Deja Vu
"It's like deja vu all over again." (Yogi Berra)The 2009/10 season is starting to feel an awful lot like 2007/8 (and not in a good way).
Just like in 2009/10, we had just experienced a painful relegation but the incumbent manager was generally not blamed for that outcome, and thus remained popular.
Just like in 2009/10, the manager had taken over midway through the prior relegation season and was initially forced to merely stabilise affairs, let alone push on.
Just like in 2009/10, the manager inherited a squad which included a number of expensive flops signed by the previous manager.
Just like in 2009/10, the manager was forced to offload valuable or highly-paid squad members to balance the books.
Just like in 2009/10, the season in the unfamiliar lowly division had begun very promisingly with Charlton occupying a top two spot.
Just like in 2009/10, so-called pundits prematurely declared Charlton were 'too good for the division'.
Just like in 2009/10, the other team occupying the aforementioned top two spot (Watford) began to lose form at exactly the same time as Charlton.
Just like in 2009/10, Charlton put together a four match winning run beginning in November.
Just like in 2009/10, Charlton then only won 2 of the following 9 matches.
Just like in 2009/10, the team lacked a striker who could consistently find the net, but had a midfielder who chipped in with vital goals (Zheng).
Just like in 2009/10, the team had a talented talisman that the manager could not seem to get the best out of (Ambrose), because his best position was 'in the hole' constraining his options.
Just like in 2009/10, the manager responded to gaps in his squad by relying on loan signings. Whilst some earlier loans were generally positive additions (eg. Mills, Sodje), later ones unbalanced the squad and added little (eg. Cook, Sinclair).
In 2007/8, the team finished 11th. Where will we finish in 2009/10?
posted by New York Addick @ 8:48 PM
8 comments
Rather worrying NYA.
The one thing I'm hanging onto is that this time we didn't lose any of our better players in the transfer window.
Losing Andy Reid was a huge problem for the team and it's no coincidence that big Chris Iwelemu's goals dried up at the same time.
**You might need to edit out any mentions of a 'painful promotion'.
I think we'd all grab one of those this time around, no matter how painful it felt!
M
Thanks for spotting the error Marco - now corrected.
I hate it when that happens.
7th
Parkinson's never been the man. Not when he was caretaker manager, not now he is permanent manager.
We'll finish 5th/6th and draw the away leg in the playoffs, but lose at home.
In truth there aren't many other managers with a record of 19 wins in 59 League games (worse than 1 in 3) who retain both a job and such relatively high popularity amongst fans.
Admittedly it's hard not to like the bloke (at least compared to what came before), but the team has completely lost its spark.
By the way NYA, when are you going to explain the Portsmouth crisis to the rest of us laymen?
Whenever there's financial news these days I pretty much ignore the mainstream media and wait for you to explain it properly.
To be honest I haven't been following the Pompey case that closely, although I suspect it is not materially different from any number of other troubled clubs eg. Cardiff, Palace.
Ultimately it can be viewed simplistically: club spends more than it earns consistently; it borrows to fund the difference in the near-term; in the longer-term those debts can no longer be serviced; thus new equity investment is continually needed, but is no longer forthcoming (because slowly potential owners are waking up to the financial bottomless pit known as football).
I think their case is especially acute simply because of the sheer scale of the mismanagement. Ultimately the above described model explains almost every club in the land (including ours unfortunately).
Great post, i felt it was similar but had no idea how much. There is a nasty smell of change in the air across all of football re financing. The lower down the league we are when the explosion happens, the harder it will be to come back. I am not confident, but hoping against hope that we can still squeak a promo slot despite Parky.
Miss your blog NYA, glad to still have the odd one to read.