A Dickensian Year

"It was Best of times, it was the Worst of times."

Charles Dickens summed up the very essence of being a Charlton supporter and of our season in this line from “A Tale Of Two Cities.”

Hope over expectation, Hopes dashed on the rocks of reality … So many phrases can be used for us addicks and the life we lead.

And that’s it 2014/15 is over, the campaign is confined to the history books, we’ve had our highs and our lows and a fair bit in between.

We had a new manager, we loved him, despite his Millwall past and helped by his attempt to smash Uwe Rossler, then we sacked him and we hated him.  We had a new manager, we hated him, then we appointed him and then we loved him.

We had our own peasants revolt. In a cold Hall in Woolwich the rabble roused, it's not about results we said, and the results got better and the rabble dispersed and the Trust appeared to go quiet.

We went unbeaten longer than any  others, neck and neck with Forest. And both Clubs proved, being unbeaten does not win promotion, too many draws and after clutching wins from jaws of a draw, we sunk to a stream of draws and multiple defeats, before we swung back with the SE7 version of total football and a streak of winning games.

Our fans  hit the  depths with a couple of alleged supporters spitting at former player of the year, Scott Carson, but the true Charlton emerged as the perpetrators were roundly condemned by their fellow fans and we rose to the occasion when Bournemouth took over our ground to receive the Championship.

The fantastic Valley pitch

The owners, can we still call them new?, continue to make errors on the customer service front, the catering is not fit for purpose and if ever you wanted to drive people away from buying programmes just ask Charlton. Season ticket prices have stayed low, but the increasing of the upper age concession is unnecessary and a slap in the face to long term supporters. On the other hand the pitch is something to be proud of and the big surprise is that Rotherham came first in the season pitch awards, the new seats were put in place and we are promised a new screen and a credit card entry system – welcome to the 21^st century Charlton.

JBG at Eltham Addicks

On the playing field, on the whole the owners have moved forward from the days of Reza Piotr … But Roland can't help himself and we got Le Point and Tucudean, no where good enough, although Le Points recruitment did bring light relief in the fabulous Ghent fans who came to see him, when he was not even selected for the bench. However you balance that with the recruitment of Igor Vetokele and Johan Berg Gudmonson and later Watts, Roger Johnson, Chris Eagles and Diarra, as well as the Ioan's of Bulot and Buyens and the continued development of the youth – Cousins and Gomez – respectively Player and young player of the year.

Of course and finally we have the CEO accused of lying over the management situation, telling the fans that we’ll just have to accept Duchatalets way, the target of an insidious anti campaign, and an uncomfortable train journey, but on the other hand I believe that the managerial situation was her being undermined by her boss, I've worked for people like Duchatalet before and believe me, it's no

Katrien Miere
at Bromley

fun when they cut you off at the knees, she has been charming and more balls than many of the keyboard warriors – continuing to travel with supporters, she has been open with fans at forums but won't be bullied. Overall with me she's in credit but needs to implement some of her ideas with more care and comprehension . The programmes and catering were a shambles and the communication with fans has at times been even worse, although at others has been good. But she shouts with us, she walks with us, she's despondent with us and for now that will do for me.

So that's it . 12^th, a non entity of a position, but it has been one of the most interesting seasons supporting Charlton where we have not been looking positively or negatively at getting out of the division.

It may have been the best of times it may have been the worst of times but at least no one lost their head …. Well no one except Bob Peters.

Beware The Ides Of January

It is probably easy if you look hard enough to find similarities in any two situation’s, but for me Chris Powell and Phil Parkinsons November have both been very similar.  It even starts before then.  Both managers had disastrous beginnings to their Charlton managerial careers, although Powell managed early wins 4 on the trot, whereas Parkinson went a number of games without a win.

However, in their more recent  November as a Charlton manager they generated success and after a string of decent results were nominated for, their respective Leagues, manager of the month awards, Chris was runner up, while Parkie won the award.

December this year came and Britain experienced awful weather, the worst rain in records although this did not cancel any games the conditions were less than desirable playing conditions whilst Parkie faced a stop go month with cancellations taking away the momentum of November.

Both mangers had relatively well placed teams within the context of the quality of player on their books, Parkie had us at 5^th in tier 3 and Powell lower mid table in tier 2.

For Parkie,  the club was finalising the sale by Murray to a new consortium, the owner were shrouded in mystery and hope and a little Cash.

Today there are many rumours of the previous consortium having metamorphosed over its period of owner ship selling out to a new set of owners.  This could be true, it could be a load of Koc.

Both Parkie and Powell had teams that were under invested in.  Parkinson had started the season with a barely assembled squad that needed time to gel, whereas Chris had a team well assembled for third tier domination, but failure to strengthen beyond an ageing premier forward and a third tier left side player coupled with injuries and failed loanees, meant that they are lacking in second tier quality.

But there are differences too, not least of which is the fan base.  For whatever reason, Parkinson had failed to take a large and probably majority percentage of the fans with him, even suffering the indignity of a pensioner trying to attack him during the loss to Brighton, where as the recent result have only slightly dented 

Chris’s popularity and the only danger from the fans he has is if Big Dave Lockwood were to give him a big hug and kiss on the touch line.

When the new consortium took over Parkinson was dumped after one calamitous game and is now rebuilding his career in northern exile.  We are now in a situation where a new consortium is in the wings ready to takeover.  Parkinson despite his fate had Murrays support, whereas albeit rumour and whisper has it that Chris has less than full support of Jiminez and that is the danger for Chris.  Are the club waiting for an excuse, despite the support he has from the heart of Charlton – the fans – can he survive.  Can he look and gain meaningful support from the direction of the consortium or even from Murray.

Derby, Watford and even Huddersfield are critical games for Chris, we need points and we need a result.  Otherwise the month that did for Parkie maybe the month that does for Chris, he needs to 

“beware of the ides of January”