Wednesday 14 May 2014

The future of José Riga

Speculation about the future of José Riga continues. Many Charlton fans would like to see him given a chance to continue the work he has begun, but the rumour mill is suggesting that a replacement has already been selected.

Meanwhile, Riga has been talking about his experience in Charlton. He appreciated the professional structure at Charlton and the overall level of the Championship, pointing out that only four teams had never been in the Premiership.

Riga stated, "By accepting this challenge [of managing Charlton], I was not thinking of me, as I had more to lose than to win. If I did, it is because I am a man of challenge. I landed in London on a Monday and coached my first game two days later, without any preparation and without knowing my staff, team, competition, the club and its structures. There could be no more difficult situation. Based on my intuition and my knowledge, I made my choice and just went."

"The only goal that was assigned to me was to save Charlton, not to please. Relegation was terrible, sporting but also financially." Lacking a reliable striker, Riga tried to tighten the defence and favour players like Poyet.

José Riga remembered the first message sent to his players. "I told them we did not have the best team, but we had to form the best group in terms of class, of involvement. We had to be flawless on that front and if that were the case, we could compete with everyone. What we did, was thanks to my assistant, Karel Fraeye, and the technical staff, since such a result is never the property of one person."

Riga would like to stay: "When I left London, players, journalists and supporters have asked me if they would see me again. I could not give any answer because if my priority is to continue the adventure in Charlton, I'm not the decision maker."

Fulham and QPR have apparently expressed some interest "But as I said, and I said to Roland Duchâtelet, I give priority to Charlton."

10 comments:

Andy T said...

Did he day ' I give my priority to Charlton in the context of potentially managing QPR and Fulham. If this is the case then we want him, he wants to stay so what do you think k the problem is?

Wyn Grant said...

Yes, he did. I think the issue here is what Roland wants and it may be that he has someone else in his network in mind. The issue needs to be resolved soon, although it may not be before the end of the month with Katrien taking a short holiday.

Andy T said...

Sorry for the poor grammar; smart phone auto-correct!

I must admit Roland's judgement has been fairly good thus far, (although I don't think we were assisted by the loss of Kermorgant). Maybe he has someone equally as capable as Jose, but if we've found who can obviously do the job stick with him.

We badly need to get a few key people signing contracts too. We should have held into Dervite and get Puyet signed up, I'm sure we will recover any money in wages when we inevitably sell him on.

Anonymous said...

I doubt whether Jose Riga will be in charge next season. When Powell was sacked and Jose took over immediately, we all thought that he would be a 'yes' man. He proved to be his own man and Roland D obviously said he would be left alone to manage with the 1 objective to keep us up. Now he has succeeded I think Roland would much prefer a 'yes' man in charge next season, which Riga obviously is not!

Anonymous said...

I really hope we keep Riga he appears to have a good repore with the players and for the first time in a long time we actually have someone who does have a plan A & B when its not going well, plus he is trying to play attacking football, rather than defensive game plan most of the time!!!

Also I believe with him at the helm we may be able to get some decent players who otherwise would not have come to Charlton. Good players no matter what division, as well as wages, also look at the Manager and if they will gel with him, Riga does appear to have that something extra which appeals to players.

Anonymous said...

Letting Dervite leave is worrying and a good indication of Roland D strategy. Dervite is a good player but his value will probably never be more than £500,000 in today's climate. I think Roland would much prefer a youthful centre half with potential who could command a big transfer fee in future. I believe this is Roland's strategy and one that Powell could not agree with. Roland D realises that Division 1 is not the right place for this strategy to succeed as players in this division do not command high transfer fees. I don't think the Premiership is either as your costs will inevitably go up and you need to invest in proven players to be competitive. The championship is the place Roland wants us to be for his strategy to make him money!

Brian G said...

I wanted Dervite to stay and I certainly didn't want Kermorgant to go, but every club must impose it's own limits on it's expenditure and perhaps they just wanted too much. However, I thought that JR did a great job and brought out the best in our youngsters in what was a very short period of time. I hope that he comes back to us very soon.

Tom said...

Oh dear, what a shambles. What is RD waiting for? No players (existing or new) are likely to commit to CAFC until the managerial situation is sorted out and why would they.

At 25, Dervite is hardly on the scrap heap and losing him sends out a negative to message to fellow out of contract team mates, Morrison and Hamer etc.

Come on RD, sort it out!

Unknown said...

not a fan of dervitee made a few balls up this season lets move on and bring in the orient defender or michael turner on a free

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 10:15 14/5 - it's lunacy to suggest that RD is using Charlton to add to his personal wealth by selling on players for a profit. There are a literally hundreds of lower risk ways of making that kind of return!! You only buy a football club in the current climate if you are a show off (or think you can make money by selling Valley - previous owner) or have a genuine passion for football. I believe RD falls into the latter category and we should consider ourselves fortunate for that.