PottersRightBoot
Well-known member
- Joined
- 11 Dec 2017
- Messages
- 2,127
Come come, master. A good chairman doesn't sell you down the toilet and swan off into the distance clutching his bag of gold and laughing.
Can you prove any of this?
Come come, master. A good chairman doesn't sell you down the toilet and swan off into the distance clutching his bag of gold and laughing.
Easy comment to make . And where are we playing then? Wycombe? Cutteslowe Park?I know what the ground needs, a bulldozer
The council own sandy lane, which you can fit Charlton's ground into (try it on Google maps!). It's close to the ring road, also has an unused car park already on site behind Tesco, and a railway track running alongside for a potential stadium station. Just one idea what will never happen, but at least it's an idea! There are limited places around Oxford, I think that has untapped potentialEasy comment to make . And where are we playing then? Wycombe? Cutteslowe Park?
I can think of several truly s**t seasons in recent years far worse than 18/19. I actually think this season has been rather entertaining in a ghoulish sort of way.
The council own sandy lane, which you can fit Charlton's ground into (try it on Google maps!). It's close to the ring road, also has an unused car park already on site behind Tesco, and a railway track running alongside for a potential stadium station. Just one idea what will never happen, but at least it's an idea! There are limited places around Oxford, I think that has untapped potential
It was a financial decision by SD & co to not raise their bar to buy the club, it was in their hands but couldn’t see the financial advantage over the emotional commitment to buy the club, a new ground was off the table then so there was no financial light at the end of the tunnel for them to pursue.Without wishing to veer wildly off-topic (but I’ll continue) I think the reason for particular gloom is that we were seemingly so close to something better.
We had a great manager two seasons ago and Eales had brilliantly laid the foundations for the next step up. That could have seen a local multi-millionaire fan with deep pockets and a foreign investor with even deeper pockets come on board. Instead they’ve snapped up one of the best supported clubs in the country.
And what are we left with? Flirting with relegation to potentially be exactly where we were again three seasons ago. Unpaid tax bills. And now this latest news re: the Ultras (which is entirely their decision so absolutely no blame being laid at their door) and it’s just another smack round the head.
I’m an eternal optimist but what are we clinging to right now exactly? Basically that our manager implies that something positive might happen in the future behind the scenes in a typically vague, unstratrgic fashion in a post-match interview. Inexplicably, he’s having to be both coach and acting CEO on media duties due to vacuum of information. Even when club officials are put up for interviews they say half of less than nothing.
And hey, maybe things WILL turn out to be rosy in the future. Pretty unrealistic to expect the fanbase to be anything less than cynical about its likelihood however - we have been burned many, many times before.
Nick Harris got it right when he was reflecting on Stewart Donald’s interview on Saturday. A sense of sadness is palpable of what could have been possible.
It’s a hell of a post sir.I have had to register for this , the workshop these lads have put in as been second to none. The enhancement of our New owner is not there , and we got sold down the river by the old one! Struggling to see why , you put in person in place to make life hard for people who only have tried to make match days better! Because they have a point of view?
There may be one off good atmospheres but mostly it’s poor as a result of the stadium.I’ve read plenty of away supporter comments saying they enjoy the atmosphere and the view from the north stand.
We all know what the ground needs - a fourth stand..
Not necessarily numbers as a standalone disappointment. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I'd always hoped that at some point it would snowball and the mentality would become infectious and spread throughout the stand and club. Maybe it was illusions of grandeur but I'd always invisioned us eventually working something out with the club leading to us having a dedicated section near the front where we could lead the stand all game every game. We'd be more visible, more approachable and have more influence over the atmosphere... More people would get more tightly involved, and the whole scene would catch fire. I don't feel this was ever really close to being a reality, ten years on we are still crammed in at the back of block 19. And without sounding like I'm having a dig out at our fans, I don't think the mentality ever really spread out of block 19 and across the stand quite like some other groups in the country have managed to influence happening at their clubs. Numbers have remained similar but it's more a case of a continuing cycle of lads wanting to get involved, realising that actually the hassle of the whole thing actually outweighs the enjoyment of it and they slowly drift away over time (case in point - me; I've been to three games in the past two years, there's a hell of a lot more to life than designing, making, painting, hanging flags etc, no matter how much you ultimately love your club)
We will never work something out being allowed near the front, a combination of not wanting to relocate existing ST holders and the fact the club can't really be seen encouraging standing. We tried moves to the sides where it was sparser in regards to existing ST holders and by doing so just alienated ourselves from the small block of other singers in the middle. And now the lads can't even just hang up some flags on the back wall without it becoming a tirade of meetings and beurocracy. Align this with the age of the current lads who've been running things, early 20s, and I imagine they're probably feeling similar to what I felt like towards the end of Appleton's time at the club; ie 'if this idea we've been trying to imbed hasn't taken off yet, with all the amazing things that have happened in the years since 2009, then it probably never is, and I've given more than I probably should have to try and get it to flourish, however now I wanna put that effort into other experiences in my life'. And that's how I felt after a promotion season and a fantastic year in league 1 with Appleton! So for everyone involved to be feeling similar with the current state of affairs at the club then I dont blame them at all for calling it a day.
Reading everyone's messages makes me proud that myself and the other founder members of Giallo Esercito 09 (remember them? Some dodgy Italian and a fearsome skull for a badge) built the group into what it became, with the second wave of inspiration coming from the 'new gen' TBFUTH, coallescing with what we already had into the OU09 of the past few years. It is sad it never quite become what we'd dreamed, but enjoy the memories, don't be sad it's over, be pleased that it happened.