We need a hero!

We need a hero, a Valley favourite who we can hang our hat on and who we can chant for through out the game. Rob Lee, Leaburn, Mendonca, Johnny Robinson, Stevie Brown - he won't let you down - have all held the mantle, but of the players left over from last season, or the newbies that have just joined, whose poster is going on the bedroom walls of 14 year old teenage girls or will be preferred to the wife of 50 year old men

Our longest serving players are Johnathan Fortune & Osei Sankofa. Now I don't want to be mean, but neither player is exactly inspirational to your average fan and you suddenly realise how devastated the team has become from the ravages of Curbishleys last two seasons and more from Dowie and Murrays folly.

Of course, this time next season we will have a player or collection of players who we admire and who have taken a place in our hearts for their endeavors on the field, be they scoring goals, putting in effort above the call of duty or just that we know they would die for the shirt. Until then we have a season of players building their reputations with us. At the moment, the front runner for the hero for next season, the inheritor of Clive and Richard R's mantle seems to be Luke Varney, he's young, he's blond, good looking and he has the reputation of a goal scorer, so until he gets back on the field and starts to miss a few sitters he looks like our hero, but it maybe at the back that the candidate waits Moo2 or Semedo, could Nicky Weaver totally redeem himself and become the man.... it would be ironic if he were to become next seasons player of the year, one hopes not, nothing to do with Nicky but for a keeper to become Player of The Season then he must have been busy.




The truth is when the teams come out of the tunnel against Scunthorpe, we will not recognise the majority of them and will take a few matches before we have decided who we have taken to our hearts and can do no wrong and who can do little good and take over the berth of Kevin Lisbie.

There are going to be a lot of new experiences this year, our heroes will just be one of them.

Pardews Socks

On a recent mailing list the issue of Alan Pardew tucking his trousers into his socks was raised and it was felt that this fashion "faux pas" should go on no longer.

From "The Hill" we would urge the club to build into any further contract that Alan should not undertake this departure from an otherwise suave and sophisticated appearance.

All true Addicks are urged to sign the petition to stop Alan's fashion error. Alan Pardews Socks.

Well it is the sily season and apart from the unconfirmed Sinclair and Young news there is nothing else to write about.

Scunthorpe result poll findings

107 fans voted on the result expected against Scunthorpe and the pre season optimism has continued, despite the departure of Lisbie to Layer Road (possibly - he's not signed yet so we could still get him back). Having said that 14% of fans do not think we will get a victory (6.5% going for a defeat and 7.5%, including me, going for an opening match draw).

Just under 21% of fans were ultra confident, expecting a minimum of three goals between us and the Irons, whilst the most popular difference was 2 goals (34%) and 24% did not care the goal difference as long a we got off with a victory.

As the season approaches and we dust down our rituals, it becomes one of the most anticipated seasons I can remember as an addick. Whilst most of us are confident of at least a top 6 finish, there is also a lot of trepidation as we venture forth into the unknown of the fizzy pop league with a largely untried squad. The pre season so far has gone well, but there has been no real test as Pards has gone for confidence and team spirit building. Gillingham may well be the 1st real test this coming Saturday and maybe then we will have a clearer view of our prospects next season.

Tevez Affair the sequel part IX

The Tevez affair continues to drag on, as reported on the BBC. FIFA were supposed to rule on the ownership of the ugliest man in Football, but for whatever reason they have suggested that it be taken to the Court of Sports Arbitration. If you don't know who this body are a brief description is:-

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is an institution independent of any sports organization which provides for services in order to facilitate the settlement of sports-related disputes through arbitration or mediation by means of procedural rules adapted to the specific needs of the sports world. The CAS was created in 1984 and is placed under the administrative and financial authority of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS). The CAS has nearly 300 arbitrators from 87 countries, chosen for their specialist knowledge of arbitration and sports law. Around 200 cases are registered by the CAS every year.

The dispute, in case anyone is interested, or confused, is who owns the rights economically for Tevez - West Ham or Kia Joorabchian. Man Utd have a wad of cash that they want to give to one of these two parties, so that they can parade the ugly forward line of Shrek and General Thade, but nobody knows who is the rightful recipient of the money. West Ham received the player along with his colleague at the beginning of last season for nothing from Kia's company, who had the economic rights to Tevez. Correctly, West Ham had to register him, for him to play for them in the Prem. However, in January, it was realised that if Kia's lot had the registration then West Ham were in breach of the rules of the Prem and there would have been no doubt that it would have led to a points deduction against West Ham.

So under the direction of the League, West Ham said to Kia, thanks for the player, a world class Argentinian, we are keeping him and you will get nothing if we sell him on.

So West Ham have a £25 - 40 million player who they got for nothing and the reason for this is that they decided that the contract they signed with Kia (under previous management) could not be enforced. Having said that, it has not been proved that it is unenforceable.

In effect what has happened is as if we went to a car dealer, bought a car with a loan and said to the loan company that you had decided to tear up the agreement with them and keep the car.

If Kia is right and he does own the player then West Ham were in breach of Prem regs at the end of the season and should have not played him in the run in. The form he showed during that period directly resulted in West Ham staying up. Having said that, most West Ham fans will tell you that he really did not do a lot and most Sheff U fans will say that he was the only player on the field. The truth is some where in between.

What is clear to me is that there continues to be total confusion amongst the authorities about Tevez's ownership and as a result the verdicts that have been handed down regarding West Hams guilt or lack of it seem dodgy to say the least. If it had been so simple, why have the FA and FIFA been unable to rule on this?

If it is not simple then the player should not have been allowed to participate in the final games of the season, let alone games from January, when the problem was first identified.

From a Charlton perspective it is not relevant, we beat West Spam 4-0 at home with Tevez in the side and through our own ineptitude were relegated. But if I were a Sheff U fan then the more we hear the more we realise that this whole episode stinks and the longer it goes on the more it stinks. If Kia wins in arbitration or the High Court, does it then mean that the League will act against West Ham continuing to play a player, who through the rules was inelligble or will they hold their hands up and declare that none of it was West Hams fault and let them off?

Alternatively, if West Ham are found to be acting correctly and have acquired a player of Tevez's ability for £0, what kind of punishment will a £5m fine have been, when they are receiving £25 m plus?

The Footballing authorities come out of this smelling badly, they have been incompetent and possibly even biased in their adjudications on this matter. Hopefully they will now be able, after the verdict, to start putting in processes, procedures and regulations to ensure in future there is total clarity in all actions, but then pigs may fly too.

I saw Rommedahl score at The Valley

Rommedahl seen here with fellow waster Francis "mines a pint" Jeffers, did score at the Valley contrary to recent reports and I saw it. A great run by Alexei Smertin bode well for the future, as he slipped the ball to Romm, who then scored a delicious goal, for all to savour. That was the good news, Romm scored at the Valley. The bad news was that it was against AEK Athens (European football came to the Valley), it was only a friendly and AEK went on to win 3-1. Smertin, Kishishev, Rommedahl and Murphy went on to command midfield for the next few Premiership matches before Curbs played around with the midfield fearing its success could never last and our season slowly died until were defeated on the last day of the season by Man U, in a tribute to Curbs's departure. By this time both Smertin and Murphy had upsticks, Smertin to Fulham, via Russia and Murphy to the stiffs of Tottenham where he continues to rot - how sad, what a pity, never mind. As a lasting memory of Smertin here is a picture of his misses with a family snap.

FOOTNOTE: There is a nice article on the Rommedahl good times by "All Quiet" and it made me realise in my heart of hearts I do wish Romm well, he was my type of player (a bit strange really - my type of player tends to be either the creative Romm type or the destroyer Ron Harris type) and I have only taken against him because, he never quite did what I knew and hoped he could. To be fair to him though, along with Matty, after every game he would applaud the fans, which is more than the Marcus's of the team ever did.