If everything has gone to plan then the 24th will be the end of Rchard Murray's ownership and literally the baton will be passed on to new owners. The only thing near to a guarantee is that not every body will be happy on the fans side of the fence.
I am amazed that there has not been a sniff of who is behind Peter "Reg " Varney. Sightings of Dennis Wise at the Valley maybe a clue, although it may have just been a youth player being mistaken.
I was speaking to a fellow supporter this morning who wanted it to be anyone but Wise and this led to a brief chat and a realisation that whoever is the new custodian of our obsession, they won't be good enough and that we cannot judge them on reputation alone but on their actions and those actions over a reasonable period of time.
Takeovers are notorious for ending in tears, I was at Hillsborough when an American was hailed as their saviour only a few years ago and of course they barely avoided a winding up order before Miljan Mandic came in to buy them on the cheap, another club he has beem assoicated with are Portsmouth, which he sold on only for Rednap and the new succession of owners bankrupted them and there is Chelsea where bates sold on to Abramovich in a friendly sale only now to take every opportunity to slate the current ownership, take note Richard Murray.
Richard Murray has done everything possible within the context of our recent past to make Charlton saleable in a reasonable condition and kept us out of administration. This is so different from his early Charlton involvement when he was raising money not to save the club but to fund the flames and momentum of success. Success to establish the valley, once Richard Alwen had got us there, success of winning the playoff final and success of returning to the Premier and staying there for so long. The last few years it has simply been a success to stay afloat.
Whoever is in charge tomorrow has big shoes to fill and there will be accusations of "lack of investment in the team", but we will now have business men running the club with their wallet and not their heart, unless they are charlton, accusations that they are not true charlton, accusations that they are foreign and do not understand the game (reference Sam Allardyce), accusations that they are British / local and don't have enough money and accusations that they are Dennis Wise / Peter Risdale.
Whoever Santa brings us on Christmas Eve we cannot judge their worth to the club for maybe years to come because its not what they do this week, its what they do in the coming years the stability, order and success that will count.
One final point, Santa brought us a present on Christmas Eve before and we applauded and thought our dreams had come true. That present had a smile like a cheshire cat and by the time we were able to look back on his legacy our club was broke, in more ways than one. This time Santa we are looking for a present that may not match our Christmas list like before but has longevity and lasting quality that will do what it says on the tin.
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Thursday, 9 December 2010
The irony for two managers
Its Charlton managers day today. Former player and manager Pardew takes the reigns from Toon favourite Chris Houghton and now manages a club with true potential, but will he be able to reverse decades of under achievement?
Meanwhile, away from the spotlight of the Premiership, beavering away is Phil Parkinson, who after Charltons 4-0 home hammering by Brighton, galvanised the team to produce an almost flawless November and he has picked up the Manager of the Monthly award. Well done to Johnny Jackson who has won Player of the Month.
The irony of course is that as Pardew has failed, Parkinson has shown progress and built the fans confidence in his ability to deliver Championship football next season.
Parkie has had a difficult couple of years and the fact that he has survived in the Valley hot seat is almost a miracle and can be put down to Richard Murray, our outgoing Owner and Chair, who has seen someting in Parkinson that at times few others have.
Pardew left a side, after a 5-2 home defeat, disjointed, demoralised, over paid,un balanced and seemingly on course for relegation. Parkinson failed to save the club and to this day this is held against, but performances improved and foundations laid for the first season in the third division,which eventually resulted in a failed play off campaign.
Over time Parkie has rebuilt the playing foundations of the club and his sort term reward is November Manager of the month. Hopefully the curse of MOTM will not strike this time and we can say in a week that we continue to be present at the top of the table and are still in the FA and Johnstone paint trophy.
It is ironic that on this day Pardew is made manager of Newcastle, after failure at both Charlton and Southampton, the man that cleared up his mess at Charlton is honoured. Of course, at Southampton on the surface with a 10 point deduction, just missing out on the play offs was not a bad performance, but taking into account the deduction Saints would still have finished below us with significantly more investment and I am sure every Geordie will be ecstatic that Pardew knows how to win the Johnstone Paint Trophy.
Well done Parkie and hats off to the power of the Pardew bullshit!!
Meanwhile, away from the spotlight of the Premiership, beavering away is Phil Parkinson, who after Charltons 4-0 home hammering by Brighton, galvanised the team to produce an almost flawless November and he has picked up the Manager of the Monthly award. Well done to Johnny Jackson who has won Player of the Month.
The irony of course is that as Pardew has failed, Parkinson has shown progress and built the fans confidence in his ability to deliver Championship football next season.
Parkie has had a difficult couple of years and the fact that he has survived in the Valley hot seat is almost a miracle and can be put down to Richard Murray, our outgoing Owner and Chair, who has seen someting in Parkinson that at times few others have.
Pardew left a side, after a 5-2 home defeat, disjointed, demoralised, over paid,un balanced and seemingly on course for relegation. Parkinson failed to save the club and to this day this is held against, but performances improved and foundations laid for the first season in the third division,which eventually resulted in a failed play off campaign.
Over time Parkie has rebuilt the playing foundations of the club and his sort term reward is November Manager of the month. Hopefully the curse of MOTM will not strike this time and we can say in a week that we continue to be present at the top of the table and are still in the FA and Johnstone paint trophy.
It is ironic that on this day Pardew is made manager of Newcastle, after failure at both Charlton and Southampton, the man that cleared up his mess at Charlton is honoured. Of course, at Southampton on the surface with a 10 point deduction, just missing out on the play offs was not a bad performance, but taking into account the deduction Saints would still have finished below us with significantly more investment and I am sure every Geordie will be ecstatic that Pardew knows how to win the Johnstone Paint Trophy.
Well done Parkie and hats off to the power of the Pardew bullshit!!
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
In the pink for Christmas
This season's goalkeeper kits will (finally) be available in the Superstore from 10am on Sunday, mail order from next week. Shirts 39.99 adults and £29.99 kids.
I'm not sure who is going to wear it, but I look forward to seeing them at the Southampton game on the 26th.
 |
| I'll have five says Robbie |
A message to the Toon!
Charlton fan here so I talk from experience. Unlike you when we were linked with Pardew we thought he was the messiah, however he was anything but. His previous chairman described him as a disease in the club (West ham) but he was Icelandic and loooked funny so we ignored him. He'd just been 4 minutes from winning the FA Cup and we sympathised as he had two world class players (Tevez and Maschirano) foisted on him. He talked the good talk, we would survive but if we did not he gave us a profile of the types of players he would bring in. We ignored the rumours of him and non footballing players issues!!
He was not the messiah and he was worse than a naughty boy. The players he brought were opposite to the profile he had suggested and were gambles, young untried from the lower leagues or foreign reserves. Luke Varney is the only one who has made his way back to the peak of foorball and it has taken him a long time, no instant solution. Who has heard of our big signings then Moutakill, McCleod, Youga, Semedo and Racon. The first was finally released in the summer not having been picked for most of his three year career and has yet to find a club, the 2nd the same and has a contract with the mighty Barnet, Youga has potential but has only shown it for 1/2 a season and is now long term injured (not pardews fault) and the last two are spearheading our promotion drive from DIVISION 3. All these players were paid over the odds, on salaries that have subsequently crippled us. So his transfer policy was awful. He readily admits to a policy of buying a quantity of players and expecting most of them to fail.
Don't expect him to admit he has been wrong, he won't its the players fault, the fans fault (Don't ever clap a returning player when he is introduced before the match), he may even blame it on the seating arrangements at the ground (I kid you not)the boards fault, never his and when you get round to sacking him because he has run your club into the ground (starting a season with 3 centre backs and a plethora of midfielder) he will have written into his contract a massive payoff to be paid within a month to compensate him for his incompetence (We had to sell Varney to pay for it). We made mistakes having already made the mistake of employing him, I hope you don't. My final word is I hope he tries to tap up Andy Carolls girlfriend, 'cause I would love to see him take on Duncan Fergusons clone child.
Assuming Pardew does go through you will have had him and Dowie in your ranks the architects of our demise, you should have gone for Curbs, dour and boring he would still have done a great job for you.
Good Luck
(First posted on BBC 606)
He was not the messiah and he was worse than a naughty boy. The players he brought were opposite to the profile he had suggested and were gambles, young untried from the lower leagues or foreign reserves. Luke Varney is the only one who has made his way back to the peak of foorball and it has taken him a long time, no instant solution. Who has heard of our big signings then Moutakill, McCleod, Youga, Semedo and Racon. The first was finally released in the summer not having been picked for most of his three year career and has yet to find a club, the 2nd the same and has a contract with the mighty Barnet, Youga has potential but has only shown it for 1/2 a season and is now long term injured (not pardews fault) and the last two are spearheading our promotion drive from DIVISION 3. All these players were paid over the odds, on salaries that have subsequently crippled us. So his transfer policy was awful. He readily admits to a policy of buying a quantity of players and expecting most of them to fail.
Don't expect him to admit he has been wrong, he won't its the players fault, the fans fault (Don't ever clap a returning player when he is introduced before the match), he may even blame it on the seating arrangements at the ground (I kid you not)the boards fault, never his and when you get round to sacking him because he has run your club into the ground (starting a season with 3 centre backs and a plethora of midfielder) he will have written into his contract a massive payoff to be paid within a month to compensate him for his incompetence (We had to sell Varney to pay for it). We made mistakes having already made the mistake of employing him, I hope you don't. My final word is I hope he tries to tap up Andy Carolls girlfriend, 'cause I would love to see him take on Duncan Fergusons clone child.
Assuming Pardew does go through you will have had him and Dowie in your ranks the architects of our demise, you should have gone for Curbs, dour and boring he would still have done a great job for you.
Good Luck
(First posted on BBC 606)
Saturday, 4 December 2010
GB United - FIFA Steal My Dream
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.
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.
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.
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