Can you imagine this photo with Fraye at the front? At least the players seemed to have respected Riga:
That group, for all of its limitations, had a lot of character . Bar Jacko and Diarra, I don't see that in this lot
They were also quite good at playing football. We'd have stayed up that year with Powell, Riga, Luzon or possibly even Peeters in charge. Our games in hand, the number of easy home games we had left, and the quality of the squad meant the manager was a pretty minor factor in my opinion.
We were dreadful in the last days of Powell. The team that played Sheffield United was going down.
We played the best football under Riga in that season. In my opinion Riga deserves a lot of credit in turning that shower around.
Getting Riga in is the only major footballing decision they have got right.
We were 24th in the table, but had a superior points per game to the teams around us (we had about 4 games in hand if I remember rightly). That, coupled with the fact we had so many more home games left than our rivals, meant 18th-20th was about par for the course. We'll never know if Powell could've kept us up, but I don't remember a great change in style once Riga took over. He did well, but I think you and others are overplaying his impact.
I don't think you remember how utterly dross we were.
I loved Powell.
I guarentee had it been Powell who kept us up you would be giving him all the credit.
Edit. I can't guarentee anything as i don't know you but its the sense i get.
Oh I agree we were an average side and it wasn't much fun. The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think Riga made that much difference, and the players are more important than the manager anyway. We were hardly Barcelona after his arrival (there were some equally shocking performances under his stewardship which have been listed by @IA above), and he had a lot of home games.
I'm not convinced he is what we need right now. But we're probably going to get relegated whoever is our manager for the rest of the season.
Hi Roland!
He's right. But if you buy bad players, you have a bad team. Which is what we are. No manager is going to turn Naby Sarr and El Hadji Ba into competent Championship players.
Riga didn't have enough time to fail. Give him the full season and he'll turn out like Peeters and Luzon. No manager can succeed under such restrictive player recruitment methods.
I have often wondered about that.
If Riga had stayed would he have run out of steam/flopped like Peeters and Luzon did after good starts.
Will we ever find out?
For me the manager need not be British but they should understand and know this division. Di Matteo for example. Or Riga maybe.
The other issue with Riga is that it continues Roland's fixation with the "network" and his parochial and tiny list of potential coaches.
Sometime we need to break the cycle and just recruit the best available manager and not just someone who Roland knows.
But I would still be happier with Riga that Fraeye and with Riga rather than the likes of Gary Megson.
Riga didn't have enough time to fail. Give him the full season and he'll turn out like Peeters and Luzon. No manager can succeed under such restrictive player recruitment methods.
I have often wondered about that.
If Riga had stayed would he have run out of steam/flopped like Peeters and Luzon did after good starts.
Will we ever find out?
For me the manager need not be British but they should understand and know this division. Di Matteo for example. Or Riga maybe.
The other issue with Riga is that it continues Roland's fixation with the "network" and his parochial and tiny list of potential coaches.
Sometime we need to break the cycle and just recruit the best available manager and not just someone who Roland knows.
But I would still be happier with Riga that Fraeye and with Riga rather than the likes of Gary Megson.
Call me petty but I found it hard to cheer his name or really get behind him after the Powell sacking. Has been the same with every manager since.
He is competent at best. Either way, he would still be a puppet and the issues we have now wouldn't change in the slightest as long as we have this ownership.
Riga didn't have enough time to fail. Give him the full season and he'll turn out like Peeters and Luzon. No manager can succeed under such restrictive player recruitment methods.
I have often wondered about that.
If Riga had stayed would he have run out of steam/flopped like Peeters and Luzon did after good starts.
Will we ever find out?
For me the manager need not be British but they should understand and know this division. Di Matteo for example. Or Riga maybe.
The other issue with Riga is that it continues Roland's fixation with the "network" and his parochial and tiny list of potential coaches.
Sometime we need to break the cycle and just recruit the best available manager and not just someone who Roland knows.
But I would still be happier with Riga that Fraeye and with Riga rather than the likes of Gary Megson.
Better the devil you know?
Up to a point, yes.
I'd still want Nathan Jones or Roberto Di Matteo just as I would have taken Paul Lambert but that would require an 180° change from the owner which I can't see happening.
And let's be clear. Riga being available doesn't automatically mean the Roland is any more likely to sack Fraeye
Roland keeps pushing standards lower and lower so that now we're arguing over how great it would be to have yet another Belgian no mark—already let go from the club and now cast off from a second division French side, no less—and that seems acceptable!
If he wasn't good enough to secure a contract last time, what makes him good enough after being sacked by his latest club?
If Fraeye wasn't good enough for the job when he applied when Riga got it, Peeters got it and Luzon got it ... why is he good enough now?
They don't apply ffs. Their names are printed on balls and they come out of Darth Roland's Death Star liveried lotto machine. Do you know nothing? Tsk kids huh
And to be fair, 9 years ago Charlton chose a highly rated British manager, with great knowledge of the English game... called Iain Dowie...
After Blackpool replaced Riga with Lee Clark, they still went down by a mile, sometimes it doesn't matter who's sitting in the dugout...
We've had our share of crap British managers. Mullery, Craggs, Dowie, Pardew, Reed, some of whom have been great successes at other clubs. Just because they are British doesn't automatically mean that they will fit in at Charlton and do well. With Riga we know that he did fit in. He liked the club, and in the short time he was with us, he endeared himself to the players, staff and fans. He would be able to hit the ground running and that is very important because we can't waste anymore time.
If he wasn't good enough to secure a contract last time, what makes him good enough after being sacked by his latest club?
If Fraeye wasn't good enough for the job when he applied when Riga got it, Peeters got it and Luzon got it ... why is he good enough now?
They don't apply ffs. Their names are printed on balls and they come out of Darth Roland's Death Star liveried lotto machine. Do you know nothing? Tsk kids huh
Not sure how Di Matteo had relevant champ experience. One season at a club that's run excellently, with a consistently excellent transfer policy, superior squad to champ rivals, and consistent chairman.
Not sure how Di Matteo had relevant champ experience. One season at a club that's run excellently, with a consistently excellent transfer policy, superior squad to champ rivals, and consistent chairman.
Would feel like a step backwards - but Riga was to all intents and purposes liked by the players and seemed to click. Whilst on the one hand I would not want to see him back, on the other it's not impossible to be worse off than we are now. I'd rather have Riga as a long term interim manager than Fraeye any day of the week. On the subject of going backwards - would those against Riga returning also be against Curbishley making a comeback too? My point is slightly tongue-in-cheek to be fair. ;-)
Not sure how Di Matteo had relevant champ experience. One season at a club that's run excellently, with a consistently excellent transfer policy, superior squad to champ rivals, and consistent chairman.
Roland keeps pushing standards lower and lower so that now we're arguing over how great it would be to have yet another Belgian no mark—already let go from the club and now cast off from a second division French side, no less—and that seems acceptable!
Roland is destroying us.
Exactly what I was going to post!
People actually getting excited by this possibility. It sums up how much the club has been destroyed.
We've had our share of crap British managers. Mullery, Craggs, Dowie, Pardew, Reed, some of whom have been great successes at other clubs. Just because they are British doesn't automatically mean that they will fit in at Charlton and do well. With Riga we know that he did fit in. He liked the club, and in the short time he was with us, he endeared himself to the players, staff and fans. He would be able to hit the ground running and that is very important because we can't waste anymore time.
It's interesting. On the face of it Riga and Fraeye weren't hugely different hires. Riga joined us with no experience other than having worked with AC Milan's youth team and Fraeye joined us with pub league experience in Belgium. And yet the difference between them is incredible, because Riga showed that he knew from very early on how to set up a team to not be beaten. That 1-0 win against Bournemouth sums Riga's time with us up for me more than any of the bigger wins. We dug in in that match and defended for our lives, and at the end we somehow came away with three barely deserved points from a late Dervite goal (and a Kermorgant assist). I at no point can imagine us under Fraeye turning up against a decent side in this league and committing an act of desperate robbery like that. Not ever. Mostly because we play with 35 strikers every game and because he clearly can't coach that mentality into the players. Sometimes I feel like if Euell wasn't there Fraeye would start a youth team striker in goal just in case it worked, and accordingly we concede 3 or 4 goals against any decent team who can be bothered.
When you're in a relegation scrap like we are you get out by first making yourselves hard to beat. We don't need to go racing into 2-0 leads if we then bin them off because the young squad have literally no idea what to do when they get into that position. Fraeye would have been much better served getting the base sorted, but instead he just unleashes every attack-minded player we have on the opposition every week and wonders sadly why we get overloaded at the back every match. You would think RD would wonder what the difference is between Fraeye and Riga when in theory they should be similar managers, especially having worked together, and see that Fraeye's lack of ability to set up a team tactically and coach players through a game is a terminal issue, but then as is often said, RD isn't a football man.
Would I come back from my sabbatical if Riga got the job as manager ? As much as I liked him first time round I think my answer would be a big NO. Sorry Jose. Nothing personal.
It's interesting. On the face of it Riga and Fraeye weren't hugely different hires. Riga joined us with no experience other than having worked with AC Milan's youth team and Fraeye joined us with pub league experience in Belgium. And yet the difference between them is incredible, because Riga showed that he knew from very early on how to set up a team to not be beaten. That 1-0 win against Bournemouth sums Riga's time with us up for me more than any of the bigger wins. We dug in in that match and defended for our lives, and at the end we somehow came away with three barely deserved points from a late Dervite goal (and a Kermorgant assist). I at no point can imagine us under Fraeye turning up against a decent side in this league and committing an act of desperate robbery like that. Not ever. Mostly because we play with 35 strikers every game and because he clearly can't coach that mentality into the players. Sometimes I feel like if Euell wasn't there Fraeye would start a youth team striker in goal just in case it worked, and accordingly we concede 3 or 4 goals against any decent team who can be bothered.
When you're in a relegation scrap like we are you get out by first making yourselves hard to beat. We don't need to go racing into 2-0 leads if we then bin them off because the young squad have literally no idea what to do when they get into that position. Fraeye would have been much better served getting the base sorted, but instead he just unleashes every attack-minded player we have on the opposition every week and wonders sadly why we get overloaded at the back every match. You would think RD would wonder what the difference is between Fraeye and Riga when in theory they should be similar managers, especially having worked together, and see that Fraeye's lack of ability to set up a team tactically and coach players through a game is a terminal issue, but then as is often said, RD isn't a football man.
To be fair to KF (the coach), we are very weak in central defence at the moment. If we had Morrison and Dervite in our team, with Richard Wood to cover, then we wouldn't be in the bottom 3, it's our crippling weaknesses in that area which will relegate us, if not rectified. It's exactly the same as the Pardew relegation squad, where he left us with one decent CB.
Comments
If Riga had stayed would he have run out of steam/flopped like Peeters and Luzon did after good starts.
Will we ever find out?
For me the manager need not be British but they should understand and know this division. Di Matteo for example. Or Riga maybe.
The other issue with Riga is that it continues Roland's fixation with the "network" and his parochial and tiny list of potential coaches.
Sometime we need to break the cycle and just recruit the best available manager and not just someone who Roland knows.
But I would still be happier with Riga that Fraeye and with Riga rather than the likes of Gary Megson.
At least we will have fully exhausted the list.
He is competent at best. Either way, he would still be a puppet and the issues we have now wouldn't change in the slightest as long as we have this ownership.
I'd still want Nathan Jones or Roberto Di Matteo just as I would have taken Paul Lambert but that would require an 180° change from the owner which I can't see happening.
And let's be clear. Riga being available doesn't automatically mean the Roland is any more likely to sack Fraeye
After Blackpool replaced Riga with Lee Clark, they still went down by a mile, sometimes it doesn't matter who's sitting in the dugout...
Roland keeps pushing standards lower and lower so that now we're arguing over how great it would be to have yet another Belgian no mark—already let go from the club and now cast off from a second division French side, no less—and that seems acceptable!
Roland is destroying us.
With Riga we know that he did fit in. He liked the club, and in the short time he was with us, he endeared himself to the players, staff and fans. He would be able to hit the ground running and that is very important because we can't waste anymore time.
I'll stick to play-doh and toy cars in future
:-)
Whilst on the one hand I would not want to see him back, on the other it's not impossible to be worse off than we are now.
I'd rather have Riga as a long term interim manager than Fraeye any day of the week.
On the subject of going backwards - would those against Riga returning also be against Curbishley making a comeback too? My point is slightly tongue-in-cheek to be fair. ;-)
People actually getting excited by this possibility. It sums up how much the club has been destroyed.
We are a laughing stock.
Done a fine job at Charlton with some better players than we now have so will be a tougher ask
doesn't really matter who we get until the fuckwit owner changes tack the results won't come
We've had our share of crap British managers. Mullery, Craggs, Dowie, Pardew, Reed, some of whom have been great successes at other clubs. Just because they are British doesn't automatically mean that they will fit in at Charlton and do well.
With Riga we know that he did fit in. He liked the club, and in the short time he was with us, he endeared himself to the players, staff and fans. He would be able to hit the ground running and that is very important because we can't waste anymore time.
This
When you're in a relegation scrap like we are you get out by first making yourselves hard to beat. We don't need to go racing into 2-0 leads if we then bin them off because the young squad have literally no idea what to do when they get into that position. Fraeye would have been much better served getting the base sorted, but instead he just unleashes every attack-minded player we have on the opposition every week and wonders sadly why we get overloaded at the back every match. You would think RD would wonder what the difference is between Fraeye and Riga when in theory they should be similar managers, especially having worked together, and see that Fraeye's lack of ability to set up a team tactically and coach players through a game is a terminal issue, but then as is often said, RD isn't a football man.
As much as I liked him first time round I think my answer would be a big NO.
Sorry Jose. Nothing personal.
Doesn't have that luxury this time round.