The Sadim Touch

For a time the regime merited a little goodwill, as acknowledged by a number of its critics (ie the majority of Charlton supporters), with its reaction to the murder of PC Keith Palmer. The initial tribute, then the announcement that the club will be donating 50% of ticket sales to Mr Palmer’s family, with the players adding their match appearance fees, struck the right note. I’m in my second season of boycotting games (I have attended a couple when given a ticket which no-one had paid for, having been outside on CARD duty) but will be there tonight, for obvious reasons. I won’t be wearing a protest shirt or scarf, not because anything’s changed on that front but because the night is about paying tribute to a man, one who was also an Addick. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’ll be going despite the disgraceful comments posted on Facebook by Sue Parkes in the wake of Saturday’s defeat. I’d guess that by now everyone’s seen them and they certainly don’t merit being repeated, for whatever purpose, or given the dignity of any sort of detailed reply. They echo the previous deplorable attempt by Katrien Meire to label protesting fans as motivated by racism and sexism (an easier explanation for them than protests being a reaction to their stupidity and incompetence), which amounted to an unjustified slur on the good name of our club, one which has not yet (I believe) been apologised for. But they go further; to say that they were in poor taste is an understatement.

We’ve all said and done (and written) things we wished we hadn’t, perhaps in the heat of the moment; when we do an apology is in order. I hope Ms Parkes has the intelligence and decency to acknowledge that what she wrote was entirely inappropriate. Just that I suspect from the sanctimonious and schoolmarm-like tone of what she wrote this is unlikely. In the absence of an apology I would hope that the regime would go out of its way to dissociate itself with her remarks. But given that the club site’s ‘Media Watch’ page had a link to a couple of Kent Live pieces but not the one titled ‘Charlton Athletic secretary’s wife Sue Parkes provokes Twitter storm’ we may be waiting in vain. I appreciate that Ms Parkes was not writing in any official capacity, but she is hardly an unaffiliated casual observer.

I have no doubt that all Charlton fans will rise above Ms Parkes’ insults and not allow them to interfere with tonight’s proper tribute. Just that they add to the impression that any time there’s some area of possible rapprochement with the fans the regime and its cohorts manage to screw it up. It’s happened so often you start to believe it’s deliberate policy rather than ineptitude.

Could say the same about the club’s recently published results. The statement on them on the club site read as though the regime was trying to stress that they did all they could to avoid relegation, spending well above budget in a desperate attempt to stay up. All that comes across is more evidence of mismanagement, with an emphasis on ‘desperate’. You came away with the impression that they could have run up double or treble the loss and the outcome would have been the same.

Of course we hope that the tired and resigned appearance of Ms Meire in the aftermath of Saturday’s final whistle amounts to further circumstantial evidence that, despite having assured Karl Robinson that they will never, ever sell and his job is safe for life, honest, the regime is in its final phase before we can welcome in new owners, just as we welcomed Duchatelet at first. It is the only viable way forward, perhaps even the regime is coming around to that view, which only leaves them to look for and accept a realistic offer. I’ve no inside info on this, just stand ready, with dancing shoes to hand, to join those returning following a change.

In the interim there is no good reason for CARD to let up and the reports from Belgium over the weekend and the calling for another joint protest with Coventry fans are both welcome (in the sense that they are necessary and appropriate, not that we like protesting for its own sake).