The Curtain Comes Down

Finally, tomorrow sees us reach the last home game of the season. A season that didn’t quite see us blow the league out of the water or emulate Hull City as we were told at the end of last season. 

We can look forward to another season of League One football playing against a number of relatively smaller clubs who have mostly achieved more than we have and can rightly consider to have made progress. 

As far as The Addicks are concerned there’s been no progress of course. Despite what we might hope are the best of intentions from Sandgaard, we’ve gone backwards.

I accept that he has to right the wrongs of years of neglect but increasingly he seems to be going about it the wrong way.

We’ve lost some valued members of staff and their replacements or new additions don’t exactly inspire. The latest is Mr De Souza. Time will tell of course but his CV doesn’t fill me with much hope!

The one thing that appears increasingly clear about Thomas is that he refuses to learn from his mistakes. I’m struggling to think of one decent appointment that he’s made.

Employing your family is always a risky thing to do as it opens you up to the obvious nepotism jibe. The jobs for the boys shout so true.

Again, I hope I’m wrong and that Martin is successful but again nothing in his employment history suggests he has the skills or experience to do so.

The club desperately needs a CEO of course but again Sandgaard stubbornly refuses to employ one at present. Maybe, in 3 years time, there’s no rush apparently.

Rumours have started that he is looking to sell the club. If that’s true then it might explain the reluctance to appoint senior folk. I do believe there are folk out there willing to invest.

The clear out of players that is so necessary started this week with the departure of Gunter, Watson and Souare. There are a few more that need shipping out yet. Let’s see what happens.

There’s a lot of time for things to change between now and the kick off for next season. Let’s see what happens. However, at present I’m not overly optimistic.

Sadly, tomorrow will be my last match as a season ticket holder for a while. I’ll still be going but attending those games as and when I can. I couldn’t justify the expense of renewing (£575 and presumably £625 for the season after next).

This is a massive decision for me given my lifelong support of the club and that I’ve had a season ticket since 1998.

All the freebies aside, this is league one football for goodness sake. Many other clubs in tier 3 and above offer the same for so much less.

Sandgaard missed an opportunity to do something radical with the season ticket offering but completely failed to do so.

This season I got a free ticket, a cheap drink and discount in the club shop. It wasn’t much but it was better than next season’s.

No thought was given to a variety of initiatives that could have been employed.

Come 5pm I’ll depart The Valley for a couple of months until August comes along. Then I guess I’ll start all over again hoping that we can finally have a decent season.

I’ve no sense of self-entitlement but I do expect to see entertaining football with an organised and well drilled team that challenges at the top of this table.

Personally, I’d be more than happy with Champ football. The Prem with its silly kick off times, grossly overpaid players and ticket prices to match, holds little appeal to me as much as I enjoyed our time previously.

Just give me an honest, hard working team that is proud to wear the shirt!

Come On You Reds!