Charlton Athletic Online

I should have known - I go away for the weekend, and by the time I get back, all hell has broken loose. Desert Orchid pops his four clogs; Marcus Trescothick is still ill and now on his way home from Australia; English rugby is in major disarray after seven defeats on the trot; and Iain Dowie (left, saying bye to Luke) gets the bullet from The Valley with Les Reed taking over as Head Coach.

I intended arriving home today and writing up a comparison piece between being a sports fan in England and that of our American equivalents - that will not have to wait until later in the week...

This blog has never been a fan of Dowie, as my past ramblings may have indicated.

Sure, the season start was tough, and Frankie Valley's prediction of not much and very little to show from the first eight games came painfully close to the perfect bet. The results have picked up recently, when playing against slightly easier oppposition (Manchester City, Chesterfield, Newcastle...), but the signs to me, just another fan, were that all was far from well within the camp.

Conspiracy theories have already started - the Luke Young get-together has been rolled out, when it was actually all explained away; player unhappiness has been mentioned in other contexts too, with new and different training regimes mentioned. Why have so many players ended up injured this season when the club is paying for fitness coach John Harbin? If players are incapable of playing an hour in the Premiership, why play them from the start (Pouso) or leave them on the pitch for 80-plus minutes (Reid) when all it is doing is damaging their chances of being fit and playing in the next game? There was also the day-off that Dowie was seemingly "forced" to take by Les Reed - what is the real story there?

But behind all of this was the fact that certain things that we Charlton fans take for granted - marking at set-pieces is just one - had gone by the way, and the one person responsible for this was the head coach - Iain Dowie.

I believe that Richard Murray has always taken the best course as Charlton Chairman; when he wanted one manager not two, out (painfully) went Steve Gritt. When Curbs didn't want to extend his contract, Murray's mutual consent came out with the hankies to wave Curbs goodbye. Now it is Dowie's turn to feel the Muzza force. The man has made millions, and has made a few major decisions in his time I bet. This, I think, is a good one for the club.

OK, it may mean that Murray was wrong to appoint Dowie in the first place, but would we really have countenanced Reed being made Head Coach back in May? I think not...I've read today that some fans are asking if Murray should now go too - what absolute garbage. He is one of the best chairmen in the game, and if that means making tough decisions, then all the better that he can do so. Let's not forget our very own Mark Hulyer and Michael Gliksten, and other teams more recent equivalents!

Curbs lasted for fifteen years; Dowie fifteen games - that just about sums up the difference in class between the two of them in my humble opinion.