The season ahead
Sue Savin and I speculate about the possibility of adding more trophies to the cabinet in Charlton's boardroom
So what does the season ahead hold? No one really knows and uncertainty is part of the interest of football. A recent study of 300,000 matches in different sports carried out by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US (clearly guys with times on their hands) found out that football was the most unpredictable of those studied. However, Charlton keeps us on the edge of our seats more than many teams and often through frustration and disappointment rather than excitement.
Like most of the Addickted, I thought it was time to move on to a new manager. Curbs achieved great things for the club and he's a great guy. His caution served us well as a team with limited resources and we might have achieved even more if Scott Parker had not left for Chelsea mid-way through our most successful season in the Premiership.
However, in the last season or two, we were becoming stale and playing over defensive football that was not going to put bums on seats at The Valley, the achievements of the Rickshaw notwithstanding. My one hope for this season is that we can keep someone up the field when we are defending corners so that we have an outlet and are not played back into trouble again.
My guess is that we are going to see more entertaining football, but not necessarily more successful football. Of course, much depends on whether we can acquire a badly needed creative midfielder. My forecast is that we won't qualify for Europe and we won't be relegated and that we will finish somwhere between 12th and 15th. Which given our budget constraints is good enough.
The club is following the right course by building for the long term, most recently by developing our youth programme in Europe. Broadening the support base remains important which means not just developing the Valley Express, but also efforts in our traditional catchment area. We are a well run club and that is something we should be proud of it and I think it's going to be an interesting season.
posted by Wyn Grant at 9:26 AM
1 Comments:
Football succes for the most part outside the top 4-6 clubs is about confidence, the difference in ability between Charlton, Boro, Villa, Man City and Bolton can be eroded by the confidence of the players and manaegemnt team, not to forget the fans. Dowie has come in and by all accounts he is instilling a level of confidence that the palyers have not enjoyed for a couple of years, confidence does not come just from the training field, it comes from the raw heat of battle on the pitch and much of our seasons sucess will depend on how we perform in our fist 4 games, which wil not be easy and when I originally saw them could not winkle out a point from any of them, although my opinion of Bolton has reduced recently. If we have that bad start then it really will be the responsibility of the management team to ensure that the players see the situation as temporary and enable them to hold their confidence levels whilst at the same time fans wil start calling for the heads of Palace scum, as they will become, very early on. If the players, manager and fans hold their nerve then a comfortable mid table position is achievable, especialy this the new players coming in, however if the fans particualarly get on the back of the management and players then this could be the legacy that Peter taylor gave to Martin O'neils Leicester and an exciting Championship season in 12 months time may beckon.
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