Pray for Success with Charlton’s Chappell

The big news this week was off the pitch with the announcement by Charlton of a bond issue worth up to £20m.  The issue has to be ratified at an emergency General Meeting on March 10th but five directors have already said that they will support the issue to the tune of just under £14m.

It shows that the current board are confident in the future of the club and that that confidence extends to the new management arrangements.  Richard Murray will continue to run the football side of the club and Alan Pardew will report to him while Derek Chappell becomes Chairman of the PLC.

When I congratulated Derek on his new role his response was “I am very proud and have hardly taken the smile off my face all weekend, if ever!   It’s the impossible dream actually come true”.

But who is this Derek Chappell?   Well he’s a life long Charlton fan who first came to the Valley in the mid-sixties with his older brother but his family’s connection to the club go back further than that.  His father was a Charlton fan and his grandfather was a season ticket holder back in 1920.

His fondest memories are of the 70’s and players like Hales, Powell and Peacock although the time he drove up to see Charlton lose to Wolves in a cup game only for the old mini he was in to break down on the motorway on the way back is not a highlight.

Derek was born in Dartford but moved to Strood when he was five where he lived until he was 23.  He’s worked all around Kent; in the Medway towns, Maidstone, Canterbury, Ramsgate, Broadstairs and beyond and is proud of that connection with Kent despite now living in central London after spending some years in Scotland.

Derek made his money from a very successful healthcare business – he was once entrepreneur of the year – with hospitals in both England and Scotland.   They have now been sold and it was part of the proceeds that enabled him to buy a significant share in the club and join the board in 2005.  He still has a number of other business interests in England and Scotland plus a hospital in Vancouver which will no doubt create some interest from the many Canadian Addicks.

I’ve always felt that the way Charlton have over the years brought in more directors with their expertise, and money, while hanging on to the expertise, and money, of those who were already there has been one of our strengths.  Derek sees his stepping up to take on some of the Richard Murray’s responsibilities as another part of that evolution and a positive development of the club.

He may not be the exotic foreign investor that so many clubs seem to be looking for but, more important in my eyes, he’s a Charlton fan.