…Since i blogged as my life has become increasingly busy over the last few months but i am going to try and get back into it. One specific thing that has lead me to do this is reading the other blog posts and tweets (Which i mainly use) in resurrecting my blog.
I have been a Charlton fan all my life (Not that long compared to some of the others apparently) but in being a Charlton fan i have realised that its not easy following a football team such as Charlton. It would have been much easier to follow my mates and support Arsenal or West Ham (Which should technically be my team as I am from the East of London) however i followed my Grandad and my Father to support the team in SE7. When i started supporting as a young kid, Charlton (Unknown to me at the time) would go through its most successful period in its history and finish 7th in the Premiership when thoughts were around of actually contending for Europe. Far have we come to today’s scenario where we are battling to stay in the English second division and can barely get a 10,000 gate, let alone 20,000.
BUT
To speculate that I would stop attending games or boycott games simply because we are doing poorly or don’t agree with the ‘regime’ (as others have put it) would be admitting defeat in my eyes. Why, when the club nearly ceased to exist in the late part of last century, would i give up now? Regardless of how I feel there is no excuse to stop going.
I still go to every home game (and away when I can make it there and back in time to still be able to go to work the next day) and I will still keep going regardless of how we are doing. We are supporters not shareholders, we are supporters not employees , we are supporters not forced to be there.
If you don’t agree with the way things are run turn up and silently protest outside, you don’t pay to stand there.
If you don’t agree try and start a fundraising group to try and buy a stake in the club to be able to have a say. If there are as many fans as reading the propaganda on the internet implies there must; then you would at least have an impact. Think of how that would look?!
The truth is that there have been mistakes and Mr Duchatelet does not seem to know English football as well as some others but why would he make decisions to proactively hurt the club? That’s nonsense.
We have been marred by injuries and Fraeye seems to be a good manager even if this league is a big step up for him.
Protesting during the game DID NOT WORK. The players do notice and it is not right. I did not buy a black and white scarf and I did not hold up a flyer. I will always support a protest and the will of most if its for the correct cause but not to the detriment of our team.
There may be many who disagree with the above but guess what? It doesn’t matter. The fact that I have stopped working to write this post is trying to emphasise this point, the worry is that is enough people read such negative things they will begin to believe the minds of the people who write them rather than make there own informed options.
We played well up until 2-0 Tuesday regardless of what some of the people have stated.
This has come out as a ‘rant’ but I feel it is needed.
I will keep going to games until there ceases to be a team called Charlton Athletic.
An Insight into my thoughts about Charlton Athletic 
Good Blog and I am surprised you have not had the usual bout of negative reaction perhaps because their is a strong line of truth running through your narrative. We all deeply love Charlton but I still cling to the hope that a 67 year old 1/2 billionaire does not buy a football club to run it into the ground and so like you I see this as a (another) period of unfortunate pain but remain loyal and optimistic that we will eventually turn a corner .
Posted by ColinG | December 18, 2015, 9:00 amThanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed the post. Hopefully ill get time to write some more!
Posted by decisivesniper | December 19, 2015, 10:54 amI admire your commitment and sentiments but as one who reads and generally agrees with some of those expressing doubts over exactly what it is we are now supporting and whether anything remains of the club we all once loved unconditionally my views are as follows:
I and I suspect many others have not stopped going because of lack of success. From my own perspective some of the best years were those immediately preceding 1998 – 2007. What is different is that it is no longer a “CLUB”, the fans have been disenfranchised and the Valley is a monument and a painful memory to what could be achieved when a club engages with its fans for a common cause. Engagement with your customers is important with any business and I suggest essential for a football club. The current regime appears to treat its customers with contempt.
Communication would help; if the object is to build a team from home grown talent why not say so and explain the strategy behind selling the likes of Gomez and no doubt Lookman in due course? It really does seem short sighted to replace one inexperienced manager with another, starve them of resources, the ability to plan ahead and then change them when things go wrong. We now face the prospect of relegation the cost of which would surely dwarf the cost of appointing a competent experienced manager? If there is a plan why not explain it to engage with the fans?
I sympathise with the match day protests as the alternative is to take the route of the missing 10,000 and simply say we have lost “Our Charlton” and go and find something else to do. I also can’t help noticing that what is left of our fan base is said to be relatively old and I believe this is a direct result of the kids of the 1998 – 2007 era, my sons included, saying a name is not enough we want to feel and be a part of Charlton. We do not want to be a cash cow to fund an absent owners ego trip / money making scheme.
Posted by Peter | December 18, 2015, 11:03 amThanks for the comment. It certainly is an interesting point you raise about engagement. Why do we as supporters expect owners to engage? For example. Abromovich at Chelsea doesn’t ever engage with fans yet people accept him; i suspect it lies in the fact that he has changed the way things are run and he hasn’t done well.
Im not sure Lookman will go as he knows he isn’t old enough to get into a first XI especially in the likes of Arsenal and Man City. Perhaps Karel will convince him 🙂 perhaps not.
Hypothetical – If buying an experienced championship manager would have stopped us being relegated then i would agree that its cheaper. However i really don’t think the problem lies with the manager. We need players and we have been very unfortunate with injuries.
I certainly agree with your last point. I hope I’m right in thinking we aren’t.
Posted by decisivesniper | December 19, 2015, 11:00 amThe protest was not aimed at the players and you know that. If a 60 second protest at the very start of the game had any effect on them then they don’t deserve to be playing football. If you are correct in saying that it did, then every single player would turn to jelly the moment they enter an away ground and had a ‘nasty’ chant in their direction.
Yes, we played ‘well’ for a short time (against a team at the bottom of the table, like ourselves) but once things went pear shaped the paucity of resources our multi multi millionaire is prepared to spend on the team and the 5th rate minimal experienced coach we have been saddled with meant there was nowhere to go.
I admire your commitment and blindly following the current regime, hoping that things will turn out better in the future but I’m not interested in the prospect of everything being amazing in 5 years/ ten years/ whenever.
I’m witnessing a club that has been very very important to me being destroyed NOW and the supporters being considered a hindrance.
For this reason, I couldn’t disagree with you more.
Posted by Marco | December 19, 2015, 10:40 amThanks for the comment, its great to have an opposite view to respond to – let me respond:
I do understand that the protest was not aimed at the players yet JBG then states in an interview that the players of course see this, if he is the only player that actually comes out and says it you know that it is affecting the rest. Also speaking of the fans affecting the players, why is the covered end always cheering when Big Mak heads the ball, do they want him to fail? Its a bloody disgrace.
I do agree that the team needs to spend money and i hope, finally, that it can now be seen. In January i expect quite a few signings. (If this doesn’t happen feel free to point it out in Feb)
The definition of the word regime is a government, especially an authoritarian one /or/ a system or ordered way of doing things. So I assume you are referring to its authoritarian routes and the ordered way he seems to go about choosing the path for the club? Well i certainly think that regime is the incorrect term for what is happening at Charlton especially as most supporters who don’t agree with him say he has no plan. Kind of ironic.
In regards to your point about the future, I think its much more important than you give it credit for but i also think the present is important for stability. See the the difference between you and I on this point is that I seem to value both where you have stated that you aren’t interested in it, if the club has to do relatively poorly and languish lower down the championship for one or two seasons for the greater good I would accept that. But only on the condition that the club is getting better.
As above I honestly do believe in January we will bring in a lot of players and it will change because our team is showing good signs but we simply need a better defence and to bolster midfield.
Posted by decisivesniper | December 19, 2015, 11:16 amIt’s not ironic at all.
We know RD must have some kind of plan. The beef is he won’t tell anybody what it is.
Who knows why he’s bought Charlton? Certainly not us.
He spent a fortune on buying a club that was on the way up, had won League One with a committed and solid fanbase, looking to push on but just needed some cash.
He put in the cash but has thrown away all the old ‘Charlton’ at the first opportunity. Anybody from the old guard was quickly dispensed with. We were meant to feel grateful that a man with a vision of owning a network had chosen us.
I for one and probably 99% of others never wanted to support a network. I want to support CAFC.
The comments about doing it ‘his way’ and if you didn’t like it then, as a customer, you are free to leave, show a total ignorance of what being a football supporter is about.
i have little confidence that we will bring in anybody of note in January.
We may get a couple of players to pacify the support as we wave goodbye to Watt and most likely Lookman.
Who would sign for us with a nobody interim manager?
Can you imagine a proper manager not being able to deal with Tony Watt? A (for example) Mick McCarthy would have dealt with him properly not shipped him off to score goals elsewhere.
I’m protesting now because the club has been brought to it’s knees by the mismanagement of a young and inexperienced CEO who refuses to acknowledge mistakes or accept offers of help and an absentee owner.
The future can take care of itself.
If relegation to league 1 is considered ‘stability’ then I really do fear for the future.
Posted by Marco | December 19, 2015, 4:01 pm