ex Directors debt. On CL they are claiming that Duchatelet paid an initial £14m for Charlton in 2014, with another £4m in add ons. We were a Championship club then with a lot of player assets. Now however ...
Pretty outrageous really for Roland to demand that any potential buyer has to pay for his destructive mismanagement, plus 3% interest. He wants to walk away from Charlton without bearing any of the financial cost of his 4 years of chaos.
Red Bull don't improve Clubs, they murder them and steal from their corpses. I won't ever support 'Red Bull London' especially if they play at the very ground which used to belong to Charlton Athletic. 'Energy drink' drug pushers can f*** off.
I felt similarly until recently. My experience at Selhurst Park was a game-changer though, and I'll be there next week too. Palace running out, being introduced to a packed stadium as "The Pride of South London", goal music, the news coming through that Millwall had won and we had lost, the feeling that we were turning into the laughing stock of South London, especially with AFC knocking us out of the cup. I'm desperate for our new owners to have ambition, not end up with someone like SISU, who have wreaked even more havoc on Coventry than Roland has on us. So I'd take Red Bull.
Not really, the guy is worth over 800m euros. If he spites us by not selling during the transfer window it will say it all...
Points taken FHB, but I am not concerned really with what Palace and Millwall are achieving. Their success has been earned by Football people at their Clubs making shrewd decisions, plus good relations with their fans who are then rightly supporting them to the hilt. I want better times for Charlton of course, and it hurts me to know even neutral folk with no reason to dislike us see CAFC as a laughing stock, a pitiable basket case. But I still don't want us to sell our souls to a Global Caffeine peddlar who just wants a London based franchise that buys trophies. Charlton Athletic is laughed at and pitied because RD has cut off our footballing nuts and turned us into a leisure centre. All I really want is our identity and our pride back as a real Football Club, lower league if need be for the present.
I’d swap places with Millwall tomorrow. Passionate & genuine manager who bleeds for the club (unlike ours) and an honest and hard working group of players (again, unlike ours) It’s not an accident that Harris outclasses the clown Gobbo every season.
Interesting post from CL. Had a chat with KR in the car park today and boy did he not hold back. According to him RD has pulled the plug on 4 players this week including Gleeson from Birmingham and Carruthers from Sheffield United, all deals agreed before hand too. KR also said that he had spoken to RD this week via phone where he called him an idiot several times, which took RD by suprise. KR was quite forthcoming with the info and didnt need any encouraging. KR also alluded that all of the squad got told before Christmas that RD was selling and since then form has dropped off. https://www.londonnewsonline.co.uk/...er-issues-off-the-field-at-charlton-athletic/
“I’ve told other clubs that we are not trading at the moment” - Gobbo Does he mean trading, or selling ?
Just saw this. Amazing 'interview'. But the sub headline of 'Robinson discovers Charlton are a basket case' rings a bit hollow as he said that about us before coming to work.
I always thought it was £14m down, £6m if we stayed up. Which we did because of the quality signed like Koc, polish Pete and Thurham.
Robinson also said the players heads have dropped since the takeover news broke (excuse), and that he wouldn’t be surprised if Ricky Holmes is now sold. If RD reads these comments, surely Gobbo is gone.
