I am beginning to think that it's a myth. There is a pro-Roland Forum, but the numbers on it are small, just like this forum. The biggest forum is CL, which is unanimous in wanting Roland gone. I've never read anything pro-Roland on Twitter, and I've never met a pro-Roland fan at the Valley or anywhere else. Fans who still go and support Charlton are doing so in spite of Roland, not because of him. Any time there has been a chant of "If you want them out stand up" the whole support (or what's left of it) has risen as one. The pro-Roland forum is evangelical in its support for him and the erstwhile CEO, but they are so small in number that any impression they give of a divided fan-base is far from reality.
100% Virtually everybody knows that the club has been destroyed by the Belgians. Northampton away last season had the entire support BEHIND the goal protesting for 90 minutes. That end would have been made up of attenders and non-attenders of The Valley. Simples.
That is a fair point FHB. The most damaging division between Charlton fans now may be the divide between A) those who are either still attending or will definitely return with all enthusiasm the day after Duchatelet sells... and B) Those who may have permanently lost their appetite for going to football at all - something that happens naturally for some if a Club suffers decline after many good years, but something that may have affected a much larger number of Charlton fans during the last four years, because of Duchatelet and the attitude of his offensive ex-CEO. Those dozen or so fans who actually claim they represent a 'silent' constituency of thousands more have never provided any evidence to back up those claims. We have had anecdotes about families being frightened away from the Valley by the toxic protests, and people claiming their match day experience was being spoiled. But as you point out, away from the enclosed environment of one small forum there is practically no evidence to support these anecdotes. Perhaps I am guilty of being too pessimistic about the difficulty of re-uniting our fan base once Duchatelet has gone. All Charlton fans of good character should naturally rally behind the new owners and give them every opportunity to demonstrate their good will and honest intentions. Anybody who refuses the new owners that chance may well find themselves accused of intolerance and perhaps even racism. Now wouldn't that be an irony.
Just to add - I think there be some divisions between CARD orientated protesters, and other Charlton fans who are definitely anti-RD and may even also be active protesters, but who are not keen on the way CARD has conducted its campaign. Personally I have had my differences with the way CARD has done things more than once, and I've strongly (but not abusively) criticized some of their actions. Though several times I have also voiced my support for other Coalition actions. But once the whole Duchatelet thing is over all of that will be in the past as far as I'm concerned, and never a future cause for bad feeling. What we have in common is far more important than differences from an unhappy chapter of our recent history.
These are more disagreements than the sort of division that the pro-Roland gang believe in. The support can see the effect of Roland's stewardship. A dozen or so disciples can't, or won't. That's hardly a division.
This thread has cheered me up somewhat, for which I am grateful So much about what's going in the last few weeks has been disheartening, it was beginning to feel a bit like those really bad days this time two years ago. Even though I am glad to know Duchatelet is finally going, he is making a typical drawn out mess of the whole thing and wrecking even the slim hopes we had that something good could come from this season. But reflecting that the Charlton fan base is almost certainly not as divided as I have gloomily imagined it might be has brightened my outlook a bit. Because I hardly ever visit CL I don't pick up on the overwhelming viewpoint there, or the sheer number of members who feel more or less the same way. On the other hand I have been too preoccupied with the very much smaller pro-regime forum sometimes. I only hope that out of the thousands who have not been seen at the Valley for a very long time now, nearly all will come back once the new owners take over. I hope that folks don't decide to stay away until the new regime 'proves' itself. Whoever they may be, from day one they should be given every chance to make a success of their investment with our help. The future of the Club is too important to hang back on getting behind the new board. And to see even 13,000 or 14,000 real people inside the Valley again instead of barely 7,000 will be fantastic.
the low gates and Agree with this, crowds will initially come back, but if the new owners turn out to be a case of 'more of the same' the crowds will not remain.
As soon as the club is sold I will return, although only sporadically, sadly I now work in a job which requires to work the majority of Saturdays, before I would never have agreed to a job like this but I wouldn't contribute to Roland's pocket
Simple challenge to Ivor and his mates. Start a pro regime demonstration at The Valley. If you get anywhere near the 25% turnout of the protesters who turned up in Belgium for the Unity Protest then I'll give £! to Demelza for each and every one of your group
It would be a guaranteed “Apologist No Show” Reams would only turn up if he had the chance of another free ticket. He laments that the club has no money for players - yet never puts a penny of his own cash into the club. A couple of the other Apologists - Jeddez & Canterbury spring to mind - clearly had the hots for Meire, so have also lost their reason to turn up.
What would they have emblazoned on their Banner..? Has anybody ever said anything truly positive on a football level, about this regime on that nonsensical forum?? #Selfinterest #Personalagendas
The few hard-line pro-Rolanders keep banging on about a split fan base, as though they represent a significant body of support. Even the majority on ITTV now believe it will benefit the club when Roland leaves. The number of pro-Rolanders could now be counted on one hand.
Never really thought about it before, but thinking about it I’ve never heard anyone praise Roland when around the Valley. I mean, there’s nothing to praise, but whilst hearing fans squabble about chants for “rd out” those that want them to stop aren’t defending Roland. They just want to focus on the match.
It’s only a “divided fan base” in so far as many are boycotting out of revulsion, and 90% of the rest are still attending with a nose peg on. A handful go because Charlton amounts to 100% of their social life, even if Pol Pot owned the Club. We can safely ignore the Cardiff fan
Off a message board and in the real world, we all know the score and that the Belgians have torn apart the club. Even Ivor, even Peabrain, even Bexley and even SeriouslyRidiculous.
There is one measure of the health of our football Club that is 100% reliable. Home attendance. For almost one hundred years of our history, you can tell the good times from the bad using that single statistic. Even league results and league table positions don't tell the story of how much a football Club is really connected to its community and to its supporters like home attendance does. When the Club is being run in harmony with the fans more and more will come. When those who run the Club take fans for granted, don't even listen to their concerns and don't return the respect given by life-long supporters, home attendances begin to suffer. But unlike restaurant or cinema customers, fans who stop coming to games don't switch their allegiance. They don't discard the relationship they have had with the Club all their lives. They stay away because they won't tolerate the wrong that is being done, and because their voices have been ignored. Four years ago there were 15,000+ fans regularly attending the Valley. Even after three seasons in the Third Division enough fans kept coming to see their home ground more than half full for most games. Now, even with season ticket prices slashed and the team competing for promotion back in a play-off place, there will be maybe 7,500 Charlton fans at the Valley this weekend, and to be honest probably not even that many. Thousands of seats are now roped off and abandoned to the elements. The streets which used to be packed with supporters long after a game now empty out in just a few minutes. Our songs are barely sung anymore, outside or inside the ground. The Charlton Athletic fan base is not divided. It is sending out the clearest possible message of how it feels about how the Club is being run. Just as it always has.
