Rick Everitt has been sacked by E mail from Protheroe. Thanks Rick for all you have done for Charlton through the years.You will be sorely missed.
Whether he pressed the self-destruct button or not, no-one deserves to be dismissed by e-mail. Bad manners, bad management, bad PR.
Whether he deserved the sack or not (we do not know all the facts) I agree with Tweaks that somebody senior at the Club should have been man enough to tell him the news 'face-to-face' Sacking somebody by e-mail shows lack of class!
Agreed with TA and AHLL. Unrelated to this thread, but i've emailed my interest in joining the supporters trust.
I'd never go on the forums and post things like he did...... I appreciate all he did for the club but that does not excuse his postings. The man is not a god.
On his CL statement - he says that Peter Varney and Steve Kavanagh were dismissed? Anyone have any insight on that?
I've been told something about kav, not familiar with varney. If that is the case then PV hasn't let on. I'm in no way happy that everitt has left, but I think it's a just decision. Not just because of his pre season postings, but over the last few years in general. I do find it ironic when he points out his displeasure about being dismissed by email, yet he used the Internet to the detriment of others in the past.
A possible take on the Paul Elliot and Rick Everit situation by Dr Kish; http://www.cafcpicks.com/cgi-bin/drkish/display.pl?month=201210&date=20121015&time=2032
http://addickschampionshipdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/elliott-move-tokenism.html?m=1 RE Elliot- Wyn grant has it pretty much nailed on. Lewis sensationalised a story and jumped the gun. The timings are coincidence.
Whatever the ins and outs of this, I don't think he should have been sacked by email, regardless of what he did or didn't do on internet forums. As for whether I agree with the sacking or not, I don't know the exact reason as to why he was sacked, so I can only go by the comment that he posted on CharltonLife under a name that everyone knew was him. "Personally as of today I would be happy to start and end the season with the current manager, the current squad and finish 21st. However, that isn't living within our means, it will require funding" There could have been many other reasons for his sacking, but on the assumption that this was the reason, or a major part of it, here are my thoughts. I don't know all the ins and outs of the board, Everitt and the club's finances. I don't know for sure what the board's motivations are, and in the absence of damning evidence, maybe I am being generous to them, but there you go. At the time, I think I was a bit harsher to Everitt. I still wouldn't do what he did, and wouldn't even consider it. If it was any industry other than football, I think everyone would understand that divulging negative financial information about your own company leaves you in a difficult position. However, when I read the sentence now, all I see is frustration. A frustrated football fan more so than a frustrated employee. And football fans are very fond of demanding other people spend their money. The consensus on CL seems to be that it's over the top to sack an employee because of the above statement. They say that no opposition club or buyer will be scouring the forums before they decide to spend money on the club, and all that Everitt was doing was passing over some information about the club's stability to worried fans. Recent news contradicts that, in my opinion anyway. The Duncan Jenkins story shows that social media and forums are having a serious impact on how clubs do their business. For the full story, read this http://duncanjenkins.blogspot.co.uk/ . If you're happy to skip to the summary, the issue is that a Liverpool fan created a twitter account as a fictional character, Duncan Jenkins, a wanabe sports journalist. He posted rumours about transfers based on what other news outlets were reporting, with no inside information whatsoever. He was hunted down by Liverpool FC and threatened that he and his mate would have their season ticket taken away because their actions were sabotaging Liverpool. The most important accusation for this discussion is that Duncan Jenkins' tweet saying that Liverpool were signing Borini added £300k to his price. Liverpool have been seriously (and rightly) criticised for their over the top attack on the man behind Jenkins, but if there is something in the Borini story, then this could have some answers regarding Everitt. Everitt's comments - under a pseudonym that everyone knew was him - were always going to have serious implications for Charlton as a club and company. It's thrown weight behind the moves to set up a Trust (some of whose members, albeit not at the Trust's direction, have been spamming the club's FB and Twitter feeds) to 'save' the club, and it has fed into a Trust v Club debate, especially on CL. There were many many rumours going around through the summer about players being sold. Solly, Wagstaff and Kermorgant were definitely rumoured to be leaving, and negotiations were very close to a deal on Stephens. If a tweet saying Borini will sign for Liverpool adds £300k to his price, then a forum message saying Charlton are in serious financial trouble would knock several hundreds of thousands off the prices for these players. Lots of rumours also that the financial backers had pulled out of the club in March and the club was desperately looking for funding, as Everitt says in his post. Again, his message would have serious implications for those looking to find backers. At the very least, it would change the negotiating position, and they would have to give away more than planned to get the funding. At worst, it would end negotiations straightaway. So why do I criticise Liverpool for their handling of the Jenkins thing but sympathise with Charlton on Everitt? The most important part of it is identity. Duncan Jenkins was a fictional character, with no inside information. It's bizarre that his tweets could have any impact on Liverpool's or Roma's negotiations. Airman Brown/Rick Everitt is not fictional, and is known to anyone with even a casual following of CharltonLife to be a senior employee of the club. If a pretend person's internet ramblings can have such a big impact on Liverpool, just think of how much an actual employee's post on the club's biggest forum could have. It would be much more damaging to the club's negotiating position. Some might say well if all that is true, then it means we got to keep Solly, Stephens and Kermorgant, so all good right? Well, maybe, but only for a short time, and at what cost? Will the club get the same low offers again in January or next summer, or will they be able to shrug off the rumours of financial trouble? Maybe, but maybe not. If (combining both rumours) the sales were planned to cover a funding shortfall, what has been used to plug that gap, and what will the implications be for the future? Everitt has decided to put himself alongside Kavanagh and Varney. I don't recall either of those two passing on negative information about the club, at least not so loudly, even after they've left. I think his frustrations got the better of him, and that has in turn done damage to the club's efforts. I think his post on Charlton Life would be a sackable offence in many companies, so I understand if this is why the club has made the decision. As I said, I don't know if this is the reason they gave. Sorry for the long ramble
Very interesting post, IA, you've got more patience than me. I know that more than one poster on not606 has at one time or another had inside information which they would not dream of posting on'ere.
Very good post IA, somebody posting that they have a source in the club who says "....... blah blah blah ......." is one thing BUT a known senior employee at the club posting that the club would fail in 4 weeks or whatever he said (Chrissy about to resign.... etc) is another thing altogether! I do know that the Club has very strong evidence against him so he is unable to claim that he is not 'Airman Brown' but it will be interesting to see if he goes to an Employment Tribuneral. Linking himself to Reg and SK seems like clutching at straws if you ask me. I wonder if Rick will seek a senior position in the Supporters Trust?
I Second Billy in that it was a interesting post. Without going in to much detail, I often take to forums to search information when carrying out research. I think most companies do. Forums, Facebook, twitter - you name it. Whether that post was the case, we don't know. But the longevity of their investigation suggests there was more.
AllHell, since he announced the sacking as Airman Brown, and then went on to accept credit for various initiatives as Airman Brown, and doesn't seem to have denied anything about the serious post, I don't think he can claim that it was someone else. I don't know if anyone remembers what Airman Brown had to say during the last crisis at the club, after relegation from the Championship. I don't remember, but thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone remembers if he was talking or if he went silent then. The rumours at that time were even worse than the rumours now.
IA that was AFTER the sacking was confirmed, before it was confirmed Airman did not post on CL at all. It was only after the Club had actual proof, that RE was Airman, that they could take action against him. Remember that Richard Murray was Chairman when we were relegated from the Championship. I think he gave RE a lot of slack which was stopped when the new owners took charge.
