It is now two years since Roland Duchâtelet took control of Charlton Athletic. Whatever it is that he thinks he’s up to, the results don’t make pretty reading. Of the 93 league matches played since then, Charlton have won just 26, 29 have been drawn and an incredible (unless, that is, you’ve been unfortunate enough to witness the displays) 38 have been lost. For every goal that Charlton have scored, the opposition have averaged 1.39.
When looked at on a season by season basis, it’s fair to say that the Duchâtelet régime got off to a bad start. Forgivable, maybe, given that the playing squad that they inherited had been badly run-down, but not good. The following season, 2014/15, got off to a good start and then deteriorated into a seemingly endless run of draws. Whilst the current season has been an unmitigated disaster, with just four wins to date from 25 matches.
A short while ago when questioned about the high number of managerial turnarounds Charlton have made in the last two years, CEO Katrien Meire claimed that every decision was correct because the club improved every time. This is an out and out lie. We can safely discount Chris Powell in this who was never going to fit with the régime, also Damien Matthew and Ben Roberts who had the misfortune of leading the team for one match during the farcically hasty appointment of Guy Luzon.
If we look at the other appointments and how they have fared, quite a pattern emerges. First of all José Riga came in and he made quite a reasonable go of things. Under his leadership the team averaged 1.5 points per game. For whatever reasons though, Riga was allowed to slip away to Blackpool, probably the only club in the league with a worse set-up than Charlton. Bob Peeters was brought in to replace him. His team averaged 1.24 points per game. Next came Guy Luzon with 1.18. Finally we have Karel Fraeye, bringing in a relegation threatening 0.83 points per game.
So, far from Meire’s claim that every decision was right. Every managerial appointment made by Charlton in the last two years has been worse than the preceding one.
It was the original intention that this blog would be impartial and would simply report the facts. However, the last two years have been so bad that things need to be said: Karel Fraeye is just about as incompetent as a manager can get. Katriene Meire is out of her depth, and is certainly not suitable to be an executive. Roland Duchâtelet, the absentee landlord, has shown all the leadership skills of a dying worm. It is time for them all to go, because the statistics couldn’t get much worse than this.
staddickstics 