Apologists for Pardew

The apologists for Alan Pardew are now out in force in the blogosphere and on the lists. Now, I think that Pardew is a decent, sincere man who wants to do his best for the club. The problem is that it just isn't working out at Charlton. You only have to look at his passive, almost dejected body language at pitchside.

Pardew's stock has been rising since he gave a courageous and impressive performance at the NW Kent 'branch' of the supporters' club. No one has doubted that he can talk the talk, but those who think that he can walk the walk as well point to two battling away performances at Plymouth and Birmingham.

Battling and committed performances are fine, although I suspect that Charlton supporters overrate them relative to grinding out a result. What he now has to do is to replicate those performances in front of a critical Valley crowd.

It also looks as if it might be a depleted Valley crowd. Admittedly uncorroborated information reaching me suggests that 'walk up' ticket sales for Saturday's match against the Blades are well down on what one would expect at this stage. It won't look too bad on the day because quite a few organised junior groups are coming, plus there is a large number of complimentaries. And, of course, season ticket holders who don't come will be counted in the crowd.

I think that there are at least three worse sides than us in the division and I think that we can probably string together enough results to avoid relegation. But I don't think a lower mid-table finish will inspire season ticket sales for next year.

Of course, the optimists point out that Palace were languishing near the bottom at this stage last year and ended up in the play offs. Arithmetically, the division is tight. But I doubt whether we have the skill or will to do it however many loan players we bring in.

The apologists for Pardew say that he is a fine manager who has hit a patch of bad luck - quite a long one when you consider his Championship record at Charlton with, I recall, just seven wins. Others say he has not had enough money, but other managers have been more successful with fewer resources.

Perhaps their strongest argument is that we can't afford to sack him and that there is no suitable replacement available. Well, can we afford to keep him? And there are plenty of managers out of work, even if one discounts internal solutions.

The manager does make a difference. Just look at what Martin O'Neill has achieved at Villa. We can't afford someone of his calibre, but we could afford someone who raised morale and stopped tinkering with the squad.

What really worries me is that many Charlton supporters are not wired for success. They seem to enjoy being in a 'backs against the wall' situation and take a perverse satisfaction in failure. Yes, we have been through more difficult times, but a little bit of success on the pitch might not come amiss.

Of course, the real disaster was the Dowie era when all that money was squandered. But we need to move on and I had hoped that Alan Pardew would be able to do that for us.

Quite probably we will get four points out of the next two matches and fans will proclaim 'crisis over'. I don't think so. The one glimmer of hope on the horizon is that a takeover remains a possibility.