After the petty vandalism this weekend at a number of Roland's properties this weekend, Roland Duchatelet was again given air time by Jim White on Talksport yesterday.
I have to say I missed the broadcast (transcript here courtesy of VOTV) but the feedback from those who did hear it has been unanimous in terms of the continuing fool Duchatelet appears to make of himself in these interviews. Jim White again failed to hold him to account properly but Talksport commentator Simon Jordan got properly stuck in by asking all the pertinent questions and not accepting wishy-washy answers.
Jordan has rightly been vilified by Charlton fans in the long past but fair to say he always had his own side to those issues which we have largely chosen to ignore because of the Charlton side to them and the fact he was the Palace owner and a bit of prick at the time with his flouncy haircuts and permatan. Iain Dowie did the dirty when escaping his contract to join us and even the spat with Richard Murray after Palace were relegated in the Charlton boardroom didn't reflect 100% well on Murray however much we enjoyed it at the time. Time too hasn't helped Dowie or Murray since as the reputations of both have now put them in the sort of space previously reserved for the likes of Jordan.
I should say that this isn't the first time Simon Jordan has spoken out and with conviction about Duchatelet's ownership of Charlton Athletic. This time, however, he seemed determine to challenge Duchatelet on his repetitive list of excuses for the failure of his ownership by blaming pretty much everyone else - the club's employees, the disgruntled ex-employees, the protesting supporters etc. He did manage to say that he could only spend 2% of his time on running Charlton and that it was a mistake for foreigners to buy English clubs, although he failed to spot the irony of mentioning both of these things in his defence.
He went on to say that the club was still for sale but intimated there were no active negotiations which was interesting given De Turck's gilding of the lily at his most recent Fans Forum meeting where there appeared to be five interested parties still in the hunt, two potentially closing in. Jordan asked him outright how much he wanted for the club and Duchatelet said he was selling the club for nothing but wanted to covered land and assets. Again Jordan asked him "how much?" Duchatelet was clearly caught off-guard and fell back on confidentiality as an excuse not to mention a figure but if it's land and assets you have to wonder how contentious that could be. You get several valuations that gives you a range and go from there. Only an unwillingness to accept the range of values and to insist on a much higher figure could possibly explain the repetitive failure to conclude a deal - and that's where the balance of opinion sits - Duchatelet simply wants too much money for the club. Alex McLeish said exactly this nearly a year ago when the consortium he was doing due diligence pulled out. The Aussies were also close but never crossed the line having apparently agree a price. A recently interested party withdrew their interest after apparently being told Duchatelet was looking for a price in the £70 millions!
The summary from yesterday was that Duchatelet laid himself open on a number of fronts which he can picked up on going forward and that Simon Jordan (who owes us nothing) has clearly been paying attention (much more than Jim White) and has a very good view on Duchatelet's shortcomings as an owner and has been prepared to call him out. Who would have though that a former Palace owner would do this or that it would be the Orange-one who did it. Respect from me Simon.
I have to say I missed the broadcast (transcript here courtesy of VOTV) but the feedback from those who did hear it has been unanimous in terms of the continuing fool Duchatelet appears to make of himself in these interviews. Jim White again failed to hold him to account properly but Talksport commentator Simon Jordan got properly stuck in by asking all the pertinent questions and not accepting wishy-washy answers.
Jordan has rightly been vilified by Charlton fans in the long past but fair to say he always had his own side to those issues which we have largely chosen to ignore because of the Charlton side to them and the fact he was the Palace owner and a bit of prick at the time with his flouncy haircuts and permatan. Iain Dowie did the dirty when escaping his contract to join us and even the spat with Richard Murray after Palace were relegated in the Charlton boardroom didn't reflect 100% well on Murray however much we enjoyed it at the time. Time too hasn't helped Dowie or Murray since as the reputations of both have now put them in the sort of space previously reserved for the likes of Jordan.
I should say that this isn't the first time Simon Jordan has spoken out and with conviction about Duchatelet's ownership of Charlton Athletic. This time, however, he seemed determine to challenge Duchatelet on his repetitive list of excuses for the failure of his ownership by blaming pretty much everyone else - the club's employees, the disgruntled ex-employees, the protesting supporters etc. He did manage to say that he could only spend 2% of his time on running Charlton and that it was a mistake for foreigners to buy English clubs, although he failed to spot the irony of mentioning both of these things in his defence.
He went on to say that the club was still for sale but intimated there were no active negotiations which was interesting given De Turck's gilding of the lily at his most recent Fans Forum meeting where there appeared to be five interested parties still in the hunt, two potentially closing in. Jordan asked him outright how much he wanted for the club and Duchatelet said he was selling the club for nothing but wanted to covered land and assets. Again Jordan asked him "how much?" Duchatelet was clearly caught off-guard and fell back on confidentiality as an excuse not to mention a figure but if it's land and assets you have to wonder how contentious that could be. You get several valuations that gives you a range and go from there. Only an unwillingness to accept the range of values and to insist on a much higher figure could possibly explain the repetitive failure to conclude a deal - and that's where the balance of opinion sits - Duchatelet simply wants too much money for the club. Alex McLeish said exactly this nearly a year ago when the consortium he was doing due diligence pulled out. The Aussies were also close but never crossed the line having apparently agree a price. A recently interested party withdrew their interest after apparently being told Duchatelet was looking for a price in the £70 millions!
The summary from yesterday was that Duchatelet laid himself open on a number of fronts which he can picked up on going forward and that Simon Jordan (who owes us nothing) has clearly been paying attention (much more than Jim White) and has a very good view on Duchatelet's shortcomings as an owner and has been prepared to call him out. Who would have though that a former Palace owner would do this or that it would be the Orange-one who did it. Respect from me Simon.
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