With the league sorted now (just) the powers that be can start planning for the new season, but what would you fellow not606ers like to see? Personally, i'd like to thank Riga for keeping us up but wave him goodbye on Saturday. I don't think he is much better a manager then Powell was, so i'd like to see a new manager in, someone with Championship experience that will bring our exciting youth players through,, speaking of which... Get Poyet on a contract, ANY contract, just so that we can at worst get a decent fee for him! In the best case i'd like to see the team based around the youth. A starting XI involving Pope, Fox, Cousins, Poyet and Harriott, and allowing some of our other exciting players some time to come through (Not not sure Pigott is the answer up front yet, maybe another year in league one?) Contracts for Morrow, Devite and Wilson (not sure what his contract deal is) A few "exciting" new signings, mainly up front. When the season ends and the Loans expire we'll just Have Reza, Church and Pigott, and that will NOT do us any favours next season. I'd also like a Decent RM, nothing against Wilson but he is our back up RB. Ideally him and Solly will start next year but if either him or solly get injured we need cover! Say goodbye to Green, Pritchard and try and sell/loan Nego and Reza.
Coming back to urs for one of the best away days of the year. Hopefully on a Saturday. Leeds fans voted it best away day of the season this week. Had a great weekend in the smoke, even the sun came out eventually.
1.Keep Riga, as long as he knows not to fall into the trap of square pegs round holes as he has been a bit prone. And keep the attacking football, don't settle for draws like we did Bolton. 2. Give Poyet any money he wants, even if it only keeps him til Jan, get a nice fee for him if he signs a deal 3. Sign Dervite, Hamer (sorry Keeper's union here) to new contracts, Morro would like but he's not been as good this season as Dervite in my opinion. 4. Sign a decent striker, back up for RM and LM 5. Sorry Green, I like you too inconsistent, Church, I love the effort but not good enough, Sordell can go to Bolton and never return, Pritchard, thank you for the effort and good times, but not good enough either. 6. Get Astrid on a feckin' diet and have him perm because he has the ability but for some reason just is so so so unfit.
You cannot be serious, you don't think he is much better than Powell? Come on you can't believe that surely? I will leave you with two sets of statistics Powell Six league wins in thirty matches. Riga six wins in fifteen matches. That means Riga is twice as good as Powell. Fact, statistics don't lie.
1. Keep Poyet 2. Keep back 4 of Wiggins, Solly, Dervite +1 from Cort/Morro (Fox is good, but Wiggins better at the moment imho) 3. Keep Poyet 4. Play Solly and Wilson 5. Keep Poyet 6. Work out if AA can actually get to full fitness. If he can, sign him, if he can't, get a playmaker who can. 7. Keep Poyet 8. Get a striker 9. Keep Poyet 10. Get another striker 11. Keep Poyet 12. Take any of the above positions, and get a few people who are better than what we have currently. Done.
Riga's record for Charlton - 6 wins from 15 - 40% rate Powell's record for Charlton - 66 wins from 161 - 41% rate What does that prove? Nothing. But stop spouting crap about Riga being twice as good as Powell. Statistics lie all the time. A man with his head in the oven and his legs in liquid nitrogen is, on average, comfortable. Forget Powell for a moment, as he's gone, and people need to get over it. Riga has done a decent job, but performances like Barnsley and some of the team selections have been poor. But he's done well with the very limited team he's had. Thank you Jose, you've done the job that you were asked to do, and we're a happy bunch tonight, and if I see you in a bar I'll certainly buy you a drink, but if the owners look at the position and decide there's someone better for the long term job, I won't be shedding any tears.
You should calculate points per game, not wins. (For example, four wins, four draws and four defeats is better than five wins and seven defeats). In which case Powell would move a little further ahead. But on the other hand, most of Powell's wins were in Div One. That makes a big difference. That brings up another issue. Powell signed some excellent players on the cheap (and a few duff ones). As far as I know the directors neither brought in any players over his head nor shed any behind his back. He was a real old-style manager. Was Riga consulted about, and did he approve of, signing rubbish like RD's eurotrash and selling Kermorgant for peanuts? If he did, he would be a disaster as our manager. If he didn't, it means he is just a puppet and RD is really running the show. I actually have an alternative theory.That Dyer and Matthew have a much larger say in picking the team and tactics than this board ever recognises. That they did under Powell and that they still do under Riga. In which case the change of manager would have had a relatively limited effect. The directors found a scapegoat for a bad run but the team carried on much as before. This is reflected in the way we have played and some of the ploys and positional choices which have irritated so many posters here but we recognise from Powell's days. Today was like watching Powell's team on one of their better days. Riga has left no obvious personal imprint on this team. This is not a criticism of either Powell or Riga. There are many ways of managing. One good way is to pick the right people and let them get on with it. If the wheels come off, the manager still carries the can, as Powell did, so he is entitled to take the praise too, as is Riga for our very satisfactory end of season. That scenario occurred to me when we signed Obika. Out of all the hundreds, maybe thousands, of players available for loan in the UK and on the Continent, it was too much of a conicidence that our new owner would sign Obika, who was the top name on Powell's shopping list of realistically achievable targets, but of whom RD and Riga are unlikely to have been aware. It was a pretty clear admission that RD realised his limitations after his eurotrash fiasco and decided to rely on the judgment of Powell's old staff instead.
Like all of us, I would love to see Poyet re-sign. But I cannot think of a single reason why he should, In fact he would be raving mad to sign for Charlton, especially in our present nebulous state. What are the reasons a young player signs for a club? Money? There are several clubs who would pay double anything Charlton will offer. Winning trophies and international caps? At Charlton? LOL. Affinity for the area? Probably only a factor in the lower tiers, but Poyet is not exactly a Londoner, is he? Development? He signed for us because his father had faith in the way Powell and (more importantly) Hart, brought on young talent. Hart is leaving, Powell was sacked and Nathan Jones left too. If Hart and Nathan Jones think they would be better off elsewhere, why should Poyet stay? Our present u21 manager is the hapless Jason Euell, though I imagine he will soon be replaced. We don't have a clue who the next first-team manager will be, although it is likely to be another yes-man. Poyet could be sure of finding receiving better coaching elsewhere. Not sure if Real Madrid or Barcelona are interested in him, but I am damned sure Arsenal are and no-one has more faith in young players than Wenger. He might not get a regular game at Arsenal, but he could at a host of other Premiership clubs all with better coaches and facilities than Charlton. It made sense for him to spend his u19 years at a small club away from the limelight, but too late for that now. He is a hot property. Whoever he signs for, he will receive a massive fee up front and a top salary. Why should he share any of that with Roland D? (He's got plenty of his own money). What has Roland D done for him? Please tell me one reason he should stay? He is better advised, and a lot more sophisticated, than Scott Parker or Josh Wright.
Sorry but I don't think he is much better, he was brought in to try and shake things up and get a few extra results (which worked thankfully) but he hasn't shown he is much better tactically and with some of his very bizarre team selection's. Thanks for keeping us up but a new manager is required unless we want another season struggling.
My wish for next season ? That certain fans get real, and stop confusing their non footballing and political agendas with their football ones. We all know who we are talking about here. The same fans who could hardly bring themselves to celebrate at full time last night, because it wasn't their little grinning flat capped hero, doing stage managed press ups on the cross bar. The Powell era made them feel great about themselves, but didn't it nearly do a lot of damage to our club?
Riga saved us from relegation we would have gone done under Powell. You also can't use those stats for Powell because a lot of the wins came in the first division not the Championship. Riga worked with the squad that Powell assembled, without The two best players,Kermy and Stephens and did twice as well as Powell. Riga deserves an enormous amount of credit, it seems that some Charlton fans would rather see us relegated with Powell in charge than stay up with Riga, I just don't get it.
Its not about the welfare of the football club for these fans, its about all sorts of other complicated issues. The same people having multiple orgasms when Powell did his cross bar stunt at Sheff Wed were the ones first out of the Valley at full time last night, with faces like smacked arses.
I don't see any reason to deny that Riga has had a positive impact on Charlton. The only argument is whether he's had a major impact or a minor impact. Before he came in I didn't feel we had any chance at all of staying up. I was resigned ti L1 football next season. I was relieved when we were knocked out of the Cup because of the humiliation we faced in the semi's in front of the nation. And Riga isn't taking the credit himself either, letting the players do the tunnel jumps and the lap of honour, which is right. In fact I used to wonder about what the players really thought about having a manager who took the credit for their efforts, but that's in the past now, it was an era and I can't see any way that CP will get his wish to come back to manage us again one day. As Roy Orbison observed, "It's Over".
