The carousel had just gone the full 360. Chris Powell was under the cosh at the time of his release from his job but under him effort and endeavour was never an issue. Quality may have been but I personally would never dig out a team leaving it all on the pitch. As a supporter that is all any of us can expect.
The regime/circus/belgian tumour then set about piece by piece taking the soul. Jose Riga did not keep us up that year. In fact a lot of the games we played a side down there with us we got beat. We had a very fortunate run in. Some huge performances from a handful of Powell signings helped.
Said it when he came back, just another network lacky. Tonight's decisions were pathetic, team selection, substitutions, inability to motivate a team in a must win game. Needs to go with the rest of the pathetic Belgiums at our club.
Hopefully this season will bury the 'Riga saved us before' bollocks.
He is a fraud, who (just once) was in the right place at the right time. His reputation was built by his predecessor and the non - network staff and players he inherited.
A diabolical performance the players huffed and puffed no fucking guile or tactical nouse, the substitution of Harriot was bewildering it left the team totally exposed on their right hand side and it took Riga 15 minutes to realise the stupidity of his action and bring Bergditch (if that's how you spell his name) to balance the side. I wont, on this occasion berate the players they are simply either not up to perform at this level and are not coached/managed well enough to compete. We will be the Leyton Orient of Sarf London, a generation of fans bypassed with a club in a spiraling downward decline. I thought Riga just, just, might be able to stage a remarkable turnaround but I now think he got lucky last time. That initial substitution tonight was the mark of yet another man from the fucking regime who is totally out of his depth.
As others have said, last time he inherited "proper" players, had Dyer and Matthews beside him and a decent backroom staff, esp Chappel. Roly won't even pay Euell sufficient to help him out. This time round he is winging it until the next Belgian arrives. Boycott until RD gone.
Unbelievable reading these comments about Riga but then i shouldnt be surprised by some of our supporters.Plus the praise for Powell can still be dragged out so many years on! In our drift towards relegation under Powell he made the same mistakes as Riga did last night but nothing then.Yes last night was piss poor and thats team selection,team performance and substituations and yes we are down i just hope mk dons go with us,horrible club right the way through.
Unbelievable reading these comments about Riga but then i shouldnt be surprised by some of our supporters.Plus the praise for Powell can still be dragged out so many years on! In our drift towards relegation under Powell he made the same mistakes as Riga did last night but nothing then.Yes last night was piss poor and thats team selection,team performance and substituations and yes we are down i just hope mk dons go with us,horrible club right the way through.
Rightfully so there is praise for Powell. In less than 2 years, he created a whole new team that won league 1 and then went on to almost make the play offs in the championship.
In his last season, he had no investment and had to make do with freebies and as soon as the rat came in, was forced to play network crap. Yes, people say he had no plan B but I'd rather have a manager who loved the club with no plan B, rather than a network coach who couldn't care less with no plan A.
Rega got lucky that he walked into a club that had quality hard working players with 4 games in hand. Powell would of got us out of that mess easily.
That's fine if that's what you believe.The football and team set up were different from Powell to Riga so no I don't believe Powell would of kept us up just like he wasn't a success at Huddersfield.Cant knock what he did in League One but then he had plenty of money to spend certainly more than other clubs so was he lucky to have that opportunity then? Yes he is a great bloke and has Charlton in his blood.
Regardless of what he did 2 years ago the bloke had no idea last night with his team selection. He cost us the Reading game with his 3 at the back that left massive gaps between the slow paced, Johnson, Fanni and Texiera.
After getting a good win against Brentford then barring injuries and suspensions then you leave the side as it is. To drop Sanogo made no sense to me when we was crying out for goals in a must win game.
The final straw last night was taking the only bloke who looked like beating a defender in young Harriott and leave on the fella who looks like he does not want to be there, in Makienok. Most people who watch football know what's right and wrong. That decision was plainly idiotic.
As the Reading game Riga's decision making as cost us vital points.
That's fine if that's what you believe.The football and team set up were different from Powell to Riga so no I don't believe Powell would of kept us up just like he wasn't a success at Huddersfield.Cant knock what he did in League One but then he had plenty of money to spend certainly more than other clubs so was he lucky to have that opportunity then? Yes he is a great bloke and has Charlton in his blood.
Agree that Powell might not have kept us up. He wasn't a regime puppet though. All Riga dis was delay the inevitable - he's come back to finish the job off this season.
The Valley is a toxic mix these days. Never has the club been so divided. I think Riga is on a hiding to nothing with the current group of players but his decision making last night was bizarre and the Lookman situation smacks of being told not to play him and this at a time when we are desperate to win a game. He's too close to the regime. No confidence he has what it takes to stand up to RD or understand just how tough League One will be.
Hopefully this season will bury the 'Riga saved us before' bollocks.
He is a fraud, who (just once) was in the right place at the right time. His reputation was built by his predecessor and the non - network staff and players he inherited.
I hope we stop singing his name. only last week at Brentford many sang the Jose Riga baby song. If the problem is you just like the song then sing the original lyrics.
Hopefully this season will bury the 'Riga saved us before' bollocks.
He is a fraud, who (just once) was in the right place at the right time. His reputation was built by his predecessor and the non - network staff and players he inherited.
I hope we stop singing his name. only last week at Brentford many sang the Jose Riga baby song. If the problem is you just like the song then sing the original lyrics.
The original lyrics suit better to Karel Fraeye. Maybe we can bring him back.
"You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you..."
Hopefully this season will bury the 'Riga saved us before' bollocks.
He is a fraud, who (just once) was in the right place at the right time. His reputation was built by his predecessor and the non - network staff and players he inherited.
I hope we stop singing his name. only last week at Brentford many sang the Jose Riga baby song. If the problem is you just like the song then sing the original lyrics.
The original lyrics suit better to Karel Fraeye. Maybe we can bring him back.
"You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you..."
Scratch that. I just realised later lyrics mention "Success has been so easy for you", which isn't true for Fraeye.
The Valley is a toxic mix these days. Never has the club been so divided. I think Riga is on a hiding to nothing with the current group of players but his decision making last night was bizarre and the Lookman situation smacks of being told not to play him and this at a time when we are desperate to win a game. He's too close to the regime. No confidence he has what it takes to stand up to RD or understand just how tough League One will be.
Riga admitted in his interview that he got it wrong and should have brought him on 10 minutes earlier. Not the first manager to have got something wrong! But Lookman has hardly set the world alight in his last couple of outings. He also stated that he would have liked to have started with Sanogo, but that he can't manage 2 games 3 days. This is what he is having to contend with. He gets Vetokele back for a game, he then disappears, same with Diarra. He's constantly having to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. The truth is that the iceberg was hit long before Riga arrived. I believe the bloke really cares and is doing his utmost. Whether he is too close to RD or not, I don't know.
Agree with you mate, all of the tinkering in the world isn't going to save us now.
Managers live and die by decisions, and if Mak had scored the winner, or Sanogo had come on and scored the winner, then Riga is a genius, but they didn't so he is labelled a twat - such is the life of a manager.
We are buggered because the strategy and ideas of the people running the club, are fundamentally flawed, which is why we have had three managers this season, and have won 6 games out of 36 (I think).
The very fact that many on here, are looking at an 18 year old Lookman as our saviour, tells you all that you need to know about the level of ability in our team - hopeless.
Our recruitment has been shocking, RJ and Poyet have made us weaker and not stronger, and on the point of those two, it smacks of desperation that we settled for two of our old boys, when surely a decent scouting network could have found better options (they could hardly have found worse).
Hopefully this season will bury the 'Riga saved us before' bollocks.
He is a fraud, who (just once) was in the right place at the right time. His reputation was built by his predecessor and the non - network staff and players he inherited.
I hope we stop singing his name. only last week at Brentford many sang the Jose Riga baby song. If the problem is you just like the song then sing the original lyrics.
I understand and share the anger and frustration at the performance Tuesday night though in all honesty I can but ask myself why I had any different expectation.
There is an over reaction here but to be fair it comes with the territory. People have a minimum expectation of watching their side compete as a professional unit.
The team under Riga did not perform well. Riga did not perform well. He certainly appeared to operating with a different mind set than most supporters. His after match comments merely confirmed a bad night in SE7.
I do not disagree Riga previously was fortunate to inherit a squad with some strong characters, which had largely been together for 2yrs, where the basic infrastructure had long been established under Powell. He also inherited a backroom staff who knew most of those players inside out.
With only Ajdarevic of the Liege arrivals featuring Riga did empower certain players to deliver performances to bring us a number of very praiseworthy results. It serves no one to discredit that achievement. At issue was not simply a question of coaching ability but a conflict between the previous coach and the executive which could have taken us down. Under Riga, temporarily at least, the conflict disappeared, everybody could concentrate on the job in hand and the task was professionally completed.
However in terms of market experience, market knowledge, squad balance, strength of character and professionalism there is a million miles between that squad and the one he now has at his disposal. Those fundamental values, disciplines and levels of professionalism established under Powell, due to the chaotic, disorganized, confused and haphazard recruitment programme pursued by this executive, are simply not there.
If you really think Riga bought into the January/ February recruitment programme then Texeira apart you need to think again.
I see references to Warnock but I suspect he would choke on some of the recruits we have brought to the club over the past 2yrs let alone the last 2 months. I doubt he would stay beyond 10days under this executive. They literally talk a different language.
Like him or not Warnock is a football man. Truth be known ask Powell, Peeters, Luzon, Fraeye and Riga and you will find they would all argue this executive talks a different language. Indeed so perverse is their decision making they seem to pride themselves on doing so.
Look across the Duchatelet football empire (past & present) and the litany of coaching failures is endless. What little player development success he had at Liege was down to De Sart the Sporting director, and though he was no ally of ours he did freely admit he knew nothing of UK football and in the end chose to walk away altogether.
I have no idea if Riga will be able to turn our fortunes around in the long term. In all likelihood I doubt it on the basis it is unlikely he will be empowered any more than he has been in recent weeks. In which case he as with any other coach will be on a hiding to nothing.
Yet after 3 prior spells under Duchatelet he chose to return and has 18 month contract in his pocket the likelihood of which him seeing out is remote. He put himself in the firing line.
This season the only players who have shown any ability to lead the team and manage a game are Jackson, Diarra and Henderson. They have fought an up hill battle all season to the point where their form and fitness have suffered. Without them Tuesday night was going to be a lottery.
In addition those like Fox, Cousins, and Gudmundsson, who have played regularly, must weary of coping with an ever rotating cast of Championship novices and new faces around them.
37/38 players have made first team appearances this season.
There is no stability. There is no spine to the team. There is now no leadership. As someone else wisely pointed out there is no team worthy of the description.
I am convinced neither RD or KM has at any point been personally involved with playing any team sport.
MK Dons, like many before them, simply turned up as a team. Job done.
In League 1 next year 90% of the opposition we face next year will do exactly the same. Not particularly blessed with talent they will turn up, be organised, be workmanlike, work to a plan, play for each other, put in the shift, display a modicum of ability, manage the game, do a job, compete and on occasions have a bit of luck.
They will know how to work together as a unit, understand each others games, through the stability of regularly playing together, will instinctively know/ read each other strengths and weaknesses have the knowledge and experience of how to play in the division to achieve a result. It is team foundation and performance building 101. Our foundations are built on sand.
Who in our team Tuesday night displayed any of those qualities?
Who in Tuesday nights' team was going to manage the game on the pitch?
How are the likes of Cousins, Fox and Solly who have now been around for a season or two going to develop their game to level they can lead, to get others playing, to demand and get more from those around them when operating in such chaos? Rightly for their sanity all but one of the 6/7 academy / development squad players have now all but disappeared from the scene.
The boast of bringing through the PL stars of tomorrow in such a scenario is fools' gold .
At every level the strategy of the executive of the club has placed an unsustainable burden on the coaches and the players with policies which have left them bereft of the necessary working environment and the resources to do the job. Performances like Tuesday night come from one place - the top of the organisation.
The performances directly reflect the culture and the working environment they set.
I can but scream it from the hill tops. There is no leadership. There is no one setting a coherent and cohesive game plan to even compete.
I have no doubt the executive will be seeking to deflect and defray responsibility for the shambolic performances seen this season. Too many injuries to key players, inadequate coaching, crowd protests, congested fixture lists, players too tired, anything and anyone but themselves and their bizarre operating principles.
So an overreaction to one game which we did not lose? Possibly, but considered amongst the catalogue of failures we have witnessed this season certainly not.
Until someone in the organisation finally stands up to take responsibility, take ownership of the issues, set an agenda of accountability which actually means something, and shows a gram of leadership we are heading for footballing oblivion.
That Riga chose to come and rearrange "the deck chairs" is merely a side issue.
Comments
The carousel had just gone the full 360. Chris Powell was under the cosh at the time of his release from his job but under him effort and endeavour was never an issue. Quality may have been but I personally would never dig out a team leaving it all on the pitch. As a supporter that is all any of us can expect.
The regime/circus/belgian tumour then set about piece by piece taking the soul. Jose Riga did not keep us up that year. In fact a lot of the games we played a side down there with us we got beat. We had a very fortunate run in. Some huge performances from a handful of Powell signings helped.
He is and always will be a puppet to Duchatelet.
Riga, Peeters, Luzon, Fraeye, Riga.
Not serious, competitive appointments.
Warnock, Lennon, Johnson, Robinson.
Managers put in place and kept in place by owners looking to take their clubs to the next level.
The fact Lennon's Bolton are below us is irrelevant. He was put in place for all the right reasons.
He is a fraud, who (just once) was in the right place at the right time. His reputation was built by his predecessor and the non - network staff and players he inherited.
In his last season, he had no investment and had to make do with freebies and as soon as the rat came in, was forced to play network crap. Yes, people say he had no plan B but I'd rather have a manager who loved the club with no plan B, rather than a network coach who couldn't care less with no plan A.
Rega got lucky that he walked into a club that had quality hard working players with 4 games in hand. Powell would of got us out of that mess easily.
After getting a good win against Brentford then barring injuries and suspensions then you leave the side as it is. To drop Sanogo made no sense to me when we was crying out for goals in a must win game.
The final straw last night was taking the only bloke who looked like beating a defender in young Harriott and leave on the fella who looks like he does not want to be there, in Makienok. Most people who watch football know what's right and wrong. That decision was plainly idiotic.
As the Reading game Riga's decision making as cost us vital points.
"You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you..."
He also stated that he would have liked to have started with Sanogo, but that he can't manage 2 games 3 days. This is what he is having to contend with. He gets Vetokele back for a game, he then disappears, same with Diarra. He's constantly having to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. The truth is that the iceberg was hit long before Riga arrived. I believe the bloke really cares and is doing his utmost. Whether he is too close to RD or not, I don't know.
Managers live and die by decisions, and if Mak had scored the winner, or Sanogo had come on and scored the winner, then Riga is a genius, but they didn't so he is labelled a twat - such is the life of a manager.
We are buggered because the strategy and ideas of the people running the club, are fundamentally flawed, which is why we have had three managers this season, and have won 6 games out of 36 (I think).
The very fact that many on here, are looking at an 18 year old Lookman as our saviour, tells you all that you need to know about the level of ability in our team - hopeless.
Our recruitment has been shocking, RJ and Poyet have made us weaker and not stronger, and on the point of those two, it smacks of desperation that we settled for two of our old boys, when surely a decent scouting network could have found better options (they could hardly have found worse).
There is an over reaction here but to be fair it comes with the territory. People have a minimum expectation of watching their side compete as a professional unit.
The team under Riga did not perform well. Riga did not perform well. He certainly appeared to operating with a different mind set than most supporters. His after match comments merely confirmed a bad night in SE7.
I do not disagree Riga previously was fortunate to inherit a squad with some strong characters, which had largely been together for 2yrs, where the basic infrastructure had long been established under Powell. He also inherited a backroom staff who knew most of those players inside out.
With only Ajdarevic of the Liege arrivals featuring Riga did empower certain players to deliver performances to bring us a number of very praiseworthy results. It serves no one to discredit that achievement. At issue was not simply a question of coaching ability but a conflict between the previous coach and the executive which could have taken us down. Under Riga, temporarily at least, the conflict disappeared, everybody could concentrate on the job in hand and the task was professionally completed.
However in terms of market experience, market knowledge, squad balance, strength of character and professionalism there is a million miles between that squad and the one he now has at his disposal. Those fundamental values, disciplines and levels of professionalism established under Powell, due to the chaotic, disorganized, confused and haphazard recruitment programme pursued by this executive, are simply not there.
If you really think Riga bought into the January/ February recruitment programme then Texeira apart you need to think again.
I see references to Warnock but I suspect he would choke on some of the recruits we have brought to the club over the past 2yrs let alone the last 2 months. I doubt he would stay beyond 10days under this executive. They literally talk a different language.
Like him or not Warnock is a football man. Truth be known ask Powell, Peeters, Luzon, Fraeye and Riga and you will find they would all argue this executive talks a different language. Indeed so perverse is their decision making they seem to pride themselves on doing so.
Look across the Duchatelet football empire (past & present) and the litany of coaching failures is endless. What little player development success he had at Liege was down to De Sart the Sporting director, and though he was no ally of ours he did freely admit he knew nothing of UK football and in the end chose to walk away altogether.
I have no idea if Riga will be able to turn our fortunes around in the long term. In all likelihood I doubt it on the basis it is unlikely he will be empowered any more than he has been in recent weeks. In which case he as with any other coach will be on a hiding to nothing.
Yet after 3 prior spells under Duchatelet he chose to return and has 18 month contract in his pocket the likelihood of which him seeing out is remote. He put himself in the firing line.
This season the only players who have shown any ability to lead the team and manage a game are Jackson, Diarra and Henderson. They have fought an up hill battle all season to the point where their form and fitness have suffered. Without them Tuesday night was going to be a lottery.
In addition those like Fox, Cousins, and Gudmundsson, who have played regularly, must weary of coping with an ever rotating cast of Championship novices and new faces around them.
37/38 players have made first team appearances this season.
There is no stability. There is no spine to the team. There is now no leadership. As someone else wisely pointed out there is no team worthy of the description.
I am convinced neither RD or KM has at any point been personally involved with playing any team sport.
MK Dons, like many before them, simply turned up as a team. Job done.
In League 1 next year 90% of the opposition we face next year will do exactly the same. Not particularly blessed with talent they will turn up, be organised, be workmanlike, work to a plan, play for each other, put in the shift, display a modicum of ability, manage the game, do a job, compete and on occasions have a bit of luck.
They will know how to work together as a unit, understand each others games, through the stability of regularly playing together, will instinctively know/ read each other strengths and weaknesses have the knowledge and experience of how to play in the division to achieve a result. It is team foundation and performance building 101. Our foundations are built on sand.
Who in our team Tuesday night displayed any of those qualities?
Who in Tuesday nights' team was going to manage the game on the pitch?
How are the likes of Cousins, Fox and Solly who have now been around for a season or two going to develop their game to level they can lead, to get others playing, to demand and get more from those around them when operating in such chaos? Rightly for their sanity all but one of the 6/7 academy / development squad players have now all but disappeared from the scene.
The boast of bringing through the PL stars of tomorrow in such a scenario is fools' gold .
At every level the strategy of the executive of the club has placed an unsustainable burden on the coaches and the players with policies which have left them bereft of the necessary working environment and the resources to do the job. Performances like Tuesday night come from one place - the top of the organisation.
The performances directly reflect the culture and the working environment they set.
I can but scream it from the hill tops. There is no leadership. There is no one setting a coherent and cohesive game plan to even compete.
I have no doubt the executive will be seeking to deflect and defray responsibility for the shambolic performances seen this season. Too many injuries to key players, inadequate coaching, crowd protests, congested fixture lists, players too tired, anything and anyone but themselves and their bizarre operating principles.
So an overreaction to one game which we did not lose? Possibly, but considered amongst the catalogue of failures we have witnessed this season certainly not.
Until someone in the organisation finally stands up to take responsibility, take ownership of the issues, set an agenda of accountability which actually means something, and shows a gram of leadership we are heading for footballing oblivion.
That Riga chose to come and rearrange "the deck chairs" is merely a side issue.