I do think it's a work in progress still from RD. He has made lots of mistakes, most of which have stemmed around his insistence on using his network to supply resources.This is obviously flawed as it's too restrictive. I'm keeping positive and hope that he is truly in this for the right reasons and that he'll adjust as he moves forward.
You can see his plan. I think his intention was always to use this season to consolidate us in the Championship and then build from there. I think this explains the comments that were coming out 3 months or so ago when Bob Peeters was saying that there would be reinforcements in January if we were still up and around the playoff picture. That hasn't happened but obviously now we need to make sure we are still in the championship at the end of the season and that must be uppermost in RD's mind. The last thing he would want is for us to be relegated to league 1. That would really put a dent in his plan.
Like I said above, he has made lots of mistakes but hopefully he won't be obtuse enough not to learn from these. Apart from the selling of Yann, the first thing that didn't work was Bob Peeters. Or, was the first thing that didn't work the calibre of players coming in because of the under estimation of the quality and rigour of the championship over a season? Take your pick. And that's the rub. What exactly are the mistakes that are the root cause of where we're finding ourselves?
So, where am I going to with this? I think we should let it ride for a while and stop getting our knickers in a twist. RD has made mistakes but let us give him the rope to sort it out without making ludicrous chants to the new manager like "You don't know what you're doing". That will not help. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but misplaced negativity will not help the club. And I do think it's misplaced at this juncture. And, especially on here, paranoia could be settling in and urban myths are being stated as fact.
WE NEED TO GET BEHIND THE BOYS. Nobody else will. Let the back room dramas sort themselves out and let's see where it takes us, especially for now. I'm prepared to do that anyway but I've never been one to let 'misery love misery' which is what it's getting like on here lately.
The issue as I see is that the players we got in last season (with the POSSIBLE exception of Adjeravic) were quite clearly not good enough. RD underestimated it, he got it wrong, which although gutting is forgivable, he made a mistake and could learn from it - except HE DIDN'T. The players we then got in this season are ALSO not good enough (Ben Haim and possibly JBG/Igor being debatable exceptions), it's making the exact same mistake twice. Is he merely too stubborn to admit he's got it wrong? Does he know he's got it wrong but the only players good enough are too valuable to Liege for him to bring them over? I don't know, but it's not going to improve unless he concedes the experiment, as it stands, has failed.
The FFP regulations being tossed out pretty much tore up his plan, or should have done. Under those rules, we'd see a lot more teams forced to scrimp and save and take chances on players like we have done, but instead clubs have flipped the metaphorical bird and gone on spending and spending and buying proven quality - not necessarily 'Championship experience' (which I consider over rated as a quality but that's another debate) but they've certainly come with better pedigrees than the Standard Liege reserves. It's no coincidence that the three I mentioned above are the three who have played and established themselves at a demonstrably higher level than the Championship. Sadly RD seems to be persevering with a plan doomed to fail, either because he CAN'T see it, or refuses to.
I've said all along that he's definitely not deliberately turning us into a feeder club, or dismantling the club for some nefarious scheme. He's had a plan, presumably he still does, but he won't deviate when the circumstances dictate he should.
Only TBH, JBG and Igor? What about Bikey, Henderson & Buyens? Then we had Coquelin & now Velkjovic on loan.
For me only George turned out not to be up to it although showed glimpses. Havent seen enough of Bulot but maybe the reason for that is hes not good enough too, Compared to last season with Thuram, Nego, Koc, Polish Pete thats a big improvement
Taxi_lad, nothing personal but you should have called your thread the 'heads in the sand thread' as you seem to be overlooking the fact that things are getting worse and people are getting pissed off, and dodging those basic facts is like trying to pretend there's no hole in the RD bucket. Despite the players you mention, we are sliding down the table.
The apathy that we are feeling came to the surface yesterday when Luzon was 'introduced' to the fans...absolute bleeding silence! Did anyone actually give him a clap? Feel a bit sorry for him in a way. Thought Patrick Collins' article in today's Mail on Sunday hit the button. If you didn't get a copy pop online to read it, and remember, this is written by a dyed-in-the-wool Charlton fan.
Only TBH, JBG and Igor? What about Bikey, Henderson & Buyens? Then we had Coquelin & now Velkjovic on loan.
For me only George turned out not to be up to it although showed glimpses. Havent seen enough of Bulot but maybe the reason for that is hes not good enough too, Compared to last season with Thuram, Nego, Koc, Polish Pete thats a big improvement
Bikey started off immense but he'd started to lose his composure in the last month or so of Peeters' tenure, compared to Ben Haim who stayed professional and steady - the Blackburn cup game was a prime example, Bikey goes tearing into someone on the half way line, loses it and a goal was a direct consequence of that. Henderson had the experience but his injury problems didn't come out of nowhere, he's had the issue before and a lot was gambled on Pope being ready - which he wasn't. Buyens has the skill but little application, he's good enough if he wants to be but he could dominate the midfield if he put effort in, but he's happy to be a cog not an engine.
Onyewu is competent enough but hardly outstanding, Moussa hasn't done anything due to injury so can't be called a success OR a failure in fairness, Coquelin was good for the very few games he played but is entirely irrelevant since he's not coming back. Velkjovic could be handy but too soon to say.
I'd probably agree that it's a better team than the one we ended last season with, but that's not the same as saying it's good enough to be a top team in the league. There's a reason we're struggling and it's not JUST because of the manager(s).
The apathy that we are feeling came to the surface yesterday when Luzon was 'introduced' to the fans...absolute bleeding silence! Did anyone actually give him a clap? Feel a bit sorry for him in a way. Thought Patrick Collins' article in today's Mail on Sunday hit the button. If you didn't get a copy pop online to read it, and remember, this is written by a dyed-in-the-wool Charlton fan.
Link to the article below. It makes f***ing grim reading. :-(
Like the man says "......Stamford Bridge is 12 miles from The Valley. For all they now have in common, it may as well be on the moon. And yet, we wouldn’t swap it for all the oil in Arabia. For SE7 is home. And home is where the heart is."
So here we are the transfer window is closed and we don’t have any additions to a meagre squad that is struggling despite assurances to the contrary from Duchatelet and Katrien. So where does that leave us? Well firstly we have an owner with an agenda that is based on his core business practices that bears no resemblance to how a Football club should be run. Clearly from other posts what he creates is moving all the clubs in his network to the lowest common denominator by diluting the playing and dare I saw coaching talent without any regard to the effects of this policy. Indeed if you were a conspiracy theorist it is possible he only views CAFC as an asset in terms of the position and size of the plot of land the club stands on, and that is really worrying because that implies that ultimately all he is really interested in is cashing in the asset which in fact would be easier to do if the club had slipped down the leagues and had sparse support, wouldn’t be so easy if we were in the Premier league with 28,000 in every home game.
Of course some argue that he actually saved us from relegation last season by getting rid of a manager who appeared to have lost his way (CP) and appointing someone who led us to safety and at the same time also getting rid of Slater and Jimenez who were completely disinterested in the club. He also gave us a new pitch (paid for by the Kermogant transfer fee) a bunch of promises and yet another new manager (BP) to start the season. Of course all that is true but now what is being been done appears to be 100% at his behest with no discussion or flexibility of approach “My Club my rules” applies here and that kind of dogma does not work long term. I also believe that he has completely underestimated the quality and competitiveness of The Championship this isn’t the Belgium second division it’s a proper Football league, with proper players and good managers but then why would he realise that he knows shag all about Football?
Like all very successful people he has an expertise in his business arena but that doesn’t make him an expert on everything and clearly he knows sweet FA about Football but who’s going to challenge him? and as for Katrien well she is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard, what is her role? How can she advise anyone on Football matters?. What make the whole situation worse is that this dysfunctional system will be known around the game pretty quickly, I know from my own industry how quickly bad news travels, and decent players will never want to come here. Dissatisfied players, a coach nobody wants or believes in and form that has relegation written all over it is the order of the day at the moment and honestly it is hard to see how that will change now.
The best we can look forward to now is a struggle to the end of the season with the vain hope that we can stay up but with no fresh injection of talent and energy that is looking seriously doubtful. Still you never know Luzon might wake up one morning and realise that you need to play two up top to give Vetokele some help, that we can play midfielders who will move the ball forwards instead of sideways and that Gomez may be worth starting as he can actually play football. You can only hope.
I leave you with the quote from Albert Einstein “The true definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” Sound familiar Roland?
Comments
You can see his plan. I think his intention was always to use this season to consolidate us in the Championship and then build from there. I think this explains the comments that were coming out 3 months or so ago when Bob Peeters was saying that there would be reinforcements in January if we were still up and around the playoff picture. That hasn't happened but obviously now we need to make sure we are still in the championship at the end of the season and that must be uppermost in RD's mind. The last thing he would want is for us to be relegated to league 1. That would really put a dent in his plan.
Like I said above, he has made lots of mistakes but hopefully he won't be obtuse enough not to learn from these. Apart from the selling of Yann, the first thing that didn't work was Bob Peeters. Or, was the first thing that didn't work the calibre of players coming in because of the under estimation of the quality and rigour of the championship over a season? Take your pick. And that's the rub. What exactly are the mistakes that are the root cause of where we're finding ourselves?
So, where am I going to with this? I think we should let it ride for a while and stop getting our knickers in a twist. RD has made mistakes but let us give him the rope to sort it out without making ludicrous chants to the new manager like "You don't know what you're doing". That will not help. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but misplaced negativity will not help the club. And I do think it's misplaced at this juncture. And, especially on here, paranoia could be settling in and urban myths are being stated as fact.
WE NEED TO GET BEHIND THE BOYS. Nobody else will. Let the back room dramas sort themselves out and let's see where it takes us, especially for now. I'm prepared to do that anyway but I've never been one to let 'misery love misery' which is what it's getting like on here lately.
The FFP regulations being tossed out pretty much tore up his plan, or should have done. Under those rules, we'd see a lot more teams forced to scrimp and save and take chances on players like we have done, but instead clubs have flipped the metaphorical bird and gone on spending and spending and buying proven quality - not necessarily 'Championship experience' (which I consider over rated as a quality but that's another debate) but they've certainly come with better pedigrees than the Standard Liege reserves. It's no coincidence that the three I mentioned above are the three who have played and established themselves at a demonstrably higher level than the Championship. Sadly RD seems to be persevering with a plan doomed to fail, either because he CAN'T see it, or refuses to.
I've said all along that he's definitely not deliberately turning us into a feeder club, or dismantling the club for some nefarious scheme. He's had a plan, presumably he still does, but he won't deviate when the circumstances dictate he should.
For me only George turned out not to be up to it although showed glimpses. Havent seen enough of Bulot but maybe the reason for that is hes not good enough too, Compared to last season with Thuram, Nego, Koc, Polish Pete thats a big improvement
Onyewu is competent enough but hardly outstanding, Moussa hasn't done anything due to injury so can't be called a success OR a failure in fairness, Coquelin was good for the very few games he played but is entirely irrelevant since he's not coming back. Velkjovic could be handy but too soon to say.
I'd probably agree that it's a better team than the one we ended last season with, but that's not the same as saying it's good enough to be a top team in the league. There's a reason we're struggling and it's not JUST because of the manager(s).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2934802/Charlton-fans-chant-don-t-know-doing-Guy-Luzon-s-home-match.html
AMEN...........COYR
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2934802/Charlton-fans-chant-don-t-know-doing-Guy-Luzon-s-home-match.html#ixzz3QXczFDXn
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Of course some argue that he actually saved us from relegation last season by getting rid of a manager who appeared to have lost his way (CP) and appointing someone who led us to safety and at the same time also getting rid of Slater and Jimenez who were completely disinterested in the club. He also gave us a new pitch (paid for by the Kermogant transfer fee) a bunch of promises and yet another new manager (BP) to start the season. Of course all that is true but now what is being been done appears to be 100% at his behest with no discussion or flexibility of approach “My Club my rules” applies here and that kind of dogma does not work long term. I also believe that he has completely underestimated the quality and competitiveness of The Championship this isn’t the Belgium second division it’s a proper Football league, with proper players and good managers but then why would he realise that he knows shag all about Football?
Like all very successful people he has an expertise in his business arena but that doesn’t make him an expert on everything and clearly he knows sweet FA about Football but who’s going to challenge him? and as for Katrien well she is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard, what is her role? How can she advise anyone on Football matters?. What make the whole situation worse is that this dysfunctional system will be known around the game pretty quickly, I know from my own industry how quickly bad news travels, and decent players will never want to come here. Dissatisfied players, a coach nobody wants or believes in and form that has relegation written all over it is the order of the day at the moment and honestly it is hard to see how that will change now.
The best we can look forward to now is a struggle to the end of the season with the vain hope that we can stay up but with no fresh injection of talent and energy that is looking seriously doubtful. Still you never know Luzon might wake up one morning and realise that you need to play two up top to give Vetokele some help, that we can play midfielders who will move the ball forwards instead of sideways and that Gomez may be worth starting as he can actually play football. You can only hope.
I leave you with the quote from Albert Einstein “The true definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” Sound familiar Roland?