Aug 30
24-year old Adam Chicksen has signed a one-year deal, and fills the spot vacated by Tareiq Holmes-Dennis. Chicksen was released by Brighton who signed the then highly rated defender from MK Dons, Chicksen’s home town club.
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I followed on Twitter and it had me thinking how many thousands of Addicks now tune in remotely instead of going to games at The Valley. Just 10,000 official Addicks at the game, one of the season’s more attractive fixtures, with those in the ground putting the number more in the region of 8,000.
The first half we created the better opportunities, although Solly did have to clear off his line, this when playing in midfield after Johnnie Jackson went off with a slight injury. Why Bauer came on forcing a major reshuffle when either Lookman or Botaka appeared more obvious only Russell Slade will know why he preferred to make a negative move.
Bolton scored early in the 2nd half and it sounded as if we struggled after that against a very physical Phil Parkinson’s Bolton. However we kept plugging away and grabbed a share of the spoils, and ended Wanderers 100% start to the season, when Ademola Lookman fired home in the 7 minutes of added time.
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I don’t know whether Tareiq Holmes-Dennis represents a major player as of today in Russell Slade’s mind, but once again we will never find out as Roland Duchatelet pushes another one of our great academy prospects from his farm out of the door.
Holmes-Dennis is coveted by David Wagner so Huddersfield Town made the approach to the club to discuss terms with the 20-year old, and sure enough he will sign this afternoon for an undisclosed fee.
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Today was back in the old days what Addicks’ fans would call a ‘nice little away win.’ A tough place to go is Walsall, and our win today was the first one from a visiting team there since March.
Great to see Nicky Ajose get on the target. Both goals bundled in, the second more than the first, but he was there right place, right time and how well did Magennis do for that second one. The Irishman looks an astute signing.
Slade went unchanged again and once more managed Holmes time on the pitch. Ricky has been the stand out performer so far, but I’m worried we will over rely on him.
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Thanks again to my ever reliable Mother who buzzed my phone in quick succession with goal flashes as I tucked into a big plate of ribs and chips in Rio.
Was nice to hear of us scoring a few goals, and Ricky Holmes already looks a popular and worthy addition. Of course Ricky has a long way to go to reach Jacko legend status.
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Richard Murray is to step down as chairman of Charlton due to ill health.
A statement on the Official Site Murray said: “Over the past few weeks I have been having various tests regarding my health and it’s been discovered I have a number of malignant tumours in my stomach which require minor surgery at this stage.”
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I took my protest to Rio and tuned out of the happenings at The Valley and instead tuned into scantily clad women slapping a ball over a net on sand in the name of Olympic sport.
However my always relied upon Mother was updating me during the game and my brother gave me a full blown text report after, but it was fair to say you would all have rather been in my seat at the Copacabana Beach Volleyball Arena. You would also have been surrounded by more people!
Anyway these are my observations. The Canadian girl’s bikini bottom was a shade of red and white. Oh hang on, wrong blog post! Apologies.
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Depending on your Charlton state of mind you will look at the signing of Kilmarnock’s Josh Magennis one of three ways.
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Apparently a top 6 budget doesn’t buy you a cup run. Total respect to Cheltenham, especially their programme editor, but they were a non-league team 3 months ago.
We were relegated in April, everyone knew Riga would not stay, yet none of us are surprised by what we have witnessed so far. A squad unprepared, under-resourced, carrying long term unexplained injuries and on the back of a poor pre-season which followed according to Russell Slade absolutely no pre-planning at all by those at the head of the organization.
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The FA, not known for being in touch with the supporters of the football clubs it is supposed to oversee, has now given a forum for Katrien Meire to spout off more uninformed lies and made up rubbish. Mind you a board meeting of that amount of people, mostly crusty old aged white men I’d imagine, would need to take place at Wembley Stadium. Anyone who has ever sat in a meeting where the aim is “to deliver an effective and professional organization” will know that nothing will be achieved with a room of more than 4 let alone over 100.
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Over a 1,000 Addicks made the long trip to Bury today. The first game of a new season prompting dreams, hopes and a small ray of sunlight peaking out from behind a big black cloud that still engulfs our historic football club.
Charlton fans sung the place out and backed the team to the hilt, but in return were treated to a dreadful performance in Russell Slade’s first competitive game. Added to that, at the final whistle to muted boos and sympathic applause, as the players walked over to those that had made the long and expensive journey, Roger Johnson to hundreds of witnesses screamed at fans: “don’t f*cking come if you don’t like it.” Honestly this club, our club, is rotten to the core.
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I’m liking the cut of Russell Slade’s jib. He says it straight, and talks with authority and honesty. He’s got a little twinkle in his eye too. That can be quite infectious.
I said a while back that if they could bring Jason Pearce into the club, then that would say a lot about Slade’s influence and ability to manage our inadequate CEO, and to get what he wants and or was promised. Pearce joined yesterday and for me is the signing of the summer. Pearce is a winner, vocal and not stupid. He has also been team captain wherever he has played and I suspect he will be for us with Jacko remaining club captain.
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Part I is here and Part II is here.
Rochdale under Keith Hill have made the transition to League One look fairly comfortable. Two top ten finishes are not to be sniffed at as Dale keep company with much bigger and financially stronger clubs. Hill also remains at Spotland and unlike 95% of the countries managers, you have to think that the manager does control quite a lot of his own destiny.
Just a couple of additions aligned with a bit of a clear out, should mean that Dale at least stand still but with the lowest home attendance in the division last season, Hill must continue to get his players to punch above their weight. Led by young skipper Jamie Allen, it is not a squad of household names although Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, ex of Peterborough and Wolves, is there, but it is a young but clearly a non-intimidated group of players. Hill and is his team should expect a mid table finish again. Promotion 12/1. Relegation 9/2.
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A signing! And a much needed goalkeeper, and an apparent good one at that. It’s hard to deny that I haven’t been impressed with the signing of Holmes, Novak, Ajose or Rudd, who would be a good Championship signing let alone the 3rd Division. A keeper was a priority and Rudd joining on a season long loan was good news yesterday and a sign that although new blood has been very thin on the ground, when a player comes in you feel as if it is a Slade pick and not some no mark brought in by the owner and the liar.
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Rivals, non rivals, I guess it depends where you live, but Gillingham under the growing reputation of manager Justin Edinburgh were one of the surprise packages last season, only a poor slide at the end seeing them miss out on a play-off place. Edinburgh will be looking to improve on a 9th placed finish and he has added well to his squad, although Lee Martin will miss the start of the season due to a bad injury picked up in a friendly.
Scott Wagstaff also joined from Bristol City and Paul Konchesky from Leicester, but who played 36 games on loan at QPR last season. Ex-Addick Josh Wright the captain at Priestfield. Has there ever been a time when the Gills has had no ex-Charlton players? They did lose centre-back Joe Egan to Brentford but importantly have kept the sought after Bradley Dack, at least until now.
Keeping Dack will be essential and Edinburgh may need to add to his squad before the deadline, but I expect Gills to be challenging for the play-offs again. Promotion 10/1. Relegation 7/1.
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Well here we are again, back in the 3rd Division of English football. Some old friends remain like Sheffield United, who face their 6th consecutive season after being relegated in 2010/11 and for the 6th time start the season as the bookies’ favourite. Oldham Athletic also remain and with a tenure of 10 years are the division’s longest serving member. Millwall are back there as well, as are Gillingham, but strangely only 9 teams remain from our promotion season. They are Sheffield United, Oldham, Chesterfield, Colchester, MK Dons, Notts County, Rochdale, Walsall and Saturday’s opponents Bury.
We will welcome back to The Valley Phil Parkinson, now manager of Bolton and perhaps will look longingly at Chris Wilder and Keith Hill who were both interviewed for the Charlton manager’s job in the summer before it was given to Russell Slade. Amongst ex-players we will be reacquainted with are Jerome Thomas (Port Vale), Franck Moussa (Walsall), Paul Konchesky, Scott Wagstaff (both Gillingham), Marvin Sordell, Kyel Reid (both Coventry) and Eggert Jonsson (Fleetwood). Excited yet?
So, old friends, old foes, new teams, new grounds and I will cast my captivated eyes over them one by one. Not in any real detail like Kyle, but just enough to get your juices flowing with anticipation. No?
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In another communication masterclass Roly’s favourite child STVV announced on their official website this evening the loan signing of Cristian Ceballos, whilst the CAFC media team said that the deal is not yet confirmed.
Ceballos, known only for being injured and taking possibly the worst ever corner kick in Charlton’s 111-year history, has signed for STVV for a season, and no doubt some clever accountant somewhere has worked out how to spread his wages in the most tax efficient manner.
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The season just gone was abysmal and depressing, no two ways about it. Yet I only made it back home to a handful of games, the last one in March against MK Dons after when in my mind, our cast was dyed and I vowed not to give Duchatelet anymore of my money.
However back in 1980 I was a 13-year old Charlton nut who refused to miss a game, did a fair few aways, and over a space of an hour and a half my beloved team could make or break my school week. But my, the 1979/80 season was proper abysmal and if I knew the meaning of the word depressing back then, then it was most definitely that as well.
That season was the first I’d ever seen us get relegated as I started going after we won promotion from the 3rd Division in 1975 when after some gentle persuasion my Dad decided to return to The Valley after a break brought on by marriage, small children, and lost interest.
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Another day closer to Bury and another day still without the 5 or 6 players Russell Slade thinks we need as a minimum. And I think he is being kind. And that is 5 or 6 on the basis no one else leaves and Solly, Ajose and Bauer will be match ready.
Slade was very honest in his assessment after a poor performance at Leyton Orient and said:
“We’re miles away. I’d like to think between now and the start of the season that we can get another five or six additions to the group. In all honesty, if we’re going to be competitive at the top end then that’s what we need to do. Even against a Leyton Orient that will have a campaign in Division Two, they’re making substitutions and sending men on. I’m sending on a lot of young players.”
Interestingly a year ago after a shocking pre-season tour in Belgium previous man in charge Guy Luzon said:
“We also wait for another four or five players, so it was not a fair game, but it’s okay, today will not be in our first-team squad, it was the young players from the academy. 60 or 70 per cent of the players who played today will not be in our first-team squad, it was the young players from the academy.”
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The club felt compelled to announce season ticket sales today. “Nearly 5,500,” which is almost half of last season, way down on previous League One seasons and the lowest total (thus far) for 20 years. Meire may well trumpet 5,500 with three weeks left until the first home game, but that number is embarrassing for a club of our size. Bradford announced 3 weeks ago that they had sold more than 11,000, Coventry at the same time 7,000.
Duchatelet will be hit in the pocket by around £1m from up front ticket sales, particularly as a third of the sales are in the cheapest seats in the Lower North. That £1m is shadowed by the £5m lost from relegation from The Championship. Add to this a reduction in sponsorship, matchday hospitality and a dent in fan spending in the ground.
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It is neither a shock, nor the end of the world that players are being moved on. Players each partly culpable for our relegation sold to raise funds through fees and wages, or allowing them to move to a higher level because of contractual obligations (JBG), or because it is fair and proper (Cousins) or simply because they are rubbish (Sarr).
As expected Nick Pope and Johann Berg Gundmundsson were officially unveiled by Burnley today. Tony Watt beat the rush out of Austria to return home to pack his well worn overnight bag and looks set to move to Hearts of the SPL for family reasons. Must be a right pain for our Tony listing his past 5-year addresses when he’s applying to Sky for his movie channel.
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Dave Lockwood’s cheery voice has occupied the airwaves over The Valley for 24 seasons but sadly there will not be a 25th. One thing is to commit a couple of hours on a Saturday or a weekday to a hobby but it is something entirely different to not only support the club but also to spend tireless hours working for it for scant reward.
Today Dave resigned his post as The Valley pitch side announcer with a scathing attack on the owner and his inept CEO. I sense that Dave only got through the last dozen games at The Valley through gritted teeth, utter professionalism, and a sense of pride. Ironically those last two attributes were desperately lacking all around him as he stood pitch side with the Directors Box high behind him.
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Trying to catch up on Charlton stuff amongst this crazy world that we live in.
My good friend Dave at Drinking During the Game enunciates better than I could the next installment in Katrien Meire’s war on Charlton supporters. I mean, and you would know this, I have been uber critical of our CEO for I think every good reason, but she and her advisors, sycophants even, just can’t help themselves can they?
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The ever reliable Rich Cawley has claimed that Burnley have reached the transfer amount that Duchatelet was hanging out for, thought to be £1m, and Nick Pope is returning from Austria to put pen to paper. I expect him to be unveiled at Turf Moor the same day next week as Johann Berg Gudmundsson.
Cawley also said that Nottingham Forest will make a move for fellow ‘keeper Stephen Henderson. The two keepers combined to help get us relegated but will not be joining the rest of us.
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136 games and in every single one, from those early days in 2012 as a back-up right back and then in his first full season in The Championship under Powell and then Riga, right up until half a game at Welling on Saturday, Jordan Cousins never shirked a tackle, always ran his socks off and wore the red shirt as if every game was a cup final.
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I don’t actually mind the new kit. Traditional, low on frills, the proper colour red. The new sponsor is a bit of a talking point. Yes, a load of clubs have gambling companies sponsoring them but its not very community centric Charlton is it? That’s my only gripe, that it is just another layer of what Charlton has always been all about that the owners have peeled off and thrown away. Our history, our culture. Discarded like a Belgium chocolate wrapper.
I like the kit, it’s obviously straight out of the Nike catalogue, but I won’t be buying it as I bought one of these instead. Over 800 protest shirts the organisers have sold, and hats off to them. Terrific effort.
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After making three attacking players his first signings, Russell Slade is now on the look out for a vocal central defender. Slade has three names on his list according to the SLP. They are 32-year old Matthew Kilgallon, released by Blackburn, 29-year old David Wheater, long time of Middlesbrough, but recently released by Bolton and probably the most popular choice amongst Addicks, Lewisham born Michael Turner, previously of our parish.
Turner left Charlton unable to force his way into a Premier League defence in 2004 but has had an excellent career including many seasons as a Premier League defender himself. He is 32 and is still under contract at Norwich but spent much of the past season and a half out at loan, firstly at Fulham, then at Sheffield Wednesday.
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Welcome to Nicky Ajose, who today finally put pen to paper. The fee was obviously undisclosed but it widely thought to be £800,000.
Ajose was expected to sign for a Championship club with Birmingham and Bristol City both interested. The Blues were said to have had a bid of £500,000 turned down as Swindon chairman Lee Power hung on for more.
Ajose had a belter of a season scoring 24 goals in 38 games finishing 2nd top league scorer behind on-fire Will Grigg. Swindon obviously saw something in the 24-year old picking him up from Leeds on a free. He never scored for Leeds but was never given a chance as they churned through managers Charlton style and was farmed out on loan to Crewe where he scored 8.
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I too want to give the Covered End Choir protest shirt a plug. It looks magnificent resplendent in black and white halves with a 1940 inspired logo and something that had become a symbol for the protests against Duchatelet and Meire, a beach ball!
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So last season. Have you moved on? The fixtures are out. Bury away on the first day. Northampton up first at home. Is there closure yet? Is the fact that the liar and her enabler may have after two and a half years finally accepted that their judgement was utter garbage. No apologies, but a poker faced acceptance that the two of them don’t have a clue what they are doing.
I am still mentally digesting this past season. It’s going to take me a while. In fact for me anyway there will never be closure. Those scars will not fade, the bare faced lies will never vanish. The treading of Belgium feet all over my Lego Millennium Falcon, disintegrating it into a thousand pieces, can never be rebuilt under the hands of Roland Duchatelet and Katrien Meire.
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Wallop. What was that? The realization crashing down that we are back in League One.
Bury away, Northampton home, Shrewsbury home, Walsall away. Our first four games. Full list here.
‘Highlights’ include Parky back with Bolton on August 27th, our first ever game against AFC Wimbledon on September 17th, Millwall away on October 8th, Gillingham away October 22nd and Sheffield United home on November 26th.
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I’ve just finished watching the France v Switzerland game, where a burst ball and torn shirts was the highlight of the proceedings, but if Charlton fans needed a spark to encourage a sweet dream tonight I bring news that Naby Sarr have been sent out on a season-long loan to French Ligue 2 side Red Star Belgrade.
Next time Ms Meire bangs on about how much her mentor has invested in the club, think about that £1.4m wisely spent.
In other devastating news assistant coach Wim de Corte has also left the club. How we will cope without interim Wim I dread to think. Anyway Russell Slade looks to already be putting his mark on things.
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Another Addicks addition was complimented by a departure today. Charlton announced that Birmingham striker Lee Novak will join on July 1st on a 3-year contract. Meanwhile, although not officially announced, Igor Vetokele signed on a season long loan with a view to permanent transfer with Belgium side Zulte Waregem.
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The first ever permanent British signing under the auspices of Roland Duchatelet joined Russell Slade’s Charlton this morning.
28-year old Essex born Northampton winger Ricky Holmes signed a two year deal for an undisclosed fee. It is thought that Chris Wilder initially gave Meire the heads up on Holmes but Slade was a fan to and said: “I am delighted to be able to make Ricky my first signing for the club. He was a top target for me and to be able to bring him to The Valley was very important for us, as we look to build a strong squad for the season ahead.”
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I have to be honest, I’m not really in the mood for football. The tragedy that is Charlton at the moment has sucked all of the football life out of me. For as long as I can remember I’ve looked forward with great anticipation to every major tournament since the first one I can remember in 1974.
I’m optimistic it draws me in. It should, I have a ruddy big above my desk, the timings of the games are good for Bermuda – late morning beer, lunchtime beer and early evening beer – and I will even be back in the UK for parts of it.
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It will be interesting to see what happens today around late morning. Will Katrien Meire be in work yet? Will she issue an apology to Peter Varney. Or will she hope that no one noticed and think we are all friends now because she has finally made an appointment better than the one previously?
Varney is steadfastly not going to let this go away and has said he will release evidence of his, Duchatelet and Meire’s dialogue which not anywhere says his investor contacts will move the club away from The Valley.
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“It’s not in my contract about having that control over my players, but it’s a verbal agreement.” *Bangs head on desk and nips down to bookies to put a tenner on Slade being gone by Christmas*
Just 20 minutes allowed for this morning’s press conference, with Meire getting an easy ride but making sure she got in that she was not fearful of her job and that everything will be alright, from today. Richard Murray thought the meeting was all about him and had a good old cry: “I was disappointed with the treatment I got last year, considering what I’ve tried to do for this club.” Yep, those ruddy customers. Pain in the ass aren’t they Rich.
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As expected the club announced Russell Slade today as not the club’s new head coach, but it’s manager. The first time an individual has carried that title under Roland Duchatelet not just at Charlton, but at any of his clubs. He has signed a 3-year contract.
No one was witness to see if Meire’s nose grew bigger but she said: “Russell has vast experience in the division and is a two-time League One Manager of The Year. He joins us as Manager on a long-term contract and his appointment represents the start of an exciting new era at the club under his guidance.”
This certainly spells a change of direction from the owner, and also from Meire who from only weeks ago was telling customers not to raise their expectations has now charged her new employee with a target of promotion.
“We don’t underestimate the challenge of getting Charlton back into the Championship.We believe Russell is the man to help us achieve this and, with the help of everyone involved in the club, ensure that Charlton have a successful 2016/17 campaign.”
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Although he is meant to be on his holidays Russell Slade’s current club Cardiff City have announced that he has left the club by mutual agreement.
Slade was made Cardiff’s head of football at the end of the season, moving upstairs after leading the Welsh club to an 8th place Championship finish. Clearly Slade wasn’t happy with losing his managerial job and has been in the frame for a host of vacancies since.
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What an absolutely heart warming story AFC Wimbledon’s rise from the ashes is. The real Dons will be a honour to join in League One next season.
With Millwall’s defeat on Sunday to Barnsley the make up of next season’s League One is now complete and with the Dons and Lions with us, it does give the league a much more geographical north/south spread. The furthest the Addicks will travel is to Fleetwood, one of two teams we have never played before. AFC Wimbledon being the other.
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With news that Rochdale’s Keith Hill could not “agree terms” and would rather stay in Rochdale than move to Charlton, that Russell Slade is now in the sights of Blackburn and the Nigel Adkins’ trail has gone a little cold, it is skipper Johnnie Jackson who is now installed as the bookies favourite.
After the fruitless efforts to hire Chris Wilder were carried out in the media, Duchatelet has covered his search for a new manager in a security blanket. Mind you the day we were expected to announce a new manager the Belgian instead was at press conference to unveil that he has ‘bought back’ Sint-Truiden when he openly trolled Addicks’ fans about the pitfall’s of foreign ownership. More from me on that another day.
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Doctor Kish has revealed that a new manager could be announced in SE7 today. Russell Slade seems the most likely nominee with the newly appointed Cardiff City head of football as low as 1/2 with the bookies.
Slade moved from Leyton Orient to Cardiff as the Bluebirds manager in October 2014 replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Slade was pretty unpopular at Cardiff mostly due to his efforts to steady the ship and get rid of high earners, which were his orders, but he did achieve positions of 11th and 8th in his two seasons.
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I could never get seriously worked up about the Ticket Office Manager, Mandy whatsit. How she was part of Meire’s senior management team was laughable. Do you think old Betty at Bluewater is on Showcase Cinema’s senior management board? Mandy, a Palace fan, sold and arranged tickets. Badly.
Anyway it turns out that after a little bit of a tiff with fellow Meire bottom licker, David Joyes, Mandy has resigned. Walked out. Gone. Anderson-Myers famously thought that we still had a chance of survival weeks after we were officially relegated. Mind you Betty probably doesn’t understand the plot to Captain America: Civil War.
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Well apparently he is Charlton’s new chief scout and head of recruitment. Despite Meire suggesting that a new manager would be appointed first and allowed to pick his staff, the club have gone ahead and selected 52-year old Steve Head anyway. According to SLP’s Rich Cawley, Head was one of the original four on a short list first drawn up over a month ago, three months since Duchatelet said that we need to improve “adult scouting” and just the seven months since Phil Chapple left for Fulham!
Head was hired from Wolves, where he had been since last August. Before that he was at Wolves for 9 months and prior to that Reading, where he played as a junior, for almost two years. How you put together a long term recruitment strategy in short spells like that I am not sure!
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Dour, paranoid, control freak Billy Davies is the latest name to be linked with the Charlton job. Davies is a serial authority hater who bears grudges. Roland Duchatelet, Katrien Meire and Davies are a match made in hell and either the media are bored of inactivity and silence coming out of the club or Meire wants to practice her fine man-management skills.
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May 21
The intense loathing of Alan Pardew. Uniting football fans since 2007.
As clubs start to issue their ‘not retained list’ the Addicks have very few players actually out of contract this summer.
Only young Serbian keeper Marko Dmitrovic, World Cup ‘star’ Reza Ghoochnannejhad, Joe Pigott and Zak Ansah are recognizable names that have their contracts ending. From the U21 squad stopper 20-year old Dillon Phillips, who played 37 games for National League champions Cheltenham before injury curtailed his season and Ayo Obileye, who had a spell on loan at Dagenham & Redbridge are two noticeable exits.
Both Callum Harriott and Alou Diarra have their contracts ending but have a one-year extension offer built into their deals. I would suspect that Harriott will feel it’s time to move on after being at The Valley since the age of 9, and Diarra’s salary is now out of range.
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For my 16-year old son, following Charlton recently has not become so joyous. His first Charlton memories were of Paulo DiCanio and Darren Bent. How things have changed, and although I am pretty sure we have gone through the stage where the Addicks might lose him to someone else, he has in the last season or so taken a little shine to his local team Maidstone United.
He has been to a number of matches with his mates, and their relatively new Gallagher Stadium is just around the corner from his school. I have encouraged him to go along and enjoy some grass roots local football as I did at the same age when me and my mates used to nip along to watch Bromley and Welling whenever Charlton were away.
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Somewhere in a small village in Belgium with CARD stickers adorning it’s lamp posts, the local idiot has escaped. Now, one would think she might be found at her place of employment in London, SE7 trying to fill numerous vacancies that include a manager, an assistant manager, a director of football, a chief scout, a head of communications, a commercial manager, a team doctor, a sports scientist and a fitness coach. Or her and her senior management team (sic) would be looking at ways to sell more than 3,000 season tickets or talking to players about their upcoming contracts. But no.
Meire was at the Telegraph Business of Sport conference at the BT Centre in London. An interesting place for someone that has been told not to talk to the media. This time at least she wasn’t given a stage, but she was in the audience.
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“Charlton Athletic can confirm that following discussions with Northampton Town manager Chris Wilder and his assistant Alan Knill over the vacant managerial role at The Valley, the club has been unable to reach an agreement.” (more)
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That is what Chris Wilder has demanded from Roland Duchatelet as he and Alan Knill discuss contract terms with Charlton to be their 7th manager/head coach in just over two years. Today both clubs announced that permission had been given to Wilder and his assistant Alan Knill to open discussions, although it is thought that Wilder at least had a conversation with the Belgian owner last week.
Compensation on the year Wilder and Knill’s contract has to run has been agreed and those contracts have break clauses in them allowing a move. Wilder and Knill are the archetypical journeymen football people. Good people, but neither would be more than comfortable financially and they will feel they deserve their opportunity following recent success at Northampton and, for Wilder anyway, Oxford United. I don’t begrudge it them at all.
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Farewell Jose, see you around some time. Possibly after Chris Wilder sticks two fingers up at Roland Duchatelet due to team interference and replacement Nebojsa Vignjevic takes us dangerously close to the bottom four of League One. I’ll put you down for March 2017 Jose.
I know, I’m in that kind of mood.
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A 3-0 defeat. Probably could have got evens on that before the game. Congratulations to the Clarets on their title.
Anyway enough about the game. What an awesome day for Charlton fans as chaos reigned at The Valley. Despite sniffer dogs, over zealous searches, 100’s of additional security, aggressive stewarding, a net behind the length of the Covered End and more police, with some bazaar crowd control tactics, than SE7 has seen for many a long year, it was a landmark day for Addicks as we thrust our plight into the forefront of the national media and the conscious of fellow football fans everywhere.
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The last miserly game of a torrid and destructive football season. Not one Addick will shed a tear when the curtain falls tomorrow afternoon. Burnley fans will be in celebratory mood whilst Charlton fans mischievous and angry.
CARD have been a little bit low key this week allowing the buzz around what may happen on Saturday fill the space and pose questions. I know however there is a lot planned for the watching Sky TV cameras making life once again uncomfortable for Ms Meire, the self-titled Senior Management Team (sic) and that oaf of an owner Roland Duchatelet, up a little bit earlier than normal from his coffin to get his weekly football fix via a dodgy internet feed.
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Congratulations to Burnley. Proper little club (pop: 87,000), owned by local businessmen with a grounded but forward thinking vision. A club that didn’t flaunt FFP to win promotion last time, and did not risk it all once in the big time, but made friends by playing the right way. Very much like us after relegation in 1999, they held onto players, added astutely and boldly in the case of Andre Gray, but most importantly the owners backed their very bright and visionary young manager.
Part of me was hoping that Burnley would still need to win at The Valley on Saturday. I love the drama. But I’m glad we can park that side story and the Clarets will deservedly be promoted whatever happens. In fact as in now tradition they will wipe the floor with us and win the title.
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I’ve been celebrating Leicester goals and results more than my own team in recent weeks. It wasn’t hard to be fair, but I think we can all join in the celebrations tonight as Leicester are crowned Premier League Champions. Champions, for real, and I really don’t think anything is comparable in world sports to what the Foxes have just achieved.
Leicester have truly resuscitated our dreams. I know Chelsea, Man City, Man U fans et al are all happy for them as well, but that’s mostly because of an ‘anyone but them’ wish but for fans of football club’s like ours, it is what we all go to football for. The hope, the fairytale, the slightest improbable chance that one day Charlton, or Cardiff, or Crewe, or Cheltenham might just do what Leicester have just done. Sport is the impossible, football is the impossible and Leicester City have just kept those dreams alive.
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There had been a fair bit of ill feeling towards hosting a Player of the Year award this season, for obvious reasons, but it is important to remember that this is a fan-organized event outside of the club’s grubby hands. In fact Katrien Meire attempted to have the evening taken in house but that was rebuffed by the joint organizers Jean Heulin and Ian Wallis, who work tirelessly to put the event on.
This has always been a fan’s ‘do’ and began in 1971 and has continued through other relegation’s and the period away from The Valley.
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So low had any confidence in a Charlton result got that when the commentator on BBC Radio 5 read out the latest score from Elland Road as 1-0 to Leeds after they scored, I actually stopped and thought that we are so bad that we must have somehow contrived to have two goals taken away from us!
In all honesty I felt so removed, so empty during the game that it was hard to care when JBG and then Lookman scored, mind you we should never scoff at beating Leeds even though they are a fully signed up member of the looney tune foreign owner club. Blackpool continued their protests today against the Oyston family with 3,000 marching on Bloomfield Road before the game, which included I noticed a Charlton flag. The Tangerines lost 4-0 to promoted Wigan, which pretty much condemns them to another relegation. Let us just close our eyes and think about for a second.
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News breaking this morning by someone close to the situation that yesterday before kick off Chris Solly was dropped from the squad and Johnnie Jackson from the starting XI. This at the insistence of Ms Meire. The reason? Both Solly and Jacko were a little bit too honest at Thursday night’s sponsors’ dinner.
A lot of stuff came out of that evening with almost every player that was willing to talk about off the field activities damning in their comments of the leadership and direction of the club. Almost to a man they agreed that this is the most unnecessary of relegations.
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Football took second place today at an anarchic Valley as Addicks upped the protests against Pinnochio, Judas and Roland Rat. 5,500 Charlton and Brighton fans marched on The Valley before the game in a fantastic show of fans being united against a noxious owner. The game was less than 30 seconds old when it was stopped for 7 minutes after hundreds of black & white beach balls were thrown onto the pitch as thousands of balloons of the same colour floated around the stadium.
Of course in true Charlton style, Brighton then scored in the 8th minute, which was really the first!
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Whilst relegation has been an obvious outcome to a calamitous season, I am finding it hard to digest. Looking at that League One table and the top of League Two does not scream ‘Ooh a new ground’ it shouts ‘up yours.’
The days after the Bolton game have produced a whole range of stories, with I am sure many more to come. Roland Duchatelet was at The Valley today and meetings continue with what Meire called the Senior Management Team this afternoon in a London hotel. Undoubtedly whilst it should be Meire’s future on top of the agenda I would expect it to be Jose Riga.
It is also understood that Paul Elliott planned to meet with Duchatelet, although there will be no uplifting videos or media meetings. The owner was greeted this morning at The Valley gates by a flashmob of Addicks complete with banners. Good work.
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Not the way you want to spend your dying days. I admire and pity those fans of Bolton and the 253 Addicks who were in attendance yesterday. It must have been truly wretched to watch as both clubs only underlined how rubbish they both are.
Two shots on goal and a disorganized and dreadful performance is what those 253 Addicks got to see and they witnessed the majority of the playing and coaching staff slink away down the tunnel at the final whistle. You can probably guess who walked over to applaud those hardy Addicks. As for the others, you only proved how little heart you had for a battle. We are even less interested in you, than you are in us. Believe me.
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City of London
