Chrissy Powell My picture today is of a happy, smiling Chrissy Powell - I used to join in with the chant! I know we are being advised to move on by some - and that view is valid as there is a game on tonight and a relegation fight to be won - but a week after his shock sacking I want to add my vote of thanks for Chris Powell. As a Charlton supporter for 42 years now living in Hampshire, some of my views of the Addicks are from afar. When Chris was appointed in January 2011 he inherited a very ordinary playing squad in League One. He then presided over an extensive turnover of players to assemble a competitive squad for his full season in management - in which he and they achieved a record winning title win amassing 101 points. Charlton then finished the next season in 9th place just three points off a play-off position in the Championship. I saw our 0-0 at Cardiff and we played like the team going up just coming up short in the attacking department. His signing during the previous season of Yann Kermogant was inspired and I loved to see him play. His free-kick goal that I witnessed at Oxford was just one of many magic moments from the Frenchman. To have to sell your two best players to clubs in the same division just before the January 2014 transfer window closed must have hurt Chris. The new owner was hardly building bridges. And yet we managed to have a decent Cup run to the quarter-final stage. Patrick Collins, in his article in last weekends Mail On Sunday (see link below), said : Their wage bill last season was £7.5million, which placed them 18th among Championship spenders. They finished in ninth place. Powell’s reward was to see the bill cut to £5.5m this season. Small wonder they were no longer seen as a proper football club; more a shop-window, an easy target for anyone who fancied the notion of small, regular profits. A rich Belgian came shopping. The rest, as they say, is history. I loved Chris Powell and thank him for being a superb player and our manager. I wish new manager Jose Riga well and hope he can take on the players we have, add to them, and see us to Championship safety this season. COYR! Read more: dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2581852/PATRICK-COLLINS-Chris-Powells-sacking-Charlton-Athletic-exposes-footballs-silent-scandal.html#ixzz2wIYrgy6P
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 09:15:15 +0000