Jul 19
By this time in 2011 Chris Powell had signed 12 new players. As a reminder they were John Sullivan, Bradley Pritchard, Cedric Evina, Paul Hayes, Dale Stephens, Danny Green, Nick Pope, Ruben Bover Izquierdo, Rhoys Wiggins, Danny Hollands, Michael Morrison and Matt Taylor.
There were 19 in total by the time Powell signed free agent Yann Kemorgant in September after the window shut. The rest as they say is history
Please click for moreIn no order I am listing 20 Players that left a enduring impression on me in my almost half a century of being an Addick.
20 Players to commemorate me writing this Blog for 20 years and at no. 6 is Yann Kermorgant.
Please click for moreSo, what did we find out yesterday.
Andy Scott will be the key decision maker in choosing a new manager, as well as bringing in and selling players this week. Andy is a busy man. Charlie Methven is keeping his counsel and the merry band of other investors and board members are silent.
Please click for moreGood riddance to old fruit loop rubbish. 6 years to the day that Roland Duchatelet added Charlton to his football club collection, we are rid of the old scroat after the EFL finally ratified East Street Investments purchase for a sum guessed to be in the £50m range.
After the narcissist ownership of Tony Jimenez and Michael Slater backed by the secretive and shall we say complicated assets of Kevin Cash, we were very glad then to see a new owner with fresh ideas take the club on in January 2014. Especially after Cash cut Jimenez’s credit card up and for the longest time the club survived on a shoestring.
It’s hard to even fathom that 20 years ago today we were at work unsure as to whether the computers would even come back on after we came back from the new Millennia celebration. Millennials can look up that near calamity here.
2019 has flown by, work has been the busiest I have known it since I’ve been in Bermuda, the results have been bloody good though, but absolutely exhausting and it didn’t surprise me to just be told I have almost 4 weeks holiday left for the year.
My predilection for travelling has thus taken a backward seat this year, for which I’m very disappointed with myself. Good news though is that after years of attempting to renovate a house in Sarasota, Florida, which has veered from the tortuous to the exorbitant, it may finally become liveable so that is an exciting development and will be a home from home.
Phil Parkinson’s recent appointment at Sunderland and Gary Rowett’s move to our south-east London neighbours got me thinking of other Charlton connections currently in managerial positions around the leagues.
We all admire Parky, who quietly and almost successfully attempted to rebuild the damage caused by his old mate Alan Pardew with a millionth of the budget. But even the Roman’s would have had difficulty rebuilding the destruction Pardew left behind. The Spiv’s moved him on and replaced him with a certain Chris Powell, and the rest was history. Powell is now part of the England coaching set-up.
It’s great this division isn’t it? So proud of the boys today who fully deserved their point in front of the cameras in which Scott Minto, Lyle Taylor and Chris Powell also proudly watched on.
Fulham probably have the best roster of players in the league, and in a space of a week we have met three of the biggest promotion contenders, and we have ended it with our heads held high.
A big day for Chris Solly, one of our most popular players in what has been a topsy turvey last decade for the club. Solly’s debut was as a substitute in the last game of our wretched Championship relegation season in 2008/9.
That team and the one the next season never really gelled with me as we missed out in the play-offs under Phil Parkinson. Yet youngsters like Solly, Scott Wagstaff and Jonjo Shelvey were little specks of light in a dark tunnel that Chris Powell drove us out of at full speed.
Southend United have sacked Chris Powell today with 7 league games left.
In a very short statement the club said: “The results over a number of weeks, 11 games without a win, has impacted all concerned and immediate changes needed to be made.”
The Shrimpers were buzzing around the play-off’s prior to Christmas, but have not won since the middle of January.
The debate about how good a manager Sir Chris is will go on. It is clear he is not a firefighter manager but a builder of teams. Trouble is very few clubs allow time or finances for that. Southend was a bit of a safe haven for Powell, but he hasn’t put his mark on it, and a top half finish would have given him another season at least.
Very disappointed with that. It’s still bugging me now. At least my hangover has gone. 70 minutes against 10-men, we’d waste time in the same situation, and we couldn’t find the second goal. Lots of huffing, puffing and effort but ultimately not good enough again. No pressure Lyle..
So that’s just 2 points from 9 and a different mood is enveloping us now to that of a few weeks ago as Luton look unstoppable and Barnsley are putting a very nice run together.
What happened? I listened to the 1st half and there wasn’t much to get excited about. At half time I had to go out for the remainder of the afternoon. Later I checked the final score and all hell had let loose.
Grant did well to win the ball out wide and feed Lyle Taylor who tapped home. But then Southend equalized within a couple of minutes. After that Grant had a goal scratched off for offside, but Tarique Fosu was on and was getting in some good positions. From a corner in the 87th minute, Josh Cullen put in an accurate ball and Krystian Bielik headed crisply home in front of 1,600 travelling Addicks.
Perfect. 600 mile round trip on opening day and because our new friends Sky fancy it, the game will kick off at 12.30pm. Nice for those of you that wanted to see the team in the flesh on opening day. Wait, we may even have new owners sat in the stand the old scrote in his laboratory watching on his Belgian telly..
This is followed by our new big rivals Shrewsbury Town at The Valley the week after, then the club’s first ever trip to Accrington Stanley and a game under the lights in SE7 home to Peterborough.
Thank you to Shadow Play for flagging in my comments that Sir Chris Powell is running the London Marathon on Sunday for the charity Prostate Cancer UK. Chris has been a long time ambassador for the charity and it is rare that he is ever seen without the charities pin on his lapel.
I like the Commonwealth Games, it gives lesser nations and athletes a chance on a big stage. Bermuda has only ever won one medal at an Olympics, and five at a Commonwealth Games, the last being a bronze in ten-pin bowling in 1998. Luckily for the rest of the Commonwealth there isn’t a rum drinking contest, because they may have medalled in that as well.
Flora Duffy is the women’s world number one in triathlon, so it was no surprise that she won gold last night in the Gold Coast’s first medal final. She surprisingly missed out on a place at the last Olympics, but has emerged as the world’s best since winning the last two ITU world titles, and despite the weight of 63,000 Bermudians on her strong shoulders she romped home 43 seconds ahead of England’s Jessica Learmonth to claim gold.
On the back of a Kent Live survey showing overwhelming support for Karl Robinson (I’m not sure what the sample was), the last man to have such support, Chris Powell, has been appointed the new manager of Southend United.
Powell played 290 times for the Shrimpers between 1990 and 1996 before moving to Derby County for £750,000.
Would you hire a new employee without speaking to him?
“Charlton Athletic’s new striker Billy Clarke revealed he never met Karl Robinson prior to signing for the club – only having the briefest of chats (on the phone).” More
Just seems a little odd to me. No conversation on a vision, goals, objectives or what KR would demand of Clarke and the other way around.
Tom Rubashow must be rubbing his hands at getting his feet under the desk at Charlton. He is set to start work for the club on January 2nd. If I was him I wouldn’t bother.
The mad crackpot Roland Duchatelet has opened his mouth again:
“He (Chris Powell) is not a clever person and those who think the same are also not clever. In principle we were giving them the advice so they had responsibility and could take responsibility and that is how we work. I find it very stupid that a person who is getting help, an important person for the club, does not accept it. I also find that the activists, some activists at the club, who from their reactions think the coach was right, well they are just stupid people too.”
Dave has it all here.
The video interview is here starting at 1.08.30. Watch him squirm.
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Fans from the Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD) will carry a coffin to The Valley 45 minutes before Sunday’s televised kick-off to symbolise what the club’s owner and chief executive Katrien Meire have done to the Addicks, and they are inviting supporters to line the route to pay their respects.
The mock funeral procession will kick off what CARD intends to be an afternoon of protest and unrest. Other protests are planned that will become apparent during the game, showing live to a national audience.
A CARD spokesman said: “This is not just about the team’s prospects, although they look very grim. It is a measure of the damage being done to Charlton by Duchatelet and Meire, which is unlikely to end with relegation. They are destroying decades of work to build up our club in the name of a soulless experiment conducted by remote control from Belgium. This is not the Charlton Athletic that has been a vital part of so many people’s lives for decades.
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Unless Jose Riga can pull a rabbit out of a hat at Preston tonight I would expect him to start to come under increased scrutiny amongst Addicks. Tonight is Jose’s 7th game in charge and I am starting to wonder if he is not the solution but part of the continuation of the problem.
Riga has been appointed and left/sacked/walked *delete as applicable four times under Duchatelet. He may claim to be his own man, but the facts betray a different image.
Riga was only accepted because he was a known quantity, a decent man, and the best of a horrible bunch of sycophantic no-marks. And frankly Nebojša Vignjević walking into The Valley would have been the end for just about everyone.
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A momentous day. Some incredible video and photographs out there of large protests before and after the game, the post game one attended by many thousands of Addicks making their feelings clear in a passionate but orderly manner. It was a day to remember and sat here tonight I am so proud to be an Addick.
Also, there has been much media attention. Talksport, Channel 5 and the BBC both covered it as did many media outlets and commentators. Rick Everitt was interviewed on Talksport, who talked extensively about the protests today and C5 had Chirs Powell on, bringing a tear to my eye if I’m honest. The protest made the Belgium press and there was a lot of support from other club’s supporters, including Forest fans. Even James Corden mentioned it on Twitter, calling the demise a tragedy. And he has 5.9 million followers.
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The timing of Guy Luzon’s sacking was a surprise to a lot of people but not to Karel Fraeye. He was waiting patiently in the wings confident and ready for the job that he had long been earmarked for. The Interim tag was to appease us, Duchalelet and Meire hopeful that his articulate and open manner would grow on Charlton fans. More engaging with the players especially Johnnie Jackson, all he had to do was turn around the disastrous form of Guy Luzon before being given the job of his dreams full time.
I wrote after Fraeye took over as Interim Head Coach that his ability or lack thereof would stand on its own two feet. His appointment was another piss take, but there would be no hiding place. Time would judge him in front of us all.
After his 9th game which has yielded two wins in Fraeye said “To be fair, we’ve had an away game at Middlesbrough, an away game at Birmingham, an away game at Burnley and a home game against Ipswich.” Yes Karel my old son this is The Championship. It does not suffer fools gladly.
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Huddersfield became the 5th Championship club this season to rid themselves of their manager this morning when they showed Chris Powell and Alex Dyer the door, this after a respectful 2-2 draw away at Reading last night.
Powell was appointed last September and I think has done well to operate within very tight budgetary restraints. He had, unlike us, used the loan market well and Town currently have 5 more points than Charlton with little investment and the Terriers best players sold from underneath him. Sounds familiar.
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Tonight’s result and performance makes last season’s 3-0 win all the more remarkable.
The worrying thing about tonight is that, Diarra rested aside, it was probably our best team with the players available, alongside a very impressive bench. Cousins however, should never play left side of midfield again. Never.
The question, and I am sounding like a broken record, but the question is how does Luzon change it? Who does he have, where are the options?
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Part one of Luzon/Duchatelet/Meire’s summer transfer strategy was executed today with the announcement of 15 players released.
They are: Tal Ben Haim; Simon Church; Chris Eagles; Roger Johnson; Lawrie Wilson; Oguchi Onyewu; Neil Etheridge; Jack Munns; Harry Osborne; Harry Gerard; Kadell Daniel; Kurtis Cumberbatch; Kieran Monlouis; Rhys Browne; Levander Pyke.
A mixture of the unfortunate attrition of young pros who were unable to step up plus 7 first teamers. My only disappointment is seeing Ben Haim go, although it was apparently his own decision. Not so much disappointed but sad to see Lawrie Wilson and Simon Church move on.
The Welshman scored just 10 goals in Charlton colours, but his work rate could never be questioned, but I expect his career will have to continue down a division.
Lawrie Wilson’s form dipped this season after an excellent 2014/15 season, when I personally thought he was player of the year. He was very friendly with Hamer, Morrison, Hughes and Jackson and an integral part of Chris Powell’s squad but he was sidelined under both Peeters and Luzon and the writing was on the wall. However I am pleased that he was able to come back to the club where he began his career to show us what a great pro he is. Best of luck Lawrie.
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9 months ago 1,600 Addicks welcomed Bob Peeters’ new look team with 7 new signings at Griffin Park, and most left with a positive feeling. It was a gritty Charlton performance that Charlton fans could relate to. Yet the biggest reservations pre-season were over the unknown head coach and the lack of obvious goals in the side. Roland Duchatelet had added some much needed quality, but on the face of it, Peeters’ squad was thin and lacking in Championship experience.
Nonetheless by the time pre-season promotion favourites Derby came to The Valley we were three games unbeaten and Peeters had warmed the Addicks’ fans with his over enthusiastic tête-à-tête with then Wigan boss Uwe Rosler the game before.
The Derby game was a little surreal if we are honest. Peeters’ passing game, still a work in progress, was some of the best I had seen for a long time, but the Valley crowd came across as unsure to what they were witnessing. However it was a great 3 points won at a spruced up Valley and with two away draws following we sat happily in 6th place at the end of the opening month. Please click for more
“It was beyond what any supporters would do to the opposition manager. But I am not surprised with how they were. It was very touching and emotional for me but I am quite embarrassed as well. They have moved on and we have moved on, but it was a great moment for me in my long career and it’s something that I won’t forget.”
If football was played out to a script then today’s game would be it. Academy award winning even.
Chris Powell received a fantastic welcome before kick off and then again at 3 minutes past 3. After that the packed Valley lapped up a superb performance cheering the team to the rafters and at £1.66 a goal I hope some of those thousands that took advantage of ‘football for a fiver’ return to see Luzon’s team again.
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There are certain people that will forever be associated with Charlton Athletic – Jimmy Seed, Sam Bartram, Keith Peacock, Derek Hales, Alan Curbishley for example. Chris Powell can be added to that list, whatever and wherever his career now takes him.
Chris played for the club on three separate occasions, wore the colours of England whilst a Charlton player, and then managed the club, dragging it out of a seemingly endless downward spiral and being one of only four men in 110 years of history to win a league title. Above all of that Chris Powell is a genuine, warm and upstanding individual.
I have mentioned this before, but with no apologies will mention it again. 14 years ago my ex, my son and I spent a 2-week holiday in Italy in the company of Chris and his wife and oldest daughter. I bumped into him literally on the 2nd night at the hotel buffet, and we got talking, the wives got on and we then spent pretty much the rest of our holidays together. He had not long made his England debut and the experience was both surreal and very, very enjoyable and I won’t ever forget it.
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“He’s met the players, he’s had some chats and they are well aware of how he wants to play as well, so we tried that in the first-half.” – Damian Matthew
So Guy Luzon has his work permit, and the Israeli officially becomes the Addicks 24th manager in it’s colourful history.
At the end of the day he will get my support, because wanting the team to be successful is the only way I know. Life and in particular being a Charlton fan is complicated and draining enough without wishing ill of something that has been part of me for 40 years.
When football fans set off for games it is not to support the owner, or the CEO, it is to support a collection of footballers wearing a shirt, representing a club in a community that they have an emotional connection with, and that will be no different on Saturday.
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You can spin it through Google Translator, but if you allow me to paraphrase it for you, Peeters says he was “idolised” by fans, and he thought he had a good relationship with Katrien Meire, but they ended up in conflict. The supporters could see we needed better players, but the owner thought he was exaggerating.
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Football is all about the blame game, whether we like it or not. Personally my only blame laid at the door of Bob Peeters was his tactical naivety, and as time went on I questioned whether he was able to get his points across to the players.
However Peeters was responsible for introducing a momentous change in the way Charlton played the game. Some of our play was truly inspiring and I thank him for giving that to me, albeit for a only a tiny amount of time, but it is something I will remember.
Peeters’ trouble, our trouble, is the squad is made of straw and has more perforations in it than a Belgium waffle.
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38% – 62% Watford
36% – 64% Brighton
63% – 37% Huddersfield
37% – 63% Derby
45% – 55% Wigan
39% – 61% Brentford
Our possession stats for the League games played so far.
Probably not a surprise that we only kept our first clean sheet of the season Saturday. Lies, damned lies and statistics and all that, but we have clearly been under the cosh for long periods of games in the six we have played so far.
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Days after Chris Powell got himself back in the game, José Riga looks set to leave Blackpool by the end of this weekend as his peppery relationship with chairman Karl Oyston looks to have irretrievably broken down.
Riga has overseen just 6 games, all lost, but despite this is popular with fans. Matters came to a head with Oyston after he refused to sanction any of Riga’s proposed transfer deadline signings.
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Huddersfield Town appear a good fit for Chris Powell and I warmly wish him every success. He is a good man, a football man and I personally think he will continue to be around the game for a long time and will add to the managerial successes he had at The Valley.
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No surprise to see Loïc Négo leave the club on loan this morning. After Joe Gomez’s performance on Tuesday night, Négo has effectively dropped to 4th choice right back behind Solly, Gomez and Wilson.
Bob Peeters is the 3rd manager that has not rated the 23-year Frenchman and he returns to the Ujpest FC, the club that we ‘bought’ him from in January. Nego follows Reza, Polish Pete, Thuram, Astrit Ajdarević and Anıl Koç out of the club, all signed to help Chris Powell stave of relegation in January.
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“I’m just going to check my work emails luv.”
“Oh, do you have too?”
“I just need to check if anything’s going on at the office, maybe Roly has bought that club in Azerbaijan that he’s been banging on about.”
“Oh, okay then, but can you get me a Stella and a waffle on your way back to the pool, I’m going back in for a swim.”
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Alex Dyer deserves our thanks, not just because of the work he did whilst assistant to Chris Powell but also as advisor and coach to José Riga. His loyalty to the club will always stay with me.
Now, after leaving Charlton at the end of his contract, without any legal stipulations, Alex is free to talk, and talk he did in today’s SLP.
The interview is here and here, and pretty damning reading it makes too.
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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.
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Players contracts has been a topic of supporter’s conversation all season. Charlton won’t be alone in having a scratch squad left after June 1st, and I am sure there will be a record number of professionals available on free transfers.
With the loan players gone, Charlton have 18 players out of contract plus the coaching team of Alex Dyer, Damian Matthews, Karel Fraeye and Jose Riga all contract-less after June 1st.
Today Andy Hughes officially left the club, this on the back of Danny Green and Danny Hollands also moving on, although these two yet to be confirmed by the club.
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“We will back you (Jose) 100%, and I really want you to see and hear for yourself a rip-roaring Valley because it will send shivers down your spine.” – what I wrote the day José Riga was appointed.
With rumours growing that Paul Hart will leave the club in the summer to embark on a much bigger challenge, many are talking of what Roland Duchâtelet’s plans are for Jose Riga.
Riga has acheived his goal and I think he has acted in a warm and very professional way in what were very difficult circumstances. He has endeared himself to players and fans, even to the most-avid of Chris Powell supporters, and gone about his job with the minimum of fuss.
Helped no doubt by Alex Dyer and Damien Matthews, who also should take great credit, as well as senior pros such as Johnnie Jackson and Andy Hughes, who was the centre-piece of the immediate post game celebrations on Tuesday, Riga’s ability in quickly adapting to new surroundings and mostly talking in a foreign language has been outstanding. Add to this the non-stop cycle of crucial games, which would’ve not allowed him a lot of time on the training ground to implement his ideas and philosphies, this has to be his greatest achievement in football, in what I maintain has been his biggest ever job.
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I watched some of the U21 game last night against Brighton on their Player service. Some of the passing and movement from the young Addicks was exceptional and they were very unfortunate not to win. Craig Mackail Smith, the most experienced player on the pitch, scored a peach of a 94th minute equaliser.
Anyway the reason this is relevant today is that in goal for the Addicks was a 15-year old called Jordan Beeney, who despite being 6 years younger than the age group, was calm and confident in the bits I saw, but I did wonder why Dillon Phillips wasn’t playing and this morning we found out why.
“Charlton keeper Yohann Thuram-Ulien has refused to travel for tonight’s crunch Championship match at Leeds United.” (more)
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From the League Managers Association website:
“Following my sacking, the first thing I want to do is give my most sincere thanks to the superb Charlton Athletic fans for their continued and unconditional support. I have always maintained a wonderful relationship with them both as manager of the Club and during my three different spells as a player.
“Often when something is new people suspect it, but I will just focus on my qualities.”
Life after Chris Powell didn’t look much different. José Riga selected a side not unlike one Powell would have picked, there was lots of commitment and effort and we still can’t score for toffee.
Riga did begin with Sordell up front, who sounded lively but missed a couple of golden opportunities to give us the three points we desperately needed. Thankfully Hamer was chosen over Thuram and Riga also picked AA and Reza to start. Mind you if Powell had taken off the Iranian for Pritchard with half an hour left the Powell haters would have gone epileptic!
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Because that will tell me everything I need to know about José Riga’s role at Charlton.
Riga may just sit in the stands and allow Dyer and Matthews to pick the team, but they won’t in a million years put Thuram in over Hamer. Nego, AA and Reza may all deserve to start after what happened on Sunday, but Thuram over Hamer will mean Riga is no more his own man than Nookie Bear.
Yesterday I felt sadness, not because we sacked a manager, but because Roland Duchatelet stabbed the club in the heart. To Duchatelet we are not a community, we are a business. I am not a supporter, I am a customer. He talks of fan experience, well in a week he has put the prices of season tickets up, tried to remove fans from the front rows of the Upper North, insist others move their seat, and make Crossbars membership compulsory for a rather large price tag, then wants to dictate to the manager which team to pick, and then unceremoniously sacks him when he doesn’t jump to his tune and brings in one of his “company men” who when Addicks were fighting political elections was designing IT systems for a French insurance company.
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A difficult and surreal day.
Undoubtedly we will hear from Chris in the coming days, I can imagine the clamour from the TV companies to get him on the sofa as we approach the business end of the season, but hopefully he will get some quality time to spend with his family before doubtlessly appearing in the frame for all manner of jobs in the summer.
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A part of Charlton Athletic Football Club died this morning. Whether you were a Powell fan or not, the way Roland Duchatelet has undermined Powell and his coaching team is utterly disgraceful and the future of our football club looks sadly depressing.
It was inevitable that one day I would wake to news that Powell had gone. Talk last week of “footballing issues” made that pretty obvious. I hear that Powell argued with Duchatelet about team selection before Sunday’s game and we all can make our own conclusions on being unable to agree “over the club’s football strategy going forward.”
Powell is a man of immense principals, a man who played the game in the right way and refused to be dictated to by the new owner. Chris would have known on Sunday that his time was up. Losing to Sheffield United and going bottom of The Championship gave Duchatelet every excuse he needed and those uninterested in the goings on in SE7 will probably shrug their shoulders at another manager being sacked.
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Well I hope the players and coaching staff woke up this morning with more stomach for the fight than me. I got up this morning feeling like I’d been hit by a bus with a very negative state of mind. Talking to my brother and a few mates who were up there did not help.
My heart goes out to all of you that made the journey and had to endure a long and thoroughly despressing trip home.
I was very nervous before the game, probably because I am so unused to seeing us live on the television, and frankly this was another to consign to the rubbish bin tagged Charlton’s TV games.
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Chris Powell has told the SLP that he has agreed the financial terms of a new contract but there still needs to be discussions over “footballing issues.”
Let’s look at the positive first. Duchâtelet has by offering him a fair financial incentive made it clear that he wants Powell to stay at the club. Powell likewise has made it public that financially the owner and he are on the same page, and that money will not be the principal factor.
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BBC’s Late Kick Off shown in London and the South East focuses on Roland Duchatelet’s ownership of Standard Liege and Charlton tonight. Video clip here. The programme begins at 11.20pm.
A lot of what I have seen is frankly no more than we know already, although the BBC journalist appears positively thrilled when Standard’s Jean-Francois de Sart (photo), who oversees their youth academy, happily announces that Standard’s players not deemed good enough will come to Charlton and the Addicks best players will go to Belgium.
We perhaps should forgive de Sart talking not in his mother tongue, but hearing that will have Charlton fans fuming, just as Duchatelet confirming that our best players could be sold. What’s new some of you ask, but I don’t get what benefit selling, say Poyet to Standard has over say Tottenham? It’s like your missus going to the bank to get you out a tenner. In many ways that was your tenner anyway. Wives, please don’t write in and complain, you get my point.
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It was little over a week ago now since Roland Duchâtelet announced in front of a large audience that he was discussing Chris Powell’s contract “for the coming years.”
That night Powell and Alex Dyer cancelled an appearance at Bromley Addicks, probably to avoid difficult questions from an audience as fans assumed that negotiations were ongoing. That was Thursday.
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Those of you that followed today’s press conference would like me have had an overwhelming postive yet anticlimatic feeling by the end of it. The actual conference itself only lasted a little more than 15 minutes and this was followed by journalists questions that weren’t captured by the Official Site, but some of which were relayed on Twitter by journos in the room.
Duchatelet again spoke about the history of the club and the importance and attraction of the youth set-up as well as making the supporter experience at The Valley better. The Belgian is a big believer in Financial Fair Play and Richard Murray again said that finally the club is on a sound financial footing.
RD said there were no plans to leave The Valley and that the pitch would be replaced at the end of the season. Category One status for the academy is also under consideration.
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Does anyone listen to 5 Live’s Monday Night Club? I am a regular podcast listener and the show accompanies me to and from work in the early part of the week and it is usually a very enjoyable indepth conversation. It’s just that last night, the studio which included regular host Mark Chapman, Ian Dennis and Steve Claridge broke away from banging on about Leeds’ woes for a minute and started talking about the Addicks.
Claridge mentioned that “someone got a text from Chris Powell the other day and said that he and the people that are bringing the players in are not in complete harmony.” Claridge has a big mouth although he patently stops himself from continuing the story. Clearly CP needs to be careful who he texts, then again if he fears for his job, which he must do, what does it really matter?
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Gut wrenching and of course the internet is full of people who didn’t go castigating Powell for team selection, substitutions and general tactical uselessness.
I’d rather listen to those that got off their backsides and travelled to support the club, when they most need it. Strangely they seem to see it a bit different.
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Ok, so where do we begin?
Let’s look at those going out. Dale Stephens to Brighton is done, undisclosed of course. Good luck to him, my last personal memory of Dale was his winner at St Andrews.
Yann Kermorgant was back at Sparrows Lane today and I am trying to understand what has gone on before and what can still happen in the next 36 hours. It appears Duchâtelet has offered him a contract extension, but one that Yann wasn’t particularly happy with. He has also insisted that Powell be guaranteed his future too. I wouldn’t think for a minute that the Belgium was very happy with this and with that accepted the £500,000 on offer from Bournemouth.
This has almost certainly been Powell and Duchâtelet’s first clash. The Daily Mail reported earlier that Powell’s future was now uncertain. That is hardly news, and I really don’t think Powell is a quitter.
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It is looking increasingly like both Kermorgant and Stephens will be gone by the end of the week. According to witnesses Yann’s forlorn clapping of the travelling support last night at Doncaster told them all they needed to know.
Sky Sports are reporting that a fee has been agreed between Bournemouth and Charlton and Wyn understands it to be £500,000.
Yann is a huge loss to the side and it’s supporters. Alongside Johnnie Jackson, Yann has stood for everything that has been good about Chris Powell’s reign as manager. Google any range of Charlton highlights from the past couple of years and there he will be stood, chest puffed, steely grin, arm raised, our Breton warrior. But not for much longer it would seem.
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Today both Chris Powell and Michael Slater took to the media to tell their stories. Slater turned again to his pet, the South London Press and like his partner, Tony Jimenez, Michael decided now was a good time to write his own fairytale chronicle of their time at The Valley.
“People may complain about the management style and the staff overhaul. But sometimes, tough decisions have to be made. There is no getting away from it – there is a real need to drag the club, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century.”
He wouldn’t remember of course what happened at the turn of the century because Slater was busily watching Manchester City brushed aside by a tatty old Charlton as we lifted the Division One trophy aloft.
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After that 1st half there won’t be many Addicks voting for a mid-season winter break.
I was pretty removed from today, sadly in the camp of league being more important Cup, mostly because the club have failed us so horribly in cup competition for so long.
I was pleased to see that CP put out a strong side, but with Solly and Stephens missing, Sordell injured and Stewart gone, it only underscored our threadbare squad. Both Liege players were not signed in time for the original game and were on the sidelines. I am sure they were impressed.
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Confusing signals in Addickland today.
Sure, it was no suprise that we signed goalkeeper Yohann Thuram-Ulien on loan from Standard Liege, as it has been talked about ever since Duchâtelet took us over and the Belgium press had confirmed a done deal for most of last week.
Confusing in that I question why we need another goalkeeper, and whether or not Thuram has been foisted upon Powell. Duchâtelet will want Thuram to play games, because he cost him €2m and under Liege manager Guy Luzon he has only played 3 Pro League games and 3 times in the Europa Cup.
On the flip side, this may just be the beginning of a Duchatelet/Powell rebuilding process and this may just be the start of a plan to strengthen the squad.
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Roland Duchâtelet first statement today included a welcome to Katrien Meire, who one assumes will be Roland’s eyes and ears at The Valley.
“Richard (Murray) will act as the spokesperson for the board, just as Chris Powell will represent the first team, and both men are hugely respected by our fans. I would also like to introduce Ms Katrien Meire who has been appointed onto the board and will be working at The Valley from now on.”
Ms Meire is currently the Legal and International Relations Manager at Standard Liège, which roughly translates into business leader with a legal background.
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So, what next?
On Friday Charlton became the 7th football club that Roland Duchâtelet owns or has an interest in. In 2003 Duchâtelet took over at Sint-Truidense, where he was originally encouraged to get involved as a sponsor. The then commercial manager had written to some of the wealthiest men in Belgium, and living locally Roland got his first introduction to football ownership.
He had to relinquish ownership of Sint-Truidense when he bought Standard de Liège in 2011 as both teams were in the same division at the time, and like only a man can, Roland gave it to his second wife.
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I have been at times an apologist for Chris Powell and he still retains my 100% backing, but I have noticed a little swell of support in ending his reign from some quarters. My problem with that is two-fold.
I personally think he is the right man to take this club forward in the medium to long term, but secondly and more pertinently, if a club is to sack a manager then the supporters need total trust in the board to make the right second decision. The first decision is easy.
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In what must be some sort of record three Championship managers were sacked within a 24-hour period starting with David Flitcroft and ending with Owen Coyle with Dave Jones in the middle. Just for good measure Fulham also put Martin Jol out of his misery.
Welcome to the silly season as chairmen everywhere with Christmas and the window looming write to Santa asking for new managers, but sadly they themselves haven’t been good throughout the year.
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I notice that the press has been asking Chris Powell and his players more assertive questions regarding the contract situation.
The contract expirations have been known for long while among those close to the club, but now it is gathering a little more pace within the media. Powell and numerous players that includes Jackson, Morrison, Hamer, Wiggins, Cort and Pritchard will want at least to be involved in discussions as we enter the near I am sure, but I hear none of the players have been approached yet.
Those players will sense that the January transfer window is only around the corner and I am sure agents, good ones anyway, are already planning some options for those that will be without a contract come June.
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Polegate, East Sussex
