Takes on last night’s Online Fan Meeting? Overall I guess I’m more sympathetic – and cautiously optimistic - than many others regarding the new ownership. And that’s fundamentally for a reason I’ve cited before and which was articulated by Paul Elliott: the owners of our club are not going to make any return on their investment unless and until we are either in the Premiership or within sight of it, and they have no wish to simply write cheques ad infinitum to cover our losses, so there is common purpose with the fanbase. They want what we want, which is not to say they will succeed but something which I’d say has not been the case at least since Duchatelet emerged on the scene.
Also, the importance of the January transfer window has, in my view, shifted greatly since the end of November. Had we entered it on an upward trend and with a realistic shot at the play-offs, I’d be among those howling for quality signings at whatever cost to go for it. That is no longer the case. The window is now about doing what is necessary to avoid a continued slide to the relegation zone. So for me the acid test of the window now is whether we end up avoiding a relegation struggle, not how we might start to shape up for next season. Of course if we were to end up getting relegated – and with two of our key players possibly to leave and already obvious shortages in personnel it is, while almost unthinkable, a possibility we have to acknowledge - they will have screwed up big-time, in which case if I was one of the investors I’d be looking at whether those employed to run the club should or should not be retained.
Assuming we stay up, I think we judge the new regime on what is done during the summer, not before. And quite frankly I wouldn’t blame the owners for shelling out next to nothing this month if short-term patches can be found. We are not going to build a squad to compete next season in this window. I’d guess that if the opportunity arises to buy someone who fits our requirements for both now and next season – most obviously Clarke-Harris – great, the club does all it can realistically to make it happen. But if not then so be it. there is no case to be made for simply spending money. If we bring in a veteran or two on short-term deals or loans, not a problem. Personally I’d be putting in a call to Amiens to ask them how much it would cost us to take Andy Carroll for 12 months (or less), or to Bristol Rovers to see if Marquis might be tempted away. I'm really not joking.
As for what was actually said, there were not surprisingly no revelations, it wasn’t a forum for breaking news or spilling the beans. It was a PR exercise and one to be built on, taking at face value what Rodwell said about being open to engagement. There was one occasion when I thought it might get interesting, when he was asked about why Appleton is being given the time that Holden was not. I thought Rodwell was able to wriggle out of that one by trying to imply this left them ‘damned if we do, damned if we don’t’ rather than addressing just why it is different now. He did start to suggest that what was going on on the training ground didn’t look good under Holden, but it’s hard to avoid the impression that it’s different now because when they arrived on the scene they were happy to appear decisive, but now repeating the exercise, ditching a man so quickly they chose themselves, would leave them open to ridicule.
There was a hint from Rodwell that ‘matters are underway’ as regards acquiring The Valley and Sparrows Lane, but it was no more than a suggestion that a long-term process may have begun. I think we can rule out any concrete moves while we are in League One.
On the squad front, there was the suggestion of a breakdown of an ideal squad for Charlton, involving eight ‘elite League One players’, eight ‘reliable’ ones, and eight academy graduates. It’s the sort of thing that seldom stands up to serious scrutiny as you can’t categorise players (including loan players) in such a simple fashion, while it also begs certain questions, such as ‘if you have eight elite players are they all in different positions and do they all start, if available? But it's a rule of thumb and what the grid did highlight was that if Dobson and Blackett-Taylor are sold in this window, beyond May we’d be struggling to put any others into that first category (some, like Fraser, could get in there when on song, Aneke when fit - but neither's the case at the moment). The implication would be we need to sign say half a dozen ‘elite’ playes, which is clearly a task for the summer, not now.
On other matters, Rodwell indicated a desire to bring down losses, from £6-7m a season, which is understandable. But he wasn’t really pressed on how this is to be done and whether this might come at the cost of compromises on the player front. I hope it is impressed (if not tattooed) on the new owners that they can forget about reducing losses by raising revenues (other than player sales) as long as we are in the third flight. The immediate priority, when it comes to season ticket prices, is to try to avoid a further decline. To achieve that requires reason to believe that next season will not be more of the same, not the quality of the pies on offer.
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