Admit it – you’re singing the theme tune to yourself, aren’t you?
It has to be said, AFCW has a feel of a bad 1980s US sitcom right now. The clueless boss, the whacky neighbour who is actually quite annoying.
Not to mention the hapless hero, who would manage to drown just by putting the tap on.
Anyway, enough humour. Darius is in the hot seat for the trip to Hillsborough this Saturday.
This is no real surprise, but it’s telling this comment from Mick Buckley:
“It is our intention to bring in an experienced manager to work with the team for the rest of the season. We are in discussion with some already and we will bring you more news as soon as we possibly can.
We might not get one in, especially at this stage of the campaign, but the club does look like it wants to stay up.
At least, it’s saying so for public consumption anyway.
Darius should only be in charge until the weekend, because we’ve got Charlton then the circus coming to town.
Ideally, we should announce the (permanent?) caretaker boss soon after 5pm on Saturday, and let him get to work on the Sunday.
That is, if we go for an experienced manager after all. The club might decide that it’s not worth the money if we’re going down anyway.
Needless to say, that would deflate a lot of people further. The club does need to be careful though, because the cost of living is rising and people might not want to pay for STs…
We all should wish Darius well, and I do hope he helps stop the rot.
I certainly don’t want him in charge next season, or indeed for more games this season than necessary, although a proper assistant manager role might suit.
What is clear though is that the club didn’t have a post-MR plan.
That we’ve taken 24 hours to announce that a current player is taking charge this Saturday says a lot.
That MR’s backroom staff is still here says even more, though it’s easier to move them on in the summer.
And that Buckley is saying he’ll give a “broader update” in the Charlton programme suggests we’ve been caught on the hop and can’t say much more.
I don’t doubt some decision makers wanted to keep Robbo on, which would have made succession planning difficult.
We should have been talking to potential suitors before MR finally got axed, and it’s obvious we weren’t.
Still, it’s not like we haven’t won in 20 games and have seven games left to stay up. No rush, like.
Regardless of where you stand, you can’t deny it’s been a strange 24 hours.
I would say it’s universally accepted that MR had to go, but some more “known” fans were pushing for him to stay even if we went down.
Personally, I think that would have been a disaster, but thankfully that’s academic now.
I guess it’s because we didn’t sack Dave Bassett in the early 80s, and that’s the benchmark we must adhere to.
But there’s a reason why the modern football manager has a shelf-life of around 16 months. It’s just that many people at AFCW still haven’t grasped why.
I’ve written a decent length piece on our now-departed manager, which will be up tomorrow.
But I’ve been thinking about his “process” and I can’t help think he/the club acted in a pre-EPPP world.
I’m coming round to the idea that we should go back to getting the very basics right, before we try anything fancy.
Part of that is down to us not getting the fundamentals right, but it’s also that developing youngsters for big fees is very difficult these days.
Look at the compensation figures for any player who has a decent run of games in our first team, and that would struggle to pay for a replacement.
Remember that we “only” got £300k for our best player in January, in a notoriously expensive position.
And that’s just League One – it gets even worse at L2.
Other clubs downsized and/or got rid of their Academies because of EPPP, yet AFCW has staked a lot on ours.
It may be unthinkable for some, but perhaps we don’t actually need an academy…?
Anyway, MR tweeted this morning, and I seriously doubt he’s not hurting right now.
We still haven’t heard much else from him, and barring an SLP interview we might not find out what went on after all.
And you wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t.
Finally, it’s funny how things can change in a matter of months. Four and a bit months ago, we got treated to this gem.
Perhaps we shouldn’t kick people when they’re down, but this has aged like a pint of milk.
From the condescending and patronising opening blurb, to some fantasic comments like:
We didn’t want to be in the same hopeless position every season, desperately fighting off relegation and relying on old players at the tail ends of their careers. That’s a strategy that only heads one way – downwards.
To the all-round whiff of hubris and conceit dripping from those words on screen.
As much as I feel sad it ended this way for Robbo, I’m not going to miss any of that bullshit from him and Joe Palmer.
And it’s odd to think that in just a short space of time, two of the three interviewed are no longer at the club…