We need to spend money on a new keeper, not sacking the manager

Jonathan Acworth hasn't been heard of for some time, but he was always recommending non-league players when we were in the Premier League.

However, the gap between League 1 and the non-league is not that great.  The top two tiers of the non-league system contains many talented players who were let go by top division academies.

Charlton could have had Colby Bishop for a song when he went to Accrington.  Now he is a leading player at Portsmouth.

Having grown up with Sam Bartram, I always believed in building from the back.   In my view neither of our current keepers meets the standards required.

I wasn't able to go to my non-league cup game last night as I was listening to the dross from The Valley. However,, our excellent keeper Callum 'The Hawk' Hawkins (signed from Burton Albion) was substituted just before the penalty shoot out.  The Academy keeper then won the shoot out.   Bring on Rochdale on Saturday.

Jas Singh at Tamworth is another non-league keeper I rate, but he has a good day job in insurance.

Rather than spending money on compensating Nathan Jones, I would splash out on a quality keeper.

Kevin Nolan

One time Mercury sports editor Rick Everitt has written a sincere tribute to Kevin Nolan: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/sport/he-knew-the-game-and-had-a-great-gift-for-story-telling-a-tribute-to-charlton-athletic-reporting-stalwart-kevin-nolan/

Why are the Chairboys topping League One?

I have to admit that I never thought Wycombe Wanderers would be top of League One, albeit there is a long way to go.  But what have they got right?   Our sister site discusses them: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2024/12/why-wycombe-are-chairing-league-one-for.html

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.#