Post by andyl on Nov 19, 2015 10:33:12 GMT
This may not become a match thread but as Charlton are perhaps the team most likely to sink beneath us if we improve and as the game is on the near horizon I thought it might be interesting to contrast and compare the two clubs' fortunes. I bought my tickets for the match yesterday
I always take abit of an interest in Charlton because working nearby in the late 70s and denied the chance to see much of Bolton Wanderers by distance, lack of money and weekend playing commitments I often used to go down to The Valley on a Friday night . It was the era of Flanagan and Hales. They had Gritt, Curbishley and a really good winger, Colin Powell. For oppositions I saw such luminaries as Howard Kendall and Garth Crooks playing. Most memorably I saw a BWFC loss in one of our promotion chasing seasons when Jim McDonagh was beaten to a cross by what I thought was, expressed in later terms, a Maradona Hand of God goal which still rankles nearly 30 years later
Charlton are just above us in the league. They had a good home win last time out which according to friends was a bit of a fluke in contrast to somevery dispiriting home performances. They have Johnnie Jackson who has been a stalwart of the team since 2010 and is one of the best players , certainly left footed players, in the division. He scored a memorable goal against us two or three years ago. But few if any players will be otherwise known, Vaz Te notwithstanding !
Charlton are owned by Belgian millionaire Raymond Duchatelet who owns other clubs as well notably Standard Liege. They have a long established chairman but the club is run on a day to day basis by a woman, Katrien Meire. She is a lawyer in her early 30s to whom Duchatelet has entrusted pretty much everything. You could not find a greater contrast with BWFC. Meire is a mad keen football fan, watches training, travels to all the games by train with fans and not even deterred by a nasty and abusive group of fans bemoaning a 5 something defeat at Watford last year. She is out and about in the community, does quite alot of media work and works closely with captain ( JJ) and fans groups to develop their strategic plan. She has a high visibility approach and an excellent common touch. Duchatelet who is not that well liked by Charlton fans who apparently distrust their remote foreign owner appointed Meire because he trusts her with the finances. Meire for her part has regularly negotiated loans from within the Belgian network and Belgian loanees have repeatedly been advanced above academy players- which rankles with fans who believed Chris Powell had nurtured promising talent. The club reported a £7 m debt to their owner with no interest payable. Meire is on record as saying that the proliferation of agents take too much money out of the game- hence the preference for movment within the owned club network and she finds it quite incredible thatthere is a tradition in England of letting larger than life coaches or managers make financial decisions about players. They are a club a bit like ours- FA Cup win in 1947 but little else since, with a proud an d glorious rise through the leagues under Alan Curbishley. They had to leave their ground but returned in better times. Lennie Lawrence was their other most notable manager!
Meire has now sacked four managers, Powell, Riga, Peeters and Luzon. The current interim incumbent is Karel Fraeye a former assistant re-recruited for a Belgian 3rd division outfit much to general consternation. Alan Curbishley was known to fancy a return last year but Meire did not take that path.
So we really ought to beat them, n'est-ce pas! We have an experienced manager ;they have a squad worth a third of ours in player wages a year ago- probably a half by now. They have been in disarray short of a settled side. We tried to loan a reserve striker much as they loaned Sordell ( a symbol of how fortunes have changed?). We bought Dervite from their reserves ( can't remember when that was but Meire if by then in post slipped that one through well? Or was he a free agent? In the past we sold Claus Jensen to them. We have Steve Walford, their first team coach was Jason Euell- that was a bit like recruiting Kevin Davies would be for us but here for them. They are or at least were until their last game a really rocky team in crisis , short on confidence, struggling to score. I wonder what Neil's planms to defeat them are. The crowd is like many London crowds in the championship easily quietened but they come to life- twice in recent years I've seen us go ahead and then lose leads .Ngog had perhaps his finest half hour for us there, Trotter played well two years ago. It's a welcoming venue where we can sometimes succeed.John Byrom had a match winning game there once. Youri Djorkaeff scored a spectacular goal
I am looking forward to it, Should I be?
I always take abit of an interest in Charlton because working nearby in the late 70s and denied the chance to see much of Bolton Wanderers by distance, lack of money and weekend playing commitments I often used to go down to The Valley on a Friday night . It was the era of Flanagan and Hales. They had Gritt, Curbishley and a really good winger, Colin Powell. For oppositions I saw such luminaries as Howard Kendall and Garth Crooks playing. Most memorably I saw a BWFC loss in one of our promotion chasing seasons when Jim McDonagh was beaten to a cross by what I thought was, expressed in later terms, a Maradona Hand of God goal which still rankles nearly 30 years later
Charlton are just above us in the league. They had a good home win last time out which according to friends was a bit of a fluke in contrast to somevery dispiriting home performances. They have Johnnie Jackson who has been a stalwart of the team since 2010 and is one of the best players , certainly left footed players, in the division. He scored a memorable goal against us two or three years ago. But few if any players will be otherwise known, Vaz Te notwithstanding !
Charlton are owned by Belgian millionaire Raymond Duchatelet who owns other clubs as well notably Standard Liege. They have a long established chairman but the club is run on a day to day basis by a woman, Katrien Meire. She is a lawyer in her early 30s to whom Duchatelet has entrusted pretty much everything. You could not find a greater contrast with BWFC. Meire is a mad keen football fan, watches training, travels to all the games by train with fans and not even deterred by a nasty and abusive group of fans bemoaning a 5 something defeat at Watford last year. She is out and about in the community, does quite alot of media work and works closely with captain ( JJ) and fans groups to develop their strategic plan. She has a high visibility approach and an excellent common touch. Duchatelet who is not that well liked by Charlton fans who apparently distrust their remote foreign owner appointed Meire because he trusts her with the finances. Meire for her part has regularly negotiated loans from within the Belgian network and Belgian loanees have repeatedly been advanced above academy players- which rankles with fans who believed Chris Powell had nurtured promising talent. The club reported a £7 m debt to their owner with no interest payable. Meire is on record as saying that the proliferation of agents take too much money out of the game- hence the preference for movment within the owned club network and she finds it quite incredible thatthere is a tradition in England of letting larger than life coaches or managers make financial decisions about players. They are a club a bit like ours- FA Cup win in 1947 but little else since, with a proud an d glorious rise through the leagues under Alan Curbishley. They had to leave their ground but returned in better times. Lennie Lawrence was their other most notable manager!
Meire has now sacked four managers, Powell, Riga, Peeters and Luzon. The current interim incumbent is Karel Fraeye a former assistant re-recruited for a Belgian 3rd division outfit much to general consternation. Alan Curbishley was known to fancy a return last year but Meire did not take that path.
So we really ought to beat them, n'est-ce pas! We have an experienced manager ;they have a squad worth a third of ours in player wages a year ago- probably a half by now. They have been in disarray short of a settled side. We tried to loan a reserve striker much as they loaned Sordell ( a symbol of how fortunes have changed?). We bought Dervite from their reserves ( can't remember when that was but Meire if by then in post slipped that one through well? Or was he a free agent? In the past we sold Claus Jensen to them. We have Steve Walford, their first team coach was Jason Euell- that was a bit like recruiting Kevin Davies would be for us but here for them. They are or at least were until their last game a really rocky team in crisis , short on confidence, struggling to score. I wonder what Neil's planms to defeat them are. The crowd is like many London crowds in the championship easily quietened but they come to life- twice in recent years I've seen us go ahead and then lose leads .Ngog had perhaps his finest half hour for us there, Trotter played well two years ago. It's a welcoming venue where we can sometimes succeed.John Byrom had a match winning game there once. Youri Djorkaeff scored a spectacular goal
I am looking forward to it, Should I be?
