We are very grateful to our friends at The Charlton Dossier who recorded this interview with Charlie Methven in May and have now released it because the take over of Charlton Athletic by Global Football Holdings is all but completed.

The interview covers areas such as the role he sees himself fulfilling at the club; the probable structure and the individuals who will fill the key roles; the aspirations of the investors; a shadow board; the importance of the Academy and much more.

Some excerpts:

"I’m not much good at managing large numbers of people"

"but what I think I am naturally suited to is making money. I do bring in money, not just investors, but squad sponsors and advertisers and all that type of stuff."

"What I think what you don’t want, ideally, are investors or owners who aren’t from a football industry background having a heavy day to day imprint on the running of the club."

"we’re all pretty united about the approach, which is that the executives must be empowered. You know, you can’t backseat drive, and then expect them to take responsibility for these decisions"

"Clearly, I think everyone can see, at least in our view, you can tell me if I’m wrong, that the number one priority of this football club has to be to get out of League One because it doesn’t work as a football club in League One."

"we will be creating a shadow board, who the executives would also have to report into, I think that’s going to become mandatory within the year. So it makes sense to get ahead of that and set up that shadow board."

"And I think to engage in a structured continual way with senior stakeholders, obviously Supporters Trust representatives, sponsors, other supportive groups Community Trust, to have those bodies represented on a shadow board. And for them to be able to input into those choices and priorities at an early stage..."

"I don’t really think this is being done for a return on investment. If you think about the proportion of their net worth that this would form, even if it became successful, would be small."

"And, you know, probably this is a very small part of their portfolio, whereas for me, it’s quite a large part of mine.

It’s absolutely no interest in coming in just getting it promoted, selling it, you know, flipping it, etc to make 10 or 15 million quid – whilst that’s very meaningful for people like me, for people like them, that just wouldn’t be interesting, exciting, etc."

The full interview:

https://thecharltondossier.com/charlie-methven-on-the-record/

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