Slav, Freddie and.....Weaver

So another forward signs for the Addicks but is it the Right One? Seems we've been chasing Freddie Eastwood for weeks now and at the last minute to agrees to sign for Wolves instead of Charlton. At the same time Svetoslav Todorov arrives to claims of good business from Pards.

Wolves, under Mick McCarthy, you may note are the bookies joint favorites, with us, at 7/1 to win the fizzy pops this year and it doesn't sound like good business to let a striker join a rival team for the sake of a couple of mill.

But who is the best of the two? Todorov is 28 and after 177 appearances at Tier 1 and 2 levels in Bulgaria and England has scored 71 goals in the process. 42 caps for his country and another 6 goals at international level. And his goalscoring touch looks very impressive after seeing the You Tube offering from newyorkaddick. Against that you have to accept that most of these goals were scored a few years ago and at last out of favour with Redknapp he's clearly after first team football and turned down the offer of a new contract at Portsmouth. He's also been injured and was out of action due to damaged knee ligaments for a couple of seasons and failed to score for 2 and a half years. And perhaps revealingly, he's only been given a one year contract by Pards while Weaver, another 28 year old, gets a 3 year deal.

Freddie Eastwood at 23, meanwhile, is a very impressive goalscorer when looking at the numbers but at non-league and Tier 2 and 3 levels although last season he managed 16 goals in a relegation season in the fizzies with Southend. 157 games and 90 goals in total. He, sadly, is a manure fan and even had two trials with them before joining Southend and even rejected a third trial "because it was too far from home" in Southend. Unlike other Romany's, he's obviously not one for roaming very far then.

So which one will has the vote? We'll just have to wait until May to find out. Have we got ourselves a bargain or have we missed out?

Whatever, Pardew continues his fixation about our forward line with the odd leap into the market for young defenders. Now he's also got himself another, more experiencd, goalie. Shame about the history. No player having reportedly suffered as much abuse as Weaver whenever he appears at the Valley so we can only guess that either Pardew is unaware or more likely is convinced that Weaver will do for us what he did for the Massives. But this is a business we're in and we can't afford to get hung up on old feelings. In fact, feelings ain't got no place here at all unless your name happens to be Chrissy Powell.

And already we're starting to lose count of the number of new players arriving. By the official count, after Todorov and Weaver its eight but what about Chelski starlet Ben Sahar and dane Martin Jensen - are they too young to count? Surely its a least nine or is it eleven now? There's a listing on cafcpicks but even they've forgotten Sahar but they have just made sections in the player listings so that you can easily see just how many forwards we have.

Counting Chrissy, who may get a game, its now a grand total of 12 with Dickson, Christensen, Iwelumo, Jensen, Varney, McCarthy, Moutaoukil, Semedo, Ben Sahar, Todorov and Weaver.

First Eleven Coming Together...

So with the Addicks reporting for training this morning we have to ask ourselves "have we got a real team together yet?" One that can made the grade and get us back up?

Well, it's quite obvious that we have. There's been several new names that have appeared recently and there are bound to be more appearing before August 11th but you can see from the current teamsheet that we're almost there. There's a good mix of eager, fit youngsters that'll chase any old story and several old-timers to add that bit of experience, nostalgia and sheer bloodymindedness!

So without further ado here's the team and with so many strikers around you'll not be surprised to see its a 4-4-2! The choice for man-between-the-sticks was difficult, but based on his deftness with the coffee cups, and therefore hopefully the half-time tea, and with his towering presence, and despite his worrying spelling mistakes, it had to be the Kappocino Kid from Forest Hill and his Hill to the Valley.

At full-back you need people that can get up and down that wing relentlessly and provide back-up to the winger so at right-back its our frequent many-miles traveller just back from Frankfurt stonemuse. At centre-back its reliability and dependability that's needed and someone that can be relied upon to know all the facts its the knowledgeable Wyn Grant, and as every back-four needs a foreign body these days he's paired with another old-timer chicago addick; well Chicago's foreign to me. And at left back, where nobody ever wants to play, it has to be Pedro45 mainly due to his having the longest list of Charlton blogs available and the fact that he's obviously half-spanish.

Now we all know midfield is important not to say vital, so we've gone for two Addicks that can take the hardest hits, stay calm under pressure and deliver, and predict, results. For his clarity and thoughtful influence in midfield, its Inspector Sands alongside relative youngster but the ever incisive and sharp newyorkaddick.

On the right it's a surprise choice northdowns selected because of his obvious ability to link up with stonemuse in their watery hobbies down that wing and over there on the left is the only place for our very own atheist blackheath addicked.

Up front its 65 miles that gets selection as anyone that continues being an Addicks fan after a 5-1 defeat at home to Luton on his first visit deserves another chance and alongside him there has to be the sharpest boy we have, never missing a trick and ever ready to made up something out of nothing, the one and only FrankieValley.

There's also a strong line-up on the bench where it's chockablock full , as my old man would say, of people that we don't see so often but that can spring a frequent surprise - confidentialrick, roehamptonaddick, upinthebox, 100milesfromhome and an old favorite jakartass who'll obviously go far, if only he can keep his mind on the football.

Going, Going, Gone...(?)

His last goal for Charlton at Anfield. Looks like he knew it would be his last too.

A report in the independent this morning claims that the Spuds have at last seen sense and recognize a bargain when they see one and have agreed to met the £17m price tag. An unspecified amount will be performance-related however and it just remains for Darren to agreed personal terms plus the medical.

If the report is true and there's been many that have proved false then it shows an uncommon ability from the Addicks to hold firm in a deal and demonstrates some newly acquired business skills in driving a hard bargain. We don't know if it's down to Varney or Pardew but whoever's responsible it makes a pleasant change from other transfer deals over the years where we always appear to be short-changed.

There's also a comment on Pardew's attempt to persuade Chelski to part with Israeli international Ben Sahar on a loan deal. He's another striker, 18 in August, and has already scored for the national team in becoming the youngest ever player to play for them.

BREAKING NEWS

And there's now confirmation on the cafc site that the deals done and dusted for £16.5M of which £1m is performance related. Ipswich are entitled to 20 per cent of the deal because of the sell-on clause, meaning an initial payment of £2.58m will be heading to Portman Road leaving Pards with around £12m to spend, if Murray hands it all over that is. Maybe they'll reserve £250,000 for the Ladies....

So, good luck, Darren, and thanks for the memories.

Front, Back and Sides, Please.

So how's it going Pards? Pre-season, I mean. With just a couple of working days left before the boys turn up for work on Monday have you got things under control?

Some of Curbs' old-timers have jumped ship at the thought of fizzy pop football as we knew they would but you've done some business in the market and got some new boys in from all over the world as replacements. So what's left to do?

Well, seems there's still a couple of areas that you seem to have forgotten about or is it that you've put 'em on the back burner till funds become available? Yes, you know what we're referring to - it's that long lost individual, the midfielder. Usually the heart of the team but its been the area of the pitch that's needed something special for ages.

When I was a kid it was off to the barbers for a regular haircut of a front, back and sides. Not very elegant or fashionable but it was neat. That's what seems to have happened with the Addicks. We seem to have taken the barbers instructions to heart. We've got plenty of fronts, loads of backs and several sides. Trouble is we ain't got no middle.

Basically, we're short of some substance, we need building-up in the midriff, we're missing a six-pack, we need some heart. All in all there's something missing in the centre-circle area. Maybe we're gonna become a long ball team, cut out the style and play it long on to Chris's head. But please Pards, we need a Gravesen, a Davids, a Parker, or even a Mullins. Somebody to help little Andy when he gets knocked about by them Cardiff bouncers.

A quote from Paddy Powell on Tuesday calls you the most positive person he's ever met in football. Well, that's all very well but you know the trouble with positive people the same as I do. Seeing the glass half full all the time can lead to thinking that everythings OK, that things are not really so bad as everyone thinks. But complacency is a killer, just when you thinks things are rosy, it can sneak up and bite you up the backside. So take my word for it - STRENGTH THE MIDFIELD...

So how long have we got now to rectify this deplorable situation? Well, its only 6 weeks on Saturday till the Iron turn up. 42 very short days and at the moment it looks like Faye and Holland with Mad Dog in the background. Not very inspiring really and nobody seems to think that Jody Morris is the answer to our prayers.

Oh, and we need a goalkeeper, as well....

How to Upset the Neighbours!

When life's not treating us so good we tend to take it out on somebody else. It's called frustration and basically anybody will do as a butt to help us feel better. It's helps, of course, if the victim of our frustration takes the kicking or beating like a man, a woman or helpless cat. But whatever, we now have, of course, the wonderful Internet to help us find someone to kick with no threat of any physical comeback.

And that in a nutshell is what we all saw yesterday on our frankies daily thoughts. Tired of the usual dribble about Darren's on-off move, our FV read a headline in the Mirror and twisted it around with his usual lateral thinking out of the box skills and came up with an article that made us all chuckle.

Well, seems not. 'Cause while us Addicks live a rounded existence with its customary ups and downs and can understand tongue-in-cheek humour when we see it, seems there are some people out there that got rather upset with his outrageous wit. Seems a lot of them, while happily rejoicing in the label "up the yids" can get rather upset when the term "non-gentile" is used.

Ignoring the praise given about their "renowned business acumen and their legendary nose for a bargain" it was clearly the phase non-gentile ( and the 17M price tag) that was key to the huge number of replies. A staggering 7000 people read the post and reading the comments (sic) would have taken you an hour or two. Some were readable and a few seemed to think that our Darren is not worth 17M but a vast number were sadly a trifle abusive and then just drifted into meaningless dribble. Our Frank was called a racist, a journalist and far worst.

So what was the real reason behind all this hate mail? Well, I'm afraid that it doesn't take much to understand the North London mentality, as far as football is concerned, (I should know, I've lived there).

A big club, well back in the 60's, they now have to live with a much bigger neighbour! Some people just don't like successful neighbours. They can't handle it. Neighbours with money and a trophy cabinet where the key hasn't been lost. And that's a problem that, bless us, we'll never have. We positively rejoice in our failures, we expect them to happen. Europe! Whats that? The closest we ever got to Europe was playing Newport County the week after their Cup-Winners First Round tie back in 1975. So we can therefore take the piss out of ourselves anytime and we don't need Sad Spuds doing it for us.

So roll on the Iron on August 11th, we'll like it hot!

Another Youngster Joins, Jose Semedo

We started our fizzy pop life with the purchase of a couple of lower-league strikers, people that knew what it was like in the tough-boys league although one of them did come from League One whatever that is. Anyway we continued this trend with the acquisition of one Paddy McCarthy from Leicester, another player used to Championship football.

As a contrast, and it's no doubt a cheaper option, the Addicks continue to add to the growing contingent of young foreign international players. Under 21s or Under 18s, they're all players that have the potential to succeed. And yesterday it was announced that Charlton had completed the signing on a 4 year contract of 22 year old Jose Semodo from Sporting Lisbon.

Semodo played in all three of Portugal's games in the recent Under-21 Championships in Holland before going out at the Group stage. This was the event where England went out to Holland in the semis after the handbags with Serbia. Semodo is also famous for appearing in the previous years tournament where he was sent off in his first, and only, game against the prepetual bad boys Serbia.

Semedo has been around a bit and therefore hasn't actually played for Sporting. He's been at Second Division club Casa Pia for the season 2004/05 and was then loaned to Feirense for half of the following season. Then in 2006/07 he's been at Cagliari in Italy's Serie A making his debut against AC Milan.

He joins our two Scandinavian old-timers 18 year old defender Finn Jani Tanska and 19 year old Icelander forward Ririk Gislason who were recently joined by two Danes, 19 year old winger Martin Christensen and 16 year old midfielder Mikkel Rygaard Jensen.

Other youngsters are Kelly Youga from CAR (the Central African Republic ) who is now 21 and has been here a couple of years too although it seems longer. Not to mention 18 year old Scot Mark Staunton that Dowie brought here last year and the invisible 19 year old Mad Dog Walton. Randolph's still only 20 and not to forget 20 year old frenchman Yassin Moutaouakil that we signed last week. Osei Sankofa is now 22 and so is Lloyd Sam and both have enjoyed Premiership games last season.

How many is that? Twelve, a team of promising kids with the eldest at 22. So there's hope for the future but what of the present?

On the four purchases this summer, whats the cost? Well, a little over £3m and with the murdoch still saying that we are holding out for more than £15m from Spurs for Darren it looks like the serious strengthening of our midfield will have to wait. The current offer seems to be £10m now with the rest, £3m, in performance-related extras, not really what we want right now to add to the squad.

Its getting close to the time when one of the parties will have to give way or the deal will fall through, something that Darren himself may not want.

A "Men Only" Club....

Charity/Community Shield: Winners 2004/05; joint winners 2000/01; runners-up 2005/06
Premier League, National Division: Runners-up 2003/04, 2004/05
FA Cup: Winners 2005; runners-up 2003, 2004
Premier League Cup: Winners 2006, 2004; runners-up 2005
London Cup: Winners 2006, 2005, 2003
Kent County Cup: Winners 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001; runners up 2005
Current England internationals: Eniola Aluko, Ann-Marie Heatherson, Jo Fletcher, Josanne Potter, Sarah Snare, Casey Stoney.
England U21 internationals: Faye Cardin, Natasha Hughes, Michelle Hickmott, Katie Holtham.

In just 7 years that's the number of honours that the Charlton Ladies team have won since we took over Croydon Ladies in 2000 and in the past season they finished third in their own Premier League just missing out on going into Europe. OK, not an improvement really as they finished 2nd in the two previous years but certainly not relegation form either.

It's therefore a bit of a shock to everyone that the Charlton Management have decided to close what's known on the official website as the Women's Team. As yet there's no official word on the closure and in another display of mismanagement we have to read about it in the papers and on other peoples websites. Perhaps they think that nobody cares, and its obvious that they're mistaken there, but its clearly wrong that we have to read about on the bbc before the club sees fit to inform us.

We all knew that the reduced operating budget would affect many areas of the club and that priority would be given to those areas that would most benefit Pardew's work to get us back to up. So we're not surprised to see a despondent Peter Varney on the CAFC site announcing "Following the club's relegation to the Football League Championship, revised budgets have been implemented that have resulted in a significant level of cuts in all areas of the club's operations. Regrettably, with effect from today, several job functions have been made redundant. "

But not for the first time this season the management has once again come under fire. Seems that most people, even though they've never seen the Ladies play, see the decision as near-sighted and another example of continued mis-management. Turns out the Ladies have won more things in 7 years than the men have in 100. And having spent 7 years creating a team and its environment with its own Womens' Academy and Centre of Excellence its clearly bad business sense that having created it it all has to be thrown away because of the senior teams relegation.

Relegation for the Addicks ( the boys, that is ) was a yearly threat for a small club but to build up a parallel Womens section that even has its own honours section on its website which it turns out is totally dependent on the success of the real Addicks is quite obviously criminal. Its one thing to build up the administration of the club to cope with the demands of premiership football with its attendant staffing levels but quite another to create a footballing section for women that has to be tossed aside when the "core business" suffers a loss in income.

All the talk of work in the community and all the effort that has been spent in creating a family club has obviously been damaged by this decision as can be judged by the various forums everywhere. Finance is one thing but image these days is of vital importance too. We're not just selling football here. In so many areas its been acknowledged that we have to sell ourselves as a club, a name. And with this decision that name has, regretably, been tarnished. Short-sighted and a trifle sexist, that's what it's been called.

And how is it that the likes of Doncaster, Cardiff and recently liquidated Leeds United can run a Womens team and we cannot. We played in Spain a few weeks ago and narrowly lost to the best Spanish side Espanol with another close game against Barcelona for gods sake. Whenever did the real addicks give Barcelona a difficult game? Back in the 50's maybe...

Pards in Search for Bigger Wallet

Seems that a combination of Pardew's need to get his hands on some readies and Martin Jol's determination to drive a hard bargain has resulted in the Addicks dropping the price on Darren's head. He's already cost us 2 big ones by rejecting further relationships with Curbs and with just under 4 weeks to go before the first pre-season friendly its apparently time to get serious.

The only doubt regarding the story is that it appears under the Guardians Rumour Mill page, not usually the most reliable of sources.

Apparently, the deal's now worth £15M with an additional £1M in unspecified performance-related payments. Ipswich are of course rubbing their little hands with glee at the thought of their twenty per-cent sell-on cut, a cool 3 mill for doing nothing.

But, doing nothing is not in Pardew's mindset as he continues with the job of rebuilding for the future, although prospective sellers will of course spot that he'll have a huge wadge of dosh stuck in his back pocket that they'll be more than eager to get their sticky hands on. It wouldn't last long, Pards, make sure you take more care on spending it than the last Big Spender that we had. No more Traore's or Pouso's please. In fact, just one year on its hard to remember just where it all went.

Anyway, lets just hope that Darren, tempted by the thought of playing alongside Berbatov, has taken note of the "opposition" in his rumoured new changing room. Not least the fact that his favored Number 10 shirt is worn by Robbie Keane who is currently enjoying his best spell at the Lane. Keane, 27 in July, is clearly approaching his peak having scored 22 goals last season, his highest ever total and because of injuries this was from only 18 Premiership starts. Although he only scored 11 in the League he really hit form at the end of the season, scoring 15 in his last 15 games. He's also the clubs highest wage earner, a big favorite with the fans and he takes the penalties, with 4 scored last season. Fortunes change fast in football, as we well know, but good luck Darren.

But in every deal there's usually a plus side, and this ones no exception as its obvious from the noises coming from the Lane that Darren's arrival would spell the end of his Tottenham career for our favorite ex-player. Yes, it seems that a certain J. Defoe will at last get his just desserts and be consequently given the heave-ho by Jol. What a shame and reduced to searching for a new home after the arrival of a player from Charlton. Priceless really.

Le Gaffer Strikes Again.

Out with the old and in with the new is the expression. The day after 32 year old Kish left on a permanent deal to Leicester a new full-back arrives. He's 20 year old French U-21 captain Yassin Moutaouakil who does seem to have a striking resemblance to Nicolas Anelka.

He's been playing for tier-2 side Chateauroux down there in mid-france and says all the right things that a new signing should be saying, the most important being "Many clubs tried to sign me but Charlton did a good job convincing me that this is the best move for me. I chose Charlton because I feel that this is an ambitious club and I believe that I will progress well under the manager here. I did not want to sign for a club just because they are a big name, or for the colour of their shirt."

Sounds like a good signing even if the name doesn't exactly round off the tongue. He currently needs a translator but at least there's Diawara, Bougherra and Faye that all speak french so he should feel at home. And with 4 french speaking and 4 paddies in there too ( OK, I included Captain Matt) it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall come July.

A lot of clubs have shown interest in Yassin, not least Barcelona, Marseille, Lazio, Celtic and a couple of Premiership big boys but strangely no mention of Arsene. Come to think of it, didn't Pards and Wenger have a spat about Arsenal's reliance on foreign players and not enough young British players coming through. Well, seems Pards has had second thoughts and besides he'll argue that he's only swapping an old Bulgarian for a young Frenchman, a good deal in anyone's book although Osei probably wouldn't agree.

And is this the Big Goodbye to Luke Young? West Ham here we come at last although there does seems a certain reluctance on the part of our players to rejoin their old manager over there in Upton. Strangely enough 45% of the pollsters on cafcpicks still want him to stay. Come on Luke do the decent thing we need the dosh.

Anyway, holidays apparently come to an end at the end of next week with Pre-season Training due to commence on Monday July 2nd and at least Andy Reid will be happy to get the company as he's reported to have been training alone for the last few weeks. Better get some french lessons, though Andy.

And its Goodbye Kish.

A statistic in the last Charlton yearly handbook for season 2006/07 tells us that nobody played more games for the Addicks that year than Radostin Kishishev, Kish to everyone. How a simple sentence can show how quickly things can change.

That year saw a total of 34 Premiership games for Kish in Curbs' last season in a midfield that started with Murphy and Smertin. This was by far Kish's best season although by the end of the year in a triangle with Holland and Hughes the flaws were beginning to show. He first appeared for the Addicks in our first game in our 7 year run in the Premiership in 2000 as a right-back against Man. City in a 4-0 win but by the end of his time here he was a combative midfielder and for all of his latter-day mistakes he had won over the fans with his endless effort for the team. Sweating buckets he always gave everything he could and that's why we loved him. Eager and enthusiastic, his name was easily dropped to the simple one syllable that we demand of our heroes and became a by-word for effort. But by the end we all knew that despite our tortured affection he had to go.

With the arrival of Dowie last summer, new-boy Amady Faye was the chosen ball-winning midfielder and Kish started only one game until Reed took over in November. He started in our third win of the season over Blackburn in December and continued against Spurs at the Lane in a midfield of Faye, Reid and Holland that finished with a 5-1 defeat. He thankfully missed the Liverpool game but returned for the fixture at Middlesbrough and then played in Pardew's first two games in charge against Fulham and Aston Villa but the Villa game was to be his last in a Charlton shirt. Holland was increasing preferred and then Song arrived that really spelt the end for Kish.

So after exactly 200 appearances for the Addicks the writing was on the wall and at 33 in July he was never going to be offered another contract. Farmed out to Leeds towards the end of last season where he played 10 games and its been his good reviews there that has prompted Leicester to take him on.

He'll return on September 22nd with Leicester and we'll look forward to seeing him. It's certain that he'll get a rousing reception before and after the game even though after 90 minutes he'll have worked his socks off for another team. Cheers Kish we don't mind, it was good to see you again.

Andy Reid Prays for a Good Start... and No Injuries

Its now over five months since we've seen or heard anything of our favorite little irish fella but to reassure us that he's still around he's popped up on the official site over the last couple of days with a short audio interview and stunning photo.

He's certainly looking fit and he's definitely someone that we've expecting great things of come August. There was talk, before Christmas, of him becoming a Charlton legend but things haven't turned out quite as expected. Just when he was starting to look good and find his best position in the side playing in the hole behind Darren in December he started to have hamstring problems.

He made a comeback in January for the home game with Middlesbrough on Jan. 13th but that proved to be his only game under Pardew. An operation followed in early March to remove scar tissue from his problematic hamstring and he was told not to play again till next season.

So to recap, he played in 16 of our first 18 games and after 13 games with not a single goal from either a midfielder or defender he broke the duck and scored the equaliser in the 1-1 with Everton in November. He scored again in the next game at Sheffield when a 2-1 defeat really told the team the true state of their problems. Three games later he played in the home disaster against Liverpool when his problems began and we didn't see him again till the Middlesbrough game. Another bad result that day and that was it for Reid for the season.

The good news would appear to be that he's staying put and not wanting to jump ship. And for this we can probably thank his injury problems as he's been out of sight of potential buyers.

The big question remains, of course, will he fully recover from the injury and can Pards rely upon him for a full season? Hamstring injuries are more likely to reoccur once damaged and one reported reason that Jol let him go was that he always seemed to be injured. If you want to read more about hamstring injuries there's a good article here with diagrams.

Remembering his time with Spurs, he only featured in 13 Premiership games in his last full season there in 2005/06 and only made a total of 20 starts in a season and a half since joining them from Forest in January 2005. So injury prone or not, its likely that Pardew will want to have a back-up ready and waiting just in case. A return for Murphy in a Bent deal? We all hope not!

The Iron and the Hammers

Scunthorpe. Even if you emphasize the last syllable with one of their deep local drawls it still doesn't sound as bad as I thought it was going to be. And the realisation that we're not going to be playing one of the big boys couldn't have been made more clearer really. The Premiership? Yeah, we'll be back, some day over the horizon but are we going to miss it? I don't think so. Obscene amounts of cash washing about, all them foreigners falling over, fools on TV giving their views and then insulting reports in the papers. Who needs it?

So it's time for a change, something everyone needs, and on to the fizzies and after everyone getting a tad upset months ago at the very thought of relegation and having to play the likes of down-market Scunthorpe, here we are meeting them in the first game on August 11th. Pards says its going to be tough, and perhaps not the best time to meet a promoted club but at least it'll mean that we'll not have an easy three points giving us any delusions. If we win we'll know that we are capable of doing something in the League. If we lose, God help us, but we'll find out straight away that we're not good enough at the fizzy level and have to improve.

On the player front, the Elk is officially off to Qatar and now there's the intriguing news that after jetting back from his hols to discuss the matter, our little Benty has decided NOT to join the Hamsters. A very good deal for the club and a lotta wonga for the man himself and he turns it down. What can be the reason? Is he really one of us and likes the Valley so much that he'd rather stay for just one more year?

Our Reg explains it all away, or rather doesn't, on the official site and looks forward to having Darren with us come August.

But as Ketts says on frankie its all rather strange when a simple NO could be arranged over the phone. Perhaps he wasn't enjoying the sun in the Caribbean, perhaps Reg wanted to have a word or perhaps everyone's holding on to the Spurs ticket. Maybe Darren prefers working with Pardew rather than Curbs and is prepared to wait for another offer from a bigger club. But above all its significant that since Pards has been involved the value placed on players seems to be more realistic than under previous regimes. 16-18 million and a player that he's been after since he arrived - Mullins - included in the deal would seem to imply that at last we have a manager who can obtain a decent price for players.

Whether Pards can similarly get round the more astute Jol is another matter. If there's anyone who knows the value of money its Mr Jol, just ask Murphy.

In fact, Darren's move could well turn into one of those eBay deals where nothing really happens until the last 3 minutes and then the price skyrockets. Trouble with playing so close to the wind, of course, is that Pards wants to know how much cash he has to play with and a last minute deal will leave him with little time to plan and there will come a time when perhaps poker skills will come to play. Who has the expertise, I wonder?

We're Big Fish Now

Watched "Searching for Nemo" last night. Its for kids, but I'm a sucker for searching films, people looking for something, working out clues and stuff, trying to get home just like that classic story Ulysses. Don't know why, but it reminded me of Pards really, sat with his Soccerbase bible desperately scanning the databases looking for players on the cheap. And it seems we've got another one, Paddy McCarthy from Leicester. Someone else that no body's ever heard of but what the hell, that's life now. But good to see he's taking the advice to become a Tier 2 Irish team. Randolph, Reid, skipper Holland ( from Bury), now Paddy and Joe Gamble next. Can't go buying any foreigners now Pards, they'll not be understanding them there Irish fellas. Shame that 24 year-old Paddy seems a bit injury prone though, he's been out since January with a shoulder injury.

Anyway, back to Nemo. Its all very happy stuff till old big Jaws arrives scaring everyone and hey-presto there was the Addicks connection again, I must be obsessed or something. That 'ittle fishy in the front, why that's how we were the last few seasons, struggling to survive in that big jungle thing, fighting to avoid the inevitable. Now we've swapped places and instead we've taken the part of that big ugly blue monster at the back. Big Fish. That's us now.

And it feels good. People are suddenly attracted to Charlton 'cause they think we're going places, up of course. People are clamouring to join saying we're "massive", a "big London club" and the wages aren't bad either with all that parachute dosh.

And its not just us that's looking forward to the fixtures coming out. First of all they'll all be looking for Charlton Athletic to see when they're playing the favorites, and its not favorites for relegation either. We're the bookie's favorites for Promotion, never happened before in living memory even when we were in Tier 3. And apparently it seems that the fans agreed. On the official site, 83% think we'll go straight back up to Tier One, with 65% voting us as Champions. Such confidence has never been seen before from the Addicks, perhaps its to do with the fact that Darren B hasn't moved yet. Anyway, it all makes a pleasant change from claiming mid-table Premiership boredom as the seasons goal and putting up with the TV pundits and their obsession with the other Big Boys.

Panic Over

Well, that's a relief. Just when we were starting the desperate search for a new captain from the likes of Thatcher and Reidie it seems that the Sunday papers were making it all up about our Captain Marvel joining forces with Harry down there on the coast. Redknapp, who tried to sign Holland four years ago, said yesterday: "I like Matty, but he's not coming here. He's a good lad, a good player. I like him a lot. But he's not somebody I'm going for."

It made for a good topic for a Monday morning but while 56% of fans voting want Young to leave in cafcpicks in a poll of 973, the same fans - well a poll of 980 - 49% wanted Holland to stay. But then 7% wanted Kev L to stay! There's also a comment from wyngrant today that Myles Weston is being targeted by Notts County after being released him from the Addicks last week. Maybe I'm missing something but Weston was among the players listed as being released in the kent-online article along with Kevin Lisbie and Kish. So has Kev quietly slipped out the door to avoid all the fuss. Could be.

And if you still continue to believe everything you read, in the fiver today there's a small comment about our Darren apparently dashing his hopes of playing alongside Berbatov at Spurs - "Ipswich could get 25% of a big fat nothing as their sell-on clause prices Spurs out of a move for Charlton's £20m Darren Bent." Well, thats all over then and it seems that Pards will have to rely on Luke Young' s money and whatever Richard and the boys can pull together. Unless we are really back to the good old days of Tier 2 football such as in 1983 when the collection boxes went round to help us buy Ronnie Moore from Rotherham.

But the really bad news this morning has to be that Pards has missed out on the summer's biggest bargain as defender (!) Titus Bramble joins Wigan on a free transfer. Pardew, keep up will you.

And if there's anyone interested, here's the website for the BBC's Fizzy Pops to help you get used to the idea of life in the second tier and plan all those exciting away days.

Four Weeks On!

Monday morning again and its now exactly 4 weeks since our demise from the Premiership, Tier 1, top-flight or whatever you want to call it. We handed back our Premier Share last week and are in the process of being moved on all the football web-sites into something called the "Championship" category.

So we're now officially second-best Tier 2 fizzy-pop material and after the rumours of lots of people leaving the club we can now look forward to the serious rebuilding. In fact, lots of people, frankievalley, cafcpicks included have already got into the spirit with a complete make-over and obviously Pardews' of the same mind. Ten new players is the idea and after the immediate response of the signing of a couple of new strikers from Colchester and Crewe, there's speculation that Gillingham and Cork City will also be raided. Its a tough League, the fizzies, and there's no room for expensive hangers-on although Iwelumo's wage of £11k a week has caused some disquiet.

And after last weeks news that £16m will have to be cut from the wage bill its now reported in kent-online that Charlton's wage bill has been slashed from £27 million to £11 million, Well, that's certainly 16 less but doesn't really tally with the figures that appeared in addicksdiary on June 1st where it was reported in Deloitte's that "Charlton have finished in the top ten in the Premiership wages table produced by Deloitte Sport. Admittedly, the figures relate to 2005/6 when Charlton came tenth with a wages bill of £34.2m." Rather hard to believe then that one year on our wage bill would drop from £34.2m to £27m especially after JFH's arrival.

So perhaps we should take with a pinch of salt the news that follows from the same source: "Luke Young is likely to be reunited with former manager Alan Curbishley at West Ham. Talal El Karkouri and Souleymane Diawara are also leaving, while Kevin Lisbie, Thomas Myhre, Mark Staunton, Nathan Ashton, Radostin Kishishev, Myles Weston and Rurik Gislason have been released."

And there's more: "Midfielders Matt Holland and Bryan Hughes have been offered extensions to their existing deals but are expected to move on. Central defender Jonathan Fortune, who spent the final months of last season on loan at Stoke, is wanted back, though his £9,000 a week wages are a stumbling block. But Darren Ambrose and Jerome Thomas look set to stay and manager Alan Pardew has not given up hope of retaining midfielders Alex Song and China captain Zheng Zhi for a further season."

Convincing Alex Song and ZiZi to come back for another year will obviously tax Pardew powers of persuasion but strange there's no mention of Darren Bent anywhere. £15 m is a lot to ask and its hard to decide whether the value is meant as a realistic marker in the ground or is to frighten clubs off. Maybe the unexpected will happen but somehow I rather doubt it.

Anyway, if we believe all we read the team-sheet at the moment looks something like this:

Randolph, Sankofa, Bougherra, Fortune, Thatcher, Christensen, Reid, Ambrose, Thomas, Iwelumo and Varney. But don't get too alarmed, there's another 8 to arrive along with the appearance of Cory Gibbs of course.

"Top the Lot"

Just finished reading a book about the life of Henry the Eighth and its chock-a-block full of him sending for the axe to get rid of people that couldn't put their weight. Wives that couldn't produce male heirs, bishops that didn't agree with his ideas on religion and ministers that he couldn't trust, they all suffered the same fate - the dreaded chop.

So the news that the "deadwood", not my words, from the 2006/07 season are to be summarily disposed off before we start life in the fizzy pops does appear to be a similar approach. And its our top Lord Richard Murray that has laid it on the line.

And after the disaster that's been the last season its obvious that the management are keen to make the real culprits pay the price. "Top the Lot" has been heard from the masses and our only disappointment at the changes will be the regretful fact that innocent numbers of the admin staff will also have to leave as a consequence of the poor performance of the few.

No, its the ringleaders of this sad affair that deserve all they get. Being hung, drawn and quartered is too good for them, we want to see 'em suffer just like we have. All we need to know now is to see exactly who does Pards thinks are the culprits behind the disaster. Through no fault of their own, the first to get the axe have been the on-loan boys Carson, Song and ZiZi dispatched back to their respective owners without the chance of a reprieve. The next out were the two old codgers of the team, JFH and HH, who at their age we knew could not survive in the fizzies.

And despite his near ever-present season and 3 goals the Elk has also been summoned to the board room and given the grim news, off with his head, and into foreign exile with you.

Next out its rumoured to be Jerry Thomas, whose fate is far worse than most with talk of his being dispatched to that den of hopelessness and eternal suffering that is termed Birmingham City FC. Is there no end to the bloodletting? No, it seems not as our beloved Kish also appears on the black execution list and is right now contemplating life in the no-mans land of the midlands condemned to a diet of stale Walkers crisps.

Sadly in any affair of this magnitude there's bound to be some innocents that have to suffer so that changes can be made and the grass made safer to walk upon. So it is that Darren Bent and Luke Young are due to be the next to receive the summons and a long walk into the darkness that is life outside the Valley.

As for the remainder, Rommedahl, Faye, Diawara, M. Bent and Mr Lisbie there is no news and as we're generally speaking humane individuals, it can only be hoped that they didn't suffer unduly as the hand of justice falls upon them, although "Top the Lot" can still be heard at the back.

It only remains for the chief to issue a statement addressing the faithful and outlining the true facts of "The Affair", as far as we'll ever know anyway.

"A unexpected change in our situation, which I might add, was totally unplanned and a surprise to everyone, has unfortunately lead to a complete reversal of attitudes at the club resulting in a necessity to change certain things. Key positions will in future be given to personnel that deserve our trust and a return to normality and efficiency will be the expected result."

Looks Like a Busy Summer

With the number of players due to depart the addicks rising day by day - there's a nice little table on cafcpicks to help you to keep track - it's obvious things are a'changing. And if we hadn't already got the hint, the clear idea is for a bit of a clear out and a fresh start. And is finally been stated by the addicks management, according to addicktednet, with no less than ten players planned to arrive at the Valley and the same number out. At least that is how Richard Murray sees it. All the "deadwood" is apparently going - bye Kevin - 'cause Pards is demanding a "fresh approach".

However, while Curbs over the water looks set to reunited with homesick Scott Parker from Newcastle for a reported 8 very big ones, our own Pards, after raiding Colchester and Crewe, is currently reportedly sniffing around the likes of Gillingham ( midfielder Danny Spiller ) and Cork ( Joe Gamble) for his new players. How times change after the vast expenditure of last summer 'cause now we're talking free bosman type players, or at the least rather cheap transfers, and if anyone fancies a year playing in Tier 2 perhaps we'll consider the odd loan deal.

So for now we'll also have to adjust our mindset. No more tedious pondering how our internationals will do those "international" weekends, 'cause there wouldn't be any although Joe Gamble, the Cork midfielder is like Randolph and Reid a Republic of Ireland player having won his first caps just recently. Maybe we'll become a Tier 2 Republic of Ireland team, any chance of Keane on loan Mr Jol? Gamble, meanwhile, does appears to be in form right now as he's been voted into the Eircom League team of the season and was shortlisted for player of the year.

And he's another example of the clear plan to employ players that either Pards or Parkinson already have experience of, eg Iwelumo, nothing strange there, thats exactly what Curbs is doing. In this case Pards, it was, that brought Gamble to Reading in 2001 but after 3 fruitless years there without a senior game he returned to Ireland. And perhaps another boost from Parkers move to the Hamsters will be that Pards might be able to prise one of his favorites, Hayden Mullins, away from Upton Park. Once again its was Pards that took Mullins from the palarse to the Hammers.

But while the current squad continues to look to pastures new its reported, on addickted.net, that someone we've never even seen, none other than injury-prone Cory Gibbs will be back from his knee injury tomorrow, June 1st, after over a year out following surgery to repair cartilage damage last June. Come to think of it it doesn't give a year so maybe its next year we're talking but after Ben Thatchers' arrival will we ever see the supposed skills that gained him 19 caps for the US of A before he too decides its time to leave? Only time will tell..

Our New Strike Force - Part 1

One thing I've noticed about the few comings and goings so far is that, up till now, its the old geezers that are leaving/being released and they are, by and large being replaced by younger versions. Striker (sic) JFH was the first to be released, at 35 the old man on the block and he's swiftly been followed by want-away Hermann Hreidarsson, due to be 33 in a few weeks time. Rumours are that relative youngster El Karkouri, 31 in July, will be the next to leave with Kish, 33 in July, already taking offers.

Pardews' signings, so far, have tended to be rather younger. 22 year-old Chris Dickson from Dulwich, 24 year-old Luke Varney from Crewe and old man Chris Iwelumo at 28 from Colchester. Pards also bought 24 year old Madjid Bougherra in January and there's also 19 year-old Dane star Martin Christensen due in arrive on July 1st. So we're obviously building for the future and at the same time helping to cut the wage bill. Lets hope we don't have to wait too long.

The news of Chris Iwelumo's move from Colchester surprised many and although he's been scoring a few in his last two seasons, helping Colchester to gain promotion from Tier 3 in 2005/06, it has taken him a few years to start scoring. In fact, oddly enough his form seemed to improve with the arrival of Jamie Cureton at Colchester. Cureton, it was, that was Colchesters', and the Divisions, leading goalscorer last season with 23 goals - Iwelumo weighing in with 18. Maybe its Cureton we should be buying you say, especially as he has played previously for Pardew at Reading, but then Cureton's 32 in August and thats old by Pardews' standards and also he's a bit of a midget at 5'8" and maybe thats not what Pardew is after. Assistant manager Phil Parkinson knows all about Iwelumo's strengths, of course, after having signed him for Colchester in 2005 and managed him till leaving to take over at Hull in June 2006.

One thing Iwelumo is famous for is his penalties, apparently 6 last season, and its said that during his 2 year Colchester career, he never missed one, so with our current penalty-taker due for pastures new, its good to see that we have lined up a replacement. One the other hand if you consider that of his 18 goals last season, 6 came from penalties and he scored 4 times ( one a penalty) in a game against Hull last December you can calculate that of the other 39 League games he played in he only scored 9 goals!

Perhaps its his physical qualities that Pardew is after. He weights in at 13 or 14 stone depending on who you read and whether he's in training or not and he's a bit of a Leaburn at 6' 4". And as you can see below he also appears to be a lucky player, as he's been involved in three promotion teams, even though two of them were as a loan player.

Perhaps we need to compare the figures with those of Darren Bent's to remind ourselves what a great, and regular, striker he is - or is it was?

The Only Two Left?

Its all about how teams can recover from defeat or so we're told. Some teams have the character to bounce straight back and other don't. And after five months under Pardew trying to climb out of the bottom three will now come the harder job of encouraging the players to believe that there is life after relegation down there in Tier 2.

We are all accustomed to seeing the end-of-season switching-off when Premiership survival is more or less assured for next season so its pretty obvious what is uppermost in the players minds. Their number one aim is, or was, to play in the Premiership. Next season brings a new problem to contend with. If the fans are depressed, its probably worst for the players, those that want to stay, of course.

And although Richard Murray remarked recently regarding the parachute payments "What it does mean is that we are able to keep quite a few of our better-paid players", Pardew now has to face the task of building a team that he thinks will perform outside the Premiership without dispensing with too many of a squad that in the last half of the season with 22 points was almost good enough to stay up.

Already 2 of the squad ( JFH and HH) have jumped ship while the 3 on-loan players Carson, Song and ZiZi have all returned to their clubs. Others are on the verge of leaving, with El Karkouri probably the next to go with Luke Young and Darren Bent set to be the subject of summer Transfer Deals. The worrying thing about all these players is that they were the ones, with the exception of JFH, that have proved to be the core of the team this season with Carson, Young, Hreidarsson, Bent and Elk all having played around 30 League games this season.

The numbers started to worry me and then I remembered seeing the picture above after the Anfield game and thinking frigging 'ell, that's our core team for next season. Darren Randolph and Matt Holland.

But then I sat down and found a link to the Play-off final on charltonlife and after reading about that day things started to feel rosier. So, wanting to put some faith in Pardew, I had a look at the teamsheet for the last match of the season to see what clues it holds and then compared it with the last-day teamsheet the last time we went down. The team for the Charlton trip to Liverpool was: Randolph; Young, Thatcher, Bougherra, Hreidarsson; Sam (Hasselbaink 82), Holland, Song, Zheng (M Bent 90), Ambrose (Hughes 51); D Bent. And the Subs remaining on the bench were Elliot and Fortune.

The last time we went down in May 1999 the team lost at the Valley 0-1 to Sheffield Wednesday and that day there was no hint that we would end the next season as Champions. The team that day was Petterson; Mills, Brown, Tiler, Powell; Robinson, Redfearn, Kinsella, Stuart; S. Jones and Mendonca.

Three of that team, Petterson, Mills, and Redfearn left the club and two more, Tiler and Steve Jones, only had a handful of games the following season so we only had a core of 6 players from that day, Brown, Powell, Robinson, Kinsella, Stuart and Big Clive to get us promotion. Richard Rufus returned from injury, we bought Dean Kiely, Shawn Newton improved and we already had Andy Hunt and Eddie Youds. And in the promotion season we had 6 players that played more than 40 League games - Hunt, Kiely, Newton, Powell, Robinson and Rufus. So we had a core.

Do we have a core of 6 this time? Well, there's probably 6 of the team from Anfield that will figure next season - Randolph; Thatcher, Bougherra, Sam, Holland and Ambrose. But will these be enough? With Young, the Elk, Rommedahl and Darren Bent likely to depart, the only serious doubts are whether Souley Diawara, Amady Faye, and Jerry Thomas will stay or leave. If they go then Pardew will have to find replacements as well as more strength in midfield, or am I forgetting Simon Walton and Brian Hughes?

In the creation department we have Andy Reid but it seems hopelessly unrealistic to expect 40 games in a season for the little irish fella so maybe Pards should ask the arse for another season of Song. The others in the melting pot are, of course, Marcus Bent and Kevin Lisbie, both of whom would appear to have been shown the door with the acquisition of 3 new strikers.

So for now we pin our hopes in the new boys, Chris Dickson, Luke Varney and Chris Iwelumo and with 19 year-old Danish star Martin Christensen who, if you believe the reports back in March here, is apparently set to arrive on July 1st.

No News Day?

So what's the news this morning? Judging from the independent and their review of the England B result last night at Turf Moor, then we've already lost another player. In amongst the Owens, Barrys and Lennons was goalkeeper Scott Carson (Liverpool) who has obviously now returned to his club Liverpool. Well, he was on loan, I suppose. While over at addickted.net the mass exodus continues with seemingly the Elk being the next to quit or is it released?

Meanwhile inspector sands helps us plan our summer by giving us upcoming pre-season fixture dates and we can find out that the Tier 2 season starts a bit earlier, all those extra games to fit in, on August 11th. And if anyone out there is still in denial mode, its have to end soon 'cause all the exciting forthcoming fizzy pops fixtures are apparently due out on Thursday June 14th.

And for anyone who thought the season had finished apart from the play-off final, its still struggling on over here in Spain where things always run a bit later than everywhere else. With Barca imploding recently, Royal Madrid and Barca are now neck and neck with the same points but in order to secure their first trophy in four years, the capitals team have seemingly resurrected the old rule which I thought had long gone where if teams are level on points its the head-to-head scores that count. No matter that Barca have scored twice as many goals as Real or conceded far less, its the scores between the two that count with Reals' victory at the Bernie currently proving decisive. It could all prove a bit of a numbers nightmare if Seville catch them up and the 3 teams end up with the same number of points.

Anyway, with just 3 games to go Real have the easier run-in and are desperate, after investing a ridiculous 650 million euros (436ish million real ones) in the last 5 years on transfer fees alone, to win something. Their fans are in a similar vein and unlike the Addicks where defeat can be accepted and life continues its a bit different over here when the unbelievable occurs and Real happen to lose. In a recent 2-1 defeat in little old Santander where 2 penalties were given against them, fans (!) took matters into their own hands and threatened the referee. Shades of Chelski, then.

And if anyone is sick of the press that manure get in the UK, its nothing compared to the situation here. Last weeks preview in El Pais on the Champions League final was nauseating in the extreme. The headline read "In the Hunt of Real Madrid", the first line read "Following Real Madrid...", there was a list of previous winners of the Cup with, of course, Real at the top with their 9 wins, a list of games that both teams had played in previous finals with in 1958 RM 3 Milan 2 at the top, etc, etc...

Makes you pleased that we're just ordinary Addicks, doesn't it?

Lists and the Power of Numbers

Despite spending the past 9 months telling ourselves we're not as bad as the Premiership table tells us we now know otherwise. Nevertheless the final Table has a fascination, a finality, about it. All the efforts of the last year shown in black and white or blue, black and white in this case. And if you look at some of the reports we're received this season compared to a simple listing of anything, give me numbers anyday. They may twist the truth a little but many reports this season have frustratingly dwelt on a facile aspect of the opposition with a good example being the last day draw at Liverpool being more about Robbie Fowlers last game than the surprising Charlton performance. So give me numbers every time.

So what numbers are around today? To start with there's the listing of Tier 1 clubs on the telegraph that gives readers a chance to "air their views" and 112 of us, have cared to give an opinion on the burning question "Will Darren Bent stay at Charlton?. Reading and Portsmouth are bottom with 82 and 94 comments to their question and clearly can't be bothered while Fulham, Bolton and Man. City fans are also more bored and miserable with themselves than we are. Perhaps it shows how important we feel little Bent is to us or maybe everyone else depressingly reads the murdoch press.

Meanwhile over there in our own cafcpicks there's another list, this is where you can vote on which Out of Contract players you want to keep at the club. Not surprisingly Matt Holland comes out clear favorite with nearly 50% of the votes showing that endless committment and his two yellow cards were appreciated by many, well 477 anyway. The Elk comes second while oddly enough there's a three-way tie between Kish, Lisbie and Sankofa. A strange trio and I would never have chanced a guess that the same number of people would vote to keep the apparent opposites runabout-Kish and lazy-old-Lisbie. But then my cynicism is answered by the last vote of 29 votes - keep none of them.

Back at our telegraph Charlton page, where we're still in the Premiership, there's some more strange numbers to grab you attention for a couple of minutes. If you ever wondered on the power of numbers to tell us almost anything cast your eyes over those gems. Here we can see how the boys performed during the season as far as the categories of Shots, Passing and Tackling are concerned.

Apparently Sorondo (!), Sam, Lisbie (!!!) and Hasselbaink were our most accurate passers of a ball - now I know why we went down - while Sankofa, Rommedahl and Lisbie again were our best tacklers????? Hasselbaink has the most assists with 3 and the Elf and Young made the most passes. The Shooting Accuracy prize goes to both Thatcher and Young with 100% !!! although you realise that at last the numbers do add up when you see that the Elk gets 35%.

Massive? Yeh, That's Us.

OK, after a couple of weeks we're well over what was really on the cards for several months and although Pards and most of the players had a good go at it, Relegation to the fizzy pops was finally achieved with the recent home defeat to London neighbours Spurs. The boys in white have not always been so generous, driving a hard bargain of £4M for Luke Young back in 2001 and then taking Spud off our hands for a rather dubious, at the time anyway, 2m sovs, but on this occasion they can be appreciated for setting about the business with gusto and getting an early goal and although the Addicks pressed in the second half, it was the ever-obliging Defoe that finally sealed our fate.

Ta very much Jermaine, or whatever your name is, its all a bit of a relief. After months of all that wallowing about at the foot of the table, being regularly insulted and patronised by armchair critics and TV folk, its finally come to an end and most of us have realised that the world doesn't end here. We're been here before, in this strange limbo that we last experienced in the early summer of 1999 that really has no-name. Call it Tier 1 and a half, if you like.

Because now that all that misplaced sympathy from friends and family has come to an end we are now actually enjoy this odd limbo zone where we can still cling, if anyone wants, to our Premiership status by checking out the seasons tables and the club listings where we still apparently qualify as "Tier 1". We can admire the hefty status of our last Premiership season ticket and perhaps, if you really want, regret our temporary demise. We've got probably another month to go of this strange limboland so enjoy it while it lasts.

But hang about, strange things are already happening that I don't remember from last time. After a season spent as bottom-three relegation fodder and feeling generally downtrodden, pathetic and second-best, it seems we have parachuted into a strange world of optimism and expectation.

All of a sudden we're being called "Massive" - by new players such as the well-travelled Chris Iwelumo and he should know he's been around. Division 1 ( Tier 3 please) players are rejecting moves to Tier 1 giants such as Middlesbrough to come to us seemingly convinced that our stay in Tier 2 wil be short.

And with the players now taking a breather before checking out their agents, Pards has been hard at work showing his determination to rebuild quickly by signing people who can score goals, at this level anyway. It's all rather encouraging for with 2 defenders, 2 midfielders, and 4 forwards signed since December he's clearly got his priorities straight. And by acting now he's made the point that we are not so hard up for cash that we have to wait till the Darren Bent money rolls in before moving forward.

Meanwhile, the expected mass exodus that was going to drain our resources and remove all that "quality" has not yet started but already there's rumours afoot that will soon make it obvious where we really are. Harry's apparently found a pot of gold on the TV shelf and after splashing out £7M on someone called Sulley Muntari from Italy he's now after Hermann H. Sadly enough if this happens no readies will change hands as after the experience of 3 relegation years with different clubs HH saw fit to make sure there was a clause in his contract for a money-free exit. Well, that smells to me like those pre-nuptial agreements that show-business peps are so keen on in order to safeguard their precious money. If that's the case HH you're obviously not the sort of player we want around, so good riddance.

Matty, Teddy and the 6' 4'' Striker from Scotland

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.

Seasonal Review

There are a lot of Addicks fans bidding good riddance to the Premiership and its over-fixation with money, its rules which can seemingly be twisted a little bit in payment of a large fine, its over-paid prime donnas and its condescending attitude to little clubs that haven't got any money. We've even got rid of all our glooms and dooms about the drop and most people, 17,000 in fact, are eagerly looking forward to life, well one year anyway, down there in the fizzy-pops.

"Give us our club back", has been the cry followed by a list of unperforming prima donnas that should be immediately off-loaded. Our wrath has been most virulent and unforgiving when directed towards those who seem most eager to get away and those seen as not pulling their weight - eg JFH, Rommedahl, Marcus Bent while others are listed too as not being worth keeping, ie Thomas, Faye, ZiZi, Lisbie, etc

But perhaps the massive clear-out demanded by many would not have the desired effect and would end up throwing out the baby with the bath-water and would also be in marked contrast to the last time we were relegated from the Premiership. As you all know it was in May 1999, and Curbs persuaded the whole team to stay except for Danny Mills and we went straight back up again as Champions. He bargained on a settled team taking us back quickly which turned out to be the case. And if we are to return at the first attempt then its important that a good start is made to the season, something that's not always possible if a host of new players are to be bedded-in. And as we saw this season a bad start is very difficult to overcome and Pards will therefore be working overtime to keep as much of the "core" team as possible.

Unfortunately, there are already signs that this will not be the case. With Scott Carson, Alex Song and ZiZi returning to their clubs and our two most bankable assets Darren Bent and Luke Young likely to be transferred to provide cash is clear that a large portion of the "core" team will depart. Add to that the possibility that players such as our key defenders El Karkouri, Hreidarsson and Diawara will not want to continue with a team outside the Premiership and all of a sudden its looking like a new team is needed. The Elk is one of four players out of contract but with his 39 appearances and 3 goals Pards will be trying his hardest to persuade him to stay.

If the worst happens we may well have to build on Darren Randolph and stalwart Matty Holland, Sankofa, Madjid, and Thatcher in defence, Lloyd Sam, Darren Ambrose and the return of the little irish fella. Newcomers Chris Dickson and Martin Christensen as the attacking option. Not to mention the odd-couple Brian Hughes and Kevin Lisbie. Could this be the chance Kevin's been waiting for??

But, apart from little Bent, our most important asset at the moment is Alan Pardew. Looking back on the season the glaring record of our previous managers ( or coachs) explains our demise. Dowie got us 8 points from his 12 games in charge and Reed 4 from 7 so at exactly the halfway point in the season we had only 12 points to show for ourselves with only Watford with 11 below us. Obviously something had to be done and Murray acted swiftly, getting Pardew in on December 26th. The remaining half of the season saw us win 22 points from the 19 games, a more than adequate total to ensure survival if only the first half of the compaign had been as good.

And he did it without a massive influx of players during the January window. He sold Traore to Harry for a mil and spent half of it on Ben Thatcher. Then he splashed out 2.5 million of Madjid Bougherra and borrowed Song from the Arse for the remaining of the season on loan and ZiZi finally arrived.

Looking at our results, one of our biggest failings this season was in our results against the teams that finished the season at our end of the League. Last season, with Curbs, our split of points taken was as follows. From the top 6 teams a meague 5. From the middle third our haul against the 6 opponents in mid-table was 13 and the teams below us, ie the bottom 7, was a massive 29 including 4 doubles.

This season the points taken were: - top 6 a poor 2 points, middle 6 was 14 points and from the teams forming the bottom 8, the Addicks included, was just 18 points, with just 4 victories from the 14 games. Perhaps Curbs targeted the winnable games, but the good news is that of the 14 games against the 7 worst, Pards was in charge for exactly half and got 3 wins and 4 draws, eg 13 points and didn't lose once.

Another factor, which Pardew never really solved, was our away form. It did improve after Christmas with the win at Fratton Park after 60 odd games without one and draws at Bolton, Watford, Man. City and Liverpool as well as creditable games against Everton and manure. But overall we never looked like achieving the form shown in 05/06 with our 5 away wins, 4 of them against the bottom 4 teams - Sunderland, WBA, Birmingham and Portsmouth and the other at Middlesbrough. The seasons total of only 1 away win is the worst for 27 years and you have to go back to the dark days of 1979/80, and relegation to the old Third Division, to find a worst away season when we failed to win a single away game.

In our favour we can look back on the seven years in the Premiership and be proud that for a small club our record has been consistently good, at least until the survival target of the 40 points has been reached. Only twice in the seven years did we manage to overcome our relief and actually continue playing once we had what was needed. And if our second and third mistakes were Iain Dowie and Les Reed then surely our first mistake was not asking Curbs to leave earlier. Easy to say, but its obviously difficult to come to a decision to part with someone who's been in charge for 15 years and perhaps our good start to last season with a favourable run of fixtures against lower clubs was our ultimate undoing.

So overall our points totals year-by-year were: 2006/07 - 34 points and 19th, 2005/06 was 47 points and 13th, 2004/05 was 46 points in 11th spot, 2002/03 was 49 in 12th, 2001/02 was 44 in 14th, 00/01 was 52 in 9th position. And our best year by far was 2003/04 with 7th place and 53 points, pity it didn't qualify for a European spot.

37 of 38 - Spurs (home)

With both Weat Ham and Fulham winning yesterday it really is must-win time. Its taken a long while getting here but now its down to the maths. The Addicks are now in the difficult, with a capital D, position of having to beat Europe-chasing Spurs tomorrow and then getting a win at Liverpool on the last day of the season. Even if that impossible double is achieved, we'll still need the results at Old Trafford and/or Middlesbrough to go our way. Its all a bit of a tall order and one wonders if there's any fire left in the team, and Pards, to continue fighting.

As for Spurs, 5-1 in December wasn't it? The big question is, can we do better this time? Without a win in 5 games and only 3 goals scored, our recovery has all gone a bit flat and the obvious answer is therefore no, but hey this is football, you gotta have belief and all fat ladies have been banned till the last day at Anfield.

So what of Tottenham? 6 wins in their last 9 games scoring a massive 22 goals into the bargain have taken Spurs up to 9th in the table, and just a couple of points away from a UEFA spot next season and now with a couple of games in hand. In those nine games there's only been 1 defeat, away to Chelski 0-1. In fact, you have to go back to February 10th to see their last major hiccup, a 1-2 defeat away to Sheff U.

And in keeping with their late run towards Europe, they keep going till the end of every game with 7 of the those 22 goals coming in the last 10 minutes.

So a win, or even avoiding defeat, for the Addicks looks difficult. But there's a couple of things to bear in mind. Of the 5 away games Spurs have played against the bottom 6 teams they have only won once - against the Hammers and they've not kept a clean sheet away from home in the last 13 games. And its not so hot in away London derbies either. They've lost at the Arse 0-3, Chelski 0-1, drew at Fulham 1-1 and Watford 0-0 and only have that one win against the Hammers 4-3.

But they do like to attack. That 4-3 result against the Hammers at the beginning of March does show their style exactly. Two goals down at half-time, Jol gave 'em the pep talk and the game was won with Berbatov and Stalteri scoring at the death. So its a total of 52 goals scored, the fifth most in the Premiership, but the same number conceded. Failed to score 10, clean sheets 5. Defensively the Addicks are close to that with 56 goals let in and 11 clean sheets and we've failed to score 13 times. Strangely enough the time that both teams concede the most is in the 60-70 minutes so expect fireworks around the hour-mark .

And if we let them score first, remember that only once this season have we come from behind to win ( Aston Villa, home) and of our 8 victories, only one ( Villa, again) has been when our opponents have scored.


History
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Spurs 4 Charlton 3

Last season, of course, was that disappointing game in October which saw our second home defeat of the year and was after the Addicks went 2 up and then let in 3 goals in the last half-hour to lose 2-3. The year before was a rare double for the Addicks over Spurs with our 2-0 home win following a 3-2 at White Hot lane where we'd gone 3-0 up before another late Spurs revival.

Unfortunately, history shows that they often do well at the Valley. Of the 24 games played, they've won exactly half with the Addicks winning only 8 times. Even in our best season over in the Premiership, 2003-04, Spurs won 4-2 here although that year we also won at their place. They also won at the Valley in 2002 (1-0). So, of the 7 games played in the Premiership at the Valley its Spurs 4 Charlton 3...

And overall its Spurs on top with 24 wins to 16 with 9 draws.

The Opponents
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Keane and Berbatov

These two are now the accepted front pairing, which at least means that Defoe will be sat on the bench getting a sore arse. They've scored either 20 or 21 goals each this season, depending on who you read, in all competitions, though Mr D is not far behind with 16. So obviously goalscoring is not a problem. They've also got the second highest number of goalscorers, after manure.

They've now got Ledley King back in defence after 4 months out with injury - which could help to explain their bad defensive record - and he'll line up beside Dawson with probably Jenas, Zokora, Malbranque and one other in midfield.

The Addicks
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Adios?

This could well be Scotty Carson's last game at the Valley and if we go down its odds-on that Darren B will also be on his way. And after Thatcher seeing red at Blackburn he'll not be playing against his old club for whom he featured 36 times.

As we said before, in December at White Hot lane we had what will probably be the same back four come Monday - Young, El Karkouri, Diawara and Hreidarsson and we conceded 5! There's the Elk's injury at Blackburn that may keep him out and if so it'll be Madjid that steps in. But after playing Sam, Kish, Faye and Hughes in that game in the midfield at least mondays line-up there will be a little different.

Holland and Song are a must with possibly ZiZi also being seen for the last time. Faye seems a little forgotten and has not been seen since he gave way to Holland on the hour at Everton, three games ago so it looks like Ambrose and either Rommedahl and Thomas out wide. And captain Darren up front.

Predictions
--------------
2-1

At this point in the season, there's not really Predictions as such, that's Lawrensons job, who of course sees a 2-1 Spurs victory. No, these now are more desires than anything else. So 2-1 to the Addicks it is then and if it isn't a home win then you better enjoy watching Darren Bent playing in red 'cause the next time you see him he'll be wearing somebody else's shirt.

The Costs of Relegation - Richard Murray

So even Pards' is thinking it now. "Certainly, it is not the end of the world if we go down, we will be strong and we will bounce back if the worst happens - but the top priority is staying up this season."

And in the guardian Richard Murray also has his say and reflects on exactly what could be in store.

"This is the most costly time to drop out of the Premiership," said Dan Jones, who leads the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, City accountants. "In terms of the difference between being in the Premiership this year and the Championship next year it's the biggest relative gap there has been. The working figure I would use for the cost of going down, in terms of the revenue difference between being in the Premiership and in the Championship next year, would be £25m-£30m."

Parachute payments payable over two seasons, climbing from £7.5m to £11m a year, should cushion the fall into the second tier but dramatically reduced television revenue - each Championship club will receive less than £1m next season compared with £30m in the Premiership - is a conclusive factor.

Richard Murray revealed that "many of our players will take a reduction if we get relegated" and admitted, "You have to say many of our players will probably leave the club", but he also said that there would, in some cases, be a need to honour Premiership pay deals. "If you have been in the Premiership five years and you go and sign another player from a Premiership club on a four-year contract they are not coming to you assuming you are going down."

Murray, none the less, is encouraged by the £11m promise. "It makes a big difference. What it does mean is that we are able to keep quite a few of our better-paid players, which you couldn't even consider to do without it. On one hand, with a Championship hat on, you would have to say that it's a bit unfair that the three clubs get that benefit, but I can assure you you just can't get your costs down in one year or even two years to what they were."

"I think the differential in television income between a parachute payment and a team ending up in the bottom half of the table [next season] is going to be around £20m. You will lose that to start with and you will lose all your sponsorship and other things which you may not get as much of in the Championship as you do in the Premiership, and then the extra load that many clubs have to bear is that their lenders, ie the banks, do not consider you to be such a good risk."

"Banks don't like to take too many risks anyway in football, but you are considered a much better risk in the Premiership. In our case, I think we have to try to reduce our overdraft at the same time as coming to terms with the reduced income. But I think one area that we are going to be OK is with attendances. We are pretty innovative with our season-ticket offers, where we have offered a free season-ticket if we go down and come straight back up again."

"As far as reduced wages for non-football staff, it will be more a case of not reducing the wages but losing some people," he said. "I think the footballers don't see that side. They are obviously disappointed if they get relegated but they don't realise that a receptionist goes."

Monday Night Dreams

After a bad night in Milan for half of Manchester and a sad slice of England too, its all bad news for Curbs as its highly likely that now manure will really be up for it come their last home game of the season on May 13th. As for the Addicks its all down to Monday night when nothing will do except a victory. Problem is that because of that Europe thing, Spurs need the points as much as we do.

With Robbie Keane having his best season for years and getting 14 goals in his last 12 games playing alongside the Bulgarian Berbatov they've be a hard act to stop with both of them now on 21 goals each this season. Only 10 each of those have come in the League so it shows how much football they've played this season. In fact, long runs in both cups and reaching the UEFA quarters mean that Mondays game will be Spurs 56th game of the season. But will they be tired?

Tired or not, it all points to us needing a Master Plan from Pards and a lotta luck to win. All-out attack is probably not an option so its pack midfield time and hope that El Karkouri and Diawara play blinders. A single wide man and hope that Darren can slot home a cross for a 1-0. Shame that with both Thatcher and Reid otherwise indisposed we can't reply on ex-players having a say and we haven't even got Kish to kick his Bulgarian mate.

But its a Derby and anything can happen, although with so many internationals from all over the world now playing for the Addicks will they really care about local rivalry? But we can also say the same about Spurs because they've not enjoyed much in the way of success in London this year with only 1 away derby win ( against the Hamsters 4-3 in March) having lost at the Arse, Chelski and drawing at Fulham and Watford.

As for Pards, he's already tasted an away derby defeat at the hands of Spurs at White Hart lane in October with the Hammers so he wouldn't want a repeat dose. In fact he'll have fond memories of a game at Upton Park last May when he burst Spurs Champions League dreams with a 2-1 win. How he must dream of the same result come Monday.....