Blue moon
I joked with Charlton mates the other day that we will be awarded the 1936/37 league title after Man City finally get their sanctions which will involve losing all of their league titles and beginning next season in the National League.
Of course while many of us are finding it funny that Man City were eventually found guilty after over three and a half years to the majority of 115 charges, it ain’t really that hilarious is it.
Three and a half years is just the start of it. Expect sanction hearings, appeals, arbitrations, more court cases, expensive barristers and a whole lot of acrimony.
What a pickle the Premier League have got themselves into here, the self-titled best league in the world. It’s members will soon wage an outright compensation war against City and the Premier League itself.
Manchester City’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said he remains confident the club will be cleared of any wrongdoing and that they have “irrefutable evidence” to contest the charges against them.
I don’t expect Pep thought that to be the case, do you?
Cheats should not prosper, but there will be a lot of Premier League history consigned to the rubbish tip, or at least with an asterisk attached to the winner’s names in record books.
Like the cycling era of Lance Armstrong, we will never know who was actually the best during that period of time. Similarly in the Premier League between 2009/10 and 2017/18, who were the best footballing team in the country?
City were also charged with not co-operating with an investigation and not handing over documents as required over five seasons from 2018/19 to 2022/23.
I mean we could even take away or asterisk’s Chelsea’s titles in that time too, due to illicit payments, which would mean only three titles were won legitimately between 2011-12 and 2022-23! Leicester City were even better than we thought.
The Premier League and the EFL’s laissez-faire atttitude to club ownership is at the heart of all of this, but once again – what about the fans?
City fans of course, but at least they had the wonderful scenes and memories to soak themselves in, losing team’s fans were left to trudge away with tears in their eyes with ‘Blue Moon’ being bellowed out around them.
The real sad thing about all of this is it rips away all of those wonderfully exciting and emotional moments for football fans.
It is like VAR in very slow motion. A goal disallowed five minutes after it hits the net, or Sergio Agüero’s 2012 title winning wonder goal being chalked off 14 years later.
A sad state of affairs, but I will feel a lot better if the Addicks get awarded that 1937 league title.
Well, I suppose that we could seek £1 and 10 shillings in compensation!
Good summation of the situation, CA. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any all round satisfactory way out of this quagmire.
On a lighter note, the 1937 league table is an interesting look.
The current table toppers split apart by good old Charlton; Grimsby in mid table; Man Utd relegated and no sign of Spurs or West Ham.
Since my post a week or so ago titled: Cardiff v Charlton Players or SYSTEM of PLAY (Or combination of both) ?, I have had time to both reflect on things, as you do, and read and consider others points of view, all being worthy. These points cover; 1) Lack of budget for new players – 2) Poor stats re possession, goal attempts, shots on target, 3) Touches in penalty area, and so on . All valid and must be taken into the mix. And indeed the competence of team management, and where we were a little while ago.
I have confidence in NJ and both the team and executive management. But in any good business one must react to situations that have arisen and make the necessary adjustments to the ‘business’ plan. part of the overall business plan being how the team is set up to play.
In my last article I said the front four ‘Looked like dears in headlights’, as in fact they did. But I did not say this to be over critical and certainly not against the individual.
I say in my opinion that some players not confident enough of how to play, and lacking belief. I could be wrong but do not think I am.
Our defence record is very good, but sadly it has very much has effected our transitional and attacking play. and hence as ‘A Team’,
I feel we must make adjustments to our playing strategy/style, and give good players the opportunity, not currently being considered by some as not good enough.
I listed 12 in my last article.
We have some very gifted front footed players and I sight one, that being Charlie Kelmen, whom I consider very highly as an instinctive natural goal score (as is Godden), that you cannot coach, but to give them the opportunity to show just how good they are. If you should doubt this go onto YouTube and type in ‘Every Charlie Kelmen Goal of 2025/26′ Its 3min 34sec long and shows his 7 goals. OK 3 I think are penalties, but others especially the last one against Hull City, from a very talented player.
So I am both hopeful and confident that NJ and and other team management know that we must both adapt and play at times a more attack based system, that all players will have confidence in, and that their individual and team skills will very much come through.
As per the norm’foundations’ laid properly take a little while to achieve, so it will take some time and we must be patient, but please rest assured we have the players to do it.
Lets give them, over the coming weeks, the platform to show us just how good they are both as individuals. and as a team.
So NJ and coaches have faith in yourselves and the players, and I close on a Brian Clough quotation ”It’s a simple game made complicated by people’ COYR
September 28th
Great post, Peter.
As you rightly pointed CA out once again it’s always the fans that suffer the incompetence of the people in charge of the football leagues we have had our fair share of corrupt owners in our time
We would all love a chairman with extremely deep pockets but is does seem to bring problems
If Man City prove they didn’t do anything wrong what does happen
Is football history really going to be re written are stoke city and Watford going to fa cup final winners are other teams going to be awarded the premier league are they going to reply the Gillingham play off final
Are Man City’s fans going to sue them for a refund on their season tickets are opposition supporters going to want a refund for the away games it goes on and on
It will be strung out in the courts for ages and the fans will just keep on suffering
Cheats shouldn’t prosper but watch the people in charge cock this up
Football might never be the same again
Interesting to look at the table. Looks like we didn’t score many even in those days. You have to go down to 13th (Chelsea) to find a team that scored less. To be fair we didn’t concede many.
Re Man City….what an absolute shit show all round. Re writing sporting history is kind of pointless really. I watched Lance win a couple of his Tours. I felt cheated when his news broke for sure, but my memories of the spectacle remain.
Perhaps there’s a bigger picture here about The Premiere League and modern football. Personally my disillusionment is growing and I certainly don’t hanker after a return to the top tier.
I’m with you about the elite. VAR would be enough for me to want to be a part of it.
My moment of being cheated is Ben Johnson ‘winning’ the 1988 Olympic 100m medal. I watched in awe, until….
remember it well….
If guilty, I hope Man City dont get demoted to L2. That would deprive 3 x teams of promotion until their inevitable Premier return. .Better they get a 20 point hit for 4 years to make a premier title less likely.