I have already renewed my Season ticket as I will support Charlton whatever division we are in or how badly we are doing.I am very lucky that I am in a position where money is not a problem.But I can understand people picking and choosing the games they see,for money reasons or because we have not been playing well at home. Finally,typical your post made me laugh out loud.The hyperbole metre has gone right off the scale.
In truth the image they have used for the season ticket posters/forms this season made me laugh out loud when I first saw it - Jackson, Kermorgant, Hamer and Powell all yelling in joy. Except we haven't seen much of that this season...and all signs suggest we won't be seeing much of it next year either
What I meant was that had we sold two of our better players in the summer window (say Solly and Wiggins), we would be strong favorites for relegation now. But equally had we strengthened the team in two positions (and I am particularly thinking about LM and DM) then we would probably be in a play-off spot. (And I am not talking about wildly ambitions signings, a couple of 500,000 players might well have done the trick). The difference in quality between top and bottom in the Championship is negligible as numerous results have shown. It is more a question of who can grind our results more consistently. The same will apply in the next close season. Unfortunately it looks more likely that we will sell for a million (nett, after cheaper replacements) rather than buy for a nett million. We need a sugar daddy, but so do ninety other clubs.
Is it possible to crack the home form without spending big? If we had average home form this season (ie same as the 12th or 13th best home team), we'd be just behind Brighton on goal difference. And, if home/away form were reversed, I reckon people would be a lot more willing to renew.
There is absolutely no evidence that we are are in financial difficulties other that rumour and scaremongering from the festering t***s that masquerade as supporters on charlton life. He anyone any facts (see wikipedia for explanation) that we are in financial difficulties and not in exactly the same boat as say 88 other league clubs.
I've not heard any rumours of this nature at all. But football as a whole is struggling so it would not surprise me in the slightest.
You wouldn't believe it if I posted it anyway,Typical.The financial report and accounts would suggest we are not in a great position.Slater,by his own admission,does that count as a fact Typical?Putting in one million pound a month,which he said at a fans forum meeting.We can't carry on losing that sort of money over a long period.You don't need to be an accountant to realise that without new investment our position is becoming increasingly untenable.I am not saying we are going into Administration anytime soon as the owners obviously don't want to lose the money they have invested in the club. The information I have heard about the state of the club is not from Charlton Life.You mention about the state of the other league clubs and yes many are in dire financial straits.Some will inevitably go into Administration.Some,like Cardiff,are making larger losses than we are but are being underwritten by wealthy owners.The Premiership is still the promised land and some Championship clubs are taking real financial risks to try to get there.
As not606 knows Jimbo and I have a second club, Kilmarnock, and their manager, Kenny Shiels, said earlier this season that his remit was to get rid of the club's £4.5m debt, and any success achieved along the way was a bonus. He also said that to achieve this he would give priority to their youth products, hoping to play up to 7 home-grown players in the first team. That's what we need, or rather what we would like, a clear message from Charlton about their priorities, and how to achieve them. When Slater took over he said lessons had been learned, and the club would build success slowly, on solid foundations. Doesn't seem to have happened, has it? In spite of on-field success, the only fly in the ointment is that we save our worst performances for the home fans.
Dicky, you still have not actually stated any facts but hearsay eveidence, but according to the guardian Premier leage Clubs lost 364 million last season and Man City accounted for about 100 million. Are they in finiancial difficulties? or Chelsea? Charlton have alwys had money problems!!! Rather than concentrate on the fish look at the river. Just because we are lsoing money does not indicate the epocalypse. Dont matter how much your buddies over on CL want you to believe their nonsense, the club is the same as everyone else. Go and check out for yourself how many PL and League clubs made an operating profit last season ansd when you do check out which club bought 17 players in. .
Chelsea and Man City is a spurious argument because they are being funded by people who are underwriting any losses.We do not have an Abramovich or an oil tycoon.Slater putting in one million pound a month is not hearsay it is fact.Our report and accounts say we made an operating loss of nearly 8 million,that is not hearsay it is fact.We do not know what losses the other Company made because they are registered in Switzerland.The information that I have received is not from My friends in Charlton Life,by the way I have never met anybody on Charlton Life.My contacts are very good ones and I am not going to give chapter and verse on a football forum. Ask yourself why we only brought in Wilson and Button for money.When we had a number of other signings lined up that had to be pulled.You mention the 17 signings that were brought in,this was subsidised by the sale of Jenkinson and the money put in by Cash.You say that Charlton have always lost money and that is true.Murray stated at the last AGM that Charlton,without new investors,would not be able to continue.So we owe a great deal of gratitude to Jiminez and Slater.
If we are in the poo (which i think we are to be honest) or not, my only gripe is having to listen to all of this tosh being thrown around by people who know nothing of the goings on in the boardroom. What i want is a clear and honest announcement from the board so us fans know where our club stands. I am only 22, but i have had a season ticket for over 13 years. I have paid for it myself since i was 16 and that is not easy when you cant work for health reasons. We all come from different backgrounds and have different sized pockets, but we are ALL Charlton fans, and we deserve the truth because quite honestly this bickering amongst us and those on CL is getting on my t*ts. I would happily skint myself out for months to support the club week in week out, but to be honest i just cannot stomach the mystery surrounding our future and i think it is only fair the board let us fans know exactly what is going on at OUR club
Absolutely agree with both these posts. The Doctor talks about speaking to "The Powers That Be" in the summer about new recruits, which hardly suggests a good working relationship between manager and chairman of the Curbs/Murray type. So if the manager is in the dark what chance have we got?
Back on topic- I think you're right FHB. It's not a warm statement regarding a working relationship as he would often refer to slater as "my chairman" in th past. It suggests their are too many cooks in the kitchen IMO.
In fairness though... He wanted BWP gone, he wanted Obika and Gower in. And he got it. From the outside I still maintain that everything looks fine. I know there have been rumblings over his Chrissy's contract not yet being renewed. I think that's possibly because he hasn't earnt it just yet.
RE his contract, what concerns me is that discussions were held in the summer. Now I've heard zilch good or bad about that since. But both parties may well have wanted to see how we adapted to life in the championship. I'm not overly concerned. As I said, show me a club who isn't losing money. We aren't jeopardising our future like other clubs by signing players that we cannot afford
I see the OS is advertising 2 new positions in running the Academy, which is quite a positive signal as to the future direction of the club.
CP may simply be having to wait to see what sort of budget he's got for players. That intimates nothing about a relationship (good or bad) between the people concerned, just prudence about sales of players, money availible and what league we'll be playing in next season (hurts to be writing that at this stage of the season!) All we're hearing is rumours, but that's what you get with modern businesses, they're not going to tell all the details to what are, let's be honest, the consumers, any more than McDonalds or HMV would. The youth academy is something I've wanted to see working for years, and it's painfull to see players we've let drift out of the club performing on a higher level tahn we ourselves do, but thenm fans are'nt always patient, and demanding success is part and parcel of the game, though perhaps less so at the Valley. There's a lot of rumours floating around at the minute, most of them not good, so I think the financial difficulty thing may well be true, but lots of clubs survive on a shoestring, so maybe we'll have to adapt too. All a bit worrying at the moment.
