Be Careful what you wish for!!

Be careful what you wish for. Having at first been distressed at the thought that soft porn barons Gold and Sullivan, the Valley faithful have turned their distress to the fact that the target is not in South London but across the river to one of our temporary homes at Upton Park. As we all know the initial bid is unlikely to be accepted by the Icelandic owners of West Ham and now that the Icelandic’s have been given an extension on solving their debt situation. For Gold and Sullivan that is bad news, as it gives time for alternative investment to be found, West Ham will be relegated by the time they can take ownership and the Icelandic’s have taken a dislike to Gold and Sullivan, following the latter pair revealed the nature of their bid.
If the Gold and Sullivan bid fails and they decide not to pursue their interest then apparently we are next on the list, which does not seem to be all bad. I am wary however of any white knights flying in to save us. A year ago we were looking at the white nights of Dubai, but where would we be now following the collapse of that principality, would we have been part of the bail out from the Emirates or would a football club be seen as superfluous to requirements and sold some where on the cheap. It did not happen, so nothing to worry about there.
But what of other white knights, Portsmouths plight is horrendous, bought by Middle East businessman( a), with promises of investment, ignoring a consortium led by Peter Storey, no money is forthcoming except a £1 coin from Middle East businessman (b) and of course promises of investment, nothing has been forthcoming, players keep on receiving delayed payments and the club seems to be racing between relegation and administration. Pompey are not alone, Mark Hughes may have had a lot of money to spend on Man City this summer, but this is through new owners, the last new owners were not the most reputable with the ex Thai President Thaskin who was wanted in his homeland for various misdemeanours, not a fit and proper person. Are these just exceptions, because the big clubs the established leaders would not be affected, would they? Are then there are the yankee duo, who have created confusion and disarray at Anfield . I wonder how the fans at Notts County are feeling, they were as if not more euphoric than us, they saw the dream, former England manager as Director of football and even better news it was not Peter Taylor, but where are they now, they are a club with no Sol and the only good news there is still no Peter Taylor, they got rid of a decent manager and now his replacement has walked out.
So where did we begin, aah! Gold & Sullivan, a fine pair, not forgetting Karen Brady. Would they be good for us, well we are in a similar position to Birmingham when they were taken over and look what they did for them. So this trio would potentially be good for us, but anyone expecting a continuation of the cosy relationship that we have experienced under the tutelage of Richard Murray are seriously deluded. The trio have no affection for Charlton, no link with our fans no ties to the area, they are in this for one thing and one thing only ……… Profit. If we sell to Gold and Sullivan then we may well reach back in to the promise land of the Premiership, we may too see un pronounceable names from far distant lands in our first team, and we may see success of mid Premiership obscurity, but there is a cost and that cost is a remote ownership, who will after a few years sell up for profit and then we will be on the merry go round that has afflicted football ownership for recent times.
Whatever happens in the short term the long term stability we once had under Murray, Curbishley and Varney has gone and will never return in any form,before long Charlton will be just another club,it will be sad but total demise would be the only option. On the plus side for us older fansd there is always the shapely Mrs Peschcilido to ogle at whilst Man U are stuffing us.

Robert Enke

Rest in Peace, may your pain and hurt be over, 45,000 people showed you their love today, it is so sad that it could not help you in your depression and your grief, Rest in Peace.

Time for a change at the Valley --- Noooo!

My last posting was meant to be a sarcastic support of Parkie but I am obviously not good at putting sarcasm to cyber so I’ll play with a straight bat this time.
Last season, after Pardoo left Parlie was dealt an awful hand, a demoralised club, from top to bottom, confusion over the long term ownership, best players un fit or not bothered, fans support ebbing away and bitng at the players confidence and the burden of being tarred with the same brush as the former manager. So he did not have an easy job and ultimately he failed. The positives were that we started to look like a team again and with the defeat of Norwich we at least ended the season with a bang. That said, most fans were in agreement that he should go at the end of the season and apparently some of the board, some of us felt we just needed a new broom others held Parkie as responsible as the previous manager for our demise.
The summer was one of poor communication and confusion surrounding the club and no guarantees were given to Parkie over his position. The fans readied themselves to welcome Ince, but he came and went. During this time, Parkie held a dignified silence.
Parkies permanent appointment as manager was never officially announced, as far as I can remember, but the 2009/ 10 official handbook states this took place in December 2008.
This season started off as a revelation, with only free transfers being brought in we occupied top spot, a record unbeaten run and entertaining football. 7 out of 7 and the Manager of the Month award.
Now the last few games have been less glorious and our latest record is something like P 11 W 2 L2. The fans are getting restless, some have said that Parkie is doing a poor job and when it was mooted that Reading maybe in the market for a new manager then there were a few saying good riddance.
The concerns of the fans have been exacerbated by other teams getting their act together with new management or player investment Leeds, Colchester, Huddersfield, Norwich and even Southampton. But that is the point isn’t it, those teams have invested in their teams, where has our investment been free transfers – Sodje, Richardson,McCenzie and Dailly, each of whom with the exception of McCenzie have worked out. To make us a strong automatic contending team we need depth and the lack of investment has left us with a relatively threadbare squad. Parkie can only work with what he has got.
It seems that Parkie can do no right now with the players, the benefit of the doubt is given to players every time there is an issue, Dickson being the most prominent of these disputes, but now everybody supports Mootakill, who has hardly covered himself in glory with his comments in Scotland, let alone his alleged antics back at the Valley, where the irony of playing for Motherwell would not have been lost on the players, the failure to play Randolph at Carlisle, another instance.
No one it appears to be able to look at the Randolph situation with anything but contempt for Parkie but lets look at it from his point of view. He has the opportunity to bring in a keeper who is either on par or better than Randolph, should he look for a weaker option so as not to upset Randolph? He then starts with the new loanee, good management or a disaster. If Randolph had played against Carlisle he could have got injured and we would be left without a keeper for the cup. What about that statement – demotivating a player by telling him what he has to do to be a regular? Ikepe is out on Sunday, in a high profile game, Randolph can do enough to get first slot for the JPT game, if he performs in that then he has the shirt for MK Dons,I don’t see too much of a problem in Parkies management there.
If we have the takeover pre 31st January transfer deadline day and Parkie can bring in some good players to add quality and depth to the squad then failure to be promoted would be inexcusable, but with the current finances failure to stay in the top six will be disappointing but not unexpected, given the investment elsewhere in the league. For others to say failure of Parkie to get promotion should result in his job,is wideof the mark, the first people culpable are the board.
During the early heady days someone wrote is Parkie a legend, the answer then was no, but I would repeat that negative if asked if he is a failure. Given the investment either here or elsewhere Parkie is a good manager in the making – lets hope we can all recognise that.

Time for a change at The Valley

It is now obvious that this seasons early form of un remitting victories was no more than a fluke, Parkinson was fortunate to be in the position of manager during these lucky times and as a result picked up a new contract which no doubt has a number of penalty clauses in it as per Rafa of the scousers.

carlisle has shown that we will soon be in the lower reaches of the 1st Division, prey to all and sundry in this division.

Get him out now, there are plemnty of candidates who will be able to tase over his mantle. His mantle to include a blind fold, to stop them from being able to plan for the future, handcuffs to stop them from paying out money for players, a weight around his kneck emblazoned with the word expectations.

Gold In Them There Valley (Pt2)

The Brummies perspective, does not look great http://forums.birminghammail.net

Gold In Them There Valley

There has been reference to former Birmingham trio of Sullivan, Gold and Brady coming into the Valley with their resources and buying up the club. Today’s report states that Sullivan is preferring a bid for Charlton over his boy hood team of West Ham due to the latter’s debt position. The resulting response on the message board (Charlton Life) is negative, understandably, since Sullivan and Gold have made their fortune from scantily clad women in magazines and newspapers. Also, we don’t want to be the affordable choice rather than the first choice.

If there is seriousness in the speculation then it will be an interesting test for Charlton supremo, Richard Murray, who for the last couple of years has been saying that he will only sell to the people with Charlton’s family values. Now with the constant, although fading rendition of the incest song at every match, you could argue that our family values and Sullivans are similar, but its probably not what Murray means.

Life has changed over the last two years and with the directors including Murray having forked out a further £7 million recently, I wonder how much pressure there is on Murray, from his colleagues to cash in, at all costs.

Charlton’s fans are indignant, at the thought of a porn baron owning us, although it would interesting to see how many of the indignant have not taken a sneaky look at a Sullivan publication, or sneered when Claire Short has sounded out against page 3.

I can imagine these three being frostily received, but we supporters are a fickle bunch and as far as I know Sullivan always backed Birmingham, built them into a premiership team, albeit recently a yo yo team and put money into the club. If they were to buy and if they were to put money into the club, their past would largely by a number of fans be ignored. For a lot of fans the hint that Curbs may come back would soothe any moral indignation and the prospect that we will return to the lower levels of the Premiership.

For me, I am happy with the ownership as it currently stands, but know it will not, cannot last. Would Sullivan be worse than a consortium backed by foreign money, at least he has a track record of backing his club with players and Managers – Francis, Bruce and McCleish and he is transparent with the businesses he runs.

I am neither for or against, if I think about it, but for those that wish against him, beware of what you wish for, we have seen a number of “unknown” saviours, in football, whose trusty white stead has been anything but that.

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten tomatoes are being stock piled at the valley for next Saturday. A couple of my Rose of Denmark friends sit just behind the away dug out and I am hoping Tracy and Steve will have been working out their throwing arms. As ever, before a big match I worry that we will lose, our luck will go against us, a poor refereeing decision or a bizarre mistake.
But before my pessimism takes hold, lets bask in the glory of the season so far and even track back a little to the last game of the season when we sent the Norwich down.
The Valley faithful, who have endured something like 4 seasons of poor performances are finally being rewarded

– 4 home wins in a row – 11 goals scored, 4 conceded. (Plus we beat Roy Keanes Ipswich 2-1)
6 games played, 0 lost, 0 drawn, 6 wins – best ever start to a league seasons.
15 goals scored, 3 conceded.
Three clean sheets in a row.
4 clean sheets out of 6.
The highest goal difference in the top flight of English Football
Three players with a 1 in 2 goal scoring record.
5 point buffer between us and the play off places and 8 points off 7th place
24 points off bottom place and fellow relegatee Southampton
10 points off fellow relegatee Norwich.
Only 11 players starting this season, whereas 18 had started after 5 games last season.
Its heady, but early day’s for Charlton supporters. We must not let ourselves get run away with the success but bask in the early glory and gird our loins for the marathon ahead.
That apart every body, get your throwing arms ready for Saturday, give our former manager the welcome he deserves – figuratively speaking of course.