From The Hill To The Valley

Reading Between The Lines

2011-08-10T18:27:00.000+01:00

Then postponement of the Reading game due to "SHEER CRIMINALITY"* causes a couple of problems for Chris Powell after his good opener against Bournemouth. If you are going to have a touchline ban then it is easier to serve it at an away game then you can hide in the tunnel and peek round the side every now and then. Reading would have been the second and last game for CP's ban but now it will not be completed until after the away game at Notts County, so he'll probably be in the stands on Saturday. Unlike others, I have a lot of confidence in Alex Dyer so am not to disconcerted by CP's touchline absence for one game away. Hopefully he will be more disciplined on the touchline this season and avoid further bans .. regardless of the provocation.

It was expected that CP would give Green a run out on Tuesday night, but the only run out available was at JD sports, so does he drop wonder strike Wagtaff for the man that we all expect to own the shirt or stick with his comment that the holder of the shirt would keep it if their performance warranted it. Apart from the goal which was brilliant, I was not impressed by Waggy on Saturday, but I fully expect him to keep the shirt, because of the wonder goal and also I suspect that he has better defensive qualities than Green. Green for the subs bench I think.

*Copyright Teresa May

Christians all at sea

2011-08-07T09:30:00.000+01:00

Last years Captain
Previous seasons Player of the Season

There was no sign of Christain Dailly at the Valley yesterday as the new partnership of Taylor and Morrison made their debut, instead he was part of the Charlton old boys match with Luke Varney, Herman Hreidarsson and Greg Halford for Portsmouth against Middlesborough's Nicky Bailey and Ikeme.

Dailly has a 1 month contract with Pompey.

Dailly's record for Charlton was 76 games and 1 goal scored on his debut, against Wycombe and three red cards.

The reckoning

2011-08-05T23:41:00.000+01:00

In less than 24 hours we will have had our first indication of how Charltons season is likely to pan out over the next 9 months. However, as Norwich fans will tell you one match in August a season does not make and only two seasons ago fir us an opening winning streak failed to deliver promotion.

Again during the summer personnel have used the revolving doors at Sparrows Lane and of last seasons starters, tomorrow, we are only likely to see Jackson, Elliot and Wagstaff starting, the latter two due to suspension and injury.

CP has put together a good squad which is much better than the squad that opened last season and there is more to come, although it has taken a while to realise that the promised significant investment would best be described as reinvestment. Carl Jenkinsons transfer money, if the alleged £1 million,followed in the footsteps of Lee Bowyer and Danny Mills whose transfer fees built promotion winning sides, without them.

The question mark that we will see answered over the coming months will be "Is CP up to it?". Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday fans have already stated that they see our manager as the weakest link and after an inauspicous start to management he has a lot to prove, but retains a well of goodwill from the fans. That well my run dry if the start is bad, but hopefully this squad will at least deliver a top ten place during the gelling process.

We start this season as we did last against Bournemouth, ourselves being distincly stronger and Bournemouth weakened by our strengthening, I am predicting 3-1.

CP isgoing to be absent from the touchline tomorrow, but we should have enough with him in the stands.

Englands partying U20's

2011-07-28T18:40:00.000+01:00

Englands U20's were caught partying in Columbia the venue for the U20 championship. Chief culprit was a tall black English player - anyone know who he is.

Sadly it does not appear that Jonjo Shelvey is with the squad.

Partying English players

A letter from Lucy

2011-06-30T09:18:00.002+01:00

http://www.justgiving.com/tomhayleybailey

I am unashamedly using this blog to plug the charity for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease which promotes its greater understanding and treatment and also supports families affected by this awful terminal illness. This charity has recently been hit by the Government cuts and lost its funding so is even more relient on the generosity of the public than ever.

A friend of mine wrote this and I am passing it on and asking you to support Tom & Hayleys run for CJD charity by sponsoring them.

“CJD killed our dear dad, a young, vibrant, healthy 62 year old, last year. If you’re feeling generous please sponsor Tom & Hayley, even if it’s just £1.

It’s the only CJD charity in the UK and is a lifeline to families like ours. The government have decided to cut 100% of their funding so now the CJD charity is run entirely on donations. We'd be grateful for every penny that you can sponsor them.”

“CJD is a fatal brain disease which affects one in a million, coming from nowhere for no apparent reason. There’s no treatment or cure. Many haven’t heard of it, or if they have, they think it’s ‘mad cow disease’ – some still make jokes about it. That was a new strain but the classic strain has been around for probably as long as us humans..”

Just Click Tom or Hayleys nose to donate

Please sponsor Tom & Hayley

CJD Support network

The National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Research& Surveillance Unit (NCJDRSU)

Former England Goalkeeper David James excited by women

2011-06-27T00:12:00.000+01:00

David James has always been a supporter of Womens football and on the opening day of the Womens World Cup has called for more exposure of the game and not in the way that Sepp Blatter suggested a few years back.

To coincide with the tournament James has written a thoughtful article in the Guardian about Womens football.

Later today (Monday) England take on Mexico and it is a game worth watching. if you are a guy who chants "You're not fit to iron my shirt", you need to re evaluate the womens game, not as a comparison with the mens but as a sport on its own to be judged on its own merits.

Avoiding Relegation - The River Plate way

2011-06-27T00:02:00.001+01:00

Perhaps if when we left the Prem, instead of applauding our players we had reacted like this then Pardew, Varney, McCleod, Weaver etc,. May have been too scared to allow us to do the same in the Championship.

Of course, it did not actually work for River Plate who were relegated for the first time in their history.

dr Kish and the League One Monster

2011-06-26T23:45:00.000+01:00

Laegue One Monster wakes!

Dr Kish's recent article / blog post tickled me as it opened with the line - "The League One monster begins to wake from its hibernation" it sent me back 20 or so years when my kids were toddlers and I read them bedtime stories. My favorite was by Tony Ross and called "I'm coming to get you!"

The story goes :-

"After wreaking havoc on the planets of its own galaxy, a hungry monster sets off in its spaceship for a pretty blue planet called Earth. A little boy called Tommy Brown, who is particularly scared of monsters, is singled out for a visit..."

Now if you know the story you'll understand my analogy with The League One Monster, if you don't and you have kids or grand kids buy the book, its cheap at Amazon, yes Dr Kish, I know you have grandchildren, follow the link!!

Englands Route To Glory Blocked

2011-06-26T13:32:00.001+01:00

Last night the Spanish made it a hat-trick - World Cup, European Nations Cup and U21 and on top of that Barcelona have made a clean sweep of the Champions league. In the past we have seen the Portuguese develop a team at youth level and seen it develop through the different age levels of football to be, if not world beaters, a country that out punches its weight as a footballing nation.

I love English football I want it to succeed at all levels, but I see the Premier League putting up barriers and psychological hurdles created all the time.

England have U21's capable of certainly being in the same final as Spain, it could be argued that we should have beaten them in the 1st match as their goal was a hand ball (that said they had so much possession it led to Pearce saying that if we had so much possession we would have won 5-0 - but we did not Stuart, that is the problem).

England perform badly in tournaments, we go into a tournament expecting to be disappointed, added to that for something like the U21's we tell the players going into the tournament that they are not even the first choice. Wilshire and Wallcott would have made a massive difference but they were too tired. Too tired to be part of and key to a successful tournament side.

In club football it is often said that teams don't know how to win trophies until they win that first one be it a Europa league or a League or FA Cup. Until then their credentials to go on to better things is questionable.

If we were to send an U21 team to a tournament which they believed they could win because the squad members were not merely replacements for tired first choices and the team had the belief that they had match winning players and it was worth turning up, their mentality would be so much stronger for the tournament (Not conceding a wining position to a losing one in the last minute) and by wining it they would have the experience and taste for success unlike any England team above youth level for many years.

It is about time that the U21's were taken seriously with key squad members being available when the senior squad was not playing and they were primed for success not managed to failure.

A day to remember

2011-06-21T22:19:00.000+01:00

Sparrows Lane was busy today, as Terry Racon was clearing his locker the protracted purchase of Paul Hayes was completed, along with Xabi Alonso's brother and ex Arsenal Youth captain Cedric Evina.

For us Addicks it was an exciting day in SE7.

The loss of Racon is no great loss and goes alongside Rommedahl and Ambrose as players who have failed to live up to their undoubted potential. Ambrose can be exonerated to an extent as he was played out of position and it was only when he played for Warnock that he actually played the role he was good at.

The next departure is due to be Jose Semedo, another player that I think we have been over hyping. There are two venues on his menu, Palace or Wednesday, the latter being where apparently he has relatives.

So much for Racon and Semedo's protestations only weeks ago that they loved the club and wanted to spend the rest of their career with the Addicks. I can only assume that they saw Powell and Slater throwing Jenkinson to the wolves after he refused to sign a new contract and thought better of revealing their hand whilst the vitriol of the crowd could reign down on them before the end of the season.

Apparently from a radio interview we are due another six signings imminently so we should be looking forward to an intersting times leading up to 1st July.

They were the worst of times and well the worst of times.....

2011-05-08T21:14:00.000+01:00

This is the first part of the review of the season from H2V. 2 further parts maybe forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. In this part I concentrate on the season up to January.

It has been the worst season that charlton fans have endured in my lifetime no bones about that. Having missed out on Wembley last season, we at least expected a play off place this year, but as is the way with Charlton, we conspired to machine gun ourselves in the foot. In the summer two core players, Bailey and Sam left. Bailey for over £1 m. Even his biggest fans were surprised at that fee. Unfortunately this windfall was not available for squad reinforcement but for maintaining the clubs liquidity.

It all started if not well then ok. For the fourth year running the opening game hosted a promoted side and like last year against Wycombe we picked up 3 points.

The pre January period was marked by continued skirmishes between.the anti parkinson and pro parkinson brigade. And the question of achievement versus performance.

In the summer parkinson had put together a team from virtually nothing - a nominal fee for Abbot and £35,000 for Francis - neither of whom could be said to be an overwhelming success. The big money went on Benson, although his fee and wages over the life of his contract were said to match the investment into any other member of the squad.

As we can subsequently, see from the efforts of others, parkinson seems to have assembled a talentless group which he was able to mould into something resembling a team that could challenge. The problem being that when all parts were not in tune "the wheels of the bus fell off".

I have no doubt that the highlight of the season did not occur on the pitch but in the board room. The way was paved by Richard Murray taking over debt that were not waived or postponed in the summer. And then slater and jimminez came on the scene leading their band of unknown investors to rescue us from almost certain administration. According to Varney we would not have survived to the end of the season. So a debt of gratitude is owed to the new owners. Their first meaningful act of ownership was to dismiss the division one manager of the month.

I have argued that the sacking of Parkinson was a matter of when and never if. Sadly for him, his team gave an abject performance against bottom placed Swindon and Slater moved the next day in the best interests of ensuring promotion this year.

The demise of Parkinson was swift and brutal, there were rumours that there was an argument amongst the board after the game and later Richard Murray is alleged to have said that he would not have sacked Parkinson.

I have made it clear that I liked parkinson and thought that he was a capable manager. Other feel he was useless and only here because even the clubs cat was too expensive and it is true to say that he was lucky to have a job after we were relegated. His record of 28 games, 4 wins,11 draws and 13 defeats is indefensible in a results business. However, many people argue that Chris Powell should currently be judged on performance not results. This being the case Parkie took a dispirited low morale disorganized team and improved their performance making them difficult to beat, as testified by the last 10 games (W2 D 6 L 2) of the Championship relegation season. What he did not do was make them winners and for that many fans never forgave him.

The highlights of Parkinsons last season were Peterborough away a victory nobody can claim as anything other than superb, maybe the highlight of his reign, running alongside the 5-1 demolition of MK Dons the previous season. Other highlights were the 3-0 away demolition of Swindon, but overall players such as Wagstaff, Lee Martin Benson, Akpoe failed to deliver and the wheels fell off against Wallsall, Brighton and Swindon and the worse thing about this were the glory games were away and the failures at home.

Ultimately, despite getting us to the play offs last season and 5^th this season and only 2 points off the automatics Parkinson was unable to win over the majority of the fans, despite his successes, the fans were unwilling to accept or understand the constraints that led to dour but winning football or that he had been part of the Pardew regime. His mere presence became divisive and it is for that reason, I believe that the new owners were never going to keep him in place.

In January, 5^th in the table 2 points off automatics we could argue we had had an ok season and were on course for at least the play offs and then the balloon burst…..

The next posting will be the rest of the season and the final part will be the future….

The end Is Nigh...

2011-04-07T12:00:00.001+01:00

Well in fact it was nigh a few weeks ago, when the club gave up on promotion. it is bordering on criminal that we are not even in with a shout for a play off place with 6 games still to play for. We should not be seeing the players setting up their deck chairs. I'm not blaming, Parkinson or Powell or Slatter or Murray - but I do blame THE CLUB. With six games to go Orient, Rochdale, Exeter, Bournemouth are all ahead of us in the table - it is scandalous how THE CLUB have let a promising situation turn into disaster.

Half yearly season tickets were sold on the basis of promise and what a waste they were, not taking away any of the pain that full season Season Ticket holders have had to endure.

So thats it for me this season, I'll go to the games - Huddersfield, Rochdale and Hartlepool, but it will be with a heavy heart thinking of what might have been, but as for this blog, I'll do an end of season piece maybe but until then I will concentrate on another blog which I am developing away from football.

See you in May!!!!

The Dreaded Last Ten

2011-03-29T17:36:00.003+01:00

Every year Richard Sheppard of the Rose of Denmark - Rodsters pre match drinking group - acts as a match by match unofficial club stats historian and one of the most interesting is when he tracks our last 10 matches performance. Notoriously in the premiership we would set out the deck chairs in March and allow the season to drag to a grindingly boring conclusion.

Dick Sheppard, bottom left in an Uncle Albert look a like competition

In the play off final season we competed in all our end of season games and of 30 points we bagged 26. That season stands out and since then season ending managers have failed to compete, with the exception of Parkie last season getting 18 out of 30 points. Other than that, Parkinson, Pardew and Curbishley failed to deliver more than 50% of the points during their tenure.

Double click to increase size

In 13 seasons Parkies relegation season was the 4th best delivering 12 points out of 30, reflecting the turnaround that he achieved that season but still below 50% of the points on offer and one of the reasons we went down.

In the title winning season the last 7 games delivered only 4 points as we limped to glory.

Chris Powell does not have a lot to live up to in the last few games of the season, but lets hope we can out perform a team he was in in 2002 /2003.

Dick Sheppard along with fellow Rodtsers Matt and Mike Robinson

Thanks to Dick for the stats and lets hope next season they are a little bit more positive.

A Dagger through the heart!

2011-03-19T19:54:00.001Z

This was my first away game of the season and I saw an attractive game of football, unfortunately it was in the pub before hand and was made even more enjoyable as Judas Defoe fluffed his lines.

I liked the non league ground of Daggers and the friendly staff that they had there. Equally others may have been upset with their keeper but he only bantered back to us, was humouress rather than obnoxious and gave us something to laugh about, as he danced to you fat bastard, which is something our own team failed to do.

Parrett did a couple of nice touches but overall looked like he was in post traumatic shock much of the time as he realised that his fellow players lacked the application and ability he had. Don't expect him to play on Tuesday as he was being helped from the pitch with what looked like a hamstring or calf problem.

CP wore a tracksuit today and folks he proved that it does not matter what sort of suit you wear, your mode of attire does not affect how your team play.

What Ecclestone has done to deserve to be benched let alone be the last player to be brought on god only know.

To be fair after a dicey first five minutes, we were the only team who were likely to win this game,that is until they scored, then the recent form told and we were lacking in confidence. Dailey is looking like an old man who has played one too many seasons, although I suspect that with the loss of Parkie his heart may no longer be with charlton.

My friend texted to me a radio comment

"If the whole Charlton team had the work ethic of Miguel Llerra or indeed of Dagenham & Redbridge, they (charlton)) would not find themselves in this predicament"

During that positive spell BWP, Nouble anda host of other players looked good, but soon descended into ineptitude.

The home following today would not have filled our away end and this team has taken 5 points from us this season, I am not sure how this has happened.

The players are not good enough I hear, yes they are they went 11 games un beaten in October November.

Its difficult to know where we go from here, we have just been through the easy part of our season and we have Saints on Tuesday, we currently stand at 4-1-7, what bets for 5-1-7 by wednesday morning? Not many. o

Madness or Love?

2011-03-16T17:37:00.002Z

Being a football fan is strange, I am sure that someone studying human behaviour would pigeon hole us somewhere. I cannot think in any other area that the behaviour of constant dissapointment is not only ignored but continually paid for. Every fortnight and more for 9 months we trudge wearily to watch our team and even in victory we are dissapointed the majorirty of the time. I recently posted about the last time we really enjoyed a game.... Reading in the relegation from the championship season, West Ham in relegation from the prem season and still we go. For five years (and more) we have been utter, utter, utter utterly .. not very good .. ok shite.

Can you imagine watching a TV series giving a modicum of the amount of grief that we receive and still being watched week in week out for five years, more likely the TV would go through the window.

And this season when our expectations have been raised so high and dashed so low and many of us are still renewing for next year! Its some form of madness, akin to bashing your head against the wall and hoping with each thud for a different result.

A labour of love or madness.... or both

Chris's Lament

2011-03-12T18:08:00.000Z

"As I sat sad and lonely,
Without a friend in the Club,
A voice came to me and said,
Cheer up Chris, Things could be worse,
So I cheered up,
And sure enough things got worse!"

Charlton 0 Brentford 1 - The pain continues

4-1-6

The gap against last season is growing

2011-03-10T22:52:00.001Z

The enthusiasm I had for taking an alternative look at this season versus last season is waning as the negative gap that appeared only recently grows.

After Peterboro we were 5 points ahead of where we had been against the same or equivalent opposition last year, but the abject results recently have resulted in a deficit of 8 points after MK Dons and it does not get much better, failure to collect full points against Brentford will see the gap widen, since we beat them last season in the only home game that I missed.

Throughout the season we have been there or there abouts against last season achieving a six point positive against no more a negative of 3 points, until now.

We are unlikely to close this gap over the next 5 games as we won 4 of the equivalent games last season, drawing the 5th against Southampton at home. The following 5 only delivered 6 points so there is the possibility that the deficit can be eaten into.

Of course these stats are just a bit of fun and the real point is not about the equivalence against last season, but what we do in the remainder of this season and whether we are in the playoffs with a better (unlikely) or worse (likely) points level than last season.

If we got to the play offs

2011-03-10T13:28:00.000Z

I watched Spurs last night and reminisced about the fact that until we were relegated from the prem. we had a better Prem record than them and I was jealous. I watched their fans celebrating and I felt the emotions that thye were feeling, that inner warmth that grows and grows. The last time I can remember that feeling, strangely was a defeat and a relegation, but it was a warmth of pride in our shirt as all the fans at the Valley stood and sung and sung loud and of course it was our last home prem game against Spurs.

It is difficult, as a charlton fan, to remember the times when you chest has swelled and you have glowed with pride, probably the Play Off final was another experience when it happened.

As we drift away from the Playoff places for more than the obvious reason, I want us to turn things round and get into a play off place. For us that would be a bonus and we would hold the 1st leg at home. If we could play that game at the Valley and come away with a decent result, just thinking about it brings back that warmth to my chest and a glow. I want a night like Spurs fans have just had, even if we don't get promotion, we deserve as fans one good night in five years and if we can go on to have more this season,it would be so great so motivating, I just hope the boys can do it.

Playoff opponent bites the dust

2011-03-02T22:05:00.000Z

As angst over our recent results flares on Charlton Life, spare a thought for the vagaries of the varying fortunes of football managers. As pundits and fans continue to look at Charlton with open mouths at the departure of Phil Parkinson earlier this year, spare a thought for Danny Wilson who took Swindon to the play off final last season after beating Charlton in the Semis.

Danny Wilson is a thoroughly decent bloke and manager with a good pedigree. After failing to take Swindon up he had the guts ripped out of his team and Swindon have struggled ever since, culminating with Charlie Austins sale in January. As a decent man he has carried the can and resigned, but you have to wonder, should he really be held responsible for the teams under performance.

Target what?

2011-02-26T21:55:00.001Z

Change can be hard. It is not human nature to accept change, thats why some of the top earners are change management specialists, so I am having difficulty accepting the change that seems to have gone through the Valley in the last few weeks.

At the beginning of the season under Murray and Parkinson we knew we had a squad that was put together on a shoe string and a manager who was many peoples anti christ. We, also knew we were aiming for promotion, preferably by the automatics, but hell the play offs would do. Poor performances, good results, poor performances, bad results we knew the target was promotion.

Then came Slater and Jiminez and we took the change because they sounded like decent blokes and Minty recommended them and he IS a decent bloke. And what sort of change was it? Well it was all for the good, promotion remained the target, at a stroke our foundations were firmed up.

Then Parkie screwed up my comfort zone, he allowed his players to go out and perform abjectly. Slater met him for the first time and fired him in the best interests of getting promotion. So the target remained - we want promotion.

To replace Parkie we looked for a manager who would cement promotion, Eddie Howe turned us down and we adopted our legend CP.

We recruited during this time three new players, Ecclestone - rising Liverpool star, Bradley Wright-Philips and Fredericco "de baja médica" Bessone , showing our intent?

As I say change does not come easily, so when Slater says that promotion is no longer a target this season, it would be a bonus, I am confused. An improved squad, a new motivational manager, 100% support from the fans, so logically we down grade our expectations. Errr, no!

However, Slater knows what is going on in the club and maybe CP walked through the door and said "with this squad - hell no!" So I am going to have to accept change, move forward with the new reality.

But what is the new reality? Its not promotion, we know that. Is it honorable defeat in the play off final or the semi finals or is it a top ten finish, maybe its just avoiding relegation. Do we have a target, even? Maybe its just play through the season learn the management ropes and be prepared for next season.

Personally, I have had enough of this league and would like to think we are aiming for promotion this season, but hey its a long time since I have had a bonus, so maybe I'll have to change my perspective to that.

Exeter Defeat leaves Addicks neck and neck with last season

2011-02-22T23:29:00.000Z

It seems every time we get ahead of last years performance and with winnable games ahead, we fall into old habits and any potential space between this year and last is gone. After CP's great start we ahve dropped six points against teams we beat last season.

The next three games delivered 5 points last season and whilst we can't be confident of Notts County after last Saturday, Carlisle and Tranmere should deliver a full house of points, putting us back on par with last season.

Its back!

2011-02-20T10:51:00.001Z

Many years ago, in the second tier I watched three games in a row, as memory serves Grimsby, Port Vale and Southend, they were awful, we lost each of them and I came away thinking why do we, the fans, still come. The next game we won gloriously and I thought to myself "thats why". In the promotion season we went 11 wins in a row and came up against bottom place Swindon, only to lose 1-0. This is the unpredictability of Charlton and the unpredictability of supporting the club. More often than not when we have hyped up a game and the club have encouraged the team fans to get behind the team, the team have failed to deliver and the fans have gone home despondent - Nottingham Forest, Middlesborough etc,.

"We have our Charlton back" was sung only a few weeks ago and yesterdays performance and result underlines that. Our time in the Premiership was an interlude in the history of the club letting fans down, we are back where we have always been, albeit one tier below our natural place in the footballing hierarchy - "hope over expectation rules".

The result yesterday hides an adequate performance. Without looking at the stats Exeter had probably 4 shots and scored three goals, we hit the bar twice and the post and had a number of penalty area scrambles, but we lost and that defines the attitude and approach and we were not good enough.

The message boards today are much more negative about the current management, losing at Hartlepool on a cold Tuesday night,can be accepted, but losing at home in front of almost 25,000 is difficult to forgive. Performances have not significantly improved since parkinsons days, despite the recruitment of Ecclestone and Bradley Wright Philips and a clearly more supportive crowd. Parkinson left us in fifth place, we're now seventh.

So doom and gloom -- not really, lets be realistic, we have a lot of points to play for. The automatics look like they are slipping away but play offs are a realistic target. It is clear to most of us that our central midfield is not good enough and we have the opportunity to bring in a loan to cover, also central defence, Doherty did himself few favours yesterday and it will be interesting to see if Powell brings in a loanee before Notts County or wait till the loanee could play in a play off final.

The big issue is something not surprising and that is CP's inexperience and he needs to have support particularly from Peacock to get the team back on course after a superb beginning. CP needs to learn on the job and quickly, often more is learnt through defeat than victory and the first four games masked the issues we all knew were there.

Friday sees us away to Notts County and Paul Inces team never easy to put the train back on the rails, with Lee Hughes to torment us as he did at the Valley, despite our victory, a pitch that has a passing memory of what grass looks like and a manger who has win in his DNA. CP's test will continue and it will be in the full glare of Sky, lets hope he passes.

Vroooooooooooooooooooooom!!

2011-02-19T23:12:00.002Z

The sound of the feel good factor leaving the Valley!!

He does not walk on water

2011-02-16T17:24:00.000Z

I went to Keston ponds and saw Chris Powell drive up and park his car, he walked to the edge of the first pond and after looking out thoughtfully for a few minutes he walked forward into the pond after a few steps the water was up to his ankles and he turned back leaving the pond shaking his head, murmuring "its not true, the fans were wrong - I can't walk on water"!

So we lost, Chris is human, New York Addick is proved to be not so far off the mark with his post Peterborough assessment. Most of the addickted have been reasonable in their assessment some have gone over the top.

For some CP has gone from being a tactical genius on Saturday to being inept on Tuesday.

The team have gone from being automatic guaranteed to unlikely play off contenders.

Everything is so instant and for a few the reactions can be so knee jerk. The critical thing is we learnt somethings at Hartlepool. And if we learn then we can develop and build towards promotion.

Changing manger would never be a magical panacea for our ills. we have a squad that has been under invested in for years. The players we have are not playing in the third level by accident, its because they may lack talent or consistency or commitment or fitness and with the exception of Bradley Wright Philips, their value reflects this.

So we will have good days and we will have bad days. Not a lot different from the last manager, not surprisingly after all they are the same players.

What CP does have is wholesale backing of the board, after our 13 points out of 15, if we go on a run of 2 losses and 3 draws I still expect to see CP at the helm. He has the crowd with him and it will take a lot at this point of the honeymoon for him to lose them. This has a halo effect as the crowd is now more patient, on the whole, with the players and he has Nathan Ecclestone and Bradley Wright Phillips and the potential of the loan period.

CP has options now which we have not had for a long while and if we do bring in a quality Central Midfielder and Centre hald these will grow and we have plenty of points to play for.

To me central midfield is the key, we have been over run by many lesser teams in this division this season and if that were to continue for the rest of the season then that will be our down fall. McCormack isn't quite there, whilst it appears by his absence that Racon has become a great player to some. Sorry but Racon is failing to do what he needs to do and that is run games, take them by the scruff of the neck. I thought he could do it, I hope he could do it, but now I just don't believe it and we need some one stronger and more creative, who can feed off the holding and delivery of Semedo and make things happen up front.

13 points out of eighteen is goodf form and now the management need to take the lessons of winning and losing and apply them to Saturday because if we go back to our old ways and perform badly then #footballforafiver will become #footballatthevalleyatnoprice.

Valley woes cheered by Powell

2011-02-12T21:34:00.001Z

Chris Powell has brought a smile to the faces of Charlton fans. Its not just the wins, although they help as illustrated by the humorless crowd reaction to the players at half time. I thought that booing your own side during the game had gone with Parkie but obviously that is not the case, old habits die hard.

Chris has brought a breath of fresh air to the Charlton family and his approach brings smiles that we have not had under previous managers, Lennie, Curbs, Dowie, Reed, Pardew or Parkie.

I am sure Chris would have you grinning from ear to ear at a funeral, his smile is infectious and he infects you with a feel good virus. He appears to be unique amongst managers, someone who realises that, after playing he has his best job in the world, at the best place he could imagine.

On Wednesday, I went to the Q&A at the Valley and Chrissy arrived late as he entered the room the assembled hordes started the "tunnel" hum and he reacted with the jump and punch to the applause of his audience. He knows his fans and he has them on his side.

I did not learn much at the Q&A Chrissy was less forthcoming than Parkie, but then Parkie was experienced and never had his boss on his shoulder. I was fortunate however to meet Cheltenham Addick and Fanny Fanackapan as well as an assortment of other Addick friends.

However, I digress, today Chrissy did a number of things today that will endear him to old ladies (my mother in law) or Charlton fans. So here is a list of Chrissy's good deeds today:-

1. he demands that the players all celebrate the goals together. The funniest thing was the third goal when everybody was celebrating except Christian Dailly who finally dragged his weary (injured) body to the melee, with a look that said something like "Why they hell do they have to celebrate by the opposition corner flag!"
2. Not only do the players celebrate together but so do the bench. For those not at The Valley and those that did not notice, the players melee was mirrored by the backroom staff in a huddle with Chrissy at its centre. After the second goal, I am told, they even lifted Chrissy up.
1+2 are about building and maintaining team spirit, celebrating together and working together.
3. After the players had come out and were warming up for kick off, Chrissy posed with a child for his mum to take a photo of them together, possibly it was at his suggestion. He took his time, no rushing.
4. Soon after the photo session he sat on his haunches and talked to a child in a wheel chair. (My mother in law would love that).
5. After the third goal, I think,he just sat on the edge of one of the advertising hoardings, just staring on to the pitch, he looked so relaxed.
6. He did the same thing at the end of the game only this time he looked like he was trying to take it all in, scared maybe that he would wake up and still be Svens side kick.
7. We have 12 points out of 12, we can't ask more than that!
8. He is the most dapper manager in the league.

As I said Chris Powel has brought something new and unique to the club, but as the booing showed today we are a fickle bunch and whilst we are in a honeymoon period we the fans have to accept that there will be bad days as well as good.

In the meantime as Brucey, almost, says ..."Keeeeep smiling!"

Following in the footsteps of Dickson

2011-02-07T22:15:00.002Z

Dulwich Hamlet who sold Chris Dickson to Charlton in the last season of the Premiership, have done it again only this time the team in premiership decline is West ham and it ism they who have invested in Dulwich youth.

Paul McCallum joined West Ham on transfer day and made his debut for the under 18's against Arsenal, not a flying start but West Ham did beat the Arse Yoof 3-0.

Lets hope his career with West Ham is more fruitful than Chris Dicksons with Charlton and he does not end up in some Cypriot outpost. Although I'm hoping that West Ham follow the rest of Charltons model and decline to through the leagues.

26 gone 20 to go

2011-02-06T22:00:00.003Z

This time last season having played 26 games we were level with Norwich on 54 points in third and with the run of games to come an automatic place seemed a reasonable aspiration.

Out of the next 36 points we only picked up 14 and dropped to 5th and this included the ignominy of a 4-0 defeat at The New Rusty Den and games against teams who were at the bottom of the table. We only scored 14 goals in this time and it was this period that destroyed our promotion campaign.

Today on 26 games we have 44 points, Brighton at the top of the table have 53 points, whilst last season on 25 games Leeds had 57 points.

In the end Norwich went on a run and and at a canter won the league with 95 points and that is the challenge for Chrissy Powell.

It has been a great start for the legend three out of three and three clean sheets and a move back to the position we were at when Parkie left.

Bradley Wright Phillips could be our modern day Jim Melrose who fired Lennies team to promotion to the top flight in the 80's. Two games two goals a start we could not have dreamed of.

This division is there for the taking, probably the best four teams are Southampton, Huddersfield, Brighton and Charlton.

With loan window opening Tuesday there are still holes that we need to plug, non more so than the lack of creativity in midfield. Whilst there maybe arguments for Semedo and Racon the figures show that in terms of assists Elliot is on par with Racon and Semedo is below him.

Wednesday is the Q&A with Slater and Powell and it will be interesting to see if Slater says more than pr speak and outlines a plan for this season and next given the two potential scenarios. Slater is a a smooth operator and hopefully those skills will support Chrissy to achieve promotion this season. And yes for me Parky went because the new management did not believe he could take us up, so Chrissy needs to take us up to justify Slaters decision.

Evens stevens for Chrissy Powell.

2011-01-15T23:21:00.001Z

This season has given us a fair amount of turmoil on and off the pitch - takovers,11match unbeaten run, manager and player of the month, poor on field performances massive defeats at home, great win away, return of a legend, departure of a legend, maintenance of the team by a legend.

And amongst all of this,the teams statistical performance against last year has held up. Against equivalent teams as last year we are on the same points level. This gives Chris Powell a great foundation from which he can push us on.

Of course looked at another way after 23 games last season we had accumulated 47 Pts which does not look so hot, but although there are lies, damned lies and statistics, I at least would rather look at equivalent match and on that basis we're on par and look good for the rest of the season- Chrissy just needs to kick us on.

Welcome back Sir Chris

2011-01-14T20:42:00.000Z

Welcome back Sir Chris, I have the fears and concerns expressed earlier in the week and I hope for his sake that he see's out his contract and we get to the upper echelons of the championship.

At the beginning of Pardews last season, I went to City Addicks and Martin Simons was asked about future managers. Simons dismissed Kinsella as the next Charlton manager, but was very positive about Chrissy. Well that was a good call and now he is our future.

Finally my last words on Parkie ... thanks, I wish you all the best and hope you will pick up a team in Division One. It did not work out with us, I am sure it will elsewhere.

The Parkie is dead, Long live the Powell - two nice guys.

It looks like Chrissy.

2011-01-13T17:39:00.002Z

Stay Away Chrissy

2011-01-13T13:45:00.001Z

There is much euphoria over the reported talks with Chris Powell and the potential that he may come back to the Valley as manager.

The man is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet and I met him on one occaision and the memory of his last game at the Valley and his goal and that beaming smile,helps me smile too.

The man is a legend!

I have seen what the crowd can do to their managers when the chips are down, I saw them screaming at Charlton supporter Les Reed as he ineptly managed the team, attemtping to accost Parkie during the Brighton defeat. The fans have become a fickle lot at the Valley.

I have great memories of Chris Powell. All Primeministers leave office in failure, all football managers leave football clubs in tears - I would hate the long term legacy of Chris Powell at Charlton to be "Not Good Enough".

Conspiracy Theory?

2011-01-13T11:35:00.000Z

I was firmly of the view that Phil Parkinson was going to go whatever the results, the players and Christian Dailly made it easier for the board to make that change after his first match under the takeover.

Apparently after the game there was heated discussion amongst board members (rumour and speculation), so maybe the departure was brought forward. One positive (from my point of view, I realise that others feel Parkies departure was a massive positive for the club) was that the new Board had a vision and that they would be decisive and ruthless in executing it there and then.

That was nearly two weeks ago, still we have no manager, Eddie Howe being the only name that was firmly in the frame and he backed away from South London.

So if my conspiracy against Parkie theory is true then why was an instant replacement not lined up and why did we suffer the ignominy of a 33 year old novice turning us down, after all we are on the up, unlike Palace who are looking down and going down.

Was the sacking of Parkinson a knee jerk reaction to a poor result, with a a feeble excuse of results not being good enough since an 11 match un beaten run and over a period of postponed games in December. The implications, if this is the case, are that we are going to be on a roller coaster where the board react to the manager on a match to match basis and increasingly interfere with the team.

I hope that the decision was based up on a plan, which maybe was brought forward and hence the mess we are in, otherwise the financial stability that this anonymous group have brought in will be undermined by short term over reaction to events of each day.

Phil Has His Say

2011-01-04T22:13:00.000Z

Phil Parkinson is disappointed to have been shown the door at Charlton, but has vowed to return to the dug out. Continued.......http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11719_6635089,00.html

The King is dead, long live the king

2011-01-04T21:39:00.000Z

I come here to praise Parkie not just to bury him. Football is a cruel profession and this was brought home to Phil Parkinson today after nigh on 2 years in charge at the Valley and barely a month after being manager of the month when his tenure of Charlton ceased.

To what was a dead Valley yesterday the whiff of departure was all around and maybe the players sensed it and helped Parkie on his way, giving the board the excuse to implement their pre ordained decision and make no mistake the decision today was not a knee jerk reaction to last nights result, but something that the new owners had decided before the takeover.

Sadly a poor performance by the man that signed his contract this season and said "Phil is a good manager and will do great things and I signed because I am hoping to be there when it happens" Christian Dailly, helped ease the implementation with a poor performance.

I'm not going to defend Parkie or rant against the decision to sack him, the board have taken over and need to do whatever they want. This decision also allows them to curry favour with the vocal crowd and for Slater and Jiminez to make it clear that they are in charge, maybe emphasising that Murray and Kavanagh are administrative figure heads.

What I would like to cover are the positives of Phil Parkinson. In September I was at a fans forum with Christian Dailly who has extensive experience of many managers and he had high praise indeed for Parkie and it was Parkie who convinced him to sign last summer. I attended two of Parkies fans forums, meeting him and having a chat with him at the Bromley Addicks meeting. Like anyone who met him, he came across as an articulate honest nice guy, very open with the fans and willing to give up his time for us. I wonder if the new manager will emulate this or follow in Curbishley, Dowie and Prdews footsteps and become more and more remote from the fans.

Parkie joined us at the commencement of our decline under Pardew and during this time had the opportunity to join Huddersfield, but turned it down just before his introductory press conference for a higher salary at Charlton and the promise of a potential crack at the management position in the future - no one expected Pardew to be loyal.

His period of time as Pardews assistant has perhaps been the burden that he has had to carry throughout his period with us. Closely associated with Pardew he lacked any of the smugness and arrogance of the man and if he had resemblance to any addick manager it has to be Curbs who also spent club money as if it were his own, would set up his teams not to lose before worrying about winning and lacked a personality. And like Curbs he divided fans in equal parts. It was not just during his last season that fans wanted Curbs out, from the day that Gritt was ousted there were some that resented him and felt he was too West Ham for us.

Parkie was too Pardew and has been continually held responsible for our successive relegations, it did not help that Murray said his appointment would be based on results and whilst performances improved results didn't. Yet still he was appointed and relegation followed.

So what positives apart from a nice guy can I say about Parkie? I think there is a lot and under different circumstances he would have been seen positively by many of the "haters"

As Murray stated, Parkie has worked his socks off for the club, never took the players running or got them lost pre match, he has pieced together a challenging team on a shoe string budget and brought in some quality signings and whilst people will point out the failures when you have no money and you are shopping at Lidl every buy is a risk. It is pointed out that he had one of the squads on the biggest wage budgets in the division, but I would argue that Pardews contracts were vastly over the top and that created difficulties for Parkinson to get rid of overpaid under performers - Moutakill is an example, still without a club having been released in the Summer,or McLeod now at bottomof the league club Barnet.

We got to the play offs last season and you cannot really blame a manager when your star player creates the opposition aggregate equaliser and then hits his penalty more like a try conversion than a shot on goal.

This season has seen a good points total achieved but poor performances and last night was the final straw for many. He has brought stability to a club in free fall, re built foundations and we have held our position in the division,there has been no indication that this has been temporary and we are well on course for another crack at the play offs and with a little momentum we could make automatics and this in a world where Southampton, Huddersfield and Brighton have been able to splash greater cash resources than us.

Since his tenure began 2 years ago Parkie has never had any certainty or stability. Forgetting his care taking period, he has been faced constantly with the potential takeovers and went for long periods not even knowing that he had a job, particularly through the summer of 2009, at this time there was little or no backing from the board and rumours that board members were looking to oust him were rife. He has then spent much of time being told that he has only held his job because we have not been able to afford to get rid of him. On top of that he has had the constant fans sniping. Under all this pressure one wonders if we ever saw the best of Phil, based on many peoples views probably not.

Lets also not forget that Phil built a new squad in the summer of 2010, a squad that is now sitting a few points off the automatics and could have been with a win yesterday could be sitting in second, one wonders if the owners would still have got rid of him then

Whatever the future holds for us and Parkie he can walk out of the Valley with his head held high and I hope he finds a new role soon. Good luck Phil and all the best for the future.

Who are you! Who are you?

2010-12-31T19:09:00.000Z

Well its done, for the time being talk of takeover is kicked into touch and we can focus on the action on the pitch.

For some the fly in the ointment is who exactly now owns us, because it does not appear as if Jiminez and Slater do. Addicks Championship Diary covers these two in detail. A number of addicks fans have had the takeover euphoria dampened by the lack of knowledge of who the people are who have invested their hard earned sheckles into the club, but you have to counter this with the fact that we are now solvent the ever on going threat of administration is gone for the foreseeable future and that the management of the club continues to be overseen at least by the existing management in Murray and Kavanagh, plus fans favourite Peter "Reg" Varney, who has effectively steered this bus in to the end of its journey.

Now the hard work begins for the new management and for the fans. We need to give them time to settle be clear about what they want to do and then implement it. In time we may see this as a fantastic move, alternatively it may just be a stay of execution, but that is for future judgement. The immediate as ever is what concerns us the fans.

It has been implied that January will see new funds made available to Parkie and they will be considering his requirements. This is a big make or break time for Parkie, he will be relieved that Murray is at the helm,or at least close to it, as he has always retained his support. However he needs to be very careful about his recruitment plans not just who he brings in but how that effects the current squad. One of Parkies successes has been to forge a strong team spirit - the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Bringing players in on higher wages when some of the current squad took drops in wages will cause problems, so there is a delicate tight rope to walk.

Suddenly we no longer have to shop for players in Aldi and whilst Harrods may still remain a dream, Sainsbury's does appear to be an option. Jimminez may give us contacts that Parkie does not have as we bring players in from clubs above us as oppossed to the likes of benson from below.

Jimminez maybe the clue to our ownership, as it was during the Zabeel purchase that he left Newcastle to broker the deal between them and Charlton. Zabeel were notably uncomfortable with the publicity surrounding their bid, so it would not be surprising if they were behind this having hidden their identity behind a swiss based company.

A word of praise for Richard Murray who could have allowed us to go into administration but has fought hard to retain our solvency. On balance Murrays tenure has been temendous for Charlotn, sadly marred by the last few years, since he politely showed Curbs the door. He has paid heavily for the subsequent mistakes but I hope that this will sweeten the bitter pill.

Here is to a successful New Year!

A cruel December

2010-12-30T08:52:00.000Z

We thought after a strong November that the gelling of the squad was complete and the platform for promotion had ben built, but the curse of the Manager of the Month award, the winter weather and poor form has seen us drop out of the JPT Trophy and fail to match a result from the previous season.

So we finish the year one point down on where we were agaisnt the similar opposition last season in a league that is distinctly ordinary compared to last season with a better balanced side but reduced quality.

January is going to be a critical month, the next two games generated just one point last season, so there is a chance to catch up. Swindon was the notorious game where we had two players sent off but Llerra came in with a last minute equaliser, one of those games that can be pointed to as points lost that would have put us into the automatics, we were so dominant before the second sending off.

As I talk rumours are that the takeover will be complete today and that will herald a new era for the club, whether it will herald new players time will only tell. I would like to see a strong central midfielder to come in, someone with Championship experience if not Premiership, a midfield Christian Dailly, a striker. I'd be happy to see Llerra or Fortune to be released or even both of them and a new player brought in.

For those of you old enough to remember, we need someone to come in who will galvanise our promotion campaign as did Jim Melrose all thsoe years ago in the mid '80's.

Happy New Year

readers and may 2011 be a return to championship fortunes for the Addicks

Lets see in five years

2010-12-22T13:06:00.000Z

If everything has gone to plan then the 24th will be the end of Rchard Murray's ownership and literally the baton will be passed on to new owners. The only thing near to a guarantee is that not every body will be happy on the fans side of the fence.

I am amazed that there has not been a sniff of who is behind Peter "Reg " Varney. Sightings of Dennis Wise at the Valley maybe a clue, although it may have just been a youth player being mistaken.

I was speaking to a fellow supporter this morning who wanted it to be anyone but Wise and this led to a brief chat and a realisation that whoever is the new custodian of our obsession, they won't be good enough and that we cannot judge them on reputation alone but on their actions and those actions over a reasonable period of time.

Takeovers are notorious for ending in tears, I was at Hillsborough when an American was hailed as their saviour only a few years ago and of course they barely avoided a winding up order before Miljan Mandic came in to buy them on the cheap, another club he has beem assoicated with are Portsmouth, which he sold on only for Rednap and the new succession of owners bankrupted them and there is Chelsea where bates sold on to Abramovich in a friendly sale only now to take every opportunity to slate the current ownership, take note Richard Murray.

Richard Murray has done everything possible within the context of our recent past to make Charlton saleable in a reasonable condition and kept us out of administration. This is so different from his early Charlton involvement when he was raising money not to save the club but to fund the flames and momentum of success. Success to establish the valley, once Richard Alwen had got us there, success of winning the playoff final and success of returning to the Premier and staying there for so long. The last few years it has simply been a success to stay afloat.

Whoever is in charge tomorrow has big shoes to fill and there will be accusations of "lack of investment in the team", but we will now have business men running the club with their wallet and not their heart, unless they are charlton, accusations that they are not true charlton, accusations that they are foreign and do not understand the game (reference Sam Allardyce), accusations that they are British / local and don't have enough money and accusations that they are Dennis Wise / Peter Risdale.

Whoever Santa brings us on Christmas Eve we cannot judge their worth to the club for maybe years to come because its not what they do this week, its what they do in the coming years the stability, order and success that will count.

One final point, Santa brought us a present on Christmas Eve before and we applauded and thought our dreams had come true. That present had a smile like a cheshire cat and by the time we were able to look back on his legacy our club was broke, in more ways than one. This time Santa we are looking for a present that may not match our Christmas list like before but has longevity and lasting quality that will do what it says on the tin.

The irony for two managers

2010-12-09T14:35:00.000Z

Its Charlton managers day today. Former player and manager Pardew takes the reigns from Toon favourite Chris Houghton and now manages a club with true potential, but will he be able to reverse decades of under achievement?

Meanwhile, away from the spotlight of the Premiership, beavering away is Phil Parkinson, who after Charltons 4-0 home hammering by Brighton, galvanised the team to produce an almost flawless November and he has picked up the Manager of the Monthly award. Well done to Johnny Jackson who has won Player of the Month.

The irony of course is that as Pardew has failed, Parkinson has shown progress and built the fans confidence in his ability to deliver Championship football next season.

Parkie has had a difficult couple of years and the fact that he has survived in the Valley hot seat is almost a miracle and can be put down to Richard Murray, our outgoing Owner and Chair, who has seen someting in Parkinson that at times few others have.

Pardew left a side, after a 5-2 home defeat, disjointed, demoralised, over paid,un balanced and seemingly on course for relegation. Parkinson failed to save the club and to this day this is held against, but performances improved and foundations laid for the first season in the third division,which eventually resulted in a failed play off campaign.

Over time Parkie has rebuilt the playing foundations of the club and his sort term reward is November Manager of the month. Hopefully the curse of MOTM will not strike this time and we can say in a week that we continue to be present at the top of the table and are still in the FA and Johnstone paint trophy.

It is ironic that on this day Pardew is made manager of Newcastle, after failure at both Charlton and Southampton, the man that cleared up his mess at Charlton is honoured. Of course, at Southampton on the surface with a 10 point deduction, just missing out on the play offs was not a bad performance, but taking into account the deduction Saints would still have finished below us with significantly more investment and I am sure every Geordie will be ecstatic that Pardew knows how to win the Johnstone Paint Trophy.

Well done Parkie and hats off to the power of the Pardew bullshit!!

Drinking During the Game: Alan Pardew - you've got to hand it to him

2010-12-09T13:51:00.000Z

Drinking During the Game: Alan Pardew - you've got to hand it to him

In the pink for Christmas

2010-12-08T16:35:00.000Z

This season's goalkeeper kits will (finally) be available in the Superstore from 10am on Sunday, mail order from next week. Shirts 39.99 adults and £29.99 kids.

I'll have five says Robbie

I'm not sure who is going to wear it, but I look forward to seeing them at the Southampton game on the 26th.

A message to the Toon!

2010-12-08T10:34:00.002Z

Charlton fan here so I talk from experience. Unlike you when we were linked with Pardew we thought he was the messiah, however he was anything but. His previous chairman described him as a disease in the club (West ham) but he was Icelandic and loooked funny so we ignored him. He'd just been 4 minutes from winning the FA Cup and we sympathised as he had two world class players (Tevez and Maschirano) foisted on him. He talked the good talk, we would survive but if we did not he gave us a profile of the types of players he would bring in. We ignored the rumours of him and non footballing players issues!!

He was not the messiah and he was worse than a naughty boy. The players he brought were opposite to the profile he had suggested and were gambles, young untried from the lower leagues or foreign reserves. Luke Varney is the only one who has made his way back to the peak of foorball and it has taken him a long time, no instant solution. Who has heard of our big signings then Moutakill, McCleod, Youga, Semedo and Racon. The first was finally released in the summer not having been picked for most of his three year career and has yet to find a club, the 2nd the same and has a contract with the mighty Barnet, Youga has potential but has only shown it for 1/2 a season and is now long term injured (not pardews fault) and the last two are spearheading our promotion drive from DIVISION 3. All these players were paid over the odds, on salaries that have subsequently crippled us. So his transfer policy was awful. He readily admits to a policy of buying a quantity of players and expecting most of them to fail.

Don't expect him to admit he has been wrong, he won't its the players fault, the fans fault (Don't ever clap a returning player when he is introduced before the match), he may even blame it on the seating arrangements at the ground (I kid you not)the boards fault, never his and when you get round to sacking him because he has run your club into the ground (starting a season with 3 centre backs and a plethora of midfielder) he will have written into his contract a massive payoff to be paid within a month to compensate him for his incompetence (We had to sell Varney to pay for it). We made mistakes having already made the mistake of employing him, I hope you don't. My final word is I hope he tries to tap up Andy Carolls girlfriend, 'cause I would love to see him take on Duncan Fergusons clone child.

Assuming Pardew does go through you will have had him and Dowie in your ranks the architects of our demise, you should have gone for Curbs, dour and boring he would still have done a great job for you.

Good Luck
(First posted on BBC 606)

GB United - FIFA Steal My Dream

2010-12-04T18:44:00.000Z

One of the things about my kids that I enjoyed was their innocence and naivety. As they get older they become wiser and worldly in more ways than us dads would like. However,we all keep a degree of naivety, sometimes this is ridculed as stupidity others as sweetness.

I have retained at times the naivety that FIFA and EUFA are there for the benefit of football fans and for the protection of the game. This week has opened my eyes to this naivety and this is not sweet innocence, its stupidity.

In 2012 Team, GB will be putting forward a team to compete at the London Olympics,it will be the first time that professional GB will compete. My dissapointment has been that the home country federations have steadfastly refused to join host nation, England, in a GB team.

I saw this stance as short sighted, parochial and insular. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland claimed that FIFA would use this joint team to force GB to operate as a single force in future tournaments.

This is my naivety, I believed that when FIFA had assured GB that this would not be the case they could be trusted. Why would FIFA want to consolidate four nations into one, after all, following the break up of the soviet empire they were willing to expand the nations of FIFA enourmously and of course we have seen them hand a word cup to minnows Quatar.

As I say, FIFA had promised that they would not force a GB team to compete jointly and I thought a declaration such as that would never be reneged on.

This week has proved to me that I was naive, Blatter cannot be trusted. He is the Emporer and King maker and I reluctantly say appears anti English. We will never host a World Cup while he is in charge.

FIFA stitched up England this week, not decided on a better bid, but determined to humiliate a country which had through its freedom and liberty exposed corruption in FIFA's ranks. With hindsight, it was like watching the school bully, the flash kid at school being pursued by the little bit over desperate, slightly plain looking girl from the posh part of town. The bully encouraged her all along made her think she was special but all along he planned to humiliate her in front of the whole school. The FIFA committee teased us, they promised us their hearts (votes) and when we prostrated ourselves in front of them, humiliated oursleves with our current leader, our future king and our golden boy, they laughed at us turned away and walked arm in arm with an Eastern European pimps daughter, french kissing her to add effect.

So how can we trust FIFA to allow a joint team to represent GB and not have it held against us? There is only one answer, we can't, so whatever my dream is for joint ventures in the Olympics, it cannot be allowed to happen because we cannot trust the word of FIFA, not now - not ever.

Ticket Alert @ The Valley

2010-11-21T21:11:00.000Z

The message boards today were initially inundated with indignation at having been stopped in the ground yesterday and being asked to show season tickets. This turned to understanding when it was revealed that fans have been using junior season tickets on an ongoing basis without upgrading.

The club are going to undertake more of these checks and I hope that they do. When we are crying out for revenue we should not be expecting our own fans to be shafting the club.

If I was the club I would confiscate the season tickets until the owner pays up the full amount, within a certain time period and at the end of that period print their names on the official site and in the program,although I suspect that this would be against their Human Rights.

Reminders of a glorius past

2010-11-19T22:39:00.001Z

Being in the third division reminders of our glorious past come quick and fast. Its not long ago that we would be talking about our forthcoming entrance in the years FA Cup competition in January rather than our second round appearance in just over a week and it was not that long ago that Yeovil were our opponents, January 2005 to be precise, when a 3-2 victory took us through to play Leicester and leave the competition after a 1-2 defeat. In 2008 Yeovil again came from the lower leagues to play this time Championship Charlton in the League Cup this time and left with a deserved 0-1 victory. Last season we finally played at Yeovil in torrential rain, a 1-1 draw was achieved with Akpoes debut goal, the quality of which has yet to be repeated by the injury prone striker. Of the 18 man squad that day only seven players remain with the club. Last seasons affair at the Valley saw a 2-0 home victory during the dourest part of the season, the period when we lost automatic promotion..

Charlton meet Yeovil in the Rose of Denmark prior to the 3-2 FA Cup. Memories when we were divisions apart. A youthful Adrian Speller in the foreground and me in the centre, not to mention young Portchs and Montgomery's.

Tomorrow both teams are in 2nd place, us from the top and Yeovil from the bottom. On paper and following a fantastic performance performance since Brighton at home and a five match losing streak for Yeovil, we should come out comfortable winners, but life is never so predictable and the goal fest we have recently seen has come against teams coming at us, Yeovil will sit back and look to take us on the break, the onus on us will be to break them down. In years gone past this would worry me, but with Lee Martin or Smoking Joe, Waggy and Benson there is a great movement up front which should allow us to break down their defence.

So a return of Yeovil tomorrow should see us adding another 3 points and set us up nicely for the out of form Pirates, before we return to next weeks cup game versus Luton. My team for tomorrow is

Elliot

Francis Dailly Doherty Fry

Wagstaff Semedo Racon Jackson

Benson Martin

Worner, Fortune, Sodje, Abbott, McCormack, Reid, Llera

P45 returns to the draw

2010-11-13T19:36:00.001Z

Well I am predicting Audley Harrison to win tonight, so based on my Peterborough 3 Charlton 1 prediction it will be David Haye first punch first round.

On the 17th October I headlined my post “The next four games – Parkies P45” , I wrote “The key to any management role in football is managing players and if Parkinson is to survive he has to manage this lot now, he needs to get them fired up in the right way and they need to be getting results. Whether they are the best players ever to don a Charlton shirt (they are not) does not matter at this level they are capable of more than the results that they are showing currently and it is the managers job to realise this. In my opinion, Parkie has four games to generate this realisation – I hope he does.”

After the debacle at the Valley of Brighton,I could not see a point coming from the next four games and my thoughts had turned reluctantly to accepting that Friends day at the Yeovil match will be anything but friendly for Parkie if he was still here. Instead our record has been:-

League

Home

P W D L F A Pts

1 1 0 0 1 0 3

Away

3 3 0 0 12 4 9

Cup

2 1 1 0 1 0

Total

6 5 1 0 13 4 12

There is no better way to respond to the “gentleman” who came onto the pitch to berate Parkie at The Valley than a record of 6 games 5 wins and a draw, a tremendous performance by Parkie and the team.

We are no longer relying one player as we have done in the past, when Reid is seen as the key man he gets injured and Anyinsah becomes the main man, he gets injured and we still turn in a performance. Goals are coming from all players Benson and Waggie at the topof the scoring charts, but supported by Jackson, Martin, two goals today Anyinsah.

Jacksons move to the left side of midfield has given us stability on the left without the flair of Reid but a sound platform for building attacks and for finishing them off.

There are many questions asking how we turned this position round, is it the players gelling, has Parkie sitting with them and talking to them done it, has Murray kicked Parkie up the bum- we don’t know but whatever the answer is Parkie takes the majority of the credit as he deserves to, alongside his coaching team.

Compared to equivalent matches last season we now have much in credit 28 points v 22 points.

(since when did they relegate four teams from Div1)
Forgetting about the cup game, and tempting fate, we have Yeovil coming up next week and Bristol Roves, neither of whom are having their best seasons, a difficult trip away to Rochdale and then Warsaw at home. Injury and form willing we could be sitting on another 9 points by the time we go to Hartlepool in December. These up and coming four games pose a different challenge from the last four. The last four last year generated 3 points, this year they generated 12, the next four produced 12 points – expectations are high, both from history and from form. Parkie is flavour of the month now, the next month will be interesting and on top of it all we could be a game closer to Wembley and another closer to a big money 3rd round FA Cup tie. 2nd place now but more importantly lets hope 2nd place in May.

No fireworks on bonfire Saturday

2010-11-06T17:26:00.001Z

Despite my concerns that we would only come away from this game with a draw, I am disappointed at todays result. A draw at Barnet means that between last weeks game with Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol Rovers on 23^rd November we would have played 8 games, sufficient to stretch a squad of our resources, especially one where our second string forward line is failing to fire.

Tuesdays Southend JPT fixture throws up a quandary in selection for Parkie. Martin will be back available, but should Parkie go for broke and look to win or should we be looking to sacrifice the JPT for the greater riches of the League.

I have a view born out of experience of the League Cup in the 80's and 90's, when a number of teams reached Wembley in the League Cup, lost but then went on to win in the FA Cup. I would like a day out in the JPT at Wembley for the experience, but more for the players experience to holdin store for a potential Play Off final. If they can get over the awe of being in the stadium in the JPT then maybe there is an advantage for the Play Off final, and before anyone else says it there are a lot of if's and quite a few minutes of football to get there. That said I would like Parkie to go for it on Tuesday, but also be sensible in his selection.

Southend will face a similar dilemma having only drawn today and wanting to return to the third tier first time of asking, whilst next weeks opponents Peterborough drew at Stockport but do not have a midweek game.

Whilst I would like to take points from The Posh, that will not be easy, however after that we have Yeovil and Bristol Rovers at home, if we do not suffer from the fatigue of allthese games then I would expect 6 points from these games and anything more will be a bonus.

The next 17 days and 5 games will put our squad, which contains a number of players with poor fitness records under considerable stress and the fitness, physio and medical team are about to earn their corn.

Shock Takeover News On Charlton Life

2010-11-06T00:14:00.000Z

The official takeover thread on Charlton Life has been beset by many usurpers such as "The All New Takeover Thread", "The Official Charlton Takeover Thread (For Johnny Come Latelys)" and "Talking of takeovers", to the extent that it required re branding from "Takeover" to THE 'OTHER' TAKEOVER THREAD (FOR PROPER CHARLTON), but despite this today saw the Takeover thread finally overatke the magic 3,000 plus whispers.

The achievement of 3,000 posts was forecast by Nostradamus to Herald the sun setting over the ownership of Richard Maurray and a new dawn of glorious ownership and future success at The Valley

Of course, it may not happen quite yet!!

De Ja Vue – Barnet 2010

2010-11-05T20:52:00.001Z

Do you remember when as a third division club Charlton made its way to the quarter finals of the FA Cup. No ……. Hmmm, so it was a dream, damn, so history won't repeat itself, cause it never happened – damn!

So the De Ja Vue must be that last seasons pre season we were beaten and this season the same thing happened Then we were drawn in the cup (last season JPTY at home, this season FA Cup away),will history repeat it self?

Barnet are sitting proudly, holding the rest of the League up, in 24^th place in Division 4 (League 2 in modern speak). Their most recent result was a 3-0 loss to Stevenage and earlier this season they lost 7-0 to Barnet On the face of it this does not look like we are facing a Northwich Victoria, but how often have our expectations been dashed?

It is going to be an interesting dilemma for Parkie on who to pick, who to rest.

My head says we'll win easily, but my heart says we'll get a draw and get back to the Valley, but what I can't see a defeat in anyway, so roll on the draw on Sunday.

The numbers begin to gel

2010-11-02T22:49:00.003Z

Only just over two weeks ago the Valley was a place of woe, the defenders of Phil Parkinson were devoid of excuses and the Parkie out brigade were in full voice. Like in an election decisions are not made by the majority but those shady middle grounders who are swayed from one camp to another and Parkies camp was emptying faster than a brothel during a police raid! A two and a half weeks later and morale has turned full circle 3 wins, two away nine points and we are in the play off zone with only a few points separating 9^th place from second. Benson, that useless striker is now on fire, but then again he only scores goals!!! Two clean sheets in a row, its coming together for Parkinson, but the road to the Championship is a long one and the downer tonight was that everbody around us won, even Colchester who were 2-0 down to neighbours and relegation hopefuls Orient. Having got rid of the smug bar steward, Southampton are looking string under the stewardship of Ian Adkins.

Tonights 3-0 win at the County Ground, Swindon is partial revenge for their victory in the play off semi finals last season. What has been good tonight has been that we are developing a momentum and whilst we did not have the start we had last season, in Joe Anyinsah and Paul Benson we have a partnership that is causing opposition defenders not just problems but to be scared, along with Waggy, Jackson we have as balanced attack as I can remember since Hunt and Mendonca. There are some that may only give credit to the management grudgingly but they took a lot of stick after Brighton so the praise now should be fulsome in its delivery.

When we look at the position against the equivalent opposition last season we have now overtaken the points total and the closeness of the division puts us just off the automatics. Even if we lose the next two games we will not fall below last years equivalent and whilst the next league match will be difficult Peterboro away, we should clean up against Yeovil and Bristol Rovers at home.

If you like your stats and comparisons against last season, then I can thoroughly recommend AFKA's stat attack including Sheff Weds game on Charlton Life, which reviews this seasons player performances as recorded after each game by attendees, as well as general stats which you could condemn you to being a stato or just be interesting reading. Click here to go to the stats, These were referred to on BBC London during todays commentary.

As we move into two cup games before the next league match we have a chance to recharge some players batteries and give other the opportunity to stretch their legs. Unfortunately from a revenue perspective these cups are important, in the JPT we have a realistic chance of getting to Wembley and the revenue from that and if we can beat Barnet then we are only a game away from a potential money spinner in the third round, so Parkinson has a difficult decision to make the league is so important that it must take precedence over every thing else.
So well done tonight, but lets remember we are only as good as our next result .. roll on Barnet.

The return of the flying pig!

2010-10-27T21:41:00.002+01:00

That nickname was reserved for the famous Tommy Lawrence of Liverpool, but at times in his career it could equally be applied to Nicky Weaver, our returning former keeper. Even before he joined us Weaver was associated with Charlton fans emotions going back to our promotion season, when he was a young immature keeper he took the rise out of the North Stand, my recollection is that Kinsella tried to get to him when he was on the coach home. In our first season in the Prem. We met Weaver early on and trounced them comprehensively, Weaver at fault for our first goal fly kicking a Johnny Robinson shot and then giving away a penalty. Following the conversion of the penalty Kinsella went over to Weaver and gave him a hell of a mouthful. On the positive side at Maine Road Weaver assisted a Charlton goal by kicking his clearance mid way in his own half against a Charlton player only to see it loop over his head and back into his own goal. His final appearance at the Valley as an opposition player came a few years later when he was merely the second choice keeper for Man City. He had matured by then and accepted the abuse from an unforgiving North Stand with good grace and a smile.

Joining on a freebee, was never totally accepted by all the Charlton fans, for his antics as a youth, for his alleged £20,000 per week for his reputation as a fatty and for, during his latter stages, keeping Elliot out of the team, until Elliot replaced him after injury and he never appeared in the home short again. Between 2007 and 2009 he made 70 appearances for us.
He recently opened his career scoring account with a penalty in a shootout in the Johnstone Paint Trophy. One would hope that this is one returning player who won't be scoring against us on Saturday, although he could do equal damage by keeping a clean sheet and I fear that maybe our fate on Saturday.
I know it irritated Pardew but I always applaud former players and enjoy seeing them play well, as long as they are on the losing side. Unfortunately for Weaver he plays in a position where I cannot hope he plays well, we are due a good win at home and it would be nice to do it against one of the promotion favourites. A win on Saturday puts us back into the promotion frame, if we can keep pace with the leading pack then we could end this season in the place from which Weaver helped take us!!

Northern Heights

2010-10-23T20:51:00.004+01:00

Well at 3-0 I was thinking that the next few days would see some respite for Parkinson, but at 3-3 depression had set in not only for two points lost but also for the groaning and moaning that would continue over the next seven days. I like Parkie, but I am getting to want him to go because I really find the negativity depressing. I am not saying its unfounded, I am not saying its unreasonable, its just depressing. So at 3-3, I decided that I would not wait around to hear a repeat of Shrewsbury. I cycled along the Ravensbourne behind Sainsbury at Bell Green and through Ladywell. Stopping, I checked my phone and wow, we had done it.

Now next time we need a goal, please nobody call me to go out cycling, that said I am intending tomorrow to get one of Boris's bikes from Victoria to Earls Court. (I did and cycled 10 miles there and back, according to sports tracker I did 83 mph - if only)

Anyway, back to the match. Its interesting that we would probably be happier if we had won 1-0 than 4-3. Of course, the 3-0 lead raised expectations and the loss of the lead simply raised further questions. There is nothing more disappointing than unfulfilled expectations. The problem for Parkie is that although we picked up a result that 78% of Charlton Lifers did not expect the second half capitulation is not glossed over by the three points, a number of lifers have taken the result despite, not because of Parkie.

Putting the result in context, last season we were beaten 3-1 in this furthest out post before Scotland. Only 4 of the squad on that day were in today's squad. Sam, Bailey, Burton and Youga were all in the starting line up and the consensus seems to be that they are better than their replacements, so any victory has to be seen as a great turnaround and a pretty decent result especially given what we saw last week.

Against equivalent matches last season we picked up 19 points and today we drew level with that total. The next 3 games generated 3 points last season, so we have all to play for against Wednesday, Peterborough and Swindon.

Now we are 3 points off automatics to go up and 6 points off automatics to go down, so today has finally been a good day, but the next week has a lot of work to be done to develop a momentum and move away from the momentum of a win every 3 games. A win against Wednesday and a draw against the other two would be a hell of a result, but not impossible.

Finally, away from football and Charlton, well done to Beth Tweddle who won gold in the World Gymnastics championship.

Monsoon over The Valley

2010-10-18T22:43:00.001+01:00

Poor old Phil,it never rains but it pours and we have a storm of monsoon proportions over The Valley. If losing by 4 goals on Saturday was not bad enough or the increase in chatter on the message boards over his departure, one of his saving graces, the teams creative force is out not just for the visit to Carlisle but for the duration of the difficult sequence of matches that I pointed out previously.

I thought when Reid went down it was fairly innocuous, a bit like another left sided player a year or so ago – Kelly Youga. He is out for at least a month missing potentially, at least, Carlisle, Swindon, Peterborough and Sheffield Wednesday, plus the JPT and the FA Cup.

The Yeovil game will be the anniversary of Pardews departure, whilst reeds departure was following a poor performance in the league cup …. Omens ? I hope not and that by then the atmosphere and results have turned around.

I was going to write that Carlisle is a big test, but that's daft, every game now is a big test and Parkies selection will be important for this game as it will form the foundations of the recovery or decline.

For me the team for Saturday should be as follows:-

Elliot

Francis Dailly Fortune Fry

Martin Semedo or McCormack Racon Jackson

Abbot Anyinsah

Worner, Semedo or McCormack, Wagstaff, Doherty, Benson, Sodje, Jenkinson

Its hard on Wagstaff our top scorer but I feel he is too one dimensional and better to come on in the second half when his pace can take the tired defence apart. Since his first game sending off, Semedo has not been the player he can be and Parkie needs to take the shackles off or bring in McCormack. Instead of having Martin or Wagstaff replace Reid, Jackson offers an option of solidity on the left hand side, strong crossing and a natural defender in Fry. Trying to work out the team for Saturday makes you really realise the paucity of our squad and we only have two injuries.

Its going to be a tough few weeks and Reids injury has done nothing to make it any easier, lets hope that the first test won't see Carlisle raining on our parade.

The next four games – Parkies P45?

2010-10-17T09:50:00.001+01:00

A good nights sleep can put things in perspective, sleep allows the brain to process events of the day. Sadly last nights sleep has done nothing to lift my mood following yesterday. Of course, having immersed myself in Charlton Life, instead of watching Strictly come dancing.", I am more negative than I was. Where I saw, at least in the first half, hope and optimism, now it is just a sadness. Mind you the sound of the membership of Charlton Life slitting their wrists is upsetting, in the extreme. In fact there are two noises coming from CL, the slitting of wrists and the crashing of draws, as they close and Season Tickets are locked inside, with the promise of never to see the light of day until Parkinson is removed.

I am and have been a Parkinson supporter or apologist, as some would say. I am sure that this will not be seen as a revelation to both of the readers of this blog, I have previously written of my support for him and as I wrote yesterday and earlier in the week, the next five games, including yesterday, are critical. To come out with less than 9 points, as a minimum would make this seasons target of promotion a huge mountain to climb.

The next few games may not just determine the fate of our promotion challenge but also the fate of our manager. There are already calls for Parkinson to walk, without receiving the contractual pay off, I don't agree with that but would hope that it would be negotiated on an monthly payment basis till the summer when the contract terminates.

What of the Parkinson tenure and its end, if this is to be such a situation. When Curbishley went, my feelings were of a job well done and a time to move on, the next level, which turned out to a few strata below where we were, with Dowie it was shock and confusion, Reed it was inevitable and maybe the closest to how I feel now and with Pardew well that was different. Pardew was arrogant, deflected blame, destroyed our club and to this day would not accept the troubles were his, the 5-2 home defeat by Sheffield United, a team we had accompanied as we left the premiership, was almost a blessed relief, as it forced the boards hand. Pardew left with a £1m in his pocket, Parkie will receive nothing in comparison.

My feelings if Parkinson were to go are very different from those that surround Pardew, who brought him to the club. I like Parkinson, I have met him and chatted with him, he is a thoroughly nice guy. I believe he is doing his best and by all accounts he works his butt off for the club. A former boss of mine once said he does not care how hard people work, he was only interested in results and for Parkinson, that boss is the crowd.

I have said it before, I believe that Parkinson has been dealt a bad hand, he has never had the money that the previously mentioned managers had, although Curbishley came from a similar foundation that included free Bumsteads and Nelsons. When he took over the management of the club he came with the baggage of being Pardews assistant and part of the team that had seen a decline from Premier to Championship, and a failure then to turn results to avoid relegation to where we are now, despite an improvement in performances. Many fans have never forgiven him for being part of Pardews team and others for being in charge of the relegation and that is understandable. I have seen him make tactical changes, some have worked some have not and to be honest he is probably no worse or better than half the managers at League level The key to any management role in football is managing players and if Parkinson is to survive he has to manage this lot now, he needs to get them fired up in the right way and they need to be getting results. Whether they are the best players ever to don a Charlton shirt (they are not) does not matter at this level they are capable of more than the results that they are showing currently and it is the managers job to realise this. In my opinion, Parkie has four games to generate this realisation – I hope he does.

Generosity killed the kap

2010-10-16T19:26:00.005+01:00

My mate John was on family business today, so he generously allowed me to use his season ticket ……… some times the generosity of others can be painful and I do wonder if he had had a premonition of things to come.

The good news is that we got no points from this fixture last year so not getting any this year does not disturb our this year last year comparison and if that sounds like clutching at straws well you could be right. They say every silver lining has a cloud and on this occaision it is a great big dirty grey one.

However, before I comment on Charlton, let me say Brighton and Hove Albion were a credit to their manager and the 3,500 fans who were allowed to watch them at the Valley. I think having only missed Oldham at home this season and Brentford at home last season, this was the best team to come to the Valley at this level of football. Gus Poyet is currently on his first managerial role, having cut his coaching teeth at Spurs and Leeds and he seems to me to be punching below his weight at this level and I doubt he will be at Brighton in 12 months time. He has turned round a very poor Brighton side that came to the Valley and took three points last season into a very good Brighton side that came today and left with a full house on terms of points and score.

At the out set let me state that I felt until the second goal we were in this game, but the second killed us. I expect, without checking the records, that the last team to win by a four goal margin at the Valley would have been one of the premier league top four during the golden age. That said Brighton were not four goals better, until maybe the last 15 minutes and a 2-0 score line would have been fairer.

Brighton have taught us a lesson today and that lesson is about being sharp up front, creating and taking chances. They did not make too many in the first half and in fact the one they scored from was made by us, a corner came in poorly cleared to the right, crossed back in and in the back of the net. The first half saw both teams pushing the ball forward and Abbot almost headed in from a sharp cross, but put it just wide of the post

As in the first half the second half started with Charlton attacking and giving hope that we would get back in the game but we lack penetration and cutting edge, taking too long to get the ball in where it hurts, allowing the defenders to get back into position and cover attacks. We have yet to win a penalty this season. Is this because of incompetent referees or is it a more fundamental, is it about the way we play. You would have thought with Benson, Reed, Martin and Wagstaff in the side we would have the benefit if their speed either creating chances or creating penalties, but maybe the issue is that we are not getting into the penalty area with any force or venom.

What happened to the Johny Jackson that we had on loan last season, this Johny Jackson is a pale imitation and a player of his experience should never have attempted the back pass he did. He is totally responsible for the second goal, although I thought Elliot could have done better. Having made this error, the real failing was letting our heads drop, after that we were gone. The third goal was Lua Lua's first touch of the ball and if anyone had watched last weeks The Championship, they would have blocked out the opportunity instead we were three down.

The fourth goal was just one of those last minute things – demoralised team, pushing for something they could call salvation and the team that are up for it breakaway and score.

The players have to take responsibility for this defeat and the level of it. As we matched Brighton, we did ourselves in, as they say - poor defending from a corner, bad back pass and then it is gone, the opportunity no longer exists. For the first two goals I really don't think you can put the fallibility of the players on Parkinson, seriously. I blame Parkinson for our failure to hurt teams in the box and the failure to either get a team together or if he has then a failure to get them to gel consistently and for a sustained 90 minutes.

The crowd overall was very positive and supportive till the team capitulated and then the boos came, that isn't something any of us anti booers can really object to, 0-4 at home in the third division at home. However two things I do object to,the first is the guy who sat in front of me (this used to be my seat, so he has sat in front of me for about 3 years) shouting across to the Brighton fans your fxxxing cxxxx, to me this is unnecessary language, but when he has a child with him who is less than 10 years old, you can only wonder at his parenting skills and how she will grow up, as he left he shouted to the player "you should be ashamed of yours selves" – true, but he is a fine one to speak and secondly and I will risk getting slaughtered for this, the guy who approached Parkinson in the coaching area, I'm sorry but however you feel, that is not on .

Today was the first part of our ordeal of 5 games, we failed and the minimum of 6 points from 15 looks difficult, that said we won't see another Brighton at the Valley again this season, unless it's a cup.

Thanks for your generosity John, but today it hurt.

Ps Charlton Life has blown a fuse presumably from all the wrist slitting this is the message I am getting-

"Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /forum/ on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apache/1.3.41 Server at charltonlife.com Port 80"

Trial by ordeal

2010-10-14T22:02:00.001+01:00

As I sit in the jury waiting room eager to adjudicate on the dispensation of justice on behalf of her majesty, my thoughts turn to the forthcoming five fixtures. Brighton, Sheffield Wednesday, at home, Carlisle, Peterborough, Swindon away. The next five fixtures will be a trial by ordeal. If we come out of that lot with more than 9 points then the jury's verdict of the season so far and future prospects will be totally positive, however if we come out with six or less the fans verdict will be that Parkie is guilty of an inability to manage and will only feel that justice has been done when we see the back of him, Breaker and maybe Kinsella.

Our record at The Valley is an enviable one, played four, eight points, despite some disjointed un inspiring performances. 45 minutes here and there are not enough to cajole the faithful into loud raucous support, but it does lay foundations and I believe confidence of the team. The biggest test for the team this season at home comes this weekend , with the visit of table topping Brighton and Hove Albion. Managed by Guy Poyet, they have turned around their disappointing form of last season to be a confident formidable out fit. One of their season highlights from last year was their visit to The Valley when they toppled promotion chasing Charlton in a 2-1 victory, Richardson scoring with a daisy cutter. Brighton's charge stalled last week as the linesman and Bournemouth team conspired to turn the referee's legitimate award of a free kick into a penalty in injury time. For the players of Brighton it must be soul destroying to play at the Withdean where the fans are remote from the pitch due to a running track (something that west ham can look forward to if their Olympic stadium bid goes through). Brighton will have no concerns about a stadium that dissipates sound when they come to the Valley. The Jimmy Seed is probably the best stand in the valley for dispersion of sound towards the pitch. The low roof and traditional old fashioned build of the stand works to the advantage of the opposition and one of Pardoo's few intelligent remarks was that the away fans should not be given the benefit of that stand. Health & Safety fan security have prevented the move to some of the empty spaces at the side of the pitch. I have been an advocate of cutting large holes through the sides of the stand and insulating the roof with sound absorbing material.

The Brighton players will be up for this as they bring 3,500 fans to fill Jimmy Seed and pick off a few seats in the home end. We could convince our selves that this is a lost game before we begin. To do so however we need to come out of the blocks as we did for Dagenham & Redbridge and keep it going for a full 90 minutes. This is the first time we have had a team at the valley who will be attacking us from the off, although you could justifiably argue that Notts County soon realised that we were there for the taking. Since Notts County the team have shown some improvement and cohesion and we have started to see Benson repay the investment in him. With Brighton coming at us they will also be vulnerable to our attacks. Not playing against a packed defence we can allow our team to be expansive in their play. As you go down the leagues it is rarer and rarer to find quality creative midfielders that can unlock defences, with Brighton coming at us we can instead of working out how to unlock the defence we can focus on piercing it with through balls, crosses and counter attacks.

With Francis being absent last week, this weeks target for the fans has been Thierry Racon, who has been criticised for his contribution and positional play. I'm not the biggest fan of young terry, but when he is criticised by some based on radio commentaries it does seem a bit unfair. Thierry has bundles of potential, the good news is that with each game he is improving and that can only be good, he does need to score more goals and we know that he has a vicious long shot, something the club misses at the moment. One of the biggest pluses for Racon is that Frances will be back on Saturday.

It is I going to be an interesting match and one where I think the opposition will be strong enough and clever enough to know that Reid is the best creative player in the team, and will put two / three players on him, that will leave space elsewhere and we need to have a strategy for exploiting this.

Once we get past Brighton for better or for worse we face further challenges, as I said at the beginning we face a trial by ordeal, but if we can get through it half intact then this could be a great season.

Wemberlee, wemberlee and days by the sea

2010-10-09T11:18:00.007+01:00

Hope over expectation rules as the draw for the Johstone Paint Trophy was made on Soccer A.M.

Away from The Valley by the coast at Southend on a balmy early November evening.

On paper we should be able to get to the regional semi finals and I would expect to be playing Swindon, Bristol Rovers or Exeter City. Given how close we are to Wembley it would be nice to see some momentum behind our efforts and if we get through this round , we go through to the southern semi finals and then take part in a double legged area final and hopefully we get good support at the Valley (but retain cheap tickets).

Another match by the sea that maybe worth noting

Southern Softies

2010-10-07T17:15:00.002+01:00

The northern hard men of Charlton go to the southern softies of Plymouth on Saturday after a mixed bag of away results over the last few days. Of course calling Plymouth softies does not reflect the steel that our players have faced from Plymouth in recent meetings. Three years ago in the Championship, the classy, Todorov's career was virtually ended by a callous unpunished foul at the Valley and later that season, having gone out on loan, McLeod faced similar treatment from the same player. Managers and personnel, let alone divisions have changed since then, but make no mistake this is a hugely important game for both sides.
At the risk of having our usual hopes and expectations being dashed on the rocks of reality, Charlton have every chance of getting something out of this game, having figuratively pulled their socks up against MK Dons and turned a deficit into a victory. Following a morale sapping defeat at Brentford on Saturday and goal after 2 minutes by former Man U player Kuke "Spotty" Chadwick – watch out Lee Martin and take note just because you came from the Man U academy does not mean you have a divine right to be a star, you have to work at not only your tricks but also your end product, or you could end up in a soulless town like Milton Keynes to ply your trade - it would not be unexpected for the team devoid of cohesion and confidence to crumble. From reports we may not have crumbled but we were not good in that first half. However a stern talking to or whatever happens behind those closed doors at half time and we are still Wembley bound.
Plymouth were one of my favourites for the top two this season, but they are languishing in 17^th place three points behind Charlton with a similar last 6 games record 2-2-2. The fans must be disappointed with their big managerial recruit, Peter Reid who I am sure raised expectations of glory. Like us there is plenty of time to kick on for the pilgrims, Norwich and Millwall proved that last season, but with every match that goes past more pressure comes into play.
For us we have two players on fire at the moment, Reid and Wagstaff. At this rate Waggy could be a 20 goal man this season, instead of his key role being creating goals he is turning into the main man converting them, whilst without Reid there would be nobody loading the bullets. Reids crosses are proving invaluable but we have to be cautious, this time last season Lloyd Sam was in tremendous form and stood out as a class player in the team. Then opposition mangers double / triple marked him and for the rest of the season he was noted for his anonymity and the rest of the team failed to take advantage of the space created by defenders being drawn to him. Don't be surprised if Reid starts to fade as once again the opposition realise that if you cut off the supply, you cut off the goals and despite today's reassurance by Parky, we are scoring precious few of those.
If Reid does have reason to fade then we need players to step up to the plate. Martin has looked the part, but flatters to deceive, he needs to use his quick feet to hurt the opposition, not to just make them look stupid. Semedo is looking decidedly under whelmed with life and has lost some of that spark we know he has, maybe the sending off in the first game of the season has affected him, but he just has to get over it and play his normal game, along with Racon they have to boss the game not allow it to pass them by, or in Racons case get a decent loan in and ship Racon out in January, he has the ability now he has to deliver, he has been with us for too long now without achieving.
John Fortune has made an assured return to the club and alongside Dailly, I think we have the making of a decent central defence. Unfortunately Doherty and llerra may not win a turning speed competition with the QE2. Francis continues to be the focus of the boo boys and my assessment of him is that he has developed well defensively, but lets himself down with his distribution and that has to get better, as good defensive work is useless if we are just going to have the opposition come back at us. With Fry being injured Johny Jackson will revert to left back again, a position in which he excelled last season on his short loan, but this season has seemed less self assured.
Elliot is back, playing his third game in a week, Worner is back on the bench without having disgraced himself, although questions have been raised as to how he can describe himself as over 6 foot and presumably Luke Daniels is back in the black country with Deano.
Singularly this season we have failed to play for a full 90 minutes, if we do then I am sure we will get something out of this game, but if we don't then I can see another west country disappointment for the addicted faithful.

Parkies Boys Buzzed

2010-10-02T18:00:00.004+01:00

We have been waiting for performances and results to match, but we did not expect that to materialise with the performance being poor and the result being unacceptable, against the bottom of the table team. Brentford, Tranmere and Dagenham & Redbridge - bottom of the table clubs, we cannot expect to get even a play off place if we do not take maximum points from clubs of this level.

As an advocate of Parkie, I have backed the manager since his original temporary appointment. He now has, for the first time, a team that he can truly call his own. Curbishley used to say that after 10 games you can judge how a season will go. We have reached that stage now and for a club for whom promotion is not only desirable but has a survival imperative, our current position, outside the top 6 and playing poorly is not acceptable.

Parkie talks of a geling period and without doubt, unless you are really lucky, a new team takes time to gel. Last season we were lucky and a relatively new team put together a series of record breaking results. This season we have failed to find a cohesive team and formation. Detractors of Bailey, Burton and Sam may now be wondering just how wrong they may have been, certainly I would like some of the passion that Bailey showed and I never thought I would regret his departure.

I cannot say I am too keen on Parkies blasé attitude towards his sending to the stands and two match ban. How can the players be expected to show authority (however wrong the authority maybe) respect if the manager treats them with contempt. Instead of using the penalty decision to ensure a seat in the stands, Parkie should have been able to send out a team fired up and ready to take on the opposition and referee through the quality of their play and the desire to put a wrong right and send the fans home singing, not scowling.

We may have had a lot of poor decisions from the officials, however Parkie has focussed on this too much - poor decisions happen, as the author of Dr Kish has pointed out to me recently, we have also had decisions go for us, but we are fans and we have selective myopia. Parkie cannot influence referees decisions after they have been made, but instead of letting the players feel sorry of themselves, he needs to motivate players using every bad decision ever given against them - Right the wrong, don't bemoan the past.

I'm listening to Parkie on the radio and he is saying that the players did not come out for the first half with the right attitude, he says that the players have let "us" down, but for me the management team have let "us" down by allowing a team to come out with anything other than the right attitude. BBC London have criticised him for putting all the blame on the players and I have to say I feel that Parkie and his management team should be holding their hands up and taking a hefty level of responsibility.

Tuesday sees us appear on Sky for the second time and viewers will wonder what happened to the fight that they saw at Orient, not that many weeks ago but none will be wondering more than Charltons own fans. We have to play 6 regular players in the JPT and I expect Dailly to make his return for match practice. I would like to say we should rest players to protect them from injury prior to Plymouth, but in all honesty there is not a single player that I feel we would miss if he got injured for Plymouth.

If we had won today we would be sitting third a point outside the play offs, with the momentum behind us for Plymouth who lost at home today,instead we face the real prospect of facing league leaders Brighton in 2 weeks time on the back of a run of 3 defeats in a row, inc JPT.

I was not at Brentford today so I won't pontificate on what went wrong, however the gel period is over ten games is sufficient for 75% geling, so now is the time for Parkie to get it right and that is a comment from a friend, god knows what the Parkie haters are saying.

Seasons comparison after MK Dons

2010-09-30T19:50:00.004+01:00

Comparisons can be misleading, on the one hand if you follow the famous Dick Shephards same time last year comparison of the nine games so far things do not look too good.

Three wins down, two losses up and short of 9 goals, despite 4 new strikers since then. Of course, then we were on a record run that gave Parkie a record never achieved by a Charlton manager before. That form raised our expectations, but it soon petered out and after a difficult post Christmas period we held onto 4^th and the rest is history.

Hopefully this season we are starting slow and our momentum will increase till we come up on the rails for promotion in May. Despite the moans and groans, and to be fair the performances that have left a bit to desire, when compared to the similar matches last season things are not too bad as we trail by only two points. Personally, I would expect us to beat a bottom of the table team on Saturday, which would put us back on par, followed by Plymouth when we should see the return of Christian Dailly. Of course, I am the eternal optimist and we could also be 6 points off par by the time Brighton come to play.

Girls, Girls, Girls

2010-09-30T19:08:00.001+01:00

It's a while since I have written about Charltons Women or even on a wider scale womens football or an even wider scale women in sport. I think it maybe partly from the embarrassment last season of a few days after the defeat at the Den, sneaking back and watching Englands Women defeat Spains Women 1-0, on their victorious road to the world cup finals next year. I was ready over the next few days to answer anyone who had noticed me there with, "No you must be mistaken, I was in a gay bondage bar." Infinitely less embarrassing than being in the Den voluntarily not watching Charlton.

Although still criminally under exposed, women's sport in Britain, appears to be in the fullest of health. Women's Cricketers are on top of the world having won the 2009 world cup, the rugby team were beaten world cup finalists and the GB Hockey team picked up their first ever medal – a bronze – in the recent world cup.

I first watched womens football at the Valley, when the England team took on Croatia in a friendly, subsequently I watched a few Charlton Womens matches when they were played at the Valley, in fact I watched them before they were reincarnated from Croydon Ladies, at the Croydon sports arena. I habe a photo of me with Casey Stoney – current England player and former Charlton captain and the media darling when an anti Charlton spokesperson was being sought following the disbandment of the Ladies after male relegation.

Charltons women were initially run separately from the club set up and separate sponsors were sought for them and through Alan Mercer – "Merc" to his mates, , Footdown came forward. Latter it is alleged that pressure was put on Footdown to give up sponsorship so that the mens sponsors could be rolled over onto the women, so to speak!

But now its has gone a full circle, Paul Mortimers team play in a kit supplied by Macron but the design is different from the men's team and KRBS, have probably, decided that they have plunged too much money into the club and a fans company has picked up the womens shirts. Stephen King – hopefully not the author –has already been a sponsor of Casey through his company PHSC Plc. So now the gap between the Womens team and the Mens team is complete, different owner ship (the women's team is part of the community scheme), their own website, different league, different kit and different sponsors. It's a shame because I used to enjoy the Valley nights, singing for the diminutive Eartha Pond (when I say diminutive, I really mean bult like a brick outhouse).

A lot of people look at womens football and negatively compare it with the men's game. However to really appreciate the women's game you have to think of it as something to be viewed independently of any other sport. You don't compare five a side football with the eleven a side game and that is how you should look at the women's game.

Unfortunately, the successes of yester year are not being repeated by the current crop, they have played 5 games this season and lost all of their league games. The only positive being the one win in the cup against Millwall, this despite optimistic noises pre season. That said if you read the write ups we apparently have drawn against Keynsham Town.

I am hoping that at some stage the women do come back to the Valley and we see one or two matches, in the meantime I'll look forward to watching England in next years world cup hope in my heart and in the dressing room and no wags in sight … well only a few!!

Jekyl and Hyde at the Valley

2010-09-26T00:17:00.000+01:00

Blimey how can a side be so dominant one half and so poor th second. What did Parkie say at half time? We went from playing good football in the first half to playing at Dagenhams level, just hoofing the ball in the second.

We need to go up this season or we will have another staff turn around next season and each time we do that, we go down a level in staff on the pitch. in fact, come January if we are not competing then the trio of Semedo, Youga and Racon could be on there way.

We can't lose ppoints against teams like Tranmere and Dgenham if we are going to go up, especially if we take the lead, not once but three times with the third with only minutes to play.

Benson either needs to break his duck or have a spell on the bench,I htnk at the moment we have more strikers than number of goals scored by a striker. Its worrying that JohnStill has said we do not play to Bensons strengths, i don't think a 30 year old player is bought to change the way he plays.

The forwards are clearly suffering form a bit of confodence defecit, which means they are taking too long over shots on target, allowing defenders and keepers to get in there and block.

Tuesday see's the Dons come over,we thrashed them last year but I worry that this season will see them gain their revenge.

Seasons defining week starts now!

2010-09-23T12:43:00.000+01:00

I'm off to Bromley Addicks tonight to see if Phil Parkinson can alleviate the concerns and tensions of Charlton Life Addicks and a few others about our lack lustre and under achieving performances so far this season. Lets not forget though that we are still well in the race for automatic,in what is a very tight league. From last years meeting,we can expect an open and frank exchange. Last year we weee on our winning streak and the addicted were content, this year we are in a more realistic situation, but there is more frustration and disgruntlement with the team, so I would expect some more negative comments relating to Shelvey, lack of goals and little creativity.

Once Parkie has set his stall out he will go back to Sparrows Lane and prepare for two home games in a row. If we can get all six points we can be top of the table with other results going for us and calm will descend on the message boards till the next game.

I cannot see anything less than a victory against Daggers and am hoping for a goal for Benson so he can kick start his short charlton career, however MK Dons will be a different kettle of fish and my money would be on a draw or a 1-0 either way.

Once we have those two out of the way, we are back on the road to conquerors of Everton, Brentford. The cup run for them could do us a favour,as hopefully they take their eye of the ball, however whether they do or not,Parkinson needs to get our away set up sorted as we will need to be performing better on the road if we are to make anything of this season.

I am expecting 5 points out of the next 9, but hoping for 7.

The Selhurst Experiment - A cost worth paying

2010-09-21T14:48:00.002+01:00

Is it really only 25 years? It feels like a life time, ok for some of the addicted 25 years is more than a lifetime.

Ironically, 25 years on and stoke has a different significance to me, as I took my youngest to Uni there last weekend, totally oblivious to the historical significance of the club, but berating the traffic as West Ham were playing at the Britannia.

Unlike most if not all other Addick fans, the closure of the Valley was a positive for me (quick duck as things are thrown at me), but before I am too berated let me explain.

I switched as I explained elsewhere on this blog from armchair supporting Chelsea to actively watching Charlton in 1969 and was a fairly regular attendee until around 1979, except the times when I got a really poor school report, when my mum banned me from going. Around this time I stopped going, partly due to marriage in ’80 and moving away. I basically missed the Elliot and Walsh years and, to be honest, the we’re going into admin years.

In ’82 I moved to Hull, and was there till just after the valley closure, popping down to see my parents in Forest Hill and In Laws in Catford, once a month.

Then it happened, salvation from parents, I could leave my wife with my parents or hers. The idea of Charlton sharing a ground was, to coin a phrase, a ground breaking event in English football, seen as the future of English football, soon Man U would share with Man City, Liverpool with Everton, Arsenal with Spurs, West Ham with Orient and Millwall ……. Ok no one wants to share with Millwall. And 25 years later the number of sharing clubs, moving on from our and Palaces experiment is ….. none!!! OK Palace went on to fleece Wimbledon and we went on to play at Upton Park.

To me before it happened sharing had a bit of romance and I was determined to be there for the first ever ground sharing game in England and so my wife and I travelled 5 hours down from Beverly, North Humberside to SE23, I dropped her off and went to see Charlton v Sunderland and we won 2-1. I cannot remember who scored for us, but I remember that Sunderlands scorer was the ex Ipswich player who was the ugliest man in football. For those of you reading of my age and beyond, you’ll remember that Bobby Robson as manager of Ipswich had a team of really ugly players, there has probably not been an uglier team in English football, you could understand how they almost won the league, because they were never afraid to get their head in there where the boots were flying.

Eric Gates one of Bobby Robsons Ugly's and the first scorer against Charlton at Selhurst

This was my South London romantic period as a couple of seasons later, I was happy that we shared the top division with Palace, Millwall and Wimbledon.

Any way, back to why I was happy we were at selhurst, the bare facts are, it got me back into watching live football and after that game against Sunderland, I got the Charlton bug and following Charlton has become an obsession.

Of course the Selhurst experience was never going to work, geographically it was wrong as transport links were poor from Charltons catchment area and of course sharing with palace was like being invited in to your neighbours house who then picks your pocket, whilst ripping you off for rent. Palace fans today see themselves as our saviours, but that is a long way from the real story. Fry and Noades had grand designs to amalgamate the two clubs, as Maxwell had designs on Thames Valley Rovers, from Oxford and Reading, in more reality this would have seen the end of Charlton.

25 years ago, an experiment in football started, strangely enough whilst it alienated a huge number of Charlton fans for me it was a success, because it brought me back into the fold. Some may say that it was too big a cost, but you won’t hear that from me, especially as it meant I did not have to spend Saturday afternoons with the family!!!!!

Parkinson Bromley Excursion On Thursday - Or See Ben Hayes's Cardigan collection

2010-09-20T13:39:00.002+01:00

Charltons former supporters director and famed for his cardigans Ben Hayes tells me that this Thursday sees Phil Parkinson make the trek over to Bromley Addicks to meet the fans at Bickley and Widmore working Mens Club, Tylney Road, BR1 2SH.

I have been to Q&A's with Pardew and last year at the Valley with Parkie before and I can tell you a night with Parkie is good fun and he is straight and honest. Sometimes seen as detrimental, but i would say a real positive, Parkie comes over as a nice guy and for those of us with memories of Curbs in his early days there are many similarities.

You do not have to be a member and there is no entrance fee, Ben may ask you to buy a raffle ticket and the prize is a signed shirt, I believe although do not hold me to it.

There are a lot of questions being asked about the team and players and tactics, I am sure that providing questions are asked in a reasonable and constructive manner Parkie will be as happy to give a straight and honest answer as possible.

The night is good value for money.

Bromely Addicks Face Book site can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/368w562

Football in perspective

2010-09-12T22:27:00.000+01:00

"Its more than a game,its a matter of life and death!" - No its not, in this weekend when we remember those that lost their lives in the 9/11 attack football is put in perspective.

Last week an 18 year old trialist with Cambridge United, who had just played his first game for their reserves was shot dead in Peckham. This former Dulwich Hamlets youth player was by all accounts an innocent victim. A number of Dulwich players had played with Rio McFarlane and were his freinds, but the FA refused to allow the Hamlets game on the 4th of September to be postponed, despite the agreement of Chatham Town, Hamlets lost.

As Blackpool celebrated their latest extraordinary win in the premier league they honoured their youth coach Gary Parkinson who has sufferred a stroke and is "very poorly".

Its a great game, a beautiful but its not more important than many other things.

Season Comparison

2010-09-12T08:27:00.000+01:00

If we look at how we performed this time last year then this season is a dissapointment, but statistics are about context or "lies, damn lies and statistics", so if we loook at equivalent games then we are on par with last season,with less quality.

With John Barnes a distant memory, Tranmere are a stronger force than when we went there and turned them over last season and I can't see us getting more than a point next week, but then.beating the hapless Dagenham & Redbridge willput us back on par and victories against MK Dons and Brentford would put us ahead of the game, but a performance like yesterday is unlikely to yield such a position.

Grand Theft At The Valley

2010-09-11T22:01:00.000+01:00

Todays proceedings were summed up for me during the first half. For a number of years now I have known Brian Cole and his daughter. I have already stated that todays seat was courtesy of Kings Hill Addick and I was seated a few seats to the left of the Cole couple. there was Brian sitting there,his head in his hands in despair and sitting next to him was his daughter executing a giant yawn..... and this was a neat summing up by the Cole family of our performance.

Still we got three points, we're only two points and 6 goals off the top spot. It is a long time if ever that I have seen a match where we have been so over run and come out with one point let alone three. There have been the odd games where we have dominated but we have not been rewarded with points.

The plus points were:-
- a win,
- meeting Kings HillAddick,
- meeting up with Henry Irving and Dr Kish,
- Parkie realising that McCormack and Semedo were not working and actually changing it at half time,
- Semedo being Captain
- Robbie Elliot
- Further substitutions that worked
- Winning when we played awfully

The negatives
- They were bloody awful
- The failure of our starting forwards to make an impact
- They really were awful
- The team need time to gel, but it is worrying that there are no perceptible signs of it happening.
- They were so so awful.
- McCormacks first half performance.

But what was the worst part of the day, was that when my mate got back to where he had parked his car, it was obvious that someone had caved in the car window and he had been a victim of car theft, so it was not just Notts County who had someting stolen while at the Valley today!!!

Two Hills In The Valley

2010-09-10T11:27:00.001+01:00

Courtesy of Kings Hill Addick* I will be at the Valley tomorrow.

After two straight away defeats the pressure (IMHO unfairly) is rising for Parkie and the team. Woe betide us if we go a goal down tomorrow against one of the oldest clubs in the world, Notts County. I can hear the boos already. But honestly we are only a few games in and we need players to bed in and learn to work with each other. Sometimes this can take a game or two, others it can take a while. Would we rather we started like a steam train, ala last season and peter out or would we like to do a Millwall and rush for the finishing line and get the enormous prize of a bronze and promotion.

I am sure there will be a few boos reserved for Lee Hughes Sadly I think that will only spur him on. Parkie has a number of selection decisions to make. At times he is a bit like Curbishley in his loyalty to players and I wonder if this approach leads to a level of complacency amongst the chosen players and a feeling of injustice amongst those left out. It certainly had a bearing on both Spring and McCenzie last season, who were both ignored during the slump despite claiming to be fit.

By all accounts Fortune had a good run out in the reserves last week and the question is raised wether he is fit enough to start tomorrow instead of the hapless Llerra. OK that is a bit unfair, but his decision making this season is a bit iffy and he should never have gone in so recklessly at Exeter. for the record, I think that was a penalty. There is always the option of playing Fry at Centre back and bringing back Jackson at left back. I like what I have seemn and heard about Fry and would like to retain him at left back, despite his heroics their last season, Jackson is not a natural left back so I would prefer Fry there, plus I have never seen Fry in the centre of defence.

Midfield seems to be the key area of concern at the moment in that we have numbers but do we have quality. The response from Exeter and Huddersfield is that Semedo and McCormack are too similar and there is a lack of creativity ... Racon or Jackson maybe for McCormack. This I think is where Parkies loyalty to players may play against him as he has faith in McCormack (same as Francis) and is expecting him to come good. I would actually like to see racon go in to the role of creative midfielder and in dailly's absence be given the captaincy - which is probably why I am not very good at Football Management games.

Martin is odds on for starting on the right with Wagstaff around on tjhe bench. Martin potentially offers a lot but he is also a bit of a show man, that's ok if you are ronaldo, but Martin needs to prove himself before being able to wander through games strutting. Assuming Reid is fit, he needs to put in a performance that is telling, again like Martin he has shown flair but is yet to really hurt defences in the way he did last season.

Up front it is unlikely to be anything other than Abbott and Benson. Abbott has told the Evening Standard that he has quickly settled in and is ready to start scoring goals tomorrow, so here is hoping that he can fulfill his promise. Abbots move from Oldham may be physically and emotionally harder than Bensons but he needs to put a performance in similar to the one he did at Shrewsbury.

There has been no news specifically on Akpo having had a bad knock on the head at the end o f the game at Exeter, although there was news about the Sodje families gala dinner at the valley for poverty in Africa.

I'm going for a dull game at the Valley tomorrow, with us grinding out a 2-1 victory.

Ps Any chance of not singing the incest song?

*Much appreciated Kings Hill

This Year Last Points Total

2010-09-05T11:23:00.000+01:00

I'm trying to keep a comparison of this year versus last year points total as we progress though the season. However rather than the normal "after x number of games" I am trying to compare equivalent fixtures. Of course with relegation and promotion there are six different clubs so I have randomly equated the new teams with the old, after yesterdays result we are two points adrift.

Bournemout = Wycombe, Peterborough = Norwich, Plymouth = Leeds
Sheff Wed = Millwall, Notts County = Gillingham, Dagen = Southend

I am expecting after the Notts County we will be back on par, and will keep with that at the end of the MK Dons game, losing 2 points v Tranmere but picking up two points against Daggers and being on par for the Dons, although I expect a repeat of last seasons result to be unlikely.

Thanks to the generosity of Kingd Hill Addick I should be at the Valley for the Notts County game,in the east stand.

Exeter Fall Out

2010-09-04T21:10:00.000+01:00

Benson came in last week and it looked like the final piece of the jig saw was in place after a pretty reasonable début against his previous employers. After 90 minutes today the league début seemed to be going ok, not spectacular, but with a poor refereeing decision in the 91st minute a steady start to the season has been turned on its head and the message boards are ringing with recriminations against the team, the new player & manager.

Benson is Parkies biggest signing for Charlton and there is a danger that after two goalless games the fans will turn on him. I was listening to Dario Gradi on the radio this morning, he was saying how expectations in our society had changed to be less tolerant and needing instant success and how this had crept into football.

And so it is with Charlton, a steady start with two victories, a draw and a defeat has been extended to two defeats and fans are predicting relegation, Parkies sacking ............ total disaster. God help us if we go a goal down next week ..... in Turkey they sacrifice a goat on the pitch don't they? Parkie kamikaze on the pitch maybe?

We need to get a grip and accept some lows and hope for some highs, especially at this stage of the season. The doom mongers maybe right, they maybe wrong but lets at least let the season to get started before we bay for blood ......................................................... please

Curbs for Villa, or the curse of Charlton management

2010-09-02T08:48:00.000+01:00

Apparently Randy Lerner (Man with a pornstars name) is in talks with Curbs regarding the role at Villa. Hopefully I will have to eat my words, which were that Curbs would not get another job with an established Premier club, I in fact had suggested he go to Southampton and work his way back.

That said I fear there is a curse on ex Charlton managers at the moment. No one who has managed Charlton - other than the current incumbent - is in a management role. Of course the two leg-ends who stand out are Curbs, jobles since his departure from West Ham and Lennie Lawrence who has returned to his roots and is advising Carshalton Athletic. Dowie is the serial emergency manager who has been brought in to promote QPR and save first newcastle and then Hull, of course faikled at all three and got sacked at Coventry, Les Reed has correctly gone back to his roots and become coaching director at Southampton, where ex fans favourite, with an emphasis on ex, Alan pardew got sacfked after just over a year and a 4-0 away win. Added to this motley crew there is another leg-end stevie Gritt, unceremoniiously released at the end of his contract by Charlton, Alan Mullery whose ugly mug pops up on Sky Sport to tell other managers how to do it - those that can, do - those that can't pontificate!!!

Sooner or later, Curbs, pardew and Dowie will be back in managemnt roels, if they want to be but for how long will each last I wonder.

babies at the valley. Charlton 1-0

2010-09-01T13:03:00.002+01:00

A good perspective on last nights game by Casual Chat. Looks like Brentford, Aldershot or Southend in the next game.

Whilst we decry games like these as meaningless they are steps up from freindlies and because of the 6 player rule allows us to see regular first team players, well six of them, as well as prospects.

Because these games are well priced it also allows non regulars through economic reasons to attend and for Mums and Dads to bring their kids for an early experience of the Valley. One dad was looking forward to the experience of bringing his family along only to leave at half time because of the yoof. this is taken from Charlton Life

"Tennis60 said: ''Not a great night, went with my 2 boys (aged 7 and 9), their mother and my mother. We were seated right at the far end of the west lower near to the away fans and amongst a load of teenagers who wanted to stand up and eff and blind constantly. Unlike a normal matchday there was nowhere else to sit so we left before half time. A total waste of £40.''

I saw you and your family group and noticed you leave. I was right behind you with my two (adult) sons and we felt very sorry for you. I presume the teenage idiots who upset you were the same ones who couldn't even queue for a drink at half time without getting in a fight. You were lucky you weren't still around for that!"

It seems that the Club are content to allow this behaviour on league match days and tin pot trophy days, which is disappointing and in long term commercial terms a negative. Recently Richard Murray said that the club would publish a request in the program for these fans to desist from singing the "Incest" song. It would be too difficult to take proactive action. I'm sorry but a note in the program does not wash, ok I can understand not pulling people out of the crowd ... the innocent could get caught in the melee, but strategically placed senior stewards and cctv will identify who the culprits are and enable action to be taken (especially on League match days when ticket purchasers maybe identifiable).

Whilst the club will deny that they are encouraging, what in my opinion is anti social behaviour, it is plain to see that they do, albeit "encouragement by apathy", they cannot say they disagree with it and then ignore it, by doing so they encourage it. Don't blame the yoof, blame the club.

From the Hill to the errr ... Hill

2010-08-24T22:31:00.000+01:00

I've spent this eveniong at Champion Hill watching Dulwich Hamlets, to feed my need for live football. I'm not going to review the game for you but just exclaim what the difference is between real football and league football.

The first difference is that when I watch Charlton there is a real passion to see them win, if they score, at Dulwich,dont tell anyone I don't really care, in fact I thought about supporting Whistable Town (the Oyster boys) because they were wearing red with KRBS their sponsors. Oh Dulwich won 2-0 and we all politely clapped at that point.

I park in the Rose of Denmark at Charlton, about 10 minutes walk from the ground, my car was 22 footsteps from Champion Hill and it took me 10 minutes to drive home from the game, as oppossed to the 10 minutes it can take to get out of the ground at the Valley.

The whole night 2 cups of tea, a sausage in a roll, entrance to the ground and a program came to £11.20, now thats a result!!

Then there was the PA telling "the people behind the goal to make less noise", or the number of balls kicked out of the ground - I lost count.

It was a good evening,but I don't think I could take a season of it!!!!!!!!

Missing the Valley for now

2010-08-20T22:02:00.000+01:00

Charlton play Oldham on Saturday and for the first time in over a decade I have to make the choice to be absent, not because I have something else on but because the recession has hit SE23 and the mortgage takes precedence over match day or season tickets - Just. I'll be following on Sky Sports News and BBC's Final Score and my mates texts, but the passion won't be there and the tension will be doubled or more. I won't be singing the Red Red Robin - a ludicrous song, but its our ludicrous song, I wont tut at the incest song and how inane it is that we sing it, almost in favour of Valley Floyd Road. No pint of Cola and beef roll in the Rose of Denmark before hand. Where will I get my passion, my fix of adrenalin, certainly not cutting the lawn or trimming the hedge, I doubt I'll get it from the Charlton Life live thread, as good as it is.

Watching football, even live on tv is like watching a different sport from being there, feeling the atmosphere, watching the poeple seeing the movement or lack of it on the pitch. I'm going to miss it but hopefully it won't be long and I'll be there for the stupendous JPT match against the Daggers.

So tomorrow I'll be living the game on the brief highlights on the championship and through my friends. Enjoy.

Becks - ceremonial friendly goodbye?

2010-08-12T18:56:00.000+01:00

Well done David Beckham for stating he would not play in a special friendly to mark the passing of his career.

Beckham splits fans between a vital quality player or a fancy dan, a holder of 115 caps or a player whose 115 caps do not represent quality time spent on the pitch.

My own view has been that he was a vital part of the England set up who has been unfairly vilified, but who has also received more praise than he has warranted.

If last night Capello was really calling time on Beckhams career, and don't forget he has done that before at Real Madrid and had to eat his words, then it was done in a very clumsy way. You have to wonder if it was deliberate or just a response to a question that went wrong.

Whatever it was, the result of the answerr was to deflect from the match yesterday and maybe, just maybe Capello would prefer talk of Beckham rather than his teams performances on the pitch.

However good a player is,the sands of time run through, the discarding of a star can be brutal ask Kevin Keegan and Ray Clemence can testify and Beckham may argue the same,but let no one forget that these international players are in a better place than their lower league colleagues and lets not forget the sad passing this week from cancer of 31 year old Exeter forward Adam Stansfield.

Don't Panic, Don't Panic

2010-08-11T15:25:00.001+01:00

Already the knives are being sharpened for Phil Parkinson, especially on 606, although to be fair Charlton Life seem to be viewing last night as juts another night in the life of supporting Charlton Athletic.

Yes we should be able to hold onto a 3-0 lead against lower level opposition and the result will have hit some of the younger players confidence, but lets look at the positive:-

1. we have players who will be relatively fresh coming back on Fridays meet with Matt Spring.
2. In two games our strikers have scored four goals, shared out amongst three of them, when did that last happen?
3. Our current three key strikers are up and running.
4. We went out at the same stage last season, it did not harm our performance across the season.
5. In fact, when we went out last season we were at the beginning of a seven game winning streak.

The success of this season is not going to be judged on the cups or single games, it will be judged on the league campaign and I have high hopes for a lesser talented but better balanced team doing ok.

Pierre Bolangi remembered 10 years on

2010-08-09T10:35:00.001+01:00

http://www.cafc.co.uk/newsview.ink?nid=36393

Charlton remember a promising talent cut short before it had all begun.

Summary of disposal of Charlton Letter

2010-08-08T09:38:00.001+01:00

I received the letter from Sturat Butler Gaille regarding the management buy out of Charlton by Richard Murray, I have summarised as best I could but may have missed some or misinterpreted - new word of the day Novated - but hopefully for those that have not received the letter of who have not read it,it willgive you an idea of what its all about, constructive clarification of any points misinterpretted would be appreciated.

The disposal letter is a very boring document!
1. Over the last three years £14 + mill has been raised by the directors through Convertible corporate bonds, I addition £7m has been raised in working capital in Directors loans. Entitlement to be paid interest has continued to be deferred.
2. In addition, personal guarantees have been given in respect of the overdraft facility provided by a group of the directors.
3. Third parties have contacted the club regarding investment over the last 12 months and including during this summer, but this interest has proved fruitless.
4. On 14th August 2009 a consortium approached the club to purchase the full shareholding, however due diligence showed that the consortium did not have the financial funding to complete the purchase.
5. Richard Murray has agreed with his fellow directors and bondholders to effect a management buy out, which will enable him to provide further personal financial funding and time to seek further investment.
6. Murrays company will buy all shares for £2.00, with the discharge and or assumption of certain liabilities.
7. The holders of the Bonds (£14+m), have converted the bonds to £0.30 shares, removing the debt from the balance sheet. All rights to payment of accrued outstanding interest on the bonds has been waived.

This is where it gets complicated and uses big words I don’t know, so hopefully I have got it right.
8. The Directors loans have not been waived, however repayment terms are that no repayment will be made until such time as Charlton return to the premier League.

Interest on Director Loans will only be paid in the event that the club is competing in the Championship. Any interest accrued under the directors loans will be waived to the date of completion of the disposal..
9. The Directors are all in agreement.
10. The company formed by Richard Murray is BATON 2010 Ltd and the shareholders are Richard Murray, Andrew Murray and Hannah Murray.
11. Richard Murray is providing further working capital which is available to draw down during 2010/11 and has personally guaranteed £1m overdraft facility.
12. The company name will change from Charlton Athletic plc to CA plc.
13. A General Meeting to ratify the transfer will be held at the Valley on 23rd August at 11.00 am

Finally,in summary CA Plc is being wound up as it no longer has any assets or liabilities, which have been sold to Baton and all of its liabilities having been passed on.

Mrs Sam gets Scrubbing

2010-08-07T00:49:00.000+01:00

The fans came out in droves during the week to save the club either the cost of cleaners for the seats or more likely the fans cleaning the seats as they took their places on Saturday and so avoided a plethora of complaints.

Amongst them was Lloyd Sams 2nd mum, who has sponsored lloyds shirt for the last 7 seasons. Scrubbing away was the final phase of Mrs Sam's separation therapy after said Mr Sam departed to northern parts.

CAFC Seats Clean Up (Julie Meadows) - 03/08/2010 from phil webster on Vimeo.

Boo boys for the new boys

2010-08-06T23:20:00.000+01:00

The new boys in the Championship, Norwich lost at home in the first game of the 2010 / 2011 season and from the sound of the radio were booed off the pitch. No pleasing some carrot crunchers,this time last season they were a league below and conceding 7 goals. And yet they finished, by a mile top of the Division.

Tomorrow its our turn to enter the fray,or let Parkie release his dogs of war. As stated here and on many other blogs Parkies recruitment appears to be pretty good based on his budget, However before we get too excited, lets not forget the talent that has left, whoever they were, nor that players are not available for free for charitable reasons. Doherty, McCullogh Abbot and Jackson were players that held down first team places in their previous teams, but others have come to us without track record - Fry, looking to resurrect their careers - Reid, Akpoe, Martin. Every player is a gamble, people forget the utter rubbish that Fergusson brought to Old Trafford, I can't even remember most of them Djemba Djemba, plus others and don't get me on the subject of £120 million and Rafa Benitez.

With the exception of Matt Spring, no player has had a bad word about Parkie and I believe he has the ability to restore these players to their potential. However,it may not happen tomorrow, I think we will win, but it could go wrong and if it does then I hope our boo boys, you know the ones that boo our players before they have even kicked a ball,give the players a chance and leave it for a game or two, lets get behind the team,behind the manager and to paraphrase David Steel, lets go to the Valley and prepare for promotion!!

Portsmouth 1 HMRC O

2010-08-05T21:07:00.000+01:00

A late own goal by her majesty's collectors of taxes allowed championship side Portsmouth continue to ply its trade in the football league. HMRC are not appealing the judgement so Pompey can enter into the new season safe in the knowledge that they have averted rejection of their CVA and acceptance of of 20p in the pound to their creditors, with the exception of their football debts which are paid in full.

As a football fan I am pleased that Pompey are to remain in existence, but is it fair that multi millionaires such as Glen Johnson and Peter Crouch should receive full payment, whilst a builder who worked on their dressing rooms should only get 20% of what is owed to him and get this its paid over 5 years, same with St John Ambulance and of course the revenue. Now none of us like the revenue, but in the main we have to pay them, so why do football clubs not do so?

In November the revenue will go to court against the Premier league to prevent the preferred creditor rule, I sinserely hope that they win,but that said it won't be the big clubs thsat get squeezed and thats the upsetting thing, as ever the big clubs will get away with it whilst the small ones are sacrificed and go to the wall.

Let loose the dogs of war.....

2010-08-05T20:43:00.000+01:00

But who are the dogs of war? With 48 hours to go, we have not got a full deck of cards and worryingly enough, the vital parts of the puzzle the strikers still are missing the vital piece, a 20 goal a season striker.

Last season we saw Norwich through Holt and Leeds through Beckford amongst others gain promotion with strikers. Millwall in the run in had strikers hitting the back of the net, whereas we failed to have a prolific scorer and eventaully missed out on promotion by probably three goals.

Parkie has done exceptionally well, I cannot disagree with a single signing, we appear to have a solid defence, the retention of Semedo, Racon and re introduction of Jackson and Reid along with Mcormack, gives us a balance that will hopefully, and I believe it will, make up for the loss of Bailey and Sam.

Abbot is a good addition and hopefully will chip in with goals but he is not going to be the main man, nor is Akpoe or numberless Tuna. Nor will having only two strikers strike fear into the hearts of our opponents.
We need to be patient Parkie says, but we also need a team and our fortunes for the forthcoming season cannot be determined untilthe jigsaw is put together in a bit more detail.

We could be mid table, we could be lower table,we could be top. On Saturday Parkie will unleash his dogs of war, I just hope they are rottweillers and not french poodles.

Iberian Valley - Good review and preview last and future season

2010-07-27T12:05:00.000+01:00

A good review and preview of last and next season

http://nelsonsforeignblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/anybody-want-preview.html

Top Award For Charlton Football Stalwart - Well done Sue!

2010-07-27T10:15:00.000+01:00

According to the South London Mercury, Sue Prior has won a Football Association Special achievement award. Paul Mortimer said "The Charlton Women's team would not exist had it not been for Sues hard work, organisation and friendship." Sue has helped revived the fortunes of Charltons Womens team following the disbanding of the successful team following relegation from the Prem (remember that?).

Nicky Bailey eat your heart out! Or How to take a penalty

2010-07-26T22:34:00.000+01:00

How to take a penalty! Its a good watch. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/article/19275/

Bees sting but its just for fun

2010-07-25T12:45:00.000+01:00

A one nil defeat to Barnet is disappointing, but lets remember 12 months ago we lost to Barnet in a pre season and went on to come close to automatic promotion and on the way beat Barnet 4-1 in a competitive match.

Parkinson is working magic bringing in the players that he has, but the team is still work in progress and may continue to be until 31st August and maybe even beyond with loans. The serious concern is up front, although the signs are that Bauza has a contract on the table and is now following in the footsteps of Pringle and Bartlett along with a number of addicks who doned the shirt prior to a permanent full time contract,only for their performances to decline.

My recollection of previous seasons is that some of our best seasons have been preceded by poor pre seasons, now so far I do not think we have had a poor pre season but it does not feel like it has been an outstanding one.

I have no qualms about losing to Bromley and Watford, but after that we need a full team and then... then we kick balls in anger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bee's and Hornet's - The Final Countdown

2010-07-24T10:22:00.000+01:00

The run in to the new season starts today with the toughest of our friendlies today against mid week victors over next weeks opponents. The Bee's of Barnet today, the kids probably against Bromley on Wednesday and then the pre season prestige friendly against Watford.

Its been an up and down summer with nothing happening for weeks on end, a rush of signings then the last week has been quiet whilst we have been on a midlands tour.

What business Parkie has done over the past few weeks and, on a first team basis, it does seem to have pulled together a good defence and midfield with the addition of a more experienced right back maybe still needed. Of course there is the danger that we lose Semedo in the coming few days and of less concern to me Racon. However, up front we have the cumbesome little Sodje and the young and raw Tuna. Our biggest failing last season was not being clinical in the penalty area and we can afford the reduced quality of the team across the other areas if we are able to upgrade our forward line. Bauza seems to be a shoe in for a contract but his performances so far may have alerted other clubs to his potential and it worries me that we are taking so long to sign him. Thor the Icelandic international has recovered from injury and will continue his trial, Mooney continues to be mooted and continues to divide fans,between appreciation and vitriolic hate.

My view is that Mooney if he has worked on his bulk over the summer could be a good assett, if he remins as fragile then maybe he has a squad role.

We have the potential of loans and I would be happy to see a young striker come in from a Prem team on a 12 month loan. Maybe I am just dreaming of a Jermaine "Judas" Defoe, who as a Bournmouth loanee broke scoring records in spades.

It would be nice if the squad could be sorted by the end of next week, but it would also be nice if world poverty ended, neither are likely. The next two weeks will still see more comings and quite possibly one or two disappointing goings and they morale of addickted fans are going fluctuate up and down like a roller coaster

McBasey

2010-07-21T23:20:00.000+01:00

Grant Basey has played his second game tonight for Aberdeen, playing initially at Left back and then moving to the position that a lot of addicks would like to see him occupy for us, centre back, although my preference would be a Darren Pitcher (wash my mouth out) like central midfielder.

The only reports from Scotland have been solid but not spectacular, not sure he'll get a contract at the Don's but there is also apparently interest from Inverness.

If Basey goes we'll receive no compensation, not because he is going to Scotland but because we have not offered him a contract on same terms.

A lot of addicks would like to see Basey stay, the next few weeks will tell.

Fancy a quick blow

2010-07-20T20:48:00.000+01:00

The Guardian are conducting a poll on whether the Vuvuzela should be banned or not, you can vote here.

Guardian Vuvuzela Vote

Pardew's Folly's Fly

2010-07-17T10:15:00.001+01:00

Just after Pardew joined and we were full of optimism, despite being in the relegation positions in the Prem, he and Minty held a fans forum meeting in Kent. Pardew talked optimistically of our avoiding relegation, but in the event of relegation his knowledge of the Championship would result in a rapid return. His comments focussed on the type of player needed in the Championship,basically experienced, hard nosed championship players. The guy knew what he was talking about, but then contradicted everything he had said with his buying strategy. Lest we forget he brought in players at the begining of their careers or from the lower leagues or both. Semedo, Racon, Varney, McLeod, Sinclair, Fleetwood, Dickson, Moutakill, Iwelumo, Christensen, none who met his brief. Does anyone remember Dorian Smith? - No me neither but I am reminded by a fellow addick.

Adding insult to injury these players were brought in on unrealistic wages making it difficult to move them on. However, this has been a culling summer, 24 players have left the Valley, not all Pardews purchases, but the worst of the failures have gone at no small cost to the club, Moutakill and McLeod have both had pay offs. To think for so little we paid £1.1mill for Mcleod, allegedly £8,000 a week for Moutakill.

The Pardew legacy now is Semedo, a player I could still see leaving, although not because he has failed but because he has grown and is becoming the holding midfielder we wanted him to be. Pardew either stated or has the reputation for a shot gun approach to player recruitment, buy loads and some may work out. For the working out lets say Semedo and Bailey, otherwise even Racon is questionable, talented as he is, as Kinsella has said he does not play for the shirt, nor has he shown an attitude that matches his alleged talent. The other legacy is a once proud Premiership team, now in its 2nd year in the the third tier.

This close season it has been difficult to keep track of the goings, but of Pardews follies we wave a cheerful goodbye to Moutakill, McLeod, Fleetwood, Dickson, Sinclair.

Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio!
Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheeeeeerio!

None of that Mularkey on this pitch

2010-07-08T17:58:00.000+01:00

Well it looks like Howard Webb haSs gott he World Cup final, so says the telegraph anyway. I did laugh when i saw one of his team was called Mularkey oh well i thought it was funny.

Howards way

2010-07-08T01:28:00.002+01:00

With Germany out of the way and no bias for or against Spain and the Netherlands, I am hoping that Sunday will see the appointment of Howard Webb as match official for the World Cup Final. Most referees were released earlier this week, but not Howard.

I really like the way he referees and if chosen it will be Englands first final representative since Jack taylor in '74 when Germany beat the Dutch 2-1 and I remember, in the six form centre the next day discussing taylors poor performance.

Howard must be the only Englishman pleased that England failed to progress. Fingers crossed we are represented.

Spring Bounces Back At Parkie!

2010-07-06T23:41:00.003+01:00

Matt Spring gives his own assessment of Phil Parkinsons management style. That said it sounds pretty Curbleyesque.

Parkie Ignored me, says Orients new zebedee.

Youngsters chance

2010-07-06T17:49:00.002+01:00

A lot of people over the summer have suggested that if we had played the "yoof" more last season we would have got promotion, we'll never know and thoughts vary, but one thing seems certain, some of them will get a chance.

Frazer Richardson has left to go to Big Nose. Now I thought he had a good start to the season, rubbish middle and fine finish, good going forward but suffered from penalty area vertigo and as he got close would lose possession for the team and be seen hurtling back to get in position, the obvious exception being his goal.

The alleged £450,000, probably includes add ons, but not bad business for some one who 12 months ago came in on a free. Chris Solly has been on the edge for 18 months now. Parkie said recently, probably in the know, that Solly needs to cement a regular first team spot, well he has that opportunity now through the friendlies and if he has survives them then into the real season, good luck to him.

Could this be the way ahead

2010-07-02T20:08:00.003+01:00

Richard Murray anounced today,following the departure of Stuart Fleetwood, Charlton's strategic review, commenced on the departure of Alan Pardew has now been completed, in record time.

Murray was proud to confirm rumours that the club were to leave Division One. With the reduction in playing staff the club has decided to maintian its reduced wage bill and compete in the National 5 - a - side Power League. For the first time The Valley will be sponsored and will for the next three seasons be known as The Power League Valley, with the Valley pitch being divided into 5 5 -a-side pitches and one 7 - a- side pitch.

Said Murray, "more and more clubs will be taking this route, once again Charlton Athletic will be seen as trail blazers for the little clubs."

Rick Everitt, Charlton Athletics communications maanger was last seen banging his head against a wall outisde the Valley.

Changing history

2010-07-01T20:30:00.000+01:00

If only carlsberg did replays

Nine nil to the Orient, Nine nil to the Orient

2010-06-30T22:33:00.004+01:00

Matty Spring formerley lost soul at the Valley signed for Orient today, that makes Orients signing to date 9 Charltons a big fat zero, in fact when they report back to train tomorrow they will barely be able to put a five a side match together. Imagine your return to work after holiday and you were to find that half the staff were not there? Really fire you up and motivate you - NOT!

We are waiting on the Boro deal to go through for Bailey to know what budget we have and then hopefully we will be able to sign up a few out of contract players before it gets too late to avoid a depressing start to the season.

Yipeee, dipee do - the boys are back in town - almost

2010-06-29T12:30:00.002+01:00

Yipee, dipee do only two days till the real footballers are back in training. We only know a handful of you and we know there will be more of you and some of you had better get ready for the valley boo, no vuvuzelas to hide behind in SE7, but we love you and we love our club and we look forward to another season of joy (a bit more this year please) and despair (a bit less this time) and the unexpected (run a way leaders by any chance?).

real players, real footballers real fans - bring it on!!!!!!

Cheap T shirts and memorabilia for sale

2010-06-28T19:04:00.001+01:00

So we are out, humiliated by the hun, not another historic hard fought draw and an exit on penalties for this bunch of players, no its abject failure this time lads.
It is announced today that the FA will take two weeks to make their mind up regarding Capello’s future, what a load of bollocks, yes or no make the decision today. 24 hours ago I felt 75:25 that capello should stay now that is reversed. It is reversed because he is not the man we thought he would be, the man that took us through the qualifying rounds with ease.
In addition, this defeat throws up so many questions about our league. Along with Spain we compete as the top league in the world, but in doing so we have attracted un heard of riches. Just a few days ago I read an interesting comparison between the Premier League and the Bundesliga, maybe we should take note.
However, back to Capello, The Godfather, now the Odd father. Until we arrived here the Godfather Capello was untouchable, but this campaign has been a disastrous failure. Remember Capello stated he would only play players in form and fit. He had masterminded qualification through this policy and no man was allowed to oppose him, even showing his mettle by ripping the arm band from philandering captain.
His approach and results created a strong team spirit and amongst the team a sensible team work ethic.
But now we see a different Capello:-
1. He goes cap in hand to Carragher, Scholes and King begging them their participation in the squad, surely this undermines the squads that qualified’s self confidence and undermines self belief? To add to that Carragher cried off from international football – because he could not get in the team.
2. Will play only fit players. For a brief moment in time ledley King was fit but you did not need a crystal ball to know he was not going to stay that way.
3. There will be no prima donnas, no untouchables in Capello’s squads, well not unless you take into account Wayne Rooney. Darren Bent may not be as gifted as Rooney but he would have grafted and worked and may well have got a goal.
“Two world cups and still no goals- Rooney, Rooney”
4. Still we have match winners like – oh Joe Cole, why not play him?
5. Gerrrard knows how to play the support striker role and Rooney likes to be the lone striker, why not play players in positions we knw they thrive in.
6. Emile, ……. Emile he’s lovely, he’s cuddly but he is no goal scorer so why bring him on when we need goals. Crouch is not a prolific scorer against top international teams but he is a scorer and the germans did not look that good at the back so why not have a go.
7. No tactics changed during the games, no wily old fox manoeuvre to out wit …… well anybody.
8. Not winning would be failure --- his words not mine … failure!!!
9. If you take our last major tournament, we did not get there so it’s a big tick for Capello, but if you take Svens reign we were quarter finalists three times, two of which we only lost on penalties.
10. We are 8th in the world so quarter finals are par, last 16 is not.
I am undecided and on the other hand maybe we should keep him:-
1. He will have gained so much from this experience and not just ulcers.
2. We can’t afford to sack him having negotiated away our get out clause.
3. Can we really expect Rednap, Hodgson to do any better with the rabble we have got.
4. He is more fun to watch than Sven on the sidelines and we know where his head will be!!
5. Anyone can make a mistake, even when they are earning £6million.
6. Chopping and changing every two years won’t benefit us.
7. This was just a symptom of the malaise of English football.

OS Under threat

2010-06-24T11:50:00.002+01:00

Airman Brown AKA Rick Everit has posted the following regarding plans for the OS and is looking for feedback from us all. I have responded on Charlton Life. Basically I love the fact that we have our own distinctive site but if moving to the Football Leagues boring generic version will add significant monies into the Club and save job (s) then reluctantly I can give no argument in its favour.

Ricks post goes as follows:-

"Someone asked recently about the promised redesign of the OS, which we all accept is now looking rather dated. The reality is that we look like being forced down a road we do not want to travel, so rather than present this as a done deal here is the situation we face.

The strong and consensus view within the club is that we want to maintain an independent site. Other than attendance at matches, it is the main point of contact for fans. It is the principle way the club communicates and it acts as our shop window. And who in the high street would deliberately set out to have a shop window that looked like all the others?

We have never seen it and don’t see it now as just another piece of inventory to sell off to the highest bidder. It is a vital part of our identity.

On the other side of the equation is Football League Interactive, a subsidiary of the Football League, which operates about 80 websites, including the sites of all other FL clubs – barring Leeds United and recent arrivals in the League from either end.

There are good reasons for this dominance and they are financial. By bringing all those clubs together, FLi is able to make an attractive pitch to advertisers and share the revenue according to size of club. More significantly, from our point of view, the League controls the rights to live action – commentary and video – and licences it in such a way that it is very difficult to escape the financial logic of handing over your website.

Two years ago, in response to the demand from fans for commentary, the club entered into a deal with FLi that enables us to stream commentary (provided by us) and match highlights (provided by them). No other club has such an arrangement outside of an FLi website and to get them to agree to this we had to accept terms that are overwhelmingly in their favour. They get the vast majority of the revenue Charlton fans pay. The contract is up and they have made clear that the terms of an extension are non-negotiable.

If we give up the independence of our site we get a more equitable share of this revenue, plus a a cut of the advertising, plus a share of the syndication money the League gets from selling the internet video rights on, for example to the BBC, based on the number of Player subscribers we have. At the moment we get a flat rate of the syndication based on League One status, although our website traffic is healthy and hasn’t fallen since we were relegated from the PL.

We would no longer have to pay hosting or design costs, although they don’t offer a shop or tickets interface and these would remain under our control.

Against this, our site would look like the other FLi sites. Our staff would still maintain the club specific content, but we would have less control of how it looks, our messages would have less prominence and there are restrictions on the ways we can prioritise our own commercial activities, for example with splash pages. In addition, the contract ties us to this arrangement until 2017. This is also non-negotiable.

There is nobody at Charlton who want to wants to go down this route, but our research suggests it is worth a minimum of £50k extra a season to do so. Given that we are faced with making people redundant to save much less than this, we have build a credible alternative financial model if we are to avoid it. That is going to need the active support of fans to achieve. Hence this post and the question - do enough of you care sufficiently to help us fund the alternative?

We have plans in place to rebuild the existing site now in a much updated and improved form and continue to host it independently, but that is a cost. The only secure way of offsetting that and matching the income stream from FLi is through subscriptions, but it would make little sense in view of the values we attach to the site to put it behind a paywall. The subscriptions need to be attached to premium content. Again the League will take a significant (but much lower) share of the income just to allow us the rights to include this live action and we would have to obtain our own match footage and edit it.

We believe the main driver of subscriptions was match commentary rather than match pictures, not least because these are also available in limited form via the BBC site.

Are we correct about this? Again, you can tell us. The simplest option would be to offer a premium content service with no commentary or match action as the League cannot demand a cut of that, but even if we offer two packages and exclude premium content from one they are likely to demand a cut of both through the terms of their licence.

Whichever route we go we are likely to focus on adding more non-match video content in order to encourage subscriptions, but to take the independent route we probably need more like 2,000 subscribers than the existing 1,200. And to stay independent we might have to push the price up, probably to £4 or £5 a month. Bear in mind also that all payments include VAT and we will incur additional hosting and bandwidth costs if we run our own premium content service.

We do have some ideas around advertising and sponsorship, but experience suggests they should be discounted for the purposes of the current calculation.

In the end, the board will have to make a decision with finance in mind. They have consistently supported our resistance to the FLI route in the past and recognise the importance of preserving our identity, but cannot be expected to do so regardless of cost.

There will be people out there who are as passionate as those of us at the club are about this, but how many of you are there?

What we didn’t want to do is end up presenting a fait accompli without canvassing opinion. Unfortunately, and whatever we might like to be different, this is the financial reality of the club’s situation and we have to deal with it. "