Knock Out in Madrid

The news that our Chairman , Michael Slater was busy getting himself knocked out by over enthusiastic Spanish policeman before the Real Madrid v Man City game is a little shocking on all accounts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1MJDDJE-o8&feature=player_embedded

I can’t be the only Charlton fan who feels rather uncomfortable with the fact that on the same night as we were playing Derby away , our Chairman is ( from the video footage) prominent , seemingly in his Man City shirt , face to face with the Spanish police. I am sure he was trying to act as a peacemaker , but from the video footage , frankly who knows what he was doing , but the one thing we can be certain of is that he wasn’t sharing a prawn sandwich with the Derby directors .

Since we no longer have a Chief Exec ( Peter Varney) or an MD ( Steve Kavanagh) , and Michael Slater prefers Man City games in Europe ( well who wouldn’t , unless you were a Charlton fan)  , I doubt that Mr Jiminez travels to many away games , I suspect there are quite a few games when our only Board room representative is either Richard Murray ( well no problem there ) or good old Chris Parkes , who has been doing the same job since Sam Bartram was a boy.

I know I should grow up,  get over it and I know its a (sort of) business and I’m sure Michael Slater’s a nice bloke . Without the new owners backing , we would have disappeared down the football plughole

However,  wouldn’t it be great if we could wake up and find that the next owners are either  existing Charlton fans or really want to be Charlton fans rather than just chancing a highly risky bet on getting to the Premiership.

Surely there’s a mega wealthy Chinese person out there who likes red , has always hankered after his own parking spot in South East London and really quite fancies a trip to Derby on a Tuesday night .

I woke up and we were Stoke

Did I miss something , but we seem to have steadily become a ( rather sub standard) imitation of Stoke . Kermit is my favourite player , but ever since his arrival we really ditched playing pretty football for the long ball .

That was OK last year because he is brilliant and it worked , but last night —- oh dear — oh dear . We are stuck in long ball hell , a succession of crosses , free kicks and long throw ons into the box . The last 20 mins or so against Blackburn was the same. I even think we put too many men in the box . Last night , BWP’s goalbound shot looked to me to have been blocked by yet another one of our forwards in the box. Only in the last 5 mins did anyone ( ironically ex Stoke man , Fuller) realise that someone had to come out of the box to make space , a different angle to try and drag some of their defenders out too .

Watford were quite comprehensively the poorest team we have seen at the Valley this season . The guy that got sent off was their best player , the rest of them seemed incapable of passing the ball 5 yards without losing it or falling over in feigned agony. The problem is not that we lost , but that we lost to them and I confidently predict that they will be in the relegation mix all season.

After we beat Leicester , I said they were brilliant and would get promoted , so hopefully I am even handed !

My worry is that I’m not sure where the creativity will come from . I don’t recall in my lifetime that we have ever got a good result at Blackpool and have frequently let in three to five goals , so don’t hold your breath for Saturday