Clichés
may be overused but that’s usually because they are grounded in truth. And
‘truth will out’ is a reliable maxim, not least because where there is
confusion and it’s unclear who to trust, what to believe, often one of the
parties involved will say or do something that that says all you need to know.
We got to learn a lot about Duchatelet because ultimately he couldn’t help
himself, when he felt he was ‘misunderstood’, and posted daft statements, which
made sense only to him, or gave himself away in interviews. Each time he opened
his mouth or put pen to paper it was another turn of the screw as Addicks shook
their heads in disbelief.
Seems
Matt Southall is cut from the same cloth, at least in terms of unmerited
arrogance, with his silly attempt to bully the Trust with the threat of
litigation for alleged defamation, for the sin of publishing verbatim answers
to questions put by fans to a Charlton Athletic director. Is it telling that
there is to the best of my knowledge no threat being made against the club for
publishing these answers on the official website? The Trust’s published response
is entirely appropriate and to be applauded. The unanimous support from Addicks
for the Trust ought to tell Southall something, but it probably won’t.
Anybody
who writes (in the email to the Trust) “I’d also like to note that I made time
in my incredibly busy schedule at short notice …” is so far up themselves as to
merit being viewed as an object of ridicule. Further evidence of such comes
from his Twitter feed (assuming it is a genuine one), which even includes a
retweet of an inane comment from Trump of all people. And to round things off,
the Conversation on YouTube involving Lyle Taylor leaves us in no doubt how
Southall is perceived. Add in the invoices and the Range Rovers, as others have
commented, whatever happens to our club, there is no role for him in it, which
just leaves him scrabbling around to try to secure a settlement or any other
funds he can before moving on.
Enough
of him, he will be fully out of the picture soon, what of our club? We’re just
days away from the anniversary of the Wembley play-off final triumph. That
evening we were looking forward to a campaign back in the second tier (I assume
we were, don’t remember that much about it), even though the assumption was it
would be a struggle at least as long as Duchatelet held on, with a realistic
expectation that promotion would hasten his departure. A worst case scenario
then would have been Duchatelet not selling up and relegation. I doubt we would
have guessed that a year later we would be facing the possibility of being
relegated on the basis of points per game having lost the final one at home and
the season frozen before the Hull match, under a transfer embargo, with the
threat of EFL sanctions hanging over us (including presumably points deduction
for either this season – if the decision is to relegate us on points per game the
least they could do is dock them from this season’s total – or next), with an
owner who may or may not have funds and may or may not be ready to at least pay
in enough to keep the club afloat, and the possibility that the transfer of
ownership will be made null and void by the former directors.
If
we end up relegated without another ball being kicked we could lay claim to
being the unluckiest club in the country. It would be grossly unfair, but if it
happens, so be it, this is an environment where there are no easy options
(personally I thought a guy on the radio backing playing out this season to a
close, even if it takes until Christmas, allowing the time to consider options
for next season, made sense). Such a kick in the teeth would presumably leave
it in doubt whether Lee Bowyer would want to stay to take on the rebuilding
task. That in turn will I guess be heavily influenced by the ownership
situation. If we have to prioritise the prime goal for us is to have a club to
support (including club staff being paid), after that to have the foundations
for optimism over the future (ie some resolution of the ownership situation,
whether or not it involves Tahnoon Nimer), only then comes retaining
Championship status by one means or another.
Let’s
end with a weightier matter. Much as we might love Abba (at least half of it), and
I was recorded with my partner Suzanne at the Abba museum in Stockholm howling
out the song, it has to be pointed out that at Waterloo Napoleon did not
surrender. He did lose, and retired from the field, but only surrendered six
weeks later, at Rochefort on the HMS Bellerophon.
