If Duchatelet thought the Championship was comparable to the Belgian and Spanish second tier he may think League One is comparable to lower division/regional league soccer in most European countries. (Actually it isn't: Sheffield United, for instance, would easily compete in the top divisions in Hungary and Belgian).
Based on his record to date there must be a significant chance that he will miscalculate what is required and that we will struggle next season.
However, we really do need to have some stability. Keep one manager across an entire season and start building for a promotion push. I would hope Riga remains. If stability means a season finishing anywhere between 7th and 20th and avoiding constant see-sawing from one end of the table to the other I'd take it to be frank.
If Duchatelet thought the Championship was comparable to the Belgian and Spanish second tier he may think League One is comparable to lower division/regional league soccer in most European countries. (Actually it isn't: Sheffield United, for instance, would easily compete in the top divisions in Hungary and Belgian).
This is the only thing that worries me about Relegation...
This season we were given VVV Hamme's coaches to deal with, next season are we going to be given their players!!
If Duchatelet thought the Championship was comparable to the Belgian and Spanish second tier he may think League One is comparable to lower division/regional league soccer in most European countries. (Actually it isn't: Sheffield United, for instance, would easily compete in the top divisions in Hungary and Belgian).
This is the only thing that worries me about Relegation...
This season we were given VVV Hamme's coaches to deal with, next season are we going to be given their players!!
It's not all bad, Dave the big lump upfront Isn't bad with his back to goal.
If Duchatelet thought the Championship was comparable to the Belgian and Spanish second tier he may think League One is comparable to lower division/regional league soccer in most European countries. (Actually it isn't: Sheffield United, for instance, would easily compete in the top divisions in Hungary and Belgian).
This is the only thing that worries me about Relegation...
This season we were given VVV Hamme's coaches to deal with, next season are we going to be given their players!!
It's not all bad, Dave the big lump upfront Isn't bad with his back to goal.
Depends... I hear negotiations on his Contract bonus' will be a sticking point.
Apparently he wants to be allowed to go behind the bike shed and smoke 20 Benson & Hedges during a lapse in play whilst his win bonus will be a free dinner down the local kebab shop!!
Riga might have a say but I believe our recruitment for next season will be based around British players identified by a head scout / Director of football. I don't think we will see very much foreign recruitment at all. The previous model didn't work in the championship and sure as hell won't work in division one. I think even Roly has Sussed this. Most of our overseas imports will be sold where possible, loaned or in a few exceptions retained but not many.
I still don't see RD wanting to pay the going rate for even division one players. We'll get a few journeymen. Punts and rely on youth.
I can't see a relegation scrap but season of mid table mediocrity.
Apparently Douchbag's comment a little while back that the regime weren't planning for League One wasn't true. It was just a smokescreen to detract from the fact that we are going down. Long before that, Two Shats had set the player budget for next season:
Riga has been given extra resources in a desperate bid to keep us in the Championship. If he is retained and chooses to stay, he will be faced with a smaller squad of a few seniors and a load of kids. The people who actually find and sign the players - not Riga - will have a severely reduced budget. There will be additional pressure to take on network players, because RD will assume that we are at a level more suited to them being successful here. So expect STVV reserves, Ujpest and Alcopop squad players to be parachuted in.
Incidentally, I think Riga will stay, if wanted, because this was probably his last chance at a decent sized club and he will need to succeed here. However, the relegation will mean he will have less power to stand his ground against the regime.
It's a very bleak picture.
Thats the potentially scary thing.
Is RD going away anytime soon? No, not by his words. We will have even more depressing regime style shit in league one.
Has he chunked up a load of debt that will put potential buyers off? Yes. Sounds like it.
Will he issue an apology? For example openly admit he has failed? Probably not, evidently from that OS statement.
Will he get KM to acknowledge relegation in the correct way? No, if and when she speaks she will say something of the following:
"Unfortunately we didn't have the best budget going into the new season (implying that's the fans fault) but we look forward to the new season for promotion. We have the recourses not many other clubs have and we think Charlton fans should perhaps have a more positive outlook for next year in our bid for promotion!
Way to put a positive spin on it. Might not be an easy sale.
Riga strikes me as a decent guy and is undoubtedly better than the other network stooges. But he is a network stooge at the end of the day. A stain on our club like all the others. Sorry. But that's how I feel.
Riga strikes me as a decent guy and is undoubtedly better than the other network stooges. But he is a network stooge at the end of the day. A stain on our club like all the others. Sorry. But that's how I feel.
And will be remembered as the Manager (sorry, Head Coach) who took us down.
Riga strikes me as a decent guy and is undoubtedly better than the other network stooges. But he is a network stooge at the end of the day. A stain on our club like all the others. Sorry. But that's how I feel.
I agree but assuming that Roland is our owner next season I think he is comfortably our best option (we aren't getting some promising lower league manager). If RD goes then I'd be happy with either way of a replacement and completely getting everything they have done for us out the club or him staying for a slight bit of continuity for once.
I believe that if we are stuck with these appalling jokers then we should from today, April 9th 2016, start to plan and prepare for next season in league one.
From today.
If we retain Riga then this is how it would have to be to just finish in the top half of league one.
Don't laugh just yet.
At least FIVE of our squad should be the five best League One players next season, and another FIVE should be easily good enough to hold down a place in a Championship team...and that is to just about finish in the top half, for one overriding reason.
Each of the other clubs in League One will be playing as a TEAM, because we are now an institution where every player is basically all about themselves alone so then we need an outstanding collection of individuals to balance our lack of team ethic, or we will get done game after game.
Or Riga leaves (my preferred option, sorry) and we employ a proper manager who is fully aware of and accepting of the competitive circumstances we're in, and puts the notion of a TEAM way above the notion of individuals.
The regime goes on about giving youngsters a route to bigger and better things, because it is unable to contemplate a proper football team that interacts with each other not just by ability, but sheer blimmin togetherness.
I don't believe Riga can build that team ethic, as I believe he is under the dictat of Roland however personably he comes across. Riga is not as bad as Fraeye, but he is unlikely to be the independent bloody minded manager we will need next season.
So if Riga stays, we need not only ten of the best twenty players in the league, but to add probably three or four others who will be basically unplayable for teams at this new level. A player (unobtainable) like Wes Hoolihan or Alan Judge or whoever, who spends the whole season on the verge of being snapped up by the likes of West Brom or Stoke.
I don't need to tell anybody who has been the best team building manager we've had in the recent times, we all know.
Next season is not about statistics or nuances, but about sheer bloody guts and willpower. I would have as big a clear out as I could, and those who say they can face the challenge can then have a shaved head, a cold shower, and three weeks training on a barren Scottish island to get fit and angry, and when they return the bonus system should be extra for home wins, but a pay cut for home defeats.
So to sum up. A clear out of players, a sacked CEO, a new manager steeped in this footballing culture, bread and water and here on business. No fecking mercy.
Riga strikes me as a decent guy and is undoubtedly better than the other network stooges. But he is a network stooge at the end of the day. A stain on our club like all the others. Sorry. But that's how I feel.
Don't feel bad, The last few wins glosses over a very poor set of results.
17th in the current home form table (last 6 matches) 8 points from 24 22nd in the current away form table (last 6 matches) 4 points from 24
Absolutely not good enough given the strength of the squad he has had at his disposal for the last 12 games.
He has a nice image & has distanced himself from his mate Roland - but he is as bad as the rest of them, I hope he has the decency to walk away.
Riga strikes me as a decent guy and is undoubtedly better than the other network stooges. But he is a network stooge at the end of the day. A stain on our club like all the others. Sorry. But that's how I feel.
Don't feel bad, The last few wins glosses over a very poor set of results.
17th in the current home form table (last 6 matches) 8 points from 24 22nd in the current away form table (last 6 matches) 4 points from 24
Absolutely not good enough given the strength of the squad he has had at his disposal for the last 12 games.
He has a nice image & has distanced himself from his mate Roland - but he is as bad as the rest of them, I hope he has the decency to walk away.
To be fair Oaky, Riga hasn't had the current relatively strong side available to him that whole time . Reading at home 8 games ago was, I think, the first time all 'his' new signings started together (Tex, Fanni, Motta, Young, and Sanogo) and also, I think quite notably, Diarra. Since then it's been 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, so 11 points from 24. Not earth shattering form, and not enough to save us from the total mess we were in post Fraeye, but good enough form to stay out of trouble over a whole season.
When he took over the squad was an utter mess, we were tactically all over the shop (especially our defending of set pieces) and confidence and team spirit had all but gone completely. He has done a good job of restoring some fight and unity to the squad and performances have been improving (sounds like we actually played pretty well again today and have done so for at least the last 3 games consecutively), we seem to be much better organised and defensively sounder, and he has still had to deal with at least one player limping off injured in pretty much every match.
There has been steady improvement and think his results have been at least par for what he has at his disposal, but the problem is, because the wound was allowed to fester for so long in the middle of the season, first with not strengthening when injuries hit and then the farcical Fraeye period, we needed a miracle cure and he hasn't been able to provide that. Maybe another manager would have, but we were probably the worst team in the country when he arrived and I was sure we would finish below even Bolton. I doubt even someone like Warnock would have been able to turn us into world beaters overnight.
He has to take his slice of the responsibility and I don't know if he;s the right man to lead a tilt a getting back up next season, but I don't think much of the blame for our fate really lies with him, the damage was done earlier in the season.
Riga strikes me as a decent guy and is undoubtedly better than the other network stooges. But he is a network stooge at the end of the day. A stain on our club like all the others. Sorry. But that's how I feel.
Don't feel bad, The last few wins glosses over a very poor set of results.
17th in the current home form table (last 6 matches) 8 points from 24 22nd in the current away form table (last 6 matches) 4 points from 24
Absolutely not good enough given the strength of the squad he has had at his disposal for the last 12 games.
He has a nice image & has distanced himself from his mate Roland - but he is as bad as the rest of them, I hope he has the decency to walk away.
To be fair Oaky, Riga hasn't had the current relatively strong side available to him that whole time . Reading at home 8 games ago was, I think, the first time all 'his' new signings started together (Tex, Fanni, Motta, Young, and Sanogo) and also, I think quite notably, Diarra. Since then it's been 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, so 11 points from 24. Not earth shattering form, and not enough to save us from the total mess we were in post Fraeye, but good enough form to stay out of trouble over a whole season.
When he took over the squad was an utter mess, we were tactically all over the shop (especially our defending of set pieces) and confidence and team spirit had all but gone completely. He has done a good job of restoring some fight and unity to the squad and performances have been improving (sounds like we actually played pretty well again today and have done so for at least the last 3 games consecutively), we seem to be much better organised and defensively sounder, and he has still had to deal with at least one player limping off injured in pretty much every match.
There has been steady improvement and think his results have been at least par for what he has at his disposal, but the problem is, because the wound was allowed to fester for so long in the middle of the season, first with not strengthening when injuries hit and then the farcical Fraeye period, we needed a miracle cure and he hasn't been able to provide that. Maybe another manager would have, but we were probably the worst team in the country when he arrived and I was sure we would finish below even Bolton. I doubt even someone like Warnock would have been able to turn us into world beaters overnight.
He has to take his slice of the responsibility and I don't know if he;s the right man to lead a tilt a getting back up next season, but I don't think much of the blame for our fate really lies with him, the damage was done earlier in the season.
Greetings my Northern Albertan friend!
He can't use the squad was a mess excuse - pretty much every manager taking over from a sacked manager has to contend with this kind of scenario, if anything it was Fraeye who could more legitimately use the weak squad excuse as he took over so close to the transfer window & he was plagued with injuries - he was playing the kids & the crap signings Luzon was involved in (probably scouted by Karel to be fair).
Look at Warnock - he turned around a woeful Rotherham side who had just been spanked 4-1 at home by us!!
In those 12 games he has taken 21 points. He did this with pretty much the same squad - I think Paddy Kenny, Lloyd Doyley & Jerome Thomas joined after he took over - that had just lost 5 out of their previous 7 games.
In the same time Riga has taken 12 points - a rate which would still see us relegated over the course of the season.
I get that he is a nice bloke & promises us he doesn't like Duchatalatet but he is not good enough for Charlton & is only here because of his previous connections with Duchataletet.
Riga strikes me as a decent guy and is undoubtedly better than the other network stooges. But he is a network stooge at the end of the day. A stain on our club like all the others. Sorry. But that's how I feel.
Don't feel bad, The last few wins glosses over a very poor set of results.
17th in the current home form table (last 6 matches) 8 points from 24 22nd in the current away form table (last 6 matches) 4 points from 24
Absolutely not good enough given the strength of the squad he has had at his disposal for the last 12 games.
He has a nice image & has distanced himself from his mate Roland - but he is as bad as the rest of them, I hope he has the decency to walk away.
To be fair Oaky, Riga hasn't had the current relatively strong side available to him that whole time . Reading at home 8 games ago was, I think, the first time all 'his' new signings started together (Tex, Fanni, Motta, Young, and Sanogo) and also, I think quite notably, Diarra. Since then it's been 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, so 11 points from 24. Not earth shattering form, and not enough to save us from the total mess we were in post Fraeye, but good enough form to stay out of trouble over a whole season.
When he took over the squad was an utter mess, we were tactically all over the shop (especially our defending of set pieces) and confidence and team spirit had all but gone completely. He has done a good job of restoring some fight and unity to the squad and performances have been improving (sounds like we actually played pretty well again today and have done so for at least the last 3 games consecutively), we seem to be much better organised and defensively sounder, and he has still had to deal with at least one player limping off injured in pretty much every match.
There has been steady improvement and think his results have been at least par for what he has at his disposal, but the problem is, because the wound was allowed to fester for so long in the middle of the season, first with not strengthening when injuries hit and then the farcical Fraeye period, we needed a miracle cure and he hasn't been able to provide that. Maybe another manager would have, but we were probably the worst team in the country when he arrived and I was sure we would finish below even Bolton. I doubt even someone like Warnock would have been able to turn us into world beaters overnight.
He has to take his slice of the responsibility and I don't know if he;s the right man to lead a tilt a getting back up next season, but I don't think much of the blame for our fate really lies with him, the damage was done earlier in the season.
Greetings my Northern Albertan friend!
He can't use the squad was a mess excuse - pretty much every manager taking over from a sacked manager has to contend with this kind of scenario, if anything it was Fraeye who could more legitimately use the weak squad excuse as he took over so close to the transfer window & he was plagued with injuries - he was playing the kids & the crap signings Luzon was involved in (probably scouted by Karel to be fair).
Look at Warnock - he turned around a woeful Rotherham side who had just been spanked 4-1 at home by us!!
In those 12 games he has taken 21 points. He did this with pretty much the same squad - I think Paddy Kenny, Lloyd Doyley & Jerome Thomas joined after he took over - that had just lost 5 out of their previous 7 games.
In the same time Riga has taken 12 points - a rate which would still see us relegated over the course of the season.
I get that he is a nice bloke & promises us he doesn't like Duchatalatet but he is not good enough for Charlton & is only here because of his previous connections with Duchataletet.
I can't dispute that no one other than Roland would have hired him, but that isn't really relevant to whether or not he has performed as a manager for us this time around.
Warnock has done an incredible job at Rotherham and I am certain Riga would not have been able to replicate it if he had taken over there instead of here, but I would still argue that Warnock did not inherit anything like the mess Riga did. However poor their results were at the time and however much of a buffoon Steve Evans may be, he does not come close to the Meire/Luzon/Fraeye combo for collective football incompetence and at the very least Rotherham has an owner who actually wants to succeed. I'm positive their team morale never hit the record lows ours did under Fraeye.
Riga's performance has been about par for me. He's begun to fix a lot of the problems that were all too evident in the team a couple of months ago, but it is too little too late for what we needed. He's no hero this time around but he isn't the real villain of the peace either.
I know you, as I do, subscribe to the idea that Powell would have kept us up 2 seasons ago had he been retained and that the lauding of Riga as the man who performed a miracle to save us overstates what he achieved. But look at it form the other angle. Do you think Powell would have secured more points than Riga did in the second half of that season? If he would have I doubt it would have been by more than the odd point or two.
I'm sure you'd also have Powell back in charge today (as would I) but I'm not sure Powell would have secured any more points than Riga in the same time given the squad that was inherited - this was the team from Riga's first game. The starting lineup is very weak and the subs bench is a creche.
S Henderson C Solly R Williams (59) H Lennon R Johnson J Jackson J Gudmundsson J Cousins C Harriott D Poyet (81) I Vetokele (66) Subs N Pope N Sarr M Fox (59) R Charles-cook R Vaz Te (81) S Makienok J Umerah (66)
He was allowed to sign Texeira after that game and got 4 points from the next 2 games. Then the rest of the new signings arrived a couple of weeks later but to a man they were not fully fit so we were still restricted to the woefully inadequate team Fraeye had been allowed to waste money on shortly be fore his sacking. There was a bad run of 3 defeats but one included a sending off against us and the third was a 90th minute defeat after we had fought back to 3-3. That was the first game he had all the new signings fit and available and was the beginning of the fight and spirit returning to team and from that game on the results have been steady. 2 defeats in 7 is not too shabby. Warnock got results faster but also some ships take longer to turn around than others.
I can't honestly give him a glowing reference for his next job, but I can't be as damning of him as you.
Anyone even remotely thinking that as good as the protests are, as much as I support them, as much as I want Roland out, that we could destroy the club? Your own comments have us at 5k supporters, relegated to League 2, an owner that can at that point either lose money by selling the club as a going concern (at what £5m) or sell the assets (players) and sell the ground at make a lot more. Business-wise there is the "hope economics" that he will just lose money and sell-up, but at what point are the assets worth more than the going concern? It's not that far away!!! So my support is total, but should there not be a point at which AFC Charlton is realistic - a scary thought, as playing away from the Valley again. Food for thought...
RD sold SL's best players and took money out of the club just before he sold them when they weren't in debt and fans weren't boycotting. If he wants to do that again with us he'll do it anyway because he's a cunt, not because fans are protesting and not attending.
Anyone even remotely thinking that as good as the protests are, as much as I support them, as much as I want Roland out, that we could destroy the club? Your own comments have us at 5k supporters, relegated to League 2, an owner that can at that point either lose money by selling the club as a going concern (at what £5m) or sell the assets (players) and sell the ground at make a lot more. Business-wise there is the "hope economics" that he will just lose money and sell-up, but at what point are the assets worth more than the going concern? It's not that far away!!! So my support is total, but should there not be a point at which AFC Charlton is realistic - a scary thought, as playing away from the Valley again. Food for thought...
RD sold SL's best players and took money out of the club just before he sold them when they weren't in debt and fans weren't boycotting. If he wants to do that again with us he'll do it anyway because he's a cunt, not because fans are protesting and not attending.
Very true. It's scary.
Where the hell is our club going?
Realistically how and when will the regime pack up and leave?
Player wages are currently 100% of turnover. Turnover in League 1 will be massively reduced, and wages financially restricted to 60% of that.
Add into the mix our abysmal track record with summer recruitment.
The squad next season has the potential to be completely cack.
While this is true, and I'm inclined to agree that the squad will indeed be cack, if one is optimistic, you have to look at a few other factors.
First, the rules say there are no transitional arrangements for clubs relegated from the Championship. Err, but there are! Relegated clubs are allowed to exclude the wage costs of all players that the club signed pre September of the relegation season, if they were signed on contracts in excess of 3 seasons. Second, there are no such restrictions on transfer fees. Presumably, therefore, some nice little "signing on fees" could be put in place in lieu of actual wages. Third, the only sanction is a transfer embargo, so if you get your astute dealings in early, who gives a crap?
That said Roland would have to spend money, so it's not going to happen.
I think realistically that Riga is the only option giving the owner's parsimony, so let's assume José does stay and manages to convince Roland to keep and not sell most of the contracted current squad. Let's assume though that Henderson will be sold along with Johann (2 million if a good European championship ?) and the loanees depart; how would this team fare in League one?
Pope Solly,Baur,Tex, Fox Harriot, Cousins, Diarra, Kashi Lookman,Vetokele
bench Jackson, Mitov, Ba ,Charles-cook, Bergdich, Holmes- Denis
Stronger than last August for sure but good enough for instant promotion?
I think realistically that Riga is the only option giving the owner's parsimony, so let's assume José does stay and manages to convince Roland to keep and not sell most of the contracted current squad. Let's assume though that Henderson will be sold along with Johann (2 million if a good European championship ?) and the loanees depart; how would this team fare in League one?
Pope Solly,Baur,Tex, Fox Harriot, Cousins, Diarra, Kashi Lookman,Vetokele
bench Jackson, Mitov, Ba ,Charles-cook, Bergdich, Holmes- Denis
Stronger than last August for sure but good enough for instant promotion?
Team would fair well. The only issue being, Bauer, Diarra, Kashi, Cousins, Lookman and Vetokele won't be here.
Riga should have been given the job when he kept us up in 2014.
However, if he had any self respect he should have declined the offer of coming back this season. He'll be gone come the end of the season.
I don't think Riga is a mug. He knows full well that anything other than some reasonable success next season will damage is credibility and career. He will I believe have set some conditions and expectations around next seasons squad and if that is not met then I believe he will resign. Looking at Jose's career record he never sticks anywhere too long. He's obviously not frightened of moving on.
If the expectations are met then I think he will give next season a go with some British coaching and recruitment support. I think he will want and be given a fair crack of the whip.
If things don't go well then he will be replaced by Christmas.
My major concern is that I think that we have basically been paying league one wages in the championship. If that budget is reduced to reflect our status then the type of recruitment we need will be almost impossible.
I will be intrigued to see just how many of the current set of starters will be starting the first match. It won't be many.
I think realistically that Riga is the only option giving the owner's parsimony, so let's assume José does stay and manages to convince Roland to keep and not sell most of the contracted current squad. Let's assume though that Henderson will be sold along with Johann (2 million if a good European championship ?) and the loanees depart; how would this team fare in League one?
Pope Solly,Baur,Tex, Fox Harriot, Cousins, Diarra, Kashi Lookman,Vetokele
bench Jackson, Mitov, Ba ,Charles-cook, Bergdich, Holmes- Denis
Stronger than last August for sure but good enough for instant promotion?
I think you are being overly optimistic with the retention of all those players.
For me at least I only see Pope, Solly, Texeira , Fox and Harriot remaining.
Kashi could well be added because of his fitness problems.
Riga should have been given the job when he kept us up in 2014.
However, if he had any self respect he should have declined the offer of coming back this season. He'll be gone come the end of the season.
I don't think Riga is a mug. He knows full well that anything other than some reasonable success next season will damage is credibility and career. He will I believe have set some conditions and expectations around next seasons squad and if that is not met then I believe he will resign. Looking at Jose's career record he never sticks anywhere too long. He's obviously not frightened of moving on.
If the expectations are met then I think he will give next season a go with some British coaching and recruitment support. I think he will want and be given a fair crack of the whip.
If things don't go well then he will be replaced by Christmas.
My major concern is that I think that we have basically been paying league one wages in the championship. If that budget is reduced to reflect our status then the type of recruitment we need will be almost impossible.
I will be intrigued to see just how many of the current set of starters will be starting the first match. It won't be many.
Of the 18 @ Rangers yesterday I reckon we'll have about 6 in SE7 come August.
Riga should have been given the job when he kept us up in 2014.
However, if he had any self respect he should have declined the offer of coming back this season. He'll be gone come the end of the season.
I don't think Riga is a mug. He knows full well that anything other than some reasonable success next season will damage is credibility and career. He will I believe have set some conditions and expectations around next seasons squad and if that is not met then I believe he will resign. Looking at Jose's career record he never sticks anywhere too long. He's obviously not frightened of moving on.
If the expectations are met then I think he will give next season a go with some British coaching and recruitment support. I think he will want and be given a fair crack of the whip.
If things don't go well then he will be replaced by Christmas.
My major concern is that I think that we have basically been paying league one wages in the championship. If that budget is reduced to reflect our status then the type of recruitment we need will be almost impossible.
I will be intrigued to see just how many of the current set of starters will be starting the first match. It won't be many.
Of the 18 @ Rangers yesterday I reckon we'll have about 6 in SE7 come August.
We must have taken more than 18 fans. Think you're right about 6 being left in August though.
Comments
Based on his record to date there must be a significant chance that he will miscalculate what is required and that we will struggle next season.
However, we really do need to have some stability. Keep one manager across an entire season and start building for a promotion push. I would hope Riga remains. If stability means a season finishing anywhere between 7th and 20th and avoiding constant see-sawing from one end of the table to the other I'd take it to be frank.
This season we were given VVV Hamme's coaches to deal with, next season are we going to be given their players!!
Apparently he wants to be allowed to go behind the bike shed and smoke 20 Benson & Hedges during a lapse in play whilst his win bonus will be a free dinner down the local kebab shop!!
Is RD going away anytime soon? No, not by his words. We will have even more depressing regime style shit in league one.
Has he chunked up a load of debt that will put potential buyers off? Yes. Sounds like it.
Will he issue an apology? For example openly admit he has failed? Probably not, evidently from that OS statement.
Will he get KM to acknowledge relegation in the correct way? No, if and when she speaks she will say something of the following:
"Unfortunately we didn't have the best budget going into the new season (implying that's the fans fault) but we look forward to the new season for promotion. We have the recourses not many other clubs have and we think Charlton fans should perhaps have a more positive outlook for next year in our bid for promotion!
Way to put a positive spin on it. Might not be an easy sale.
From today.
If we retain Riga then this is how it would have to be to just finish in the top half of league one.
Don't laugh just yet.
At least FIVE of our squad should be the five best League One players next season, and another FIVE should be easily good enough to hold down a place in a Championship team...and that is to just about finish in the top half, for one overriding reason.
Each of the other clubs in League One will be playing as a TEAM, because we are now an institution where every player is basically all about themselves alone so then we need an outstanding collection of individuals to balance our lack of team ethic, or we will get done game after game.
Or Riga leaves (my preferred option, sorry) and we employ a proper manager who is fully aware of and accepting of the competitive circumstances we're in, and puts the notion of a TEAM way above the notion of individuals.
The regime goes on about giving youngsters a route to bigger and better things, because it is unable to contemplate a proper football team that interacts with each other not just by ability, but sheer blimmin togetherness.
I don't believe Riga can build that team ethic, as I believe he is under the dictat of Roland however personably he comes across. Riga is not as bad as Fraeye, but he is unlikely to be the independent bloody minded manager we will need next season.
So if Riga stays, we need not only ten of the best twenty players in the league, but to add probably three or four others who will be basically unplayable for teams at this new level. A player (unobtainable) like Wes Hoolihan or Alan Judge or whoever, who spends the whole season on the verge of being snapped up by the likes of West Brom or Stoke.
I don't need to tell anybody who has been the best team building manager we've had in the recent times, we all know.
Next season is not about statistics or nuances, but about sheer bloody guts and willpower. I would have as big a clear out as I could, and those who say they can face the challenge can then have a shaved head, a cold shower, and three weeks training on a barren Scottish island to get fit and angry, and when they return the bonus system should be extra for home wins, but a pay cut for home defeats.
So to sum up. A clear out of players, a sacked CEO, a new manager steeped in this footballing culture, bread and water and here on business. No fecking mercy.
17th in the current home form table (last 6 matches) 8 points from 24
22nd in the current away form table (last 6 matches) 4 points from 24
Absolutely not good enough given the strength of the squad he has had at his disposal for the last 12 games.
He has a nice image & has distanced himself from his mate Roland - but he is as bad as the rest of them, I hope he has the decency to walk away.
When he took over the squad was an utter mess, we were tactically all over the shop (especially our defending of set pieces) and confidence and team spirit had all but gone completely. He has done a good job of restoring some fight and unity to the squad and performances have been improving (sounds like we actually played pretty well again today and have done so for at least the last 3 games consecutively), we seem to be much better organised and defensively sounder, and he has still had to deal with at least one player limping off injured in pretty much every match.
There has been steady improvement and think his results have been at least par for what he has at his disposal, but the problem is, because the wound was allowed to fester for so long in the middle of the season, first with not strengthening when injuries hit and then the farcical Fraeye period, we needed a miracle cure and he hasn't been able to provide that. Maybe another manager would have, but we were probably the worst team in the country when he arrived and I was sure we would finish below even Bolton. I doubt even someone like Warnock would have been able to turn us into world beaters overnight.
He has to take his slice of the responsibility and I don't know if he;s the right man to lead a tilt a getting back up next season, but I don't think much of the blame for our fate really lies with him, the damage was done earlier in the season.
He can't use the squad was a mess excuse - pretty much every manager taking over from a sacked manager has to contend with this kind of scenario, if anything it was Fraeye who could more legitimately use the weak squad excuse as he took over so close to the transfer window & he was plagued with injuries - he was playing the kids & the crap signings Luzon was involved in (probably scouted by Karel to be fair).
Look at Warnock - he turned around a woeful Rotherham side who had just been spanked 4-1 at home by us!!
In those 12 games he has taken 21 points. He did this with pretty much the same squad - I think Paddy Kenny, Lloyd Doyley & Jerome Thomas joined after he took over - that had just lost 5 out of their previous 7 games.
In the same time Riga has taken 12 points - a rate which would still see us relegated over the course of the season.
I get that he is a nice bloke & promises us he doesn't like Duchatalatet but he is not good enough for Charlton & is only here because of his previous connections with Duchataletet.
Warnock has done an incredible job at Rotherham and I am certain Riga would not have been able to replicate it if he had taken over there instead of here, but I would still argue that Warnock did not inherit anything like the mess Riga did. However poor their results were at the time and however much of a buffoon Steve Evans may be, he does not come close to the Meire/Luzon/Fraeye combo for collective football incompetence and at the very least Rotherham has an owner who actually wants to succeed. I'm positive their team morale never hit the record lows ours did under Fraeye.
Riga's performance has been about par for me. He's begun to fix a lot of the problems that were all too evident in the team a couple of months ago, but it is too little too late for what we needed. He's no hero this time around but he isn't the real villain of the peace either.
I know you, as I do, subscribe to the idea that Powell would have kept us up 2 seasons ago had he been retained and that the lauding of Riga as the man who performed a miracle to save us overstates what he achieved. But look at it form the other angle. Do you think Powell would have secured more points than Riga did in the second half of that season? If he would have I doubt it would have been by more than the odd point or two.
I'm sure you'd also have Powell back in charge today (as would I) but I'm not sure Powell would have secured any more points than Riga in the same time given the squad that was inherited - this was the team from Riga's first game. The starting lineup is very weak and the subs bench is a creche.
S Henderson
C Solly
R Williams (59)
H Lennon
R Johnson
J Jackson
J Gudmundsson
J Cousins
C Harriott
D Poyet (81)
I Vetokele (66)
Subs
N Pope
N Sarr
M Fox (59)
R Charles-cook
R Vaz Te (81)
S Makienok
J Umerah (66)
He was allowed to sign Texeira after that game and got 4 points from the next 2 games. Then the rest of the new signings arrived a couple of weeks later but to a man they were not fully fit so we were still restricted to the woefully inadequate team Fraeye had been allowed to waste money on shortly be fore his sacking. There was a bad run of 3 defeats but one included a sending off against us and the third was a 90th minute defeat after we had fought back to 3-3. That was the first game he had all the new signings fit and available and was the beginning of the fight and spirit returning to team and from that game on the results have been steady. 2 defeats in 7 is not too shabby. Warnock got results faster but also some ships take longer to turn around than others.
I can't honestly give him a glowing reference for his next job, but I can't be as damning of him as you.
Where the hell is our club going?
Realistically how and when will the regime pack up and leave?
And
"How long would a sales process take?"
Shudder
However, if he had any self respect he should have declined the offer of coming back this season. He'll be gone come the end of the season.
First, the rules say there are no transitional arrangements for clubs relegated from the Championship. Err, but there are! Relegated clubs are allowed to exclude the wage costs of all players that the club signed pre September of the relegation season, if they were signed on contracts in excess of 3 seasons.
Second, there are no such restrictions on transfer fees. Presumably, therefore, some nice little "signing on fees" could be put in place in lieu of actual wages.
Third, the only sanction is a transfer embargo, so if you get your astute dealings in early, who gives a crap?
That said Roland would have to spend money, so it's not going to happen.
Pope
Solly,Baur,Tex, Fox
Harriot, Cousins, Diarra, Kashi
Lookman,Vetokele
bench Jackson, Mitov, Ba ,Charles-cook, Bergdich, Holmes- Denis
Stronger than last August for sure but good enough for instant promotion?
If the expectations are met then I think he will give next season a go with some British coaching and recruitment support. I think he will want and be given a fair crack of the whip.
If things don't go well then he will be replaced by Christmas.
My major concern is that I think that we have basically been paying league one wages in the championship. If that budget is reduced to reflect our status then the type of recruitment we need will be almost impossible.
I will be intrigued to see just how many of the current set of starters will be starting the first match. It won't be many.
For me at least I only see Pope, Solly, Texeira , Fox and Harriot remaining.
Kashi could well be added because of his fitness problems.