Methven completes the takeover

Ok, so officially it's Global Football Partners who own SE7 Partners, but ostensibly it's Methven in charge. Yes, he is far from the largest shareholder but I think we will see him calling the shots if he can keep their plan on target.

The seven 5%+ shareholders (all serial investors) are enormously busy people and I don't expect any of them to do much more than attend a monthly Board call and show up to the odd match at the Valley. Their investments in Charlton are so relatively small that they will be satisfied with Methven steering the ship.

There were a couple of surprises, too, in the formation of the Senior Management Team that will report to Methven and the other main Board investors.

Paul Elliott finally achieves his dream of a seat at the table as a Non-Exec and Steve Sutherland returns as Commercial Manager on an interim basis. As revealed last week, fan Gavin Carter has bought his way onto the SMT as the fans representative as well. All three appointments tick the 'appease the supporters box' although it remains to be seen what value we get from Elliott and Carter. Sutherland can, presumably, secure his place if he delivers commercial revenues.

We should quickly get a view on the depth of GFP pockets. I assume an operational budget will have been agreed for this season and our remaining transfer window will provide a heavy clue as to the game-plan.

Will they splash the cash and speculate to accumulate? Will the Texas Prospectus prove to have been real and see them slash costs and sell players to improve the bottom-line, or will they steer a conservative middle line and rely upon the vast SMT experience and abilities to out-manouvre  our League 1 competition as they are suggesting?

The next big question we must prepare for is 'what happens if it doesn't go to plan?' As Charlton fans we have to consider that question. Decision-making at Board level is unlikely to be smooth and Friedman and Brener may likely call the shots as majority shareholders if they are in-step. Will they be prepared to invest further? Is this a one-off punt? It may depend, of course, on what progress has already been made against the plan.

Under Kevin Cash, remember, we had actually won promotion but he wasn't prepared to invest further, so the plug was pulled. Maybe with so many investors, one or two may decide to take a greater share if others want out and put more in but again you would assume that they would need to have seen something to inspire them.

In the circumstances, it looks very much like the first half if the season is going to be especially important this year. No pressure Charlie...