I have always been very critical of CAST (cardigan and sweaters together) But this time I think they have really managed to outdo themselves with their rebels without a clue campaign. It is implied by both the South London Press and the Daly Mail that their campaign will hopefully prevent investors from moving the club away from the Valley. Did they frighten the yanks away? Did the low life snake that deliberately leaked the malicious and very untrue story that staff were not being paid at cafc last week also play a part in the Sherman's getting up and calling it all off. I wonder how much our cardigan alliance have really helped cock all this up recently.
Ah well we don't know do we. Everything's a secret. It would be nice to have a straightforward statement from the owners to the mugs who pay the money to watch the ball getting wellied up the park each week,
CAST - I love it What makes me laugh are the nuclear levels of self importance on show about the ACV/ takeover. Its almost as if 1900 signatures in a Woolworth's pad made a difference to a multi million pound deal.
It is hilarious watching all these wannabe revolutionaries spitting bovril all over each other in an attempt to be the Charlton Cardigan No 1. However, if I was a investor, one of the first DD's I would undertake would be to investigate the mind-set of my customers, given that about 1900 are sartorially challenged, with severe Bovril addiction, I wouldn't worry too much, however, is it worth all the hassle of trying to win these prize plimsolls around? What I really want to see is a fight to the death between the CL and the Cast, It will be like watching sheep have a fight with a gang of hamsters, Can you actually die from being bitch slapped?
In all honesty the asset of the community thing is a red herring as it only gives an external body 6 months to buy the Valley they could not force Charlton to play their home games there. All a new owner would do is make an allowance for this six months when planning a move to a new stadium. I gather the big problem was the asking price with the Yank willing to pay £18m plus debt and the current owners wanting £30m plus debt I gather Raz from CAST and the former employee had a massive argument on CL about the late payment of wages thing.
If the owners are asking for £30M plus debt we are never going to be sold. I feel that 18M plus debt is a very good offer, especially as we are heading for the first division. I can understand that the owners want to recover what they put into the Club but 30m is totally unrealistic. The current owners cannot continue running the Club down as they are at the moment, the **** is going to hit the fan sooner rather than later. The worst case scenario would be Administration, with a deduction of points. I can't believe that the owners would want this to happen. Also the likes of Hamer, Evina, Morrison, Wiggins, Pritchard, Gower, Hollands, Jackson,Alnwick, Kermy, Stephens, Dervite, Cort, Wood, Smith plus Powell and his coaching staff could all walk in six months time, without getting a penny for them. As a fan for over 52 years, I feel very depressed with what is happening at the Club. Powell appears to be like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. His body language is very poor and he looks like a man who is heading for the gallows. I really don't know what can be done to get us out of this mess, whether a new Manager would give us a short term boost. But what Manager worth his salt would join us as we are? I think getting relegated, without new money coming into the club, would consign us to third level football for a long time. Sorry about the down nature of the post, but am not enjoying the Football at the Valley at the moment and I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Dicky-Are you kidding??!! This is the good times! Do you recall the Glikstein years? The Hulyer Months? Bernard Sunley days? I recall seeing us in the 3rd division and Les Berry was player of the year!!!! I recall the Selhurst days, the Flanagan-Hales Punch up, the winding up at the high Court, The clubbing together to buy Ronnie Moore. I remember Steve Downham FFS. just one little speed bump in the road of CAFC that's all. Steve Downham FFS!!!!!!
I remember all those times Typical and I agree that they were a lot worse, but Football for me then was all about getting tanked up with my mates and having a good time. I was one of the lads on the pitch at the Stoke game digging it up. I have seen a lot of garbage over the years including Steve Dowman, not Downham. But I feel strangely impotent about what is happening at the Club and what I can do about it.I have lost faith in the Supporters Trust, their hearts are in the right place but they represent a small percentage of Charlton fans.
We were not punching above our weight, the "little old Charlton" mentality needs to jog on. We are not Barcelona by any account, but a club does not get into the Premier League and stay there in such a controlled way for that long by punching above their weight. We were so very close to earning qualification to the Champions League, that slowly drifted away after Parker left. Had we got into the CL then who knows where we would be now? Had we somehow managed to establish ourselves as regular competitors alongside the European elite would we still be "little old Charlton"? I love this club, but we were up there because that is where we deserved to be. We played good football, and were sensible. We were the model on how to go about it the right way. Sadly Curbs went and was replaced by a complete tit and we chose to give that complete tit the transfer funds Curbs could have used to finally push us past mid table. We should not be happy in the position we are in, just because Manchester City have a long list of upset in the history books does not mean they accept mediocrity, and neither should we
Lots of teams go through dips, with the amount of teams chasing the promised land of the Premiership inclusion within it cannot be guaranteed for anybody but the chosen few (Manure, Chelski, Arse anal, Citeh)..... Leeds, Forest, Massives all consider themselves Premiership Clubs, people like Derby, Wigan, Blackburn and QPR all expect to be in the Premiership as often as not..... it comes down to the size of your wallet....... for many years now (including the present time) our wallet depends on what we can sell from the loft, I hope that does not include a certain JC this Christmas...
Wouldn't want to see JC go of course, but I reckon Poyet could step up, just as Cousins did, and if we got a proper price for him it might not be the end of the world IF the money was used to get our best players on contracts, and even add a bit of quality up front. Big if though.
Speak up, moan, vent. Do not do an Arsenal move and wait 7 years before you start actually making it known just how pissed off you are as a fanbase. If they had opened their gobs years ago they would never have lost RVP and would have signed decent players earlier than they did. If the board think they can carry on not spending money and still get no flak and praise what incentive do they have to bother? If you did sod all at work and still got paid and told you were doing great you would hardly run around putting your back out would you?