Same Story, Different Man...

I sit here on a train heading into Liverpool Street, feeling totally and utterly deflated. That's what taking a brief look over Charlton's twitter hashtag can do to you. After witnessing the debacle at Vicarage Road last Saturday, I'd forced myself into a self-imposed exile from anything Charlton-related for much of this week. Naively, I'd hoped that when I returned things would be marginally better. After all, surely they couldn't get much worse. I was wrong, by a country mile!

 

First, Luzon acquired his work permit. I will be bluntly honest here; I'm a fair-minded man who typically gives everyone a fair chance, but Luzon should be nowhere near my club. It will be through gritted teeth that I will back him. I hope to God he proves me wrong.

 

Then today, reading the interview with Bob Peeters in the South London Press has left me feeling more dispirited than at any other time since I slowly fell in love with this great club as a young lad.

 

A couple of heavyweight quotes that stood out...

 

"We'd spend hours and hours with Phil Chapple and the technical staff on signings and then the answer would be no"

 

"Even after a game it was always about those players [those supplied unrequested from Duchatelet]. Why did they not play? Why did they not come on?" 

 

"If people want me to be a puppet on a string, I'm not a puppet on a string"

 

Even taking into account Big Bob is obviously disgruntled at his dismissal, it would appear that the consistency in those stories told by Powell, Riga and now Peeters (even Mircea Rednic, who was sacked by Roland at Standard Liege) is frighteningly consistent and appears to confirm that Roland wants nothing more than a puppet to manage his club. In Luzon (who Duchatelet has sacked once before, don't forget), he may have found his man. Time will tell, but I will not waste my time hoping for anything different.    

 

The club owe us a response to this, but we all know we won't get it. Roland Duchatelet doesn't care what you and I think, and he has surrounded himself with people who won't challenge the obvious.

 

This is an all-time low for Charlton; the heart and soul of my club is being willfully disregarded by a man on a misguided mission that shows no obvious signs it can succeed. We have a demoralized, split and woefully understrength playing squad and an angry fan base.    

 

What an awful realisation all this is.

 

Thankfully I am off to Copenhagen this weekend with friends to indulge in the one love outside of my family that never lets me down; drinking good quality craft beer. I will check in on the result at Wolves, but I am more determined than ever not to let Charlton ruin my weekend.