Richard Murray joins Blogging Community

The rewards for Bloggers are few and far between; some personal satisfaction and occasionally an encouraging comment in terms of feedback. So it was great to be invited along to a "Bloggers Night" with Richard Murray yesterday. Over the years I have heard Richard at several largish supporter gatherings. He has always come across as open, honest and engaging, although understandably coy on occasions about what he can and can't say (the club's a plc and personnel information can't be shared etc).

Last night was similar, although the audience was smaller (12/13) and I thought he was more open and frank than I have heard before. He spoke with us for the best part of two hours and whilst he couldn't be specific on current player information, he answered pretty-much everything else we put to him. Whilst I don't believe he actually reads any of the Charlton blogs (Charlton Life excepted), he acknowledged the role they play in communicating with supporters and is keen to increase the two-way flow information via supporter blogs. There is a lot to cover and I won't do it all here and now; the other Bloggers in attendance will no doubt present a fuller picture, so I will focus on the main things I learnt.

First, I felt Richard sounded weary and is clearly carrying the burden of responsibility since exiting the Premier League. He outlined the need to find £20m of additional funding to help steady the ship and ensure we can survive and hopefully get back into the Premier League. The Directors (and other wealthy supporters) have raised £15m but we need the other £5m. He was at pains to point out the huge loss to the club of Peter Varney and paid him significant tribute. It was hard to escape the fact that Richard will miss his presence and maybe views his departure as the end of a golden era in the management of the club, although he didn't say as much. He sees himself, and the other Directors, as "baton carriers" and would be prepared to move aside if a significant and worthy purchaser appeared. AEG (the Dome owners) would represent such a potential buyer but there is no truth in the recent press speculation and that story was actually a year old.

To balance the comments about Peter Varney, Richard was keen to point out that Steve Waggott got the Chief Exec job on merit and beat off two other current football club Chief Execs at interview. The size of the task Waggott inherits means that he will likely share part of his responsibilities with a, to-be-appointed, deputy.

The £5m financial imperative means we will be "net sellers" this summer. Our squad is large and needs trimming. It probably didn't help us last season (too much choice) and the plan with Pards this year is to get two senior pros per position plus some squad youngsters. Therefore he thinks we will lose "five or six and sign three or four." On top of the five that we have already released, that's pretty much in line with my view that we needed to move ten out and get four in.

He has a strong view of the current health of English football and was keen to emphasize the threat to the game of the Big Four. The clamour to break into the Big Four in the last few seasons has seen a number of clubs spend huge sums of money without success and he believes this is beginning to send a message to potential investors and even oligarchs, that they are probably wasting their time and almost certainly their money. Aston Villa, Man City, Spurs and West Ham were cited and one or more of these clubs might be feeling the heat of financial over-commitment. On the back of this, Richard believes the case for reform is strong and is likely, particularly if it spreads the right sums of money down the leagues. If this happened and the elite did get more involved in a European competition, he could see the Championship title becoming much more attractive as the leading English domestic competition and went as far to say that a number of the smaller Premier League clubs might choose to be included if the rewards were stronger than today.

Looking forward he expects competition between 8 clubs this year as far as spending and challenging for the Championship are concerned and we are very much one of those. He is confident Alan Pardew will get us closer this year.

On another positive final note, Tom Harvey, who manages the club website , was also present and he informed us that season ticket sales are close to 12,500. This is very encouraging bearing in mind there was no early incentive this year and there will likely be several thousand more prior to the 1st August deadline for freebies in 09-10 if we are in the top flight.