Fond farewells

A bit of a bleugh statement on the Official Site yesterday bidding farewell to those players that have not been offered new contracts. It perhaps underscored Roland Duchatelet’s sentiment towards supporter communication. A thank you wouldn’t have been too difficult would it? Especially to players that have grafted so hard and will be remembered fondly such as Leon Cort, Danny Hollands and Bradley Pritchard who in particular epitomised the phrase ‘hard working midfielder.’

Compare this to Chris Powell’s eulogy of Scott Wagstaff when he left the club last summer. The club’s comms team can’t be blamed, they could hardly invent a quote and therefore were left to just factually state the obvious, plus I suspect they have had their own opportunities to say personal goodbyes.

Twitter’s a great medium to communicate with players and pass on messages but it was great to see Leon Cort come onto the Charlton Life Forum yesterday and humbly say his thanks. A sign of class.

Another one of the those released, Danny Green, today signed a 3-year deal with MK Dons and I hope that he can thrive there under Karl Robinson.

The strangest thing of all will be the departure of Jose Riga, who will disappear as quietly as he arrived. Jose was kind of parachuted in with zero fanfare, just a 50-word statement from the club, which also included the arrival of Karel Fraeye, who appears to have fallen off a cliff.

With the arrival of Riga came the termination of the Thursday pressers, where previously Chris Powell would part with interesting commentary on the week’s events. Jose either didn’t want to do these, or more than likely, especially as we got to see Riga’s effortless persona, was not allowed to continue them.

That dark day in March still haunts me actually. Like an estranged girlfriend, I keep thinking the door will ring, and Chris Powell will be stood there wanting to come back as if nothing had happened. Nonetheless I never blamed Riga for my break-up, he did nothing wrong and always had my support, and in the end he did everything and more to fully deserve it.

Jose Riga made quite an impression on us, so much so that he actually became one of us. He did his job with honour, pride and integrity. It didn’t always work, but he got the club the result it so needed. And his reward? To be cast off without an explanation and without a thank you.

I hope Roland gave him a nice big bonus, because he deserved it and at 56, his reputation has gone from obscure to worthy. Those that met him said he was charming and I think Charlton Athletic charmed him too, the club can have that effect on people.

Jose will always be welcome back at The Valley, it’s just a shame we never got to say goodbye.