Had wanted to wait to the end of the season for this, but given it looks like nothing short of a miracle will lift us into the play-offs, we will be playing Championship football next season.
The discussions on here and elsewhere have already started, but it will be interesting to have one thread where everyone puts down what they believe, without commenting on others views, or going off at a tangent.
The poll below had just three options. Please select one that you believe most mirrors your view, and if you wish to add a post constructively expressing your view, that's great. There is not option on Pardew resigning, because that is something out of the clubs control.
Please do not comment negatively on anybody elses view in this thread, lets see where everyone stands.
0
Comments
Another option? Pardew will walk before he is pushed?!
There has been a ridiculous amount of change at the club in the last year or so. Managers, coaches, players, more recently chairman, and soon to be Chief Executive. Further change for change sake will not be of benefit to anyone.
We have underperformed massively, and as head figure, Pardew must take the lion share of responsibility for that. He is handsomely paid for that priviledge. He now knows everything there is to know about our current squad, and should be given the backing to tinker with it in the Summer. If we are showing signs of improvement come November, then play on. If however we have fallen further behind, then with a month to the January window, then is the time to replace.
back him the whole of next season and then revisit if/when needed.
He will stay until he resigns because it wouldnt look good on the owners to pay up another managerial contract.
Firstly, I'm not a Pardew groupie. I have issues with his open criticism of the fans, his seemingly johnny big b******s attitude and some of his team selection/transfers. However, common sense says the manager must be backed until the end of the season. Sacking him is not an option. We can't afford it. We can't afford the turmoil of another managerial witch-hunt that will probably end up with some plank like George Graham here. If he resigns I want Parkinson, Kinsella and Powell there and I wouldn't shed too many a tear. But i still hang on to the galvanised atmosphere he managed in the second half of last season with some (perhaps vain) optimism. Backing him til November is pointless. What are we going to do in November? Sack him (with what money?!) and then leave a manager six weeks before he can bring in any of his own personnel? Remember the last time we replaced a manager in November... oh dear.
He did it at both Reading and West Ham in this league. He's cocked us up this year as the board did last. Next season might well have to be a cock-up free season from both or they might all be gone by 2009/10.
If so, the Board would make a better decision to part with Pards now, than in November.
But to be fair to Pards, he is plainly only halfway through his task - a task of rebuilding the squad from new.
He should absolutely be given the whole of next season to finish the job.
Jesus was the one who performed miracles ......... perhaps we've expected the same of Pards? ;o)
totally agree how we got up and stayed up for so long was a miracle, only through the fullness of time will fans realise the true miracle we witnessed;-)
give pardew the whole of next season cos there's plenty of room for improvement and coventry have got chris coleman
And you're right, of course. It was Curbishley that performed the miracles - and Lenny the Legend before him.
Without even Lenny, we'd have no club at all.
But back to Pards ...... we'd be foolish to undermine him so soon.
West Ham fans tried to do exactly that, they didn't get their way - and Pards delivered promotion to the Prem, 10th place & FA Cup Final in the next 2 years.
So Pardew's capable of miracles too.
My thoughts entirely
They worked for Palace when they sacked Taylor and got Warnock in. Sheff Utd haven't done badly either after replacing robson with blackwell.
I voted for November although i'm now not actually sure.
If the club bosses feel that we're not progressing under Pardew, players aren't responding to his ideas, etc then i see nothing wrong with a change. It's widely accepted we have to go up next year or face many years in this division, so if by November theres no sign of improvement then what do the club do? Let the season run it's course or make some changes.
I do however feel that Pards does need to be given time. He knows whats needed now and by his own admission he knows where he's gone wrong this season. I just hope that he knows his best XI a bit sooner next year!
Pardew is annoying with his amateur mindgames but I am willing to give him another season, this one fell apart pretty much after the palace home game, but the thing that sticks in my mind is that we have created enough good chances in virtually every game this season to win them. It is a fine line between success and failure and we have been the wrong side of that line a hell of a lot this season, but not by a lot, and that is enough to give me optimism for next season.
I agree with Eltham. If we replace him in summer or November then we have learnt nothing from our recent history. I still don't know whether Pardew is the right man or not - but I do know that he needs to be given time. Very few managers get it right first attempt (for example, Alex Ferguson) .............
What has really worried me this season is that we hardly dominated anyone - the games we did win were close fought affairs. Even when we were proper shit, each season I remember us giving a few teams a good shoeing.
We will never know Razil. What I do know is that we changed him and got relegated. Most probably would have happened anyway, but bringing in new managers changed nothing.
The difference a year makes! The man has failed to deliver on HIS promises and also displayed an unpleasant tendency to blame everybody but himself, especially the fans. He derided Red, Red Robin, he criticised us for applauding loyal, great former players like Deano and then we had the Jimmy Seed stand fiasco as a smokescreen for our poor home form. All that did was put additional stress on Peter Varney.
That said the truth of the matter is that the Club cannot sack Pardew even if it wanted to given the financial cost of so doing. They have already had to pay off Curbishley (their choice), Dowie and Reed and may yet end up paying off the likes of Faye. In those circumstances can they afford to pay off yet another manager?
Given the above we need to remember that somewhere under that arrogant, obnoxious exterior there lurks a talented football manager and we should give him another season to do the job we were originally so delighted to give him.
People were geuinely shocked when he was sacked , yes we had not been playing brilliantly but we never were going to be last season. Unfortunately, people seem to use Dowie as a scapegoat for the crap that happened afterwards and defined our season (i.e. appointing Reed on a full time basis).
Yes, we don't know what went on behind the scenes but who knows.
He is the man who has got the job. He has had to rebuild this season but none the less the results have disappointed.
He is not the right man for the job. Since people cannot always be so easily quantified in such a binary manner. Many managers do not get things right in their first season - and even if they do it can be a fluke (Dowie?). Pards disappointed in his first season at West Ham, but then acheived some widely recognised progress - the subsequent failings seem to have been in the personalities of the players he had recruited, something he has recognised and will thus have learned from. Just as he will have learned from this season's experiences at Charlton.
He is not the wrong man for the job. Getting in someone new to start over is unlikely to speed progress. Promoting from within is a laudable aim that, apart maybe from clubs in desperate situations, rarely works in English football these days.
I felt that the end of the Curbs era was overdue. I believe that Pards will prove to be a good Charlton manager. I know that sacking him in May, or giving him until November is more likely to be to the detriment of Charlton than to the benefit.
what a shame most can't be bothered.
I have tried to comply!
The C word which is not allowed to be spoken was in context as it is a LOCKED ON FACT :-) that we have paid off 3 managers (plus assistants in many cases).
I guess my mistake was in naming those managers when explaining my rationale for giving Alan Pardew another season.
I made no specific reference to anybody elses views in my original post.
I'd like to bet they never paid off any of Curbishley, Dowie or Reed.
I don't want to break AFKA's rule but how would they have avoided it?
They all had time outstanding.