So Karel Smiley - what exactly has he been up to behind the scenes

Oakster

I think this is a fundamental question for Miere & Murray - what remit has this amateur armchair tactician had?

Was he the guy who advised on selling Yann, sacking Powell. Is he the guy directly responsible for the likes of Nego, PP, Thuram, Lepoint etc etc

He seems to know an awful lot?

What is his link to Doucheatelets football advisor - Dudu Dahan?

If he is the architect of our truly dismal position then its an absolute scandal that he is anywhere near the first team at present...and why is he doing this? Financial gain?

This would make a great story for Richard Cawley etc.

twiggyaddick

He was responsible PP, Nego......

Thuram....... !!!!!!! The worst player I ever seen, and then we let the person responsible run first team affairs??????+

I......think........I'm............. Done!!!

Oakster

When did he get the qualifications necessary to coach at Championship level? I wonder...

razil

Pretty sure he's the analysis guy; the Network, not liking agents etc is RD, and some of the crap recycled players therefore may not be his call

I reckon FFP is a red herring, opportunism. RD would be happy just to do whatever he is trying to do if hes doing it cheaper than others, he believes in achieving success by different means.

He seems to believe the transfer window is the saving grace when things go wrong, but also to build on success

He sees a manager purely as executing the programme

It seems to me he underestimates the human factor, and the challenges of the English league and running by remote control, with little local knowledge

queensland_addick

He got the phone call from Katrien on Saturday night and was here on Sunday! I hope he left his wife a note on the kitchen table before he left for London.

guinnessaddick

queensland_addick said:

He got the phone call from Katrien on Saturday night and was here on Sunday! I hope he left his wife a note on the kitchen table before he left for London.

"Just popping out, won't be long".

Oakster

razil said:

Pretty sure he's the analysis guy; the Network, not liking agents etc is RD, and some of the crap recycled players therefore may not be his call

I don't follow you here Raz - I think Smiley has been behind this all along - just interested to know how an obscure z-list Belgian football personality is so inter-twined with the senile old fool running our club. If I was RD I would have canned this guy ages ago as whatever he has been advising has been absolute crap since day one.

InspectorSands

Good call. Struck me as very odd when he said "well, I know these players anyway" yesterday. If he's part of the weirdo's dud-picking network, he's as much to blame.

Some transparency on how the network works would have helped RD and KM, but it's too late now.

seth plum

As I have reported several time before, I met and had a lengthy talk with Karel after the 0-2 to Birmingham under Powell.
If it is possible to ignore that soon after Powell was sacked, and that Freye then gets the gig with Riga, and is now here as top dog and that his first answer in last weeks staged interview was coming back 'feels like a homecoming'.
Hmmmn.
Anyway my impression of Karel personally was a positive one, he seemed no mug, and was curious and inquisitive.
However like Katrien his clear and obvious and understandable loyalty, his fealty was to Roland Duchatelet.
The talk of Charlton Athletic being some kind of home, and how welcome back he feels is all well and good, and sings of decency and politeness all round, but it has a hollow ring to it.
If Chris Powell were to ever return I would believe it if he said it felt like a homecoming.

stonemuse

Love the hashtag on tweets from CharltonLive this evening #TheInterimOne

razil

@Oakster just my opinion that he is a numbers man for scouting/performance, RD is the 'revolutionary' in terms of wanting to avoid agents, and fees by having a network, fits his other projects and ideas