Saturday Morning Doodles

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A fair amount seems to have happened this week. I watched the Derby game in a hotel lounge in Guernsey, and not since the Southampton game have I thought that we had reached a positive turning point, its going to be interesting to see if Parkie can maintain the momentum this time at Norwich. To be fair to Derby thye should not have had a goal chalked off for offside and that ,ay have changed the game, but it didn’t and it was chalked off so na na na to Paul Jewell, who is one of those people that I instantly dislike. I really wish that it had been Wigan relegated a couple of seasons ago and not Sheffield Utd and if you knew how much I disliked and then Manager Warnock you would realise how much I dislike Jewell.

It was a cruel 94^th minute goal and where did they get four minutes from. Some fans have criticised Basey, but what was he supposed to do?

The thing that came out of the TV coverage of the match was the lack of rapport Varney has with the Charlton fans and even their players, there was no sign of banter amongst the players, even when he bowled Fortune over on the touchline. When interviewed after the game, I would have expected him to have made some condescending statement about how he hoped we would get out of it and, however insincere, how he appreciated the fans. I was a fan of Varney for about three months after he joined, a young up and coming forward with a strong record in the third tier, although a poor record in the second level and anyone who can command £2.5 million has to have something going for him. Plus, of course the words of Pardew were still credible “I know what it takes to get out of this division and the types of players that we need.” Oh how hollow that sounds today after Pardew mhas destroyed the clubs foundations. But back to Varney, after a few months the OS announced his 25^th birthday .. but hold on a 25 year old with a relatively average scoring record (152 appearances, 52 goals, 1 in 3, 1 in 6 for Charlton) with one good season at third tier level!! At this point I lost faith, he was no longer up and coming but was at the beginning of his peak.

Dickson has asked for a transfer and a number of fans are up in arms that he has not been given a chance at 1^st team level. There is a special Facebook group. From what I have seen of Dickson he is not up to it at this level, but then I have only seen him play for about half an hour over two years.Whilst he maybe a goal scorer and there is little doubt of that. In 135 1^st team appearances from non league to international he has scored 73 goals, but it is a big jump from non league to Championship and it was in non league that he scored the 66 of them. To me the opportunity for us to have some one to fire in goals to take us to safety lies more in Wagststaff, Gray, Burton, Todorov and, even McLeod.

This season, regardless of who we have in the defence they are rubbish, even when we had Dranie, Hudson, Fortune, McCeveley we still looked shaky and I really can’t understand it. It may not be a Premier League defence but it is way better that bottom of the Championship. Are our defensive weaknesses a continuation of the three four season long problem we have had with central midfield, the problem that Bailey was meant to solve and does this area then continue to be priority for the January transfer window, when hopefully we can find something to bring in at least one player