Zynex’s CEO Rockstar Thomas Sandgaard is the recent name to come into the frame as The Addicks look for a new owner to take over the troubled club.
Can you get 20/20 on this Charlton Academy Players quiz? I bet you can’t, but feel free to prove me wrong!
I managed to get in contact with the prospective new owner and he spoke about his intentions for our great club and here is what he had to say
Kieran Keogh – How did you find out about Charlton and what made you interested in
buying the club?
Thomas Sandgaard – I started looking at buying a football club in England a few months ago, did research and softly contacted nearly a dozen potential names through friends that already had the connections, then quickly narrowed it down to just a few clubs. It didn’t take long thereafter to see that Charlton Athletic was the right club to focus on. I then flew to London and met with a lot of people such as Peter Varney, the attorneys from Freshfields and many others that have been supporting me throughout this process. One of my friends took me out to the Valley to peak into the stadium, the fan store outside, etc and I was very impressed. This as well as the massive training grounds that I also saw are truly worthy of a Premiership club!
KK – Do you have a plan for the footballing side of things?
TS – As for the football side of things – that is clearly the key to everything! First of all, I want to make sure we keep in place what is already working, Bowyer, Gallen etc. My intention is to continue our style of positive, high-energy football. I don’t think there is a whole lot to change on the football side to begin with. Most importantly make sure everyone knows they’ll have my full support!
KK – With the training ground and The Valley belonging to Roland Duchatelet, do you plan to acquire both at the start or further down the line?
TS – At this point it is difficult to say how the negotiating about the real estate will play out. I am very confident that I will eventually be able to come to an agreement so that can all be behind us. The clarity from the EFL last week obviously helped in terms of being able to move forward.
KK – Have you been in contact with anyone at Charlton since the story on The South London Press went live?
TS – Yes, there has been a few people from the club that have reached out. It is great to start to get to know everyone. The biggest thing is obviously the response from the fans that have been extremely supportive.
KK – Do you have long-term plans for the club and if so, can you elaborate on what that plan would entail?
TS – Long term I believe Charlton has a natural place in the Premiership. How long it’ll take to get back is very difficult to say at this point. But basically it is one game at a time, winning lose balls, completing passes, scoring goals and winning games!
He certainly sounds like he wants to take Charlton back to the big time and I’m sure all the fans can back him on that one, but the main thing that sticks out is that he backs Bowyer and Gallen and he wants them to stay at the club, it shows he understands what the fans want especially on the football side of things.
So far so good from Sandgaard, I have to say I would like to see him take over the club he sounds like he would be an exciting owner, obviously we still have Varney and Barclay in the offing and they would still be the more go to candidates because of Varney’s previous position at the club, but I have to say life under Sandgaard could be exciting too.
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