Wednesday 26 April 2017

How much longer?

That is the question increasingly being asked by despairing Charlton fans. The lack of further news on takeover rumours begins to suggest the Aussie trail may have gone cold and if that news was a leak to leverage a deal or smoke out other interested parties, it may have failed.

This weekend Charlton fans will once again protest at the continuing slump in club fortunes and the ongoing oppression by Duchatelet and Meire at the final home game of the season against, fittingly relegated Swindon. Elsewhere, Leyton Orient, a club we have always been closer to in size and reputation than Arsenal have fallen out of the football league for the first time since we were formed in 1905 due to incompetent foreign ownership. If there is no-one ready or able to relieve us of The Belgians, I am afraid the O's are far more likely to be the route we follow than the Arse.

Sundays protest will be proportionate and well-directed as always but there is an increasingly vocal group (albeit very small) of 'anti-protestors' who, for some unfathomable reason, seem more desperate for the protests to stop than for any reason of actual support for the Belgian Regime. Frankly, I don't get it but they should be careful what they wish for - all of us would rather be supporting the club than burning resources, emotions and love for the club. This close season threatens to be another major step-backwards for the club we have all loved and, given where we already find ourselves, that would almost inevitably lead us to a new historic and future-threatening low. If the protests wane or stop altogether it won't be because of any other reason than our core support has finally fallen below critical mass to carry one out or there's basically too few supporters left attending games to care enough.

It's incredible that there is still anyone able to somehow believe that this close season will be any different to the pattern and plan of their last three. Regime talk about the long haul, commitment to learning from their continuing mistakes, supporting the manager etc is simply the line of false optimism they have to trot out to continue to justify their tenure on the club. They say it's the hope that kills you.

I pray that the protest this Sunday is hugely successful and that Meire is angered by it. I hope Duchatelet is embarrassed once again, like he should be and that our fans are fired-up once more to plan another visit to St. Truiden if necessary. Unfortunately, I can't be there until after the game as I am committed elsewhere - something I once would never have agreed to but another sign of what's happening to the club I loved so well.

"Poor-me" as a recent commenter posted on here. Poor-me indeed but I will be gone come August if they are still here, along with another tranche of supporters who have clung on thus far. That could really see us in a place where it will be more a case of "poor-you" who are still left suffering in relative silence.



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