Hilarious albeit predictable reaction to the ST announcement - On Into The Apologist - half a dozen on their knees thanking Duchatelet for paying for our hobby (SR’s phrase) On CARD Life - a call for a boycott...with CARD leaders no doubt taking advantage of the early bird discount offer again like RE famously did.
And too right too. It was concerning the last time I turned on the news and there was Jihadi Jacob, standing infront of his ISIL flag, specifically calling out "DEATH TO THE WEST.... OH AND CAFC!"
I have nothing new and nothing positive to say about Roland Duchatelet, so I will say nothing. But will a two-thirds empty Valley help Lee Bowyer and his men defeat Scunthorpe or Blackburn Rovers? Will that situation help our team to win games next season, whatever league we are playing in? Managers and players surely want to play in front of a big home crowd that is behind them all the way. Portsmouth for instance enjoy fantastic home support, which must have made a positive contribution to their first season back in the 3rd tier. In my opinion the politics of ownership and finance and how the Club is run have their own theatres, including forums and meetings and demonstrations. On a match-day when it's 11 men wearing our badge and our colours, I want to support them and forget about the politics. It's just how I see things now. I'm not questioning what anybody else feels is the right thing to do.
Lardi, do you think that it will be the sensible policy of any football club to try its best to attract crowds? I have never told anyone how to spend their own money, but the basic disagreement that I have with the ITTV line is that they blame the supporters for the decline in attendances. I hold the club responsible for recruitment policies which have created an unattractive product, to use business terms. Fans have varying degrees of loyalty, that's a fact of life. Some accept it, some don't. When FHB jnr was young we could only afford about the 10 cheapest home games of the season, and one game I was sitting next to another dad who did all the homes and aways. We were chatting away, but when I said I did about 10-12 games a season he said "Is that all?", turned away from me and we spoke no more. But everyone has their own priorities, and thousands have stopped attending and it's up to the club to attract them back. If Roland stays the club will continue to decline, and he will be responsible.
I'm sad to hear that another fan suddenly thought that you were not worth talking to anymore because you could not attend every game. Some fans do have the attitude that they are 'better' than other fans if they can claim that they never miss a match. When a large number of fans decide over time not to attend home games anymore, it is natural (if possibly unfair) for some of those who do still go to think of the absentees as less loyal or less worthy, and for a few that is only a short step from actually blaming them for whatever is wrong that has led to the empty seats. Loyalty and character are emotive things, and when some fans question those things in other fans offence will be taken and divisions will deepen. This intolerance and hostility from both sides of the divide is exactly what I have become so weary of. Fans don't make decisions at the Club that may lead to poor football and relegation. But fans (those who can afford to attend every home game if they wish to) do decide whether to go to games or not. In that sense the members on ITTV who blame supporters for decline in attendances are correct. It is for every individual fan to make up his/her own mind how to respond to problems at their Club. However, they cannot expect their chosen course of action not to attract the opinions or criticism of others.
A good way to attract crowds for the remaining games is for Duchatelet to **** off. Why hasn't he sold the Club yet? What is he waiting for? Of course it would be better for the players if the Valley was fuller, that is obvious. But it is this regimes fault, no one else's, that we are stuck in Division one heavily in debt with small crowds. I will not forgive or forget what Duchatelet, Meire, Keohane Murray and the rest of the poisonous regime have done to a Club I have supported all my life. They have decimated the Club. You are on the right Forum ITTV for flip flopping.
A sledgehammer awaits us, have always thought and remain convinced. Wtf is there all this messing around? Just get a contract penned saying x amount in division 3, and y amount if we get promoted. Simples. ps The sledgehammer for me is retaining control of The Valley in some way.
The one thing that we all share is a lifetime love affair with this wonderful club. Roland diminished it by using it as a pawn in his theory that he, Roland-who-doesn't-do-failure, could run a string of European clubs at a profit. His way of doing it sucked the passion out of the stadium, and changed the "matchday experience" into something alien to Charlton fans. Attendances were 100% guaranteed to fall, and they did.
Thats the 64,000 dollar question - what is Duchatelet waiting for? The truth is, nobody really knows. Not Angel Delight [who has never posted a thing about going to a Charlton match or supporting the team], not Red Henry [who I suspect is a gentle WUM of Red Faced Cos Im So Fat Henry Irving], and certainly not BexleyBoy and Rick "Done Deal" Everett. This takeover circus really has brought out the worst of the WUM's and the desperate to be seen "ITKs". Ex Director Dave White is the only poster I take seriously on the takeover on any site, he has posted that half of the 7 ex Directors owed money have NOT been approached about anything. Funny that...if you believe that DD and a serious bid really is underway.
Its still a wonderful club and its still a lifelong love affair - its just that its current chaperone is one ugly, stupid fvcker.
It must be very uncomfortable for the Mod on Charlton Life that he allowed Everett to post blatant falsehoods. But as Everett said it his customary slippery fashion to poster Andy Nelson , its only a lie when you know its false when you say it
