Thursday 14 February 2008

Charlton end takeover talks

Charlton have ended their discussions about a possible takeover. The club will remain in its current ownership: Takeover

Given the lack of news for some time, during a period in which other Championship clubs had found investors, this is not surprising news. It will probably be welcomed by most of the Addickted.

The Dowie and Reed fiasco notwithstanding, the current board has done a good job, clearly has the interests of the club at heart and has a defined and distinctive vision. My only concern would be whether we will be able to raise the resources to survive at Premiership level. There is a lot of talk about the Thames Gateway, but most of the people moving in there will already have allegiances.

The attempt to stage Premiership games overseas looks like part of a move towards a winter break and I would not be surprised to see the league reduced to 18 clubs soon, particularly if the likes of Bristol City or Stoke go up.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How can this possibly be a good thing?You recently pointed out our directors have awarded themselves what amounts to 3 and a half percent interest payments over base rate when the bank onlyy charge 2 percent! How can we be screwed more by our own apparently caring directors than the bank which would cost less in loans?.It is simple pocket lining and more like why they dont want to bring much needed outside investment in.The mess we are in is entirely the fault of murray and the gang.

Anonymous said...

The fact we're still in existence, is entirely because of 'Murray and the gang'

Anonymous said...

How do you make this out? Attempts to invest from outside have been blocked,Does that make it alright for our board to loan money to the club,secured on The valley,and allow themselves to claim interest payments at three and a half percent more than the base rate,when the bank only charge two percent more! Why are we not getting all loans from the bank? Although they are not allowing outside investment it is clear we do not have a pot to pass water in! Why is this? The club is being used as a cash cow.

Anonymous said...

anonymous (and rightly so)
1) the story about 'an offer' is and always was cobblers, indeed sufficiently seriously inaccurate that the club is intstructing its lawyers
2) have you any notion as to how much of their own hard earned cash various benefactors have nominally 'loaned' to the company? They make no secret of the fact they have done so with no realistic ambition of having the amounts repaid. Which banks do you know that lend unsecured indefinite sums to any organisation, let alone perpetual loss makers like football clubs?
Bandying around your kind of blindly ingorant rancour, insult and untruth is at best unhelpful, indeed your drivel could be actionable.

Anonymous said...

'Murray and the gang' have invested more of their money into Charlton Athletic than you could 'Shake a stick at' They understand finance at this level, i don't. But i do understand without them CAFC would not exist. Additionally i have no desire to see MY football club owned by a bunch of foreign investors with no interest in the clubs' history and culture, who would intentionally or otherwise destroy CAFC as we know it.

Anonymous said...

It's true without Murray and the gang, we'd still be at Selhurst or Upton Park and would never have experienced the highs of the Premiership in first place. I wouldn't want to see some foreign investor running the club either, but if we are ever going to become an established Premier league team we are going to need a large investment from somewhere, and I don't think that the current board alone can provide it in the long term.