Chicago Addick living in Bermuda
Sunday 31 October 2004
  It's going to be a big week It's been a quiet weekend which was the plan really as I try to regain my sleep pattern, for what it is. I was in bed last night at 8.40pm, which with the clocks going back today meant I was up v early. Today is Halloween and it's huge here, although I did notice more of a fuss at home last week than ever before. I read that 75% of the adult population dress up in fancy dress today, which is a higher percentage than American kids!

When I flew back from London to Chicago on Thursday it was a year to the day that I arrived here with my couple of bulging suitcases and a work visa. In many ways it has flown by but in others it has not. I miss a lot of people and Charlton (sometimes) but I have no regrets, it has been an amazing experience and I learn more everyday about people and myself and as the days pass I love this City more and more.

One of the people I miss is a top mate of mine called DG (no not that DG, although it only adds to his brand image probs) but he arrives here on Thursday to stay with me for a week which I am really looking forward too. Of course before then we have the small matter of the Presidential Election and I thought I would get in the spirit of things and have a few boys & girls around for dinner & drinks on Thursday night to watch the results come in. The general opinion is that the winner will be known by midnight Tuesday.

The polls are neck and neck with the tide seeming to be with Kerry. It will all come down to what they call the Battleground States, of which there are 9 - Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire and the scene of 2000's cock up Florida where mainly old grannies and immigrants will decide on the future most powerful man in the world. Quite scary really.

The election of course is all about image - the total cost is estimated at more than $2bn - or is it? Grown up men and women point, with all seriousness, to all kinds of other factors and not just the sudden appearance of Osama Bin Laden, but more significent factors such as which plastic Halloween face mask is the biggest seller (Bush), who is the tallest candidate (Kerry), who has the shortest name (Bush) and more famously today's Washington Redskins v Green Bay Packers match which history has proved as crucial.

The Redskins’ final home game before the presidential election has always accurately predicted the White House winner. If the Redskins win, the incumbent party wins. If they lose, the incumbent party is ousted. Final score 28-14 to the Packers. Goodnight Mr Dubya.

The ever paranoid septics are already worried about a significant chance of fraud at the ballot boxes affecting the result (the lawyers are rubbing their hands) and with 50% of the adult population still believing that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the World Trade Center atrocity and another 16% of Americans thinking that the world could end (yes, actually end) in their lifetimes this video (courtesy of my friend Inspector Sands) will truly send the cat amongst the pigeons. Watch it in full, it is very interesting.

I must also mention the 'World Series' victory by the Boston Red Sox who ended the 86 year curse of the Bambino after sweeping the St Louis Cardinals 4-0. Next year must be the Cubs turn with or without Sammy Sosa.

Enough of here, I want to finish by mentioning a couple of home things. First of all one of my best ever memories was seeing Soft Cell play live circa 1983. They were something else and to this day some of their early stuff still sends shivers down my spine so I for one wish Marc Almond a speedy recovery after he was injured in a motorcycle crash two weeks ago today.

I have also found out that The Times have announced that they are doing away with their broadsheet format after 216 years. Gutted. After years of having no real attachment to any paper I finally settled on The Times a few years back and it's on my list here of one of the things I miss because quite frankly the papers here are 'flick throughs' at best. Admittedly the tabloid size (sorry compact edition) will be easier to read on the Tube but I liked nothing better than on a Saturday or a Sunday morning to lay in bed or sit on the carpet with it spread out in front of me. Real shame.

And finally a big thank you to the late John Peel because if it wasn't for him Teenage Kicks by The Undertones would not be one of my favourite all time records. As The Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield said "he was a lifeline to hearing music I would never have heard otherwise." RIP.
 
Saturday 30 October 2004
  Middlesbro' home. What was the score? 1-2 Another defeat. I thought we would lose today, running out of faith in the boys at the moment. Curbs made 5 changes, Jeffers did not even make the squad apparentely. Sounded like JJ took his first team chance pretty well and Jerome Thomas was again impressive but Kishishev straight back into the starting XI after injury is a joke.

I'm wondering if the form of Thomas and his acknowledgement of Dowie's good decision to play his youngsters/reserves on Wednesday will encourage Curbs to try some of our other young prospects such as Lloyd Sam, Neil McCafferty, James Walker or Jamal Campbell Ryce or Michael Turner who are both out on loan? Stick one or two of them in or on the bench and see what they are made off. Curbs has always been too frightened to do that but mixing and matching the first team squad as he has been doing all season is clearly not working. I know I would rather see the raw enthusiam of Thomas & Walker rather than the experience but malaise of Murphy & Kishishev at the moment.

I spent the morning watching the Pompey v Man U game in the pub. Pompey were so much better than I have seen us this season. I am beginning to get ready for a relegation battle and are hoping there are 3 worse teams than us in the division. I had desperately hoped we had grown out of that thinking but in reality we are no different from Blackburn, Southampton, Everton, Man City & Birmingham fans. What does an established Premiership team mean outside of the top 5?

Reports from those who were there: cafc.co.uk; All Quiet; Sporting Life; BBC Sport.
 
Friday 29 October 2004
  Over land and sea A brisk early morning walk over Battersea Bridge after staying the night at my brothers, a bus ride to Victoria Station, a tube to Liverpool Street, a train to Romford, then a cab to my mate's house in Emerson Park where I have had my 'base' for the last few nights. Then a drive halfway around the M25 to Heathrow Airport and then an airplane to Chicago. I most certainly have had plenty of time to digest the embarrassment of last night's defeat to that lot (to quote Brian Cole).

It was a hugely disappointing end to a great few days at home and although these days Charlton Athletic are not my entire life (otherwise I would not be living here) they still mean a fucking lot to me and at the moment they are getting right on my tits.

They were rightly booed off by what was a very passionate and surprisingly large Valley crowd who were still blindly trying to get behind them long after it was plainly obvious we were going out with a whimper - we had all seen this story played out too many times before.

We started so well too. HH scored with a bullet header in front of us in the Covered End and for the next 10 minutes we took the game to them and with the chant of "Who are ya" echoing around 3 sides of the ground we looked in a different league. But then what happened?

Where was the drive, the passion, the spirit, the 'Charlton spirit', the passing? This is the last time I'm going to mention Parker, Di Canio & Jenson on here but each one had different attributes that they brought to the team. Parker's tackling and arrival late into dangerous areas, Di Canio's guile, skill and passion, Jenson's ability to run at players with the ball and all three could execute a dead ball. We have no one in the club (at least on current form) that offers us any of these skill sets. Holland's late free kick into the Jimmy Seed Stand about summed up our night. If Jenson had stepped up for that we would have had different expectations.

We were defending so deep and I too am starting to wonder about Kiely, however surely the defence cannot be helping him. Once again Perry had to be in two places at once because Fortune is just not good enough on a regular basis. He has to play above himself to get by and you can't do that week in and week out.

The midfield is my biggest worry though. Murphy was quite frankly terrible, again. Are we still blaming his performances on "missing part of pre-season training"? Jeez, the bloody clocks go back on Sunday! Holland was poor too and in a game that meant so much to the supporters I really wanted to see him lead by example. He didn't. Unusually Stuart was anonymous. There was and hasn't been for the large majority of the season any invention, fight, pace, cutting edge or service to feet or into space for the two front men.

Jeffers is getting criticised for not running around enough and complaining and I don't blame him. He's a forward. Give him a chance and he will score. I don't ever remember Derek Hales, David Whyte and Clive Mendonca getting back into their own halves to pick up the ball or chasing diagonal 10 foot hopeful hoofs.

And my renewed patience (about the 15th time) in Lisbie is running very, very thin. Our only bright spot was Jerome Thomas. I clapped his every contribution because he had an outstanding debut in my mind. He has to play Saturday but it would not surprise me if he didn't.

Curbs is in the most testing and challenging time of his managerial career. We have relegation written all over our performances, our confidence at the moment is zip and the stats don't lie.

As for Brian Cole? I missed his comments, very funny but clearly his brain is not as big as his stomach and to be quite honest, he used to annoy the fuck out of me anyway.

Right, I'm knackered, its been a long day and I'm going to bed.
 
Monday 25 October 2004
  Liverpool away. What was the score? 0-2 I purposely waited to write a few lines on the game.

The day before yesterday. I didn't watch it, I was at my parents who only have 4 channels on their telly so we (the whole family are season ticket holders) listened to the commentary on Radio 5 Live, and how we weren't four (our favourite number) down in the first 30 minutes we will never know. Reaching half time without conceding gave us hope whilst the kettle went on.

More of the same after our half time cuppa and then another 30 yarder soon put pay to any hope and my old man turned the radio off and offered to take us out to dinner and that was that.


Home later, the good old teletext (what a wonderful invention that was) told us the final score and I went to bed because I was bushed.

The Next day. Newspapers, website reports and the bloody message boards got me in a rage. How bad were we? Again. I can't believe Liverpool beat us! Curbishley most go. It's desperate. But hang on, woah there Leslie. Breathe. I turned the computer off.

Today. Feel better in mind if not tired and slightly hungover in body. However I just want to list some facts about our away form:

Shots on target in 6 away games 12, 4 in last 4
Shots off target in 6 away games 18, 11 in last 4
Corners in 6 away games 15, 6 in last 4.

Now I know 2 of the last 4 games were against Arsenal and Liverpool but one was Grimsby in the Cup, which we won and accounts for 2 of the 4 shots on goal in the last 360 minutes.

Now I am most certainly not a Curbishley out man and I don't yet expect us to go to Anfield and win but christ, lets give them a game, maybe even try to force a corner or two. Bolton can do it.

So what's going on? Expectancies have rocketed after last season and the summer spend up, nevertheless the players that have left we desperately miss and the new ones are struggling but what does concern me is that we don't appear to be the "gritty little dogged Charlton" of 'old'. The ones that Curbishley built, which is a bit of luck really because he is still in charge and only he knows how he did it, so lets get behind the bloody team and believe in them and the manager.

The vast majority of football fans in this country would love Curbishley to be their clubs manager. But he's not theirs, he's ours. He makes decisions that we might not agree with but what other button do you press when you vote for the greatest manager in the clubs history on the official site? Exactly, unless you are over 60 years of age its an easy decision. Remember that. Come on you Reds, it's a big week.

Reports from those who were there: Addicks Diary; Sporting Life; cafc.co.uk; All Quiet.
 
Thursday 21 October 2004
  Lazy, half-hearted & cheap I'm hoping young Francis has left something in reserve after last night's performance at the Valley where he turned it on in a comfortable win over Ipswich. I would definitely start the Scouser on Saturday, particularly as he missed the game against Arsenal - all that vent up frustration can hopefully be taken out on that other team on the opposite side of Stanley Park.

Who should we drop though? Bartlett scored the winner at Anfield last season and of course Lisbie scored the hat trick in the game at The Valley. Tricky. Personally I would start with Lisbie & Jeffers with Bartlett on the bench. Otherwise same again please lads.

I like the idea of voting for the Charlton greats on the official website (which still looks absolute pap on my browser by the way - please someone cleverer than me tell me how to improve it?), and I will probably share with you my votes when I get around to doing it but I fully agree with Inspector Sands on this that so far the clubs efforts have been at best either lazy, half-hearted and cheap or profit making, i.e. friendly match, naff kit etc.

Peter Burrows and Colin Cameron are such wonderful resources, who we are lucky to have, as are all the other old heroes who must have so much to tell. Please Charlton don't waste the 100 year centenary, it is something special, Charlton are something special. Lets maximise the power of that not just the pennies.
 
  What's happening Wednesday? I'm flying home tomorrow evening around 5pm and land at Heathrow early Saturday morning. The weekend will be spent with my son at my parents new house in Eastbourne and hopefully I will manage to take in our game later in the day.

On Sunday night I will meet up with a few mates for a couple of pints before doing some work things Monday & Tuesday day time and some fun things Monday & Tuesday night time.

Wednesday I have got something on but can't remember what it is!

I don't think I have ever mentioned music on here before and I wish I could be more like Riscardo (without the cowboy boots) who must listen to tonnes of stuff to have a daily tune. I tend to buy a CD and just listen to it over and over. Now at the moment I just can't get the Cream Classics of my iPod. It is fucking excellent, tune after tune that reminds me of hazy days and nights in Tenerife way back. I love it & I must remember to pack it.
 
Sunday 17 October 2004
  CAFC site celebrates 100 years What an earth has happened to the club's website? I know we were celebrating centenary day at The Valley but recreating a website that looks like it was designed 100 years ago is stretching it a bit too far. Now, I'm no Tim Berners-Lee but half of the title heading is missing, or is this by design like the clubs badge and the fonts look like my son wrote them. And as for stories 1, 2, 3 etc, it is like reading a kids book.

Digital Link, Internet Architects indeed.
 
  Newcastle home. What was the score? 1-1 A thoroughly improved and more passionate performance from the Addicks today. It was a very enjoyable game and although Newcastle always looked dangerous going forward, Given was the busier goalie. Kiely - who had no chance with Bellamy's goal - didn't actually make any saves of real note, although Murphy did clear of the line from Shearer.

It was more like the Danny Murphy we had been expecting and I felt a whole lot safer with Holland back in his role in front of the back four. Perry was my MoM tracking everyone and blocking everything. Stuart's endless running and encouragement was good too.

Questions remain of course, Rommedahl was not in the game enough and we need to work out when to release him when he is in space and the front two once again couldn't trap a bag of cement. We looked a whole lot livelier when young Franny came on in my opinion.

Taking nothing away from Misbie because he did very well for the goal but two Newcastle players touched the ball after he did on it's way into the net. I thought we were going to snatch it in the end but a point it was.

We had to put up with Alan Parry & Andy Townsend doing the commentary - plenty of references about weeds on the terraces, fortress Valley, we're "so hard to beat at home" apparently and Lisbie is "always likely to score". Townsend did talk about his Dad though, who played many years for us, but I'm sure he said that he made his debut in 1948 - is that right?

Reports from those who were there: Sky Sports; Sporting Life; BBC Sport.
 
Friday 15 October 2004
  Ssshh It seems like an age since there was anything worth talking about Charlton wise. Even today was quiet as we're not playing until Sunday. No team news or much doing the rounds. The blogs are quiet, some seemed to have disappeared of the face of the earth completely which is a shame, although I did have a read of Captain Haddick today. Welcome Cap'n.

I will be watching the game on Sunday in Gingers Ale House in Wrigleyville, where I will meet a mate for breakfast (American, supports Newcastle, liked their colours or something absurd).

I have booked my flights for the Palarce game. I had to change them from my original plan, so am now flying next Friday night and will return the Thursday after the game, so will regrettably miss the Boro' match but hopefully will get to see the Liverpool game on TV. Although my parents have just moved house and have informed me they don't have Sky. Ah....

There's going to be quite a few of us getting together for the Cup game, really looking forward to it, we're going to get on it early. Charlton, please don't let us down!
 
  Summer signing poll closes
The poll on our most valuable summer signing has formally closed today. Thank you to the 168 people that voted

Young Franny led the way from the start and was comfortably our winner despite a late surge of interest in Danny Murphy and Talal El Karkouri following some steel like midfield performances. Interestingly El Karkouri won more of the vote than Dennis Rommedahl.

Here are the final results:

Francis Jeffers 46%
Danny Murphy 27%
Talal El Karkouri 13%
Dennis Rommendahl 11%
Stephan Anderson 2%
Bryan Hughes 1%
 
Wednesday 13 October 2004
  Chicago Marathon pics Just to prove I got my arse out of bed on Sunday morning and took some pictures using my new digital camera.




 
Monday 11 October 2004
  On the wagon Had a very quiet weekend. I've not had a drink for over a week, which is mainly by choice but I have felt pretty crap too as I can't shake a poxy cold which I have come to realise has been with me ever since I last had a drop of alcohol which must be a coincidence, I think?

Sunday I took in the Chicago Marathon which passed close by my apartment 3 times. If you have ever been to Chicago you will know it is a very flat city and therefore the Chicago Marathon is one of the quickest in the world. This is great if you are a finely tuned athlete some whom I saw sprint past me at the 12 mile mark but not so good for the fat fucks who were being overtaken by the street cleaners sweeping up the debris 3 hours later. If they survived to tell the tale and I didn't give out much hope to the woman who threw her guts up in front of me, then they were on course to finish the 'race' in 7 to 8 hours!

There must be a rule that does not allow extremely unhealthy and unfit American's to endanger their lives and run 26.2 miles. If there isn't then they should devise one.

However I did find it very inspiring and although I can't imagine for a minute that I will ever be fit or dedicated enough to run a marathon it has made me step up my search for some running shoes and at least get on the treadmill more often.

I'm bored at work and need something else to stimulate my goldfish like attention span, I'm pissed off with my team leader who does not know the meaning of the word team nor leader and the weather is on the turn, although I still had my shorts on yesterday but I am fighting a losing battle. The winters here are as the Chicagoan's say brutal and the thought of the cold right now is depressing to say the least.

Tonight I went to a cheese & wine evening or for me, a cheese & diet coke evening but it was cut short when my mate's girlfriend phoned him twice crying. On the 2nd call he downed his Rioja & swallowed his piece of Vermont blue and left. I hung around for a bit, tried making conversation with the bar tender and then decided to leave as well.

I sound fed up, probably because I am, although I'm hoping a mate is going to pick up my Palace ticket tomorrow so all I need to do now is book my flights and tell my boss (nah bollocks to him, he won't understand anyway, and needs to start acting like one before I treat him like one).
 
Sunday 10 October 2004
  Selhurst Park is on the moon How embarrassed must Gillingham, Luton Town, Rotherham, Brighton & Portsmouth's fans be today waking up to find that The Observer has named their team's grounds as worst than Selhurst Park? Now I have never been to Millmoor or The Withdean but christ they must be hell-holes.

"A grimy, joyless place.... it's only the other side of London, but could be on the moon." God, and don't we bloody well know it eh?

The Observer, following a recent 'subjective' poll of fans, today named the country's 10 most crappiest football grounds and Palarses' came in at a mighty 6th out of 92. Wonderful effort. Mr Noades must be very proud, particularly as the twat that now owns the club is still paying him for the 'privilage' of playing there.

Ignoring the Athletics and Hockey Stadium's, Selhurst is also the least oldest of the grounds named. Why don't they just move in with Brighton and be done with it?

It is rather disconcerting to see three Premiership clubs amongst the Top 10, although I can only agree that Fratton Park is a toilet and Stamford Bridge only a public convenience that has been through a rather tacky episode of Changing Rooms.

My personal crappiest gound outside of SE25? Barnet's Underhill. Now even that would give Selhurst a run for it's money.
 
Saturday 9 October 2004
  The Englishman, the Irishman & the Forgotten man I watched both the England & Ireland games today - thought I'd get my $20's worth!

Don't you think that if England played other British countries every game we would win the World Cup? I've just re-read that and it doesn't make any sense but you know what I'm saying, right? It was good to see Sven play Owen, Defoe & Rooney up front although I don't think they passed to each other all the time the three of them were on. It was scary how good Rooney was again. When he gets the ball you just have that feeling that something special is going to happen.

I thought Campbell & Ferdinand were ever so solid at the back and Butt looked better for playing regular first team football. A wonder goal from Beckham settled a comfortable victory.

As far as the Welsh go, it was a shame that Savage was suspended because that might have upped the temperature a notch and I was once again impressed by Gabbidon, I would like us to sign a young centre half like him or Jagielka from Sheffield United unless Michael Turner is good enough to hack it in the Premiership - I haven't seen enough of him personally.

There were plenty more people in Fado's to see the Irish game later. The ROI were excellent and the 'new' French team is a shade of what they once were. They fully deserved to win the game in my opinion and they were wonderfully supported by 35,000 paddy's in the Stade de France.

I was disappointed not to see Matt Holland play and his replacement Kevin Kilbane put in a match winning performance which will probably mean he won't start on Wednesday against the Faroe's either.

Meanwhile, while his fellow team mates were around the globe playing for their respective National sides, 480 second man & forgotten ex International Scott Parker sneaked back into Sparrows Lane this morning to watch the Charlton U16's (more).

You can just see him standing on the touchline with the Dad's, kicking every ball just dying to join in and get a game can't you? Shame!
 
Tuesday 5 October 2004
  Would you have gone to Budapest? I suppose I can't let the Millwall, Ferencvaros game go unnoticed. Some of the stories sounded frightening and I too want to add my wishes for a speedy recovery to the two Millwall fans stabbed in Budapest last Thursday night.

Where I grew up if you were not content with 'supporting' Man U or Liverpool and wanted to see a real game then your old man was probably either a Charlton or a Millwall fan and subsequently I have many old mates that follow the Lions.

My dislike of Millwall (because I would not go as far as hatred) stems back to Boxing Day 1976 when my Dad was attacked by two so called Millwall fans outside the old Den after we snatched a late draw there. He was holding my 8 year old hand at the time and it is not a pleasant memory.

We all know that every club has a minority of trouble seekers but at Millwall that minority does seem to be inexplicably larger and increases when there is a scent of trouble, i.e. Millwall would definitely get a bigger crowd or an away following against Cardiff (23rd in the Championship) than they would say against Everton (3rd in the Premiership) if drawn in the Cup.

Like others I have had an eye on the Millwall message boards and although many of their supporters are disgraced, some refuse to condone it and are glorifying in what happened in Budapest. In my experience Millwall fans love to wallow in the reputation and folklore that will I'm afraid never ever leave the other club in South East London because not enough people want it to happen.

An interesting point was raised by The King of Sweden. If that was us would you have gone? Our first ever European away game, probably a once in a lifetime 'experience'. I would of been there like a shot but would we have had a different reception? It does make you wonder....
 
  Cubs get the goat again In what was no surprise to Chicagoans the Chicago Cubs flunked the Wild Card race and the Cubbies season ended on Sunday afternoon after the 162 game regular season. Talk about a marathon not a sprint the season started on a very cold day in March and ended with a huge black cloud hanging over the North part of the City yesterday. It is 1945 since the Cubs last went to a 'World Series' and 1908 since they last won the title - which is amazing considering their history and tradition.

In their 130 year history Cubs fans have blamed everything and anyone on their bad luck including a zealous fan last season and more famously a billy goat! As the story goes, William 'Billy Goat' Sianis, a Greek immigrant who owned a nearby tavern, had 2 seat tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Cubs and the Detroit Tigers.

Sianis brought his goat with him and after initially being paraded about on the playing field before the game a heated argument started with other fans when they took their seats. However both Sianis and the goat were permitted to stay in the stadium occupying the seats for which he & the goat had tickets.

Nevertheless before the game was over, Sianis and the goat were ejected from the stadium at the command of Cubs' owner Philip Knight Wrigley due to the animal's objectionable odor. Sianis was outraged at the ejection and placed a curse upon the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in a World Series at Wrigley Field again.

And once again fans (now including me) are blaming losing 7 of their last 8 games on the curse of the goat. By the way the Billy Goat Tavern remains in Chicago and they serve cracking cheese burgers.
 
Monday 4 October 2004
  Arsenal away. What was the score? 0-4 It was inevitable really wasn't it? And despite Mystic Reets physic feelings we got stuffed again away from home - no embarrasment this time, just more questions about team selection, tactics, defensive mistakes, our passing and approach to the game.

Kishishev was back in the team because one can only assume that he did the most amazing things you will ever see with a football during training in the week, Jeffers was injured so Euell took his turn to play up front. How long will a stiff neck keep Jeffers out? At our club an ingrowing toe nail can be fatal so who knows?

For me, I was in a Madison, WI car park drinking on the Saturday morning before the College American Football game I was seeing - tailgating they call it here. The result was no surprise to me, especially when an hour had passed after the final whistle and my 'cell' was still silent, it was pretty obvious we had got beat. I knew if we had drawn or even more crazy, won, then I would have had half a dozen calls from flabbergasted and speechless Addicks.

Reports from those who were there: All Quiet; Wyn Grant; The Independent; News of the World.
 
Friday 1 October 2004
  The whole Scott Parker thing This story is obviously set to run and run and clearly it is no coincidence that it has resurfaced days before Parker's supposed return to the Valley next week, however I wouldn't be too sure of that, young Scotty has only played in 2 of Chelsea's 6 reserve games this season as "Chelsea's approach to the reserve team has often been different to other clubs in that it is often seen as a step up from the youth team rather than a place for the first team squad players" (more).

I wasn't around when he buggered off but I remember being naive enough to think he might stay because, like me his heart was at the Valley (I am truly naive aren't I?) but I started to smell the Nescafe when the stories would not go away and he was "rested" at Everton because all the transfer talk was "unsettling".

True the club got good money for him but what still rankles with me was when Parker threw his Cindy Doll out of the pram - I remember Jason Euell being quoted saying that one minute Parker was like an old head on young shoulders, then he would act like a spoilt kid - he then refused to train and be part of a club that had nurtured him since he was in a school uniform.

You can just imagine him jumping up and down and crying in Curbs' office because he wasn't getting his own way can't you? That's what happened leading up to his loan move to Norwich if you remember?

What really pisses me off though is fucking Chelsea's attitude. Then, with Kenyon tapping him up and throwing their corrupt Russian money around with their 'I'm considerably richer than you' posturing. They didn't need Scott Parker then, like they don't need him now. They just bought him because they could.

And now you have Mourinho spouting on in broken English (is the English language a lost art form down at the Bridge?) about his options and incredible conversations yada yada yada (more).

I think most of us agree this is all just tosh really and the chances of Parker coming 'home' are slim to anorexic but as someone said on Net Addicks today we do have a history of signing ex players (Mortimer, Hales, Flanagan & he was at the Nigel's) so you never know.

What do I think? Well there is no doubt we miss the spoilt brat, but I think a lot of water has to be passed and a bit of humble to be eaten. I think if he gets hammered by our lot on Monday (if he plays) that will probably count against it happening, but yes I would like to see him back and I reckon Curbishley would too. Let's just make sure we are driving the deal this time and don't get the runaround by Kenyon and his bully boys.
 
  Young boys in shoulder pads I'm going to be in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend getting rather wasted and watching some funny thing called College American Football - described by a mate of mine back at home this week as watching young boys run around in shoulder pads. Erm!

It's a shame (or maybe I will come back to you on that) because the Arsenal game is being shown live here and I'm going to miss it. So what with the Newcastle & Liverpool games also on the box and me planning to be home for the Palarce match which might stretch to the 'Boro game I will almost start to know what I'm talking about soon! Come on you Addicks, lets wake the Library up.
 
About Me
After living in Chicago for four and a half years, I moved to the beautiful if bewildering island of Bermuda in July 2008. This blog is about being an exiled and depressed Charlton Athletic fan and whatever else the day brings.
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