Clueless Charlton

What to do in the current crisis to stop us hurtling further towards Division 4 ?

1. Stop playing open expansive football we haven’t got the players to do it. Dig in and get some results to stop the rot. The football is easy on the eye but the results are hopeless and that’s all that matters. Noone cares how we play. The owner and manager have set an expectation of the playing style that they haven’t made the investment for and therefore don’t have the capability to deliver
2. Start playing 2 strikers up front together. Obviously not getting another striker in the window was both stupid and reckless. However, if it means sacrificing a winger to play Stockley and Leaburn together that’s what we need to do.
3. Bring JFC back into the side.He is bound to be rusty but when he is even 75% fit he is
   the best midfielder at the club by a mile. Morgan and Mcgrandiles are just not good enough
4. Tighten up the defence. It’s about clean sheets. Garner needs to organise them properly to defend for their lives. Like him or loathe him, Inniss is our best defender. Give him the responsibility of sorting out our defence on the pitch.
5. Whilst we are all grateful for Thomas Sandgaards rescue mission on the club , it is clear that he doesn’t have the funds or appetite to launch a serious promotion challenge even from Division 3 let alone the Championship. He needs to find a new owner for the club.

A Night at The Valley

With sincere apologies to Poetry – sometimes a different approach is needed , here goes ….

It was a cold, damp, drizzly night at The Valley, Less people there than a Liz Truss Rally

We came to see a football demolition, We even attended of our own volition

Changes galore, six and counting, Possession possession passes mounting

We only have one fit quality striker, Leave him benched like a stranded hitchhiker

A breakthrough goal, the atmosphere lifts, Possession, possession, the Rovers gifts

Then the mist breaks, the midfield crumbles, JFC an eskimo whilst McGrandles bumbles

Team selection a mystery, everyone’s a winger, A cock up from Jo Jo, a real humdinger

A draw with Forest Green Rovers, who are they?, Is this where we are now, they make us pay

A suburb of Bristol, a ground named after a Lawn, Not the start we wanted, no closer to our new dawn  

You can’t win games without good mobile strikers, Our forwards seem slower than the Hairy Bikers

Jayden’s a goal scorer but he’s a one man band, The club and team are stuck in shifting sand

Addicks to Victory, that dreadful boring dirge, Irritates me more, prompting a sickness urge

I want to support, it’s been all my life, But its tough right now, the problems rife

The summer transfer business a shambles at best, No strikers arriving Washington and Davison, that’s two less

Garner, Gallen and Tommy apparently not fussed It seems to us that maybe Tommy’s gone bust

AA( 1957-)

Elizabeth the Great

When I was a young Socialist leftie, I was all for a bit of a revolution and abolishing the monarchy. I’ve always been deeply suspicious of young people who are Conservative because there is nowhere sensible to go when you get older, maybe they end up like Nigel Farage or Jacob Rees-Mogg (ugh !)

Anyway, As I got older ( and older !), I think I began to appreciate the value of the institution and in particular the selfless, stoic and heroic service of Queen Elizabeth. Yesterday was a very sad day for the country and many people all around the World. She truly was a legend.

Camilla Long in The Times is one journalist who continually writes negative stuff about the Monarchy. When you consider the terrible second rate characters and morally bankrupt chancers who inhabit the political world now, I cannot imagine a stupider idea than replacing the monarchy with yet more elected political Presidential nominees.

Charlie seems like a decent bloke. I used to be a mentor for The Princes Trust and it is a brilliant organisation. His ideas on Planning, Farming and Climate Change were probably 20 years ahead of his time. If you fancy a nice day out , get down to his model village, Poundbury in Dorset, its fabulous.

I hope the Nation gets behind him now.

God Save the KIng.

Ambition under Sandgaard evaporating

Following last nights shambolic close to the transfer window, obviously,we all HOPE like Ben Garner and Thomas Sandgaard that we have enough to challenge for promotion, but given the striker options, we now don’t EXPECT to challenge for promotion, do we ?

Long gone are the days of ‘ reaching the Premier League and playing European football in the next 5 years’ or Adkins assertion when we played promoted Hull- ‘that will be us next year’. This transfer window has cemented our position as a mid table 3rd division outfit. Sandgaard’s principal stated ambition now has changed from getting to the Premier League to ‘making the club financially sustainable’ and reducing costs and losses. Unfortunately, that’s not how football works and hasn’t worked like that for the last 50 years or so. Cost cutting and reducing losses will not result in success on the pitch and unless we are successful on the pitch, revenues will decrease and losses will increase. Charlton are not Accrington, although hanging on for grim death in the 3rd division might become our mission if the cost cutting and lack of success on the pitch continues.

It is very disappointing that competing with virtually every other London club remains tantalisingly out of reach. For most of my 50 years supporting Charlton, I have regarded Fulham, Watford, Palace, Millwall, QPR and Brentford as similar clubs or a bit smaller than us. Now we compete with the Wimbledon’s, Orient’s and Wycombe’s, its a bit sad. The Richard Murray Premiership period was a wonderful dream.

We’ve had a decent start to the season and Garner seems like a sensible bloke and who knows, maybe he is the next Brian Clough and he will triumph against the odds, Lennie Lawrence did it – but an injury to Stockley in the next month or two is likely to see the early season optimism evaporate as fast as Sandgaard’s ambition.