The circus continues
As expected Karl Robinson’s time as Charlton manager is over. He left the club by mutual consent this morning.
Mutual consent being that both Duchatelet and Robinson agreed to tear up his contract with some compensation paid to the manager. Some, if not all of which Duchatelet may well be reclaim from Oxford United, where Robinson is expected to turn up.
There’s a message from Robinson here, and he becomes the 10th manager or head coach to leave the club under Roland Duchatelet in 4 years, if you include caretaker managers, the 3 of whom have long been gone from The Valley.
I think most of us welcomed his appointment after the car crash that was Russell Slade. Robinson was marmite from the off but undoubtedly it was a tough environment to work in, but he knew exactly the situation when he walked in the door allegedly calling us a basket case whilst he was at MK Dons. However he took the challenge on, took the Belgian’s filthy money and talked up his ambitions and expectations.
I willed him to succeed and I liked his commitment and honesty and his understanding of the history of the club. He certainly helped some young players’ development, added a few decent new players to the squad despite having his hands tied in the transfer window. However this only added to the ambitions of building a promotion winning team, and for that he has fallen well short.
Robinson’s constant talking and blame culture often contradicting himself, and his support of the owner and CEO bruised his reputation with fans. Most of us could have overlooked that if he delivered as he promised a promotion winning side, and not as it stands an outside chance of the play-off qualifying side in one of the weakest League One’s for some time.
I agree that his departure is the best for everyone concerned.
Robbo did try to play an attractive style of football at the beginning, and brought in some exciting players such as Fosu and Mavididi. Also he was willing to encourage and play young players.
The downturn since Christmas was probably due to the number of injuries and lack of money for investment during the crucial January transfer window. I liked his positive thinking approach and wish him well for the future.
Can’t disagree with that Colin.
Clearly Robinson has only been part of the problem and not the problem. We all know who that is.
Good and fair appraisal of his tenure CA. The style of football is a bit a smokescreen in my opinion. We need to play a style of football that gets us out of this god awful league. Fans want to see the team winning, whether we’re playing like Brazil or Barnet i don’t think it really matters.
The slow paced game was so one dimensional as well, and this division needs a varied and adaptable style of play. We never had that.
You need players to play systems! I’d rather an intelligent, technical way of playing than up and under. Surely, with only the Irish forward of any distinction up front it was obvious why wins were hard to come by. Robinson told us that in January.
i liked him, but I think he got less than the sum of the parts from squad, whereas a good manager would achieve the opposite. I think tex77 above is spot on. Karl leaving now provides a small glimmer of hope for this season; if he had stayed I couldn’t see us winning another game. 10 managers in 4 years? I’ve a job to remember. Just seems like a constant dream walk through disaster!
Pembury Addick
Nothing to disagree with there…he tried and always kept a positive attitude, but starting the season with one striker and not a particularly prolific one at that was a mistake and one he should have fought. A good goal poacher papers over a lot of cracks and elsewhere the squad was too thin.Once that injury crisis hit us results went the wrong way and we haven’t got back on track since. I always thought he set the team up a bit one dimensionally, lots of passes with pace on the wings and it came a bit easy for teams to defend against once we were sussed out. But with Roland in charge and the sale of our best players with little inward investment what could he do?
How the club managed to attract a manager of Robinson’s calibre is beyond me. Did a wonderful job! We went against Shrewsbury and it was blatantly obvious the forward line not being able to neither hold the ball up or look like scoring gives the manager a major headache. The Charlton players are aware of this so once we concede heads drop. Robinson has class, his team’s play great football but he had too much integrity for our shambles of a club. If rumours are true and kewell is being lined up then the next owners are clearly no different from the present. I think Robinson has known for a while his job was temporary and I do not blame him for leaving. Well done Oxford you’ve inherited a very good manager.