You've changed your tune. You've been saying for over a year how bad he is and that virtually anyone would be better, to the extent that at the weekend you implied we're worse off now that under Mr Duchatalet. yellow card for you!!
THanks, Dick. That puts that one to bed. So the spotlight goes back on the manager, and his latest non-naming and shaming of almost definitely Oshilaja. What goes on in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room, yet he has made it public. Fans just don't want to see this sort of thing. Fans, manager and players, the great triangle, or something like that as BillShankly called it. Yet Bowyer continues to wash his dirty linen in public. Not a pretty sight.
I will add a level of defence to the Lee Bowyer thread. he said after saturday that we don't know how bad the situatuion at the club was pre Thomas Sandgaard. Well, Mr Sandgaard made it clear we were on the edge of winking out of existance, so things were obviously very very bad indeed. As I said yesterday, the transfer window last summer was out of our hande - most clubs want to prepare at the end of the preceeding season - we couldn't as we were relegated last game, and under a transfer embargo, which lasted into september as I remember. There is a wave of anger about the whole management structure, including Gallen, which I find very kneejerk - most of the signings have been basic and free given the financial restraints of league 1, and a lot were greeted with pleasure by the fan base - to turn on Steve Gallen now after applauding some of the signings is to admit you know no better so should probably shut up. ben Watson is the stand out - he was warmly recieved and is now being decried as one of our wprst signings ever - why didn't people say how bad he was when we signed him? (Because he wasn't at the time. Some of our fans would happily expect Messi to be signed on 500 quid a week, and then blame Gallen when the guy appeared to be treating the matches with contempt. Bowyer has done a lot of stuff I regard as pretty daft - his man management is near pathetic and there is ample evidence (Williams, Madisson and on saturday probably Oshilaja). He has also delved into the Karel Fraeye world of idiotic line ups , some of which were nothing to do with injuries, but simply a knee jerk reaction to the percieved threat from other clubs. And both of these make his position look unteneable. But there are other factors as well at work, and the players appear to be utterly unmotivated. Most of the fans attacking Bowyer would be unemployed fairly quickly if they behaved in the workplace the way some of our professionals are doing. One or two are hitting the area where having a contract terminated for their attitude would be a good comepensation for how they treat the club and the shirt they wear. There is a lot of stuff flying about right now, and the fans anger is at times departing from reality, but while Bowyer has served up a terrible season for us, the signings are not really something he could have done much about, and there are other factors involved,
I think the truth is the players have lost faith with Bowyer. Criticising players in public have lead to that. With the players we have I still think that another manager would get more out of them.
This is what I believe as well and also look at the players we brought in the last window Smith,Jaiyesimi,Schwartz have had no impact.
OLder fans will remember something similar happening with Andy Nelson, who publicly slated Shipperley after the 5-5, and called the fans "Village idiots". Nelson was revered at the club when I started following Charlton, but ended up with the nickname "Ayatollah" in the dressing room, and fans calling for him to be sacked. He remains the only manager to be sacked twice by Charlton.
Just had a look at the CL thread about Eddie Firmani, to which you also contributed. Before my time, but it seems he was also guilty of calling a player out in public, which led to the player leaving, and things went pear shaped for Eddie after that. There is a pattern here. The same happened to Graeme Souness at Liverpool. Managers who enjoy high popularity at a club seem more likely to make this mistake. I only wish that Bowyer would realise that it is a serious mistake. As he himself said, he is a new manager, and he should look at the top managers and see how they do it. I know that when he first took over he was taking advice from Curbs, but maybe not any more.
From what I hear, many of them were not fit to wear the shirt against Blackpool. That's the lowest they can sink.
Yet our own Albie Morgan isn't good enough for the squad, despite our best midfielder,JF-C being injured.
This is what confuses me. Our midfield is crying out for energy. Albie is perfectly capable of running around a lot and battling for every ball. He can also pass, which is a unique skill looking at our current squad. Until we can find a midfield two that won’t get overrun, we need three in there. One to shield our fragile defence, and two runners. The two runners are Morgan and Smith. The shield would normally be Pratley, now I guess it’s Watson unless JFC is back.
Even Albie would find it difficult when the rest of the team apart from the back 4 are hiding behind their markers.
I naively hope that Matt Smith hasn’t been entirely Charltonised yet. They could play a lovely triangle with Aneke.
You are miles worse now than under the Douche. I was right last year, Bowyer isn't a Championship manager - but he has a League 1 promotion under his belt. Saandgard's first transfer window was very questionable compared with all his chatter - bit Matt Southallish.