Apparently a journo on one of the tabloids has suggested that if Alan Curbishley is sacked at West Ham, he might return to The Valley. Perhaps Pards would then return to Upton Park?
Some simple considerations:
1. Curbs is not going to be sacked
2. Pards is not going to be sacked
3. If both of them were sacked, we should move forward not go back
I was Alan Curbishley's sponsor for many years and I came to know him reasonably well and develop a respect for him. He is the only football manager to have a book on the Common Agricultural Policy dedicated to him. I also made sure that he had a supply of champagne to celebrate victories.
But by the time he left us he was getting stale at Charlton and perhaps should have left earlier. The board didn't have a Plan B well in place and appointed relegation specialist Ian Dowie. Many Sky Blues I know are deeply upset about the state Dowie and his brother left the club in. This was followed by the Les Reed fiasco, which must be one of the low points in the club's recent history.
Charlton fans, particularly the longer serving ones, are a loyal and patient lot. They are not Spurs fans with excessive expectations. But there is a limit to what even they take, particularly when expectations have been raised by the club.
Not so long ago people were complaining about mid-table Premiership mediocrity. Let's hope that it's not going to be mid-table Championship mediocrity: welcome to the new Burnley. Or a struggle against relegation next season.
I am trying to keep the faith, but I have also sent off for Ice Hockey for Dummies.
6 comments:
I guess we need to hope that Pardew's real talent is his eye for a player and that we'll see the benefit of what he has already done in this area over the next 2-3seasons. The turnover of managers at most clubs is ludicrously high and is obviously counterproductive so the right thing to do is give Pardew more time. That said, there is no doubt that Sam Allardyce will return to football somewhere and succeed. Is Richard Murray both ruthless and bold enough to make a move for him?
Wyn, I think you're right that most Charlton fans are reasonable and understand it takes time to build a quality side.
However we have all (including myself, the board, management, players, fans) become wrapped up in the belief that we would be in the promotion shuffle at the end of the season.
We have allowed our previous two championship promotions, standard of opposition, quality of squad, bookmakers predictions and premiership mentality to pervade our expectations for promotion.
I think these assumptions are completely natural and probably happen to all teams who have been in the premiership for a few years.
This has meant from day one in the championship the players have been carrying the additional burden of expectation.
This is an additional pressure the likes of Stoke, Bristol City, Palace etc do not have to worry about. The only clubs we can be compared to are Watford and Sheff U. Sheff U have crumbled under the pressure and Watford did not drastically rebuild (they did what we did last time we went down and retained the same team).
To highlight my point, we have failed spectacularly against relegation fodder. Why? Because in those games, expectation and pressure increased to a level that our players just could not perform.
The solution is not to sack Pards or berate the players, but to realise this pressure will pass. Next season the likes of Fulham, Bolton or Birmingham will carry this burden and we should develop our team so that we are in a position to take advantage.
It's interesting to look back the short time to the last WBA game, when either team could have gone top of the table. The team had a lot more fight and belief in that part of the season something Holland seems to retain. The loss of Reid has clearly robbed us on the creativity close to the oposing penalty area and there is nobody who can supply the killer pass. Without a decent creative midfielder we would be better off playing a hoof and hope game (ala Watford) rather than endlessly play up to the edge of their box and then back again.
i think Pardew is an idiot. Who else would think bringing in Leroy Lita in as a lone striker would be a smart idea. Lita is quite simply playing for fitness, he's useless unfit and uninterested and Pardew must take the blame for that. Of the 7 strikers we have surely playing two of them together for awhile might induce a bit of form or understanding.
Quite frankly Pardew has messed this season right up. Cant blame the awayfans behind the goal again can he? And to think I thought Keegan was bad.
I can't say that Pards has impressed me since January, his loan signings and permanent one have disappointed at best. However, our striking options have been limited to the onjured and the inept, so to identify 7 strikers is unrealistic, Todorov and McLeod are both out for the foreseeable due to the Plymouth thug, Dickson has a bad case of pulling down shorts knee, so that brings us down to four, Grey has proved to be either inept or Pards has not worked out that the way to get him to score goals is to give him the service that he received when scoring two goals against us, Varney is a hard worker but not a prolific goal scorer, Iwelumo another hard worker, but limited in ability and lita is a premiership reject, that coupled with a pedestrian midfield is guaranteed failure of hitting onion bag. the
Some interesting comments. The one thing I would say about Reid is that Sunderland, it is rumoured, often him three times his salary at The Valley and we simply couldn't match that - quite understandably we are paying Championship wages. These still amount to more in a month than somoene on the average wage (or some way above it) would earn in a year.
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