The news that 33 year old Matt Holland has apparently signed-on for another season with the Addicks has been received with support from everyone after his sterling performances during the latter part of the season which were all the more commendable because if the Addicks had been successful and remained in the Premiership - sorry, Tier 1 - it would have been more than likely that Holland would be one of the first to go. Now, with the predicted transfers-out its highly likely that he'll start the new season as the Addicks captain. And the prospect of our most committed player continuing in a red shirt is in marked contrast to the behaviour of the "saviour" of those lucky people over the water.
Reporting in the independent yesterday was the news that "Tevez left Heathrow Airport with 18 suitcases last week, having apparently cleared out his Canary Wharf flat, and it was assumed that West Ham supporters had seen the last of him. Magnusson, somewhat optimistically, insists that is not necessarily true: "I hope he stays. He is a terrific player and a good guy. He knows the club and fans love him, and that will stick in his mind while he is on holiday."
Meanwhile, Pards is reported as wanting to raid Upton Park and help Curbs to increase his cash-flow by taking off his hands people that are not quite up to Premiership standard but hopefully will do very nicely to get us out of the fizzy-pops. Namely midfielder Hayden Mullins and old-timer Teddy Sheringham. Mullins started in 21 games last year scoring twice and although his name was also mentioned during the January window it will surely take more than Pardew's renowned powers of persuasion to get him away from the Hamsters and the chance of Premiership football. Sheringham is a different kettle of fish and only started 4 League games last season and at 41 perhaps one can see why. Whether he can add anything to the Addicks attacking options in what is seen as a very tough league is open to question. Perhaps not..
A more likely deal is the reported arrival of the very tall 6' 4'' scottish striker Chris Iwelumo from Colchester. Strange name for a scotsman you might say but that's because of having an Nigerian father and a mother from Coatbridge, up there near Glasgow. At 28 he's no youngster and has already been around several clubs, St.Mirren, Brighton, Aarhus Fremad in Denmark, Stoke and the German team Aachen before arriving at Phil Parkinsons' Colchester in 2005 where he's really hit form and scored 35 times in 95 games. There's obviously no hard feelings between Chris and his ex-manager as it was Iwelumo that scored 4 times in a 5-1 defeat when Parkinson, after leaving Colchester, was in charge at Hull in November last year. A game that subsequently proved to be Parkinsons penultimate game in charge.
