Rightly or wrongly, possibly both, there is a lot of doom mongering here today; with some even talking about supporting over teams and relegation. In pure footballing terms that seems drastic So simply in terms of football (ie the squad available, the opposition, form and league position/make up of the table) would you swap our current position for that off 12 months ago? I'm talking the last days of Powell and post-Roland... (And we all love a poll; unless he comes from a network club on loan...)
when this total network solution was first thrust upon us i was immediately skeptical. it could have worked out, we could be top and i'd still have them doubts about this owner. i'd swap and go back to SCP. despite the unknown of "if he was backed" etc, under him at least we were part of the club. we knew the players, we trusted the manager and the owners (well, up to a point, they were at least normal). one of us better win a triple rollover on the euro millions, otherwise we're in line for years of **** being pushed at us and having the pleasure of paying for it.
While i and i think most are not happy with the appointment of Guy, talk of following another team is sad and pathetic. At the end of the day these people come and go and fans are always at the heart of the club, i have no faith in him, but i will support him as its my club. Someone said to me once: You may change your Job Car Girlfriend House But you never change your football club.
I haven't been a season ticket holder since the mid 1970's so my financial support, as a bloke on the terraces so to speak, has long since been on a match by match basis. I come up to matches from my home on the Isle of Wight as often as my finances will allow. I don't mind the expense or the duration of the journey. The club is in me and I couldn't leave it if I tried. I look forward to coming up for matches, even when the prospect is for defeat. I'm pretty much immune to that sort of disappointment by now. At this time I'm inclined to withdraw my physical support in protest at the current leadership and would encourage others to do so, not because I truly want to hurt the club but because I believe RD is only here because he thinks there is something in it for him. He doesn't give a toss about the club and he cares even less for the fans, but hurt him in the pocket or at least throw a spanner into his financial projections and he'll soon review his options. It is fervently hoped that he would quickly start looking for somebody to buy him out. Whilst a significant number of paying supporters taking this option would risk putting the club in a parlous position, I have to ask the question as to whether it is worth taking that risk to get rid of this unwanted useless man and the trollop-in-tow that is Katerin whats-'er-name. I'm rapidly starting to lean towards the view that it would be
A rather arrogant pronouncement from our new moderator. All the signs are, as I posted a year ago, and got a lot of ridicule from those who have now changed their tune, that this man is just an asset stripper, only here to extract whatever financial gain he can from the club while having some fun with his new toy on the way. He is like some nasty child who is given a valuable toy that has survived generations of use in the family and wrecks it in no time, saying "It's mine now, I can do what I like with it!". Football clubs are not like other businesses. If someone builds a business from scratch, he has the right to hire and fire staff, change the nature of the business, merge it, sell it, or close it down. If he can compete successfully in the market, good luck to him. But football clubs, as you yourself have commented in your post, are different, They have a captive clientele and a "brand" that has been built up over a hundred years. In a properly ordered society they would be constituted as trusts (and they are in some countries) so that they are preserved for their community. What would be "sad and pathetic" is our continuing to pay large sums of money into the pockets of this very rich man who treats us with total contempt and is mishandling our club recklessly. Only a boycott of season tickets and of the purchase of non-essentials like shirts with immediate effect might bring a change of course or sale of the club. It is one thing to loyally support a club being mismanaged by well-meaning fools. Something else to knowingly collaborate with an evil man bent on turning it into an empty shell devoid of character. None of us are likely to give our allegiance to a different league club the way we might start buying at a different supermarket. But many of us also support a local team at a different level without feeling disloyal to Charlton. If Dick wants to spend his time and money supporting Welling, it might actually be more beneficial for football for him to do so. The tragedy is that is has come to that.
I agree pretty much with Nosferatu's (love the icon) comment above. Roland Duchatelet is an autocratic, despotic character who has no interest in Charlton Athletic other than what he can get out of it for himself. I understand Leftbehind's notion of "My club right or wrong" and the desire to stay loyal in a time of, what is turning inexorably into another crisis is a noble, well intentioned sentiment, but also agree with B & M that there is a difference between tolerating a well meaning idiot and neglecting our duty to oppose a cynical asset stripper. Duchatelet understands only one thing: The bottom line. By withdrawing our monetary support we would send him the sort of message that we can be sure he will sit up and take notice of. Back in the 80's I ignored those who said we shouldn't go to watch Charlton play at Selhurst Park. But I'd stay away from the Valley now, and for as long as it takes, if I can believe that enough of us would do it to run a flag up the pole that the Belgian will understand. It would hurt to do it, but sometimes in football, as in life, we have to do distasteful things.
It doesn't give me any pleasure at all to withdraw my support from Charlton. In fact it hurts like Hell. But I don't know what else I can do to show my disgust at what is happening to our club. I have not changed the Club I support, even though I will be watching Welling, that is more to do with getting my Football fix. I was very supportive of Duchatelet to begin with but not anymore.
Thanks BR. So many people use a picture of a player, I thought it would be refreshing to use one of our owner.
Rather surprised at the results of this poll. Have casual voters missed that it's focused on a purely footballing perspective? The last days of Powell we were playing like a relegated team. Currently we aren't and we have a better XI to try and keep us afloat than we had at any point in last season. By the time Hednedrson returns our back first choice back four and goalkeeper is considerably stronger than last seasons. The midfield featuring Buyens, Gudmundsson and Cousins has more balance on paper. And the forwards (Watt and Igor) at least look lively; Simon Church was virtually an ever present last year... Admittedly this may all change as the morale is probably shot for Saturday and the transfer window is still open for 'strengthening' (or shuffling) the squad
I'd say that currently we ARE playing relegation football, under Bob I felt we were in freefall. Maybe you should repeat this poll in a month. Remember by that time last year we'd got rid of Kermit and Stephens.
I'm not at all surprised at the poll being in favour of Chris Powell. True we were playing poorly, but it was still our club and there was a feeling that things could only get better. Well, at least that was how I felt. Under the current regime, this is no longer our club, and is likely to become even less so as time goes on if the Autocrat has his way.... and who's to stop him..? My feeling now, is that with him here, things are more likely to get worse. You talk of this player and that player being better than what we had, and if you look at football as something that is all about team sheets and tactical formations and playing pretty triangles of passes to feet in midfield, forty yards from goal, then you may have a point. But I'm a bit old fashioned. I was brought up in football on a diet of red meat and Derek Hales. He wouldn't know a diamond formation from a dead frog, but he got a lot of goals. Now, you may argue that the game has changed and again, I would agree in some respects, but at the most basic level, it's still about heart. It's still about feeling some sort of identity with a club and fans and a place. It's still about giving a ****. Chris Powell, for all his faults as a manager, cared. Given time and backing I reckon he'd have worked it out and got it right. And those are the things that are now lacking...... are being bled out of our club. Will we become an empty vessel.... desanguinated and amounting to nothing more than a paper exercise for a fat cat Belgian industrialist and failed politician..? Is that what you want..? I don't.
This was never about Chris Powell as I think as made clear in the question in the original post. Why are most Charlton fans so hung up on him still?
Are you stoned? This is your question: Would you swap our current position for that of 12 months ago (ie the last days of Powell)? How is that "never about Powell?" I didn't often agree with Thatcher, but I did when she called referendums “a device of demagogues and dictators”. Same applies to football fans forums. You have posed a slanted question to get the answer you wanted by pointing to the low-spot of Powell's management, when all backing from management had long ceased and he must have known he was about to be made a scapegoat. No wonder he looked helpless and hangdog. Now you are sulking because we haven't voted the way we were supposed to. A fairer comparison would have been with the end of the previous season, during which he had received some, though not a lot, of backing from the owners (about the same level Peeters was getting and much less than we hope Luzon will get, and needs). Despite that limited backing we finished 9th in the table, three points off the play-offs. Once we had got back our injured players we won five and drew three of our last eight fixtures. With only modest backing the following season we would have been among the favourites for promotion, despite having one of the smallest budgets in the division. Powell wasn't perfect. He had taken time to adjust to the Championship, but he was an inexperienced manager and was learning. When he took over at Huddersfield they were sinking into the relegation spots. Now a few weeks later they are level with us on points and will be above us within a week or two. More importantly, Powell was Charlton through and through. He would always do what was best for the club, not for the owner's personal profitability. In another post someone wrote that the fans do not deserve the present situation. Well, a minority do, those that called for Powell to be sacked and were jubilant when he was, because that is when it all started to go really wrong.
I can't agree with that. As much as I defended Powell, and believe we could well have stayed up with him, it is unarguable that the decision to bring Riga in worked. Where RD went wrong was by not sticking with Riga in the Summer when pretty much every Charlton fan was happy for him to remain as manager. I also take issue with the idea that fans deserve this present situation. For one thing, Powell was not hounded out by the fans, so they had no role in him being dismissed. At times like this we need to be unified, not to be playing the blame game.
I would like to go back to the early 90s, when we had lifelong Charlton fan and complete English gentleman in charge by the name of Roger Alwen. I didn't have an ounce of side or ego about him, put his money in when we were in dire straits, and even used to pick up the phone and talk to you in person when you rang the Club (as I sometimes did...). We are absolute light years away from Roger Alwen now. People who hark on about nostalgia sadly don't understand it really WAS better in those days.
No the question was... So that's quite clear... It's no secret that I liked to critique Powell's questionable management; in fact I would have sacked him in his first season to be honest. But this was clearly a question about the team, the performances, the run in, the morale, the fixture list etc etc etc. The 'last days of Powell' doesn't have to mean THIS IS ABOUT SIR CHRIS POWELL. Sorry sycophants.
