Has anyone ever seen that documentary series on National Geographic called ‘Air Crash Investigation’? It’s fairly interesting late night fayre if you’re up and about and have a fascination for the slightly macabre.
Well, as part of it, to pad it out really, there are always reconstructions of the minutes before the big smash into the Atlantic or wherever and you see the passengers sitting rigid in their seats, digging their nails into their arm rests as the plane hurtles downwards at a 45 degree angle. Ties all askew, bad hair days for the ladies, children crying, no time for nuns to play soothing guitar music…
Anyway, those passengers would be us right now if we were all off on a jolly aboard CAFC Airways.
We are in a dangerous tailspin and while it isn’t entirely certain we will crash and burn, the best we can hope for is a very bumpy landing with some loss of life.
I’ll ditch the air crash analogy now as I think I’ve exhausted it already but the point not too many people seem to realise is that while Pardew has now been thrown out of the cockpit window (sorry, it was an obvious one) even the appointment of Captain Curbishley may not make one iota of difference.
Pardew, while at Charlton at least, was an utterly shite manager. I’d have fired him last summer when he should have been for wasting 10M quid on rubbish and leading us to 12th place in the Championship.
But the Board clearly couldn’t afford to do so and they knew that football fans, the majority of them at least, are always the last to wise up to the severity of any given situation.
So he stayed and even three weeks ago when finally 90% of posters on here realised that Pardew’s time was up, the Board gave him three more games to waste. Thankfully, Sheffield United absolutely smacked us yesterday and forced the Board’s hand.
But, like all shite managers, Pardew leaves a legacy. Bad managers don’t just lose games on a regular basis, they also sign bad players, get rid of passably useful ones and generally destroy anything that might have been working well before they arrived.
So, whoever gets appointed will inherit a squad that is WHERE IT SHOULD BE. Our back four has got to be in the bottom three in the division and there is no cover really for the sub-standard players presently occupying most of the starting roles.
The fact that our midfield is probably our strongest area says much for the scale of the task of the new man. Sam, Holland, Bailey, Semedo and Bouazza (as a five) are not going to keep too many other teams awake at night while up front we have only Gray and Varney who can lay any sort of claim to being Championship level strikers.
Todorov was a good player at this level four years ago when injury should have forced his retirement but testimonial style 15 minute cameos are going to get us nowhere.
If we go down this year then the likes of McLeod, Dickson and Fleetwood might help us to a mid-table berth in League One, so perhaps we should wrap them in cotton wool and save them for next year.
For the Board members, all sitting up in first class staring out of the windows as the ground gets ever nearer, there must be genuine regret that the sale to Emirates Airline fell through at the eleventh hour. Our budget carrier was about to become a knight of the skies but this dream has now died.
Wing Commander Murray and co face a difficult choice right now as a result. They clearly aim to flog Charlton and don’t want to be opening their cheque books when they are hoping another consortium ‘might’ come along and give them back what they have put into the club over the years.
However, no-one will buy a League One outfit – indeed Millwall and even Leyton Orient might be better bets in a year’s time for varying reasons. So, we need to stay up and we will have more chance of finding a buyer if we can demonstrate that we can still have aspirations to the Premier League.
Right now the only way that can happen is if Murray and Chappell bite the bullet and speculate to accumulate.
They need to find upwards of 5M quid to entice a Curbs or Davies figure into the club and give them some dosh to buy a few genuinely decent, top-end Championship players. We can then hopefully get back to mid-table this season and if then a buyer comes along with greater financial muscle to give the new manager a further 10-15M to get us back in the big time then Murray can add the extra 5-7M on to the asking price.
I don’t believe that any consortium seriously interested in buying CAFC and intending to take the club back into the Premier League, with the ensuing investment required, is going to baulk at an extra 5M on the asking price.
But, frankly, what other choice is there? If we appoint a cheap manager and sign a few cheap loans then relegation is, in my opinion, a very real likelihood.
Even if we do sadly plummet into the Everglades of League One anonymity for many years to come, at least we have rid ourselves of that reptile Pardew. He knew yesterday evening the axe was about to fall and, as always, blamed anyone but himself for where CAFC finds itself now.
‘When I arrived they were on the slide’. Thanks for the signings, spending, squad building, results and performances over the past 23 months Alan.
No class, no integrity.
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Comments
i think the last 3 games were the period that charlton used to line up candidates talk to those that might fancy it and those that we might fancy and but they dont fancy us.
I feel that the slating of pardew on footballing terms is correct
the points you make on him and his leaving interview are correct and i envisage more of the same to come fronm camp pardew before the whole situation will be closed and forgotten
but you can tell your pain in the post
i have no pain nor real joy at the moment just nervousness for what may happen next
Sailor has summed up Pardew the manager excellently and sadly he will be remembered for that rather than Pardew the player who was very different.
Pardew the player helped us at Upton Park, negotiated a contract in a pub with Curbs and Gritty and was an essential part of the squad that kept us at the level we are at now whilst we developed the ground, specifically the East Stand in Pardew's time. I remember that first match against Southend after the East Stand opened when he ghosted in at the post a minute or two from the end to secure a 4-3 win for us and ensure that my two older girls would want to come back for more after their first match.
How a little bit of success can corrupt. Pardew the manager fell for the hype and became a Bertie Big Bollocks on the back of a little bit of success.
Kelly Youga sums up Pardew the manager for me. He packed him off to Scunthorpe with scarce a glance and then because of circumstances was forced to call him back and put him in the side when he immediately did well. Suddenly it was "I decided to send Kelly to Scunthorpe because I knew he ws a good player and would come back stronger." In other words he tried to take the credit for Curbishley's player who he had previously binned. Of course now that the lad has lost confidence, largely because of his own incompetent tinkering with the team, suddenly there is a public pronouncement that he is in the "last chance saloon" - anything but take some responsibility himself.
A vociferous minority didn't like Curbs but the buck always stopped with him and he would always manage "what he'd got."
That squad yesterday excepting Holland, Youga and Sam was Pardew's and Pardew's alone.
I hope that if and when Pardew returns to The Valley people treat him as Pardew the player but somehow I doubt it.
Even if we were top of the premier league.
You should post more often Sailor.
We were once!
We'd just slaughtered Southampton 5-0, Mendonca hat-trick.
Just 10 short years ago.
Thought I’d bring this post back into the discussion for what it is worth.
Two main points really.
I stated, when I started this thread at the time of Pardew’s dismissal on November 23, that no-one, not even the much coveted Curbs, would be able to do a great deal with the squad which we currently possess because, frankly, it is utter shite.
We have only a handful of players good enough for the Championship and not all of them are actually ours. I wouldn’t think any of our players could get into the starting eleven for Birmingham, Wolves, Reading etc.
I don’t even think this group of players could get us promoted from League One.
So, as a result, Phil Parkinson had precious little chance of succeeding but his own limited attempts to freshen things up in the loan transfer market have hardly set the world alight and, thus, three points from a possible 24 is woeful whichever way you look at it.
I actually think Pardew might have accrued one or two more points if he had stayed on over the past eight games. That really says it all.
So, the Board have no option but to sack Parkinson at the earliest opportunity and I suspect that, by lunch-time tomorrow, we will be anticipating the quick appointment of our next permanent manager.
The other point I want to re-emphasise relates to something American_Addick has mentioned in his Charlton Matrix thread. I said in my original post up at the top that Murray/Chappell need to ‘speculate to accumulate’.
American_Addick suggests pretty much the same thing. If our present ownership want rid of CAFC, and their recent painfully ponderous decision-making processes seem to bear that out quite starkly, then staying in the Championship is surely a necessity for attracting new owners or investors.
So, while they may now be clutching the purse strings pretty tightly, in the hope another Zabeel comes along sometime soon to bail them out, they have little choice but to loosen them and spend some REAL money in the upcoming transfer window. They may subsequently have to cut their margins on the sale of the club or add five or six million to the asking price.
The only way we are going to have any chance of staying up is if an inspirational manager is appointed, along with an assistant or two, and this individual can then BUY at least four new squad members who can go straight into the team and make a real difference to the quality levels - with perhaps two more well-chosen loans to flesh out the squad yet further.
If Murray and Chappell simply appoint the new manager on the basis of affordability and then cough up a tokenistic million quid or so for new players, then basically we will be screwed and we will not be seeing the bright lights again for many a year. The undoing of all the good things achieved during the Curbishley years will be complete.
As I said in my first post back in November, I believe the Board should have fired Alan Pardew last May after our abject failure last season, but clearly they chose not to do so as cost-cutting was very much the order of the day. They have subsequently ducked out of taking decisive action as our season has gradually fallen apart and now we stand on the brink of meltdown.
If we are relegated, especially by the odd point or two, it will no longer be ‘sacrilegious’ to state, quite openly, that Richard Murray and Derek Chappell will have undeniably let us all down by their dithering and their short-sighted desire to refrain from shelling out on compensation packages.
To prevent this sad occurrence they need to act now – and in a big way too.
Dowie, Pardew and Parkinson all had good managerial reputations before coming to Charlton yet all have proved inadequate for the job.
Given that financially we can't even afford the footballing equivalent of a Woolworths closing down sale will we realistically be able to attract a better candidate than Parky? I'm not convinced that we will. I fantasise that Curbishley loves the Club and will come back at a cut price rate and rescue us but my head knows that will never happen more is the pity.
As I've said before the spine of the side is theoretically good enough to survive at this level. I never expected promotion after our "fire sale" but we should not be propping up the division.
Weaver Premiership keeper certainly good Championship. Elliott is keeping him out of the side on merit so is playing to that level.
Fortune Adequate Premiership good Championship defender. Hudson good Championship defender
Semedo, Bailey, Holland, Racon at their best all capable of playing in the Championship
Gray, Todorov proven Championship scorers
Bouazza Premiership/Championship winger Sam Championship winger.
I think the players have the ability besides there is no money to change them so continuity has to be the order of the day.
When we were relegated from division 2 in 79/80 we had a class keeper in Nicky Johns, a goalscorer in one D Hales esq, a decent winger in Martin Robinson and the commitment of Stevie Gritt. The rest, even my old favourite Les Berry, were two bob at that level.
It may not seem like it at the moment but things have been far worse!!
What was it about him - the Village People style tash???
I knew him slightly through cricket but, despite his undoubted uselessness at times, the guy always gave everything he had and as somebody who himself lacks talent but tries hard I guess I identify with people of that ilk. I liked Gritty, Keith Jones and Kish too - none of whom were universally popular whilst playing although Gritty is viewed with affection now.
Steve Thompson was another. Would love to have him down there now.
King of the pass back to the keeper from anywhere in his own half or the hoof over the old Gable Stand
I liked Jimmy too. Solid second or third division defender and as agricultural with his tackling at times as his name suggests!
Nothing south about it. In fact, unless a miralce occurs between now and May, we will be in the same division next season.
This is simply not true, as Len points out more clearly.
And it's pretty annoying the way people are referring back to Curbs all the time now. I personally don't feel that Charlton fans have ever said he wasn't/isn't a great manager. They were just incredibly bored with him at the time. Myself very much included. And he wasn't exactly forced out of the club as a result of that. He wanted to go. So drop the I-told-you-so nonsense, Curbs fans?
And then you say "told you he was a great manager" to people who would never deny he was a great manager, but were simply bored with him.
So you don't have anything to do an "i-told-you-so" about.
maybe the money we wasted with dowie and pards would have been better off being given to curbs and doubling his wages to make him stay and that is with hindsight