Tuesday 11 March 2014

Powell departs: accueil Jose Riga

Accueil Jose Riga

Chris Powell has left Charlton, multiple sources are reporting. He is to be replaced by the 56-year old Jose Riga, currently technical coordinator at AC Milan but with a pedigree in Belgian football, including a spell at Standard Liège: Riga . I do not know who will take charge against Huddersfield.

Richard Cawley has tweeted that he has no confirmation, but would not be surprised if it has happened. Trouble has been brewing for some time and Chris Powell was deeply unhappy about a number of issues at Charlton.

Here is a report from Talksport which offers confirmation: Powell

Even more speculative reports suggested that the replacement would be Paolo di Canio. He would at least meet the spec for a continental manager, but would have been a controversial choice on footballing and non-footballing grounds.

However, the Daily Mail is reporting that Jose Riga and Kariel Faraeu are arriving on Eurostar to take over: Belgians. This is being confirmed by Belgian sources: Riga Now that we are a Belgian owned club this would make more sense. Given that this last link is in French, I have provided a link which gives information about him in English here: Jose Riga.

It should make for an interesting atmosphere tomorrow night if these reports are true. I note that a number of fans are saying that they will not renew their season tickets. I support the club, not a particular manager or owner. Otherwise I would have given up when the Glikstens replaced Jimmy Seed by Trotter. Chris Powell has not been particularly well treated by either the former or present owners, but I am sure that he has a future in football management.

Le roi est mort. Vive le roi.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree, I'll continue supporting the club and we need to give the new boss a chance, see how he gets on before we make a judgement on him. That being said, Chris Powell has been treated abysmally. At the moment its proving quite difficult to take to Roland and his footballing experiment.

Anonymous said...

Final straw for me -after 45 years -its not just about CP. The thought of the rest of the season was filling me with horror - now its over and I said I wouldn't watch 3rd division football again - so I won't. The only thing that would have got me back there tomorrow night after Sunday was to get behind CP. No need to bother now. I hope the club survives but this new dawn is not for me - I feel way too old. Good luck all of you.

Aussie Steve said...

Looking on from afar i feel a great sense of injustice. CP did his best with a team that had been weakened through forced sales. Supporters of the club all wanted a piece of the action when he won the third tier comp with an almost record number of points, but when the fiscal going got tough CP was served up not with support from the board nor from the new owner. No Cp was given the rough end of the pineapple. I would like to publicly thank him for bringing the club back from the brink and wish him well in any new venture he takes on and I hope he gets the opportunity to jamb one into the current owners, who seem to have no understanding of the tribal nature of English football. Farewell Chris and thanks for the memories.
Aussie Steve

Anonymous said...

That's it for me also. Fair enough to say we support a club not a particular individual, but supporting Charlton has also meant having certain values and pricnciples, and these appear to have gone out of the window. Good luck to all of you in future, but I shall not now bw joining you.

Anonymous said...

If Richard Murray is really the dyed in the wool Charlton man that he says he is, he will walk away now and let this Belgian clown ruin our club on his own.

Sciurus Carolinensis Nemesis said...

Chris will get another management job and quite soon probably but I'll be surprised if he's really successful.
His golden period at charlton was with a very strong squad for the division with incoming loans as required. In more straightened times his limitations are evident and exactly the same with 3 years experience. He hasn't progressed one iota. I wish him luck and his enduring popularity in SE7 is assured.

Wyn Grant said...

I have always supported the club rather than a particular owner and manager. Otherwise I would have given up when the Glikestens were in charge and replaced Jimmy Seed with Trotter. I take the argument about particular values, but I also think that the club needs to move forward. Unfortunately, that may bring a cost in lost support.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough Wyn, but whilst Roland may be bringing new and unconventional ideas to the club, it doesn't mean it'll work.

I don't see how it benefits us to lose a manager who did well for us when given some measure of financial support. Powell won the title with an entirely new squad and I don't recall anyone ever doing that before. No bedding in period was needed at all. Then last season he was given support but nothing like what other clubs were given and he performed admirably. This season Powell's hands were tied from pre-season onwards. It then got worse when his best players were sold against his will. How Sciurus can seriously claim that Powell's limitations were shown up is beyond me. The rug was pulled from beneath him by Roland. It's simply no way to treat a club legend.

Looking at Roland's contribution to Charlton so far, the biggest impact he has made has been to sell our favourite player, sell our most creative midfielder, bring in a host of disappointing loan signings from his other clubs (Astrid aside), offer our loyally and club legend of a manager no support and then sack him. It's an ominous start. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed that Roland knows what he's doing. From the outside looking in, it looks like he has no idea who Charlton are and what we're about.

Wyn Grant said...

I think that Roland has a Europeanisation model which is coherent and has a rationale. It's an experiment and, like all experiments, the results may be negative, not least for Charlton. But he is the owner and it's his call how things are done.

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth, my views are:

a) If the takeover hadn't happened - if Roland hadn't come in - we'd have been in a worse position than we are now. For whatever reason, it seemed that money was short and I suspect that the last owners would have accepted bids for Yann and Dale as well, and would have been hard pushed to get any loan players in.

b) If we get relegated - which is looking likely regardless of whether Chris remained - then Chris had exactly the experience and CV that you'd look for in a manager of a team fighting to get promoted from League One.

c) As a five-year season ticket holder, I'm faced with one year left, watching a team that is likely to be almost entirely different from the current players. On current evidence, any spare players from Roland's network are not going to set whatever division we're in alight. I will continue to watch next year (I've paid for the season ticket after all) but I suspect that if it had expired at the end of this season, I wouldn't be renewing.

Yes, a true fan supports the club, not any one manager or player, but support has be earned and one has to have respect for the club. I'm not sure I respect the club at the moment.

Roland owns the club and is completely free to do what he likes with his money as a result. Likewise however, I'm completely free to do what I want with my money and this decision makes me less likely to part with it to watch Charlton. I can guarantee I would have renewed my ticket if Chris Powell was the manager, regardless of the division - that would have been my choice; now I'm not so sure.

I wish Chris Powell the very best. He served with honour, dignity and evident pride.

Wyn Grant said...

I think the last comment is very balanced and fair. The loss of long-standing fans is a concern in this situation, particularly if it is accompanied by lack of success on the pitch. However, success could change everything.

Anonymous said...

1.CP has been treated badly.
2. The new owner has a long term plan.
3. The plan is different and may reap dividends.
4. I am not certain how new manager will motivate team many of whom have contracts expiring. CP stood up for them and got the sack. You do not have to be brain of britain to work out their fate.
5. Relegation may mean more youngsters in the team and new brain training may mean that we play pretty football but that will not win us matches at Tranmere in freezing wind and rain and will see promising youngsters sold.
6.This is all very depressing


4. The gap in this theory is that we are in freefall and i struggle to see how the new manager wil motivate a squad of players many of whom are approaching the end of contract and clearly do not fit the new model.

Anonymous said...

I've supported Charlton for over 55 years and I will, of course, continue to do so. I feel very sorry for CP and wonder what a new manager can achieve in such a short time but we have to admit that CP does have his tactical limitations. Why did we keep on pumping high balls into the box on Sunday against a team that was physically taller and stronger than us? Did we ever win one? Also, was he too loyal in the end to youngsters like Harriott and Cousins when he did have other options, albeit limited ones?

Unknown said...

Saw my first game at the Valley in the mid 70's but been overseas since 1992, so here's an opinion from a 'detached' addick.

Management is as much about leadership and motivation as it is getting players to play certain ways. The home form since we've been back in the championship has been awful, apart from the obika purple patch, so I think there was something awry with the way the team was set up and motivated. Having said that, we've often punched above our weight away from home, so Chris gets lots of things right as well. But it's the home form that counts.... Win your home games and we'll be playing at the business end of the table. Yes we've lost decent players this year, long before the new owners came in. I think if Jimenez stayed we'd have ended the season in administration.

The link to the new guy is in Flemish I think, does he have a decent record in management? I'm guessing the reasoning on bringing him in, is that he has the trust of Duch, maybe he's his yes man, but he'll also hopefully be familiar with some of the Liege loanees.

Put it this way, apart from QPR and Wednesday, from what I hear from 10,000 miles away, there's such a lack of passion that the only way is up. At least lets beat the Millwall.

Wyn Grant said...

The link to the new guy is in French not Flemish. I will see what I can find in English. As I recall, he had two spells at SL, being disposed of by Roland. It has been argued that he lacks experience of a Championship relegation dogfight, but there was no guarantee that CP or anyone could keep us up, given the available players.