Crisis, What Crisis?

Just when you thought that things couldn't get any worse, well, they just have.

With Monica's sudden departure, not only are we adrift at the bottom but we now would appear to be a ship without a rudder, if thats how you see a Head Coach. We don't know the reasons for his leaving and knowing the way Charlton operate, it's very possible we'll never know. But we can amuse ourselves, as we did back in May and June, with trying to imagine what the hell is going on behind the scenes at our dear old Valley.

1) Ruling out any personal problems, which looking at Monica's departure from his last club are just possible, we have to ask ourselves was he up to the job.

Looking at a few of his quotes on thinkexist would maybe have you thinking that, no, he wasn't.

One obvious pointer would seem to be: “I'm in Miracle on 34th Street. If you've seen the film, that's me. I believe in Father Christmas.” If thats not a clue I don't know what is.

2) Would he have resigned of his own accord? No, he has said himself that he's not a quitter and that he was enjoying the job. But, then Kevin Keegan used to say much the same, didn't he?

3) So, its obvious really - he was pushed because the powers that be considered that Monica was just not good enough. The cost of his leaving looks high but the cost of failure at this level is quite unthinkable. With the Premiership's new television deal starting next season and offering an enormous increase in revenue, the Addicks simply cannot afford to miss out.

And after overspending during the summer months only giving us bottom spot it would appear that Richard Murray has taken the step sooner rather than later. Its a very tough world out there and action was clearly needed but would Murray have taken the step of removing his Head Coach without a Plan B?

The answer has to be no. At least I hope it is. And it isn't Curbs so we really don't know what the Plan B option is. McLeish? Les Reed? Mark Robson? Looks like we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed.

But, of course, its completely wrong to assume that we are now without a rudder. Richard Murray is the boss and we have only lost a Head Coach, the man who recently told us his key job was to motivate the players but we must remember that it was Murray that offered the statement when Curbs left that "this club is more than Alan Curbishley."

So its obviously more than Iain Dowie as well.