Will it be a Toast to Celebrate or Tears in the Beer?

Hopefully Charlton's season will be sorted out for the better on Tuesday night when we play our game in hand and final home game of the season against Watford. 

Our form has been such that the outcome is exceedingly unpredictable but as all Addicks know, we're not in the habit of making life easy and I'm preparing to accept that it might go down to the wire in our season finale away at Blackpool, where both teams could be fighting for Championship survival.  With Birmingham, Doncaster and Millwall also in the mix there are plenty of permutations to make it a nervy climax the the season.

So for those of you not making the trip to the seaside for our last game can I plug the following local event that South East London CAMRA are putting on this coming weekend.  Whichever way the results go you'll be in the right place to drown your sorrows or celebrate survival with some fine ales and ciders on tap.

The link for those interested is below
 
selcamra.org.uk/kidbrooke-beer-cider-festival/

I'm pleased to see that local brewer Hopstuff based in Woolwich is well represented with four of their ales on show and there are a number of other London and Kent breweries and cider makers on show.  Having met a few of the local CAMRA members at Old Loyal Britons in Greenwich I know they are discerning lot and we shouldn't be disappointed with their selection of casks which can be found on their website.



Notes
The picture is a poster produced by South East London CAMRA to promote the festival so please do share around.

Charlton Athletic Financial Results - a short analysis

First a big thank you to all of those who read my previous blog piece on the profitability of Championship football Clubs.  Having had a comfortable 200 or so hits to my previous blog pieces this received over 1200 hits.

One of the omissions from that particular blog was the financial report of my own team Charlton Athletic which had not then been published.  The accounts are now available and I thought I would provide a short overview for interested fans.

These are the consolidated figures for the holding company Baton 2010 Ltd to the end of June 2013 and well before the takeover by Staprix NV, Duchatelet’s investment vehicle.

The headline figure is a loss of £5.9m compared to £6.8m last year.  It looks like the club remains on course to continue to achieve Financial Fair Play targets once we take into account that certain expenses are disallowed.

Turnover/Income increased  by about £3m from  TV and broadcasting as a result of the move to the Championship and £0.5m from increased match day income.  There was a dip in commercial income owing to the way the company makes money from the club shop etc following the “Nike” deal which now sees the club receive a percentage of sales as a royalty, rather than account for sales in income and stock purchases in the cost line.  The upshot of this is that on an equivalent commercial income has actually risen slightly.

However, most of the increase in income was swallowed in salary costs which went up by approximately £3m.  Given that the number of commercial and administration staff remained static I assume that this increase was down to playing, training and football management which went up by 17.

Staff costs remain static at just over 100% of turnover which is clearly unsustainable and something which we have seen the new board address almost immediately much to the chagrin of many fans.  The sale of our reputedly highest paid player will go a small way to reducing this in the current financial year but I fear that in order to meet a more acceptable level further unpalatable cuts will be the order of the day, until both clubs players across the divisions realise that things will have to change.

The loss appears to have been funded by an increase in long term loans from the parent company CAFC Holdings Ltd who also appear to have funded the scheduled repayment of bank loans during the year.  The accounts confirmed that this debt has now been transferred to Staprix NV.

However, it appears that the interest free loans from previous directors remain in place, to be repaid if and when Charlton return to the Premier League.  There was speculation that that these might be repaid on the sale of the club but there is no mention of this in the post balance sheet events.

In other post balance sheet news, the club generated £570k from player sales and contingency fees.  I presume that most of this took place in the summer transfer window and does not include the sale of Yann Kermorgant or Dale Stephens as they were both sold after the accounts were signed off.

As expected the accounts are prepared and signed off by the auditors on a going concern basis with the parental support of Staprix NV.  From my little knowledge of audited accounts I believe that this means that as of 17 January 2014 (the day the accounts were signed off), Staprix has agreed to support the company for at least a further year.

In other news it is clear that the board are committed to the Youth Academy and intend on achieving Category 1 status in the Elite Player Performance Plan as soon as possible.  The fact that the New Eltham site has now got the go ahead confirms the new owners intention to honour this commitment which is good news for Charlton fans.

So all in all, no big surprises.  Despite what certain fans might think of them Jiminez and Slater kept the club alive and left it in a slightly better shape than when they bought it but more crucially they did find someone in time to be able to maintain and carry the club forward.

So on we go to the current financial year.  Again, Championship survival is key but other than that I don't expect any great surprises in the next lot of accounts.  Turnover will roughly be in line with the figures above but with the lack of player purchases this season and the sale of a few prominent players losses may come down a little further, again hopefully in line with Financial Fair Play.

.

Is anyone making money out of Championship football ?

Charlton Athletic's accounts (or more accurately its holding company Baton (2010) Ltd) for the year ending June 2013 are due for filing at Companies House by the end of March.

For a refresher on last year's results please take a look at the excellent analysis by New York Addick here

newyorkaddick.blogspot.co.uk/2013_01_01_archive.html

I'm not expecting any surprises as we know the previous owners were struggling to put any more money into the club and the transfer budget was severely constrained.  It was however our first year back in the Championship after a record points season in League One so it will be interesting to see how revenues have fared since.  The change in ownership falls in the current year and so will have no impact on the results but may well have allowed the auditors to sign off the company as a going concern.

With the advent of Financial Fair Play I thought we would take a look at how other teams in the Championship division have managed so far and see if we can draw any conclusions on how prepared we all are.

First a word of caution on the figures.  Most clubs appear to have financial year ends at the end of the football season in May/June 2013 but not all of them, so the periods may not be directly comparable and in some cases the clubs (including Charlton) have yet to publish their latest accounts.  The figures quoted are usually the statutory profit/loss required under companies law and do not directly translate into the profitability or otherwise as determined under the FFP rules.  For example costs relating to stadium improvements or youth development are ignored for the purposes of FFP.  So the figures shown are not directly comparable but give a good indication of a club's ability to reach the FFP requirements.

Finally, some clubs have a complex web of legal entities, for various reasons including tax efficiency and protecting assets such as the stadium.  Just look at the Blackpool blog link below to see a prime example.  This understandably may cloud the headline figures that I have stated and the club may actually be in a far different position to those stated when taken as a whole.

AFC Bournemouth

AFC Bournemouth lost £3.4m in the financial year ending July 2012 amid concerns from auditors over the company's ability to continue trading.  According to the BBC, the figures highlight the importance of Russian co-owner Max Demin's involvement at the Goldsands Stadium.  The 2013 accounts are not due until April but I expect further losses of the same magnitude and injections in line with current FFP rules.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22612870

Barnsley

Accounts for Barnsley Football Club (2002) Ltd were filed in January and show

an increased profit of £1.9m after a small profit of £30,246 in the previous 12 months 

www.duedil.com/company/04573250/barnsley-football-club-2002-limited/financials

 

Birmingham

The Birmingham City director Peter Pannu was paid nearly £1m in 2012-13, a year in which the club lost £4m and sank into a perilous financial situation which continues to threaten its solvency.

www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/09/birmingham-director-peter-pannu-paid-nearly-one-million-pounds

Blackburn

£27m loss for 2013.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24533649

Blackpool

Blackpool Football Club Ltd pre-tax profit was down from £16.1m to £5.9m.  However, the finances are a little more complicated than this.  for more information see the excellent blog piece from independent fan Measured Progress below
   

www.duedil.com/company/00048409/blackpool-football-club-limited-the/financials
measuredprogress.co.uk/opinion/blackpool-fcs-1213-accounts-reviewed/

Bolton

Bolton have announced they are £163.8m in debt after parent company Burnden Leisure PLC released its figures for the year ending June 2013.  The group made a loss of £50.7m, which saw net debt rise from £136.5m

www.duedil.com/company/00335699/burnden-leisure-limited/financials

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25559504

Brighton
Operating loss: £14.7m (up from £8.6m in 2011-12 accounts)
www.bbc.couk/sport/0/football/26055733


Burnley
£7.8m loss to June 2013 

www.burnleyfootballclub.com/documents/agm-2013-review-doc113-1174642.pdf

Charlton Athletic (Baton (2010) Ltd)
£6.8m loss to Jun 2012 no accounts published yet for 2013.  The next accounts are due at companies house by the end of March.

Derby County

Derby’s losses in the past two years have been £7.9m and £7.7m.

Their figures for the year ending June 2013 were submitted at the beginning of this month

 http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Derby-County-tackling-constant-battle-Financial/story-20308658-detail/story.html#ixzz2wtqjNk9B

Doncaster (Patience Form Ltd)
Loss of £4.4m Jun 2013

www.duedil.com//company/03739676/patienceform-limited/financials

Huddersfield

Overall total loss of £4m (2011/12: £5.7m) to May 2013
www.htafc.com/news/article/club-news-201213-accounts-1259060.aspx#lT0IvyZF5Zf4ygCD.99

Ipswich
The Club is due to report a loss before tax of £9.8m (2011-12 £16.0m loss) for the year to June 2013

www.itfc.co.uk/news/article/financial-highlights-2012-13-1217945.aspx#0yqaHJxHpIwVCko899

Leeds
At the time of writing, Leeds have not filed accounts for 2013 and they are due by the end of March.  They appear to be losing £1m a month.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26717044

Leicester
The Club recorded losses in the year to 31 May, 2013 of £34 million (2012: £29.7m).
 www.lcfc.com/news/article/040314-201213-financial-results-1395981.aspx#JJ5ZpqdSdXSR0Wa5.99

Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough Football & Athletic Company (1986) Limited's accounts were filed at companies house on 21 March but I haven't seen any open press mention of them yet.  Heavily reliant on Steve Gibson, they made a pre-tax loss of £13m in 2012.

www.duedil.com/company/01947851/middlesbrough-football-and-athletic-company-1986-limited/financials

Millwall
£6.2m loss to June 2013
www.millwallholdingsplc.co.uk/ReportsAccounts30June2013.pdf

Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest made losses of £17.1 during the last financial year and had staff costs of £21m.

Those staff costs dwarfed the club's turnover of £14.4m during 2012/13.

www.nottinghampost.com/Nottingham-Forest-post-losses-17-1m/story-20764935-detail/storyhtml#ixzz2wtvKbbSa

QPR
Championship side Queens Park Rangers made a loss of over £65m in their accounts for the year to May 2013.
 www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26468560

Reading
The Championship side posted a loss before tax of £2.3m in the year to 30 June 2013, down from £11.7m a year earlier. Operating loss was also cut from £21.8m to £2.9m.
www.insidermedia.com/insider/south-east/107329-reading-fc-slash-annual-losses?


Sheffield Wednesday
Loss of £3.7m to May 13
http://www.swfc.co.uk/documents/swfc-reportsandfinancialstatements138-1385743.pdf

Watford
£200k profit after player trading (loss of £1.7m)
www.watfordfc.com/documents/13118-2013-report-and-financial-statements286-1181336.pdf

Wigan
Financial results for the year ending 31 May 2013 show the Championship side made a net profit of £822,000 compared with £4.3m net profit in 2012. (won FA cup)
http://www1.skysports.com/news/12040/9095431/

Yeovil
Yeovil announced a trading profit of £50k for 2012.  Their accounts have been filed for 2013 but it looks like they have a filing exemption so I can't find a freely available profit figure.  From the balance sheet of Yeovil Town Holdings company it looks like profits were pretty flat and so I'm guessing that they have broken even.  A connected company Yeovil Town Fc Centre of Excellence Limited suffered a small loss in net assets.


www.duedil.com/company/07113379/yeovil-town-holdings-limited/financials
www.duedil.com/company/06948893/yeovil-town-fc-centre-of-excellence-limited/financials
www.ytfc.net/news/article/profits140313-712726.aspx



Conclusion
Based on the above one wonders why anyone would own a football club.  However, this aside it seems clear to me that the Championship can be divided into three broad categories.

There are those that have spent to win promotion.  These fall into two sub divisions; clubs such as Brighton and Leicester hoping to go up, and secondly those recent former Premier League teams such as Blackburn and QPR with legacy financial positions fighting to get back.  I suspect any fines for FFP breaches for newly promoted clubs will be fairly small compared to the potential riches of the Premier League, but penalties could be crushing for those that gamble and fail to reach the top echelons. 

It will be interesting to see whether the clubs that go up roll the dice once more and spend big to ensure continued top tier playing time or remain fairly prudent in terms of financial outlay, comforted by the fact that they have a financial cushion to survive on should they go down.  I suspect that most clubs automatically have relegation clauses in their player contracts by now.

Secondly there are a small number of clubs that have had to do this out of necessity, never mind fair play.  They have not had the sugar daddies to bank role them but have managed their resources carefully.  I include Barnsley, Yeovil, Watford, Wigan and maybe Blackpool (its hard to decipher the true figures) in this.

The remaining clubs, including Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Charlton and Millwall are slowly reigning in the losses but are comfortably within the confines of FFP.  It is clear that there is still work to be done and it will take a few years as player contracts come up for renegotiation but they will get there in the end.

It is noticeable that broadly, with the exception of Wigan and Reading, all the teams that are breaking even or safely within the bounds of FFP are at the wrong end of the table.  I am an advocate of Financial Fair Play.  It's clear from the above figures that this level of spending is not sustainable.  I fear that if the current legal challenge to FFP does succeed then the playing field will become even less level and/or we will see a number of clubs going to the wall as certain owners get tired of their "toys" as they fail to reach promotion and discard them.

Footnotes

Please let me know of any errors and I will happily correct and acknowledge.  Similarly if you can fill in the gaps for certain teams I’d be extremely grateful.

Straw Bear Festival, Whittlesey

There are two Charlton games I always look out for when the fixtures list is published in the Summer, but perhaps for the opposite reasons to most fans.  The first is the Boxing day game.  I'm usually not in London on that day so it means an early start and a long drive down in freezing weather if we are playing at home, rather than a short trip up the road from my Christmas location to watch the Posh at London Road.

The second is the mid January game which again I hope will be an away fixture as it clashes with the Straw Bear festival in Whittlesey (near Peterborough).  This year's game against Barnsley meant that it looked like I would be giving up my first home game of the season.  With apologies to the Barnsley fans who made a long and costly wasted trip down I still get to see this fixture at a later date!


Straw Bear is a custom relating to Plough Monday when a man was dressed up in straw and paraded from pub to pub for the amusement of the locals.  It has now grown to what I believe is one of the eminent folk dancing events in the country. 

www.strawbear.org.uk

The Straw Bear

Forget your wassailing in Kent orchards, this is full blown folk with Morris, Mollies, Rappers (no not that kind - sword dancers to you and me!) and Appalachian clog dancers in abundance plus the Fenland equivalent of the Yeti being led around the town on a leash.

Now before you laugh, don't knock it until you've tried it.  Being rammed against the wall in a pub, trying not to spill your pint while six sword dancers whirl around within inches of you is no mean feat, especially after a couple of beers have been sunk.  Folk dancers are a thirsty and discerning bunch when it comes to real ale and the festivities conveniently centre around the local hostelries so its a good excuse for a local pub crawl disguised as a cultural event.

Pretty Grim Morris Group

Whittlesey (or Whittlesea if you're a real local) in normal. times is blessed with a large number of pubs for a town of its size virtually all serving quality ales.  During Staw Bear they go full on with many holding their own mini beer festivals and most stocking seasonal Straw Bear beer brewed for the festival weekend, which is also used to make the batter at the local fish & chip shop.  So it would simply be rude not to take advantage of such an event.  All I can say is don't knock it until you've tried .  Its a great day out for all the family with plenty of events and opportunities to join in should you so wish.

The events start off at the George in the town square where the first pint is an obligatory Straw Beer brewed by Elgood Brewery especially for the festival while watching the Rivington Morris go through their paces.

On a short trip along Market  Street we encountered the  Wichmen Border Morris with their blacked out faces and excellent ivy leaf hatted musical accompaniment.  I've never managed to get a pint at the Black Bull as its always rammed so we tend to wonder further out of town to watch Tylers Men amongst others at the New Crown who have a decent selection of regional beers including Woodford's Wherry and Oakham's Straw Bear Ale.

Pig Dyke Molly

A brief stop outside the Ivy Leaf club saw us catch up with local group Pig Dyke Molly who for me encapsulate the spirit of Molly while dragging it into the 21st century.  You can't miss their distinctive black and white costumes.

The Letter B

Then on to two fantastically named pubs in the form of the Hero of Aliwal and the Letter B, just across the road from each other.  I've never managed to get inside the Letter B as its so small but a good chance to watch the Bourne Borders with their excellent pheasant plumage in their hats.


Back in the town centre the Falcon open up their out houses in the garden to reveal a selection of casks while inside a Mummer play entertained the crowds.  It was here that I heard the bad news about the Charlton game and so it was with a wry smile that I tucked into a pint of Wolf Brewery's "Granny wouldn't like it", picked purely for the name but an excellent dark red but rich and fruity beer.

The pavements of Whittlesey weren't built for tap, so the Apalachian clog dancers ply their trade on a large square of wood inside Childers Hall where they benefit from the acoustics.  In the freezing cold weather this was a chance for us to warm up a bit inside with a pint of Barn Ale, an excellent session pale ale at 3.9% from another local brewery Tydd Steam Brewery (www.tyddsteam.co.uk).  Hats off to dance group Tap & Sync for allowing the children to join in with the dance moves.

Bourne Boarders

We finished off at the Bricklayers Arms where a choice of Elgood Brewery ales met us if we were still thirsty.  A pint of Golden Newt looked like it would be a standard pale ale but had a fuller malty finish that came as a surprise (a few more ingredients in play other than the standard Maris Otter).

Beer of the day was Oakham Ales Straw Bear Ale and dance troop of the day were Pig Dyke Molly.  Boo of the day went to the Stevenage Sword (who are an excellent group) for the apparent non-appearance at the Hero of Aliwal.

 

Haddenham Hoofers

If after all that you're looking for suitable evening home entertainment along the same theme can I recommend the film "Morris: A life with Bells on"  (http://www.morrismovie.com). It stars Derek Jacobi and is a hilarious spoof on the world of Morris dancing.




Oh about that New Years Resolution on quality not quantity, well there's always next year!  I look forward to seeing you all at Charlton's FA cup game against Oxford on Tuesday.   COYR.



Footnote
Apologies if I have the names of any of the dance groups wrong, it was a long day and I wasn't taking notes!  Please contact me and I will be happy to make any corrections

Quality but not Quantity please

The title of this blog piece is my new years resolution, let me explain.

I've had a storming 2013 in terms of the real ale experience. As well as the Great British Beer Festival I've managed to get along to a few specialist festivals in local and not so local pubs.  I've trawled the taverns of Greenwich and found an excellent new local in the form of RLAs serving cask beers only from London Breweries (see www.ewbrewery.com for more details) as well as explored a few new breweries such as Hopstuff in Woolwich and the Brixton Brewery.  I've even found time to visit specialist cask and keg bars such as the Pelt Trader near Cannon Street, Crown & Anchor in Brixton and the Old Red Cow in Smithfield, all in search of a decent pint. All this comes at a cost as my head has invariably found on a Sunday morning but we all have to suffer a little to help our struggling economy don't we?

However, in my ageing years there is only so much a man can take and I've decided that the order of the day is quality over quantity.  No more rubbish beer, no more squeezing one more in for the road and maybe the occasional half of the 7.4% porter rather than a couple of pints (oh why do you make it so easy to drink?- the guilty culprit knows who they are!).  Luckily when it comes to quality food and wine I'm afraid I am a weak willed individual so I'm not too sure how long this will last.  I'm predicting that resolution will last until around mid February at the latest!

I'm also hoping that it's going to be Chris Powell's new year's resolution too.  With the recent takeover there has been a faint whiff of resources being available to the manager and the temptation is to splash the cash.  At least he only has to keep this one until the closing of the January transfer window.  However, its all too easy for a manager to go on a spending spree, buying supposed star players that happen to be free.  We saw it with Iain Dowie who acted like the proverbial kid in a candy store buying anyone and everyone with little or no thought as to the consequences.  Charlton suffered both in footballing and financial terms as a result.

Chris seems to know his stuff, picking out a solid league one winning side when he had the cash to do so.  More importantly, this collection of individuals quickly gelled into a close knot squad, vital for any successful campaign. He has also been quite shrewd in the loan market with the likes of Cameron Stuart and before him
Danny N'Gussen, Ricardo Fuller and Danny Haynes.  It hasn't all been plain sailing though, he's had his fair share of loan players that have had few minutes on the pitch and the likes of Fuller while undoubtedly a class act have been too expensive in terms of minutes on the pitch with their potential for injuries.

It doesn't sound like the new owner is going to shower Powell with vast amounts for the transfer kitty but it looks like we'll have a small amount to spend but the priority surely is to shore up the current core of the squad whose contracts are going to run out in the summer.  Once that's done I still don't think we need to be too rash in our signings as there are a number of good players that Charlton already know very well that could be available to us.

Cameron Stewart must be close to top of that list and media reports suggest that Charlton are trying hard to keep hold of him but it will have to be an outright purchase.  This is no bad thing.  Secondly, with loanee Marvin Sordell sidelined through a hamstring injury why don't we turn to Jonathan Obika again.  He still appears to be nowhere near joining the Tottenham first team but was still banging in the goals in a friendly on Tuesday against a Charlton under 21 side.  Perhaps Tim Sherwood might have a different opinion on his squad needs to allow us to bring him in again.

Another former loan player that has sunk away from the limelight is Emmanuel Frimpong.  In fact, since returning from his loan at Fulham he has not featured in any of Arsenal's first team games except as an unused substitute in August.  I have to admit I am unsure about his qualities but I do know that many Charlton fans regard him as a talented player.

All this is before we look at the players available in M. Duchatelet's stable of clubs in Europe.

So Mr Powell, if you are listening, if you keep your resolutions then I'll keep mine (at least until the close of the January transfer window!).  Is it a deal?  I won't be at the Barnsley match on Saturday as I have commitments elsewhere which will be revealed in next weeks blog update.

Is it still "Come on You Reds" or have we changed it to "Allez les Rouges"?

A Promising Start as History Repeats itself

The promised takeover seemed to go pretty smoothly and we are now officially in the hands of Belgium millionaire Roland Duchatelet.  However it seemed like only a day went by before certain parties were already knocking the deal, questioning which companies he had actually bought, whether the ground was included or whether other shareholders were still involved. Be under no illusions, Monsieur Duchatelet didn't get where he was without being a canny investor.  He already owns a stable of investments and we can be guaranteed that he has bought lock stock and barrel of the club, so lets put the silly rumours aside please.

 Initial signs look promising. We have a midfielder immediately on loan from Standard Liege in the form of Astrit Ajdarevic and a Premier a league quality pitch cover duly arriving which is currently pumping hot air to dry out the ground. These things don't come cheaply (one of the reasons I suspect why we haven't borrowed the "Super Soaker" from the Oval again) but was set up promptly. It's going to take more than a few days to dry out the water logged turf so the rescheduled game on Wednesday is unlikely to go ahead but whatever day it's held I will be there, if only to see our new loanee and the rest of the squad get a good run out.

I'm sure many Charlton fans will agree with me that the next step is to secure Chris Powell's tenure as manager by renewing his contract as well as that of certain key players. I'm not expecting many approaches during the current transfer window but it would be good to tie down the core of the squad before there is too much uncertainty in players' minds as the end of the season approaches.  Who knows we might even be able to hold on to Cameron Stewart which would be a bonus in my mind.

I'm also pleased that Richard Murray has retained his position on the board. A true Charlton fan and business man I know in my heart that he has the club's best interests at heart and must have had some frustrating times over the last year.  It's good to see him unshackled and willing to talk to the supporters (see the Charlton Supporters Trust website for more details) once a few hurdles have been cleared. I'm sure it will make interesting listening!  I also hope that this marks a resumption of management communication with fans and other stakeholders in the club, something that I think we can all agree was poorly handled by the previous incumbents.  Mr Jimenez has published another blog on the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tony-jimenez/charlton-athletic-sold-tony-jimenez_b_4536064.html) explaining his reasons for selling the club but again it would have been nice and won him some plaudits if he had communicated this to fans first.  I am sure that Mr Murray will ensure that our new shareholder will take note from this.

Its starting to look like we have our Charlton back again!

In other news we are once more playing Huddersfield again in the FA Cup, provided we beat Oxford of course, both of whom we have met in this season's Capital One cup!  If you have time take a look at the exasperated but amusing tweets between the Charlton and Huddersfield official twitter feeds on the matter.  Its good to see that even official tweets can have a sense of humour and long may it continue!  I wouldn't be surprised if they don't get allocated permanent spaces in the car park, so regular are the visits these days.

COYR

Where there’s muck there’s brass but be careful what you wish for Charlton Fans

Firstly seasons greetings to all Charlton Fans and real ale lovers. While it hasn’t been a great start to the season at the Valley I have made friends this year with some great and passionate fans of both the Addicks and a decent pint.

Secondly, my apologies for not writing for some time. The run up to Christmas saw me working seven days a week for some two months with a brief respite on Saturday afternoons to watch our home matches. So I’m taking the Christmas period to catch up with old friends and resume a bit of light blogging.

The Boxing Day game against Brighton was a much needed Christmas cheer for both the team and fans alike. I feel it brought renewed vigour to a number of players who deserved more for their tireless efforts in previous games. A big welcome back for Chris Solly allowed Laurie Wilson more freedom to break forward as he had threatened to do on a number of occasions at right back and he was justly rewarded with two goals. I only hope the North Stand faithful justly rewards him at some stage with a decent chant rather than the awful one they came up with at the game. Some say its only banter but I can’t help feel we should reward his match winning performance with better praise than “he’s doing alright”. The other chant at the game “You must be sh##e, we’re wining at home” is more like the self deprecating British humour that (with the exception of the rude words) is a hall mark of football banter.

While the game against Sheffield Wednesday was not the best by any standards, four points over two games has given us a brief respite from the scrap at the bottom of the table. With a virtually fully fit squad I hope that we’ll start to consolidate games in the New Year and maybe put on a bit of a cup run. That is if the pitch survives which I very much doubt. The ground will not get a respite as the FA Cup game at the weekend is shortly followed by a further home match the following week, so expect more bogged down passes and poorly timed fouls as the quagmire takes its toll.

The current owners have come under a lot of criticism from fans on social media and other outlets for the lack of investment on and off the pitch (my own relatively minor gripe is the disappearance of pies from the kiosks. How can you have a football game without pies?). However, it is the lack of interaction with the fans that is the biggest gripe. If there is one criticism it is the lack of communication coming from the top brass to the fans on the financial situation and various takeover rumours.

It is no wonder that we get upset when Tony Jiminez writes an article on running a football club for the Huffington Post (thanks to valleytalkblog.com for pointing it out) when he has had so little dialogue with his own club’s fans (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tony-jimenez/football-club-owners_b_4412796.html) While this appears to be part of a regular blog post on their website I believe Jiminez or Slater would have won over a number of fans with these well thought out words on his experience running of the club if he had expressed some of these views to Charlton fans in the match day programme or on other CAFC related media.

We’re not asking for miracles just regular dialogue with the fans, to allow us to understand what the owners’ intentions and how they are running the club. Despite what is written on certain forums most fans are pretty level headed but a stone wall silence leads to silly rumours and people pouncing on the slightest nuance however absurd.

While communication with the fans is not the management’s strongest point they have effectively staved the club from almost certain bankruptcy and we should be grateful for this however much we complain about other matters. We have to remember that they did allow Chris Powell to invest heavily in almost an entire new squad for his first League One season with great success winning the league with a record number of points.

Two years into the Championship we are struggling but despite all the odds in what must be one of the most competitive divisions in the world we are doing remarkably well for the minimal resources available. We are also not the only team in the division that is struggling as past blog posts have explained.

This leads us on to the current takeover talks with Belgium Roland Duchatelet who also owns Standard Liege. It was good to see the management learning from fans’ gripes with a prompt message on the Charlton website acknowledging the discussions.

Many Charlton fans appear to be lapping this up and can’t wait for the old regime to leave without even having glanced at the credentials of the potential new owner. One only has to look at the events at Cardiff and Hull to see the face of the new breed of football club owners and their plans to commercialise their investments into profitable franchises (yes there I said it!) or at least be able to hold their head above water as stand alone investments.

A number of Standard Liege fans have taken to twitter to sympathise with the Addick faithful. They were not happy at the methods employed by him on taking their club over. It appears that this will not be a toy for a rich owner or a benevolent investment (and why should it?). If we are to take his current club as a model we can expect him to sweat the assets to recoup his investment first. At Liege this was done by selling top players and then building up the club from scratch with a relatively unknown manager. The club is currently top of their league but this has not tempered the ire of the Royal Standard fans.

I believe that Charlton is currently running at a deficit of approximately £500,000 a month, so the sale of a few top players from the existing squad is only going to fund the investment for six months at the most and go nowhere near returning the rumoured £14m price tag.

This brings us a previously mooted scheme which on the face of it looks like it might pay for itself but which may require an additional outlay to fund it. This involved the purchase of land on the Greenwich Peninsula where a brand new stadium and assorted retail outlets would be funded through the sale of residential property on the same land. Reports at the time suggested that this might be self funding with the icing on the cake (ie the profit) being the redevelopment of the Valley into further residential homes.

So applaud the takeover as much as you like but please don’t get too attached to the Valley. Happy New Year?