Slightly less remarked upon than the prospective exit of Jürgen Klopp from Liverpool this week was the rather swifter departure of Michael Appleton from the coveted manager’s seat at Charlton Athletic.
It is indicative that since 2015, when Klopp first took charge of the Scousers, the South London side have enjoyed the tenure of a total of 15 managers, including caretakers. During that time, Liverpool won seven major trophies, including the Champions League.
Charlton, meanwhile, began what would be a long and tortuous descent into oblivion, even if every deranged new owner who came in would promise that within five years they’d be back challenging the likes of Liverpool in both the top flight and — heaven help us Mr Sandgaard — Europe.
It is one of my few inviolable rules of football that the more managers a team has over a short space of time, the quicker they disappear down the plughole. If I were a better mathematician I’m sure I could come up with an equation which would prove, indisputably, this rule.
In the past three years Charlton have had five managers and the number of owners has not been far short of that. The two feed into each other, of course: new owners are often quick to sack incumbent managers who lose a few games in order to demonstrate their vigour and vivacity to the fans, or to shove in someone hopeless but cheap on their payroll.Charlton’s problem of late has been that they are in the third tier of English football and they do not believe that they should be there — hence, when they get stuffed by, say, Burton Albion, the fans and the board feel aggrieved because they should really be hammering such lowly, ill-bred sides. And so the manager is booted out.They were installed as one of the favourites for at least the play-offs at the start of this season, but as I said in August, I never quite bought into that scenario, given the fragility of their squad and a defence which routinely clocks off its shift after about 79 minutes.
For Charlton to win games this season means scoring at least three goals and they are insufficiently equipped up front to accomplish that task, especially now they have lost the comparatively prolific Corey Blackett-Taylor to Derby County.
There is a certain talent in the forward line still, but Chuks Aneke is more often injured than not and Appleton thought that the genuinely talented Alfie May wasn’t getting sufficient service from the wings, so he played Alfie May on the wing to provide a service for Alfie May who — he had presumably forgotten — was no longer in the centre, because he was on the wing.
After a 1-1 draw with Blackpool on Saturday, Charlton have not won in 11 games and have been beaten in six of the past eight. They have that nailed-on relegation trait of conceding the decisive goal, in match after match, one minute from the end of added time.
I think it is fair to say that Appleton is not highly regarded by the Valley faithful and his record there has indeed been wretched, but the real problem is an apparent lack of clarity at the club as to who is actually running stuff.
The club was taken over by Global Football Partners in July last year, with the baleful Charlie Methven supposedly pulling the strings somewhere in the background. The slightly weird Nathan Jones — as well as Gary Rowett and John Eustace — have been touted as replacements for Appleton. In the meantime Charlton soldier on, only four points clear of the drop zone.
It is getting very congested down at the arse-end of League One, with three points separating 14th from 20th — the last position above the four relegation spots. The worry for the clubs hovering above the drop is that Reading, who were the recipients of a four-point deduction, are showing upper to mid-table form and there are signs of life, too, at Cheltenham.
So who is likely to go down? My guess is that the war is probably over for Fleetwood Town and Carlisle United, which leaves two from the following 11 challenging to escape relegation. Port Vale and Cheltenham have useful games in hand, while Reading and Exeter City have form on their side.
Form changes, of course ,and it may be that the bounce afforded by a new manager, or by the interim head coach, Curtis Fleming, is sufficient to accrue a few points to pull Charlton free from the morass.
But given the club’s run of luck in the past ten years, I wouldn’t necessarily bet on it. Appleton may have been fairly useless, but it is a succession of either terminally deluded or downright malign owners who have really left the club where it is right now, staring at the fourth tier for the first time in their 103-year league history.
Comments
Tuesday definitely felt like a relegation season
As OP says.....as he spends a lot of his time musing on all things Charlton he must be a fan.
I still have no faith in the SMT or owners making the correct decision.We will see.
Its just worst to read this from a Millwall loving person who is unfortunately right on the money and which feels more like a preparation piece for us all to accept that there's a real possibility that we will drop into League 2 which, after the last 10 years could be the final nail of shit shows on and off the pitch.
Depressing.
Quite a visionary is Mr. Liddle if he realised in August what our downfall would be this season.
'Millwall fan' on CL posts in a similar vein but at least he comes across as a decent person since his release back into society.
Apart from that wrong bit he wrote a piece that could actually write itself.
Liddle is a repulsive character.
Taken Rick's article and added vitriol.
Not wrong, but then neither was Rick. Still, anytime I start to have any sympathy with Millwall, I just think that people like Liddle are enjoying it, and it soon evaporates.
That pretty much sums up Appleton.