Fickle emotions

Its funny how fickle our emotions can be. Less than a week ago, after we tonked Gillingham 5-0, I was up for automatic promotion, if not Champions, today I have been waiting to hear about one of our two new signings, but all I have heard is that Diawara, the most expensive centre half nobody has ever heard of, has agreed terms with Bordeaux.

Suddenly I am questioning whether we will make the play offs. What's happened to the golden boy, is his injury really a three week thing and he'll be in contention for Stoke or is it like Beckhams ankle and stretches back weeks. As the season approaches, apart from the mood swings, optimism to down right pessimism, the butterflies in my stomach are getting more lively, the next stage will probably be loss of appetite (not a bad thing). I can't wait till tomorrow against Braga, just to get a feel of the team,but the big one will be next week against Scunny.
My mood at the moment is deep pessimism where are all the premier loans that were due to come our way. Its alright to pick up hopefuls and 0ld pro's but we need some men of the moment so I hope Murray has a few shillings set aside for a January purchases, cause I think we may need them.

Look out tomorrow to the Addicks Championship Diary for the best blog match report.

FIFA support cheats

No sooner do the Scottish FA announce that they are going to try and stamp out diving by post match video referrals than FIFA, the supposed guardians of our game, announce that it could be against the rules.

The game is being blighted by cheating and diving. A friend of mine lives in Canada and he went to see the recent U 20 tournament, his comments were

"I DID ATTEND THE CHILE/ARGENTINA UNDER 20s WORLD SEMI-FINAL THOUGH AND WHILE IT WAS TOP CLASS FOOTBALL I WAS APPALLED AT THE MENTALITY OF THE TEAMS WITH THE DIVING, FAKING, SIMULATION ETC.,"

This behavior is ruining the game and for FIFA to take a stand not against the teams doing, but against the associations trying to stamp it out is ridiculous. They are undermining referees, who can easily be mistaken in the heat of the moment and are then ridiculed by TV pundits, with the benefit slo mo's. If a player knew that he could be booked / banned for a dive, even if it were not noticed during a game surely this would stamp it out.

And while we are on the subject of indiscipline on the field, there was a skysport feature regarding swearing, Robert Greens answer seemed to be to allow the professionals to get on with it, but penalise the kids, so that by the time they grew up to be professionals then they would eradicate on pitch swearing. Where as we normally talk about professionals being role models for children it seems that Robert Green see's it the other way round.

I'm not against the odd liberal use of the F word, but I do not see the need to be shouting F's and C's across the pitch and the TV companies should not be showing it, they are after all the paymasters and they should be putting pressure on the leagues to clean up their acts. Discipline is breaking down in our society and the treatment of authority on the pitch with disdain, disregard adn indifference, broadcast to easily influenced kids, is a factor that contributes to this.

Addickted to winning

Is the Headline on the Ebbsfleet website as Charltons reserves and kids went down 5-1, last night. There is no mention of the team or the result on the Official Charlton site, focusing on the triumphant 0-0 draw against the Shots (Now updated, but you read it here first - Mark Debolla getting a revenge goal).

Looks like Pards had decided to play last night safe, with really only 2nd teamers and beyond getting a decent run out. hopefully, those of us with tickets will see some sort of 1st team against Braga on Saturday, although lets not go over board as we will get a decent look the following Saturday, when we see the real thing against Scunny.