So far the new chairman Matt Southall has won the hearts of fans as we finally got exactly what we wanted after five years of absolute turmoil under Roland Duchatelet.
I think I remember the famous Seb Lewis saying something on the Charlton Unofficial and Uncensored Facebook group years ago, not quite sure why I remember this but still, he said at the beginning of Roland’s reign “maybe this is pain at first and gain later” (something around those lines at least) but now I really feel that comment more than ever.
We have a bright future ahead of us with Southall and the rest of the consortium, but we finally have someone who cares for the club and the fans have been more grateful than ever for his passionate presence at The Valley which is more than what could be said for one individual.
Southall spoke with Olly Groome the club’s journalist in an interview that will be out at 7 pm tonight on Valley Pass, here is a little preview of that
“Can I just say I honestly wasn’t expecting that, I saw on Twitter that we were having a FIFA tournament, so I said to Ravi [Patel – Commercial Manager], let’s go down and I’ll have a game of FIFA.
“We went in and it was George Lapslie was having a game, so Ravi said ‘I’ll show you the rest of the bar’. So, we walk through and you kind of see people taking a second look and we got to the end and this young lad came up and he said ‘Mr Southall can I get a picture with you?’ And I said ‘yeah, of course’. Then the next thing you know there was more and more people and you saw what happened! It’s not something we expected. But I guess given that the previous regime never really came to The Valley, it’s only natural.
At least he understands our excitement rather than thinking it was “weird” (Katrien Meire-2015) but in all seriousness how refreshing is it to have someone like Matt come into our club with open arms for the supporters, just puts Roland and his band of clowns to shame really.
Matt continued
“I’ve brought my family; my daughter because I’m a football fan myself, I enjoy coming to the games and I enjoy supporting the team.”
From that last comment alone, that has outlined why you buy a football club, because you love football. That should be the only reason why you will buy a football club, not to make money or let it become a business, you buy it because you love the game simple as and Southall certainly does, let’s hope Tahnoon Nimer and Jonathan Heller share the same vision as him.