It’s been a grim time down at The Valley. Harvey Clare spoke to two Charlton supporters to get their thoughts on the Addicks’ miserable 2015-2016 season.
Since 2014 Charlton have had five different head coaches and have also been fighting off relegation. Many fans blame the owner Roland Duchâtelet’s decision making and the club’s chief executive Katrien Meire.
The fans have felt the heartache the most. It was supporters who after all, saved the club in the 1990s and brought it back to the Valley. So it is understandable that they are so disappointed.
Two of the most prominent fans who have been active in voicing supporter concerns are Rick Everitt, editor and publisher of the Charlton Athletic fan site Voice of The Valley, and season ticket holder Ben Hart, who lives a stone throw away from the stadium and has had a season ticket for almost 10 years’ now.
Rick started off as a Charlton reporter then later became an editor of respected newspapers Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham Mercury for nine years. Most recently Rick has been introducing the Valley Express for The Addicks faithful.
Rick lays out the unhappy situation at his club: “The season has followed the same pattern as the previous one, with a promising start subsiding into disarray because the squad is not strong enough.
“This has been compounded by inexperienced and inadequate direction by the head coaches”
Ben agreed, describing the state of affairs as “awful. I barely go to the games anymore, the football is so poor, I never went to Charlton for great football but it’s awful at the moment.
“The club doesn’t have the same feel to it because the fans are just so frustrated and the re-appointment of Karel Fraeye was the last straw for a lot of people.”
Looking forwards the future Ben said: “Our owner (Roland Duchâtelet) needs to see us as a priority. He could make a lot of money out of us if he got us into the Premier League.”
Ben claimed that Charlton need people on the board with experience of English football to take hold of the club “and not someone drafted in from Roland’s network of clubs”.
Rick also see a problem with Roland Duchâtelet arguing that it comes down to his poor recruitment decisions and his lack of leadership and management capabilities.
Neither are Rick or Ben a fan of The Addicks CEO Katrien Meire. They both agreed that her inexperience and lack of autonomy has led to poor decision making off the pitch whist saying her comments have created hostility between the fans and board. “She’s out of touch with the fans”, Ben added.
Both he and Rick are fearing the worst come May as they believe their beloved club might not be able to get out the relegation battle, “I don’t think we will (stay up), If we do I think it would only be down to other teams being worse than us,” said Ben. Rick simply added: “It may already be too late.”
The south-East London club currently sit bottom of the league table. They play a crucial match against 14th place Brentford away this weekend.
You can find out more about Rick Everitt and the work he’s doing with Charlton through http://www.votvonline.com/about-us/. You can also follow Ben Heart and Rick Everitt on Twitter under the usernames @SuperBennyHart and @Airmanbrown