Villa act swiftly to appoint a manager this time

A Special One before the Special One

Aston Villa's board have acted decisively in appointing Paul Lambert as their new manager. After a brief flirtation with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the Norwich boss was identified as the man to replace Alex McLeish, putting to an end any repeat show of the problems this time last year.

Back then, indecision, rejection and fudge proved costly as the board were forced to appoint Alex McLeish. Flipping Eck, who crossed the city to Villa was fifth-choice. After weeks of rumour and fruitless negotiation, hundreds of angry fans protested at Villa Park as the man who'd relegated Blues twice was unveiled.

Gerard Houllier quit before the season's end citing more heart problems, leaving Gary McAllister to caretake. Villa finished 2010-11 with a flourish: a 2-1 win at Arsenal was followed by a final day 1-nil win over Liverpool. Window signing Darren Bent's goals helped secure a ninth placed finish after a springtime dalliance with the wrong end of the league. Randy splashed £24m on the Sunderland striker to insure against the unthinkable.

So there was cause for low-level optimism: after all, McLeish was inheriting a better squad than he had at St. Andrews, he could call upon on an enlarged squad crop made possible by Houllier's faith in youth - and he had won Blues some silverware (so ruining Villa fans "one hundred years and won f*** all" Blues tribute song).

Lambert takes over from Alex McLeish at Villa Park

Instead the footballing fair all season was lamentable. McLeish had a reputation for setting up defensive teams and he took his confidence-sapping pub-team mentality and placed it upon the shoulders of a good team built by Martin O'Neill.

I deliberately took a seat next to the bench for Villa's home game with Wigan, so I could see how McLeish managed during game time. While clapping the flicks and tricks of Barry Bannan, he seemed to exchange a negative comment immediately afterwards with his coaches. I'd heard talk from another reporter that he didn't think the youth were good enough; a real kick in the face for the likes of Albrighton, Clark, Herd and Delph, who'd figured largely in Houllier's plans.

McLeish never looked assured in the job.

But it could've been all so different if Villa had appointed a boss with less panic and conjecture. No less than five names were in the frame in advance of the surprise link to the Birmingham City manager.

David Moyes was the early rumour. I had it on authority from a former Villa player now connected in the world of agents that the Everton boss had had two meetings with a representative from Villa's board. To the disappointment of many (including me), that's as far as it went; whatever issues Moyes had at Goodison were settled without the story emerging from the shadows.

Then suddenly and without any advance warning, Mark Hughes quit Fulham. The Welshman had just completed an eighth-placed finish at Craven Cottage, a place, a point and a seventeen goal better goal difference than Villa. The betting exchanges took this as a definitive job offer from Villa Park. How wrong that proved: in fact, owner Randy Lerner was said to have been spooked by Sparky's Cottage walkout.

Matters then got a little out of hand: Villa set their sights on Champions League winner, Rafa Benitez. But he gave short shrift to the Villa opportunity and swiftly rejected Randy's overtures.

Former England manager and umbrella model, Steve McClaren was called for interview - within 24 hours, he was told by Paul Faulkner not to bother turning up. No explanation was given and the disappointed McClaren, who wanted a return to England after disappointment at Wolfsburg, had a short-lived spell at Forest.

The spotlight then fell on Wigan's Roberto Martinez: a last day Premier League survivor with a win at Stoke. The Spaniard had cultivated a reputation for playing good football at both Swansea and the DW Stadium. But his special relationship with Dave Whelan put paid to Villa's chances.

Meanwhile, the close-season clock was ticking: other clubs had completed their summer signings, pre-season preparations were well underway. Still, no one was at the helm.

When Alex McLeish's name started circulating on Twitter, I originally thought it was a joke. Birmingham City had already mailed out Season Ticket renewal cards with his picture, autograph and spiel to get behind a promotion push.

Two days and £2million pounds in compensation later, the Blues boss was wearing a claret and blue tie, aiming to placate angry fans and win them over! Frankly, it was a terrible way to kick-off a new regime.

The only relieved people must've been Messrs. Lerner and Faulkner, but even they must have hoped beyond hope to a bit of good fortune: McLeish's arrival was nothing like they'd chosen.

This time, the board acted quickly, decisively and boldly: hiring a man who the fans are behind and with a fighting chance in the transfer market, with both time and available finance.

Lambert speaks of energy, vigour and ambition: he's reawakened Norwich City with commitment and organisation. Villa represents a step up.

He believes in Villa's potential and arrives from a place where he couldn't have fulfilled those dreams previously.

Michael Jackson statue reduces Cottage status

Can't see the wood for the trees.

We all know Chairman Mo plumbs depths of nouveau riche bad taste, but lobbing this joke of a statue up at Craven Cottage makes both a fool of himself and a target for mockery from away support. 

Like a sad orphan cast out from its rightful Harrod's home (the intended resting place for this garbage), Al Fayed's imposed MJ's effigy on his football public instead. Why didn't you put it in your back garden instead, Mo?


"If you don' like it, go'n'suppor' Chelsea instead!", snapped 'gyppy Mo at incredulous Cottagers, so scoring a silly PR own goal in the process.

Challenging McClaren's authority?

Coulda been Mo and MJ's lovechild

But the Fulham faithful have a point. Isn't this an insult to the club's real icons? Elland Road has Billy Bremner, Stoke City sits behind Sir Stanley Matthews, it's Cloughie at Forest and William McGregor outside Villa Park. Surely Wacko shouldn't overshadow Johnny Haynes at the Cottage? Mind you, chop its hair and you get Bobby Zamora, so it's not all bad, I suppose.

But which visiting boss will be able to resist a quip about the neither black nor white effigy? Every Fulham fan remembers the ridicule the Bad star suffered when he went to the Cottage one Saturday. They chanted "I'm forever blowing Bubbles!" as he did a lap of honour.



Brum, baby burn!

It won't be long before someone puts a traffic cone on MJ's head or takes direct action and burns it down like the ridiculous statue in Birmingham's Centenary Square; never replaced after being ravaged by fire eight years ago.

There's no truth in the rumour that its made of the same material as Jacko was after 1994!

Your home ground needs to be a fortress, not a focus for stunts like this. But don't worry Fulham fans, nothing is forever. It's a gimme for the new owner to stamp his or her authority on the club and be removed ten seconds after arrival!

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Houllier's getting to grips at Villa

Another draw maybe, but the enforced substitution of Nigel Reo-Coker sparked something very exciting in the Villa performance, writes Villa fan and talkSPORT's Jonny Gould.

Putting aside the wretched disappointment of conceding a goal which denied Villa a deserved victory in the 1-all draw at Fulham, this was a very significant day in the Gerard Houllier regime.

Albrighton's strike should've been the winner at Fulham.

Because now the team's looking like his. The Martin O'Neill era is consigned to history. And that moment came at the exact point when we lost skipper Nigel Reo-Coker to injury.

On in his place came Ciaran Clark. Forced to push up to midfield from his customary defensive position (as he did against Blues), Clark found his feet immediately - and produced a consummate display.

But it's not just about a fine young talent producing on demand. It's what Clark represents when he plays alongside Barry Bannan, Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso.

Villa have a class of 2010 - When these young lads combined with the attacking instincts and experience of Stewart Downing and Ashley Young, Villa looked a threat on the break every time they had the ball.

Now watch Villa's poor away form on the road improve vastly. If they play like that, results and confidence will follow.

Naturally, they'll have to play a different kind of game at home. One can't rely on attacking on the break at Villa Park. And with Heskey, Carew and Agbonlahor all missing at Fulham, the focal point of a target man will change the team's dynamic anyway.

But Houllier's way is being stamped on the players. Not only that, he's giving decent youngsters a proper chance to stake their claim to a Villa career. Something O'Neill just didn't do.

Villa lost Gary Cahill to Bolton for that reason - and it's a crying shame as Villa's youth policy has always produced a conveyor belt of good talent.

I'm excited by the performance at Craven Cottage - and while this is a year of transition forced on Villa by O'Neill's shock decision to quit five days from the season's start, we have in Houllier's Class of 2010, something to make the heart beat faster.

Redknapp proves Premier League discriminates against English managerial talent

Harry Redknapp's achievement in securing Tottenham's first-ever appearance in the Champions League is every bit as significant as his FA Cup win with Portsmouth two years ago.

It shouldn't be forgotten just how much disarray Spurs were in when Redknapp replaced Juande Ramos literally overnight. They've gone from ‘two points in eight games’ to 70 from 37 inside two seasons. The oddball Wembley defeat to Pompey is the only black mark this campaign.

Spurs’ resurgence under the stewardship of their cockney manager's been astronomical. In a matter of 555 days, the former West Ham winger's turned the club’s fortunes totally on their head, steering them from the clutches of relegation to what will be their highest league finish in 10 years.

Sam Allardyce often complained that he'd have got more of a sniff of the top jobs in the Premier League, if he were called Samuele Allardice (it's in Italics for a reason, folks!) Now, Harry's made Spurs one of the more coveted jobs in English football through force of will - and with an all-British coaching staff.

And 2010 marks the resurgence of the English manager in the world game. Joining Redknapp in raising eyebrows are Fulham's Europa League hero Roy Hodgson and the former wally with the brolly, Steve McClaren, who's just won the Eredivisie with Twente Enschede.

The one-nil win over Manchester City at Eastlands, Tottenham's last rival for that coveted place, shows they have the application and big-match mentality to give the Champions League "a good old go" as Harry might say.

Even by last January's transfer window, Redknapp had assembled a decent squad with a strong-looking bench. Much stronger than their competition in Aston Villa, who picked from their inexperienced but talented youth team, Manchester City, who were still garnering a new team spirit and Liverpool, who under the leadership of Steven Gerrard and Rafa Benitez, fell away under pressure to perform.

Redknapp's flexible and pro-active enough to realise his current squad's not good enough to reach the business end of Europe's elite competition. His wheeler-dealing in the market is well documented - and now he'll be able to attract top players to the club.

But perhaps rather than wholesale changes, Redknapp may only need to tweak the squad, such is the talent and spirit within it. From Crouch to King, from Gomes to Danny Rose, Tottenham have the basis to build on their phenomenal season.

They might be about to embark on their first adventure in Europe at this level, but don't expect Tottenham Hotspur to roll over against the big sides.

Click here: Why Mourinho should think twice before a Premier League return.

Why should football be about cheating and gamesmanship?

Two telly pundits endorsed cheating in two separate shows on Sunday. In both cases, the reaction of Adrian Chiles and Richard Keys was a rather feeble "fair enough", even though it seemed to offend their sit-on-the-fence sensitivities.

They happened during Andy Gray's Final Word, then MOTD2.

Gray, whose view of the Premier League is now quasireligious, suggested Wayne Rooney's calmish discussion with the ref while walking off at halftime against Fulham, would encourage the man in black to think twice before ruling against him after the break. Another instalment in Manchester United's chipping away at the referee. Sledging, now endorsed by Gray.

Then Neil Warnock explained that Adam Johnson's brilliant equaliser in injury time for Manchester City at Sunderland should've been denied by deliberate handball. 

"The defender would've taken one for the team with a red card and missed a game", but according to Warnock, preferable for Sunderland to test the nerve of a City player taking a last minute penalty then accept a brilliant piece of skill.

That is cheating!

Johnson's winner has put him in Fabio Capello's thoughts on the day David Beckham's England career finished. His exceptional piece of skill would've been buried in that last-minute penalty rather than being enjoyed for a long, long time.

Rooney needed less than two minutes to score the opener for United as the second half resumed. He's got more than enough in his locker not to rely on hounding officials.

If you think I'm being namby pamby - and it should be accepted as "just gamesmanship" it is for me, the slippery slope. Football can't just be about abusing a position of strength over the weak - football matches must be won on merit and brilliance.

Football no longer teaches youngsters about integrity. People like Andy Gray have as much of a responsibility for the game's image as the players out there.

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Fulham's Cottage industry no match for the Manchester United steam-roller

By JOE MORRIS.

Tommy Trinder, the late comedian and one-time Fulham chairman, must have called the club's fans some of the luckiest people in the world. By the end of their 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Manchester United most of us felt enormously privileged. United were through to an FA Cup semi-final against Everton and Fulham looked like lost tourists in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.

Undoubtedly Fulham remain one of the most endearing clubs in the Premier League, rather like one of those cute teddy bears in Hamley's shop window. Every so often they sit comfortably in the middle of the Premier League and then just topple over when nobody expects it.

Half way through this criminally one-sided FA Cup massacre, Fulham chairman Mohammad Al Fayed just slumped forward in his seat as if life had well and truly dealt him a poor hand. Perhaps he was more concerned about the profit margins at Harrods.

Al Fayed has had more than his fair share of heartache in recent years but it may not be very often that teams of Manchester United's stature come along and spoil his day.

Football, as we all know, is all about attitudes and platitudes, but when it comes to sheer class then United could probably give you chapter and verse. Once again United displayed all the game's most commendable values. There was, as ever, a marvellous sense of proportion and perspective about United's football that holds us totally mesmerised.

Wherever you looked, every red United shirt knew exactly where the other was. From the heart of their defence to the front line passes were zipped to feet with instinctive accuracy. Darren Fletcher. Michael Carrick and Patrice Evra moved around Craven Cottage like the bishops and knights on a chessboard. It was only when United scored an almost inevitable fourth goal that Fulham were in checkmate.

But it was the strength of Sir Alex Ferguson's new breed of ball players who caught the eye. Jonny Evans, Danny Welbeck and Richard Eckersley are the emerging kids who may turn into the next David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes. Maybe not overnight, but Old Trafford is priming itself for another invasion of the country's best young talent.

For Fulham this was the day when more pressing issues seemed to pre-occupy them. They lie in the calm waters of the Premier League but they may have to get their priorities right. There is an unnerving brittleness and vulnerability about the Cottagers that does leave you feeling queasy. Their football is correct and proper but manager Roy Hodgson may have to keep his players' heads above water.

We all know that Fulham were once regarded as one of football's playful circus acts who loved to fall over. During the 1950s their midfield maestro Johnny Haynes, almost single-handedly at times, kept Craven Cottage fans on their feet. Haynes was the chief architect and engineer of everything that Fulham turned their hand to. There was Tosh Chamberlain, Jimmy Hill and Bobby Robson, men of honour and honesty.

But Fulham are still prone to pratfalls and moments of extreme amateurism. You can almost see the incompetence when things go horribly wrong. After years in the old Second Division and Third you can almost see the cracks. Craven Cottage still has an old fashioned Victorian feel and the neatly black and white painted balcony at one end of the ground is a quaint throwback to another age.

Throughout this savage 4-0 mauling by United's roaring lions, the midfield graft and industry of Danny Murphy and Simon Davies did show some initiative for Fulham. But for all the hard running and red-blooded endeavour of Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson, Fulham were rather like peasants at a country landowner's ball.

Manchester United are well and truly on course for a season of astonishing achievement. They will now look to an FA Cup semi-final against David Moyes' Everton confident in their own footballing knowledge.

Next for United are Jose Mourinho and Milan and the possibility of a clean sweep looks a splendid reality. Perhaps Tommy Trinder was right. We are indeed very lucky people!

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It's Time To Say, "Arise, Sir Jimmy Hill"

By MARCUS STEAD: Soccermongery is often the platform for the outrageous statement. What about this one!

The summer of 2000 was one of the most important periods of my life. This was the time when I was sitting my GCSE exams, an experience I’m glad to say I’ll never have to go through again.

I can remember the day of my first exam very well. Nearly 200 of us entered the school hall, and had been allocated a very old, wobbly wooden desk each, that had surely out-lived our sixteen years. I went to take my place, which would be my second home in the gruelling few weeks that lay ahead.

No sooner had I sat down than I noticed a piece of graffiti on the top of the desk that read in huge capital letters, “JIMMY HILL IS MY HERO”. I tried very hard not to laugh out loud - this wasn’t the time or the place, but it’s fair to say I came pretty close to being disqualified from my exams before they had even started. Just think, my life could’ve taken a completely different course if one of the invigilators had looked at me during that moment.
Yet it occurred to me that those words could have been inscribed several decades earlier. Certainly, the desk dated back to the 1960s (it had an inkwell), but it was a testimony to just how long the great man had been involved with the game.

Of course, Mr Hill is a national figure of fun, and the graffiti was undoubtedly intended as sarcasm, but if you take the time to look beyond the huge chin and daft bow ties, you find a man who has made an extraordinary contribution to the game in so many different capacities.

His playing career saw him make more than 300 appearances for Fulham, the most memorable of which saw him score five goals against Doncaster Rovers, but his achievements as a player pale in comparison to everything he has accomplished off the field that helped change the game for the better in so many ways.

In 1957, he became the chairman of the Professional Footballers Association, and campaigned for the abolition of the £20-per-week maximum wage. He headed an excellent campaign that was ultimately successful. It’s easy to scoff at the excesses of the Premier League, but if this campaign had failed all those decades ago, there would surely have been an exodus of talent away from the English league to just about anywhere. The consequences for the national game would have been devastating.

Even if he had faded from the public eye at this stage, the modern game would still owe him a huge debt of gratitude, but this was to be only the beginning of his contribution to matters off-the-pitch.

His spell as manager of Coventry City between 1961 and 1967 saw the team promoted from the third tier to the top flight, but that only tells part of the story. Once again, he was way ahead of his time. With the support of the club chairman, Derrick Robbins, he insisted that two sides of the Highfield Road stadium were completely rebuilt. He was also responsible for the first proper match day programme, and arranged for pre-match entertainment.

These changes may sound small by the standards of today, but he understood that this was a period when cinema, theatre and other forms of entertainment were becoming increasingly affordable for ordinary people, and football had to work harder to maintain the fans’ loyalty.
When he left the club in 1967, he moved to a role that would see him make yet more revolutionary changes to the way we watch football.

He took a job as Head of Sport at London Weekend Television, where he helped develop the legendary World of Sport, and persuaded Brian Moore to make the switch to television for the launch of The Big Match. Until this point, football on TV had always been rather earnest, worthy and slightly po-faced. The double act of Jimmy and Brian Moore changed all that, adding a touch of razzmatazz and fun to proceedings.

The challenge ITV faces when covering major international tournaments is much the same now as it was at the 1970 World Cup. The main challenge was, and is, to give the viewer a reason to put up with the adverts and choose their coverage over that of the commercial-free BBC. On this front, Jimmy worked his magic once again, when he assembled the first panel of analysts, carefully chosen because of their willingness to speak their minds and not hold back.

For a month in the summer of 1970, ITV viewers were treated to late-night football highlights in the company of “The Midnight Cowboys” consisting of Malcolm Allison, Bob McNab, Pat Crerand, Derek Dougan and several others, who provided entertaining and forthright analysis of the day’s action. It’s hard to imagine a set-up like this existing now, in an era when broadcasters are keen to stay on the right side of the governing bodies, and the pundits themselves don’t want to upset their friends in the game. This remains the only time ITV have beaten the BBC in the ratings at a major summer tournament.

Jimmy jumped ship to the BBC a few years later, and became the face of Match of the Day. Those of us who weren’t around at the time have recently been given the chance to enjoy those programmes on ESPN Classic. I don’t normally appreciate being lectured at in a schoolmasterly fashion, but his precise, sharp and to-the-point analysis of the matches they covered was refreshingly blunt.

He combined his broadcasting commitments with several directorships, which started with his return to Coventry City in 1975. In the last game of the 1976/77 season, he is said to have made Coventry City vs Bristol City kick off ten minutes late, thereby allowing them to know how their relegation rivals Sunderland were doing at Everton. Sunderland eventually lost the game 2-0. Both teams knew all they had to do to stay up was pass the ball around, and the final ten minutes descended into farce, with nobody making any effort at all to try and score.

Many Sunderland fans still haven’t forgiven him for this, as was evident when he attended their match against Fulham at Craven Cottage just last year, and needed a police escort to ensure his safety.

But was this really such a crime? Maybe there really was serious crowd congestion outside Highfield Road. If we want to make the final day of the season truly fair, maybe all TV, radio and telecommunication signals inside every football ground should be blocked, to stop teams playing for draws if they know an important fixture at another ground is heading for an extremely one-sided result.

Of course, that could never happen, but you know what I’m getting at.

In 1981 came more proof that he was an innovator, a man well ahead of his time. He turned Highfield Road into an all-seater stadium, on the grounds of safety and fan comfort. However, there was a backlash from the supporters, and after Millwall fans ripped out much of the seating, he reluctantly backed down and re-introduced terracing. Hull City fans hoping for a repeat of that precedent shouldn’t hold their breath. Jimmy was once again way ahead of everybody else, and after a pretty miserable decade for football, all-seater stadia became the norm.

Later that decade, he saved his beloved Fulham from extinction, before having the wisdom to sell up when someone with serious financial clout could lead them back to the top flight for the first time in three decades.

By the late 1980s, the television viewer demanded a more slick presentation style, and Des Lynam was installed as presenter of Match of the Day. Jimmy was moved to the role of analyst, where he formed a highly entertaining and much under-rated double act with Terry Venables. It appeared as though they couldn’t stand each other, but away from the cameras, nothing could have been further from the truth. The viewers loved it.

In his most recent role as presenter of the Sunday Supplement on Sky Sports, he often talked about how it would be a good idea to get more former players to become referees. This argument holds a lot of merit, and is likely to gain huge amounts of support from players and managers in the years ahead.

Yes, some people think he preaches too much, and he’s always been prone to the odd daft comment. But the real Jimmy Hill is an innovator, a maverick, and a rebel who repeatedly stood up to the men in blazers. Everyone in football, whether a player, manager, media personality and even ordinary fans owe him a huge debt of gratitude.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Robson are both worthy recipients of their knighthoods, and it’s now time to add Sir Jimmy to that list.
Let us show him our appreciation for everything he has done for the game while he is with us to enjoy it. Football, and even the nation as a whole, would be in a far better state if there were more people around like him.

Also on Soccermongery: Jonny's TV Guide to watching Football on TV... er... nil-nil, Jeff! and VIDEO: McClaren's mystery Dutch accent!
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EXCLUSIVE: Cock-up Charlton's Curbishley replacement was under their noses!

The day Alan Curbishley bowed out of Charlton Athletic after fifteen years, was the day the club went into a downward spiral in which they're still spinning out of control. But it could've been so very different.

There's been a succession of awful managerial appointments at The Valley and next season, there's the real prospect of another relegation - to the third tier of English football.

But the answer to their future was literally right under the Charlton board's noses!

I can exclusively reveal I sat next to Roy Hodgson in the Director's Box at The Valley, that very day.

Two-and-a-half-years later, as Charlton stare up at the rest, four-points adrift at the foot of the Championship, letting Curbs slip out "the front door" was a cock-up enough - but watching Hodgson take his chance with Fulham so comprehensively, makes Charlton's mistake dimensional!

Their visionless board didn't know what they had - how far they'd come - and what to do next. 

Hodgson was the perfect replacement for Curbishley.

Curbs, together with Steve Gritt entered the stage as something of a comedy duo. They were the first joint managers in the English game. He and Gritt had zero experience in management. The club had no money and, worse, no ground.

Slowly, painfully, they put a side together and the first signs that something was stirring came at Ewood Park in February 1994, when Jack Walker's millionaire Blackburn, who won the Premiership the following year, were beaten by the penniless Addicks.

Curbishley, on his own after Gritt was sacked in 1995, then dragged Charlton away from all the dreary years of post-War mediocrity.

I'd been telling anyone who'd listen that to kick-on from years of patient, excellent progress, Charlton needed to appoint a manager for the bigger stage. Hodgson, a Londoner, with his Inter and Swiss credentials would've been perfect. He was clearly looking for a Premier League job in London. He got one.

The progress of Fulham couldn't be in more stark contrast to Charlton. 

The board, without a clue what should follow Curbs were keen on a man with no Premier League experience. Billy Davies was a strange Plan A to pursue - but when he wouldn't come to The Valley, Plan B (for Backfoot) was Iain Dowie, acrimoniously hired from relegated rivals Crystal Palace. When that didn't work out, Plan C (for well, make your own jokes here) was Les Reed. 

Appalling.

Charlton's board are so clueless, they must be going through the phone book looking for coaches now: Pardew? Parkinson? it's Pearce next!

They had it all in 2006: an excellent manager: okay, as a team they'd gone back a little over eighteen months, but only from higher to lower mid-table. The stadium was playing to full houses and had been developed very nicely over the years. They were ferrying fans in for a fiver from further afield, fuelling a fanbase.

And it's no exaggeration to describe their part of London as the country's region of opportunity. The City and The Olympics on their doorstep. So much opportunity! Where do you start?

With Spurs struggling at the time, they had a genuine chance to grow the club in the south-east and Kent, behind Chelsea and Arsenal as the region's third biggest club.

THEY'VE FAILED BADLY.

At New Year, Charlton are hurtling towards the third tier; Hodgson's Fulham who negotiated a miracle escape from relegation last season, are in the Premier League's top-half.

"Most managers leave by the back door, I'm getting clapped out of the front door which is how I would have wanted to go", a moved Curbishley croaked at the time. Players from both sides formed a guard of honour as the stadium rose as one in appreciation. They didn't know it at the time, but the poor fans were saying goodbye to the Big Time.

Charlton's board can't apologise enough to the supporters for how badly they've mismanaged the Addicks ever since. They've run their Premier League club more like a Provincial Golf Club. Now they're handicapped, four-under-par the field. They're going to miss the cut.

This looks like damage which could take a decade or more to rectify.

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Also on Soccermongery: January Transfer Window Comment and Podcast Laugh: Jose Mourinho sings the Blues