So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Bauer isnt long term is he? He is back in full training and has been for a couple of weeks. Should be back in the team in a couple of weeks assuming he gets a couple of behind closed doors games.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
For now. But how long it (or he) will last .........
Slade seems pretty bullish and up for the fight.
He's seemingly getting his own way with the signings and the ones we have made are all decent acquisitions. Certainly in the upper echelons of the division. Throw in a smattering of our exceptional youth team players and the 3 or 4 more new signings and there are reasons to be cheerful
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
For now. But how long it (or he) will last .........
Agreed it's a risk, but the board has nowhere left to go. If Slade leaves I think it's all over for Murray and Meire and they probably know that, delusional as both of them are. Club would disintegrate off the pitch.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
For now. But how long it (or he) will last .........
Slade seems pretty bullish and up for the fight.
He's seemingly getting his own way with the signings and the ones we have made are all decent acquisitions. Certainly in the upper echelons of the division. Throw in a smattering of our exceptional youth team players and the 3 or 4 more new signings and there are reasons to be cheerful
The reason to be relieved will be a win at Bury. Reasons to be cheerful include automatic promotion.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
For now. But how long it (or he) will last .........
Slade seems pretty bullish and up for the fight.
He's seemingly getting his own way with the signings and the ones we have made are all decent acquisitions. Certainly in the upper echelons of the division. Throw in a smattering of our exceptional youth team players and the 3 or 4 more new signings and there are reasons to be cheerful
The reason to be relieved will be a win at Bury. Reasons to be cheerful include automatic promotion.
At which point we could be cheerful about being back where we started when these idiots took over. But with far fewer fans, a huge amount of distrust and loss of goodwill and far bigger debts.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
For now. But how long it (or he) will last .........
Slade seems pretty bullish and up for the fight.
He's seemingly getting his own way with the signings and the ones we have made are all decent acquisitions. Certainly in the upper echelons of the division. Throw in a smattering of our exceptional youth team players and the 3 or 4 more new signings and there are reasons to be cheerful
The reason to be relieved will be a win at Bury. Reasons to be cheerful include automatic promotion.
At which point we could be cheerful about being back where we started when these idiots took over. But with far fewer fans, a huge amount of distrust and loss of goodwill and far bigger debts.
Aha! Did you notice my fiendishly cunning use of the word 'include'?
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
For now. But how long it (or he) will last .........
Agreed it's a risk, but the board has nowhere left to go. If Slade leaves I think it's all over for Murray and Meire and they probably know that, delusional as both of them are. Club would disintegrate off the pitch.
Don't think you can presume that. By any normal business' standards, both of their positions have been untenable for some time but they continue to shut their eyes and put their fingers in their ears, and come up with new and interesting ways to antognise supporters.
They reached the bottom at home to Burnley at the end of last season - relegated, every supporter criticism proven to be correct, all of Katrien's stupid comments proven to be lies and nonsense, the whole stadium against them to the point where they were told not to come out for the second half, following several weeks of criticism from across the national press. If that doesn't make you step down then nothing will. If/when Slade goes, I expect them to replace him, probably with someone laughable from the network - we'll all moan, the small number of media pundits that care about the third tier will give us a couple of sympathetic column inches and Katrien and Richard will carry on as before. They're not going anywhere until Roland goes - dignity is a foreign concept to them.
Incidentally, I'm certainly not suggesting we shouldn't continue to protest against both of them - I hope they dread coming to The Valley on matchdays, and not just because of the terrible football they serve up.
Just watching the video of the press conference today - certainly doesn't seem as overly positive as the clubs tweets suggest! When asked about players coming in , he snaps as says we NEED 4 more ... Minutes later he take a real dig at the club at the start of summer because they hadn't set a date for players to come back to training nor was the summer fitness/nutritional plan any good - players with injuries were just left to fend for themselves by the sounds too!
Just watching the video of the press conference today - certainly doesn't seem as overly positive as the clubs tweets suggest! When asked about players coming in , he snaps as says we NEED 4 more ... Minutes later he take a real dig at the club at the start of summer because they hadn't set a date for players to come back to training nor was the summer fitness/nutritional plan any good - players with injuries were just left to fend for themselves by the sounds too!
You don't mean there were things at our club that were not being run properly? Heaven forfend that such should come to pass.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
If we end up with players like Declan Rudd, Jason Pearce, Louis Thompson, Nicky Ajose, Lee Novak, Ricky Holmes and Andrew Crofts at league 1 level - I couldnt give a shit who is choosing them, as long as we carry on in that vein.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
Who is choosing the players then ? Who is this expert on English players ? The Belgian laptop guys or Meire ?
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
If we end up with players like Declan Rudd, Jason Pearce, Louis Thompson, Nicky Ajose, Lee Novak, Ricky Holmes and Andrew Crofts at league 1 level - I couldnt give a shit who is choosing them, as long as we carry on in that vein.
All English. To go alongside an English manager and assistant. How long will the Belgians put up with this?
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
Who is choosing the players then ? Who is this expert on English players ? The Belgian laptop guys or Meire ?
I thought KM said recently that RS has final say on the players that the (keyboard ?) scouts find. Who knows what the search criteria are though !
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
Ah my bad, I thought we had stopped signing network shite and were slowly picking up proven UK based quality for this level. If that's spin then I'm happy to fall into the trap of thinking things are slowly changing here in terms of recruitment
Now Norwich have another midfielder in the door (Pritchard), Thompson must drop down a further wrung so perhaps that loan is about to go through and he's the player having the medical. If so, and Slade then wants 3 further signings, that probably means a striker, a defender and A.N. Other
I thought that he had already done a good interview before but this one is the best so far and genuinely impressive if you're a connoisseur of this type of thing, both from Charlton managers, and other managers.
I feel I might have underestimated the calibre of Russell Slade, and I like the measure of the man.
I feel that Katrien might have underestimated Slade also.
I think we are lucky to have him at the moment, and based on the interview he has done today, he and the players deserve some good old 100% away support at Bury on Saturday. Not because Slade issued a rallying cry, but he is the first manager we have had since Chris Powell who is telling it even remotely like it is, and his agenda is clear and unequivocal.
What Slade seems to be able to say at the moment is, yes, youth development, player churn, being a business is all very well, but he is insisting on his priorities which is building a decent first team, with good medical support and professional structures to work around. That is his priority whether Duchatelet or Miere want it to be or not.
Slade deployed the concept of 'no excuses' to good effect, and was beautifully scathing about things that greeted him two months ago. It isn't just historical injuries you have to deal with Russell, it's historical downright incompetence and bad management too.
In terms of managers pre match interviews what I thought I saw was a bloke on top of his game.
Now he has to ensure we are on top against Bury and win.
Now Norwich have another midfielder in the door (Pritchard), Thompson must drop down a further wrung so perhaps that loan is about to go through and he's the player having the medical. If so, and Slade then wants 3 further signings, that probably means a striker, a defender and A.N. Other
Peter O Rourke @ Sky has already announced we have signed Pearce - just waiting on the OS confirmation.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
Ah my bad, I thought we had stopped signing network shite and were slowly picking up proven UK based quality for this level. If that's spin then I'm happy to fall into the trap of thinking things are slowly changing here in terms of recruitment
Slowly being the key word, season starts on Saturday and we're FOUR players short. How many games has our keeper had with the CB's? None? Oh, that's promising.
If it's also true that players had no date to return from pre-season and injured players were essentially ignored, then our club is a bigger joke than anyone could have imagined.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
Ah my bad, I thought we had stopped signing network shite and were slowly picking up proven UK based quality for this level. If that's spin then I'm happy to fall into the trap of thinking things are slowly changing here in terms of recruitment
And you have hit the nail on the head right there! " i'm happy to fall into the trap of thinking things are slowly changing here in terms of recruitment".
That's all it is, a trap. RD and KM are still running this show. They call the shots. They have the final say and they will run the club as they see fit because they view themselves as the best people to run the club. RS took the job knowing that. They are not going to change. They are not going to listen to the fans, and for all his talk, RS must have known that and been comfortable with it. That's great for him. But bad for Charlton.
If they genuinely wanted to build bridges, they could have done a number of things. But they havent. They've tried to give a few mis-guided fans what they wanted whilst regaining full control of the shambles this club has become, and some, appear content with this.
RS is neither the problem or the solution. The problem is still KM, RD and RM. Only this season they have learnt some valuable lessons and will do things differently. They will keep a low profile. They will hide behind the British manager 'we wanted'. They will 'declare' publicly and 'do' privately. But one thing remains. They are still in charge and they will still run this club they way they want. It's just a British manager to blame this season rather than a Belgian.
So, the season is upon us and we have the usual mix of long term injuries to our better players (Diarra, Kashi, Bauer) and a manager who openly admits we're four players short.
How fucking depressing.
Offset by the fact we do have a proper manager who seems to be fighting his corner with the board, who really don't want to make these signings.
Which in turn, is offset by the fact we don't have a decent owner & CEO who will not allow him to be a 'proper manager'.
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void. He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
Point 1 isn't void. Who says he is signing the players he wants? He will say that about anyone that he is given. He's a 'yes' man. Only a 'yes' man would have taken the job on in the first place. Which is why others ran a mile when they were linked with the job.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
Who is choosing the players then ? Who is this expert on English players ? The Belgian laptop guys or Meire ?
I thought KM said recently that RS has final say on the players that the (keyboard ?) scouts find. Who knows what the search criteria are though !
So you also think that Belgians are choosing Ajose, Holmes, Novak, Rudd & Pearce ?
Comments
But what will RS do when he realises he has got an inadequate squad and cant achieve the goal he has been publicly set? Will he resign in fury over how he has been treated and show the owner and CEO up for what they really are? or will he carry on treading water, taking his salary....?
Only time will tell.
He's seemingly getting his own way with the signings and the ones we have made are all decent acquisitions. Certainly in the upper echelons of the division. Throw in a smattering of our exceptional youth team players and the 3 or 4 more new signings and there are reasons to be cheerful
Reasons to be cheerful include automatic promotion.
Did you notice my fiendishly cunning use of the word 'include'?
They reached the bottom at home to Burnley at the end of last season - relegated, every supporter criticism proven to be correct, all of Katrien's stupid comments proven to be lies and nonsense, the whole stadium against them to the point where they were told not to come out for the second half, following several weeks of criticism from across the national press. If that doesn't make you step down then nothing will. If/when Slade goes, I expect them to replace him, probably with someone laughable from the network - we'll all moan, the small number of media pundits that care about the third tier will give us a couple of sympathetic column inches and Katrien and Richard will carry on as before. They're not going anywhere until Roland goes - dignity is a foreign concept to them.
Incidentally, I'm certainly not suggesting we shouldn't continue to protest against both of them - I hope they dread coming to The Valley on matchdays, and not just because of the terrible football they serve up.
When asked about players coming in , he snaps as says we NEED 4 more ... Minutes later he take a real dig at the club at the start of summer because they hadn't set a date for players to come back to training nor was the summer fitness/nutritional plan any good - players with injuries were just left to fend for themselves by the sounds too!
Well he is already winning the battle to sign players he wants, so point 1 is void.
He has publically acknowledge the task is tougher than expected, so he is already trying to rectify that... Which makes the comment about just here picking up a salary harsh on him.
We are just seeing a different spin on what's going on, which is fantastic PR work (my wife is a PR director in London - many of their clients are EPL clubs). The end result is what RD and KM want, but it's just dressed up to look as though Slade is in charge and calling the shots. He isn't. But good PR can make it appear that way.
Ah my bad, I thought we had stopped signing network shite and were slowly picking up proven UK based quality for this level. If that's spin then I'm happy to fall into the trap of thinking things are slowly changing here in terms of recruitment
I thought that he had already done a good interview before but this one is the best so far and genuinely impressive if you're a connoisseur of this type of thing, both from Charlton managers, and other managers.
I feel I might have underestimated the calibre of Russell Slade, and I like the measure of the man.
I feel that Katrien might have underestimated Slade also.
I think we are lucky to have him at the moment, and based on the interview he has done today, he and the players deserve some good old 100% away support at Bury on Saturday. Not because Slade issued a rallying cry, but he is the first manager we have had since Chris Powell who is telling it even remotely like it is, and his agenda is clear and unequivocal.
What Slade seems to be able to say at the moment is, yes, youth development, player churn, being a business is all very well, but he is insisting on his priorities which is building a decent first team, with good medical support and professional structures to work around. That is his priority whether Duchatelet or Miere want it to be or not.
Slade deployed the concept of 'no excuses' to good effect, and was beautifully scathing about things that greeted him two months ago. It isn't just historical injuries you have to deal with Russell, it's historical downright incompetence and bad management too.
In terms of managers pre match interviews what I thought I saw was a bloke on top of his game.
Now he has to ensure we are on top against Bury and win.
COYR.
Thompson would appear to be imminent as well.
If it's also true that players had no date to return from pre-season and injured players were essentially ignored, then our club is a bigger joke than anyone could have imagined.
That's all it is, a trap. RD and KM are still running this show. They call the shots. They have the final say and they will run the club as they see fit because they view themselves as the best people to run the club. RS took the job knowing that. They are not going to change. They are not going to listen to the fans, and for all his talk, RS must have known that and been comfortable with it. That's great for him. But bad for Charlton.
If they genuinely wanted to build bridges, they could have done a number of things. But they havent. They've tried to give a few mis-guided fans what they wanted whilst regaining full control of the shambles this club has become, and some, appear content with this.
RS is neither the problem or the solution. The problem is still KM, RD and RM. Only this season they have learnt some valuable lessons and will do things differently. They will keep a low profile. They will hide behind the British manager 'we wanted'. They will 'declare' publicly and 'do' privately. But one thing remains. They are still in charge and they will still run this club they way they want. It's just a British manager to blame this season rather than a Belgian.