Managers: 'our doubts are our traitors'

 First a Christmas reading recommendation.   Neil Carter's book The Football Manager: a History is currently available on Abe Books for just over £6.  Not only does it trace the evolution of the role over time, it  has also has a lot of Charlton content as he drew substantially on the Jimmy Seed archive (and provided me with copies of parts of it).

I was hoping to set up a poll on the future of Nathan Jones, but the online survey tools are now a lot more expensive if one wants a decent response rate.   Apologies for that.

One fan actually made a sensible suggestion of a plausible successor yesterday: Mark Robins.   Quite why Stratford upon Avon businessman Doug King sacked the popular manager is unclear.  His explanation was that he had fallen out with his No.2, but that lacks all credibility.   If it was the league position, why didn't he say so?  'Our doubts are our traitors' as the Bard of Avon said.

In any event it appears that Robins is going to stay in the Championship with Hull City while the Sky Blues have appointed Frank Lumphard who is 'seeking redemption' as a manager.   Good players are not necessarily good managers and average players are often the best managers.

Anyway on to Walsall.  The current over emphasis on managers in football has a lot to do with the rise of electronic games in my view so that fans come to believe that the manager is really pushing buttons to move the players around the pitch.

The Chicago Addick has called for 'width, more width' and he may well be right.  At least we should use the FA Cup game to give some of our younger promising players a chance to show what they can do even if it means giving up on the £75,000 prize money.

The Saddlers are currently second in League Two, having won five, lost one and drawn one at the Bescot which is, of course, alongside the M6. (Be warned that the junction for  it coming from the south is a rather dangerous 'scissors' merge).

Walsall see Charlton as a scalp waiting to be taken but Jones is strangely confident: https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/2024/11/29/charlton-athletic-eager-to-build-on-recent-win-ahead-of-walsall-fa-cup-tie/

I forecast that Charlton will be unsaddled 2-1.

In happier times we beat Walsall there 4-2 to record twelve wins in a row: https://addicksdiary3.blogspot.com/2017/09/remembering-key-victory-at-walsall.html

Is League One 'a rich man's playground'?

Charlton fans sometimes assert that League One is a pub or crap league, so it was interesting to read in yesterday's Football League Paper what two newly promoted managers think.

Gareth Ainsworth forged Wycombe Wanderers into a League One force and indeed, somewhat to my surprise, they are currently chairing the division.

Ainsworth has now taken on the unenviable task of reviving Shropshire's finest and he made a first rate start against moneybags club Birmingham City on Saturday.

Ainsworth says: 'Over the years, this division has probably run away from the smaller clubs. League One has got stronger and stronger over the years.   Some of the money that's in League One now .... [it] has really gone crazy with its finances.'

Mansfield's Nigel Clough is approaching 1,500 games as a manager.  He has noticed the jump in standard from League Two.  'It's exactly as we thought it would be - a step up from last season without a doubt.  There are some very good teams.  It's the quality of the players, especially the forwards, it's the quality of everything.'

So is the third tier now a 'rich man's playground' as the FLP claims?   And what does that mean for clubs like Charlton?

Why they call me 'Whine'

The training facilities - admittedly a long time ago

Many years ago the EU asked me at short notice to go on an official mission to China, officially to address an environmental conference in Kunming.   They must have been short staffed, but they allocated me a minder from the EU office in Beijing.

The Communist Party attached me to a young woman with excellent English from the Department of Party History [sic] who took me on the subway (then reserved for cadres), showed me round the Forbidden City and organised a trip to the Great Wall as well as to other sights.

I did manage to escape on my own from time to time by using the half mad taxi drivers and making sure I had written down my destination beforehand in Mandarin.

It quickly became apparent that the authorities had their own agenda and took me to see the training pitch being used by their national team.   I told them that fourth division clubs had better facilities which didn't go down well.

This was when Charlton were in the Premier League and I was shown an item from national television about how Curbs and Keith Peacock worked together which was actually quite well done.   It became clear that they wanted Charlton to play in China and thought I had an 'in'.

I did talk to Curbs when I got back but he seem to be confused between China and Japan, but didn't want to tour either, although at that stage of the emergence of soccer in Japan it might have paid off.

By the time I got to Kunming in the south-west I think they were pretty disappointed with me.  Indeed, my minder agreed I could be interviewed by local television about air pollution.   However, the interviewer blind sided me, noting that I was born in Greenwich and then asking about high levels of pollution there.

On a second visit to China, I attended a seminar organised by individuals somewhat distanced from the regime.

The upshot is that Chinese National Radio now calls me 'Whine' Grant, but I suppose it fits a Charlton supporter well.

Lawrence back in the dugout

From a Hartlepool paper:

'Lawrence, who turns 77 in December, is one of a select few managers to have been in the dugout for more than 1,000 games during his long and distinguished career.

He became a legend at Charlton, spending almost a decade at the helm and leading the Addicks back to the First Division after a 29 year absence, helped Middlesbrough win promotion to the inaugural Premier League, was in the dugout when Grimsby beat Liverpool in the League Cup and steered Cardiff to promotion to Division One.

Following a brief spell as caretaker manager at Crystal Palace in 2012, he worked in a variety of consultancy roles before returning to the dugout with Pools in January following the sacking of John Askey.

Of his eight games in charge across two interim spells, Lawrence has led Pools to a creditable three wins and three draws.

And up until Saturday, when Pools produced their best performance of the season to secure a dominant victory over Aldershot Town, the expectation was that Lawrence would likely return to his advisory role, with the club tipped to make the most of almost two weeks without a game to secure Sarll's successor.

All of a sudden, it's starting to look possible, even probable, that the veteran, who also holds a position on the board, might have a hand in appointing himself as the new manager.

Right now, few would begrudge him a belated return to permanent management. After all, he has a remarkable record, an almost endless list of contacts, an encyclopedic knowledge of the beautiful game and has managed to transform Pools from a side who rarely even looked like winning into a team who are all of a sudden being talked up as play-off contenders again.

Lawrence, who is one of the country's most experienced manager's and who clearly commands the respect of both the players and fans, might just be their man, for now at least.#

Jones bigs up Charlton

In an interview in yesterday's Football League Paper, presumably undertaken before the Blackpool game, Nathan Jones denies that Charlton are punching above their weight in League One.  It is noted that Charlton's resources are more limited than those of Birmingham orc Wrexham, 'but Jones won't tolerate anyone calling Charlton a poor relation.'

'There are clubs in the division spending more than us, yes.  But let's not forget this is a big football club, a really big football club.' 

I am never sure how one judges that, but Jones insists, 'We've got a wonderful fanbase. A fabulous stadium.   A proud history.  This is as big a club as there is in the division.  Financially - okay, we might be underdogs.  To go and do stuff against the odds or overcome certain limitations when things are not in your favour - that's something we thrive on.'

'When we came in the club was in a perilous position.  So we tried to lay foundations for this season.'

'There's still plenty more to come from this group.   We've won games without being really fluent, but you can't build a roof without laying the foundations.'

Arrival of Wasps could sting Charlton

An egg chasers blog is reporting that Wasps have secured a ground share arrangement with Charlton to compete in the Championship for 25/26 season.

Charlton fan Ben Hayes comments: ‘Talk a few months back of this Wasps actually exist as a team, which isn't by any means guaranteed. Council and local residents would have issues.’

‘Apart from fixture clashes with Charlton and Charlton Women fixtures and damage to the new Valley pitch, Was[s have also left a trail of chaos and debt everywhere they have been so maybe not the best tenants for Charlton.’

Decades ago we did ground share with rugby league outfit London Bronco and their different markings could be seen all over the pitch.

Blues spending exceptional for League One

Fans keep droning on about Alfie May on the lines of one Twitter comment: 'I can’t believe that they got rid of May and brought in Ahadme. We have zero flair. If we go a goal down like Saturday we don’t have the wit or nous to score.'

Peter Varney commented: 'If you look at the wages Birmingham City are paying Alfie (more than 2.5 times what Charlton were paying him) that tells you everything as to why this transfer happened. Alfie also said his family were desperate to go back north and he was being substituted a bit or left out towards the end of last season. Footballers are not like the rest of us as they have short careers and in Alfie's case he came into the professional game late so has not earnt big bucks before.'

Fuelled by Tom Wagner’s investment, the Blues had the six highest transfers in League One this summer. In fact, they now have the three highest ever deals in England’s third tier, led by the staggering £15m paid to Fulham for young forward Jay Stansfield.

I would add that an unhappy Alfie kept at Charlton might not have scored as many goals.