Charlton Athletic must not let ex-Leeds United "madman" near the Valley: View | OneFootball

Charlton Athletic have been far from impressive on the field this season, flirting with relegation to the fourth tier at one point, but off-field rumours regarding a takeover from ex-Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino may be more daunting than a poor season on-field.

The Italian was owner of the Whites between 2014-2017, and certainly didn't make a good record of himself while at Elland Road.

In the three years he was in charge at the Yorkshire club, he made erratic calls in terms of hiring and firing managers in what was a very chaotic period for the club, where they failed to finish in the top half in three out of the four seasons he was there.

So, with Charlton themselves going through a rocky period, should there even be consideration about selling the club to someone whose track record in England points the way to more chaos and disruption?

Cellino is eying a move back to England

As revealed recently, Cellino is looking to come back to England for a second spell as owner of a football club. The Italian currently owns Italian Serie B side Brescia, who sit seventh in the country's second division and has reportedly received a bid worth €18-20 million euros for the club from an unnamed American consortium.

It has been said though that he won't consider the sale of his current side unless he has a club to purchase and move onto after.

Therefore, he is eying up Charlton, a side similar to the 2014 Leeds United he took over, as a project. It could be said that, under his ownership, he may boost them from a languishing League One side, to a Championship, and potentially Premier League side again.

Charlton decade of owner mismanagement.

Despite the news of a new potential owner making headlines recently, Charlton fans will arguably not be getting too excited. In the past few years, the club has had a high turnover of owners and managers and have barely seen stability in South-east London.

Going back to the days under Roland Duchâtelet, when the Belgian first acquired the club in 2014, he sacked five managers in his first two years. He also oversaw two relegations before his 2019 sale, and regularly clashed with supporters, claiming fans "wanted to see the club fail".

Then, under successors East Street Investments (ESI), the club ended up getting caught in the middle of a war of words between ESI shareholders Matt Southall and Tahoon Nimer after they fell out and Nimer refused to inject any more money into the club. Manchester-based businessman Paul Elliot then attempted to take control of ESI, only to fail the EFL's fit-and-proper test.

While Elliot failed that test in 2020, the club were sold by Nimer to Thomas Sandgaard. In the Danish-American's time in charge of the club, the team would be in and around the League One play-offs, but never mount a firm challenge for promotion, leading them to languish in the third tier.

In his time at the helm, Sandgaard also saw popular manager Lee Bowyer resign, sacked club-legend Johnnie Jackson from his managerial position despite steering the club away from relegation in his one full season in charge, and then followed up that up with the short-lived tenures of Ben Garner and Dean Holden.

Finally, in 2023, Charlton were taken over by SE7 Partners, who are headed by former Sunderland director Charlie Methven. The club has seen its furthest slide so far under them, however, with this season seeing the club placed in 16th, having come dangerously near to the relegation zone in January.

Despite this, the club seemed to have finally stabilised under new manager Nathan Jones, and so, with rumours of a new owner coming in, and the potential of Cellino bringing with him a new managerial appointment, Charlton Athletic may not be out of their turmoil just yet.

Stabilising should not be derailed

As just mentioned, Charlton have finally begun to stabilise under Nathan Jones and so fans won't want Methven and SE7 to consider a sale just yet, as with that, it could knock Jones and his side.

Since arriving in February, the team have only lost once, and since that defeat, have remained unbeaten in 13 matches, winning four and drawing nine, leaving them to be confirmed as safe with 3 games to go.

Even talk of this takeover could potentially disrupt the team's good form, and may leave Jones and the squad already worrying about their futures. This would be far from ideal considering Jones and his staff are most likely planning for the summer transfer window already and will not want these future plans ripped up by new ownership.

When Cellino was Leeds' owner, he barely gave managers time to settle in before sacking them. In his first year at Elland Road he sacked no less than five managers.

*appointed pre-Cellino

So, even if there is a denial that Cellino's interest will amount to nothing more from SE7, the side from South East London should steer well clear of the Italian if they look to sell, as they could finally be turning away from the decade of troubles, and the appointment of Cellino would arguably plunge them straight back into a new era of worries.