It's the morning after and Charlton supporters are waking up and assessing the damage from last night. It's clear that there are a lot of unhappy souls out there. Disappointment, uncertainty, frustration and some anger. A lot of finger-pointing and general abuse isn't helping the situation either.
Some people are, understandably, critical of Thomas Sandgaard. His confidence that he could get a deal done this week has proven to be misplaced and the widespread and well-supported rumour that Duchatalet's agreement with ESI had a clause which meant the club had effectively reverted to him in light of ESI's failure to adhere to clear clauses like payment of rent and onward sale of the club has also proven not to be the case.
Sandgaard's initial response on Twitter was a disappointment. With the fans looking for him to pull out a loaded double-barrel shotgun, he whipped out a catapult and asked us to change our Twitter icons to the Club crest to show solidarity. He did go on later to re-affrim his even greater determination to get control of the club and displayed some clear anger of his own by saying he would not do a deal with Elliott under any circumstances because it would involve a lack of integrity.
It looks very much like we are going to have to suck it up until after Elliott's hearing on 23rd November. The EFL are sitting on their haunches and will do nothing until Elliott either agrees a lawyer for his appeal hearing into his failure to pass the O&DT or is awarded control of the club by the Court of Appeal. Elliott's Counsel's view yesterday that he is worth £12m won't have impressed the EFL who, in spite of their very visible shortcomings, will have a damn sight better view of commercial football reality than socially naive and crusty privileged Court of Appeal judges.
In the meantime, Elliott now has to hope that his adversaries (Nimer/Panorama Magic) in this case somehow find a way to keep the club from Administration over the next two months. I think that may be a serious challenge given Nimer/Panorama were willing to let Elliott find the funding for the most recent monthly shortfall. What is their incentive? Especially if they risk losing the club to Elliott in a couple of months time for £1? It will almost certainly involve cashing in on Dylan Phillips as a minimum.
What seems certain, is that ESI in all it's forms will shortly exit the scene and we will be at the mercy once again of the high seas. There are very few noble businessmen out there willing to acquire a League One club that's been on it's arse for a couple of seasons and which has very little assets beyond the playing squad in such uncertain times where there is no real sense of revenue streams returning any time soon.
I whole-heartedly back Sandgaard's determination not to pay a ransom for the club whoever wins the November Court Case. Both parties have put us in this position and both continue to slug it out with zero interest in the football club or it's supporters. What happened to your desire to "make Charlton great again" Elliott?
Therefore, I come back to Thomas Sandgaard. This bloke is a noble businessman. He has made his intentions very clear and I reckon he has fallen for the club in a way we all did once upon a time. He will already be in for a fair whack given the involvement of Freshfields and I am sure he knows that the club will bob up for sale at some point and there is every chance by then it will be a distressed sale. We really have to hope Sandgaard is still keen at that time or else there is the risk that another shark will get involved and the merry-go-round will start up again.
Interesting view on the ongoing farce Dave. Sadly after travelling so many miles and seeing so many games of my favourite team I have fallen out of love with football in recent months.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of money at the top of the game is ridiculous (ie the £110m windfall to get promoted to the premier league), the farce of parachute payments which makes the Championship an unequal challenge for all but the 3 relegated clubs from the Premier League. Then there are the money-grabbing selfish non-contract abiding players - loyalty to your employer Taylor? Laughable.
Then there is a system that allows totally unsuitable individuals and chancers to take over clubs (Coventry, Pompey, Bury, Blackpool, Charlton etc etc) and ruin or destroy them by running them down and trying to flog off the valuable assets such as the land on which the grounds stand - and then there's the EFL themselves ... who admit to "making mistakes" of the Sheff Wed affair yet did nothing to make good their "mistakes".
No, I'm afraid that I've had it with our national game which is rotten to the core from the FA down.
Suddenly watching cricket or playing golf seems like a much better option for my dodgy ticker that cannot stand the strain of the ongoing farce at the Valley. I really do hope that Sandgaard takes the club over and takes it back to where it should be - but I won't be there to see it sadly. Enough is enough.
Read your post with great interest and agree with what you say. Problem as I see it is that there is so much passion relating to the future of our great club, however it is so fragmented and on occasion full of hotheads merely blowing off steam although that of course is their right.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need is some sort of unified approach towards the EFL and any one else involved in this tragic event. CAST tried but in my view are perhaps not radical enough. We all remember the work of CARD which raised our profile greatly.
Many years ago when we were in the Premier League I raised the issue of lack of TV coverage with Sky aided by that nice guy in Prague.
My point is we need to join together and do more to put pressure on the EFL and others, nothing illegal of course but a real concerted effort. I am 70 years young live in the Scottish Borders but would have no problem getting involved.
Anybody else ?