One of the things about my kids that I enjoyed was their innocence and naivety. As they get older they become wiser and worldly in more ways than us dads would like. However,we all keep a degree of naivety, sometimes this is ridculed as stupidity others as sweetness.
I have retained at times the naivety that FIFA and EUFA are there for the benefit of football fans and for the protection of the game. This week has opened my eyes to this naivety and this is not sweet innocence, its stupidity.
In 2012 Team, GB will be putting forward a team to compete at the London Olympics,it will be the first time that professional GB will compete. My dissapointment has been that the home country federations have steadfastly refused to join host nation, England, in a GB team.
I saw this stance as short sighted, parochial and insular. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland claimed that FIFA would use this joint team to force GB to operate as a single force in future tournaments.
This is my naivety, I believed that when FIFA had assured GB that this would not be the case they could be trusted. Why would FIFA want to consolidate four nations into one, after all, following the break up of the soviet empire they were willing to expand the nations of FIFA enourmously and of course we have seen them hand a word cup to minnows Quatar.
As I say, FIFA had promised that they would not force a GB team to compete jointly and I thought a declaration such as that would never be reneged on.
This week has proved to me that I was naive, Blatter cannot be trusted. He is the Emporer and King maker and I reluctantly say appears anti English. We will never host a World Cup while he is in charge.
FIFA stitched up England this week, not decided on a better bid, but determined to humiliate a country which had through its freedom and liberty exposed corruption in FIFA's ranks. With hindsight, it was like watching the school bully, the flash kid at school being pursued by the little bit over desperate, slightly plain looking girl from the posh part of town. The bully encouraged her all along made her think she was special but all along he planned to humiliate her in front of the whole school. The FIFA committee teased us, they promised us their hearts (votes) and when we prostrated ourselves in front of them, humiliated oursleves with our current leader, our future king and our golden boy, they laughed at us turned away and walked arm in arm with an Eastern European pimps daughter, french kissing her to add effect.
So how can we trust FIFA to allow a joint team to represent GB and not have it held against us? There is only one answer, we can't, so whatever my dream is for joint ventures in the Olympics, it cannot be allowed to happen because we cannot trust the word of FIFA, not now - not ever.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Ticket Alert @ The Valley
The message boards today were initially inundated with indignation at having been stopped in the ground yesterday and being asked to show season tickets. This turned to understanding when it was revealed that fans have been using junior season tickets on an ongoing basis without upgrading.
The club are going to undertake more of these checks and I hope that they do. When we are crying out for revenue we should not be expecting our own fans to be shafting the club.
If I was the club I would confiscate the season tickets until the owner pays up the full amount, within a certain time period and at the end of that period print their names on the official site and in the program,although I suspect that this would be against their Human Rights.
The club are going to undertake more of these checks and I hope that they do. When we are crying out for revenue we should not be expecting our own fans to be shafting the club.
If I was the club I would confiscate the season tickets until the owner pays up the full amount, within a certain time period and at the end of that period print their names on the official site and in the program,although I suspect that this would be against their Human Rights.
Friday, 19 November 2010
Reminders of a glorius past
Being in the third division reminders of our glorious past come quick and fast. Its not long ago that we would be talking about our forthcoming entrance in the years FA Cup competition in January rather than our second round appearance in just over a week and it was not that long ago that Yeovil were our opponents, January 2005 to be precise, when a 3-2 victory took us through to play Leicester and leave the competition after a 1-2 defeat. In 2008 Yeovil again came from the lower leagues to play this time Championship Charlton in the League Cup this time and left with a deserved 0-1 victory. Last season we finally played at Yeovil in torrential rain, a 1-1 draw was achieved with Akpoes debut goal, the quality of which has yet to be repeated by the injury prone striker. Of the 18 man squad that day only seven players remain with the club. Last seasons affair at the Valley saw a 2-0 home victory during the dourest part of the season, the period when we lost automatic promotion..
Tomorrow both teams are in 2nd place, us from the top and Yeovil from the bottom. On paper and following a fantastic performance performance since Brighton at home and a five match losing streak for Yeovil, we should come out comfortable winners, but life is never so predictable and the goal fest we have recently seen has come against teams coming at us, Yeovil will sit back and look to take us on the break, the onus on us will be to break them down. In years gone past this would worry me, but with Lee Martin or Smoking Joe, Waggy and Benson there is a great movement up front which should allow us to break down their defence.
So a return of Yeovil tomorrow should see us adding another 3 points and set us up nicely for the out of form Pirates, before we return to next weeks cup game versus Luton. My team for tomorrow is
 |
| Charlton meet Yeovil in the Rose of Denmark prior to the 3-2 FA Cup. Memories when we were divisions apart. A youthful Adrian Speller in the foreground and me in the centre, not to mention young Portchs and Montgomery's. |
Tomorrow both teams are in 2nd place, us from the top and Yeovil from the bottom. On paper and following a fantastic performance performance since Brighton at home and a five match losing streak for Yeovil, we should come out comfortable winners, but life is never so predictable and the goal fest we have recently seen has come against teams coming at us, Yeovil will sit back and look to take us on the break, the onus on us will be to break them down. In years gone past this would worry me, but with Lee Martin or Smoking Joe, Waggy and Benson there is a great movement up front which should allow us to break down their defence.
So a return of Yeovil tomorrow should see us adding another 3 points and set us up nicely for the out of form Pirates, before we return to next weeks cup game versus Luton. My team for tomorrow is
Elliot
Francis Dailly Doherty Fry
Wagstaff Semedo Racon Jackson
Benson Martin
Worner, Fortune, Sodje, Abbott, McCormack, Reid, Llera
Saturday, 13 November 2010
P45 returns to the draw
Well I am predicting Audley Harrison to win tonight, so based on my Peterborough 3 Charlton 1 prediction it will be David Haye first punch first round.
On the 17th October I headlined my post “The next four games – Parkies P45” , I wrote “The key to any management role in football is managing players and if Parkinson is to survive he has to manage this lot now, he needs to get them fired up in the right way and they need to be getting results. Whether they are the best players ever to don a Charlton shirt (they are not) does not matter at this level they are capable of more than the results that they are showing currently and it is the managers job to realise this. In my opinion, Parkie has four games to generate this realisation – I hope he does.”
After the debacle at the Valley of Brighton,I could not see a point coming from the next four games and my thoughts had turned reluctantly to accepting that Friends day at the Yeovil match will be anything but friendly for Parkie if he was still here. Instead our record has been:-
League
Home
P W D L F A Pts
1 1 0 0 1 0 3
Away
3 3 0 0 12 4 9
Cup
2 1 1 0 1 0
Total
6 5 1 0 13 4 12
There is no better way to respond to the “gentleman” who came onto the pitch to berate Parkie at The Valley than a record of 6 games 5 wins and a draw, a tremendous performance by Parkie and the team.
We are no longer relying one player as we have done in the past, when Reid is seen as the key man he gets injured and Anyinsah becomes the main man, he gets injured and we still turn in a performance. Goals are coming from all players Benson and Waggie at the topof the scoring charts, but supported by Jackson, Martin, two goals today Anyinsah.
Jacksons move to the left side of midfield has given us stability on the left without the flair of Reid but a sound platform for building attacks and for finishing them off.
There are many questions asking how we turned this position round, is it the players gelling, has Parkie sitting with them and talking to them done it, has Murray kicked Parkie up the bum- we don’t know but whatever the answer is Parkie takes the majority of the credit as he deserves to, alongside his coaching team.
Compared to equivalent matches last season we now have much in credit 28 points v 22 points.
(since when did they relegate four teams from Div1)
Forgetting about the cup game, and tempting fate, we have Yeovil coming up next week and Bristol Roves, neither of whom are having their best seasons, a difficult trip away to Rochdale and then Warsaw at home. Injury and form willing we could be sitting on another 9 points by the time we go to Hartlepool in December. These up and coming four games pose a different challenge from the last four. The last four last year generated 3 points, this year they generated 12, the next four produced 12 points – expectations are high, both from history and from form. Parkie is flavour of the month now, the next month will be interesting and on top of it all we could be a game closer to Wembley and another closer to a big money 3rd round FA Cup tie. 2nd place now but more importantly lets hope 2nd place in May.
On the 17th October I headlined my post “The next four games – Parkies P45” , I wrote “The key to any management role in football is managing players and if Parkinson is to survive he has to manage this lot now, he needs to get them fired up in the right way and they need to be getting results. Whether they are the best players ever to don a Charlton shirt (they are not) does not matter at this level they are capable of more than the results that they are showing currently and it is the managers job to realise this. In my opinion, Parkie has four games to generate this realisation – I hope he does.”
After the debacle at the Valley of Brighton,I could not see a point coming from the next four games and my thoughts had turned reluctantly to accepting that Friends day at the Yeovil match will be anything but friendly for Parkie if he was still here. Instead our record has been:-
League
Home
P W D L F A Pts
1 1 0 0 1 0 3
Away
3 3 0 0 12 4 9
Cup
2 1 1 0 1 0
Total
6 5 1 0 13 4 12
We are no longer relying one player as we have done in the past, when Reid is seen as the key man he gets injured and Anyinsah becomes the main man, he gets injured and we still turn in a performance. Goals are coming from all players Benson and Waggie at the topof the scoring charts, but supported by Jackson, Martin, two goals today Anyinsah.
Jacksons move to the left side of midfield has given us stability on the left without the flair of Reid but a sound platform for building attacks and for finishing them off.
There are many questions asking how we turned this position round, is it the players gelling, has Parkie sitting with them and talking to them done it, has Murray kicked Parkie up the bum- we don’t know but whatever the answer is Parkie takes the majority of the credit as he deserves to, alongside his coaching team.
Compared to equivalent matches last season we now have much in credit 28 points v 22 points.
Forgetting about the cup game, and tempting fate, we have Yeovil coming up next week and Bristol Roves, neither of whom are having their best seasons, a difficult trip away to Rochdale and then Warsaw at home. Injury and form willing we could be sitting on another 9 points by the time we go to Hartlepool in December. These up and coming four games pose a different challenge from the last four. The last four last year generated 3 points, this year they generated 12, the next four produced 12 points – expectations are high, both from history and from form. Parkie is flavour of the month now, the next month will be interesting and on top of it all we could be a game closer to Wembley and another closer to a big money 3rd round FA Cup tie. 2nd place now but more importantly lets hope 2nd place in May.
Saturday, 6 November 2010
No fireworks on bonfire Saturday
Despite my concerns that we would only come away from this game with a draw, I am disappointed at todays result. A draw at Barnet means that between last weeks game with Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol Rovers on 23rd November we would have played 8 games, sufficient to stretch a squad of our resources, especially one where our second string forward line is failing to fire.
Tuesdays Southend JPT fixture throws up a quandary in selection for Parkie. Martin will be back available, but should Parkie go for broke and look to win or should we be looking to sacrifice the JPT for the greater riches of the League.
I have a view born out of experience of the League Cup in the 80's and 90's, when a number of teams reached Wembley in the League Cup, lost but then went on to win in the FA Cup. I would like a day out in the JPT at Wembley for the experience, but more for the players experience to holdin store for a potential Play Off final. If they can get over the awe of being in the stadium in the JPT then maybe there is an advantage for the Play Off final, and before anyone else says it there are a lot of if's and quite a few minutes of football to get there. That said I would like Parkie to go for it on Tuesday, but also be sensible in his selection.
Southend will face a similar dilemma having only drawn today and wanting to return to the third tier first time of asking, whilst next weeks opponents Peterborough drew at Stockport but do not have a midweek game.
Whilst I would like to take points from The Posh, that will not be easy, however after that we have Yeovil and Bristol Rovers at home, if we do not suffer from the fatigue of allthese games then I would expect 6 points from these games and anything more will be a bonus.
The next 17 days and 5 games will put our squad, which contains a number of players with poor fitness records under considerable stress and the fitness, physio and medical team are about to earn their corn.
Shock Takeover News On Charlton Life
The official takeover thread on Charlton Life has been beset by many usurpers such as "The All New Takeover Thread", "The Official Charlton Takeover Thread (For Johnny Come Latelys)" and "Talking of takeovers", to the extent that it required re branding from "Takeover" to THE 'OTHER' TAKEOVER THREAD (FOR PROPER CHARLTON), but despite this today saw the Takeover thread finally overatke the magic 3,000 plus whispers.
The achievement of 3,000 posts was forecast by Nostradamus to Herald the sun setting over the ownership of Richard Maurray and a new dawn of glorious ownership and future success at The Valley
Of course, it may not happen quite yet!!
The achievement of 3,000 posts was forecast by Nostradamus to Herald the sun setting over the ownership of Richard Maurray and a new dawn of glorious ownership and future success at The Valley
Of course, it may not happen quite yet!!
Friday, 5 November 2010
De Ja Vue – Barnet 2010
Do you remember when as a third division club Charlton made its way to the quarter finals of the FA Cup. No ……. Hmmm, so it was a dream, damn, so history won't repeat itself, cause it never happened – damn!
So the De Ja Vue must be that last seasons pre season we were beaten and this season the same thing happened Then we were drawn in the cup (last season JPTY at home, this season FA Cup away),will history repeat it self?
Barnet are sitting proudly, holding the rest of the League up, in 24th place in Division 4 (League 2 in modern speak). Their most recent result was a 3-0 loss to Stevenage and earlier this season they lost 7-0 to Barnet On the face of it this does not look like we are facing a Northwich Victoria, but how often have our expectations been dashed?
It is going to be an interesting dilemma for Parkie on who to pick, who to rest.
My head says we'll win easily, but my heart says we'll get a draw and get back to the Valley, but what I can't see a defeat in anyway, so roll on the draw on Sunday.
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