Monthly Archives for December 2015

Belgian merry go round

Ok , so we all know that Jose Riga will become the new interim one on the grounds that he is Belgian, cheap , available and in Katrien’s ladybird book of Belgian football managers. He will come in , try  his hardest , improve on a boy named Carol , by playing defenders rather than 4 or 5 attackers . We will still get relegated because we are frankly awful and by some distance the worst team in the championship .

However, Jose will do a decent job , speak honestly to the fans , work hard , make the right decisions with a poor squad of underage players.

He will be a popular choice to become the manager next  year in Div 3, But Roland will ask one of his friends in the care home to suggest a new manager and we will get Horst Van Clueless from Dutch 4th division . He will recruit 11 new players from the Portuguese and Belgian 3rd division and a couple of really promising but factually useless players from premiership teams. All of the new players will be under 21 because they are the most ‘ promising’ , we  will get a couple of decent results early on and unreasonable optimism will ensue  for about 5 games until we start to lose again and by Christmas we will be in 20th position in division 3 .

We will then appoint Jose Riga ……………and so it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on

Full Support Needed

Although I am very critical of the current regime , I think we should stop protesting now and just support the team. I don’t think we should waive banners , stage protests or boycott matches. On the last point , many supporters are already boycotting matches , so I don’t think the rest of us giving up has any merit.

The current owner, CEO and manager are all useless incompetents , but most of all we are Charlton fans and it will be a disaster for us ( not them)  if we go down this year .

We all know how difficult it is to get out of Division 3 , look at Sheffield United if you need any confirmation. I guess you could argue that we are just delaying the inevitable – the bookies have us as favourites to go down every year under this ownership and the CEO & owner have been trying hard to get us relegated ever since  they arrived , but I don’t think that’s a good reason for us to give up too. Bearing in mind how totally clueless they are about English football , do you think that there is any chance at all that they will make the right decisions about management and players in Division 3 ?

The match against Cardiff a couple of seasons ago stood out for me when the crowd and Johnnie Jackson together ground out the 5-4  result . The crowd support was magnificent . In that sense I was moved by what Michael O Neil said last night on SPOTY about the support the crowd give to the Northern Ireland team, even though they have limited talent to work with .

We know we haven’t got the best team or players , but if they cock it up , misplace a pass , shoot into the sidenetting , miss a header , and make  other  mistakes , we need to stop any booing , jeering or moaning and really roar them on , shout scream and encourage them in every way to give everything they have over the next few games . We need them to run through brick walls for the club and they need to know that we are behind them.

Anyway, that’s what I think !!

COYA and a very happy Xmas and New Year to all Charlton supporters everywhere – thanks for reading and commenting on my rambles this year.

 

Tony , why , why , why

According to the interim stopgap one , letting Tony Watt go out on loan was an ‘easy’ decision. Since his arrival at Cardiff , in the 3 full games he has played , he has been man of the match (twice) , scored once and won a penalty ( yesterday). He has also been described by Neil Lennon as the difference between winning and losing , i.e if he had been playing for Bolton rather than Cardiff , Bolton would have won the game.

Obviously , I have no idea what the motivation was for sending Watt out on loan . I’ m sure he’ s not the easiest guy to manage but I guess the balance of probability is that we just can’t afford his wages and Vaz Te’s at the same time.

However watching yesterday it is difficult to escape the conclusion that if our forward line was Vaz Te , Lookman and Watt , we would really have a decent chance of scoring some goals.

Unlike Tony, Reza looks and sounds like a guy you’d be very happy to take home and meet your Mum , but let’s be honest , he’s not a championship striker is he ?

If the bookies are right and they generally are , we are going to be relegated , which will mean the loss of  at least £5 m in revenues. As a businessman , I would have thought it would be a good idea to give us the best chance of avoiding the drop by bringing Tony back pronto !

By the way, many congratulations to Harry Lennon who had an excellent home debut yesterday . A glimmer of sunshine amongst the gloom

Business Plan Meeting at Charlton

3 weeks ago, The scene on the screen : Powerpoint presentation entitled  Standard Liege Charlton Target  ( a housing development on the Valley) 40,000 . 30,000, 20,000 Meeting

KM: Well Ravi, lets start with the most important stuff,  how is this weekend’s after match entertainment in the North Stand Bar coming on ?  Ravi: Great news boss , we’ve got Gig-less and the Monotonous Dirge back again . KM That’s a bit harsh isn’t it . Ravi: No boss that’s the name of the band.

KM: Anything else lined up  ? Ravi : Yes, After some fantastic feedback from our new BAME , LGBT and local area Chiswick & Hemel Hempstead Scout Troop focus group fans we’ve been able to line up an exciting demonstration of the different knots you might use in an emergency at sea  followed by a French Mime artist – should create a real atmosphere in there after the match !!  Also , weve followed your instructions and made a cup of tea £17.50 after games to discourage the old moaners coming in , you know the ones who have been season ticket holders for 30 years and never miss a match  , so we can encourage our future fans , the one- year on an exchange-visit Malaysian and Korean students from Greenwich University.

KM ;Great stuff , now lets get an update on transfer activity , Jason, where is Karel , by the way ?  JE: Well boss , he’s gone to see Gordon Taylor at the League Managers Association to see if they would set up a new Management Group. Apparently , Gordon’s not keen on any splinter organisations , but Karel’s determined to lead the way in establishing the Interim, Short Term , Temporary, Contractless, Stop Gap, Managing without hope or help, League Managers Group.

KM; Never mind that ,  how are we getting on with the loan of Tony Watt to Bolton.

JE; Well boss I had a think about that and I’m really not sure that trying to loan one of your best players to the only other team in the division that might be worse than us is a sensible move .

KM ; look Jason , all respect to you , but you’re not a businessman are you , you don’t understand risk taking . Its true that Tony Watt might go there and score 15 goals , save their season and leapfrog us in the table , but what I know and you don’t is that they cant afford him , so if we can tempt them into taking him on loan , they will go bust and get 12 points deducted . The PFA have to pay him , so hey presto , bingo and a Belgian hot chocolate , we get out of his wages and he sends them down , its a double whammeroo in the old Business School jargon and – put simply my sugar plum , that’s why I’m the magnificent and gorgeous CEO and you are the assistant to the interim  short term temporary contractless stopgap.

Now get Chrissie Parkes on the phone , have we heard from Rotherham yet about my idea about swopping them that useless Lookman kid for Greg Halford……

 

Come in number 5 where are you ?

Im not angling to replace Gary Neville , but in one of my earliest blogs of the season I said we would struggle because of the inexperience at centre half.

We have effectively lost 6 experienced and competent centre halves in the last 2 years , Michael Morrison, Andre Bikey , Tal Ben Haim, Dorian Dervite , Roger Johnson and Joe Gomez and replaced them with Patrick Baeur ( promising but young and struggling) and Nabi Saar ( less promising , young and struggling). If you add to that the fact that young Morgan Fox is young and struggling which means that the centre halves get further drawn out to the left hand side , it becomes a perfect cock up.

When you watch a game at the valley , spend a bit of time watching how far apart out two centre halves get – you can drive two double decker buses through the space between them.

It is the biggest problem that the team faces and unless we add some experienced , uncompromising, centre halves ( preferably two) to the team in the next few weeks, I fear it will be difficult to escape the drop.