The approach for Chris Wilder was serious enough to have been recognised with a rare official Charlton statement, but a short while ago another brief statement on the official site confirmed the deal is off.
I doubt we will ever know the full details, but it's hard not to jump to pretty obvious conclusions.
I've seen one or two credible sources suggest that the club (I assume this means Roland and Meire) refused to put into writing that Chris would have full control of football matters including player recruitment, and that's why discussions broke down. Let's face it, that explanation is entirely believable. Chris stood to lose nothing in hearing what Meire had to say, and I think it's pretty safe to assume he wasn't prepared to buy into whatever he heard.
And who in their right mind would blame him?
Personally I'd not even heard of Chris Wilder until this interview done the rounds on social media last November. I was struck instantly by Wilder's honesty when speaking so candidly during a period Northampton Town were on the brink of going out of business. A man of obvious principles, somehow Wilder led the League Two side not only to promotion but the league title.
I mean this with the greatest respect to Chris (and I genuinely mean that), but it is a sad reflection on how far Charlton have fallen that we can't secure the services of a man who's stock may well be high at the moment, but who has only ever operated in the lower leagues.
None the less, I wish Chris well. He deserves better than our shambles of a club anyway from what I can see...
The latest statement suggests "The club will now continue its search for a candidate to take the club forward". Expect Nebojsa Vignjevic to arrive in SE7 any day now...
Absolute joke. It just steadily gets worse.
Would that be Nobby The Interim ??
ReplyDeleteWell done to Chris, he'd obviously done his homework about the "regime" (given the publicity about the demonstrations anyone with half a brain would look into the reasons for present debacle at our club...) and, not unreasonably, probably asked for certain guarantees in writing...
ReplyDeleteThere is a constant to all our problems - RD and KM. Until those two muppets leave our club no self-respecting person in English football would touch us with a barge-pole.
The only positive is that at long last they are even looking at a British manager... problem is that their reputation precedes them and unless they relinquish their total control over recruitment policy it will be back to Norbert the interim from Belgium and the further decline of our club...
I would have loved to have seen Chris Wilder at the club (he's English after all and knows the lower leagues where we now reside - and may fall even further under the regime) but fair play to him.... he came, he saw, he left - and he probably didn't like what he saw!
Hopefully Chris will get a better deal somewhere else, he deserves it, he doesn't deserve the pain and anguish of 3 months at the Valley, for he surely wouldn't have lasted any longer before he walked, or was pushed, out.