THIS JUST IN :
"I know all Charlton fans are going to be shocked - even disconsolate - at my decision that it is time to move on and seek a better club, more commensurate with my great abilities.
But I leave you with a superb squad and I have laid all the groundwork necessary for the club's future success. Don't forget : when I took over, this club was nothing. Today you sit just ten points off the last play-off place with a proud record of only eight defeats out of 15 games.
I have achieved all of this without the support of anyone. The board have refused to let me pack the team with more loan players, despite my excellent record in taking journeymen who can't get into other teams and turning them into world beaters. The crowd have resented my success and stubbornly refuses to sing 'Super Al' when I deserved it. The refs and linos and the other managers, who all selfishly get their teams to play better when they come up against one of my sides, have been part a conspiracy against me. Even the bloke who plays the records at the Valley at half-time has tried to unsettle me and my team by playing the wrong music.
I have overcome all this and done a fine job that will forever put me in the ranks of the great Charlton legends. And if you think about it, what did the likes of Jimmy Seed and Alan Curbishley ever really achieve? When the history books come to be written, I am confident that 2006-2008 - the Sir Alan Pardew era - will come to be regarded as a golden age in Charlton's story.
Who else could have built a side with such depth that they could play three different left-backs in the space of two games? Not even Rafa has been able to match my system of squad rotation. Unfortunately, those sad creatures who resent my success - and I'm sure they are only a tiny minority - chose to twist this aspect of my footballing genius to suggest that I didn't know what I was doing.
I suspect these are the same people who remained almost silent yesterday when we scored the superb goal that put us right back in the match. Had they got behind the team, I have no doubt we could have gone on to score five or six more in the final 15 minutes and moved three points closer to the promotion I promised you.
Whoever takes over from me knows that I will be an impossible act to follow. If Charlton get promoted, it will all be down to the superb groundwork I laid. If the club gets relegated, it will be nothing to do with me but down to my successor squandering all my great work.
I'm going to take a bit of time off and makes lost of money spouting nonsense on Sky Sports. Then I'll take a look and see which Champions League sides have put in bids for my services. I've always fancied living in Madrid. Or Milan. It's about time the continentals were treated to a little bit of the 'Pardew magic'. And I'm told they speak a different language over there, so hopefully they won't realise when I talk rubbish.
So farewell, Charlton. I'm sure we shall meet again when you welcome me back to open the stand you will want to name after me (assuming, of course, you've got enough money left to meet my substantial fee for granting you the honour of using my great name).
Toodle pip,
Pards
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