The Valley of sorrow ?

Charlton Athletic are choking this season and no one is there to help them. I just can’t believe my eyes when I look at the results of the respected club from Valley!

It all began when their former manager, Alan Pardew, failed to keep his team in the Premier League at the end of season 2006/2007. Addicks were on the fine form, but had too much of a trail to cut(made by Ian Dowey’s poor work) behind the other teams and they had to make peace with the reality. Plans were being made for the express return to elite, the team was completely rebuilt while there were also rumors about the foreign consortium to buy off the club.

What happened is this: most of the season 2007/2008 saw the team going through the fine campaign, but the other part of the season brought a lot of conflicts in the dressing room which all looked on the real sabotage on the pitch. Instead of the promotion to Premiership or at least play-off, as the result of all the bad atmosphere in the club came the miserable 11th place.

This season is the second and the last to see this ex-Premiership outfit receive money from FA (so called parachute payments) so the Valley club began to cut the expenditures significantly this summer. Key players from last season had been sold: Patrick McCarthy (Crystal Palace), Chris Iwelumo (Wolves), Marcus Bent (Birmingham City), Ben Thatcher (Ipswich), Amdy Faye (Stoke City). Some of the older players with Premier League experience arrived, mostly on loan (Hameur Bouazza, Linvoy Primus, Keith Gillespie, Deon Burton,…), and the only purchased player was Mark Hudson from Crystal Palace.

The club continued with the desperate results this season and the last seat on the standings with the winless run stretching to 13 rounds could only surprise people who don’t really know what is going on in Coca Cola Championship. Alan Pardew was sacked few weeks ago, and the interim manager, Phil Parkinson is going to be at the helm over the next, undetermined period of time. Desperation in the club even got bigger after the last minute conceded goal when the long expected win slipped through their fingers in Derby.

Bad transfer policy and the board’s inability to adapt to the new circumstances are slowly crushing Valley stadium in southeast London. The club that was fighting for Champions League five years ago and held the 7th place in the 2003/04 season in the Premier League has hit the rock bottom and the army of fans is really troubled. Relegation fight will be hard and uncertain ‘till the end, we all remember Leeds United and Leicester City, former giants now spending their days in League One.

In the conclusion: hold on Charlton, if you want to succeed, forget the oldies and give a shot to some youngsters because only they will help you survive.

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