All things considered, a sacked interim Head Coach and the appointment of a new one, large-scale unrest amongst the customers supporters, growing national press criticism of a failing regime heading for self-destruction and the small matter of a woefully under-performing team, you might have imagined our CEO would have been a bit more visible lately, and, dare I say it, embracing her accountability for the utter mess we're in.
That's what good leaders do, isn't it?
When I took a very quick look over the club's official website I had to go all the way back to the 13th of December to find the last news story with a direct quote attributed to Katrien Meire. Interestingly, the story was about the ludicrously ambitious Target 20,000 and announced the names of the 10 supporters who will sit on the task panel, one of whom was the Voice of the Valley editor, Rick Everitt. I found it very odd at the time and since then I believe Rick has distanced himself from the panel, suggesting he never sought to be involved and his name was used without his permission. Rick, of course, is a leading name amongst the protestors and the new CARD imitative.
It's also the last time Target 20,000 has been mentioned officially...hardly a driving initiative then.
Since leaving Colchester in the kit mini-bus with the hapless and doomed, Karel Fraeye, it's just gone from bad to worse. I don't believe Meire bothered to attend the heavy, embarrassing defeats at Huddersfield or Hull this week, leaving the support dwindling in the directors box as well as in the stands. One could forgive the fans, of course, but not the leader of our club...
I would like to think that Meire's continued absence is a sign that she knows her time is up, and nothing she can say or do will recover the complete loss of faith. After the turbulence of last week, above all else, I will be hoping for the announcement that she has left the club, preferably today.
Whether she actually means it or not, she has regularly displayed a shocking level of arrogance and has completely failed to empathise with fans on the emotional element of supporting Charlton Athletic. All of this has long-since made her position as CEO untenable.
If we are to 'get our Charlton back' we know enough to know it will be a long road, but Meire's departure would be a step forward. Whomever comes in to replace her could do no worse.
She's employing the failing middle managers handbook; as long as the boss thinks you're doing some thing keep your head down and all this will blow over. She has failed, she's a failure. She couldn't manage her way out of a brown paper bag.
ReplyDeleteGreat point, Rich. I did wonder if she is naïve enough to think this will all blow over. In the same way she was desperately hoping for a couple of wins to justify handing Fraeye the job full time, so she will be hoping Riga lifts our fortunes to allow her to crawl from under her stone.
ReplyDeleteFor me, that interview at the Irish web summit was the straw that broke the camels back and she cannot gain my faith again. She has to go.
How we need a lift, eh?
If Duchatelet doesn't ditch her before the season tickets go on sale, then it's safe to say he really doesn't care about the money.
ReplyDeleteI expect you're right there, Dave. Not entirely sure what RD does care about...
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