The secret of Lionel Messi

It's not much of a secret as I found this out on the internet. As a recent trustee of an autism charity and with a wife who amongst many other things works with autistic children, I found it fascinating that Lionel Messi was diagnosed as autistic at 8 years old.

Rather than a hindrance this has helped him be the player he is.  Autistic children have a torrid time despite the increase on awareness of the condition, there are many who feel giving them a clip round the ear would sort them out. It is great that parents, teachers and helpers are able to use Messi as a role model for developing children in a world that portrays too many negatives.

http://www.reddit.com/r/aspergers/comments/1m17yp/alltime_great_soccer_player_lionel_messi_was/

Underwhelmed by the new manager - Thats what we do!

So the new manager has been announced Bob Peeters and Charlton fans pronounce a massive "Who are you? And what about Riga?" and a constant phrase used is "Well I am underwhelmed by this appointment!".

I have news for Charlton fans .. being underwhelmed by new managers is what we do.  To be fair I can only recall one change over prior to Lennie and that was Eddie Firmani - club legend, Chris Powell was not the first - handing over to Theo Foley.

When Lennie took over, later to become one of our top three managers, we were underwhelmed we wanted a Shanlyesque manager, but we got an assistant, a former PE teacher - underwhelmed!

Roger Alwen appointed as Lennies successor a joint managership, oh how embarrassed were we  - oh how the world of Football laughed.  Gritt and Curbishley how underwhelmed were we.

Richard Murray decided to get rid of  Gritt and leave Curbs in charge.  Wrong man, we cried, West Ham fan we screamed. Underwhelmed were we by another of the top three managers.

When Curbs was released in an unusually civilised removal, the Palace manager comes in, after a press conference where Dowie is served with a writ, were we happy that Murray had stuck it to Jordan .. no we were thoroughly underwhelmed.

As Dowie served his time, Les Reed came in and our enthusiasm for the departure of Dowie was underwhelmed by promotion of this fantastic coach, but a man born not to manage.

And then we had it, the board was enthusiastic, the fans were overjoyed .. we may even have been over whelmed ... Super Al, Super Alan Pardew .. subsequently renamed big nose ... that joy worked out well!!??!!

Then came Parkie, even supporters like me, have to admit the tarnishing of Parkinson from being part of big noses regime and a win less run which resulted in his appointment was pretty underwhelming.

And finally, my second overwhelming appointment ... Chris Powell ... 15th Div 1, Record points promotion to League 1, 9th in Championship.

So Bob .. welcome we are totally underwhelmed  by your appointment, but worry you not, you're in good company of two of the top three managers in Charltons history, if you come near to joining them we'll be in a pretty good place.

In the meantime, we're underwhelmed by your appointment ....... thats what we do!!!

Takeover to bring new pressures!?

Its always dangerous to talk about new ownership before it has happened but hope and speculation is part of being a Charlton fan.

Message boards are rife with speculation about a move to the Peninsular, before the ink has touched the paper let alone dried.  A leading light from the Back to The Valley campaign is demanding business plans from mysterious future owners and fans who have no qualms about moving alike.

Our possible new owners are going to British or Amercian (is there a difference these days), Property developers / entertainment moguls ... time will tell, if they are anything other than another set of mythical beings.  From some though the new unknown owners seem to be worse than the erstwhile villains of the peace Slater and Jimminez.  Of course they will be held responsible for any move, these creatures of the night are easily blamed from all ills including apparently this includes global warming and the Brinks Mat robbery.

But what about pressures on the playing staff and management?

CP will be aware that he gained his position from a manager in similar circumstances - players preforming above expectations, no money, shopping for players in Lidl,  except the club were 2 points off the  play offs,

According to the SLP CP will be able to bring in players on loan and there will be pressure on him to move us away from the relegation zone, in the short term and possibly get us competing for the play offs in the spring.  CP's reciod with loanees is not great - Nouble, Ecclestone, Frimpong and now Sordell and Stewart.  There will be pressure on him to have expensive investments playing week in week out.  As new players come in her will also need to motivate the current squad, whose team spirit has enabled a quality Div 1 team achieve 9th in the Championship last season.

And what of the players.  Jackson, Kermogant et al are out of contract ... some will say that the players will be spurred on to play for a new contract and that is how some will react, others may feel that there is no way that they will get a contract, after all how many of our squad would we want to keep if we had money - Kermogant, Jackson, Stephens (who may not want a contract), Wiggins.

For the future CP is going to have objectives to achieve that he has not had since his first full season and in, possibly, American owners a stronger demand for a return on their investment.

If we have new owners there are going to be strong pressures that we have not faced for a while ... its going to be an interesting ride.

The dreaded last ten - updated

Big appreciation to Richard Sheppard who has been compiling stats for a number of seasons, this is his take on the last 10 and our previous record.  Dick can be found on match days in the Rose of Denmark with the original Rodsters. 

1997/1998  D, W, W, W, W, W, W, W, W, D  (26/30) - old 1st div
1998/1999  D, L, W, L, D, L, L, D, W, L  (9/30 - Prem
1999/2000  W, W, W, D, D, L, D, D, L, L  (13/30) - old 1st div
2000/2001  D, L, W, L, L, D, W, W, L, L  (11/30) - Prem
2001/2002  D, W, L, L, L, L, D, L, D, D    (7/30) - Prem
2002/2003  L, L, D, L, L, L, L, W, L, L    (4/30) - Prem
2003/2004  L, L, D, W, D, L, L, D, D, W  (10/30) - Prem
2004/2005  W, L, D, L, L, D, L, L, L, D    (6/30) - Prem
2005/2006  W, L, W, D, D, L, W, L, L, L  (11/30) - Prem
2006/2007  D, W, W, D, D, L, D, L, L, D  (11/30) - Prem
2007/2008  L, L, L, D, L, W, D, L, L, W    (8/30) - C'ship
2008/2009  D, L, D, W, D, D, D, D, L, W  (12/30) - C'ship
2009/2010  D, D, W, W, L, W, L, D, W, W  (18/30) - League One
2010/2011  D, L, W, L, D, L, D, W, L, D  (10/30) - League One
2011/2012  D, W, L, W, W, W, W, W, D, W  (23/30) - League One
2012/2013..W, L, W  (6/9) - C'ship

Daggers Fortune

A Shakespearean play includes Daggers and different fortunes for the players but in this case we're talking Charlton not the high academics of Elizabethan playwrights.

I first saw John Fortune at the end of season shirt sponsors evening, which I had attended on the shirt tails of Addicks Championship Diary. He had just finished his loan spell at Mansfield and so began a career that never quite reached the heights any of us had thought or hoped he would achieve.

He had two highlights for Addicks fans, the most obvious being the perpetrator of Dowies drop and Palaces relegation, the equalising goal in the last game of the season putting Palace down.

His other was that elbow from a god of football which resulted in in called for vilification by that legend of English football Bobby Robson. For those not there and those young who were not even born, Alan Shearer was given a torrid time by Fortune until they rose for a ball, Shearer spooning with Foertune behind him and slowly deliberately Shearer swung an elbow.  This was at the height of Shearers power, the man who kicked Neil Lennon in the head and blackmailed the FA by saying that any charge would be greeted by retirement  from international football.  It connected with Fortune and surprisingly enough Fortune was laid out. The next day Robson had convinced the sundays that Fortune was feigning injury and once again Shearer got away with it and his red was rescinded.

John has played for Charlton and was subject to serious achilles injury which has curtailed his effectiveness so he has drifted from Charlton to Exeter and its not long ago that we thought his career was over.  Some may say that joining Dagenham and Redbridge is the equivalent, whatever I wish him the best of luck ... maybe never reached his potential, maybe staying at Charlton was partly through lack of ambition, as Martin Simmons once indicated, but whatever he was Charlton through and through and we on the Hill wish him the very best at Daggers.

Forwards and Backwards

As the season enters its business period, it appears Charlton are looking to the future.  CP has been scouting in Spain , as opposed to  Bromley, but at the same time it appears we are keeping tabs on another Gallic forward from Chateaux Roux reserves.  21 year old Jonathon Rivas is apparently being tracked by us and Watford.  Watford of course are facing changes in league regulations next season to prevent wholesale loaning of players (Watford can make loan players work). and whilst the future forwards are being looked at our old forward is looking like his time with us is over.  For half the season, last year, Bradley Wright Phillips (Who happens to be better than Sean) shot us to promotion.  He has now been exiled to West London and does not know what his future holds for him.  Sadly  Bradley is a poor imitation of his father, his contract runs out in the summer and there are no plans to give him a new one.

Inevitably in football as one striker comes another leaves

Not aloan

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Why do we get loanees,
That We rarely use.

  Jorge Costa stands out as the most outstanding loanee, but we have had quite a few successful loanees over the years, but this season we have seen them come in and be expensive reserves who according to Micky Slates (of team spivs also known as the board) have sucked resources.  Which would be fine if we had resources to spend, but we don't.

In fact our recruitment policy this season has been pretty awful overall.  The Board and the management have to take equal responsibility for this the former for not having the funds and the later for poor choices.

In terms of permanent players, Fuller has been ok, but for five figure salary he has not done enough, Kerkar ... who?  Cooke is baking at Yeovil.  Wilson has been ok but had a form dip.  However, when you are shopping in the bargain basement you take your chances and maybe we can be forgiven for some of these signings as they offered potential, although Parkie was never given any leeway for a penny pinching budget.

On the loanee side, we have had an influx of expensive reserves Razak from Man City, Frimpong from Arsenal (Now at Fulham), Seabourne from Southampton, who CP felt warranted a place over Evina, who eventually displaced him and showed to be a better player overall and now we have Obike from Spurs again a bench warmer and a similar player to Frank Nouble, who Powell brought in despite being advised against by Noubles former coach Alex Dyer.

Its always been my view that loanees should only be brought in if they are to be starters, otherwise whats the point|? The only exception to that would be a player like Matt Fry who was like a trainee with us from Wet Spam.  We do seem to have wasted a lot of our budget on players who have contributed nothing ... a pretty criminal offence by TJ, MS and CP, if you ask me.

Gower to play Saturday or allowed to blend into the team over the rest of the season?  In CP we, .... err .... trust, mmm!