Disagree Ted. Powell failed last night because we lost. Look at our / his record so far THIS SEASON ( he has already had the plaudits for previous ones) against Championship sides... Bournemouth LOST 2-1 ( they have gone on to lose 6-1 and 5-1 in this league....) Middlesbrough LOST 1-0. One shot on target, calamity goal Barnsley DRAW 2-2 Doncaster LOSING 1-3 saved by Mother Nature...worst defending you have ever seen Huddersfield LOST 3-2. Keystone Kops defending and goalkeeping again To use a horse racing analogy, we are plummeting down the handicap fast. To use another one, many of this team deserve leading out into the knackers yard. Sacking Powell is not the only answer, but it is one that has to be strongly considered if we don't get at least five points from Leicester, Watford and Millwall.
@ Captain 1. Laughable for the pro Powell brigade to even mention the words "victim card" , as the entire basis for retaining him seems to be based on that fact that he himself is a err....."victim" ( of the Wicked Owners, of the mud, of refs, of boo boys et al...). Judge him like any other of the 91 managers, not as a Demi God. 2. Very quick to use the old canard about "fringe players" I see....strange how the same always call for the likes of Stephens to be given a chance, yet when the fail ( again) they are fringe players ... 3. Not the old " he holds the Club dear to his heart line" ....please. Don't we all. So what ? Cloughie loved Forest. Shankley loved Liverpool. They still went down.
Sorry Vol but you CANNOT include the Doncaster result in that list as you dont know if we would have lost it... Its like had we stopped the game against Cardiff / Bolton at home last season then we'd have lost those two as well!! And were you at Huddersfield last night because if not how can you make a basis on the performance based on probably 2mins of highlights... You say we've lost to Championship opposition (rightly so) but then you say Stephens shouldnt play next game because its a League game and he always does poorly against erm... Championship opposition. It could be a case he's playing well to try and show Northern clubs what he can do before the window closes on Monday, if thats the case then I say definitely throw him in on Saturday as it'll be his last chance to put in that performance
And another observation from last night... We played a second string side against a Championship side who had just won 6-1 at the Weekend, the promising signs are there that we are improving
Also it was there turn to defend the swimming pool end AND they were down to 10 men too so would have been much much harder for them.
Plus we had momentum from our goal and the sending off - We could easily have gone into Half-Time at 3-2
The majority of Charlton fans are behind Chris Powell (if they weren't, they wouldn't be chanting 'Chrissy Powell's red army' every week). You want to call all of us a 'brigade'? You were playing the victim card by referring to us as 'attack dogs', when all we are doing is making arguments for sticking with Powell. The entire basis for retaining him is not that he is some kind of 'victim', to say that is laughable. The basis for retaining him is the fact that he has proven himself to be a fine young coach, who has done a superb job over the past two years to get us up a level and stay there. That makes me think he can do it again, and maybe, though I accept this is a long way off at the moment, push us on even further. That is judging him like any of the other 91 managers, as you rightly say he should be judged. You didn't answer my point about the rocky patches we had last season; I don't think we're plummeting downhill fast as you do. Judging the defeat against Bournemouth by their other results, you've been a bit selective - they also beat Wigan at home. Anyone can beat anyone in this league on their day, as we proved by doing the double over Leicester and by taking 4 points off Cardiff. My point here is that it's not necessarily a reliable guide (particularly so early on in the season) to how good we are. I don't understand your point about fringe players - you were using last night's result as evidence that Powell is failing. I pointed out that a team with at least 3 fringe players (Pigott, Wood, Evina, arguably Wilson and maybe Stephens) proved a match for a full-strength Huddersfield side. Yes, we lost. But to judge from the radio commentary we played well, and that for me is a good sign. Powell also gave Cousins a start against Doncaster, and he was our best player IMO. Over the past 2 years he has integrated Solly and Harriott into the first team, and both fully deserve their places; I imagine he will do the same with Cousins - compared with previous managers, this shows admirable faith in the academy which has so far paid off. Other managers might not dare risk a youngster, but Powell has to good effect. Do you remember the atmosphere at The Valley by the end of Parkinson's reign, as we lost at home to Walsall and Swindon? It was poisonous. By appointing a man who loves Charlton as much as Powell does, the fans were united, and you should never underestimate the impact that can have on the team. When we went 2-0 down to Cardiff, the crowd did not get on the players' backs, but kept going, and it led to one of the best nights of football The Valley has ever witnessed. I don't think any other coach (at least anyone we could reasonably hope to attract if we didn't have Powell) could have generated such a response among the fans. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Chris Powell is the best thing to happen to this club for a very long time. Throwing that away would be a huge mistake.
V-a-V: Which of the club's problems do you think would be solved by replacing The Doctor with Paul Hart or whatever cheap option the owners would find within the set-up?
Maidstone - yes, still a fan of M.A. Could see him at our place. Billy We might have to accept that CP has got the most he can out of this group, in which case Paul Hart is the obvious in house option. Sometimes players respond to a fresh voice, although I would still give CP three games. Captain Sounds like you are still putting Powell on a pedestal. Judge him on this season. League One doesn't could , we shouldn't have been there in the first place. It should be erased from the history books.
Vol, how can you seriously say League 1 doesn't count? 101 points, records broken left, right and centre, means nothing to you, does it? The fact that we shouldn't have been there had nothing to do with Powell, and is irrelevant - we were there. He took a squad which had finished 13th the season before and made them champions. If you don't count that towards judging a manager...well, let's just say we shall never agree. I've given my reasons as to why we should stick with Chris Powell, based on his previous record over the past 2 years. You've given yours based on a few games, the last 2 of which have showed signs of improvement. Sacking him on the basis of a poor start to the season, when Powell has already shown how good he can be, would be wrong IMO.
V-a-V: The club's problems go higher up than the manager. This was also the case with Parky. And I'm sure that if CP gets sacked he will be successful elsewhere, just like Parky.
What I don't get from the people who want Powell out is who would you replace him with. We are skint,we have no money to spend on new players.We have twenty three players out of contract in 2014, we are looking to sell the club.What Manager worth his salt is going to join us? Changing the Manager is not always the answer,just ask Blackburn who finally got rid of Steve Kean, it didn't do them much good. It seems the typical knee jerk reaction from people when we get a few losses,sack the manager.
Someone will always be there to take over, but it's on quality, I'm a qualified coach and obv would take it, We'd get some dodgy manager been out the game far too long, we're not a club that has power to take from lower league clubs anymore. Or as my dad said "Get the Dartford gaffa, he's done well with a smaller budget than the rest of his league opponents"
I hope you stick by Chris Powell. I think he is a very good manager but you will hit sticky patches from time to time. He created your squad on a shoestring budget and you ended last season in a very respectable position While yes I hope we win on Saturday but I hope you lot start to pick up after the international break
I heard he is holding out for the Millwall job. Their current no mark doesnt seem up to the job TC are the rumours right that your shower of sh*t actually manage to score again tonight? 2 games in a row
Captain My own gut feeling is that CP may have got the most, every last drop, out of this current group of players. I take my hat off to him for that. I was at Barnsley in April along with 600 other Addicks when we won 6-0. At the end, the entire staff came over to our end by the tunnel, posed for photos, hugged, did autographs etc. After a unique performance, you could almost touch the team spirit. Fast forward 4 months, and with almost the identical group of players and the same manager...the whole situation is unrecognisable. Don't you think that even Powell is looking at this patchwork squad and wondering if he has done all he can ? What I am saying is if we still have 3/4 points after the Millwall game, some hard decisions will surely have to be taken. I am basing my opinion of Powell on the hard evidence of what I am seeing with my own mince pies.
Back from a nice little break- and we are seriously discussing getting rid of Powell? What will change bring? A manager won't be allowed to bring his own players in and make his own team. And that's what the team needs, a little bit of investment. We're seriously lucky to have CP. we had times last season when fans called for his head- and we went on to finish 3 points off the play offs. The. Gun. Jumping
