Have The Goalposts Shifted?

After Saturday’s humiliation JJ commented that “we’re all hurting”. For sure. Let’s not forget that ‘everyone’ includes Thomas Sandgaard, for good reason. We supporters may have had our weekends spoilt, may have been grumpy than usual on a Saturday night. Let’s set that against some simple and possibly relevant (for us) facts.

TS bought Charlton (the club that is) let’s say in September 2020, when the statements were released. He was quoted in an interview that his objectives for Charlton were “three to five years, Premier League, then less than 10 years that we are solid, at least mid-table; and in 15 years I want to make sure this club is one of the best clubs and always playing European football”. Around that time the share price of Zynex was approaching $27. With a stake put at around 42%, TS’ net worth was then being estimated at $258m. Fast forward to now and the share price is below $7, TS estimated net worth less than $100m (ie less than two Valleys at Roland's daft valuations).

Now these things may be relative, TS has sold shares it seems, he bags a decent compensation package etc, he’s not short of a bob or two. But it’s a pretty substantial turnaround and it would be unrealistic to think that the change has no impact on his thinking regarding how much he can spend on Charlton. After all, if Bristol City, currently 16th in the Championship, can lose £38.4m in one financial year – albeit one severely impacted by the pandemic – any sane owner of a third-flight football club might approach promotion to the second division as akin to getting into the Premiership (on a different scale for sure): take the extra revenue and accept you might not be able to compete first time around, or at least accept that risk.

Now let’s reiterate some other facts. TS has a massive store of goodwill, I can’t imagine there is a single Addick out there who isn’t delighted he is the owner of our club. None of this should be taken to mean discontent on that front (results on the pitch are of course another matter). Let’s also acknowledge that if Duchatelet had sold Burstow under the same conditions, as well as giving family members positions in the club, we would have been back throwing pink pigs onto the pitch.

When Duchatelet bought Charlton and it was said his twin objectives were to break even and get promoted it didn’t take a football expert to point out that the two were contradictory. And the fact is that he managed to achieve neither. We have TS’ stated goals when he bought us. Do they still hold good? And a phrase that seems to be cropping up, cited in one recent report, that the “long-term strategy involves building a core of players to that eventually only a few improvements are needed every window rather than a wholesale reshuffle”. I may be missing something, but I fail to see just how you can build a core of players, unless they are ones whose best days are behind them (eg Watson, Gunter, Arter), especially in the third flight, where loan signings are a major factor, and especially if youngsters coming through are sold (that they are is fair enough but again it just isn’t compatible with ‘building a core of players’).

It is not unreasonable for the issue of objectives and investment plans for next season to be on the table for the Trust’s scheduled Q&A set for 3 March. And if you don’t mind staying up for it, Zynex is releasing quarterly and full-year results on Thursday, with a conference call starting 16.15 US Eastern Time. TS will be grilled by investors over prospects for the company. He is entitled to and will no doubt get a much more respectful audience from Charlton fans, but we are stakeholders in a similar fashion and two questions will need to be answered: first, what is the balance of priorities for next season between getting promoted and reducing the operating loss; and second, is the situation such that TS would be open to outside investment in the club. If the goalposts have shifted, fair enough; it would be better all round if that were acknowledged and communicated rather than fans getting increasingly frustrated.