McClaren the let down?

So 13 years after we failed to get to the World cup finals Scott Carson and McClaren fail to get us to the European Championships. OK its a bit harsh to blame Charlton’s latest player of the season, after all qualification is over a series of games and Scott only played in one, the last. I feel Scott is a modern day Peter Bonetti, plunged into the heat of a major tournament (in Bonetti’s case literally) with inadequate preparation and as a result disaster struck. Bonetti paid with his international career, hopefully Scott will live to fight another day.

So if it was not Scott’s fault was it all McClaren. He is reputably a great coach, but an average manager and the England job just is not the role from which a manger can develop, you have to be good when you get there. McClaren was not ready and number two’s do not always, if ever make good number ones, just ask Les Reed.

So I ask again was it McClarens fault, not really, there are many factors.

McClaren was the backroom boy of Sven and as Sven left the job of England manager under a cloud, it was always going to be the case that McClaren would be tainted by the same brush. His credibility was not enhanced by the late intervention of David Dein, rushing to Portugal for the signature of Scholari or by Brian Barwicks ridiculous claims that he was first choice. But McClaren cannot be blamed for having ambitions of being number one, but the FA can be blamed for not curbing his ambition.

The FA made the mistake, often made in business by managers, wanting to fill a place to the timetable, even when the candidate was not there. They did not want the press on their back, well they have them there now. They wanted the best, but their candidate list did not include the best (after Scholari ducked out) so instead of going back to the market to find the best, they accepted a choice from what they had – McClaren, Allardyce or Curbishley. And of those three on paper McClaren had the best rep. That though does not make him good enough. Today’s sacking of McClaren was decisive and it is years since that word and the FA have gone together – decisive clear cut and focussed, exactly what they failed to be when appointing McClaren.

SkySports are contributors to the dearth of English qualifying players in the Prem. You don’t have this problem in other leagues, of foreign players dominating. You cannot blame Sky for paying top dollar (Rouble, Yen, Euro) for the TV rights, now topped up by international TV rights and Satanta, but it is that money that is drawing in foreign players. They don’t want to play here in drizzly Britain, in Middlesborough – well not unless you are going to pay them a lot of money and the low end of the salary scale is £20 – 30,000 per week. If there was less money in the game there would, arguably, be fewer foreign players edging English youth out. Of course, the counter argument is that there would be as many foreign players, but all of a lower quality, but if they were of a lower quality then our players would be able to match them and there would be more English player able to develop to a higher level of competence than they do currently, since they spend most of their time in the stiffs.

The EU who will not allow the league to introduce a quota on the number of non English qualifying players and reject any representations from the Premier League.

The Clubs who buy the foreign players and with few exceptions nurture foreign talent even in their academies, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man U are definitely culpable. Why should our leading managers care about England, after all they are a Scot, an Israeli, a Frenchman and a Spaniard. Add to that a Swede, a Welshman, an Irish man and another Scot and the problem grows. If England are out of tournaments, then the few players that are in the first team have the summer to rest.

The Players who could not rouse themselves, who have the skill and the ability, but with so many avenues to glory do not have the heart to fight for the national cause, when they know they can go back to their clubs and fight for European glory, against teams that would match most leading national teams let alone the minnows of Israel, Serbia et al. They have heard the hype, they believed it because they must be good to be paid so much, they just forgot to make it real.

So that’s it, lets lynch McClaren, there is nothing like a good lynching, but the guy was never in with a hope, promoted beyond his capabilities into a system that is built for failure and whoever we get next, well his chances of success are slim, if he pulls it off then he will deserve his knighthood, but if he does not, if he only comes 8^th in the world, instead of wining it then, lets hope he is asbestos coated, because he’ll need to be as the lynching party ties him to the stake.

Doomsday or Salvation - the next 12 months

I was talking to a fellow addick yesterday and he suggested that he was enjoying the Championship so much that he would be happy for us to just miss out this year and get promoted in 2008 / 2009. I then decided to paint him the scenario, what I would call the dooms day scenario and as there is nothing else going on Charlton wise, other than our loanees doing particularly well Dickson and James Walker both scoring in the Yeovil Gillingham game, I thought why not bang it out on the blog.

Lets assume that we miss the automatics, but finish third and are drawn to play 6th place Ipswich. Ipswich have only dropped points against Watford and West Brom during the season at home and after the first leg we find ourselves facing a 3-0 deficit. Outplaying Ipswich in the second leg at the Valley, we lead 2-0 with 10 minutes to go and we bombard the Ipswich goal but to no avail and they get a late goal, so it ends 2-1 and we have another exciting year in the Championship to look forward to.

As the players leave the pitch, And Reid shakes Alan Pardews and reminds him that he was promised a premiership move if the addicks failed to go straight up.

Meanwhile, Richard Murray takes a call in the board room, its Randy Lerner from Aston Villa, "Martins taking over the running of your English team after McClaren failed to progress through the 1st round of the Euro's, so we would like like to speak to Alan Purrdoo."

O'Neil takes over at the FA, within a week, Pards enforces his contract get out clause and is announced as the new Villa manager, Murray announces the promotion of Phil Parkinson to First Team Head Coach.

"Phil was always the power behind Alan and we look forward to being in a new tier of football next season." Says Murray.

Meanwhile bids are coming in for ZZ, JT and Ambrose all of whom make it clear that they are too good for the Championship. Murray allocates all of the £4 million received in transfer fees to rebuilding the team. Danny Mills, whose loan from City was extended to the end of the season leaves the Club to join newly promoted Ipswich on a freebie. Izale McLeod is released on a free transfer to recently relegated Milwall and both James Walker and Chris Dickson make up the strike force at Charlton alongside Luke Varney and Chris Iwelumo. Bhougehrra leaves the club to return to Algeria. Kelly Youga replaces the retired Cory Gibbs to compete with Thatcher and Bassey for the left back position.

In his first act Parkinson announces that Paddy McCarthy will be match day captain, whilst Matty Holland takes the club captaincy. Chris Powell relinquishes playing to concentrate on coaching the youngsters as Steve Gritt moves to 3rd division Gillingham as Manager.

Parkinson brings in some promising young players from Millwall and Gillinham to bolster his midfield and to play alongside Semedo, Racon, Holland and Sam. A late bid for Sam from an unknown Premiership team is received but turned down, but Sam is unsettled and does not reproduce his pre season form and eventually is dropped.

Throughout the season, their last with the parachute money, Charlton remain in the top ten, securing a play off place for the 2nd season running, but again falling at the 1st hurdle.

Without the parachute money Murray announces further cuts are going to be required and key players sold. By the middle of the next season Charlton are 15th, six points from the bottom of the table ....

The alternative is that we get immediate promotion, probably through the playoffs. Lakshmi Mittal steel magnet one of the top ten richest men in the world negotiates with Murray to buy the club, siting a great desire for India to be involved in the Premier League. Mittal has been looking for the right club for some time, he is a family man and sees a synergy amongst the values he holds and Murrays. After spending £30 million on his daughters wedding, a £35 million present to his son of a Football Club to run seems only fair. Mittal is also irked by the refusal of Birmingham to have sold to him a year earlier and looks forward to one day playing them and beating them for their insult.

Who knows if either of the above two scenarios will play out, failure to be promoted would be close to disaster and yet promotion could lead to a season long embarrassment, if we were to remain on the current financial footing. Lakshmi Mittal was looking at buying Birmingham and he is very rich, India is developing its football pedigree, from a very low base and recent Premier League Clubs - Man U, Chelsea - have sent delegations to develop the training aspects of the game there and the Indian National Coach is English. Premier League Football is watched by millions live every Saturday ... it could happen and who would complain when we could have bhaji and a pint on the Valley concourse.

Addicks Drop To Third

Charlton dropped back into 3rd place as West brom comprhensively defeated Coventry at the Ricoh last night, despite Kevin Philips being injured. Kiely's teammates put 4 past Dowies boys, without conceding. This following the "mosquito" executing a mid air forearm smash on a West Brom player after 10 minutes and getting sent off.

Coventry performed well in the first half depsite the numbers disadvantage, but conceded shortly after the break and the rest is history.

Meanwhile in deepest Kent, Charltons 2nd string could only draw at home to Palace, with a strike force of Izale and varney they failed to find the back of the net, which does not auger well for any injuries to Big Chris in the future.

Spurs to redevelop White Hart Lane

It is reported today thet Spurs are looking to increase capacity to 52,000, rather than build a new stadium. The idea is that they move away from WHL for two years during the redevelopment, hiring Wembley for high profile games and Upton Park for the lesser lights of the Premier League. That will go down well with the East End knees up boys.

I wonder though if this is not really a set up, to put the blame for moving away to a new stadium away from White Hart Lane on the local authority, who surely cannot give planning approval for an increased capacity without major transport infrastructure investment. It is hard enough to get away from WHL currently, without adding more fans.

Spurs have been so ham fisted in their manouvering around Jol, that it would not surprise me if this was not another attempt at try to pull the wool over everybodies eyes and failing completely.

The Womens Team - the Story So Far

Well we had a great World Cup, only being beaten in the semis by the former winners and the beaten finalists the USA. Contributions were made by our former stars including Casey Stoney, but thats wheer harltons contribution to Womens Football in this season really looks like ending. After the chanagrins of the close season and relegation, the departure of the full squad, at the 11 th hour Peter Varney was able to save the womens team, but to what end?

I was relatively voiciferous about the demise of the womens team, the whole bthing was handled badly from a PR perspective and Bonas did the club no favours by letting the cat out of the bag to the team. The uproar generated a press outrage that had roots possibly in the departure of Dowie as much as a real care of the press for Charltons women. As a result PV and his teamsought new routes of funding, ultimately bringing to gether various community aspects, sadly too late to maintain the team playing personnel who had all gone and got them selves new clubs.

The result has beenm that we have a team coached by Charlton legend Paul Mortimer, taking the Womens Premier League by storm and leading unbveaten on their way to the Championship .................. Sadly thats the fantasy. A team of hopefuls were put together at the last minute and it shows, losing every game so far and failing to score a goal - two 5-0's and 6-0, it does not auger well. Instead of sitting on top of the League they languish at the bottom, possibly as laughing stock, which is a shame as the girls are giving their all, its just that they are not good enough.

PV was on a hiding to nothing, my personal view is that once the damage was done they should have stuck to their guns, failing that they should have entered at a lower level, where they could have competed, whatever yopur feelings about the womens game, nobody is going to follow a team that is hammered every week and we should have realised that.

Some message board are already asking where are the supporters who supported the retention of a womens team, well it was never about attendances. i never go to reserve games, but I want us to win them and I would protest loudly if we were to disband the team. If we survive next season the i hope we compete at a lower level and build the team back up over 2 -3 seasons and the club gets behind the team in its marketing. They will need to be cleverer than the recent offer to fans of free tickets, a couple of days before a weekday fixture. I remember seeing us beaten by Arsenal at the Valley to a crowd of 3,000 and talking to converts. The re building process behind the womens section is going to be a long process and now I am not so sure it is worth it.

Mouthy Players and Rubbish Refs Cost

After the Plymouth game we were fined £5,000 for six bookings, apprently the fine doubles every time we get six bookings in a game, so we have to cough up a £10,000 fine after Saturday. Dunno about Saturdays ref, but by all accounts he was rubbish, and Styles was out of order and we should never have picked up those bookings. That said, Mills and McLeod were idiots for getting booked for dissent against Plymouth and look what it has cost us. Pards has said from day one that we are too nice, but mouthing off to the referee does us no favours, I would rather see yellows for over exuberant tackles than players not keeping their gobs shut.

Our discipline record for this season is not brilliant 28 yellows and 2 reds, with Semedo on 4 bookings and 1 red, presumably his next booking will earn him another ban, Sam is next with 3 bookings and a red and then laughably considering the time he has spent on the pitch Izale McLeod 3 bookings, so just as he gets his first run in the team he'll pick up more bookings and go down on a ban, the problems of indiscipline, mouthing at Styles.

As an aside, I see Huckerby has got his second red card of the season against Ipswich, after his dental attack on Mills saw him leave the Valley early.

Defensive frailties - Par for the course?

We got roughed up and turned over at Wolves, well that is what Pards is saying and we came away from Molineux with nothing, no points and no goals, so it was not a good day, we even came back without a left back. It appears that McCarthy, Sankofa and Sodje all candidates for the position. if this is the case I would like to see a place on the bench for Basey to have 15 minutes blooding in seeing as he has had a good spell out at Brentford and receiving rave reviews from Terry Butcher and he knows a thing or two about defending.

Most fans will be dissapointed at our defensive record this season, any high balls into the area have condemned our players to stresses and strains that should not be allowed in the work place. But lets look at it in context of the players we have and the league we are in.

Moutakill looked the part but his early scything down at Stoke has not allowed us to get a real impression of him, Mills has however deputised well and added a dimension to our attacking play that was lacking when he swapped on Saturday. McCarthy, Bhougerra and Fortune are worries and this is really where everybodies concern lies. pards has played Fortune and Bhougerra together more to forge some form of consistent partnership in the centre than in the conviction that either of them have anything to offer. Fortune was going to be off loaded before Diawarra decided to jump ship and we have not replaced his considerable talent and Bhougherra is a poor mans El Karkouri. Who knows about Sodje, he has only had a right back and cameo midfield appearances so far and seems to be a loan that we got just because we needed one not because he was the answer. The left back position has become this seasons cursed position, Powell has been put through too much, Thatcher has vanished and Gibb decided to get his metatarsill injuries done all together - even Rooney did his two on seperate occaisions.

So defensively where are we in the league? Well the league believe it or not, is not very good. There are only three teams who have conceded fewer goals than our 12 - Leicester - 8, Wolves -9 and bristol City 11 and there are three teams on 12 - Us, Watford and Plymouth. So maybe all the worrying and wailing is exageratted, we maybe crap but theres even more crap out there just waiting to be breached and if we can get it together in defence we will be awesome to beat.