Sunday 15 November 2015

Spell it out in black and white

Paul Breen discusses the 'Spell it Out In Black and White' campaign, discussing its objectives and talking about the symbolism of the scarf more generally: Spell It Out

As far as I recall, people didn't wear football scarves when I started watching Charlton, but some people did wear rosettes, particularly at big games.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

On the day of the 1946 Cup-final, we had a tour of the telephone component section of the Siemen's factory on the opposite side of the Lower Road from The Valley. One of technicians was making up rosettes from layers of red and white polythene sheet. I was given one, wore it to Wembley and kept it for years. Unfortunately, most of my schoolboy possessions were lost when my parents move and I was away. I don't remember any scarves but there were many wearing red and white cardboard top-hats.Greetings! KPF

19forever said...

I still have a rosette which I must have acquired in the mid to late 1960s. I used to have a rattle as well but that disappeared a long time ago.

Unknown said...

lets start a fc club its easy so what are we waiting for?we all hate the board right?

James O'Brien said...

I'm more surprised than angry at the way the club has been run by RD. I find it hard to get angry at a man who is propping the club up financially but I find his strategy and his dealings with the fans as really odd given his success as a businessman.

I think KM is out of her depth. I don't think she's displayed much acumen to date and she certainly doesn't have the CV to suggest she should hold her current position. I'd expect a successful businessman to recognise this error and find a suitable replacement.

I think he has been quite transparent about what he's trying to achieve. I'm not sure transparency is the real problem here so the black and white campaign feels slightly mistaken to my mind. I think RD and KM have clearly stated their strategy but what surprises me is that they persist with it.

As a club owner who is losing millions on his investment every year, you'd think he'd have a more realistic strategy. There can be only one fiscally sensible attraction to a Championship football club and that is the prospect of hitting the Jackpot of Premier League football. It strikes me as an achievable goal even if not a foregone conclusion. More than 10% of clubs in the division hit the jackpot every season, so it might seem a worthy risk for RD to take on given the potential gains.

However, the goal he is seeking to achieve is totally unrealistic. Hes trying to create a self sustainable business with balanced books without hitting the jackpot. I'd have thought he would have realised by now that the costs of running a competitive team in this division are exorbitant compared to any revenue we can achieve.

He thinks that selling our best young players every summer will help the club balance the books. The truth is that this is a self defeating strategy as we cannot balance the books outside the Premiership irrespective of how many young players we develop. If we consistently sell our best young players, we cannot develop a team that can compete with the better funded teams in the division. His strategy is entirely wrong headed from a business perspective. It's pie in the sky and idealistic thinking. It would be wonderful to think a club could succeed based on his model but it defies logic that this strategy can actually bring about success.

I don't know how you get a business owner to understand that his strategy is doomed to failure but I hope RD's ego allows him to change his course and his blueprint for the club rather than stubbornly running the club into the ground chasing a false dream.

I don't hate the man by any stretch of the imagination but I think he needs to seriously rethink his business plan because if it doesn't change it will ruin both him and the club.

Wyn Grant said...

I agree with what you say. I don't hate him or KM, I just think they have lost the plot (and she is out of her depth). His original assumption was that financial fair play would level the playing field, but that is not going to happen. So somewhat more investment might give us a chance of hitting the jackpot, as you put it, rather than being relegated to the desert of League One. Unfortunately, I think he is an obdurate visionary. And, as the late Helmut Schmidt said, 'if you are having visions, you should see a doctor.' He must have taken some risks with his other businesses, so why not take a bit of a risk with Charlton?

Unknown said...

we got get our club back and get meir out of this club quickly shes making herself look like a total pratt