Friday 11 August 2017

What a load of rubbish!

So much has been said and written about Charlton Athletic's disastrous run under Roland Duchatelet that we shouldn't have to continue to suffer people getting the basic facts wrong. The latest poor Vital Charlton piece by Michael Tucker is typical.

Apart from his dream of promotion, which we all share, Michael is entitled to his opinion that the current situation mirrors that of the lows in the 70's. I would agree that they are both post-war historical lows but for completely different reasons and circumstances.

However, what really annoys me is that, once again, someone is somehow attempting to blame CARD for the current mess. Tucker says "without realising what they are doing, their actions have turned the club and the Valley back to the seventies when we suffered many stay away supporters who felt the club and team was lacking the woe (sic) factor and the attendances dropped down in figures." What a load of cobblers. CARD don't run the club and they have never organised a boycott of matches - they don't have the support for it amongst themselves, let alone the fan base.

Michael - I am not sure if you were around in the 70's but the reason gates fell away was because the club was being badly mismanaged with a lack of investment and we ended the decade by being relegated to the third tier for the second time in six years. To your point, Charlton were woeful, not it's supporters. They simply didn't want to pay to watch the drivel that was being served up.

The current mess started fairly shortly after Roland Duchatelet bought the club. It was nearly two years before CARD was formed and even later before we saw fans protesting. I think even CARD get the fact that some supporters are tired of the protests and others are happy for them to stop because the owner hasn't been persuaded to sell - CARD haven't organised a mass protest at the Valley for many months - the last was in Belgium lead by the Belgium 20 and supported by CARD.

The reason we are where we are is because of Duchatelet's failed strategy of network players, numerous consecutive naive management appointments and a completely ridiculously hopeless Chief Executive who has insulted the supporters' intelligent repeatedly to the point of no forgiveness. Performances and results haven't been good enough for three seasons and we have again suffered a humiliating relegation. CARD are not responsible for any of that. 

Everyone wants to move on this season and we are all hoping for something much better so let's stop finger-pointing and making ridiculous accusations to try and stir it. It remains to be seen whether we can make any significant improvement on the pitch this season but that's what it will take to start repairing the damage of lost supporters. Better still, if Duchatelet sells up and takes Meire with him, this club can finally move on and hundreds, if not thousands, will quickly return, even if the football isn't materially better.

9 comments:

  1. A fair number of CAFC fans don't seem to have taken to Robbo because? he's the managements man, which cannot be denied. But what's happened is all of the clubs interface with supporters is now through him. Not the CEO or the PR company. Apart from the "we now have our Charlton back" (the bloke has too much enthusiasm, lol) he's been very respectful to supporters of the club, unlike the ownership were. But some fans will never appreciate this, just as Tucker will never appreciate the damage that the owners have inflicted on our club by turning genuine supporters away, with their disrespect, dishonesty and arrogance. Tucker's comments are never replied to by anyone and I suspect many of his hits are by mistake. I often click by mistake as some ok people write well on that Vital site. Tucker on the other hand, is just an idiot who writes pretty poorly.

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  2. It's fair to say that CARD's direct action was needed at the time and has had a positive outcome in highlighting the problems. We can't say say for sure but it's a good bet that Roland's change of style has certainly been influenced partly - if not completely - by the organised protests so let's give credit where due.

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  3. Spot on Dave.
    Mr Tucker seems all too ready to forgive and forget the regime.... he's entitled to do that as I am to not do so!
    I have cancelled my subscription to Valley Gold because I want to see my money go to the long term development of youth players who will come into, and benefit in the long term, CHARLTON's first team .... not to be grateful to have the ability to see Premier league players playing in a Charlton shirt for a year or two as M/s Meire suggested I do. When she made that comment I ended my subscription.

    As a "customer" (again, her description of me and my fellow 15000 supporters) I have done as she has suggested and have removed ALL financial support from her enterprise. I have curtailed my trips to the Valley because of the dross that she and the regime have served up in the last 3 years. In addition I do not take kindly to being insulted as a 'vinegar pisser' as the owner so kindly views anyone that doesn't agree with the way he runs the club.

    Mr. Tucker may be able to forgive Meire and her boss for getting rid of Chris Powell, Yann Kermorgant, Morro and all the other players that the squad should have been built around when they took the club over but I cannot. She, and the idiot owner, have decimated my football club and nearly destroyed the ethos of the club, and I cannot, and will not, ever forget or forgive that.

    So, to the present..... As far as I'm concerned the jury is still out on Robinson. He seems to be his own man and the regime have given him latitude - but is that because they trust him or that he is now the focal point and takes attention away from themselves? Yes, he's been given free reign in the transfer market in the summer but the club are still way short of the squad size they need to make a season-long promotion attempt. At the end of the day his strings are still being held by Meire/Duchatelet although they have been loosened during the summer he is still subject to being tugged back into the regime line.

    Two games in and all is well....so far. There are 45 league games to go and the division is going to be very competitive this season.
    I will only return to fully supporting the club once this regime have sold up, packed their bags and gone back across the Channel.

    I will always support MY club - but for the foreseeable future that will be from a distance.
    People who pay good money have the right to protest against the owner of a football club - what we have seen in recent years at the Valley has been non-violent, slightly disruptive, innovative protests that have kept the problems that we see week in and week out in the public spotlight. Duchatelet and Meire have been the ones to insult us, and it is their decisions that have almost destroyed the club and taken us a whisker away from relegation last season to the fourth tier of English football for the first time.

    I reserve my right to protest as I see fit, as Mr. Tucker has the right to think that the regime are the best thing since sliced bread - I personally think that he is mis-guided, and that is my right to hold that view.
    We are all grown ups, and never ever forget, we are all "customers" and will not be "supporters" of Charlton Athletic until the regime sell up. That day cannot come a moment too soon for me - as long as it is to an individual or group who put the benefits of the club AND its supporters above all else.

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  4. Any "Charlton fan" supporting the Duchatelet regime should be given a lifetime ban when we do finally get a takeover.

    Having said that, CARD and Duchatelet are two cheeks on the same ugly backside.

    What has Rick..sorry...CARD actually achieved with one £50,000 of fans donations ?

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  5. Careful what you wish for! I suspect that no new owners would ever have invested in the academy and facilities the way that Duchalet has. Despite many many failings he will actually leave a positive legacy in that regard and a youth set up which is one the the best in the country.

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  6. Mr Tucker obviously doesn't recognise that any responsibility for damage in terms of short or long term loss of club support must entirely rest at RD's door. And that CARD and CAST etc; have just responded to the poor management that we've witnessed during RD's tenure. Maybe Mr Tucker is also a climate change denier, or a member of the flat earth society, I don't know. What I do know is.

    That on one hand, what the future holds with regards to this seasons players and performances looks very promising at this level. On the other hand, the overall strategy/ambition (the player farm) and the club's newly acquired large debts are still of major concern.

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  7. I'm glad someone has addressed this nonsense from Mr Tucker. As you say Dave, everyone is entitled to their opinion but when it is factually incorrect it becomes fabrication. In the last post of Mr Tucker's, he talks of relegation from the second tier and then RD coming in with a financial package to save us. Messrs RD and KM were the chief architects who oversaw the relegation from the second tier. I'm afraid these are just the facts that cannot be glossed over.

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  8. It's always difficult freedom of speech. I don't like Vital Charlton, never have done. It's not very well written. However neither is mine in my own opinion.

    Trouble with blogging is that it is opinionistic, and perhaps rather than writing a whole piece on somebody else's opinion, an opinion that all is rosey, for the record I don't agree with, you should have commented on their own page? Another example of what drove me away from my beloved Charlton. Internal division.

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  9. I really don't see how anyone can think the club can go forward under these parasites, and can't compare this crisis to those in the past.They simply have to get out.On a positive note the fact almost 1000 fans have travelled to Plymouth leads me to believe once they are gone we may be able to get most people back,as there must be plenty of us desperate to get back to doing what we do on a Saturday. Until then it will be the odd game at Welling work permiting.

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