Money coming our way?

Thanks to AFKABartram of Charlton Life for pointing out our interest in tomorrows Championship Play Off Final, also known as the richest game in football, as the winner gets a guaranteed return of £90 million. Oh how we could do with a share of that !

And we can, not much of it granted, 1.11111% to be precise. But like every silver lining this £250,000 lining comes at a cost and that cost is the winning of promotion to the Premier League by non other than the Millwall of Wales, Cardiff City. The only thing positive to ever come form Cardiff as far as I can remember is John Toshack, yes the fat bloke with the welsh national squad, used to be a Liverpool player, making a deadly duo with Keegan. We sold a player to Cardiff and cleverly (was it Mr Waggott) inserted a promotion clause.

So tomorrow, we forsake £250,000 and support the bright lights of Blackpool and the jocular Ollie or we go with our wallet and support Cardiff. Forgetting about the money of course, I will support Cardiff, because ... well The Premier League deserve their fans!!!!!!

Oh, the player by the way, was our esteemed former captain who gave up the ghost long before we were relegated Mark Hudson.

Now the dust has settled

And no we are not talking about the volcanic stuff. Monday was a devastating day for most addicks, but if you support the club for almost 40 years you learn to pick yourself up, brush yourself down and start all over again. And it does feel like that with the financial melt down the number of players out of contract etcetera, etcetera.

There are lots of rumours about what will happen over the close season, some like myself predict that by Christmas we will be in administration, but its uninformed conjecture. A few years ago now, I remember Prague Addick calling for the board to announce their intent for a forthcoming season, it did not happen then but I think now is the time for them to either reassure the fans as to our situation or manage our expectations for the coming 18 months.

I for one would love a return to the Championship next season, but if we have not got the resources then lets know about it now, rather than letting what sembelance of a team turns out next season be booed every game. An announcement by the board in the next few weeks would be really welcome. Although, don't hold your breathe.

For Passion, for glory, for promotion, for Charlton and most of all for the fans

Curbs down played derby's they were the fans matches, not to do with the team, the players. As we approach Millwall on Saturday, I am hoping that Parkie has a different perspective on this derby, I hope that Parkie uses the emotion of the fans to motivate his players, I hope that Parkie motivates his players to show passion, passion beyond any passioin they have shown in the last 5 years.

Tomorow I want Parkie to line up the players at Sparrow Lane and pull out Robbie Elliot and get Robbie to tell the players what it means to a Charlton fan to beat Millwall, I want Parkie to pull out Sam and get him to tell the players why we should beat Millwall at the New Den, I want Scot Wagstaff to tell the players why they have to do it f0r the fans.

Pre match, Parkie can do the pre match tactics and game plan but lets see a true Charlton do the team talk , lets get Gritty in, lets fire the players up, lets get Keithy in. There will be so much passion on the "terraces", lets make sure that the players match this on the field, lets see ours win the 40-60's, if players are going to be upended then let those players be the home players.

On Saturday the team must play for promotion, for charlton, for the fans for Prince Harry* and for Charlton!

*Not quite sure what he is doing here!!

So it begins.......

The run in begins here, in a few days time we travel to the New Den for our first competitive match there for a long time *and we look to continue the form of our last match at the Den when two Kim Grant goals put The Lions to the sword or the friendly match at the tool box when we saw fat boy Hasselbaink score for the addicks and offer us a false hope of premiership growth.

As I train for a quick get away after the game on Saturday (unlikely to happen as away fans are held inside the ground after the match) . I reminisce . I have been to quite a few games with Millwall there is a game I recall around 1970, at the Valley, both sides were looking to change division, we were looking to go down and they to go up. Now no one else remembers this game and without looking too far, I have not found reference to it, but my recollection is that this night match was attended by around 30,000 and when Derek Possee slotted away the 1st of two goals, the unsegregated ground erupted with what looked like 25,000 Millwall fans, I can recall being at The Den seeing 6ft something Dave Shipperley marking 5 ft nothing Derek Possee, I saw Keith Weller play against us ( He later won the European Cup Winners Cup for Chelsea against the mighty Real Madrid), I recall seeing Kasey Keller being awarded Millwall's player of the season on the pitch, Charlton leading 2-0 with 5 minutes to go through Gordon Watson and Paul Williams goals only for them to get two late equalisers. My Grandfather in Law used to take my Mother In Law one week to Millwall, One week to Charlton - fortunately her loyalties are with Charlton to the extent that her next birthday she will receive a Charlton Garden Gnome.

Millwall are scary, there is tension around the games that there should not be that have nothing to do with football, but I still love the idea of playing them as our real rivals, for me the rivalry with Palace is about their abuse of us at selhurst and the joint Noades / Fry attempt, whereas Millwall Charlton is familly, it is the South London version of Celtic Rangers, Liverpool Everton,Gunners Spurs.

So to Saturday, Millwall have a great home record, they have lost only one game, have beaten Leeds and Norwich, so this will be no walk in the park. The match is more or less a sell out, so the atmosphere will be hot. Millwall will want to get one over their more illustrious neighbours or as Eamon Dunphy described us "The Nancy boy's down the road", plus enhance their play off chances and put a marker down for a potential playoff showdown with us.

We need the points, with Leeds stuttering, an automatic is not out of the question (based on my biased BBC predictor, Norwich and Charlton both get automatic). We have worries over left back and I'm not putting money on Jackson, Basey or Youga being available. Semedo, Solly or Richardson may have to fill in. This really has been our cursed position. If Moutakill is not allowed to play right back maybe he could make the mother of all left backs.

Who will start up front now that Burton is fit, it has to be a choice between Mooney and Burton, given Akpoe's 5 in 7 starts, personally I would go for power so would make it Mcenzie and Akpoe - fat chance.

This is the sort of game where Dailly, Bailly and Richardson have to step upto to the plate and lead the younger heads in the team, making sure that players stick to the game plan and are not intimidated by Millwalls players or fans. A lot of managers have said if you can get on top of the Charlton team at the Valley in the 1st 20 minutes then the crowd will turn against the players, we have to take this attitude against Millwall at the New Den. We have the ability to play it tight at the back, out pass Millwall and take them on the break, too many teams seem to have gone to the Den scared, there is no reason for us to do that. I think that we will come out of the game on Saturday, I just hope it is not a black eye!!!

Footnote: A tribute to Millwall legend Harry Cripps, who used to teach me football, which probably explains how bad I am.

* Thanks to Chacago Addick on setting me right on having played at New den previously

Live, love, laugh and be happy.

Because you never know what’s around the corner. The news of someone I had never heard of in football had died suddenly this week. Keith Alexander aged 53, an age I will hit in a few days passed away, Manager of Macclesfield one time journeyman footballer. There is a lovely obituary written by NY Addick. From what I understand of Mr Alexander he was a true fans footballer, not a fancy dan earning millions a year and a nice guy, it is sad to lose someone who to all intense and purposes is young.

Recently a friend of my sisters, who by association was a friend of mine, a guy who was a young 63 year old, fit and healthy, who I saw on January 2nd, looking fit and well, about 5 weeks ago was diagnosed with CJD, he was a Bristol Rovers fan but had been to the Valley a few times, the last being this seasons Rovers game, he passed away two weeks ago. Dr Kish had got me a program for him from the Rovers away game, sadly I only got it to him the day before he passed away. RIP Julian Bailey.

Its not more important than life and death Bill, but it does create a spirit of community, a theme I will return to later.

So Live, love laugh and be happy

The Terminator strikes again!!

First he sank the Dons

Then he sank our rivals

Then our country cousins

Not to mention turning his attention to us


With Pompey going in to administration, he's done it again

Herman Hreidarsson is The Premier League

Terminator

After Archie, the question is ……. Who killed Football?

I wish I knew how to add music to this blog, I would start with the East Enders music, after all we are an east end club, as our announcer last season stated (twat). Anyway, before I have started, I digress.

Many years ago when I was but a boy, football was much more fun, in my opinion, waiting from Sunday to Saturday for the saturation of football on TV, with On The Ball and later in the evening Match Of The Day, followed the next day by Brain Moore’s the Big Match. The highlight of the year would be the FA cup final a live game and you may get a few more in the form of the home internationals or a European final. The top tier of football would be competed for by the likes of Ipswich, Derby, Nottingham Forest, Carlisle, Norwich and then came money, wall to wall live TV,you can even watch live games from the Irish League – when I was a kid I did not even realise there was an irish league, unless it was located in Highbury. Players drove in “plush” top of the range Ford Cortinas, when they retired bought pubs or hairdressers and married their childhood sweat hearts and shagged their friends (no change there) and they never used the words spit and roast in the same sentence.

The football I knew, the football I enjoyed has died, it is gone, no more,if it is gone, if it has died I want to know who killed our football.

I don’t know the answer to the question, but I know who the suspects are and leave you to decide on their guilt.

The Suspects
Stacey Branning – Slater

Responsible for the murder of Archie Mitchell and the unemployment of Charlton supporting Bradley “Charlie Clements” Branning, surely the neurotic Stacey cannot have been the cause of the ills of the football world. Maybe not, but could she be the object of Ashley Coles texting attentions.

Sky TV – Played by Ian Beale

Many blame Sky for the evils that have entered football and it is easy to point to evidence that damns them. It is Sky who have scheduled football so that top flight Saturday football could well be on a Sunday or Monday. They have pumped millions in to the game, millions that the terrestrial companies have never tried to match and lets face it would we want our licence money spent in this way. This money has been used by football not to build the game but to enrich many especially players and agents.

But is it really Sky’s fault? Sky’s only role in protecting football is to protect the goose that is laying the golden egg. It is Football that has drawn subscribers to Sky, Sky’s responsibility however is not to them but to their shareholders and if spending billions means that they generate a volume of subscribers that then go on to generate shareholder profits then Sky are doing what they are there for. Football cannot count on the cash machine that is Sky

The FA – Played by Dot Cotton

The stuffy men in blazers, who were rolled over by the smart marketing types from Sky and the Premier League, they thought that they were in control, but the carpet was taken from beneath them and they failed to protect the lower leagues and the grass roots of football. Can they be accused of killing football or just criminal negligence.

The Players – Played by Phil Mitchell

When clubs are paying 80 -95% of income in wages there has to be something wrong. With the elite earning upwards of £100,000 a week and even at Charlton’s level players earning £3-8,000 a week when Banks are refusing overdrafts, fans are being put on short weeks and that’s the ones amongst us that have kept their jobs. Club revenues are reducing as fans cannot afford season tickets or a family day out for over £100.

So the finger of blame must be aimed at the players, but then they only asked for stupid salaries, the clubs could have refused, but the quest for glory is too great and clubs continue to spend to achieve it, but more often than not – Leeds, Notts County, Portsmouth – all is in vain.

The Fans – Played by Gary Hobbs

We have allowed it to happen, we are so parochial to our teams that we never collectively defend our game, yes you hear people ranting on 606 and clubs have their fans forums but do they have an effect have they ever achieved something in the game of significance? The Wimbledon experience created AFC Wimbledon, but what was that victory those fans had a team in the semi professional leagues instead of the 2nd tier and MK Dons took their place at the higher level. Fans power at the pinnacle of English football created a new semi professional team, but there remained Manchester United a formerly solvent club, now indebt to some £3/4 billion. If all fans collectively protested maybe people power would have worked.

The Boards – Played by Max Branning and Saeed Ahmed.

The boards can be seen in different roles, the boar that has followed the quest for glory by spending beyond their means. Only a limited number of teams can win a league, get promotion, qualify for Europe. For some the ream is unrealistic, but even so they follow it. Then there are the new owners, rich Abramovich’s, the owners of Manchester City, the Liverpool yanks. These especially the former two have upped the anti for everyone. When Charlton were promoted to the Prem. £20 mill was thought to be the “outrageous” spend level to stay up, now it will just about buy you a forward, with nothing left to strengthen the rest of the squad.
Hasn’t Abramovich done what we all wanted to do when we were kids with our Subbuteo teams, he just has a different slant to it. Is it his fault that the other clubs don’t have the money to compete with him and now Manchester City are the same? Its not long ago we were celebrating being the richest club in the world only for it to be cruelly taken away from us at the last minute, but would we have been really happy buying the success that we had strived for and failed to reach.
So these are the suspects in the killing of our football and like all suspense stories, its down to you to decide the accused!!!