dgaard has built an unhappy Valley after arriving as the saviour

Charlton owner’s fall from grace leaves fans nervous about future

- Malik Ouzia

OVER THE summer, on a Charlton web forum, a supporter asked whether anyone had heard of a chap called Jarred Winn, rumoured for a backroom job at the club. "Knowing us," another replied, "we'd end up with Jarred Lose." Fatigued by a near-decade of intermittent chaos at The Valley, a general malaise was setting in among Addicks fans and, six months later, many have had enough, with the club 18th in League One and at risk of dropping into the fourth tier of English football, in its current form, for the first time.

Yesterday, under-fire owner Thomas Sandgaard announced an overhaul of the club's hierarchy and the appointment of four new senior figures. A final attempt at serious stewardship and a steadying of the ship, or the first signs of the beginning of the end? Most fans have been hoping for the latter, but not without trepidation at who or what may follow, having been burned before.

No sooner had Sandgaard announced the shake-up did it emerge that new finance director Ed Warrick had, only days earlier, registered a new company, SE7 Partners Ltd, in partnership with former Sunderland executive Charlie Methven, who has since said that the company is intended as a vehicle for possible future investment. Addicks fans are once again in limbo, amid the lack of clarity over the club's future.

It has been a remarkable fall from grace for Sandgaard, who was hailed as a saviour when he arrived at the club in September 2020. The loathed former owner Roland Duchatelet had sold the club the same year but the new owners, East Street Investments, turned out not to be quite as rich as they claimed.