A tale of two James's

I am a big admirer of Liverpool and its players, there was a time when I did not believe that Liverpool and Charlton would ever be in the same division, not unless Liverpool dramatically declined, so it saddens me to hear a Liverpool player bleating on about how he is giving up his international career because he has not been picked by the manager. Jamie Carragher is a good player, but never has he been a divine right player. "At 29 if I have other players picked in front of me that are younger than me then what chance have I got. I have done it all, won the European Champions League, lost last years final" - roughly his quote from a rant on Talk radio. Well maybe he should look at David Beckham, a player who most pundits wrote off as McClaren took the reigns. Beckham fought his way back in the team and McClaren and the majority of the press had to eat humble pie. It was more embarrassing for McClaren to put Beckham into the team, it would be for him to acknowledge Carraghers form for Liverpool and give him a starting place. What about Darren Bent of Spurs, overlooked for Arsenal reserve, Theo Walcott, maybe he should withdraw from International Football, Both our Ambrose and Thomas have been overlooked, again and again, they should be getting their PR agents onto an announcement immediately.

What is it with these Scousers, Jamie Carragher for England, Danny Murphy for Charlton .. it seems if you are a scouser then you must play regardless of who else is around.

Then you have David James, a player who has been blasted, but still is probably the best goalkeeper able to qualify for England, for 90% of the time. But despite being dropped from the number one spot, despite having to compete against Paul Robinson, Ben Foster and Scott Carson, despite the nickname Calamity James says he is still available, it would be an honour to play for England, would never withdraw his availability.

Both players have worn the Liverpool jersey and both have represented their country with honour but Carragher has shown a distinct lack of bottle for fighting for his place, who could imagine Terry Butcher lying down and taking it if he had failed to establish a place in the team. there are hundreds of players in the Prem and Coca Cola who would die to play for England, but for Carragher it is such a worthless honour that he is willing to skulk over at Anfield, whereas David continues to promote the cause and fight for his place, I know who I would rather have in my team.

Kelly goes all Scunny

Having turned down Bradford City last week for a loan period, Kelly Youga has got his wish of a Championship loan and is moving to Scunthorpe until Christmas. Bradford : Scunthorpe what a choice young Kelly had to make. There is not a lot one can say about a move to Scunthorpe, other than enjoy the steel works and good luck, see ya after Chritmas.

Womens Team break up

As we continue to wait for the results of the negotiations for the Womens team sponsorship, the women have started to take action themselves. Unsurprisingly the team members cannot sit around waiting for the result and two Lynch pins of the team have decided to cross London and join Chelsea. More could follow unless the sponsorship agreement is concluded quickly. It is a shame that the 2nd most successful team in English Womens Football should decline in this way, but maybe in reality, without the tangible support of the FA and Sky, a minority sport like Womens Football can only be entertained by clubs that know they have a long term future at the highest echelons of the football pyramid. Good luck to the two girls and the rest of the players looking for a future in football.

A tale of two Bents

A recent poll here put Marcus as most desired player to be released from The Valley, just ahead of Rommedahl.

How the two Bents contrast. Darren has done everything right from the day he joined the Club to the days after he left it, on the field and off it. Nobody begrudges Darren's decision to move on, if it was he who made that decision and he will always get a warm welcome when he returns to The Valley and I may even applaud if he scores against us, although that maybe a bit rich. He said the right things about the Club and the fans as he departed on his way up to the Lane, not withstanding he left a bundle of notes and some IOU's from Tottenham.

Marcus on the other hand seems to be Curbishleys revenge. Only AC will know why Marcus was bought in January 2006, soon to be injured. Everton Manager David Moyes said "It represents a good profit for us for an average player", which says it all really.

His equalizing goal against Chelsea made us all reconsider for a moment, but only for a moment. In the year and a bit Marcus has done little to nothing, his contribution to the relegation fight consisted of a couple of good starts which invariably ended with him indicating to the bench that he needed replacing.

Now I am sure that Marcus would not regard himself as a talentless prima donna, but it has surprised me that he has not been seen on "Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here", but then he has appeared at P Diddy's recent party and he is or was dating Teddy Sherringhams sloppy seconds Danielle Lloyd, who is currently still re building her reputation and acceptance of multi cultural Britain. So he is obviously trying to establish himself on the "B" celebrity list and it does appear that his scoring talents are reserved not for the field of play but for celebrity associates.

Having contributed so little to our relegation fight, 2 goals including a cup goal from 22 starts and 13 subs appearances this season, taking his goals total to a towering 4 since he joined the club, i.e. £625,000 per goal, one week after retuning to training, Marcus has decided that he does not like the way Pards has been playing him and he does not know where he stands now that so many other strikers have been bought in. When Parker took over the central midfield spot from Kinsella, Kinsella said he wanted to fight for his place, although Curbs sold him anyway (as it happens we should have held onto him as Parker got an ankle injury for most of the first half of the season).

Marcus see's some opposition come in and immediately phones up his agent and puts the word out and lets everybody know he wants away. This is a player who you expect to battle away every Saturday for the cause, but no as soon as he see's the new kids on the block, its out the pram with his toys.

Its no secret that The Valley faithful don't like Marcus, but its not because he does not score, (lets face it Leaburn is a legend but a striker with 1 goal in 6), its because he can't be arsed and that is unforgivable for a Charlton player. Yes we would all like to see a Ronaldo or a Van Nistelroy play for the team, but we know players of that skill level are snapped up by the big boys, no to compensate we expect players to have big hearts and commitment and that is something that Marcus fails to have for his past, current and future clubs, the sooner he goes the better and if it is to a promotion rival all the better.

Its Dennis, but no menace

It was 17th January that Dennis Rommedahl announced to the world that if Charlton were relegated he would leave the club for FC Copenhagen. So there is a question:-

what the f*** is he still doing with us.

There is a saying it goes something like "Hell hath no fury like a supporter scorned", I am that supporter. I have been scorned.

I have never liked a player who as part of a team looking down the barrel of relegation declares their intention to quit, even if it is bleeding obvious. Its why I don't like Danny Mills. But if that player is one that you have supported despite everything, well then I feel betrayed, scorned and abused.

Curbs bought Dennis and most addicks thought that this was a great signing, the Danish Express was bound for The Valley and big things were expected. They did not materialize and some fans soon were pining for Dennis to return to the fjords (OK there are no fjords in Denmark, give me some artistic license). Others, a majority maybe, were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and he would come good. We would see occasional glimpses of the player we thought he was but never consistently enough. We blamed Curbs for trying to improve his defensive skills, but there was little real improvement when Dowie, Reed and finally Pardew took over. having said that, whilst mediocre for us, he never allowed that to affect his international performances, being instrumental in the Danish victory over England and scoring two goals for Denmark against Sweden recently.

You see with players like Marcus, we knew he was rubbish, we expected nothing from him and he did not disappoint, but Dennis, Dennis has talent, he has ability, we knew there was something for him to give, but we never saw it, it was always withheld and that withholding from us hurt and hurts when he says he won't stand by us what ever.

Still we thought he would come good, over and over again we thought he would come good and along with Darren, Marcus and ZZ would have the flair to get us out of trouble, but what we saw was a player pulling out of tackles, over shooting his crosses and he never scored at the Valley.

Dennis has all the attributes for the player that I want to see at The Valley, except the ability to deliver his skills on the field of play. To his credit, he always along with Matty Holland, applauded the crowd at the end of the game and he scored that goal and how we sang "Dennis in the last minute!" thinking that now he had arrived in Premier League football. Funnily enough that goal was as important as Johnathan Fortunes was a few months later. That extra point would have retained Palaces premiership status, so he will always have a place at Charlton, but it could have been so much more, instead of a brief affair we could have had a life long marriage.

Apparently Rennes is still after him, Galatasary and Copenhagen have also shown an interest, there has not been a rush from too many English clubs, although I am sure that Dulwich Hamlets would have taken him as a make weight in the deal for Dickens.

Dennis has played for us starting 64 times, 20 times off the bench and scored 6 goals - 2 more than Marcus.

Like all love affairs you know when they are over and I know that this one with Dennis is, the best thing is for all parties to realise it and for Dennis to leave and leave now to wherever his future beckons, not forgetting to leave a bit of a wad under the mattress.

Innocent or Whitewash

Another independent committee has decided that no further action should be taken against West Ham and there should be no reprieve for Sheffield United. Can anyone be surprised at this decision? If the tribunal had ruled against West Ham and relegated them then the summer would continue with West Ham taking the Premier League to court, so that by August 11th we still may not have known who was relegated and who was saved.

Of course, as Charlton fans we have no vested interest anymore, after all we had been relegated through our own volition. However, as a member of the so called gang of four we should still be able to comment on the result.

To be fair on the committee their decision was that they would not change the decision of the previous committee, but that if it had been them originally they would probably have docked points.

Sheffield United still intend to pursue the decision, but their Premier status has now been confirmed as over. Sheffield have a High Court hearing on whether to appeal on 13 th July, I think the basis of their hearing is that the 2nd committee should have returned the verdict to the original committee.

There is no fault to be laid at the door of West Ham if the regulators are going to let them get away with breaching the rules, then why not breach them. Some West Ham supporters argue that the £5 million fine is sufficient punishment, a record fine, however with Tevez being touted at £20 million plus, then the £5 milion will represent nothing more than a transfer fee that has been quadrupled in a season. Incidentally, the original "owners" of Tevez still claim to be his owners and have claimed that the ending of the agreement was one sided, so maybe that one will end up in court and if the original owners do win, then West ham have continued to be in breach. The League have stated that any transfer negotiations for Tevez, must go through West ham, which is an interesting statement, as it implies doubt in the minds of the League over the ownership of Tevez.

Another argument is that West ham are under a new regime and should not be punished for the acts of their predecessors. If you look to the world of business then this is a spurious argument. When you buy a business you buy its assets and its liabilities and it is the buyers responsibility to identify those liabilities and this is done through the due diligence process. If the seller has not revealed something that later becomes material to the buyers position then the buyer has legal redress against the seller. Magnusson had the responsibility for identifying that the Argentinian freebies were legit, if his due diligence was poor thats his fault no one elses.

But as I said West Ham got away with it and whilst not coming up smelling of roses, you cannot blame them. So where does the blame lie. It is very hard to feel that the same decision would have been given if the offense had been by Charlton, Sheffield United or Wigan, unfashionable clubs with little political clout. There won't be but there should be serious investigation in the corridors of The Premier League and The FA, new directives and rules should be issued so that no Club should benefit from the timing in a season of a decision, nor should the committee have recourse to the impact on the Clubs fans, the responsibility of the Clubs fans should fall in the lap of the offending Club. Certainly lying to the authorities should have an immediate and mandatory penalty deduction, say 3 points minimum which may be implemented during the current or future season at the discretion of the committee.

No body has come out of this looking good, West Ham, The Premier League, Sheffield United or the remainders of gang of four, who have disappeared off the face of the earth.
At least in the Football League when the rules were recently bent to avoid a future points deduction the following season the Football League have acted and chaged the regulations so that in future, Leeds and Boston like Clubs cannot do the same, there has been no movement by either the FA or the Premier League to make sure that this does not happen again.

Of course, the further away from last season we get the less relevant the Tevez affair becomes and after a 5-0 drubbing of Scunny we'll all have our minds focussed elsewhere and this sorry affair will be forgotten and the FA and Prem. pratts will have disappeared back to their plush offices to bleed more money out of the game.

Pards new Formation

Every day Pards is being linked with player, what do they have in common .. they are all strikers. After a few seasons bemoaning the fact that football at the valley has been less than exciting . ok damn right boring, Dowie and Reid were briefed to brighten things up add some excitement said Reg "It was never this boring with Blakey on the buses ". Nobody can say that the two predecessors to Pards did not achieve their objective, although not necessarily the way Minty had meant.

Pards has been given the same brief, but more specifically Minty has said I want goals, goals and more goals. Already Pards has recruited Dickson, Iwelumo and Varney to add to M. Bent and now we are in the race for Freddy Eastwood and expecting to have Ben Sahar on loan. This will enable Pards to play his new preferred formation 4-1-5. Said Pards "Some fans have complained that I have not been active bringing in midfield player, but who needs them, this side will score goals and keep em out, just expect a bit of a long ball game missing out the midfield."

Pards is expected to start against Scunthorpe with the following team:-

			Randolph
Sankofa		Murphy		Diawarra		Thatcher
			Reid
Sahar		Bent	Son Of Reg	Iwulemo		Eastwood