Len/Large/Chunes,
Thank you one and all (in my bumped ‘Fasten Your Seatbelts’ thread further down) for advising me that our squad is not crap and we have a set of players which should certainly not be staring relegation in the face. Phew!
I can imagine Richard Murray and Derek Chappell breathing very similar sighs of relief.
All they need do now is dangle a lucrative six months contract in front of Alan Curbishley and throw in a sizeable bonus for keeping us up and we could well survive!!
No need to waste our limited cash buying any more players as the squad already has sufficient quality in it , as you all infer, so spend some money instead on a COMPETENT manager who can, erm, ‘get the best out of them’.
Most of the Curbs detractors on this message board have finally seen the light so very few will question his ability and judgement.
What has Curbs got to lose? He could make some easy money in the next six months and he will have assessed – just as you three guys have – that our squad, when playing to its ability, could aspire to the top half of the table. He’ll be eyeing that survival bonus for sure!
Len Glover has named five of our first team players who are either ‘good’ Championship players or even Premiership level performers no less – and that isn’t counting the injured ZZ or 1.5M pound striker Andy Gray who only lost his ‘form’ after joining us.
So, stick with what we have players-wise and, if they were to play to their full potential, but under the right manager, we could feasibly try to make up that five point gap over 20 games or so.
The Board must go out, find the necessary money and appoint a manager, right now, who can do the job. We aren’t actually down just yet!
Surely, Len, we don’t have to accept that Parkinson is the best candidate we can realistically attract, as you yourself suggest?
You’re right, we may not have very much money but the Board of Directors would be a total laughing stock if it couldn’t afford to appoint a fresh managerial team, whether with or without Curbs, that might, just might, get the best out of these players and lead us to survival.
Surely Charlton Athletic, and its fans, are entitled to a manager who has some idea of what he is doing?!!! Pardew and Parkinson have, according to the likes of Len/Large and Chunes, turned a more than adequate Championship squad into relegation dead beats…we haven’t won in nearly three months!
The Board have made four disastrous long-term and short-term managerial decisions since AC left the building, so now is the time to get it right.
Yes, Curbs may be holding out for a job in the Prem but even if a vacancy comes up in the next four to six weeks, if that club really wants AC it might hold out a few extra months until the summer. That is the sort of level-headedness and sanity that Curbs looks for.
HOWEVER……
My own ONE BIG concern about your view of CAFC’s current situation, messrs Large and Co, comes back to that squad I’m afraid. I just can’t get past it.
Large/Chunes/Len, you all are quite certain that our problems do not fundamentally lie with the quality of our present players and two of you actually state our squad is ‘good enough’.
Why then is it that virtually each and every member of that squad, as an individual player, is ardently criticised by supporters on forums such as this and frequently condemned for NOT being good enough?
How is it then that a set of individuals, 90% of whom have been identified as having some major failing as a Championship player be it their passing ability, crossing ability, concentration, pace, motivation, fitness etc, can somehow come together and be perceived as so much more promising and talented as a group?
Take a selection of players from yesterday’s team just as a case in point.
These are current and oft-repeated views and comments (paraphrased I’ll admit) about each player…not my own words, or my views, remember!!
Elliott - Inexperienced, positional liabilities, at fault for goals in two successive games. His predecessor Weaver has been described as fat, lazy and error prone.
Cranie – has certainly had a better press recently but for much of the season most have wanted Moo2, ‘one of our own’, in his place. Send him back to Pompey has been mentioned more than once. Offers no attacking options. Moo2, the alternative, has been described as good going forward, yet suspect when defending. Sadly, he is a defender folks.
Hudson – the finger has been pointed at ‘Rock’ recently with him being increasingly at fault for goals and letting his man get away from him. ‘Worst captain ever’ is a phrase gaining usage. Palace fans gleefully suggest they got the better end of the Paddy Mac deal. Tongue in cheek perhaps…
Fortune – ah, this regular whipping boy of our Premier League years, is still occasionally picked out for his lapses of concentration. At the start of the season, very few posters wanted him anywhere near the starting eleven.
Sam – infuriating, no end product, cannot cross. These are Lloyd’s regular plaudits. He seems to have all the trickery but cannot hurt teams often enough around the box. No longer a promising youngster as we are told. Not my words remember…
Holland – I’ll keep this one brief. Tries hard but his legs have gone, past it. Earnest but quite often that’s all. Good clapper. Semedo, one of the alternative options, is either described as the ‘man of the match’ or a poor, negative passer who disappears in games and also gets caught in possession too often! If only we knew which he was…
Bailey – erratic, went through a run of games during which the consensus was that he should be dropped. Frequently an inaccurate passer, a ‘sprayer’, who is also sometimes caught in possession. Scores goals from time to time. But so did the very popular Darren Ambrose! Oh…
Bouazza – described just yesterday as ‘poisonous’ (had to mention it!) but regularly labelled as over-rated, casual, not bothered about the ‘red shirt’ and defensively suspect. Some suggest Basey in his stead.
Basey – painfully slow and the name ‘Bella Emberg’ has been cruelly used to describe the athleticism of ‘one of our own’. No pace is a big problem for a full back or wide player in the modern game. Nice left foot but occasionally caught out of position.
Burton – most fans were utterly under-whelmed by his signature as a very journeyman, but affordable, striker. A certain LargeAddick was particularly peeved I recall at the time. Already been benched by Parkinson and the calls for him to be sent back to Sheffield Wednesday are growing. One alternative is Gray – poor old Andy has been the subject of much deliberation, mostly because many are not sure exactly what his role is. Certainly criticised for not scoring enough and often picked out for being easily out jumped by his marker. Many also question his ability in a 4-5-1 as he is’not the type’ the lead the line.
What about Todorov? Never fit, can’t last 90 minutes, no pace, despite good feet. McLeod? ‘banjo’, ‘arse’ and ‘cow’s’ are words regularly employed when Izale is under discussion.
Just about the only players spared regular criticism this season are ones who have only just arrived like Jay McEveley or the permanently injured like Therry Racon or the enigmatic ZZ – who has a fair few detractors of his own when in circulation. Oh, and the boy wonder of course, young JonJo…
I say again, the above comments are paraphrased from regular statements about these individual players, time and again, on here and are not my own personal take on things.
It appears we do not have a SINGLE player in the team, week in/week out, who is commonly regarded as a talented, essential part of our starting eleven. NOT ONE.
That is surely an indictment of where we are right now.
Hence my own sad conviction that the squad, in fact, is just not good enough. Yes, we need a new manager but we also need some new players to have any chance of getting out of this mess.
But, hey, football is about opinions.
I've wasted far too much of everyone's time articulating mine!
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Comments
At least it is more involved than Derek and Richard's which might fit on the back of a fag packet.
'No money, keep PP, cut budget further after relegation. ps ask Suzie to advertise sale of club in Loot.'
;-)
It's now blindingly obvious than when he was here before, he ran this club from top to bottom.
I think you are doing Peter Varney a huge dis-service there my friend
Did he build the stadium? Was he the one who orchestrated building up the crowds throughout the div 1 days even though the football was pretty bad? Did he keep pumping money into the club when they needed it most? Did he start up the award winning community scheme from scratch?
I'm sure I could go on.
A very astute man.He knew it as well as anyone.
did he get the cash together for transfers ?
did he organise the share deal ?
did he give himself the time to successed ?
Whether we can get Curbs back at all in any capacity is doubtful but I take your point.
It is sacrilegious to criticise Richard Murray at the moment but the fact remains if Curbs hadn’t got us into the top flight, and kept us there, our stadium wouldn’t have the capacity it does and our ‘alleged’ home attendance wouldn’t still be above the 20,000 mark.
Richard Murray made some very wise decisions, of course, but very little of what is now perceived to be his legacy would have occurred without all that Sky money courtesy of Curbs’ team on the pitch.
As things stand, RM and Chappell are looking to sell the club and the Zabeel sale figure was strongly rumoured to have been somewhere between 37M-50M. I believe our friendly debt to the directors is around 15M, with an additional 6M mortgage, so I’d suggest RM and Chappell would trouser, quite rightly, a fair slice of what they have put in after a sale.
You are right about PV too Carly – think he knew when to get out. An astute man indeed.
It's been a problem for a long time now. We don't have a best 11 either. Also feel we don't have enough players that can handle the pressure, and a lot of them lose confidence and are inconsistent.
So many times this season we've gone 1-0 down at home and you can see the players heads drop, they make even more basic errors than they were before.
There's not many players out there who you know will perform nearly every match, 7/10 every week. Probably Holland, at times Fortune and Hudson, but the rest of the team they can be great one game and look poor the next.
We now don't even have competition for Hudson and Fortune, though Cranie and the odd time Youga and Semedo have played CB. Hudson I think was overrated by Pardew, who called him a Premier League player and said he would be so important for us, which is true now, but only because we only have 2 centre backs.
IMO, Hudson could do with being relieved of the captaincy.
That would let him concentrate on improving his own game.
New skipper? Dunno. Not a clue.
So was that helpful, then ....?
;o)
Hmm, other foreigners have managed it perfectly well, but hey, you all know about pardew's quotes.........
You’re right, we may not have very much money but the Board of Directors would be a total laughing stock if it couldn’t afford to appoint a fresh managerial team, whether with or without Curbs, that might, just might, get the best out of these players and lead us to survival.".........
I'd have Curbs back like a shot if he'd come but he won't. Firstly he commands more than we can afford as a club and secondly a vociferous minority bombarded the media when he was with us tellling them that he should go because of the boring mid table Premiership football on offer. Would you return to such an unappreciative bunch of tossers when you've given your all for 15 years? I'm not sure I would...
Given that we palpably cannot afford managers of Curbishley's level we are looking at managers of Parkinson's level whether we like it or not. Two years ago many wanted him as first choice to succeed Curbishley so are we really going to attract anybody better in reality? If the answer is YES then please suggest a name or names because I'm struggling. I don't think Boothroyd would be any better for example so why fork out yet more compensation we don't have in order to buy yet another pup?
That is why I say stick with Parkinson. His managerial future will hang on what he does with us. If he digs us out of the mess Dowie and Pardew have landed us in a big job beckons. If he doesn't.... Terry Yorath might want an assistant at Margate.
He therefore has every incentive to get the players performing and if they do perform they are good enough to finish mid table or slightly below. I forecast 16th at the start of the season and I still reckon the players are capable of that if Parky can motivate them.