Sep 18
It’s been a quiet week in our corner of South London, less so in the south of Sheffield where Chris Wilder’s return is getting all of the media attention.
We can, as Nathan Jones would say, only affect things that we can control, and after their stuffing at Ipswich a reaction was probably going to come anyway.
Please click for morePhil 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.
Another message from Roland Duchatelet.
“I would also like to pass on my congratulations Norwich City and to Chris Wilder and Sheffield United on their respective promotions to the Premier League.”
Honestly, how does the old fart’s brain work? Not one mention of Lee Bowyer in his latest OS missive, but clearly wants to remind us that he almost nearly signed up Chris Wilder as our manager. No mention of the fact that Wilder told Duchatelet to stick it and he then went and hired Russell Slade instead.
And that worked out well.
Huh.
Roland Duchatelet’s interview today with Jim White on talkSPORT started rather sedentary, but by the end of it will have had the vast majority of Charlton fan’s blood boiling.
The man is an out and liar and a grade one delusional fool. If you haven’t listened then click the link but make sure the cat is outside and you are close to a strong drink.
Port Vale winning at Walsall last night thanks to a Chris Eagles stunner (photo) not only means that Port Vale have it all to play for on Saturday, but so do the Addicks. Oh yes!
Victory for Charlton and a draw between Walsall and MK Dons who meet will mean that Karl Robinson’s team will hit the heady heights of a 12th place finish, which by my calculations is half way! Only problem with this is that we would forego finishing top of the bottom half, which Karlo set as our ambitious target. Lamentably bottom of the top half has nowhere near as much kudos.
At the real bottom of the table the final relegation place is between Bury, Gillingham and Vale. Bury and Vale both have ultra tough tasks with the Shakers away at play-off chasing Southend and Bury at Fleetwood, who need to win to have a chance of snatching 2nd place from Bolton. The Gills have it in their own hands away at nothing-to-play-for Northampton Town.
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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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Sarasota, Florida
