Charlton Fans flounder, while Marcus Bent shines for the Addicks

Did anyone else watch the mayday for nurses progam last night on Channel 4. If you did not then a brief summary is that Dr Noreena Hertz pledged at the Nurses Union conference that she would get all Premiership Footballers to give up a days wages for the Nurses as a way of making a point to the Government of how poorly they have and continue to treat the nurses. May day for Nurses has a website giving details of who donated. Dr Hertz failed in her objective, she only got about half of them, but as we know they are a bunch of greedy so and so's, so even that was a pretty good achievment.

Fulham, Blackburn, Bolton and Reading come out of this really well, with most of the squad if not all contributing. Wigan and Chelsea poorly only one player at Wigan and non at Chelsea, although to be fair they did donate on behalf of the Club. From watching the program Man U came out looking god, but then you see that on Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville contributed , so that was a bit rich.

What about Charlton, the good solid and gritty core of the squad contributed, a total of 8 players including Marcus Bent - 7 Englishmen and an Icelandic international.

There is also a league table of fans who have contributed. Leading the way by almost 4,000 fans are Spurs, with 6,722 doners. In 11th place are Chelski - ok just cause the owner uses paper roubles to wipe his .... it does not mean the fans have loads of money and in 20th and bottom place are Charlton with only 370 fans, 60 below 19th Bolton and over 6000 fans less than Spurs. We can still donate now, its not too late.

Incidentally Dr Hertz is an economics academic who has written several books.given that pedigree, I wonder if our own outstanding blogger Wyn Grant could start his own campaign next year "Mayday for Charlton bloggers!"

The Grotesqueness that is the Premier League

OK, I admit it, I am a tad jealous of the teams that are in the 1st tier of English Football. So I have admitted that, but now the serious point.

As I was on the Bus today reading the Independent I was struck by an article on Rhys Weston, formerly of Arsenal and Cardiff, at 26 waiting for the phone to ring to resurrect his career. Weston as the article points out made his Arsenal debut with fellow debutant Ashley Cole and went to Lilleshall with Scott Parker. He's been on a fair wack, the Championship average earnings is £180,000 and last season he dropped to around £60,000. So should we feel sorry for him, probably not but he is an honest professional, he has done ok, till now and he'll probably get a new contract some where. But if you just look at whats happening above his level, into the 1st tier of English football, the world has gone mad................ again. Joey Barton a talented player with a temperament that would see him sharing a cell with his half brother, is moving to Newcastle and will earn a wacking £70,000 per week and whats triggered this move - not stubbing a cigarette out in the eye of a fellow player, no it was an assault on his team mate putting him in hospital and is still threatening to go to court, West Ham under our own former esteemed leader are possibly going to bid £20 million for former Palarse forward Andy Johnson, the same Andy Johnson who at the beginning of last season moved for £8 million - has he really improved that much or has the gravy boat spilled over with the new tv deal and are the premiership teams splashing out on wages and transfer fees - not for glory but for a position next year behind Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Whatever happened to our beautiful game, now it is a dollars and cents business with loads of roubles thrown in, half wit skilless millionaires are being snapped up by Premier League teams - Marlon Harewood for £4 million - ffsake - leaving players with only heart and commitment for the Championship to contend with and if they ever show a sign of quality they will be snapped up for a reserve game in the FA Premier League, unable to progress unable to leave.

I really hope that we get back at our first attempt, but I also really question if we will ever now be able to compete at top flight level again.

Rednapps Nuts

Big Herman has already departed to Pompey and now allegedly Matty Holland is on his way, for a two year contract. Now no one would begrudge these two stalwarts of recent Charlton campaigns another couple of seasons on the old Premiership gravy train, but if I was a Pompey fan I would be seriously asking myself HAS HARRY GONE NUTS ... both players are at the end of their careers, their performances during the last two seasons have been below the standard required to hold down a premiership place consistently. Oh yes Holland did well, but lets face it he hardly tore up any trees with his performances, huffing and puffing around the park keeping his shorts persil white and if we had stayed in the Prem more than likely he would be released. One goal from this mid field dynamo all season and lets not forget his miss against Watford that, if scored, would have avoided the need for missibe to be blamed for the final minute dropping of two points. As for Herman, bless his cotton socks, he seemed for most of the season too intent on have an argument with nobody and making crucial mistakes in front of goal to really be considered Prem material anymore. But hey, if Harry is up for it, we can point him in the direction of a few others that would not be considered worthy of the Prem, Marcus Bent would be a great buy Harry come on down mate, he's all yours.