We are now facing our second season in the third tier of English football and many think that Charlton are on the brink of financial meltdown.Next season could well be the most important season in the clubs history. There is little room for another season of error. Since the very first day he took control of team affairs at The Valley Phil Parkinson has divided fans opinion and caused much discussion as to his abilities and whether he is the right man to take us forward. Some posters and fans have remained stalwart in their condemnation of Parkinson and I wouldn't mind betting that each of us know a supporter that won't attend The Valley whilst he remains in charge. To their credit others have warmed to the man and feel that at this moment he is the best we can do or even gone further in suggesting that he has done well. Truly a divided fanbase as to the merits of the most important person at the club. We all know the arguments about lack of funds in order to replace the manager and even if we did who could we get or afford. At this critical time in our clubs future or lack of it, surely it is essential that everyone associated with Charlton feels able to get behind the cause. It seems to me that is the very essence of what is required if we are to survive and then prosper again. Can any of that happen when it would appear we are so divided ? Many fans got behind PP for the League One run in despite their reservations. The dream that was promotion is over and in my opinion one esteemed poster was right some months ago when he stated that the time for judging Phil Parkinson would be may. Well it's judgement time.
For what it's worth I am one of those fans that have warmed to Parky but my head tells me that he is not the right man to lead us back to ghe championship let alone the Premier League. Never seen the motivational and tactical skills that I would like in a manager and therefore I am forced to say that it's a far greater risk keeping PP than getting rid. Is the Millwall squad that much better than ours ? I suggest that Jackett just gets more out of them. The same could be said for Leeds and perhaps even Blackpool ? Managers who can lead us out of this division are out there and should the vacancy arise I think we would be pleasantly surprised by the calibre of applicant. Well I have started the ball rolling and expect a very diveded response which in a way proves my argument - doesn't it ?
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Had a big budget for wages (albeit a lot was already committed to players not good enough for the team ie Moo2, Sinclair, Dixon) but still didn't get the team up.
Signed some very good players on frees and loans.
Had no money at all to sign players and so missed out on a lot of targets (Puncheon, Lambert, Kisabbo) who did well at other L1 clubs.
Was very unlucky with key players in the same positions getting injured esp full back where Fraser and Solly were crocked within 24 hours of each other and lost youga/basey/jackson
Oversaw two of the worst defeats in recent history (Northwich and Millwall)
Did get the team playing with fight and guts at other times but not often enough.
Too often got beaten by clubs who had lesser players but seemed to have more organisation and team play. Was that Parky or the players or a bit of both?
Were one more win away from automatic. but close isn't close enough.
Got to the play-offs when many said this was beyond him or the team every time we lost.
Lost the play-offs when his captain gave the ball away and then missed a pen.
The mystery of Shelvey
Was open and always willing to talk to fans and explain his thinking.
Murray has already said he is staying so unless we get taken over it's academic
For me, it's let him have the last year on his contract and see what next season brings. The time for judgement is when it won't cost us money to make the change (if needed), as I can't honestly see any manager pulling up trees with the club in its current state.
so we should expect parky to be signing a new contract very soon, as with past experience murray doesn't like his managers to just see out the end of their term
different lifetime
At the very least he's stabilised the club, but now after failing to win promotion, it's another rebuilding job. We thought last year we might have to sign an entire new team, but we kept the midfield together, time will tell if that's the case this summer.
IMO we shouldn't even be thinking about the Premier League. To me it's not about us finding our next Curbishley, a manager who will be here for 10+ years. Look at Blackpool, got up, stayed up, new manager last summer, and he takes them up again.
If we're taken over then a change I would understand. We'd want someone more long term, who can be trusted with spending a few million, so ideally with experience of spending a bit of money. Parky can find good free transfers, and with money I'm sure he'd get a few decent signings - as Pardew showed it's not hard to spend £1m on one of the best strikers in the league. He probably wouldn't be ideal with a massive budget though. Charlton with no debt, long term ambitions and millions to spend would be far more attractive, I'd have a lot more confidence in then finding a good manager.
On Millwall, Swindon etc - I don't believe our squad is any better overall. Most of the games against the top 6 or so have been close, and the final table shows there's not much between us. We came down with the belief that our players (mainly our midfield) were better than anything else in the league. We've seen that's not the case, teams like Millwall and Swindon are far more than just hard working organised sides, they have good players like we do.
People will bring up that Parky hasn't got results against average teams like Brighton - but that's true of everyone except Norwich. We weren't as good as Norwich and I don't believe many managers at all would have won the league with this team. Those bad results will always happen, they did with Curbs. The difference is the good managers turn it around, and Parky did to an extent, we certainly ended the season better than the time around the Millwall away game.
What is the aim for next season? Obviously you'd say promotion, but depending on who stays we might need a season to rebuild and really push on in another seasons time.
I like Parky but I'm not completely against replacing him, I'm just not convinced it'll make everything all better. Much like players, League One managers will make mistakes - tactical errors, the odd poor signing, have the odd nightmare game like Millwall or Northwich etc. I don't think we'd be surprised at the calibre of the applicants either. To be honest I think the board know they don't have a good record of appointing managers, they know we should be steady with Parkinson and replacing him could make things worse. They don't want another Dowie or Pardew to come along, say with a decent lower league record, and end up with the club in a bigger mess.
Without a takeover, the decision has been made already. A new manager is a risk the board had to decide to take or not. Parky should at least keep us steady, and with a bit of luck (injuries, finding that goalscorer, keeping good players here etc) take us up. Another manager anything could happen, from winning the league to fighting relegation. I don't think the board were or are confident they could get the right man in.
Great post SHG and quality follow-up Henry and Scoham.
As I lack any of the eloquence of those 3 I'm going to keep it simple.
Keep Parky
In fact, I reckon the achievement of being one regular season game away from automatic promotion is far more than most fans could have hoped for.
We didn't get into that position by luck, it was achieved by a subtle blend of hard work and good football along with the usual sprinkling of good and bad luck...
I didn't want Parky as our manager because I didn't like him but because I thought his appointment lacked a definite display of lack of ambition from the board...
Given what he's achieved in his first full season, especially with the resources he's had available to him, I think Parky deserves to see out the remainder of his contract at least...
http://drinkingduringthegame.blogspot.com/2010/05/better-devil-you-know.html
Interesting post about Parkinson on the drinking during the game blog.
and our prospects looked fine. Well, we managed to lose 2-1 and Curbs said that Strachan had
"changed tactics" and he couldn't cope with the changes he had made.
For me this reads tactical incompetence, he's proved that with westham where the going was tougher
and I wouldn't like him back although I'm with you all to consider him a cult hero for what he's done for us.
Now does Millwall and Swindon home remind you of anything? To be fair to Parky, Yeovil away and
Swindon home (dec 26) are in his favour, although in different circumstances and bar JJ and Moo2, he
seems capable of motivating the players. How he does it I don't know, for a footballer his frequent use
of "I told them to be positive" is rubbish jargon.
Parky for at least another year is our best and cheapest option. Also, I don't see us going into administration
because (I suppose) the board would then lose their investment.
The dust is beginning to settle, let's be confident.
and our prospects looked fine. Well, we managed to lose 2-1 and Curbs said that Strachan had
"changed tactics" and he couldn't cope with the changes he had made.
For me this reads tactical incompetence, he's proved that with westham where the going was tougher
and I wouldn't like him back although I'm with you all to consider him a cult hero for what he's done for us.
Now does Millwall and Swindon home remind you of anything? To be fair to Parky, Yeovil away and
Swindon home (dec 26) are in his favour, although in different circumstances and bar JJ and Moo2, he
seems capable of motivating the players. How he does it I don't know, for a footballer his frequent use
of "I told them to be positive" is rubbish jargon.
Parky for at least another year is our best and cheapest option. Also, I don't see us going into administration
because (I suppose) the board would then lose their investment.
The dust is beginning to settle, let's be confident.[/quote]
Curbs weakness was his man management, imho, his strength his tactical ability as epitomised by continued tactical changes as circumstances changed in the play off final. Without tactical ability I really don't think an under resourced club like charlton would have achieved the top flight status we did.
I think he restored a bit of pride in Charlton Athletic and with a bit more luck we would be preparing for tier 2 football now. That said there were a few occasions this season where we really should have won but didn't (we can all name various games) and those games were what ultimately made the difference. Given that our great club has been stripped to the bone and in a bad way I think he has done rather well keeping us in the race for promotion. I would like to see him here next season and see out his contract, if we are not up next may then it's time for a new man.
I think West Ham showed another weakness of his - give him big money to spend (wages in particular) and he didn't really know who to sign. Wasted money on players like Kieron Dyer, Freddie Ljungberg etc. Don't think he knows much about players abroad, went for players he knew but were risks. Injury prone like Dyer and getting on a bit like Ljungberg.
WHU's Fan's View,good and bad
Saying that, Parky has done well with his frees and loans, notably Dailly, Richardson, Llera, Reid, Jackson - he just hasn't got an eye for a striker with |Mooney & Sodje (A) both being not up to scratch.
No convinced about Taylor or Allen myself, are they really far better? Haven't really done anything in the last few years.
With all the personnel changes that are coming that will be an important thing.
His budget this year may have been big but it was "fixed" in terms of the players already being in place, most of them vastly overpaid relative to their ability or usefulness.
Top 6 next season but we do need a striker who can score 20 goals or thereabouts
Managed plenty of players well and got the best out of them. Though perhaps that was down to finding the right players.[/quote]
He fell out with a number of players, Euell / Murphy but equally had a lot of loyalists Kiely, Kinsella, it is a case of the right players, but there was a feeling amongst a number of the group i drink with that if you fell out with Curbs there was no way back into the team and euell seemed to be an example of this. This even cost us £600k as Palace wanted to buy him but we turned them down and a few months later he was released on a free.
I think West Ham showed another weakness of his - give him big money to spend (wages in particular) and he didn't really know who to sign. Wasted money on players like Kieron Dyer, Freddie Ljungberg etc. Don't think he knows much about players abroad, went for players he knew but were risks. Injury prone like Dyer and getting on a bit like Ljungberg.[/quote]
When he joined West Ham it was a total panic situation to avoid them going down, which was achieved and maybe that was why he and the Icelandics were willing to spend so much. I suspect you are right that he is not a big cheque spender, but it would be good if he had another opportunity so that we can see if it was just circumstances or he is pants with big money. On the foreign player point you are right, he always stated he wanted British players or players who had good experience of the English game or similar (Scandinavian) and there were few exception - Kishishev I think was one.
I also agree that continuity/ consistency is what we need at management level - there will be enough upheaval in the playing squad as it is.
All that 97-98 promotion season, Les Reed was the tactical influence at Charlton.
I've no doubt Les Reed played his part in that Wembley success too.
Parkie has missed his mandate of promotion from this tin pot pishing league
things come in 3's
He is the wrong man for us, I disagree that we are in financial meltdown, things aint rosey i agree but i dont think we are near administration,
we will be if he stays because he is not good enough tactically to get us up, his signing's record is poor look at the players he bought in, in the attempt to save us from relegation, and look at this seasons, For every Reid and dailey there is a borrowdale and Akpoo
It is obvious for me its a thankyou, mr nice guy you tried hard but ultimatley you have failed, see ya
I thought the consensus was we could not afford to get rid of him, beacause of the finances!.
How have they improved!. He may well be manager by 'default' i.e. we cannot afford to exchange him by paying him off, but I am afraid that the bar was set so low by the teams performance during the year, that it was a relief we even got to the playoffs!.
I alway's felt that the guy would be tainted with the association of Pardew, and to have changed at the time was a bridge to far!.
But is he the right man to take us forward. I am no more convinced now than I was then. He talks the talk, seems a very down to earth guy, and has a vision...... but and it is a big but we are still in this division, with every possibility of a weaker side!
Have doubts about Parky, but isn't calling Borrowdale a bad signing a big harsh considering the situation?
All that 97-98 promotion season, Les Reed was the tactical influence at Charlton.
I've no doubt Les Reed played his part in that Wembley success too.[/quote]
As did Mendonca and Illic. No man is an island, even curbs.
I think i am so fed up with the situation that i find us in i am not willing to over look the circumstances that may lead to players like that coming in.
IMO Borrowdale did his job simply and reasonably effectively, and generally tightened the defence.
As a defender, he did a decent defensive job. He fitted in. But he didn't set the world on fire, especially going forward.
Talking about injuries, and Parky desperately sifting through other club's rejects for 'quality' replacements, I wonder how much the injury to Kelly Youga affected our results, particularly in our post Christmas slump?
Of course, all teams suffer key players out for a period - but the thrust and athleticsm, and no mean skill that Youga brought to the team was never able to be replaced.
Promotions are won and lost for a number of reasons over 46 games (or more) ......but to lose automatic promotion by only one single win, makes me wonder if Youga's always "back in 4 weeks" injury was a significant factor?
And if we had won that promotion, would some fans still be berating Parky now?
so now we are saying that the assistant manager does indeed have a pivotal role in what goes on!