Song for Guy
Well not really. A slight maunder of “Guy Luzon’s red and white army” from a few in the Upper Covered End but that was about it as the Israeli left just like he arrived. By the back door looking like a rabbit in the headlights.
I grew to accept Luzon like a child-hating Auntie, but then the £5 WH Smith voucher at Christmas would see that acceptance grow to a like and when Luzon talked passionately and sensibly about his players and the club in a language that wasn’t his mother tongue, I think a lot of Addicks took kindly to him. I know I did.
He was always a puppet though, the string getting shorter as the results dried up and he so obviously had very little say in player recruitment despite doing his best to act like he did. The 3-4 extra players that had to be signed pre-season soon became 2-3 and 1-2, and then just one. He knew the score, he had played this game before.
His arrival last January is best consigned to history. It was one of the most embarrassing moments in recent Charlton history, not that Katrien Meire gives two hoots to the 108 years before the Belgians showed up. That 5-0 did he, didn’t he pick the team Watford defeat was a mess, but the players soon cottoned onto his ideas and we went on a couple of unbeaten runs which completely eradicated worries of relegation and allowed us to watch Millwall drop instead.
Of course they still bloody beat us, Luzon the latest Charlton manager to fail despite us taking the lead at The Den.
Luzon was allowed to sign some Championship savvy players and interestingly at the time he talked of how important it was to have British players as part of the fabric of the side. Either he changed his mind or this wish wasn’t granted as the summer recruitment policy ignored all British based players with any Championship experience. A long winded goose chase of James Henry aside.
What we shouldn’t forget is the poor way we finished last season ending with a disturbing capitulation at home to Bournemouth as we gave them the keys to The Valley for their promotion party.
There are a lot of good managers and coaches in The Championship. Foreign, experienced, wily and young and up and coming and like Peeters before him Luzon’s tactical ability was limited for this division. Better and more expansive I would say than Peeters, but still limited although his man-management skills were vastly more sophisticated.
We had another poor pre-season, but I never put much credence on that, but then just like a year ago we started like thoroughbreeds racing out of the gate and went 4 league games upbeaten which included sterling wins over QPR and Hull plus we comfortably made the 3rd Round of the League Cup.
It was a false dawn though as a desperate injury situation took hold and with a wafer thin squad, Luzon was left to mix and match and throw in not ready academy players. There was the Palace team selection debacle and more astute opposing managers took advantage of a team short on confidence, spirit and experience and tonight the inevitable happened after two 3-0 home defeats in a week to teams near the bottom of the table.
Charlton are now looking for their 5th manager in 19 months. Jimmy Seed will be turning in his grave. Google him Katrien.
Chicago Addick 
After what seemed such a optimistic start to our season ,the cynics have been proved right
I really did think that we had a potential promotion side in the making ,and that we had managed to keep all our plans under the radar of the other clubs and their tactical planning
So what happened !!!!!
Some players were not as good as they were portrayed as being,some are too young and inexperienced,some are too old,some are injury prone and most never signed up for the Luzon philosophy
So what now?
New strategy
(i)Short Term avoid relegation
By rapidly sighing some available experienced players who can be incentivised and are up for a survival fight
( ii)Medium Term to start planning for promotion-this has to be a two/three season project-with money coming in now
We need new players and we need them to blend together ,and this takes a season or two
Unless Roland recognises the need ,we might as well all pack it in,and look to be playing Margate in a few years
No instant results,no instant formula for success,only,cash to buy new players,good coaching,better medical staff and an absolute desire to achieve results that can be voiced a a club philosophy
We have been down before,picked ourselves up and gone forward
Best wishes
Richard
Sent from my iPad
When Guy said last week that the players were better than bottom three I believed him and still do, in the sense that our starting eleven is better than the bottom three. Unfortunately in football there’s these things called injuries, every club gets them and that’s where a squad comes into play.
With the third lowest wage bill in the division you can argue that Guy had a tough job on his hands but I still believe he could have done better. Money is not everything, Burnley proved that two seasons ago. In the run up to our first promotion to the Premier League we had a squad assembled of players like: John Robinson, Mark Kinsella, Danny Mills, Keith Jones, Mark Bowen and Mark Bright who cost very little but would run through brick walls for us.
Do we think we’re going to get an apology from Katrien or Roland – they (Roland) have now appointed two duff managers, who between them have managed a little over a year at the valley? The next appointment will be very interesting but it’s hard not to get cynical and expect another one of rolands cronies to come through the door.