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Fill the Valley initiatve

Discussion in 'Charlton' started by lardiman, Nov 12, 2021.

  1. Butterfield

    Butterfield Well-Known Member

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  2. The Penguin

    The Penguin Well-Known Member

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    Great thread by Lauren :emoticon-0152-heart<applause><applause><applause>
     
    #22
  3. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    It is now fairly clear that Thomas Sandgaard does not want to listen to Charlton supporters or learn from them.
    He wants to do things his way.
    But the evidence shows his way is not leading to success or progress.
    Neither does he seem to be learning from his mistakes.
    I've supported him as best I can, but I have to conclude now that - despite everything he did to save the Club from Southall, Elliott and Farnell - Thomas Sandgaard is not a good steward of CAFC.

    That's not to say I want him gone.
    Because in my opinion there is a situation at Charlton Athletic that surpasses the quality of stewardship of the current owner of the Club.
    The separation of CAFC from the Valley and all its other material assets.

    As long as the Club has nothing to its name except the squad (which is worth in total maybe only two or three million pounds) CAFC has no long term future. It is living on borrowed time, and is on a one-way street to dissolution.

    As far as I'm aware Thomas Sandgaard is engaged in a process of buying back the Valley from its Landlord.
    Unless somebody can prove to me it isn't true, I will continue to believe that process is the single most important thing that is happening to Charlton Athletic over the next several years, however long it takes to complete.
    It's more important to me than short term success. More important than promotion, or good football, or good stewardship for that matter.

    And while that process goes on, stability is vital.
    Anything that disrupts that process of buying the Valley back - buying Charlton's long term future and security back - is playing with fire.
    In my view attempts to force TS out of the Club now is taking an extreme risk.
    There is no guarantee that any potential future owner will continue efforts to buy the assets of Charlton Athletic back. Or that their current owner would be interested in continuing that process either.

    We have no long term future as tenants, or if we actually become homeless.
    Everything that Charlton fans fought to make happen during the late 1980s will have been undone.
    That is the threat that hangs over the Club now, and every day until it owns its home stadium again.

    So the question is fellow Charlton supporters;
    Are you going to continue to help the Club you love survive these dark years, so it might have a better future for young generations to come can enjoy?
    Or are you going to turn your backs and walk away now.
     
    #23
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2022
  4. Ken Shabby

    Ken Shabby Well-Known Member

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    Like @lardiman I don't want another new owner with the obvious risk that there are a lot of spivs and sharks out there (although the lack of assets may prove beneficial in that there is so little to steal), but we seem to have returned to a Duchatalet ownership, where the fans are taken for granted, and on the basis of a fairly cheap cost cutting, experienced staff are shown the door, and the Sandgaard family are running things their way. Now that is all well and good as they paid for it, but as with the Katrien saga, we find ourselves midtable in league 1, with dwindling attendances, very high prices, and a management team who have swung like Liz Truss, from practically throwing tickets at fans to fill the stadium, to putting the prices well above the 'product' they want to sell, at a time when belts are going to need to be tightened.
    I've generally backed a sound stewardship based on trying to limit spending to a reasonable limit, but if the idea is to run the club on the money generated by ticket sales, we are going to have to let a lot of players go in january and bring in part timers. And play winter games at midday to avoid using the floodlights. Thomas needs to have a think about how he wants to run the club, and he needs backers as his current mode is unsustainable, Fans won't come indefinately to see a middling league 1 club, and less when times are hard and prices high. Lauren Kreamer nailed it with her post. Running the business on a shoestring isn't going to work. And blaming the fans for not coming through the door isn't going to motivate them to do so either. Thomas needs to thing about what the team needs and try to provide it, If he can't look around for other investors, and work with them, and get some of the experience that the club has among the staff (and sadly lots of ex staff) to help out.
     
    #24
    Dick Plumb1 and lardiman like this.
  5. Dick Plumb1

    Dick Plumb1 Well-Known Member

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    An excellent post and I agree. I think the scales are falling from a lot of Charlton fans eyes. I feel if we want to progress the Club, Sandgaard is not the man to do it. There is not a cat in Hells chance that he will be buying the Valley and the training ground.
     
    #25
  6. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    If Sandgaard is not buying the Valley back then I think it is very likely Charlton Athletic are not just in decline. We are going to the wall.
    We'll be lucky to get to the end of this season, and it will be a miracle if we survive to the end of the 2023-24 campaign.

    The only thing that can save us is a huge amount of money.
    Somebody willing to pour around £50 million in, just for starters.

    I believe it is extremely unlikely that anybody will step up and do that.
    Much more likely is another ESI scenario - a bunch of chancers and crooks who make a few big promises, take over and then suck out the little bit of life that still remains in our poor old Club (fire-sale of players, then expulsion and insolvency).
    And equally likely I think is we won't even have to go through another year of ESI style agony.
    TS will cut his losses and walk away, and the gates will simply be padlocked.

    If there is no buyback process going on I really believe CAFC now has only months left to it.
     
    #26

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